Or do you carry on doing something you really shouldn’t - such as smoking or eating too much chocolate - because there’s an irresistible ‘part’ of you that urges you on?

Maybe a ‘part’ of you constantly replays bad memories or instills fear or dread around everyday activities?

Those ‘parts’ are your subconscious, the area of the mind that is there from birth and where all your emotions, thoughts and behaviours originate. The conscious mind - the ability to think rationally and objectively - only begins to develop around the age of eight so everything that is learnt, absorbed or believed before then is accepted without question; however these beliefs may be inaccurate, outdated or no longer helpful in adulthood.

When you suffer from anxiety or depression, or you can’t put a traumatic event out of your mind, or when you have an irrational fear or a bad habit you just can’t break, it would be easy to conclude that your mind is working against you, or even that it’s broken.

That’s not the case.

The subconscious mind is there to protect you and to make you happy but sometimes it is working on misconceptions or outdated thought patterns that may have been with you for decades.

Remedial hypnosis - working directly with the subconscious while you are awake and alert - allows you to communicate with those parts of your mind which making you think, feel or behave in a way that’s holding you back from living life to the full. It is solution focussed, available by video link or in person and generally requires just three sessions to complete. The results are permanent.

In therapy terms CBT shows you how to recognise and control the weeds in your mental garden, remedial hypnosis pulls them out by the roots!

Contact Sarah Wellband at www.outofchaostherapy.com for a free initial consultation to see if remedial hypnosis is right for you.