Most people struggle with their confidence in one way or another. You may be confident at work but worry about what you look like. You may be body confident but social situations trouble you. You may be confident mixing with people but imposter syndrome holds you back. So what can we do to improve our confidence and live a life more free of doubt?

We all want to be happy, but this can mean different things to different people and at different stages in our lives. However there are broad rules that psychologists have identified that can improve our overall contentment.

You may be surprised to hear that hypnotherapy can help you deal with a wide range of conditions from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) to childbirth, from sleep problems to coping with change, from stress related skin conditions to anxiety, low mood and confidence building. The use of hypnotherapy for treating phobias and specific fears is probably more widely known but it is not always understood just how this works.

On the school run last week I was asked how I came up with the idea of retraining as a hypnotherapist. A couple of years ago when my youngest child started school I was facing a time of change and asking myself what I wanted to do now. It was a daunting time as I had been a stay at home mother for nearly seven years.  I had changed career path before but it felt different being older. I visited the library and took out all the books I could find on career development, life planning and dealing with change. 

A 2014 study carried out by MIND found that in any year 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem.  But since the coronavirus pandemic started a new MIND survey found that 60% of adults report that their mental health has deteriorated. Worryingly, in 13-24 year olds this figure was even higher at 68%.