How Solution Focused Hypnotherapy Helped Me to Recover from Burnout

Following a wonderful career in special educational settings, I progressed to working for Local Authorities. For several years I was working remotely; lots of pressure, long hours, online meetings and a lack of face-to-face human interaction. As well as the sedentary nature of this work, I would frequently grab meal deals and take-away coffees at lunch time (not always choosing the healthiest option). At times I would go straight from laptop to doom scrolling for hours – then feel pretty rubbish that I’d wasted my precious free time. I did find some balance through socialising, exercising and spending time outdoors, but I knew a big change was needed on many levels to improve my physical and mental health.

My First Experience of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy

I experienced the life-changing benefits of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy back in 2017 when I was struggling with high stress levels as a result of trying to juggle studying for my degree, parenting and working. 

What I gained from my Solution Focused Hypnotherapy sessions: 

• Knowledge of how my brain worked and how I was creating anxiety.
• Understanding my own stress bucket, how I was filling it up and how to empty it.
• Encouragement to come up with small steps towards my goals.
• Support through hypnosis to empty my stress bucket and help me action the small steps towards big change.
• Success in my studies which I achieved in a healthy way for me!

How Solution Focused Hypnotherapy helped me to recover from burnout

At the start of 2025, I made a conscious decision to slow down my life with a big career change. Throw in a house move, the ups and downs of family life and completing my training – I definitely needed the support of my wonderful Solution Focused Hypnotherapist to navigate all of this!

I knew that in order to feel fulfilled in my work I had to get back to helping people face-to-face.  I was considering a number of options, including signing up for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy training with CPHT. However, as a result of the burnout I was experiencing, I felt stuck and struggled to make a decision. I lacked motivation to take the steps to feel better.  

The best thing about Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is that we don’t focus on the problem. In my sessions in 2025, we didn’t start off by discussing the big decision I needed to make.

I was supported to: 

• Think about ‘What’s been good?’ I got back to writing down three good things every day.
• Improve sleep patterns through hypnosis in my sessions and by listening to the mp3 track every day.
• Set boundaries in my personal and professional life to reduce the amount of stress that was going into my bucket.
• Set small actions such as daily walks before work which helped my physical and mental health.

These steps helped me to start to feel better, to empty my stress bucket and enabled me to make rational decisions. After a couple of months, when asked ‘What’s been good?’ at the start of my session, I was able to share that I had been offered a place to train with the prestigious CPHT!

In Spring 2025, I was feeling much better, I’d made the big decision about my career change and was about to start the training. However, I was still working full-time in a very pressurised contract. I’d made a commitment to this big change, and I knew from my past experiences of juggling work and studying that I needed to make sure the next few months did not result in another overflowing stress bucket!

I continued to work on the small steps in my sessions to help me feel better, this resulted in better capacity to plan ahead and make decisions about my business. 

Focusing on the 3Ps helped me to move forward with my new career: 

• Positive thoughts – what my life would feel like when I was qualified. How this would help me to achieve a better work life balance.
• Positive actions – changing to a new contract with less pressure. This increased my capacity to attend training weekends, to study in a healthy way for me and to have time for volunteer clients.
• Positive interactions – I set boundaries to ensure that I could spend time with friends and family. I enjoyed working with my wonderful volunteer clients to practise my skills and complete my case studies. 

Whilst I no longer needed weekly sessions, I continued to benefit from regular hypnosis, support and encouragement. I kept up the positive habits of writing my three good things each day and listening to the mp3.

I’ve picked up lots of strategies through my sessions and one useful tool which I learnt in my first hypnotherapy sessions is to write a future diary entry. It’s a way to let our brains know about our future goals. I used this over the summer months to focus on my health, training, moving away from full-time work and setting up my hypnocabin to be a calm, relaxing space to work with clients. 

Over the Summer I worked with volunteer clients in two temporary therapy rooms, completed my first assessment and watched the hypnocabin construction take place. I enjoyed choosing paint colours, furniture and décor to create the environment I had envisaged. 

In the Autumn I moved towards the last stage of the course when I would need to:

• Complete my case studies with volunteer clients.
• The last few weekends of training, including a second assessment.
• The huge task of completing my portfolio!

I chose to have a further six weekly sessions of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy to ensure that I navigated this last stage with ease! 

These sessions enabled me to:

• Set boundaries to ensure that I had the time available and a suitable working environment.
• Achieve focus by keeping my stress bucket empty, and prioritising daily actions such as getting outside for walks.
• Good quality sleep achieved by switching off devices well before bedtime!
• Motivation achieved through the 3Ps; positive actions, positive thoughts and positive interactions. I knew what impact unhealthy studying habits previously had on me and how to avoid these.

In December 2025 I completed my training and received the Diploma in Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (DFSFH). I completed over 200 client hours during my training and was very happy to be able to fully launch my own business, Hawthorn Hypnotherapy. In February 2026 I received my Hypnotherapy in Practice Diploma (HPD). 

If you’re feeling stuck or burnt out, and would like to find out more about how Solution Focused Hypnotherapy could help you, please get in touch to book your free initial consultation.