Hypnotherapy for Depression in London
Hello, I’m Susannah. I am a fully qualified clinical hypnotherapist and coach with over 22 years of experience helping people overcome depression.
If you’re struggling with depression, you might feel like your mind and body are working against you.
It’s normal to have days when you feel low, but if you’ve noticed these feelings persisting then you may be struggling with depression. It can make even the simple things feel impossible, impacting your relationships, your work and your enjoyment of life.
If you’re looking for natural alternatives to antidepressants, that can help you feel better and more in control, I can help. I teach clients solution-focused techniques that work with their subconscious to create positive change. Using a combination of psychotherapy, NLP and clinical hypnosis for depression and low mood, we reframe the negative beliefs and unconscious thoughts that have been causing your symptoms.
There are various alternative therapies for depression, and finding the right one for you depends on your own individual needs. Some people choose to go over the past and revisit past traumas, but my solution-focused approach focuses instead on your preferred future and the small, achievable steps you can take to move towards it. Sessions are focused on how you would like to think and feel instead and working with your subconscious to instill these new beliefs.
The initial session is a chance for us to talk through your problem and what you would like to achieve. I’ll explain how your brain works, why it makes you feel depressed, and how solution-focused hypnosis therapy for depression can retrain your mind to feel happier and more content. We will then end the session with a relaxing guided hypnosis treatment. I will also give you a hypnosis recording to fall asleep to each night to help reinforce the positive changes in between sessions.
If you would like to learn more about my bespoke hypnotherapy sessions and how they offer a natural alternative treatment for depression, get in touch.
Common reasons to seek hypnotherapy for depression:
- Feeling persistently anxious, lonely, empty or sad?
- Loss of interest in activities that previously brought you joy?
- Lack of energy and concentration?
- Imposter syndrome making you feel ‘not good enough’?
- An intense, overwhelming sense of hopelessness?
- Difficulty sleeping?
- Loss of appetite?
- Irritable and frustrated?
Susannah Saunders
Hello, my name is Susannah. I am a clinical hypnotherapist and life coach in London with over 20 years of experience helping people to enjoy a happier, more fulfilling life. Get in touch to find out more or book an appointment in London today.
NLP, Coaching and Hypnosis Therapy for Depression
Depression often takes hold gradually. What starts as stress, disappointment, or exhaustion can build over time. Suddenly everything feels like a struggle: getting out of bed, making decisions, engaging with others, even doing the things you used to enjoy. Sometimes it may feel that no matter how much you want to feel better, it’s hard to find the energy or motivation to move forward.
Hypnotherapy for depression works by gently shifting this internal state. Rather than focusing on what’s wrong, we focus on what’s possible. Using solution-focused hypnosis, NLP, and coaching techniques, I’ll help you calm the areas of the brain associated with low mood, so that you can access a more balanced and resourceful state.
Unlike traditional talk therapy, which relies heavily on conscious processing, hypnosis for depression works with the subconscious mind. This part of your brain influences emotion, habits, and patterns. In a deeply relaxed state, your brain becomes more receptive to positive suggestions and new ways of thinking. This allows us to interrupt the cycle of negative thinking and help you feel more motivated, empowered, and in control.
Depression Hypnotherapy and Coaching can help you:
- Wake up feeling like yourself again
- Regain your sense of purpose and direction
- Reconnect with activities and people you care about
- Think more clearly and make confident decisions
- Feel calmer, more energised, and more emotionally balanced
- Build healthy, achievable habits that support long-term change
- Believe in your ability to create a future that feels worth looking forward to
The Science Behind Hypnosis for Depression
Depression affects more than just mood. It influences how your brain processes thoughts, memories, and even how it interprets the world around you. Much of this is driven by activity in the limbic system, the emotional centre of the brain, and particularly by the amygdala, which plays a key role in detecting threat and regulating emotion.
When you’re feeling low, this part of the brain becomes overactive, often interpreting neutral situations through a negative lens. At the same time, the prefrontal cortex, the area involved in motivation, decision-making, and future planning, can become underactive. This makes it harder to focus, take action, or imagine things improving.
Hypnosis for depression works by calming the overactive parts of the brain while gently re-engaging the areas associated with energy, focus, and emotional balance. When you’re in a relaxed, focused hypnotic state, your brain produces more calming chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine, which are linked to mood and wellbeing.
Research into hypnosis and the brain’s neuroplasticity shows that the subconscious mind responds particularly well to imagery, metaphor, and positive suggestion. These tools can help shift negative patterns to see things from a new perspective.
Hypnotherapy for depression is not a magic solution, but a well-established alternative treatment for depression working in partnership with your brain’s natural ability to adapt and heal. This works at a deeper level than conscious reasoning alone, it often feels gentler and more intuitive than trying to force change through willpower.
If you would like to find out how I can help, let's talk
The Role of Stress Chemicals in Depression
Depression isn’t just a feeling, it’s also a chemical process happening in your brain and body. When life feels overwhelming, your brain may release high levels of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. These chemicals help you cope with danger, but when they stay elevated for too long, they start to affect your mood, sleep, focus, and energy levels.
Over time, too much cortisol reduces the levels of feel-good chemicals like serotonin and dopamine, which play a key role in motivation, emotional balance, and overall wellbeing. This can lead to a cycle where you feel low, disconnected, and find it harder to enjoy things.
That’s why it feels so hard to “think” your way out of depression. Your brain and body may be caught in a loop of stress that makes everything feel heavier.
Hypnotherapy helps interrupt this cycle by guiding you into a deeply relaxed state, where your brain gets the signal that it’s safe. In our sessions, I will be teaching you ways to manage your stress response and encourage the flow of your ‘feel good’ hormones, making it easier to think clearly and take positive steps forward.
What is solution-focused hypnotherapy?
There are many different approaches to managing depression. Solution focused hypnotherapy is one of several alternative therapies for depression that can help support emotional wellbeing and create lasting change.
During hypnosis, you enter a relaxed, focused state – similar to daydreaming – where the subconscious mind becomes more open to new possibilities. In this state, it becomes easier to gently shift unhelpful thought patterns by focusing on how you would like to think and feel instead. Solution focused hypnotherapy for depression doesn’t look back at the past. It focuses on the future you want and helps you build the bridge towards it.
Is Hypnotherapy for Depression a Quick Fix?
Some people notice a shift quickly and for others, change builds more gradually. We all respond differently. What’s important is that you are ready to make some positive changes and are able to commit to this process.
Think of your mind like a muscle. One session is a bit like going to the gym – it can feel good and start something positive, but it’s the regular practice that makes the biggest difference. Each time you imagine things improving, take a small step forward, or reconnect with your strengths, your brain begins to lay down new, healthier pathways.
Hypnotherapy supports this process by helping your brain feel more balanced and in control, until those patterns start to feel more natural. Over time, this regular “mental training” can help you feel more emotionally resilient, more hopeful, and better equipped to handle everyday life.
Reconnecting With Yourself Through Hypnotherapy
One of the hardest parts of depression is the sense of disconnection – from your thoughts, your emotions, your energy, and even from who you are underneath it all. Clients often describe feeling like a dulled-down version of themselves, or as though life is happening around them rather than through them.
Hypnosis for depression can help gently rebuild that connection. By creating the right conditions for your brain to feel safe and open, we begin to clear the mental fog and make space for more curiosity and self-awareness.
This isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about remembering what it feels like to feel like you again. That’s why many people turn to hypnotherapy as an alternative treatment for depression. It offers a gentle yet focused way to support healing from the inside out, helping you reconnect with your own thoughts, values, and inner strength.
Hypnotherapy for Depression in London & Online
My private London hypnotherapy practice was founded in 2003. I have been awarded the Senior Qualification of Hypnotherapy Practice (SQHP) from the General Hypnotherapy Standards Council (GHSC) and the HPD from the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH).
For more information on how my hypnotherapy programme could help you overcome depression in my London hypnotherapy clinic or online through Zoom, get in touch. We can talk through your concerns and goals and I can explain how I might be able to help.
If you would like to find out how I can help, let's talk
FAQs
Can hypnosis help with depression?
Yes, hypnotherapy for depression can be an effective way to help shift negative thought patterns, reduce feelings of hopelessness, and support emotional resilience. By working with the subconscious mind, hypnosis helps create new mental pathways that encourage a more balanced, positive outlook.
How does depression hypnosis work?
Depression often reinforces itself through repetitive negative thoughts, keeping the brain stuck in a cycle of low mood. Hypnosis for depression helps to interrupt that pattern by guiding your mind into a deeply relaxed state where positive change can take place. This allows your brain to form new, healthier responses to stress, emotions, and daily life.
Can hypnosis replace therapy or medication for depression?
Hypnotherapy can be a valuable complementary tool in managing depression, but it’s not a replacement for medical treatment. If you are already receiving support from a doctor or therapist, hypnosis can work alongside your existing care to enhance emotional well-being and resilience.
Will hypnotherapy help me feel motivated again?
Many people with depression struggle with motivation. Depression hypnosis helps shift the subconscious patterns that fuel low energy and lack of drive, making it easier to take small, positive steps towards the things that matter to you.
What’s the difference between hypnosis and meditation for depression?
Both hypnosis and meditation encourage relaxation, but hypnotherapy for depression is an active process designed to create subconscious change. While meditation helps you observe your thoughts, hypnosis helps retrain the brain’s responses so that more positive thinking and behaviour start to feel natural.
How many hypnosis sessions do I need for depression?
This varies from person to person. Some people notice a shift quickly, while for others, change happens more gradually. Unlike traditional talk therapy, solution-focused hypnotherapy for depression focuses on forward movement, helping you create new, healthier patterns of thinking and feeling as efficiently as possible.
Can hypnotherapy help with depression and anxiety together?
Yes, in my London hypnotherapy clinic I often see people who are experiencing anxiety alongside depression. Hypnosis for depression and anxiety can be tailored to support both. By calming the nervous system and reducing the negative thought loops that contribute to both conditions, hypnosis helps you feel more in control of your emotions.
Can hypnosis cure depression?
Hypnosis isn’t a “cure” for depression, but it can be a powerful tool in helping to lift low mood, reduce negative thought patterns, and support emotional resilience. Depression is complex and can have many causes, including chemical imbalances, past experiences, and current stressors. Hypnotherapy for depression works by gently rewiring subconscious responses, helping you move towards a more balanced, positive state of mind.
Can hypnotherapy help with clinical depression?
Yes, clinical depression hypnotherapy can support you by shifting the subconscious patterns that contribute to low mood and emotional exhaustion. While hypnotherapy is not a replacement for medical treatment, it can help reframe negative thought loops, build motivation, and restore a sense of control over your emotions.
Can hypnotherapy for depression help me manage stress better?
Yes, my depression hypnotherapy programme works on calming the brain’s stress response and encouraging more positive, solution-focused thought patterns. By working at the subconscious level, hypnosis helps rewire limiting beliefs that contribute to a low tolerance to stress, so you can start to feel lighter, more capable, and more in control.
Can you use hypnosis for low mood?
Yes, you can use hypnosis for low mood. Hypnotherapy can help by shifting unhelpful thought patterns and promoting a calmer, more positive mindset. It works by relaxing the nervous system and making it easier to rewire automatic responses, helping you feel more balanced and in control. Hypnotherapy can also support the release of feel-good neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which play a key role in mood regulation.
Can hypnotherapy help with feelings of hopelessness?
Yes. Depression can make it feel like things will never change, but with solution-focused hypnotherapy we can help shift those deeply ingrained beliefs and introduce a more hopeful perspective. Through guided hypnosis and NLP techniques, we can help your mind focus on small, achievable steps toward feeling better.
What’s the difference between depression hypnosis and traditional talk therapy?
While traditional therapy helps you process emotions through conversation, hypnotherapy works directly with the subconscious to create change at a deeper level. It’s a more solution-focused approach that helps retrain the brain’s response to stress, low mood, and motivation.
Can I do depression hypnotherapy in London or online?
Yes, you can do depression hypnotherapy in London or online. Many clients find online sessions just as effective, if not more so, as they can relax more deeply in their own space. Whether in-person at my London hypnosis practice or online via Zoom, I can help you to retrain your brain’s responses, making it easier to regain a sense of balance and well-being.
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