Our Team
Sue and I are therapy practitioners who are qualified, insured and registered with our respective professional bodies and have extensive experience backed up by references and reviews - so you can book with us in confidence and take the first step towards your best life….
Dr Russell Thackeray
Who am I?
I'm often told that I've had an interesting & very varied work career - from professional musician, entrepreneur, consultant, CEO, NED, Operations Manager to investing....and having that breadth of experience of business and life, along with my professional qualifications means that it's possible that I can help manage your 'states' and help you live your optimum life....I know plenty of people claim that and, to be honest, I get a little fed up reading all these claims, but....
Plenty of people have experienced my coaching, therapy and hypnotherapy services and some of them have commented elsewhere on this site about what I'm like and the results they have achieved.
Whilst working as a consultant and coach for a range of organisations where their standards ensure I have to deliver a great job - I do so, every time!
I write for a range of journals and publications including Oprah Magazine, Business Success Magazine etc and have been a guest on many podcasts - particularly around the subject of personal resilience.
You can listen to the successful podcast I run called Resilience Unravelled - a series of informative interviews with a huge range of guests looking at a wide range of subjects...
As a hypnotherapist I am fully qualified, insured and registered with the National Guild of Hypnotists and a member of the General Hypnotherapy Register
As a person I have a professional Doctorate from Middlesex University, a Masters Qualification from Reading University and qualifications and memberships of a range of organisations including:-
Neuro-Leadership Institute
Association of Business Psychologists
Chartered Institute of Management
Institute of Management Consulting
Qualified Mediator - Regent's College, London
This is plus qualifications in stress management, coaching, resilience, NLP and a range of occupational and professional bodies - even including alternative therapies including EFT and Reiki.
My own story is that I experienced Hypnotherapy many years ago from my therapy mentor as part of counselling training. I had a number of irrational problems in relationships, particularly with my parents and having discussed these over many (many) sessions, hypnotherapy was used to allow me to 'regress' back to the time issues took place and allow me to guide my 'younger self' back to a more happy state. This allowed me to ultimately repair a number of broken family relationships.
My initial thoughts about hypnotherapy were very suspicious and cynical - I believed that, as a rational person, I would not be susceptible to suggestion and that, having seen hypnosis used on stage shows, it was the work of con-men and entertainers....how wrong I was...!
I have progressed to use hypnotherapy and self hypnosis to cure my irrational fear of dogs, control stress, burnout and anxiety and to be able to sleep 'like a baby' even when experiencing extreme turbulence on an aircraft during storms and a lightning strike...!
As a musician, I constantly experimented with ways of investigating advances in diet, mind and body practices to both deal with the pressures of performance and the stress of public scrutiny - this allowed me to take the leap and experiment with hypnotherapy and I have never regretted it.
Chatting to people about hypnosis is revealing. Many people have come across hypnotherapy because of stories about stage shows (something else entirely) or because of helping them to manage weight or smoking. Few people have anything bad to say about it. And those that do recognise that any lack of positive outcomes were usually because of a lack of commitment on their part.
Hypnotherapy therefore is a brilliant tool to help you solve problems or to maximise life opportunities. It has two main approaches (and plenty of other sub-themes), one school of thought coming from Milton Erickson and NLP, as well as the body of knowledge contained in Regression.
My job is to work out with you which will be the most appropriate methods and approaches based on whatever it is you wish to solve/alleviate along with the speed of results and your ability to focus your commitment.
Whilst hypnotherapy has a huge range of applications, I tend to have areas that I really have expertise within. Whilst some hypnotherapists will profess to be able to help you with anything at all, I recognise my own areas of preference and expertise and therefore I do not offer every service that hypnotherapy can provide.
However, if I cannot help you directly, I can recommend a number of brilliant hypnotherapists I know, or whose work I know or with whom I trained and therefore should be able to point you to someone that I am confident can help you if your challenges falls outside of my particular expertise or interests.
Why not give me a call on 07770 811352 for a free consultation. Let me learn more about YOU!
Sue Thackeray
Who am I?
“I love Hypnotherapy! I particularly love that it is so empowering for the individual – what could be more fabulous than to sort out your issues using the power of your own subconscious? No gimmicks, no mad rules to live by, no trying to invent a whole new you – it turns out that it’s all there inside your head and all you need is a trained person to help you access your own solutions/peace/confidence/strength etc. It’s why hypnotherapy has such a high success rate – if you want it to succeed, it almost certainly will!
My previous career was in education. I was an infant teacher, a headteacher several times, a local authority inspector and then a district manager for schools. I’m a very practical person (working with 5 year olds and then teachers over any period of time makes that essential). I really like people and never cease to be amazed at their resilience in the face of the tricky stuff that life throws at us. However, sometimes that resilience is sorely tested or maybe it feels like it’s gone AWOL completely. I’ve had my moments over the years – bereavement, divorce, family issues, crisis of confidence…and have, at various points, got through with a mix of coaching, counselling and hypnotherapy, along with the support of good friends and the love of a good man. I believe that I have found peace – and I can thoroughly recommend it!
I trained as a hypnotherapist with the Hampshire School of Hypnotherapy, I’m registered with the General Hypnotherapy Register and am fully insured. I have witnessed some amazing hypnotherapy triumphs including a 50 year old fear of dogs gone over a couple of sessions, a smoker of 45 years stopping with one session, a snacking habit vanquished and my own fear that if I let myself start crying I would never stop traced back to the roots, understood and put aside. The small successes are just as important – the person who used hypnotherapy to control their blushing, the client who needed to shrug off heartache of the past in order to enjoy a new relationship – everyone’s issues are hugely important to them and I treat each one with equal seriousness. It doesn’t always work (96% success rate) but it mostly does, and that’s particularly true when the person coming for help really wants to make the change.
I would love to help you live your best life. Investing in yourself will pay dividends in so many different ways. I’m a great believer in the need to show yourself the love, respect and friendship that you routinely give to others – and let’s face it, at least you’ll know that you’ll appreciate it!”
Why not give me a call on 07770 811352 for a free consultation. Let us learn more about YOU!