Questions, answered

Sessions can be offered online via Zoom or in person in Melbourne, depending on client preference and suitability.

It may be helpful where bedtime has become associated with thinking, worrying, anticipating or trying too hard to sleep. Hypnotherapy can be used to work with the learned thoughts and responses that may be keeping the mind alert when you would rather be winding down. Your individual sleep pattern can be discussed during the free consultation.

Hypnotherapy may help some people change the habits, associations and triggers connected with smoking. Results vary between individuals, so the consultation is an opportunity to discuss your smoking pattern and whether hypnotherapy may be an appropriate approach for you.

Hypnotherapy may help some people address the habits, triggers and psychological associations surrounding vaping. Individual responses vary, and no therapeutic approach can guarantee a particular outcome.

Hypnotherapy may be used to work with learned associations, self-doubt and automatic responses that make particular situations feel more difficult than they need to. The aim is not to manufacture a different personality, but to help reduce some of the internal interference that can get in the way of behaving naturally and confidently.

Hypnotherapy may be used to work with learned associations and automatic fear responses connected with particular situations, objects or experiences. The aim is to help the mind develop a more appropriate response where the existing reaction has become disproportionate or unnecessarily restrictive.

It may be useful where procrastination is connected with automatic patterns such as avoidance, perfectionism, fear of failure, overwhelm or discomfort around beginning a task. The aim is not simply to tell you to work harder, but to understand what the avoidance is doing for you and work with the pattern underneath it.

Hypnotherapy may help some people explore patterns of thought, emotional responses and behaviours associated with stress and anxiety. Results vary, and hypnotherapy should not replace appropriate medical or psychological care where this is required.

Hypnotherapy may be used to explore habits, emotional triggers and automatic associations that influence eating behaviour. Individual experiences vary, and no specific amount of weight loss can be guaranteed.

Sessions are intended to provide a private and respectful environment, subject to the privacy, legal and professional limitations explained before treatment.

No. Sports Focus can be relevant to professional, elite, emerging and competitive athletes who want to explore the mental patterns influencing performance.

No. The Relationships service focuses on your own thoughts, emotional associations and automatic responses within relationships. The work is not about deciding who is right or wrong or controlling another person’s behaviour. It is about understanding and changing the patterns you bring into relationship situations.

Confidence often relates to what you believe you can do. Self-esteem relates more closely to how you value and perceive yourself.

It may be useful where learned thoughts, associations and fear of the panic response itself are contributing to the cycle. Panic-like symptoms can also have medical causes, so new, severe or unexplained symptoms should be assessed by an appropriate healthcare professional rather than assumed to be psychological.

Yes. You do not need another person to attend in order to explore your own relationship patterns. Changing how you respond can alter your experience of difficult situations even when you cannot control how somebody else behaves.

Beliefs can change as people develop new perspectives, experiences and ways of interpreting themselves.

No. You remain in control of what you choose to discuss.

The process can explore the situations, thoughts and automatic associations connected with vaping and support the changes you have consciously decided you want to make.

The approach explores the learned associations and automatic responses surrounding smoking — such as cigarettes with coffee, stress, driving, alcohol, work breaks or social situations — and uses hypnotherapy as part of the process of changing those patterns.

No. The focus is not on prescribing a particular diet. The work focuses on the behavioural and psychological patterns that may influence eating choices, habits and your relationship with food.

No. Sports Focus is not a sports psychology service. It uses mindset-based approaches and clinical hypnotherapy techniques within Brad’s scope of practice.

Difficulty staying asleep can have many causes. Where psychological patterns such as stress, anticipatory thinking or learned sleep anxiety appear to be contributing, hypnotherapy may form part of an appropriate approach. Persistent or unexplained sleep disturbance should also be discussed with a qualified healthcare professional so that medical causes can be considered.

That is precisely why motivation is not always a knowledge problem. You can consciously want an outcome while another automatic response makes beginning uncomfortable or easy to avoid. Hypnotherapy can be used to explore that gap between what you intend to do and what repeatedly happens instead.

No. Confidence does not require becoming louder, more outgoing or more dominant. An introverted person can be extremely confident. The goal is to help you feel more able to participate, express yourself and make choices without unnecessary self-consciousness controlling the situation.

No. Hypnosis involves focused attention and relaxation. You remain aware of what is happening and can choose whether to respond to suggestions.

Fear of judgement can create intense self-monitoring. Instead of being present in a conversation or situation, you may find yourself analysing how you sound, look or appear to other people. Where this pattern is appropriate for hypnotherapy, we can work with the thoughts and automatic responses associated with being seen or evaluated.

Emotional eating can involve learned associations between food and feelings such as stress, boredom, comfort or reward. Hypnotherapy may be used as part of exploring and changing those patterns where appropriate.

Potentially. Repeating arguments often involve more than the words being spoken in that particular moment. Certain comments, tones or behaviours can trigger learned emotional responses very quickly. Hypnotherapy may be used to work with those automatic associations so that you have more choice in how you respond.

No. Technical, tactical and physical coaching remains the responsibility of appropriately qualified sports coaches and professionals.

No. The work should be approached at an appropriate pace. The first step is understanding the trigger, the response and what has been happening for you. You do not need to prove anything by immediately putting yourself into the situation you fear most.

No. The aim is not to install artificial discipline or force you to become productive. The work focuses on thoughts, emotional associations and automatic responses that may be interfering with action so that beginning and following through can feel less like a constant internal battle.

There is no responsible way to guarantee an exact number of sessions for every person. Smoking patterns, history, motivation and individual responses differ. This can be discussed during your initial consultation.

There is no single number that is right for everyone. Your vaping pattern, motivation, circumstances and response to the process can all influence the approach. Your free consultation is an opportunity to discuss this before making any decision.

This varies depending on the individual, what they would like to work on and how they respond. The free consultation is an opportunity to discuss your situation before deciding whether to proceed.

Not necessarily. Hypnosis is a focused and relaxed state rather than ordinary sleep. Most people remain aware of what is happening and can hear and respond throughout the session.

No. Athletic performance is influenced by many factors and no performance outcome can be guaranteed.

It may be useful to explore why particular relationship dynamics repeatedly feel familiar or attractive, even when the outcome is not what you consciously want. The aim is not to tell you who you should be with, but to understand the expectations, associations and patterns that may influence your choices.

Potentially, yes. The important question is not simply which activity you are avoiding, but what happens psychologically when you try to begin or continue it. The free consultation gives us an opportunity to explore the particular situations where you feel stuck.

Positive Thinking Therapy provides hypnotherapy services in Melbourne. Use the free 20-minute consultation to discuss what you would like help with and whether the approach is appropriate for you.

That can actually tell us something useful. Many people feel perfectly comfortable in familiar situations but experience a very different response during presentations, dating, interviews, social situations or moments when they feel particularly visible. Looking at what changes between those situations can help identify the pattern we need to work with.

Previous attempts can provide useful information. Rather than viewing them as failures, we can look at what triggered the return to smoking and which situations remained strongly associated with cigarettes.

A long-standing pattern can begin to feel permanent because your mind and body have repeated it so many times. That does not automatically mean the response cannot change. We would first look at how your particular sleep difficulty operates, what appears to maintain it and whether hypnotherapy is an appropriate option.

People may seek help with fears involving situations such as flying, driving, public transport, heights, enclosed spaces, animals, needles, medical or dental procedures, social situations, public speaking or being somewhere that feels difficult to leave. Whether hypnotherapy is appropriate depends on the individual circumstances.

No. Hypnotherapy is a collaborative process. You remain able to hear, think and respond, and you cannot be forced to accept suggestions that conflict with what you genuinely want.

Yes. The goal is not to make food unpleasant or remove enjoyment from eating. The aim is to support a more conscious and balanced relationship with food rather than feeling controlled by automatic patterns.

Yes. Sessions can be conducted online via Zoom, making Sports Focus available to athletes outside Melbourne as well as locally.

Motivation is important. Hypnotherapy isn’t designed to force somebody to make a change they don’t want. It is intended to support a change you have consciously decided to explore.

Yes. Positive Thinking Therapy provides hypnotherapy services in Melbourne. Use the free 20-minute consultation to discuss availability and the most appropriate session format.

This varies depending on the individual, the patterns involved and the goal being addressed. The free consultation is an opportunity to discuss your situation before deciding whether to proceed.

There is no single number that applies to everyone. It depends on the type of sleep difficulty, how long it has been occurring and the factors that appear to be maintaining it. We can discuss a suitable approach once I understand more about your situation.

When a behaviour has repeated for years, it can easily become part of the story you tell yourself about who you are. But a repeated pattern and a fixed personality are not necessarily the same thing. Part of the work can involve separating the behaviour you have learned from the identity you have attached to it.

There are situations where another person’s behaviour genuinely needs to change, and hypnotherapy is not a way of making someone else behave differently. The work focuses on what is within your control: your responses, boundaries, choices and the patterns that influence how you experience and participate in relationships.

That is not the goal. Fear is an important protective response when genuine danger exists. The focus is on fear responses that have become excessive, automatic or unnecessarily restrictive, so that ordinary situations can be experienced more proportionately.

That is not the objective. Nervousness is a normal human response and can occur even in very confident people. A more useful goal is often being able to experience some uncertainty or nerves without automatically treating those feelings as a reason to withdraw, avoid or stay silent.

Yes. Where appropriate, Confidence Hypnotherapy can be provided online as well as in Melbourne.

It may be appropriate where you are struggling with learned emotional responses, recurring relationship patterns or difficulty moving forward after a relationship. The free consultation gives us an opportunity to discuss what has happened and whether this type of work is suitable for what you are experiencing.

Yes. Where appropriate, sleep hypnotherapy sessions can be provided online as well as in Melbourne.

Sports Focus can explore confidence, hesitation and performance-related thinking after an athlete has received appropriate medical or rehabilitation care. It does not diagnose or rehabilitate physical injuries.

Positive Thinking Therapy is based in Melbourne, Victoria. Use the free 20-minute consultation to discuss appointment options and whether the service is appropriate for what you would like to change.

Positive Thinking Therapy offers hypnotherapy appointments in Melbourne as well as online sessions where appropriate.

That varies according to the individual, the behaviour involved and what appears to be maintaining it. Rather than assuming a fixed programme in advance, we can discuss the likely approach after understanding your goals and pattern more clearly.

Yes. Positive Thinking Therapy offers a free 20-minute consultation so you can discuss what you would like to change, ask questions and decide whether the approach feels right for you.

Fear of another panic episode can itself become part of the cycle. You may begin monitoring physical sensations, avoiding situations or planning around the possibility of another attack. Where appropriate, the work can focus not only on the original trigger but also on the learned fear surrounding the sensations themselves.

Depending on the individual circumstances and the nature of the fear, suitable sessions may be offered online as well as in Melbourne.