Crookes Hypnotherapy
Introducing a new psychotherapy service to Sheffield and online.
Hi, I'm Evan.
And I’m a clinical hypnotherapist.
Which simply means that:
I use a mixture of classic talking-therapy and hypnosis to help clients of all ages with mental health challenges, like anxiety, insomnia, chronic pain, stress, eating disorders, confidence, and much else.
That’s the gist, anyway. But there’s more.
In fact, here’s six pieces of key information for you, the reader:
I have personal experience of mental health challenges and found hypnotherapy useful.
I am currently employed in the NHS part-time as an Assistant Clinical Psychologist. I work as part of the Paediatric Psychology team at the Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
Check out my professional background, which includes a master's degree in psychology, the science of brain, mind, and behaviour. I also completed a 10-month long training course with the Clifton Practice for Hypnotherapy, a nationally recognised provider of quality training.
The scientific research supporting the clinical benefit of hypnotherapy has never been stronger; truly, it is an evidence-based psychotherapy.
Prices are informed by my founding principles, which I encourage you to read (they are short!). Because at Crookes Hypnotherapy, lower prices does not equal a poor service. Effective, evidence-based therapy can be sensibility priced, something I was lucky as a teenager to find, and now want to replicate. Prices vary according to your circumstances. Working adults, £35. Children, young people, and students £30. Discounts are available for block bookings. Get in touch.
And finally, it’s also good to know that I have over 1,000 clinical hours working 1:1 with people, and that 800 of those hours are with children and young people, with a cognitive behavioural therapy focus.
And so, I'm thrilled to share the positive benefits of hypnotherapy with our local community and beyond.
If you know anyone who may be struggling with their mental health in general, or with issues like insomnia, anxiety, IBS, pain, or stress in particular - among others that hypnotherapy can help with - then please pass on my contact details to them, or use this website to directly arrange a confidential appointment.
What is hypnosis, I hear you ask. Well, it’s a brain-body state of focused relaxation that is very normal for humans to experience. In fact, we all experience hypnotic-states in our day to day lives.
Yes, you experience hypnotic-states even if you don’t believe in so-called hypnosis. Alas, objective reality doesn’t care about your beliefs!
And what does it feel like? Good question. Hypnotic-states are a feeling of zoning out, like when you’re driving to work along a familiar route, or even when you’re watching TV.
Very simply, your brain and body go into autopilot. When used in a therapeutic setting, however, the hypnotic experience can be guided towards particular and useful ends of the client’s choosing, like coping better with anxiety or reducing chronic pain.
Learn more by checking out hypnosis facts and myths. The most important one to know is that you cannot be controlled, and you cannot be made to do things you don’t want to do.
Those are myths, and they exist because of stage hypnosis - which is about entertaining audiences, rather than helping clients. Stage hypnosis does contain elements of truth, but the process is vastly exaggerated.
Interested in the service?
You might like to:
Understand a bit about me personally by reading about my story.
View or download my CV, and get clear on my work experience, qualifications, and professional memberships.
Book a free appointment in person or online. You can do this by getting in contact here. Know that all appointments begin with a two-way conversation. In it, we will get to know each other and address in what direction future sessions will aim towards. Prices £35 adults, £30 children, young people, and students.
Understand what hypnotherapy can and can’t help with.
What scientific evidence says about hypnotherapy.
Look at common questions, answers, and myths about hypnotherapy.
Crookes Hypnotherapy has two founding principles:
Effective, evidence-based therapy.
Why? Because I am an experimentalist. Which means that I believe in the value of independent research, statistics, and science - rather than mere opinion or traditional dogma. It’s good for the reader to know that clinical hypnosis is supported by much scientific evidence. And personally, I try to keep my ideas, approach, and practice informed by credible research, something I publicly display on my professional reading list. Working with me is not guaranteed to help you, but consider it an experiment: we can try, see if it’s useful, and go from there. You, the client, should know if the work together is helpful or not within two or three sessions., and I am happy to openly discuss this with you. Hypnosis cannot help everyone; and where I cannot help, I will aim to find someone or some service that can help. There is nothing worse than a therapist who does not humbly accept the limits to their own ability, for all practitioners have them. Whether they realise it or not is a different matter.
Sensible prices.
Why? Because many individuals are on long NHS waiting lists and usually wait months, perhaps even years, to be seen. Which means that many people rightly turn to the private sector - to people like myself. But far too often people are priced out of mental health support by practitioners who overcharge for their services. I offer sessions from £35, and I don’t believe the myth that lower prices equals a poorer service, though sometimes it might. It is very important for service users do their homework on their therapists. And how do I do my homework on good therapists? Good therapy service providers should make it clear where they were trained, what the quality of this training was, what professional organisations they are registered with, how much experience they have, and why they do the work they do.
Why?
The Purpose of
Crookes Hypnotherapy
It’s all about returning the favour of effective mental health support I was lucky enough to receive.
Ten years ago I received hypnotherapy in combination with cognitive behavioural therapy, and found it very helpful. As a teenager I struggled with anxiety, confidence, direction, and strong negative emotions.
By working with a compassionate and competent therapist, I learned to understand myself, my own experiences of mental health, and how to move forward in a positive way. I was lucky. Not only was this therapist skilled, they were also financially accessible. That is why I strive to keep my prices low, and my services effective.
And since then, both as a student and a working professional, I have continued to engage with the same therapist, both for ongoing emotional support and professional development in the trade.
When therapy is done right it can be life-changing. And an experience of competent therapy helps me to be an effective therapist today. That’s why Crookes Hypnotherapy exists: to support sound mental health in the community.
Tucked away in a quiet corner of Sheffield lives Crookes Hypnotherapy…
Where clients find comfy chairs, potted plants, and roomy rugs…
A place of calm and relaxation, of rest and recovery…
So that’s the room. Now here’s the therapy:
What is Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy?
I’ll define it in three parts:
“Solution-Focused” refers to the idea that we are not focused on the problem, like childhood experiences, parents, or conflicting emotions, but on the solution.
“Hypno” refers to hypnosis, which is a method for inducing relaxation in the body and brain (for a more detailed explanation, see the supporting section on evidence).
“Therapy” refers to psychotherapy, which is a fancy work for talking therapy, such as cognitive behavioural therapy.
And in more detail:
In Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy (SFHT), the focus is on what can be done now, rather than on what has happened.
In other words, the focus is on what the client can do about a situation with the internal resources they already possess.
Typically, this involves encouraging the client to take positive action of some kind, such as small steps forward.
We use aspects from psychotherapy, like cognitive behavioural therapy, in combination with hypnosis, which is a method similar to mediation or mindfulness to induce a purposeful state of brain and body calm
To help explain SFTT and how it works, we turn to some common questions and answers about the process…
Okay, so what does hypnosis actually look like? If I saw someone getting hypnotherapy, what would I see?
Hypnosis is very similar in nature to mediation and mindfulness. It’s all about relaxation.
First, the client sits in a chair, and closes their eyes. Then, with the help of the practitioner speaking and some relaxing music, they listen to the sounds around them, and slowly drift into a relaxed state.
There is no magic here. Instead, the purpose of hypnosis is to bring about a particular brain and body state - relaxation - on purpose.
What’s so good about relaxation?
When in this relaxed state - what is called trance - our brains do things differently.
One is to become less critical. Another is to become more open to new ways of thinking, such as positive change.
So, when we pair a collaborative discussion about solutions, such as things we want to change, with relaxation, what emerges is less criticism from the brain, and more openness to whatever it is we want to bring about (like less anxiety, pain, or negative thoughts).
What does it feel like?
Hypnosis feels like drifting off to sleep, but not quite there.
For example, when you go to sleep at night, there comes a point where you are not asleep, but you’re not fully awake. This in-betweeny stage is similar to hypnosis. When you are drifting off to sleep and you hear a loud noise, this will disrupt your ability to fall asleep. The noise will likely alert you and distract you away from sleep. In other words, falling asleep is something essentially within your control to influence. If you resist sleep, you can make yourself stay awake. The same is true in hypnosis. If you resist it, then it won’t happen. Hypnosis is a brain state that you relax into on purpose.
Is hypnosis safe?
Hypnosis is safe for most people, just like mindfulness and mediation is.
However, it is NOT suitable for everyone.
For example, hypnosis is not recommend for people who experience extreme forms of mental distress, like psychosis, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder
Do I lose control?
No, you do not lose control in hypnosis, unless you fall asleep.
There is an idea that when under hypnosis people lose control and can be made to do things they don’t want to do. That is a myth.
There is something called stage hypnosis - which is distinct from hypnpothery or clinical hypnosis - where audience members are chosen, hypnotised, and then “made” to do certain actions. In general, there is much trickery at play here. The psychiatrist David Spiegel explains the point well in this short video clip.
If I’m a client seeking therapy of some kind - like SFHT - what should I look for?
What’s important? And what isn’t?
As a client, it is always advisable to work with clinicians and therapists who are trained, qualified, and who are paying members to professional bodies that uphold the relevant ethical standards. Therefore, even though people can sometimes fall asleep, my practice would be to gently wake the person up after some much needed rest. Because people only fall asleep if their brain and bodies are very tired or stressed, so it’s reasonable to think they need some rest.
It’s important, then, to look at the qualifications, training, and professional organisations the practitioner is a member of. In other words, it is not important to look at what people say (“I can solve all your problems”) but to look at what people do (“I am a member of organisation X and have qualification Y”).
It is also worth looking at the person themselves. Do they have a journey or experience of mental health? Are they themselves stable and in a place to offer their services? In my view, you want both answers to be yes. Good therapists are forged in emotional difficulty and stress. They overcome this and get stable, mastering themselves and their internal worlds first. When they have done this to a reasonable degree, only then should they offer their services.
Assume I wanted to be hypnotised, I trusted the practitioner, I felt relaxed, and then I fell asleep. What then?
It is true that some people get so relaxed in hypnosis sessions that they do actually fall asleep. In cases where people do fall asleep, it is true that they have lost control. To get to that stage of sleep, however, the client will likely trust the hypnotherapist, accept the relaxation, and enjoy drifting off into a deep and relaxing sleep. That said, this is where professional ethics come into play. As a member of the British Psychological Society, National Council for Hypnotherapy, and Association for Solution-Focused Hypnotherapists, this means that if any seriously negative consequences were to occur in my therapy room - like an abuse of power when a client fell asleep during a session - then I would be shunned by these organisations, and this would ruin my credibility as a trusted and respected practitioner.
In summary:
In Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy, then, what we are interested in doing is first having a conversation with the client about their life and what aspects of it they might like to change. This might include things like: better sleep, weight loss, more confidence, less anxiety, stress, etc.
Then, the focus turns to a conversation about taking action towards solutions.
And finally, we conclude sessions by using hypnosis to induce trance, an experience that many find relaxing, and that encourages the brain to focus on what these solutions might be, and how to implement them.
Hypnotherapy is safe for most people, though not for everyone. It is highly collaborative process, so if the client doesn’t want to experience hypnosis, they won’t.
In hypnotherapy, people do not lose control. Moreover, people get hypnotised only if they trust the practitioner, accept the relaxation, and want the benefits. Just like wanting to stay awake at night, it is easy to resist relaxation and therefore hypnosis.
People can and sometimes do fall asleep, which is a loss of control. However, this occurs only if the person trusts the practitioner, accepts the relaxation, and likely needs the rest. In cases where they may happen, my approach is to first let the person a while - since they need it - but then to wake them gently.
The whole process is governed by professional bodies. If anything seriously negative were to happen, a client would complain to the relevant organisations, and I would be at risk of losing my ability to practice, and therefore my income, and professional credibility.
Moreover: combinations, cost, capabilities
You might like to know that:
Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy takes inspiration from the much practiced and well evidenced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, but also Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.
This combination because we want our therapy to be effective, but also to work quickly. It is no secret that talk therapy of all stripes is expensive. Therefore, at Crookes Hypnotherapy, and with Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy more broadly, we want the client to feel and notice progress - quickly.
There is a balance at play. We don’t want to speed through therapy and rush things along. That is naïve and dangerous. But nor do we want to sit around for weeks, with clients paying us, and achieving little. We believe that good therapy gets this balance right and in practice it looks like:
1) listening to, supporting, and understanding where the client is and where they’d like to get to, and
2) facilitating small and manageable steps towards goals promptly so that a client does not spend scarce time and money talking things through with someone who listens lots but offers little in return
What we don’t want is for the client to return because they feel in some way obliged to. Instead, we want the client to return because they enjoy the sessions, because they feel supported, and because they are effective at achieving the desired outcome, at speed. For this reason, we won’t rehash phrases like: “and how did that make you feel?” Instead we’ll focus on moving things along promptly through small steps and action. Note that feelings and emotions are important, and talking about them likely will form part of the work we do together!
Importantly, if we don’t feel capable to improve your circumstances - whatever they are - we’ll acknowledge this, and suggest other therapists of therapeutic styles that might better suit your personality or situation, more on this below.
On limitations: the therapist and the treatment
This is a test. Testing!
On strengths: who and what is it good for?
This is another test! Testing!
The neuroscience of trance and treatment
Another testing box
And what about the evidence more broadly?
What peer-reviewed studies say
Another testing box
Got any questions? Get in contact
evan@crookeshypnotherapy.com
07557 098 521