Trinette

Hypnotherapist and EMDR therapist

• 1. Trauma
• 2. anxiety & phobias
• 3. burnout
• 4. depression
• 5. grief
• 6. stress
• 7. Fear of abandonment/commitment
• 8. Medically unexplained symptoms
• 9. Persistent physical symptoms
• 10. Hypnotherapy for children

Specialisations and Expertises

ACT – Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

ACT stands for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes, Wilson & Strosahl). It is a third-generation behavioural therapy that helps you develop greater psychological flexibility: the ability to deal with difficult thoughts, feelings and experiences while continuing to move towards the things that truly matter to you.

ACT consists of six interconnected processes or skills:

Acceptance – Making room for difficult thoughts, feelings and experiences.
Defusion – Learning to step back from your thoughts rather than getting caught up in them.
Self as Context – Developing a more flexible relationship with your sense of self and self-image.
Being Present – Bringing your attention to the here and now.
Values – Exploring what is truly important to you.
Committed Action – Taking meaningful action in line with your values.

Together, these skills help you become more psychologically flexible. The aim of ACT is therefore not primarily to eliminate symptoms, but to develop resilience and learn how to live a meaningful life, even when difficult experiences are present.

How does ACT work?

ACT uses metaphors, exercises and experiential techniques. Rather than simply talking or thinking about your difficulties, you learn by experiencing and practising new ways of responding.

This can help you change your relationship with difficult thoughts and feelings, so that they have less control over your choices and behaviour.

Does ACT work?

ACT has been extensively researched, and research supports its effectiveness for a range of psychological difficulties, including anxiety and depression. Studies also show that ACT can increase psychological flexibility, which is one of the central processes through which ACT is thought to work.

ACT can therefore be helpful not only when you are experiencing psychological symptoms, but also when you want to understand yourself better, become more flexible in how you respond to life’s challenges, or make choices that are more aligned with what matters to you.

EMDR – Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

EMDR is a well-established, evidence-based therapy for processing distressing and traumatic experiences.

If you have developed difficulties following something that happened in your life — such as intense emotions, intrusive memories, physical reactions or sleep problems — EMDR can help you process the experience and reduce its emotional impact.

This can apply to experiences such as an accident, sexual abuse, violence or other events that have had a lasting impact on you.

How does EMDR work?

A distressing or traumatic experience can become stored in the brain together with intense emotions, physical sensations and negative beliefs about yourself. When such a memory has not been fully processed, it can continue to affect you long after the event itself has passed.

The memory may return unexpectedly, for example through intrusive images, strong emotions, physical reactions or thoughts such as “I am powerless” or “I am not good enough.”

During EMDR, I will first ask you to think about the distressing experience. Initially, this is to gather information about what happened and how it affects you. Later, the memory becomes the focus of the processing.

During the processing, you may listen through headphones to alternating sounds in your left and right ear. I may also use hand movements from left to right, which you follow with your eyes.

While focusing on the memory and simultaneously following the sounds or eye movements, thoughts, images, feelings and physical sensations may arise. After each set, I will ask you to notice what has changed and to focus on whatever stands out most.

Gradually, the memory can become less vivid and lose its emotional charge.

What can you experience afterwards?

As the emotional charge decreases, it can become easier to look at the experience differently. You may feel less powerless and develop a more positive and balanced view of yourself.

For some people, anxiety decreases, intrusive memories become less frequent or disappear, and sleep improves. Processing the experience can also create more space to move forward and feel more connected to life and the future.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses a natural state of focused attention and deep relaxation, known as trance.

Trance is essentially the same state that is commonly referred to as hypnosis. Because the word hypnosis can sometimes evoke negative or misleading associations, hypnotherapists often prefer the term trance.

What is trance?

Trance is a natural state in which your attention becomes more inwardly focused. You remain conscious and aware, while your mind can become more receptive to imagination, feelings, memories and new perspectives.

In this state, you may be able to access experiences and insights that are not always easily reached through conscious thinking alone.

What happens during a session?

Where conventional psychotherapy often involves talking and thinking, hypnotherapy places more emphasis on experiencing and feeling.

At the beginning of a session, I guide you into a state of deep relaxation. This may involve focusing your attention on your breathing and gradually relaxing the muscles throughout your body.

As your body relaxes and your attention becomes more inwardly focused, you naturally enter a state of trance.

You remain conscious and in control throughout the session. You do not lose control or fall asleep, and you can always choose whether or not to follow a suggestion or exercise.

Trance is a natural experience

You may already know this state without realising it.

Perhaps you have had a moment just before fully waking up when a wonderful idea suddenly came to you. Or you became so absorbed in a book or film that you did not notice someone entering the room.

Maybe you have been cycling and suddenly realised that you had already arrived at your destination without consciously noticing the journey.

These are all examples of natural states of trance. We move in and out of them throughout our everyday lives.

From unconscious patterns to conscious awareness

During trance, insights can arise spontaneously. Limiting beliefs, emotional patterns and old ways of responding can become more visible and understandable.

This increased awareness can create an opportunity for change. Patterns that once operated largely outside your awareness can gradually become more conscious, making it possible to respond differently — both consciously and at an unconscious level.

The therapist acts as a guide through this inner landscape, helping you explore what emerges and supporting you throughout the process.

Brainspotting

Brainspotting is a therapeutic approach that can be used to work with emotional and physical responses associated with distressing experiences and trauma.

It can be particularly useful when experiences are difficult to put into words, including experiences that occurred before you had the language or developmental capacity to describe what was happening. This can be the case with pre-verbal trauma.

How does Brainspotting work?

Brainspotting is based on the idea that where you look can influence what you experience internally.

During a session, we focus on a particular experience, emotion or physical sensation. I then help you identify an eye position, or brainspot, that appears to be connected to what you are experiencing.

While maintaining this position, you are invited to stay with your internal experience without having to analyse or explain everything.

Thoughts, images, emotions or physical sensations may arise. By staying with these experiences in a safe and supported way, you give your brain and body space to process and integrate what has previously been difficult to process.

When can Brainspotting be helpful?

Brainspotting can be used when you are experiencing emotional or physical responses that are difficult to understand or that continue to affect you after a distressing experience.

It may be particularly valuable when the experience is difficult to access through words or conscious memory. This can include early experiences and pre-verbal trauma, where the original experience occurred before you were able to form a verbal narrative around it.

Brainspotting can also be used when you experience emotional blocks, persistent stress responses or physical sensations that seem connected to experiences from the past.

Research into the precise mechanisms of Brainspotting in the brain and body is ongoing. The method appears to draw, among other things, on our natural capacity for self-observation and the body’s ability to process and regulate experiences.

Medical Hypnotherapy

Medical hypnotherapy can be used alongside medical care for persistent physical symptoms and conditions in which the nervous system and stress response may play a role.

It is used, for example, in working with functional gastrointestinal complaints, stress-related symptoms, persistent physical symptoms and certain forms of chronic pain. There is particularly promising evidence for gut-directed hypnotherapy in people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

How does Medical Hypnotherapy work?

Following illness, prolonged stress or a significant life event, the nervous system can remain in a state of heightened alertness. This can contribute to ongoing tension and may influence the way physical symptoms are experienced.

Through hypnotherapy, the nervous system can be guided towards greater calm and the body can learn to experience a greater sense of safety.

By working with the connection between the nervous system, thoughts, emotions and physical sensations, hypnotherapy may influence the experience of physical symptoms and help reduce tension.

This may also help break the cycle between stress and persistent symptoms and support the body’s natural capacity for regulation and recovery.

Medical hypnotherapy does not mean that physical symptoms are imagined or “all in your head”. The physical experience is real. The aim is to work with the interaction between body and mind and to support the body’s ability to regulate itself.