There was a time in my life when all was in chaos, all was in disturbance. I was in the middle of a divorce, my youngest child had just been diagnosed with Autism, my mother had come to live in my house because she was dying of cancer and my business was falling apart so there was no money.

I was on my own with it all.

Looking back on this, I am still completely astonished that I managed to hold it together, get through it all, did NOT have a nervous breakdown or just decided to end it all, but in the contrary, had the strength to support everyone who needed me at that time.

Where did that strength come from?

Who was there for me?

I tell you how I made it through.

Every single night for two whole years, I went to bed at night and listened to my hypnosis tapes. It was as though in all that chaos and confusion, there was a voice of REASON, of stability, someone to remind me that life does go on, and that there is MORE than there seems to be.

In the darkness, there were other people gently telling me that I had resources, and encouraged me to go inside and find my own strength.

I cannot ever say how valuable that was to me, or how precious.

I did not choose the title of this article lightly because I was there, and I KNOW how the night time sanctuary, the recovery and support from those voices across space and time were my only safety ring and light house all in one.
At the time, I only thought of the hypnosis inductions as something that I needed to stay off medication, keep my sanity, to get some sleep so I could face the battle again the next day, and then the day after that, but with hindsight, as I lay in the dark and listened, I learned many things that helped me change myself, and through me, my environment as well, so things slowly got better.

I learned at that time that no matter how good your friends, or your loved ones may be, you just can't ask ANY person to literally sit on my bed each night and talk some sense into me, time and time again, never getting fed up, never getting tired of telling me the very things I needed to hear - yes, you can make it, yes, you can do better, yes, there's hope.

When things did get better, I studied hypnosis. For a long time, I didn't actually know why until one day, it came to me that I hold the processes of hypnosis in the deepest possible gratitude because it helped ME so much in the darkest of my own personal nights.

It was then that I decided I would make such things, because they are far more important than just personal development - they are a true source of strength, give you a center, something to hold on to and to help you out, something that had previously been lacking in my life.

I do not view hypnosis as a mechanical process where some stranger goes into your head and fixes your problems as though you were a car, or installs suggestions as though you were just a hard drive.

To me, hypnosis is much, much more than that.

It is a union of the voice, presence and intention of a healer, and of the desire and request of those who listen, to be healed.

It is intimate human interaction of the highest order, where two people come together to create a change for the better.

When I create an induction these days, 15 years after those dark nights when I fell in love with the power of hypnosis to help someone when they need it the most, I remember the me I was then.

I remember what I needed to hear, and how I needed to be spoken to - with gentleness, and with respect; with truth and reality; with loving confidence and simply clarity. I remember the energies I needed then - clear, beautiful and holy energies that heal the ravages of every day life. And I do my best to be THAT for others, who might lie in the dark in their own times, and now listen to MY voice.

In Deep Gratitude to my teachers and healers in hypnosis, Richard Bandler, Robert Monroe and Tad James.