Sarah Mortimer Hypnotherapy

17/08/2026

Week 2 spotlight for my upcoming course... Book now!

Week 2 Spotlight

Week 2 of "When Clients Feel It's All Too Much: Working with Overwhelm, Distress and Emotional Regulation in Hypnotherapy" is where the hands-on work begins, stabilisation.

Not "help the client feel calmer," but building five specific capacities: safety and agency, awareness of internal states, emotional tolerance, confidence and coping, and attentional flexibility. Knowing which one a client needs first is a clinical judgement, not a default you reach for automatically.

You'll leave with three techniques mapped directly to those capacities, cue-controlled relaxation, attention training, and pendulation, each taught with the evidence and the mechanism behind it, not just the steps.

We also spend time on something easy to treat as background, the therapeutic relationship itself as part of the intervention, not just the container that hypnosis happens in. What feels safe is different for every client, and that's a clinical question worth asking directly rather than assuming.

Week 2 of "When Clients Feel It's All Too Much," starting Monday 14th September. Book your place now! Link in comments below.

10/08/2026

Week 1 Spotlight

Week 1 of "When Clients Feel It's All Too Much: Working with Overwhelm, Distress and Emotional Regulation in Hypnotherapy" lays the groundwork.

Before we get anywhere near hypnotherapy technique, we build a shared definition: overwhelm isn't an emotion, it's a capacity state. Emotional intensity running high, attention only moderate, and understanding of what's actually being felt is often close to zero. That gap, feeling a lot without being able to make sense of it, is what overwhelm actually looks like from the inside.

We ground that in the nervous system, too, hyperarousal and hypoarousal, and why both reduce a client's psychological flexibility. And we look at why the body often carries the signal before a client can name it.

We also turn the lens on you as a hypnotherapist. Which pattern do you default to under emotional load: moving quickly to stabilise, staying with the emotion, or losing your own clinical footing? That awareness shapes everything the rest of the course builds on.

Week 1 of "When Clients Feel It's All Too Much," starting Monday 14th September. Book your place now! Link in bio.

https://www.bristolhypnotherapy.co.uk/emotions-hypnotherapy-cpd

05/08/2026

Why sensory regulation comes before emotional regulation

When emotions feel overwhelming, it's easy to assume you need to "think differently." But if your nervous system is already overloaded, emotional regulation becomes much harder.

Poor sleep, constant notifications, noise, uncomfortable environments, stress... these all add to your nervous system's load. Sometimes what looks like an emotional overreaction is simply the final straw.

Before trying to change your thoughts, it can help to support your senses. Simple things like reducing noise, dimming harsh lighting, taking a slow breath, stepping outside, or noticing comforting sensations can help your brain recognise that you're safe. From there, emotional regulation becomes much more achievable.

This is one of the reasons hypnotherapy can be so effective - it helps calm the nervous system first, creating the conditions for lasting change.

If this resonates with you, I've explored this in more detail in my latest blog. Link in the comments below.

03/08/2026

Overwhelm isn't an emotion. It's what happens when emotional intensity outpaces someone's capacity to process it, intensity high, attention patchy, clarity often close to zero.

It's important to recognise that being regulated doesn't mean being calm. A client can be tearful, activated, clearly moved, and still be regulated, because regulation isn't about suppressing what's felt, it's about staying connected to choice and reflection while feeling it.

Over 4 weeks, "When Clients Feel It's All Too Much: Working with Overwhelm, Distress and Emotional Regulation in Hypnotherapy" takes you through the full arc, understanding overwhelm, stabilisation, safely processing emotion, and clinical decision-making across the whole course of therapy.

Live online, starts Monday 14th September. Link in bio.

24/07/2026

One of the most important things I teach my clients is self-hypnosis.

And the reason I do this is because I believe deeply in empowerment.

When I had back pain, I remember feeling like there was nothing I could do.

My pain felt like something that was happening to me.

But as I learnt more about pain - how it works, how our brains and bodies interact, and that there were things I could do to influence my experience of it -something changed.

I felt empowered.

I felt more hopeful.

I started to trust that things could be different.

And that’s what I want for my clients.

I don't want someone to feel like they have to keep coming back to me because I have something they don't.

My role is to support, guide and teach.

To help people develop their own skills, build confidence, and strengthen their trust in their ability to cope.

Self-hypnosis strengthens the work we do together because it gives clients something they can continue using outside of the therapy room.

It becomes a skill for life.

Once you understand how to use self-hypnosis, you can apply it in different situations - to support yourself through stress, challenges, difficult emotions, or moments when you need to reconnect with your own inner resources.

For me, hypnotherapy isn't about creating dependency.

It's about helping people realise they have more ability to influence their own experiences than they might have thought.

That sense of empowerment is where lasting change can begin.

Book a free 20-minute discovery call with me to find out how hypnotherapy can help you.

Link in bio

23/07/2026

The course isn't just about managing those moments when a client gets overwhelmed mid-session - though we do cover that.

It's about working with clients who are generally overwhelmed. People running on empty. People who've been in survival mode so long they've forgotten what regulated feels like.

And crucially, it's about one of the most clinically demanding questions in this work: When do you stabilise, and when do you process?

Clients often push toward processing. They don't want to feel the way they do - they want it gone. That urgency is understandable. But moving too quickly can reinforce dysregulation rather than resolve it.

Over four weeks, we work through how to assess capacity, how to use hypnosis to build the internal stability that makes emotional processing safe, and how to hold that clinical line - even when the client is pushing you in a different direction.

Live online. Starts 14th September. Launch price £197

Click on the link in the comments to book

22/07/2026

When your mind never seems to switch off...

If anxiety, stress, or a big life change is leaving you feeling overwhelmed, constantly overthinking, or stuck in survival mode, it can be hard to imagine things feeling different.

My role isn't to "fix" you. It's to help you understand what's happening, regain a sense of control, and build practical skills you can rely on long after our sessions have finished.

I combine hypnotherapy with evidence-based psychological approaches, and I'll teach you techniques, including self-hypnosis, that you can use whenever life feels challenging.

I currently have Friday afternoon appointments available in Redcliffe, Bristol, as well as online sessions throughout the week.

If you're wondering whether we'd be a good fit, book a free 20-minute discovery call. We can talk about what's been going on and whether this approach feels right for you.

📩 Send me a DM or tap the link in my bio to arrange your free discovery call.

21/07/2026

The wait is over... and it's a First! 🎉

I'm absolutely delighted to have been awarded a First Class Honours degree in Psychology from The Open University.

Studying alongside running a hypnotherapy practice hasn't always been easy, but it has been incredibly worthwhile. Deepening my understanding of psychology, research, and evidence-based practice has already shaped how I think about helping clients create meaningful, lasting change, and I'm excited to continue bringing that knowledge into my work.

This achievement certainly wasn't a solo effort. I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who supported and encouraged me over the past 3.5 years - my partner, my family, friends, tutors, fellow students, and mentors. I genuinely couldn't have done it without them.

The journey doesn't end here. This autumn I'll be starting a Master's in Applied Clinical Psychology at the University of Bath, and I'm looking forward to continuing to learn, grow, and develop the knowledge and skills that will ultimately benefit the people I work with.

For now, though, I'm taking a moment to enjoy this milestone. It still feels a little surreal! 😊

15/07/2026

The problem isn't always our thoughts or emotions. Sometimes it's the labels we put on them.

We often divide emotions into "positive" and "negative."

Happy, calm and confident are seen as good.

Anxiety, sadness, anger or fear are seen as bad.

But emotions aren't good or bad. They're information.

A feeling of anxiety might be telling you that something matters to you.

Anger might be highlighting that a boundary has been crossed.

Sadness might be showing you that something is important and needs processing.

The same applies to thoughts.

A thought like, "I might get this wrong," isn't automatically a negative thought.

It might actually help you prepare, reflect and do your best.

The thought itself isn't the problem.

The problem is when we become fused with it.

When one thought becomes a story.

"I might get this wrong" becomes...

"I'm going to fail."

"Everyone will think I'm incompetent."

"I should never have tried."

And suddenly we're no longer noticing a thought, we're caught up inside it.

When we stop judging thoughts and emotions as good or bad, we can become more curious about them.

We can notice them.

Learn from them.

And choose how we want to respond.

The goal isn't to get rid of difficult thoughts or feelings.

It's to change our relationship with them.

If you are experiencing a lot of thoughts and feelings that you feel you've got caught up in and would like to learn how to take a step back from them and not be affected by them, book a free 20-minute discovery call with me to find out how hypnotherapy can help you. Link in bio

13/07/2026

For the hypnotherapists that follow this page - 11pm tonight and the earlybird discount ends. Book onto the 4 week hypnotherapy CPD training course - When Clients Feel It's All Too Much: Working with Overwhelm, Distress and Emotion Regulation in Hypnotherapy.

To book, flick on the link in the comments

⏰ Last chance for the early-bird price.

Today is the final day to book Working with Overwhelm, Distress and Emotional Regulation in Hypnotherapy at £147.

At 11pm (UK time) tonight, the price increases to £197.

If you've been thinking, "I'll have a look later," this is your reminder. 😊

We'll spend four live online evenings exploring practical ways of working with overwhelm, emotional regulation and distress in the therapy room, with plenty of opportunity for discussion, questions and real clinical application.

📅 Starts 14th September
🕖 Four Monday evenings, 7.00–9.30pm (UK)
💻 Live online

You'll find all the details, including the full course outline, at the link in my bio (or here): https://www.bristolhypnotherapy.co.uk/emotions-hypnotherapy-cpd