This is an amazing story from Joe, a successful and lovely CPHT graduate. It’s a personal account of how hypnotherapy helped him overcome a significant and overwhelming phobia of hospitals. It’s a great ending and at last Joe can live without that nuisance fear that has plagued him throughout his life.

Hi, My name is Joe Forshaw; I am a Solution-Focused Hypnotherapist. I gained my qualification with CPHT in Liverpool in December 2019. I have completed many vocational courses over the years and gained a Psychology Degree as well as a Post Grad Cert in Criminology. However, in regard to my personal and career development, studying Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy with CPHT was without doubt the best decision I have ever made.

It has allowed me, at my own pace, to pursue a career that I have always wanted, one that is interesting and rewarding in equal measure.

However, it is my own experience of using Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy that I would like to share.

For as long as I can remember I have had a secret. This secret was a fear, a dread, a phobia. As a result of two medical procedures when I was very young, I had a phobia of hospitals, doctors and specifically medicals and medical procedures such as surgical operations.

This phobia affected my life in many ways. I have avoided my GP wherever possible, in fact I haven’t visited my GP in ten years. I could not visit people in hospital unless absolutely necessary and I would avoid applying for jobs that included a medical. I knew I would pass any medical but the fear of anything showing up that might mean going to hospital or a needing medical attention terrified me. It was a fear that was with me constantly, e.g. I was in constant fear that I might have an accident that needed medical attention.

Even as a Solution-Focused Hypnotherapist who can deal with other people`s phobias I refused to try to deal with my own. I preferred to ignore it, for me it was the elephant in the room.

Then recently my nightmare became a reality. I had a freak accident that resulted in me breaking my hip. I tried my best to avoid going to hospital, but I knew I had to.

I had an X-Ray which confirmed that I had broken my hip and I needed a replacement. I was taken to a ward and told that the op was scheduled for the next day. If I could have written my ultimate nightmare scenario, this was it. I had all night to wait in utter terror for the surgery the next day.

It was then that I remembered that I was a Solution-Focused Hypnotherapist.

I had two SFH relaxation recordings on my phone. One which I had recorded for my clients to use and one by my Tutor and Supervisor from CPHT, Cathy Eland which I use for myself.

So, from nine o`clock that night until the moment the nurse came to take me to theatre just after midday, I listened to the relaxation recordings constantly one after the other. I remember sleeping intermittently but the recordings were playing the whole time.

When the nurse arrived, this should have been the worst possible moment of my life, after all I had dreaded and imagined this moment ever since I could remember.

Yet I wasn’t terrified, I wasn’t in a state of panic, I was calm, completely calm.

I found myself completely relaxed to the extent that I was even joking with the nurse telling him about the unusual details of my accident.

When we arrived, I chatted with a doctor who explained all the procedures that would take place in the preparation room before going through into the operating theatre. Again, I was totally calm, totally rational and totally relaxed.

With the help of Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy, I had overcome my lifelong fear. I still sometimes can`t believe it.

Before this if I was 99% sure that SFH was an amazingly effective therapy, I am now absolutely 100% sure. Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy works, I am proof of that.

If you are thinking of studying with CPHT, I can recommend them with complete confidence.

Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy will not only allow you to change your career it will change your life. You will also make lifelong friends on the course.

It will be the best career decision you ever make, it most certainly was for me.

Joe Forshaw – Solution Focused Hypnotherapy