Colchester Cognitive Hypnotherapy & Wellbeing Centre

15/04/2026

Despite having been doing this for nearly 15 years, I am still fascinated by the way the brain can take something that happened, totally misinterpret it, and then spend the rest of forever making us live as if that misinterpretation was fact.

I often tell my clients, your brain has been sitting in the dark cave of your skull all your life, relying on your eyes, your ears, your nose, your mouth, your sense of touch, to tell it what's going on out there. It then has to put that all together and make sense of it, often in an instant.

Of course it makes mistakes.


(Honestly, I hate looking for images for social media posts. Sometimes you've just got to go with the dyscalculic sheep.)

13/04/2026

Here Be Dragons.

Trauma is your brain/body’s way of telling you that it can’t trust you to make your own decisions about whether you’re safe (or not).

At some point, something happened where safety wasn’t in your control and your system had to adapt. It started making those decisions for you, quickly, automatically, and often without asking.

That’s why you can know you’re fine AND still feel anxious. Why you can be safe in your life now AND your body reacts as if you’re not. It isn’t that it's trying to be dramatic or difficult. It’s just trying to protect you in the only way it learned how, at a time when you needed it to.

The problem is it doesn’t always update. It keeps using old rules in a world that has moved on.

It's following an old map that it drew when maybe there were monsters at the edges (lots of things can seem like monsters to a small, developing brain).

The work isn’t about forcing yourself to think differently or pushing those reactions away. It’s about gently showing your system that things are different now. That you can handle what’s in front of you. That you are, in fact, safe enough.

And over time, trust starts to rebuild. Not just in the world, but in yourself. And a new map is made.

07/04/2026

“Why do I feel anxious for no reason?”

It’s one of the most common questions we hear.

And the answer might be simpler than you think.

Anxiety isn’t random.
It’s your brain trying to protect you.

Your mind is constantly taking information from the present moment and matching it to past experiences, predicting what might happen next.

If something feels uncertain… or even slightly familiar to a past situation that didn’t feel safe… your system can respond as if there’s a real threat.

Even when there isn’t.

This is why anxiety can show up:
– when nothing obvious is wrong
– in situations you’ve handled before
– or “out of the blue”

It’s not out of the blue.
It’s a pattern.

And the good news is… patterns can be updated.

At Colchester Cognitive Hypnotherapy & Wellbeing Centre, we work with both the conscious and unconscious mind to help your system begin to recognise what is actually safe now… not what felt unsafe then.

So you can move forward with more ease, clarity, and calm.

📍 Based near Colchester, just minutes from the A12
💬 In-person and online sessions available

06/04/2026

Every time I walk into our therapy space I relax. I feel very lucky to say that about my place of work. Kate and I worked hard to make it feel like a home from home, and I love it when our clients say we have achieved that. It is genuinely a lovely space to be in, with fields and big skies just out the window. Victoria ☺️

03/04/2026

Concerned about the price of petrol but still want to get some therapy?

Cognitive Hypnotherapy is just as effective online, saving you from having to leave the comfort of your home or office if you'd prefer.

We all had to switch it up when Covid hit and many of us took our businesses online. Often, clients actually preferred it, because doing the work while in the context of the safety of your own home can mean it is easier to relax into it and it doesnt feel like you leave the changes behind in the therapy room.

02/04/2026

There’s a lot of talk at the moment about GLP1 weight loss injections (Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro etc.)

They clearly work. They can change your appetite and help you to feel fuller more quickly and for longer, as well as giving you a break from that hell of constant food noise.

However, studies show that most people regain a significant amount of weight after they stop taking the medication. This is because while the jabs may suppress your appetite when you're on them, when you come off them it returns to where it was before, and so you eat as you were eating before.

The medication reduces your hunger, but it doesn’t automatically change the patterns that were there leading you to overeat before. So issues such as emotional eating, or just less healthy habits around food and the way your brain has learned to use, those are still there in the background.

So when the injections stop, people can feel like they’re back to relying on willpower again. And that’s the bit that feels scary.

This is where we can help.

We can help you to use that window where you've lost the weight and things feel a bit easier, to change the deeper stuff that will make it less likely that you'll just fall back into old patterns.

The automatic responses.
The old triggers.
The beliefs about yourself and food.

Because if those shift, you’re not trying to “be good” or hold it all together when the medication stop, it just feels different.

You trust yourself more.
Food becomes more neutral.
And it doesn’t feel like a constant battle in your head.

So rather than it being:

“I hope I can keep this weight off…” it becomes:

“I know how to look after myself now.”

It's about being able to put the control back within you, to be able to trust yourself to make the right choices, and not have to rely on injections.

If you’re on GLP-1 meds, thinking about coming off, or already starting to worry about what happens next, this is exactly the space we work in.

Happy to chat if you want to understand how it could look for you.

26/03/2026

I just wanted to share this lovely testimonial I received from a client a couple of days ago after her successful long-haul flight to Australia to visit her grandchildren. She got in touch with me as she felt anxious and fearful on any flight, despite knowing it was irrational and that flying is very safe. She described the absolute dread she would feel for days before and during the flight. She really wanted to fly without medication, and she also wanted to be able to look out the window and enjoy the view coming in to Sydney harbour - something she could never imagine being able to do. And look what we achieved in just three sessions in the weeks before her trip. I am so proud of you!

Also, it is interesting to note here that this client let me know in advance that she had aphantasia (very limited visualisation abilities), and we were able to work mostly on the feelings, and on using her inner dialogue to change how she expected the flight to go as well as how she was storing past flights in her memory.

25/03/2026

Coming off weight loss medication can feel scary.

You’ve made progress. Things have shifted. And yet there’s a quiet uncertainty about what comes next. What happens when it's just you again?

This programme is designed to support that transition.

Not with pressure or willpower, but by helping your mind and body feel safe, steady, and in control without relying on the medication.

3 x Bespoke Hypnotherapy Sessions
Personalised hypnotherapy recording

Maintain control around food without the medication
Feel calmer and more stable in your body
Reduce fear of old habits returning
Strengthen self-trust and consistency
Build a way of eating and thinking that feels natural, not forced

Beyond the Jab: In Control, On Your Terms
£250 (for April and May only)

If you’re approaching this stage and want to feel more confident in it, you’re very welcome to get in touch.

Who we are:
We are Kate and Victoria, the founders of Colchester Cognitive Hypnotherapy & Wellbeing Centre. We have almost 20 years experience between us as Cognitive Hypnotherapists. Find out more about us Victoria Ward - Therapist, Coach, Hypnotherapist and Kate Hickmore - Cognitive Hypnotherapy

25/03/2026

Just popping a reply I left on a FB post looking for help here, as it explains a little of what we do here.

"Hi. I'm sorry to hear that you've really been going through it. Either me Victoria Ward - Therapist, Coach, Hypnotherapist or my colleague Kate Hickmore - Cognitive Hypnotherapy at Colchester Cognitive Hypnotherapy & Wellbeing Centre could be the different approach that you are looking for.
Cognitive Hypnotherapy blends different approaches with hypnotherapy, the aim being to make changes from within that you notice reflected in your thoughts and behaviours. We use elements of EMDR to process emotions that are being held on to in the present, even though they really belong to the past. We use NLP to communicate in your own brain's language, in showing it how change is safe and desirable. And we use hypnosis to back it all up, consolidate the work we do in sessions, and create a really strong sense of resourcefulness for the future.

As far as the spiritual side of things go, whatever beliefs you bring to us we use as resources in the work too.

This sort of work is great for co-dependency, as we're looking at why that need for co-dependency came about in the first place, what your system believes it achieves (even though it usually doesn't...) and what we need to replace that co-dependency with to achieve it in a more healthy way.

Anyway, always up for a chat and to talk about what's going on to see if I can help.

Victoria x"

23/03/2026

Good morning! Hasn't it been beautiful to see Spring poking its head up. Daffodils, crocuses, blossom on the trees and baby bunnies in the fields.

It feels like its time to shake some old stories out of the attic and see what can be put out with the bin men, or maybe repurposed into something new.

People often think of hypnotherapy as this thing for fixing a single issue - stop being scared of dogs, lose some weight, be more comfortable in social situations. But for Kate and I, we both are really in our groove when we are using all our skills, training and experience to help people overhaul their lives from the ground up. Lost mojo, stuckness, new chapters, new identities, feeling good from the inside out, confidence in all areas.

We love our work, the sitting down face to face with you and figuring out together. From A to B.

You know where we are

Victoria x

20/03/2026

We now have the upstairs room available to hire daytime, evenings and weekends.

Same warmth as our room downstairs.
Accessible toilet, and kitchen area.
Easy access from the A12.
Plenty of free parking.

Get in touch to find out more.

Kate & Victoria