Hypnotherapy for a clear, confident and resilient mind

With Dr Pat Partington

Welcome, I'm a PhD Psychologist with more than three decades of experience in helping people find lasting freedom from anxiety, depression and persistent pain.
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 I work with clients from around the world via Zoom, an approach that means your good mental health is no longer a postcode lottery. You can benefit from the expertise of top mental health professionals wherever you live, all you need is an internet connection.

07876 033003   

drpat@goodmentalhealth.online

Just leave me a message and I'll call you back the same day.

Good mental health is about much more than the absence of anxiety or depression, it's about functioning at your full potential.

I can get results for you
But I limit my practice to motivated people who genuinely want to be the best they can be.

Contact me if you are ready to actively engage in getting your goals accomplished and if a natural solution is important to you. I can help you become interested in how your brain works and how you can use your brain to overcome anxiety or depression. So you can become excited about your journey toward good mental health. 

Don't contact me if you are looking for a quick fix or if you are looking for someone else to do all the work for you. It's best not to trust those who offer magical fixes!

Confusion, stress, anxiety and noise, there’s an awful lot of it about right now isn't there? Too many people are overwhelmed with worry. You might be one of them, so what can you do?
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Never before has there been such a need for evidence-based psychology, for tried and tested, easy to use techniques that simply but effectively bring down your anxiety.

Before we move on to this, I'm going to let you in on a secret that might surprise you. 

As a doctor of psychology I get asked all too often "Can you fix my brain?" So before we go any further I'm going to tell you what I always tell them:

If you have anxiety your brain is doing a great job!
 Your brain does not need to be fixed because it is not broken. It just needs to be reprogrammed! Let me explain.

The job of your brain is to keep you alive. Yes, it enables you to do all sorts of wonderful things, but survival will always, but always override these talents. 

What do you think your brain uses to help out in this constant slog of survival? It uses emotions. The bottom line is that emotion drives behaviour, but what has this got to do with your anxiety? Stay with me. 

You are probably on my page because you have anxiety, stress or depression. So, and in keeping with my aim of bringing good mental health to as many people as possible, I'm going to GIVE you a copy of my online course 'Reprogramme Your Brain With Hypnotherapy'.
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Here's a clip that expands on what I've been saying so far and to give a you a taste of the 'Talking Workbook' format of the course. You can access the entire course at the bottom of this page, completely FREE of charge.

The survival of all animals depends on efficient 'escape-and-avoid' behaviour

Fear motivates escape from immediate danger, while anxiety ensures we stay away from these threats in the future. Job done. But this is where the similarity with other animals ends, because what we have that sets us apart from other animals is the ability to think. And therein lies the problem.

That's because when our thoughts match our emotions they become beliefs. Let me give you a quick example. 

Imagine you are having an anxiety attack in the supermarket. This might not be your problem, but just go with me for a moment. 

You might think to yourself, "Everyone's looking at me, they think I'm weird". Or you might restructure your thinking toward a more realistic, "Nobody is looking at me, they're all going about their own business".

The problem is, even though the second thought is much more realistic, your anxiety won't ALLOW you to believe it. 

Here's the thing, a thought won't become a belief until it matches your emotion. Even when a part of you knows your positive thoughts are stone cold facts, you still won't believe them. And this is a great survival mechanism of our brains, that we believe the thoughts that match our emotions!! So your reality is that everyone is staring at you!

But you haven't heard the best bit about your brain yet!

Well, when I say it's the best bit, I'll let you be the judge of that! Because, just to keep us extra safe, our brains actively seek out information that supports our emotion-driven theories, something known as cognitive bias. By the way, a cognition is a thought or an image, or even an idea. So our brains latch on to the information most relevant to our emotion and deletes any information that goes against it. 

Here's the thing, our brains have changed very little since we lived in caves, a time when threats were physical - wild animals or predatory neighbours for example.

Today we are the safest we've ever been, but our brains must continue to look for danger. But where's the danger? 

I'll tell you where the danger is, it's in our sense of self, our identity, what we think of ourselves and what we think other people think of us. That last bit is particularly important. 

It's important because when you try to reassure yourself with positive self-talk, and let's face it, that's what we are always told to do, it won't make a dent in your anxiety because your brain has identified a threat, which it's now working hard at getting you away from. And your brain distorts your reality to make doubly sure that you get away, and stay away, from this danger. Hence, "Everyone's looking at me..." becomes an unarguable, set-in-stone belief. 

And that's why your anxious brain does not need to be fixed.
But it does need to be reprogrammed!

Yes, your brain is doing the job that it was designed for, it's identifying threats in your environment and producing strong emotional responses to keep you safe.  And then it produces thoughts that match these emotions. 

The problem is that it's doing too good a job. It has neuroplastically programmed itself to be overcautious, overresponsive and overemotional.  

So we are going to use hypnotherapy to reprogramme your brain to stay calm and respond with confidence. So that you get your life back.  

After all, good mental health is about much more than the absence of anxiety and depression, it's about functioning at your full potential!

Hypnotherapy with Dr Pat Partington

As a doctor of psychology I take a brain focused approach to our work, blending the latest scientific research with tried and tested techniques from hypnosis and cognitive behavioural psychology.

Contact me with your preferred days/times for a first appointment and any other information you think would be useful for me to know. I'll get back to you on the same day. I don't give free consultations but if you are not completely satisfied after your first session there will be absolutely no charge.

07876 033003   

drpat@goodmentalhealth.online

Just leave me a message and I'll call you back the same day.

Good mental health is about much more than the absence of anxiety or depression, it's about functioning at your full potential. 

Just leave me a message and I'll call you back the same day.