Hypnotherapy, EFT Tapping & Rewind Therapy…
… and the chance to just talk through your problems with someone who can really listen and help.
In addition to Hypnobirthing, I also help clients overcome a variety of issues using clinical hypnosis, EFT Tapping, Rewind and talking therapy at my clinics in Wimbledon, SW19 and Clapham, SW11 or via the Zoom platform.
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Trauma / Birth trauma
Phobias
Fertility problems
Anxiety
Panic Attacks
Fear of hospitals or birth
Confidence / Public Speaking
Postnatal anxiety or depression
Weight Issues
Sleep
Improve confidence & self esteem
OCD
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Booking hours are:
9am - 7pm Monday to Thursday.
Please note 7pm is the latest appointment time available
Early morning appointments are available upon request.
To make a booking and for further information please visit my therapies site:
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The first session is 90 minutes in length and subsequent meetings are 60 minutes each.
The 90-minute session is £110 and the 60-minute sessions are £75 each.
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Absolutely nothing apart from clothes that you feel relaxed in.
If we are meeting via Zoom then all you will need will be a reliable and reasonably fast broadband connection as well as a tablet or laptop with a good screen and headphones if you prefer. Then just a quiet space, all to yourself, where you can talk and relax comfortably. Ensure that this is a place where you can rest your head in a comfy chair or lie down with your eyes closed without interruption. A small table or desk to place your laptop or device onto will be helpful.
And of course, a simple desire to make change happen.
Feeling a bit stuck? Or perhaps trapped by trauma or anxiety?
Maybe you’d just like to get over that fear of public speaking or constant worry. Maybe you would just like someone to speak to once in a while to reduce the tensions that have been building thanks to your job… or your home life?
Perhaps you feel lacking in confidence and drifting in your career?
Life isn’t fixed. A problem not solved doesn’t need to remain a problem unsolved.
Your life doesn’t need to be dictated to by past events.
Each day is a new opportunity for you. A new story and a new experience.
We humans are very good at just putting up with things, to just sticking with the status quo. We can also get ourselves so worn down or so stressed out that we cannot even imagine a way out or a way forwards.
We can struggle to sleep, we can hate our jobs, we can feel lonely and we can feel haunted by past experiences… and we can fail to do anything about this.
But perhaps now is the time? Now is the time for you to take back control?
Perhaps now is the time to work on some better life stories for yourself?
“I feel so much better, an enormous weight has been lifted from my shoulders.”
- Sarah
So What Is Hypnotherapy?
Clinical Hypnotherapy is a relaxing and positive therapy for treating a variety of differing issues. It works by using deep relaxation while the therapist (me!) gives new messages to your unconscious mind, challenging previous ways of thinking and in doing so helping to create new thoughts, attitudes and coping mechanisms.
Each session is split between talking and fully understanding the issues and then using hypnosis and relaxation to counter any problems. When in hypnosis you are not asleep but merely very relaxed. It is a little like looking at a broad painting full of detail but then being able to bring one part of it to the foreground for closer examination. The rest of the painting does not disappear, it just sits in the background until needed.
Hypnosis is a collaborative effort. Nobody can be hypnotised against their will. Instead, as your therapist, I merely guide you to a state of deep relaxation referred to as somnambulism. Once there, although it becomes easier to alter mental blueprints and belief systems, you cannot be made to do anything against your will nor will you ever lose control of your behaviour. We have distinct aims to work toward together that can be hugely healing and motivating.
During hypnosis you can lean back into a comfy chair or just lie down on a sofa or your bed. You then just focus on the words and different relaxation messages and techniques.
Hypnotherapy is a highly respectful therapy, it is non-voyeuristic, gentle and both healing and empowering. It is effective for a whole range of problems and issues.
What is EFT Tapping?
Emotional Freedom Technique - more commonly referred to as ‘Tapping’, is a type of meridian tapping that combines ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology. It is also referred to as acupuncture but without the needles!
Although it seems fairly new and a bit left-field it has a substantial body of recent research evidence showing its clinical effectiveness in a wide range of settings.
It can help you overcome many issues from healing traumatic experiences, altering limiting beliefs about yourself, to weight loss, body image issues, fears and phobias. EFT works with the body’s internal energy systems. It uses gentle stimulation of the meridians while simultaneously focussing on the current difficulty. This dual attention helps your brain process whatever might be troubling you.
Western science has historically been sceptical of approaches such as acupressure, Tapping and acupuncture. However, recent research has revealed the existence of the primo vascular system corresponding to many of the meridian points. Further, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), studies have observed that EFT can make significant changes in brain function. Most importantly it works by calming the amygdala where our panic response lies. By Tapping and talking we teach this part of our brain that we are not currently needing a stress response. This then leads to a calmer, happier life.
So what does it look like? When working together we will use what is referred to as the Basic Recipe. A series of points from your hand, across your face, chest and top of head. We merely tap those points while either talking, saying simple statements or just noticing how we feel about something.
Each round of Tapping that is done is followed by note taking and noticing any thoughts or feelings that arose. Progressively, bit by bit we work through upsets and fears, struggles and painful memories until you feel happy and confident again.
Watch EFT in action
This short video shows you how to use EFT Tapping during pregnancy. Even if you are NOT pregnant and not planning to use EFT for pregnancy you are still able to see the basic Tapping points and watch how the process works here.
The Rewind Technique
The Rewind Technique is a superb way of addressing and reducing the strong emotions that we feel linked to traumatic events. It is a non-intrusive, safe and highly effective psychological method for de-traumatising people, and it can also be used for removing phobias
I use the Human Givens method as it is a powerful and effective tool to separate the emotions that we feel from the event that we have suffered.
Talking therapies will not have a positive effect on trauma. What we need to do is unhook the emotion from the memory of what happened. Only when that takes place are we really able to process the event as a past memory.
Being safe, quick and painless, the Rewind technique has the advantage of being non-voyeuristic thus intimate or painfully upsetting details do not have to be made public. What you choose to share about your experience is therefore completely up to you. The healing work can still take place.
The process is done while relaxed and at ease. We then access your wonderful imagination to work through the memory as though it is a film, running forwards and backwards in a calm and dissociated state. The film begins at a point before the trauma occurred and ends at a point at which the trauma is over.
If the feared situation is one that will possibly be approached again in the future such as having a baby, driving a car or using the tube — the person is asked, while still relaxed, to visualise themselves doing this confidently.
“A friend suggested talking to Melanie and her positive attitude persuaded me (usually a sceptic to 'alternative therapies') that hypnotherapy was worth a try. I saw Melanie for two sessions and the transformation is amazing - I consider myself cured.”
— Alex
Talking and being heard…
Sometimes we just don’t know why we are feeling the way we are. We don’t know if we have PTSD or if we simply need to work in a less toxic environment. We aren’t always aware that we are repeating bad habits or that past experiences and learning are affecting us deeply now.
It can feel so hard to tease apart all the strands that make up our lives to get to the core of what is happening and why. This is why our first session together is 90 minutes in length. So we can just sit and talk. So you can tell me what has been happening and how you have been feeling. So you can be heard in a safe and non-judgmental environment.
Then, together, we formulate a plan. We decide how we will work best together to help you achieve exactly what you need to. This can be hypnosis, or EFT Tapping, or Rewind or a mixture of all three.
You talk, I listen and we then work together to get you to where you really need to be.
Melanie Bearne — SQHP GHR Reg DipHB.
Melanie is the founder of Better Birth Stories Hypnobirthing & Better Life Stories Hypnotherapy. She is a Senior Clinical Hypnotherapist, an Accredited Certified EFT Practitioner and a hugely experienced Antenatal Hypnobirthing teacher. She lives in Wandsworth, London with her partner, 3 awesome kids and their rescue chihuahua.
Melanie regularly takes courses with Dr Sara Wickham and Evidence Based Birth and CPDs in various subjects from depression to counselling via the Human Givens Institute, the Institute of Clinical Hypnosis & the EFT Centre.
She is a member of the General Hypnotherapy Register, the General Hypnotherapy Standards Council, Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services (AIMS), the Association of Radical Midwives, the Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council, EFT International and The Hypnobirthing Association. Melanie is also an Evidence Based Birth Professional Member and a member of the Reclaiming Childbirth Collective.
You can connect with Melanie via her Instagram or Facebook page or visit the Hypnobirthing Classes page to find out more about her hypnobirthing courses, including group hypnobirthing classes in South London, the global online hypnobirthing course, private classes and one-to-one support.