Body & health

Women’s health

Hormonal changes, thyroid disorders, changes in your cycle, perimenopause, and menopause can disrupt sleep, mood, energy, and sex drive. They can also change how you feel about your body.

You may feel exhausted or on edge and wonder why things you used to handle now take so much effort. Work and family responsibilities don’t pause while you figure it out. You may end up feeling guilty on top of everything else.

Alongside your medical care, we can address the stress, emotional patterns, and expectations you place on yourself. That might mean working through a persistent fear, understanding why you keep putting everyone else first, or dealing with the guilt that shows up whenever you try to rest.

Pain and other physical symptoms

When pain becomes a regular part of life, you start planning around it: what you can manage, what might make it worse, and what you may have to cancel. Even when you feel better, you may still be watching for signs that the pain is coming back.

For chronic pain, headaches, digestive symptoms, and other physical complaints, we work with both the sensations themselves and the fear or tension that accompanies them. We set a concrete goal, such as reducing pain or discomfort, sleeping better, or making everyday activities easier.

Fear of medical tests, procedures, or a diagnosis

You know you need a test, but you keep putting off the appointment. Surgery may be weeks away, but you are already losing sleep over it. Or treatment is over, yet every unfamiliar sensation raises the same question: “Is it back?”

The fear may come from uncertainty or from an experience you remember all too well: a painful procedure, feeling helpless, or being dismissed when you needed help.

Understanding why a procedure is safe does not necessarily make it feel safe. We use hypnosis to work directly with the fear, the memories, and the physical response that reassurance has not changed.

Support during treatment and recovery

During chemotherapy, after surgery, or while recovering from an injury, it can take a great deal of effort just to get through the day. Fear, frustration, uncertainty, and having to rely on other people can make an already difficult time harder.

We focus on what would make a practical difference now: easing nausea or pain, getting some sleep before the next appointment, or feeling less panicked about what comes next.

I have experience helping people manage symptoms and emotional distress during chemotherapy. When appropriate, this work can be coordinated with your treating physician and tailored to your condition and treatment plan.

When you know what to do but don’t do it

You know you need to get more sleep, eat better, or quit smoking. You have probably made a plan more than once. By the end of the day, you are back where you started.

A habit often serves a purpose. Food may take the edge off loneliness. Smoking may be the only break you let yourself take. Staying up late may give you a few hours when nobody needs anything from you. Giving up the habit would also mean giving up something you need.

You may also be so used to taking care of everyone else that your own health gets attention only when something becomes impossible to ignore.

We look at the feelings, beliefs, and internal conflicts that keep the pattern going. The aim is to make it easier to take care of yourself without having to fight the same battle every day.

How we work

We start with what is bothering you and what you want to change.

Hypnosis gives us a way to work with feelings, memories, and physical responses that persist even when you understand them. You might know that something happened years ago and still feel the hurt. Or know you are safe and still feel your whole body tense up.

I help you explore what keeps that reaction in place and experience a different response. This usually takes several sessions. We judge progress by what changes outside the session: how you feel, what becomes easier, and what still needs attention.

For referring clinicians

If a patient’s care is complicated by fear, emotional distress, a difficult medical experience, or trouble following treatment recommendations, I am available to discuss adjunctive hypnotherapy. With the patient’s consent, we can agree on the focus of the work and coordinate care.