Spotlight on Judith Hanson

Judith is a qualified Clinical Hypnotherapist (DipCHyp, HPD, MNCH), Mindfulness Teacher and NLP Master Practitioner and Coach. Her business is Therapies for the Mind. She works with her clients supporting them as they let go of anxiety, fear, phobias, habits or other issues. In this article we learn about Judith’s business journey, her thoughts on her industry, as well as picking up some insights along the way.

How did you end up where you are today, running a business in the wellbeing arena? I had a long and towards the end, very painful career in a large corporate. Fortunately I managed to be made redundant, which helped financially with starting up a business and my first business was a training business. I had been a project manager and went into training project managers. That was a very successful business and was pretty lucrative. It did, however, involve travelling around the country and, at times around Europe, or into the Republic of Ireland.

While I was doing that, I realised how damaged I’d been by the end of my corporate career. On the advice of a colleague and a friend, I went off to learn NLP; eventually taking it right the way through to master practitioner. I was so amazed by the things that happened while I was doing my training - I saw every technique demonstrated and then experienced it as a practitioner and as a client. Some amazing work was done and I thought I want to get out there. At one point, I was going to cure the whole world!

Whilst trying to sort myself out, I learnt self-hypnosis in a weekend course and thought I’d like to add that to my bag of tools. I trained as a clinical hypnotherapist and as a cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist. I also trained as a coach as part of my NLP training. I am fascinated by how the mind works (and the effect that it has on the body) and have to resist spending too much time (and money!) learning new things. But I am continually looking for training that interests me and will add to my portfolio of techniques.

The amazing changes that I saw people make during my initial training got me into a new business and I still love what I do. Your industry is unregulated – what are your thoughts on that? That’s one of my hobbyhorses so don’t get me going! I think the industry should be regulated. I worry that it is not; particularly with hypnotherapy. I met somebody who said “could I come and practice on you - I have done a weekend course in hypnotherapy.”! My training continued probably over a period of eight years. The NLP alone was three separate programmes; with five four day weekends per programme and lots of work in between. For my hypnotherapy, I had to do a diploma and have that marked and approved. I am really worried, because I do get clients coming to see me who have not been served well. They’ve wasted their time and their money. In a few cases they have been damaged. Working with somebody who wasn’t experienced and qualified is a real worry.

What type of things should people be looking for to give them some sort of degree of confidence that the person they’re potentially engaging knows what they’re doing? Look for qualifications and then look those qualifications up. If you get to talk to the person, ask them about their training. It worries me that people come to me having found me online but they haven’t looked me up or checked me out. So do some research - talk to several therapists because it’s not just important that they’re qualified, but that they’re right for you, and what they do is right for you. Don’t just pick somebody online at three o’clock in the morning when you’re feeling really bad and just go with it!

What’s your “why”? What gets you out of bed in the morning? What drives you? For me it’s about the evidence. If I take an example client: somebody who could not even speak to me on the phone or drive herself to

her first appointment because of her extreme anxiety. Five sessions later, she was able to do all of those things, and more -she was able to go out and socialise and was able to drive wherever she wanted to. In her testimonial, she said, “You’ve given me my life back.” Now, If that doesn’t get you out of bed in the morning, nothing’s going to! It’s just a wonderful thing to be able to do.

Mental health issues are on the rise What should people do if they are struggling in life?

Recently I worked with a 12-year-old and did some recording for a fiveyear-old. Both were suffering hugely from the effects of lockdown - being at home and not being able to go out and play with their friends. COVID means we are facing a real threat, so there is good reason for being a little bit anxious and therefore being cautious. On top of that, there are the economic effect of redundancies, loss of jobs, lack of money, etc. There are also the social impacts. We are social beings and we need to mix and hug and do all of those lovely things that people have missed for a long time.

If you are struggling, the hardest step of all is to admit that you are and that you need some help. If I’m struggling I will turn to somebody else and I obviously know lots of people in the trade. I will have a coaching session or even a therapy session. And I’ve got all the tools and techniques! It’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help. It is, in fact, a sign of strength that you’ve admitted you need some help. Once you’ve made that hard decision, take action, but as I say, take it cautiously. Do your research, do your due diligence. Look for the person that’s right for you and the therapy that’s right for you. What makes you different from your from your competitors? Primarily my qualifications and my years of experience - I’m up to nine now and I’ve worked with lots of people. Also the fact that I specialise - rather than trying to be all things to all people - so I decided to specialise on anxiety, fears and phobias.

The two critical success factors with therapy are that the client has a belief that the therapy they’re having will help them. I can start with a tiny seed of belief and build it, but there has to be some belief there. Secondly that they are comfortable working with their therapist. What makes me stand out from the rest of the crowd is that for some people, I am the absolutely the right person. I’m not right for everybody and that’s okay. There are enough people out there that I am right for. So to repeat (because it’s really important), talk to several possible therapists. When I started my hypnotherapy business, I did a bit of market research and I rang several random people offering similar services. I got some very interesting responses and I learned a lot about how not to do it! One guy, after I’d only spoken one sentence, told me exactly what was wrong. Look out for that. Be wary of someone who thinks they can cure you with no or very little information.

What has been your biggest challenge since starting your business?

The difficulty I had when I segwayed into the new business from the old business was that I had never had to market myself. I left the corporate world with contacts and all the leads came through referral for the training business. What got my new business off the ground was networking. I got work through people I met or referrals from them. You do have to be patient – it took about six months before work started to filter through. In the work I do, it is very personal. People have to get to know and trust you. What is your top tip for business owners?

That top tip would be find help. For most of us, we start as a one-man band, and we have to do everything. Not only what we do, but we have to do the financial side, the marketing side, the legal side - you can’t be an expert in everything. What I found with networking is that people are exceedingly generous with help. When you start out, you haven’t got a lot of money. You can’t necessarily employ an accountant or whatever. However, people will help you or will have low cost ways of making life easier for you. Don’t be afraid to ask. The big advantage of networking is we’ve all been there. We all remember what it’s like, it’s not the sort of thing you forget. I have often been to networking meetings, met somebody new and offered to chat to them over the phone separately to help them; because I had a lot of help in the beginning. I know that there’s help there if I need it now. So ask for help.

Photos courtesy of Jo Blackwell Photography

Watch the interview

This is an extract of a video interview – to watch the full session, visit: https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=kOeS5iyhV_Y