An interview with Emily Richardson, a Solution Focussed Hypnotherapist from Bristol
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is an extremely positive form of talking therapy with the addition of trance to support the client to feel in the best place to start making positive changes, and encouraging positive thought patterns.
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is an extremely positive form of talking therapy with the addition of trance to support the client to feel in the best place to start making positive changes, and encouraging positive thought patterns.
In this interview, Oliver speaks with Emily Richardson from Refocus Hypno about her work as a solution-focused hypnotherapist based in Bristol. Emily explains her transition from nursing to hypnotherapy, emphasizing its benefits and accessibility for people of all ages.
She discusses the core principles of focusing on future goals rather than past traumas, the importance of creating new positive habits, and the significance of client empowerment and therapist-client rapport.
Emily highlights the practical aspects of her work, including her approach to using trance and her passion for helping clients realize their own potential through small, manageable changes. She also talks about her specialization in working with children, adults with autism, and ADHD, and the effectiveness of group sessions. Emily encourages those interested to reach out via her website and Instagram.
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is an extremely positive form of talking therapy with the addition of trance to support the client to feel in the best place to start making positive changes, and encouraging positive thought patterns.
Are you a fully qualified hypnotherapist with 3 yrs+ experience who would really like to show and tell your specific ways of working with clients? Book a time to have an initial chat with me https://calendar.app.google/S3c2aottRpK5Xu2w6
Transcript
[00:00:12] Emily Richardson: That's right. Hi there, Oliver. Nice to be here.
[:[00:00:16] Emily Richardson: Very well today, thank you. Very well. Trying to keep that solution focused vibe going myself, I think.
[:[00:00:35] Emily Richardson: So I, I've been a solution focused hypnotherapist for about two years now. It's just the most lovely form of therapy, but I've always, I always knew that I wanted to do some sort of therapy work, some sort of one to one work with people.
d my wings a little bit. And [:[00:01:05] Oliver Grantham: And why is it so great? What have you discovered about it? What would you say its hallmarks are? What is it that's really got you and that you find really enthusing about?
[:But solution focused hypnotherapy has a lovely way of. allowing us not to dwell on these things. So the idea is it doesn't matter what's happened in the past. We know that we can't change that. What we're looking for is where you want to head in your future and how we're going to help you get there. So we're not saying that anything in [00:02:00] your past is irrelevant.
It's all very relevant to where a person ends up, but we don't have to sit in our problems. So. The idea being that we start to look at things in a more positive light and the notion that there is generally always a silver lining, even if we can't see it immediately, we're looking for that silver lining.
The lovely thing as well about hypnotherapy is the trance aspect of the sessions. So, not only do we use the solution focus therapy talking model, we also use trance to finish the sessions, the second half of the sessions. And that is just beautiful. It's almost If no one's ever had trance before, it's a little bit like a guided meditation.
ody to feel calm and relaxed [:It's kind of about harnessing that.
[:I, we are creatures of habit. We know that our minds just keep on repeating the same repetitive thought patterns. Somebody comes to you who has been ruminating on something that keeps on going over and over in their mind. And you say it helps people to refocus. So how, in a nutshell, does that work? Kind of work for you.
[:Now we don't go into great depth. I'm by no means an expert, but also I find it super fascinating. So we give people some basic neuroscience knowledge about their brain, how our brain works, and that idea, that notion of. repetitive patterns and how a certain part of our brain only wants us to survive. And it will do, it will recognize whatever we do, if we're still alive as a template.
templates often at the most [:So, um, Understanding your thought processes, understanding that your brain doesn't know the difference between what's real and what's imagined, doesn't know the difference between a big problem or a small problem, the more you think about a problem, Whether it's happened or whether you think it might happen, the bigger it's becoming and the more it's overtaking all of your thought processes.
erapy part of the session is [:She talks about the idea that a massive part of the success of solution focused therapy, number one is the client having control and making the decisions for themselves. And number two, the relationship between the. therapist and the client. So by giving the client the knowledge about the brain, it's really difficult unless you explain the rules of the game to somebody.
son's life. Sometimes people [:Yes.
[:I think because of the repetitive thought patterns of normally what are bad things or people think are bad things, it overwhelms them.
[:[00:07:54] Oliver Grantham: Yeah, and what you're saying is one of your main tasks to help [00:08:00] someone is first of all to be thankful for what they do have, because whatever they've come to you about has swamped them and they feel overwhelmed.
And secondly, as you say, to separate out this idea that you are not your thoughts, that you are in control. You can begin to, I'm going to use this word again, refocus your attention on the idea that. You are not your thoughts, you can separate them out and you are in control of the thoughts you think. You might not feel that right away, but what you're saying is you teach them or explain to them the tools on how they can begin to know and all of a sudden, maybe for the first time in their lives, realize that they can change the way they think.
Am I right?
[:You need to make you feel better, but actually I don't, you know, what you need to do. So the solution focused hypnotherapy setting gives the client the opportunity to tap into their subconscious to start coming up with their own solutions. So I may think that getting up at 5 a. m every morning and doing an hour's worth of yoga is the way to make your life better.
ime routine one hour earlier [:The idea of setting somebody up to fail is not helpful and won't make somebody want to be motivated to continue their journey. The idea that you may have this kind of bigger goal of, say, weight loss, a bigger goal of Losing two stone. Great. That's an amazing long term goal, but then we really whittle it down to short term goals.
So somebody might come to me [:So I need to walk around the block on my lunchtime. I need to, meet for a walk with friends. So I get that interaction with people and that exercise. The idea is that I'm not going to tell you what to do. I don't have a magic wand. I am going to help you get in the best position possible to come up with your own solutions.
[:[00:11:48] Emily Richardson: Yeah.
[:[00:11:54] Emily Richardson: Yes.
[:You might [00:12:00] say to somebody, Oh, you can change. You can do this. You can do that. As you're saying about people being told what to do or being guided what to do. And a lot of people will listen to the podcast on, you know, having gratitude journals or affirmations. That's a good one. Forget what they say on the affirmations, because your conscious mind isn't believing it anyway.
Yeah. If you go, your subconscious mind bypasses that critical faculty and starts to find imaginative solutions. Why do people go to bed at night and wake up with a solution to a problem? How many things have probably been invented that way? Where, you know what I mean? Where you use your imagination, which is buried within your subconscious mind, and you're empowering them to come up with solutions.
me, no, I can't, no, I can't [:[00:13:03] Emily Richardson: Yeah, I think by the time someone's made the phone call to have therapy of any kind, the chances are they are very close to rock bottom or have already been at rock bottom and are on their way back up. So that is something to be praised. The point that you are reaching out and saying, I'm ready to make a change.
I don't know what that change is, has to be applauded. Because that is a huge step in someone's journey to feeling a better version of themselves. I think explaining the idea about the conscious and the subconscious is very easy. When we get into habits are great, and good habits spread, and that's really lovely.
and continue. And we end up [:Actually, it's much harder to consciously in that moment, you're lighting that cigarette and making that coffee to say, no, I'm going to have a glass of water and walk around the block than it is just to have the coffee and the cigarette because we can do that almost on automatic. A bit like when we're driving a regular route, we're kind of in trance when we're doing a lot of our daily activities.
and The more those positive [:We can't be totally 100 percent conscious every second of the day, it's totally exhausting. We do drift a little bit, that's helpful, that's human nature. but having an awareness and wanting that change.
[:two stone. Are you saying you empower them? Let's say somebody comes to you wanting to lose two stone. You might say, well, just do something slightly for this next week, do something that you know is manageable. And then you're going to start to persuade yourself and encourage yourself that actually small changes are possible.
And if small changes are possible, so a big, it's only a matter of scale. Is that the kind of attitude and approach you take with some clients in this situation?
[:The kind of tagline, to most therapy is just to make someone feel a little bit better and a bit more in control and like they're a better version of themselves. So in order to do that, you have to prove to yourself that you're doing okay. And that you're worth fighting for. So by setting yourself very small, very manageable goals, slowly, slowly, you're building that picture.
ange is much better, kind of [:through one bad habit to the next with no kind of accountability.
[:And just to set them a task of only limiting themselves to two Packets of biscuits rather than three would be a win for them at the end of the week. And then you can say, right, can you cut it down to one pack of biscuits? And you move forward. And it trains, it trains the mind to start thinking in a positive.
I can do way that they've never passed experienced in their whole lives. And it's going back to that control and empowerment.
[:The idea, coming back to that idea, I do not want to sit somebody in their problem and let them drag it. So what we do is talk about putting somebody in the best position possible to make decisions for themselves. And quite often that comes from feeling good about themselves. So how do we feel good about ourselves?
ime you start feeling better [:You find that you've sort of already started meal planning or joined a gym or joined that exercise class you always wanted to, without even realising it. I feel like often that you may come with a problem, but actually we're kind of just working on the scaffolding beneath that first.
[:You've been playing this game all your life. It's time to change the goalposts and change the name of the game.
[:Life happens. It's kind of helpful if life happens during therapy because then we can, you're almost proving to yourself that you can deal with whatever the situation might be. So that idea that, Yeah, you're changing your thought processes for the better, but life will always happen.
[:[00:20:50] Emily Richardson: Absolutely. The solution to somebody. Losing weight might be starting a new job, and when we're happier, we make [00:21:00] better decisions. When we're happy, confident, and coping, we make really good decisions about ourselves and our lives. When we are not coping, when we are not happy, and when we are not confident, that's when the bad habits really kick in.
dig their heels in and cling on.
[:It's very important. I was wondering if you can expand a bit more on this. I know this is one of the cornerstones of what you do. This whole idea that we can make the wrong decisions at the wrong times in the agony at the moment when we are not [00:22:00] relaxed, when we make knee, knee jerk reactions that can have long term impact, can, can you perhaps expand on that?
Because I think it's a pivotal part of the work you do, isn't it?
[:And our primitive brain gives us the reactions of anger, Worry, anxiety, depression, they're the sort of fight flight reactions that our primitive brain will give us. It's not saying that this is all bad. This is super helpful. This part of our brain, it keeps us alive. If we are genuinely in trouble and our life is in danger, we absolutely need our primitive brain.
e our primitive brain and we [:Now, that doesn't always transpire. We can Take a wrong turn, but I think that then too can lead to different things. But the idea that learning for you how to sit in your intellectual brain and how to stay there for as long as possible is really important because then those really good decisions can be made.
l over as a child and I used [:Now, I don't think she had any understanding of the primitive brain and the intellectual brain. I think she was just trying to control the situation. But actually what she was doing was absolute genius. Counting to ten, taking a breath, walking around the block, fidgeting, Shaking your body, jumping up and down, giving yourself that moment, whatever works for you to bring intellectual control back.
The decision we make then is going to be much better than the one we make, like you said, but that kind of knee jerk, frustration, anger.
[:The minute you get them to relax. I look at them and I think you look so peaceful. They sometimes come out saying, I've never felt so relaxed as this before. And does this, can you share that? Can you, can you relate to that experience?
[:[00:25:26] Oliver Grantham: Right.
[:It doesn't matter what day of the week it is. It's a moment, and each time that person will respond differently, they will hear different things. Sometimes they won't think they've gone as deep, but yet they'll go and have a great week anyway. But it is a bit like practicing something. You know, people, I can see when people have had enough of talking to me, and they're ready to go.
ession, particularly online. [:[00:26:26] Oliver Grantham: I agree with that entirely. How often do you reach for your mobile phone to see if you've had the message back on Facebook? Or how often does your notifications go off on your phone? Uh, we all of us are more distracted from thinking about ourselves.
[:[00:26:43] Oliver Grantham: More than ever.
[:I can't just switch something and make you feel better. The real magic happens [00:27:00] when, in that moment of silence, when somebody is thinking about the best way they can feel slightly better this week. A phone. a tablet, any game, anything like that isn't going to give you the sort of feeling when you've made, when you've spent time making a decision and it all goes well and you start feeling better.
That is just incredible.
[:How do you work personally with clients to establish this important connection?
[:So from the very beginning, the layout of the sessions is explained. The information about the brain is very much given and we repeat that a lot during sessions because in the first session I give you so much information, it's really difficult, particularly if somebody's feeling super anxious, it's difficult to retain all of that.
, but also there's me who is [:So yeah. Thank you. If the client doesn't feel that this is a match and this is going to work, then it's much better to say so and let them find somebody that they think is going to work with, because to hinder that journey would be really difficult. But I am a nurse by background, I work with people with learning disabilities, so a lot of my job in my career has been about Building relationships with people very quickly.
So for me, I don't really, I think maybe that's one of the things I do unconsciously. I really love talking to people. I love interacting with people. I love building good relationships with people. That's part of the joy of the job, I think.
[:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [00:30:00] Really, do you feel that really equips you for you to be able to really be effective with, with the clients you see?
[:And I kind of think those kind of foundations are really important. I could have chosen any sort of therapy to kind of discover and to learn about. I just so happened to be upon this, which I think I'm extremely grateful for. Everyone's so different. Everyone's got their story to tell. And for me, that is fascinating.
If I can be a tiny part of someone's journey, that, that makes me very happy.
[:[00:30:59] Emily Richardson: [00:31:00] So I'm happy to work with anyone, but I do have a couple of particular interests.
I have a particular interest in working with children and adults with autism and ADHD. For me, that's super fascinating. I love the individuality that a client can bring if there's an autism diagnosis or an ADHD diagnosis. And also more recently, I've been really enjoying working with children. Children are just absolute sponges and they get it so much quicker than adults.
So children are an absolute joy to work with, although a lot of the time I might think this child is just going from strength to strength. What I really need to do is work with the parents and the family. I'd like to do that so everyone's on board.
[:[00:31:54] Emily Richardson: So I've done some, I do some group sessions.
ons because I think a lot of [:And I just don't think there's anyone that it can't, it's not going to be bad. So most recently I've done some parent child relaxation sessions, which have been delightful and a really lovely way for parents and children to spend a bit of quality time together. And a lot of the stuff that we talk about is, is readily available on the internet and everywhere.
trying to hypnotize them and [:It can't, they take it much better from someone else. That's part of human nature, isn't it? People are amazing and people are really harsh on themselves and give themselves a really hard time. So we're like the advocates saying, there's a space you can be okay if you prioritize yourself, which may be.
seem like you're being selfish. If you prioritize yourself, you're then much more able to be there for the people around you who need you. And you'll be a much more present part of your community. The treadmill, you can stop it. You can get back on. Just, just, it's okay to press pause. You know, regenerate, recuperate.
[:[00:34:14] Emily Richardson: So the first session, it depends how much information gathering we get in that session.
I would love to say that trans is a part of every first session, but quite often it's just taken up with information gathering. At that first session, I will give you a an audio recording of the trance and recommend that you listen to that during the week before our next session just so you know what to expect almost because if you've never done any sort of guided meditation or hypnosis it is quite a strange thought to be lying down and listening to someone talking at you.
eople who listen more to the [:[00:35:07] Oliver Grantham: Does that go back to the idea of training your mind again? Because you're,
[:So then the easier it is to find those solutions and the better you feel, the more empowered you feel to start making those changes. So to parents, particularly of children, I would say, listen with your child. It literally can't do any harm. It's too lovely.
[:Yeah,
[:Now, this is the scary bit, isn't it? This is the bit that's surrounded by stigma. The Paul McKenna's that do the stage hypnosis that put somebody from being very conscious, to, into a very quick suggestible state. That thing, the spiral down is very quick, and then the spiral back up is very quick. So, that's not hypnotherapy.
're going to suggest certain [:So that idea just to separate it from the stage hypnosis where we don't have a pocket watch and we're not going to make you YouTube stars by asking you to do ridiculous things in a state of trance. Absolutely not. Hypnotherapy is about that very gradual change. movement into feeling very deeply [00:38:00] relaxed and then slowly bringing you back out.
[:And the suggestion and the trigger. There's a suggestion in the trigger, what we call post hypnotic suggestion as well, of course. What happens when you come out of trance? Well, actually, all you've got to do is the hypnotherapist needs to, hypnotist rather, hypnotist, not hypnotherapist. Stage hypnotist will click their fingers and there's a danger, of course, that at some point in the future, somebody else might click the fingers and they're at a party and all of a sudden they go into a bunny rabbit mode, right?
nly the number of hallmarks. [:[00:39:11] Emily Richardson: So that should be
[:And thirdly, what we do does last, unlike stage hypnotist, um, right, you know, the stage hypnotist will say, well, after tonight, we'll forget all about everything that happened. We want to do the opposite. So you're clearly an extremely good therapist. You're making me rethink and refocus and reframing my understanding of the difference between is one of the main differences between stage hypnotism is at the end of the night night it's over we that's the last thing we want as hypnotherapists we want it to continue and those [00:40:00] suggestions to so when they will it's not over is it maybe this is a misconception of hypnotism that you wave magic wand and all of a sudden they're going to go in this trance for the rest of their lives and everything will be happy it's not like that they will come out of trance But it's everlasting.
And there's what I call the processing time as well. Every time they dream, every time they sleep and more, they see you more and more. These suggestions are sinking in and it's changing their long term medium to long term psychological makeup. Would you agree that that is one of the main differences guests in a show compared to what we do with others and the suggestions are meant to last and continue?
rather than at the end of the night.
[:So [00:41:00] I can be very specific. You can be very specific. Hypnotherapists can be very specific in their work. And yes, I can help you stop smoking today, but the chances are when you hit that stressful situation, you're probably going to reach for them again. But if I put you in the best, most relaxed position to decide for yourself that you no longer want to smoke based on all of the health reasons and information we have available to us, you're deciding, I'm not deciding for you, you're deciding, and that decision carries longevity, which is just delightful.
So yeah, I'd absolutely agree. Hypnotherapy is, it's got real long last longevity to it, which is just really, really amazing.
[:Yeah, of course, sure. The conduit for that. It's not you personally as a person, or maybe it is. And going back to the rapport and connection side of things, um, that they do have a choice in that moment, and it's not a subconscious decision that they're making and their subconscious is helping them make a better choice.
[:It's the best version of you. And also just that reminder that you're in control. Because when therapy stops. Although we'll always be there, I would, I would never end a journey and say, that's it. I never want to see you again. You're [00:43:00] fixed. It's always that door is always open because we don't know when someone's going to wobble again.
We don't know when life's going to throw something at somebody that just reminds them that of that old primitive fate. So always available for like a top up, if you will. But actually, When you've helped someone recognize their own skills and resources, that's huge, isn't it?
[:And we spoke about clients earlier. Can I just share this one with you? A weight loss one. This is a number of years ago. I had somebody come to me wanting to lose something like, we established about eight and a half stone. At the end of the second session, she said, you know, Oliver, I don't want to lose weight.
empowering her and becoming [:She completely blew me away. I'm happy with the person that I am. That's amazing. It wasn't like a defensive thing either in that it was quite a bit of hard work to do the alternative. It was a genuine from the heart and spirit decision that she was happy. And I said, are you sure? And I said, look, you know, if anything changes, just let me know.
she must have lost about six [:[00:45:00] Emily Richardson: No!
[:There are other experiences I've had with other clients that are similar, but in relation to the nature of the conversation we've been having today, I thought I'd share that with you.
[:[00:45:28] Oliver Grantham: amazing. Just amazing.
[:And then that puts her in the best position. And then when she was ready, she just lost the weight. Just decided to. I think that's an amazing story.
[:Do you have any similar stories or any kind of client success stories or how through experience that you've really helped someone with what you've done with them?
[:Didn't have a diagnosis of autism, but that was certainly something that we explored as the therapy journey went on. I think he was then going to Take that further after our therapy stopped, but he really struggled to leave his house and We did quite a lot of intense reframing of [00:47:00] situations and that really helped and he went from not having a job being very isolated very socially isolated to getting a reconnecting with friends from his past and now is doing his solution focused hypnotherapy training.
[:[00:47:40] Emily Richardson: Yep, absolutely. And he was one of my clients that I saw when I was training.
o, he was ready to dig deep. [:[00:48:04] Oliver Grantham: People are amazingly resourceful when they have to be.
[:[00:48:10] Oliver Grantham: And maybe as children you're saying how well you work.
I know what you mean by children. They've got this natural ability to use their imagination. I mean, I think all the things that children have now compared to how, how when I was younger and the imagination, you know, we could. easily make something out of a few matchsticks and have an amazing time with it and I think some children maybe now in that they've got everything but maybe that their imagination is literally being projected back at them because of the technology nowadays.
But children, despite that, still have this amazing, profound ability to be able to use their imagination, which regrettably, many adults lose later on in their lives.
[:It's magical when a child gets that and figures out what works for them. to have time to worry, to write down their worries, whatever it might be, to know who their safe adults are to talk to, and to then decide, right, I've worked through that, and now I'm gonna have fun and be silly and play and do this.
Yeah, it feels a much more raw version, a much more simplified version. Everything's much more simple, a bit more matter of fact with children, which I really enjoy.
[:the Conversations I sometimes have with people, and this has been more than exceptional, if I may say so. It's It's been fascinating to discuss with you the more holistic, wider effects and impact of the stuff that we do with people and for people. And I'm struck particularly by the way that you're working with children and adults, as both of them together, and autism and ADHD.
to thinking that they can't, [:Another future day, so I'd love to have you back sooner rather than later, Emily, really I would, to discuss some more, because I feel we've only scratched the surface today.
[:[00:51:14] Oliver Grantham: And ultimately, you're passionate about it and you, you, you're obviously equipped with all of the professional skills and experience based on evidence based research or all the stuff that solution focused hypnotherapy can do.
And you've got the, as important, if most paramount ingredient of all, which is a passion. about not only your discipline, but the passion to help others. And that, that's invaluable, totally invaluable in terms of next steps. If people are listening to this right now and they're thinking, which I'm sure they will be.
t with Emily and how can she [:What's the next thing they can do?
[:I'm really open to doing. Uh, face to face sessions, online sessions, group sessions. I'm keen to go into schools. I'll talk to anyone who'll listen about it. So yeah, do get in contact if anything's struck a chord today.
[:[00:52:59] Emily Richardson: [00:53:00] Yes, please.
[:[00:53:08] Emily Richardson: I think so. Direct message, yeah. Old school would be, send me a message and I'll try and reply.
[:Yeah, what a piece of life these days. It's just immensely, immensely good, isn't it? Yeah. Well, thank you very much.
[:[00:53:46] Oliver Grantham: You're welcome.
