Juliet Hollingsworth Hypnotherapy

22/12/2025

𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐱𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧?

Yes. Anxiety can cause chest pain. When your body flicks into the fight or flight response, muscles tighten, breathing changes, and pressure builds in the chest. The sensation can feel intense and frightening, even though this is a response to perceived threat rather than danger.

𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐱𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭?

Chest pain immediately signals danger. The brain treats it as urgent.

Anxiety is your nervous system preparing your body to survive. Your blood pressure rises, breathing becomes shallow, and muscles across the chest, ribs, shoulders, and diaphragm tighten. The purpose of these changes is to protect vital organs and prepare you for action.

Because the body does not pause to assess context. This response occurs whether your life is genuinely at risk or not. From an evolutionary perspective, this speed kept humans alive at times when a normal day posed many threats to survival.

In modern life, the trigger is rarely a true threat to your life. Your brain responds to thoughts, memories, internal sensations, and prolonged period of stress in the same way it does direct physical threats.

This is why anxiety can cause chest pain, even when medical tests show nothing is wrong with your heart. The sensation is real because the physiological response is real.

https://www.juliethollingsworth.com/2025/12/22/can-anxiety-cause-chest-pain/

Can anxiety cause chest pain? Learn why anxiety creates chest pain, what it means, and how hypnotherapy helps.

18/12/2025

Hypnosis is widely recognised as a supportive tool for weight management. Many people seek out a hypnotherapist when they want to change their relationship with food, their body, or long-standing patterns around eating and movement.

Most hypnotherapists have a working understanding of nutrition and lifestyle factors and can help clients build healthier habits. However, we are not nutritional therapists. Clients still need a basic awareness of what may need to change for their body to move towards a healthier weight.

It is generally accepted that weight change involves eating differently, moving more, or a combination of both. Current research suggests that food choices and eating patterns often play a larger role than exercise alone, although movement remains an important part of overall health and nervous system regulation.

https://www.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk/articles/safe-methods-for-fast-and-effective-weight-loss

Explore how hypnotherapy can support healthier habits, motivation, and a more balanced relationship with food and body.

15/12/2025

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝟓 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬?

Stress shows up in the body before it shows up in your thoughts.
Disrupted sleep, persistent muscle tension, emotional reactivity, difficulty concentrating, and withdrawal from connection. These are signs of a nervous system working hard to keep you safe.

Most people search: what are 5 warning signs of stress, because something feels off.
The deeper question is why will the body not settle?
The question that brings someone to therapy is usually why this keeps happening even when life looks “fine”.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲?

Stress is a biological response, not a personality trait.
Your nervous system evolved to detect danger and mobilise energy to survive. When the brain senses threat, real or imagined, it activates the fight or flight response. This evolved for short bursts of danger followed by movement, rest and connection.

Modern life rarely completes that cycle.
Deadlines, notifications, pressure and isolation keep the body alert without resolution. This is the human mismatch. A stone age nervous system living in a digital world.

Hypnosis helps the nervous system update its sense of safety. It creates the conditions where the body can finally stand down.

https://www.juliethollingsworth.com/2025/12/15/what-are-5-warning-signs-of-stress/

What are 5 warning signs of stress? Learn how stress shows up in the body, why it happens, and when support can help you feel settled again.

12/12/2025

𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 #𝟐𝟐 It took me too long to start 𝐈𝐧 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐲-𝐀𝐧𝐧 𝐑𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐲, but when I did, I wanted to keep reading. This book is the story of a small school, the small school my children went to before some people with annoying ideas decided to ask every child and every teacher to leave the school so they could start it all over again with a different format (yup for real!). On reflection, that might be why it has taken me so long to pick up the book – like anything highly emotional, it took a while to process and move through the system. There is no mention of this in the book, instead it beautifully documents Mary-Ann’s twenty-two years coordinating this beautiful school.

I try to only post book reviews on here that have some relevance to my work. At first glance, this book doesn’t. However, I’m currently working with four children struggling to attend school, and this book gives a glimpse into how we can do things differently. Alongside another book I love (𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐅𝐫𝐞́𝐝𝐞́𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐋𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐱) this book gives an alternative view on leadership.

“𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑚𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑛 𝑛𝑢𝑟𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑟 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑜𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 𝑎 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑡, 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑑𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑠 𝑜𝑓 ‘𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔’ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ‘𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔’ 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑢𝑠 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒.”

On every page, there is a huge amount of wisdom, the kind that comes from someone who lives their values rather than talks about them. Mary-Ann leads by example in a way I’ve always loved and she writes in the same way - humbly, with no agenda. The book mirrors this, it doesn’t tell you who to be or how to live, but simply shows what’s possible.

The book is full of stories and anecdotes, including many that make it clear it wasn’t all roses! This book is for anyone who’s ever questioned the systems we place children inside. Anyone who senses that something isn’t quite working in the way we educate, lead, or support young people, and wants to remember that other ways are possible.

It’s for parents trying to understand why their child might be struggling.
For educators who feel the weight of a system that asks them to do the impossible.
For leaders who want to create environments that feel human rather than hierarchical.
And for anyone who values community, compassion, and the kind of leadership that guides without imprinting.

This book is a quiet but powerful reminder: when we build environments that honour connection, autonomy, and belonging, humans thrive. When we don’t, their nervous systems tell the story.

11/12/2025

If you have a phobia, your response is just as strong and just as disabling, whether it is common or rarely talked about. Humans can develop intense reactions to almost anything. If we searched hard enough, I’m sure we could find someone who fears whatever object or living thing we pick up in that moment.

My family think I’m a bit weird, because I can’t go near foam, the sponge type, unless it’s wet. Even writing this feels like nails on a blackboard for me. It isn’t a phobia, but it is a clear revulsion.

Experiences like this help me understand why so many people feel confused or embarrassed by a phobia that feels unusual. When the trigger looks uncommon, people often assume their response is somehow less valid. Yet your nervous system does not measure how ordinary or widely recognised the fear is. It reacts to what it has learned to protect you from.

A phobia is a learned threat response in the nervous system linked to a specific item or situation. When you meet the trigger, your body reacts with immediate fear or anxiety. You might avoid it completely. If you cannot avoid it, you endure it with intense physical and emotional discomfort that feels far bigger than the actual risk.

This isn’t exaggeration or overreaction. It is your survival system doing its job at the wrong moment. The body behaves as if your life is in danger, even when your thinking brain knows it isn’t. This mismatch between modern life and ancient biology is what makes a phobia feel so powerful. The reaction can take over daily decisions, limit experiences, and disrupt your sense of freedom.

https://www.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk/articles/learn-common-phobias-and-how-to-identify-if-you-have-one

Learn why common and uncommon phobias feel the same, and how hypnotherapy can provide support.

08/12/2025

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐃𝐨 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐈𝐟 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐦𝐚?

You know you have trauma when your nervous system responds to past events as if they are happening now. Trauma lives in the body. It shows through hypervigilance, shutdown, anxiety, nightmares, emotional overwhelm, or a sense of constant threat long after danger has passed. These patterns reflect a nervous system stuck in unfinished survival responses.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐦𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞?

When something feels overwhelming – or your brain perceives it as life-threatening – your body shifts into the survival cycle. This process is your body’s call to action. It mobilises energy for movement, confrontation, or repair. When action happens, the signal fades. But if your brain perceives you as powerless, it moves into the freeze response, an ancient survival technique from our reptilian ancestors. Any of these responses can remain unprocessed in your system, and that is trauma. People experience emotional trauma when the stress response continues long after the threat ends. The brain cannot down regulate, and the nervous system stays dysregulated.

https://www.juliethollingsworth.com/2025/12/08/how-do-you-know-if-you-have-trauma/

Find out how to know if you have trauma by recognising the body’s survival patterns and learning how the nervous system heals through hypnotherapy.

05/12/2025

Body dysmorphia can feel like all your attention collapses onto one part of your appearance. For example, a feature other people barely notice, yet your brain flags as a threat. It’s exhausting, consuming, and often misunderstood. But it isn’t a flaw in who you are. It’s a signal from a nervous system trying to protect you in a world it didn’t evolve for.

For most of human history, safety came from connection, belonging, and being part of the group. Today, the pressure to look a certain way, perform a certain role, and live under constant scrutiny keeps many people in a state of alert. When the body feels unsafe (socially, emotionally, or physically), it redirects that tension somewhere. For some people, it lands on the body.

https://www.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk/articles/body-dysmorphia-test-do-you-have-body-dysmorphia

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A hypnotherapist explores the symptoms of body dysmorphia disorder and how hypnotherapy can help.

01/12/2025

The most recent research shows that screens affect sleep, but the effect of blue light itself is far smaller than we once believed. The bigger issue is sleep displacement. Screens pull us away from the biological rhythms that make hypnotic receptivity and deep rest possible.

For years, we’ve believed the same story: screens ruin sleep. It makes sense, blue light affects the circadian rhythm and screens emit blue light. The circadian rhythm is your body’s internal 24-hour clock. It runs quietly in the background, telling every system when to wake, when to be alert, when to wind down and when to sleep. It responds mainly to light and darkness: morning light signals the body to wake and release daytime hormones, while evening darkness tells the brain to produce melatonin and prepare for rest. Although modern life often pulls us away from natural patterns, the circadian rhythm still follows the same ancient cycle it always has. Rising and falling in a predictable rhythm designed around the rotation of the earth.

Zeitgebers are the external cues that keep our circadian rhythm on track. The strongest zeitgeber is light. Morning light tells the body it’s time to wake, and evening darkness signals the approach of rest. There are others too, movement, food timing, temperature changes, and social interaction all act as gentle timekeepers, helping the body stay aligned with the 24-hour day. Our internal clock is powerful, but it still relies on these daily signals to stay steady and predictable.

Logically, your brain receives an input of blue light from the sun, logs it as morning, and signals your body to wake up. When the input stops coming after sunset, the brain logs it as nighttime and releases melatonin to signal sleep. The understanding is that when we subject the eyes to artificial blue light via unnatural lighting and screens, the brain perceives it as daylight and doesn’t release melatonin.

However, there is a subtle shift in science that changes this conversation.

https://www.juliethollingsworth.com/2025/12/01/do-screens-affect-sleep-what-the-new-science-actually-shows/

Do screens affect sleep? Why does content matter more than blue light? How can you support your natural night rhythm?

28/11/2025

If you smoke, you know all the reasons you should stop smoking. Other than it’s not pleasant for everyone around you, you put yourself at a higher risk of health issues, the smell might linger in your house and car, even if you do not smoke in them, and it might influence how you feel about your appearance, too. The problem is, you know all that and you love it, or you hate it and desperately want to stop but find it too dam difficult.

When I tell people I work as a hypnotherapist, most assume my days revolve around stop-smoking hypnosis or helping people overcome fears and phobias.

What usually surprises them is that the work goes far deeper than any single habit or symptom. Whether someone comes to me for addiction, anxiety, fears, trauma, or anything else that feels overwhelming, so much of it boils down to the same thing. A nervous system nudging them to act, protect, or cope and somewhere along the way, you missed the message.

My work isn’t about forcing change from the outside; it’s about helping someone hear what their nervous system is trying to say, and supporting them to respond in a way that makes sense for their life.

https://www.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk/articles/how-to-stop-smoking-with-hypnotherapy

Breaking the habit of smoking can be tough. Can hypnotherapy help address underlying problems that could be causing you to smoke?

26/11/2025

I've built a simple way to understand what your body is trying to tell you in a world it didn’t evolve for.

Introducing The Nervous System Coach.
A gentle, grounded guide based on my Human Mismatch Theory.

No fixing.
No pressure.
No lists of things you “should” be doing.
Just clarity. The kind that helps you say,
“Oh… this is a signal, not a flaw.”

You can check in with your system in 60 seconds, explore which pillar (Sleep, Movement, Nourishment, Connection) might be out of sync, or get a small, realistic adjustment for the moment you’re in.

Built for the days you feel overwhelmed, restless, wired-but-tired, or unsure what your body needs.

If you’d like to try it, you can find it here:

https://chatgpt.com/g/g-691ffdfb09e08191958c8c699b7738fa-the-nervous-system-coach

As always, take what feels workable and leave the rest. 🌿

24/11/2025

Reversal Therapy is a hypnotic-imagery technique that helps the brain change its internal picture of a threat. By reversing or reshaping a fearful image, the nervous system learns that the danger is over, reducing the physical reactions linked to trauma, phobias, fears and recurring nightmares.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐦𝐚?

Trauma often lives in the brain as a “snapshot”, a frozen internal image that the amygdala still treats as life-threatening. Image Reversal Therapy updates that snapshot. By altering the mental image, the nervous system no longer reacts with adrenaline, cortisol, or fight-or-flight responses. The memory remains, but the body no longer braces for impact.

𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬?

Yes. Phobias begin when the brain stores something as a threat. Even thinking about it can set off a full physical fear response. Image Reversal Therapy changes the internal representation of that trigger (shrinking it, reversing it, distorting it, or changing its meaning) until the nervous system recognises it is safe. This reduces avoidance, anxiety and anticipatory fear.

𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬?

Nightmares repeat when the brain is trying, and failing, to process emotional material. By changing the frightening image while awake, Image Reversal Therapy gives the dreaming brain a calmer “template” to work with. This helps reduce recurring nightmares and restores a sense of internal safety before sleep.

When people come to me with phobias, fears, trauma memories, or recurring nightmares, they often describe a single problem:

“𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛’𝑡 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑦 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑.”

The brain does not differentiate between real and imagined threats. When you picture something frightening, your amygdala responds just as if you were facing the danger in front of you. Your heart rate increases, muscles tense, breath shortens, and the thinking brain begins to switch off. This is your ancient survival system doing its job. Fast, emotional, protective, and often out of date.

Image Reversal Therapy works directly with this system. It offers a way to update the brain’s stored image, so the body no longer reacts as if the threat is happening right now.

https://www.juliethollingsworth.com/2025/11/19/image-reversal-therapy-how-your-brain-rewrites-traumatic-experiences-that-lead-to-fears-phobias-and-nightmares/

Image Reversal Therapy rewrites the brain’s fear images to reduce trauma, phobias, anxiety and nightmares.

21/11/2025

I have worked with many pregnant women and their birth partners as a hypnobirthing practitioner, friend, and doula for many years. Unless something traumatic happens, anyone who has witnessed a birth will probably agree it is one of the most extraordinary things a human can see. It never dulls for me. Birth always leaves my jaw dropped in awe. If you ever have the chance to sit beside someone as they bring their baby into the world, I urge you to take it.

Those (typically long) hours are spent moving together as midwives, birth partners, and birthing people find their rhythm. A small, temporary tribe working through an intense, often overwhelming experience. Birth partners can feel powerless, yet their presence, reassurance, and simple cheerleading are the most powerful support of all.

Then comes that slow dance of emergence. The glimpse of a baby’s head, disappearing again, reappearing, inching forward in its own time. It feels like forever, though it never is. And then, suddenly, a whole new life appears. Moments earlier, that same baby lay curled inside the body, fitting there with impossible perfection.

Alongside my hypnobirthing work, I support pregnant women as a birth doula. A doula is a trained companion who walks with you through a major health-related experience. Offering emotional, informational, and practical support, but not medical care. There are doulas for birth, abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth, and end-of-life. My role is to help people feel safe, settled, and resourced while the clinical team provides medical expertise.

In 2010, I co-wrote the fertility2birth hypnobirthing programme with a colleague. At the time, hypnobirthing felt niche. I could name perhaps five other schools in the country. We believed all pregnant people and their birth partners could benefit from this preparation, yet it mainly attracted those seen as “alternative”. Even a straightforward home birth was sometimes viewed as unusual, or in some countries, illegal.

Today, hypnobirthing is mainstream. Many hospitals include it in their antenatal education, and most people have at least heard of it, especially since the Duchess of Cambridge spoke openly about using hypnobirthing with all three of her children. Click through to read more.

Learn how hypnobirthing supports calm, confident births through understanding and informed decision-making.