Clearing the past to build the future

“This is my personal experience. Every person’s journey is different, and I can only speak about what hypnotherapy has meant for me. I hope that by sharing my story, it may offer hope to someone else who feels as though their world has become smaller than they ever imagined.

When people hear the word hypnotherapy, they often imagine swinging watches, being put to sleep or somehow losing control.

That couldn’t be further from my experience.

For me, hypnotherapy wasn’t about being ‘fixed’. It wasn’t about someone waving a magic wand and making everything disappear. It became a journey of understanding myself, letting go of years of emotional baggage and rebuilding my confidence from the inside out.

It wasn’t just about treating my Persistent Postural-Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD).

It was about finding me again.

Why I Went Back to Hypnotherapy

This wasn’t my first experience of hypnotherapy.

Many years ago, my husband died by suicide. Nothing prepares you for that kind of loss. It changes every part of who you are.

You don’t simply grieve the person you’ve lost; you grieve the future you thought you were going to have.

Yet somehow, I still had two young children who needed their mum to keep going. I didn’t have the luxury of falling apart forever.

At that time, hypnotherapy helped me survive. It didn’t take away the pain, because grief is love with nowhere to go, but it helped me carry that pain differently. It gave me the strength to rebuild a life for my children and, eventually, for myself.

So, when PPPD entered my life years later, I already understood the power that working with the subconscious mind could have.

Living with PPPD wasn’t just about dizziness, it was fear, absolute overwhelming fear.

People often assume dizziness means feeling a little unsteady, for me it was so much more than that; walking became terrifying, any walking would be a journey of utter terror.

Every step felt uncertain, every movement questioned. This hypervigilance imbedded in my brain that walking was dangerous.

The fear became so overwhelming that my world gradually became smaller and smaller.

Eventually, my life revolved around one place – my sofa. It became my safe place because standing and walking felt impossible. The thought of leaving the house filled me with dread.

The thought of walking without support was unimaginable.

When people say they feel trapped by a condition, I truly understand what that means. My world had become incredibly small and the thought of ageing with this condition absolutely terrified me, I could see my future with me being totally housebound, with zero quality of life.

When I started working with Nicola, I honestly thought we would immediately start working on my walking. We didn’t. Instead, Nicola explained something that completely changed my perspective.

Before you can build confidence, you first need to understand what is preventing confidence from growing.

Before you can install positive beliefs, you need to remove the negative ones that have occupied that space for years.

That’s exactly what we did.

Session after session, we worked through emotions that I hadn’t even realised I was still carrying.

 Grief.

 Fear.

 Guilt.

 Self-doubt.

 Negative beliefs.

 Old experiences.

Emotional wounds I had packed away years ago but had never truly dealt with.

It felt like cleaning out an attic that had been filled over a lifetime. Some boxes I knew were there.

Others had been forgotten completely. Each session removed another layer.

I won’t pretend it was easy.

Some sessions were tough. Some were deeply emotional. There were moments of being deeply upset because we uncovered things I’d buried for years. But real change rarely comes from staying comfortable.

If you genuinely want to change, it takes courage. It takes honesty with yourself. It takes guts and grit to confront the parts of your life that you’ve spent years avoiding. I never once wanted to give up, I felt better after every session, and I trusted the process and kept going.

Looking back, every emotional conversation, every difficult session and every uncomfortable moment was completely worth it.

Little by little, I began to feel lighter, calmer, quieter. My mind stopped constantly running in the background.

I realised that many of the beliefs I held about myself weren’t actually mine anymore, they were simply old survival mechanisms that had outlived their purpose.

Only once we had created that space did we begin the next stage.

Building.

Not with unrealistic affirmations, not with pretending life was perfect but by slowly installing healthier thought patterns.

Replacing fear with confidence, replacing self-doubt with self-belief, replacing “What if I can’t ?” with “Let’s see what happens”

It felt as though my brain was slowly being rewired. Not into somebody different. Into somebody healthier.

My Walking Today

The biggest change people notice is my walking. The biggest change I notice is the fear.

It’s gone.

I have gone from walking with constant terror whilst relying on a walker... to walking with confidence.

Am I cured?

No.

Am I pretending to be some sort of hero?

Absolutely not.

My legs are still weak.

After spending so long avoiding movement, I’ve lost muscle tone.

I still use a walking stick when I need to.

But here’s the difference.

The stick is now a choice, not a prison.

I’m still on a journey, but in no way diminish how utterly transformative the changes have been.

Some days I don’t use a stick at all.

Inside my home and in my garden, my safe spaces, there is genuinely no stopping me.

I’ve gone from not moving my feet without an aid whilst standing still to being able to badly dance stepping side to side, genuine total joy!

To most people, walking around the house or wandering into the garden sounds insignificant.

To me......it’s freedom. It’s independence. It’s confidence. It’s getting my life back.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that this journey was never just about walking.

Walking was simply the outward sign of something much deeper.

As my subconscious became quieter......my confidence became louder.

As fear disappeared...... belief appeared.

As I stopped expecting the worst......I started trusting myself again.

My inner voice became kinder. I stopped constantly questioning whether I was capable.

I started believing that I was.

People often ask me what Nicola did.

The truth is...

She didn’t change me. She helped me remove everything that wasn’t really me.

She helped me let go of years of emotional weight I didn’t even realise I was carrying.

She helped me rediscover the resilient person who had always been there underneath it all.

Today I can still have some difficult days. Recovery isn’t linear. Life still happens. But difficult days no longer define me. They no longer stop me living.

My Message to Anyone Considering Hypnotherapy

If you’re considering hypnotherapy, my advice is simple.

Keep an open mind.

This wasn’t about somebody controlling my thoughts. It wasn’t about magic. It wasn’t about forgetting the past.

For me, it was about understanding it. Releasing what no longer served me. Creating space for healthier beliefs and finally allowing myself to move forward. Thank You

People often say that everyone comes into your life for a reason.

I genuinely believe Nicola came into mine at exactly the right time.

She gave me the tools to find my confidence again.

She helped me rebuild my life one small step at a time.

Quite literally.

I often say that my mission in life is to leave people better than I found them.

Nicola has certainly done that for me.

And for that, I will always be grateful.”

- Trish Jardine

I Struggled For 40 Years And The Issue Was Resolved In One Session

“I cannot express enough gratitude for my experience with Nicola. Since the age of 5, I've struggled with stress blinking - a condition that has impacted my daily life, causing self-consciousness and embarrassment in social and professional situations. For nearly four decades, this involuntary response to stress has been my constant companion, affecting my confidence and how I interact with others.

What truly amazes me is how Nicola was able to accomplish in a single session what I couldn't resolve in 40 years. She demonstrated remarkable insight by identifying the root cause of my stress blinking. Her approach was both professional and deeply intuitive.

The results have been nothing short of transformative. Since our session, the stress blinking that once controlled so much of my life has completely subsided. I'm still in awe of how such a long-standing issue could be resolved so effectively and efficiently.

For anyone struggling with similar long-term behavioural patterns or stress responses, I cannot recommend Nicola highly enough. Her ability to get to the core of the issue and provide practical, effective solutions is remarkable.”

Andrew, Business Owner