Done counselling?
Still feeling the same?
Most therapy teaches you to manage anxiety, low mood or an addiction. You still get the response, you just get better at coping with it. I do something different. I change the prediction your brain makes before you’re even aware of it, so the response doesn’t fire in the first place. Most people need two to four sessions. No crystals, no vibrations. Just neuroscience.
The short answer
Counselling hasn’t helped your anxiety?
If counselling hasn’t helped your anxiety, it usually isn’t because you did it wrong, or because your counsellor did. Counselling works with your thinking mind. It helps you understand the anxiety and gives you ways to cope with it. But anxiety is a prediction your subconscious makes in a fraction of a second, before you’ve had a chance to think. That’s the level I work at. I’m Helen Hanslow, a clinical hypnotherapist in Ballina and at Goonellabah Medical Centre near Lismore, and people who’ve already done counselling are a big part of who I see.
Why consider this over a psychologist
Managing a problem and not having it anymore are two very different things
Here’s the thing most people are never told. When you see a psychologist for counselling for whatever problem, for example anxiety, the work is usually about changing your conscious thoughts so you can manage the anxiety better. Notice the trigger, challenge the thought, use the technique, breathe through it. It genuinely helps some people, and I’m not here to knock it.
But look at what that actually asks of you. You still have the anxious response. You’ve just been given tools and willpower to manage it every single time it turns up. That’s exhausting. And it’s why so many people feel like they’re white-knuckling their way through life, doing all the right things and still bracing for the next wave.
What I do is different. Instead of teaching you to cope with the response, we go to the subconscious program that’s firing it off in the first place, and we change it there. When that shifts, you don’t have to manage the anxiety. You move straight through the moment and often don’t even notice it was supposed to be there. Nothing to breathe through, because nothing fired.
“I have no words that will be enough to describe my experiences with Helen, and my deep gratitude to her. She has absolutely transformed and changed my life. A gifted and safe practitioner who is very caring and without judgement. I wish more people would give this therapy a go and stick with it. I’ve been through dozens of therapists, several hospitialisations for severe mental health challenges… and Helen has been the key to unlocking my deep issues, and my way forward. Helen is an absolute Angel. She has changed my life and people notice it. A true therapist in every sense. Very special.”
The neuroscience, in plain English
Your brain reacts seconds before you know it
Your brain isn’t sitting there waiting to see what happens. It’s constantly predicting. Based on everything you’ve ever experienced, it runs ahead of the moment and decides in advance whether something is safe or a threat. Scientists call this predictive processing. Your subconscious mind is essentially guessing what’s coming and firing off a response before the event has even fully arrived.
And here’s the part that matters. The threat detection system in your brain, run largely by a little structure called the amygdala, activates within milliseconds of a trigger, well outside your conscious awareness. By the time your thinking brain catches up, the response has already happened. As I like to put it, by the time you could apply a coping skill, the horse has well and truly bolted.
This is why willpower and thinking your way out of it so often fail. The anxiety, the craving, the low mood, it isn’t being generated by your conscious thoughts. It’s being generated underneath them, by an old prediction your subconscious mind is still running.
So the honest question is this. Do you want to spend years getting better at managing a prediction, or do you want to update the prediction itself?
What the research actually shows
Talk therapy strengthens the conscious brain
Brain imaging shows cognitive therapy improves the top-down control regions of the cortex. It teaches the thinking brain to work harder to hold anxiety down.
But the threat system may stay switched on
Some imaging studies suggest talk therapy works mainly by strengthening the thinking brain’s hold over the threat response, rather than switching the threat response off.
Which may be why anxiety can come back
When the underlying prediction is left intact, the old pattern can return. Lasting change means updating the threat response at the source.
Who to see
When to see a psychologist, and when to see me
I work alongside GPs at Goonellabah Medical Centre, and I refer people to psychologists when that’s the right call. If you’re in crisis, if you’ve been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or a psychotic illness, or if you need a formal diagnosis, a Mental Health Care Plan or a report for work, court or NDIS, see your GP and a psychologist. That’s their job and they do it well.
See me if the problem is a response you can’t stop having. Anxiety that fires in situations you know are safe. A habit or an addiction that keeps winning. A low mood that has settled in. Nerves that get there before you do. A fear that makes no logical sense. Those are predictions, and predictions can be changed.
And see me if you’ve already done the counselling and you’re still feeling the same way. You’re not a difficult case. You’ve been working at the wrong level. Many of my clients are on antidepressants or anxiety medication, and that’s fine. Don’t change anything without your prescribing doctor.
If you’ve done counselling and you still feel the same
Resolved, not managed
A lot of the people I see have already been to a counsellor or a psychologist. Some of them found it useful. They understand themselves better, and they’ve got a set of tools. And they’re still feeling the same way.
That’s not a failure on their part, and it’s not a failure on the therapist’s part either. It’s a level problem. Talking works on the thinking part of the brain. The response you’re trying to get rid of is generated underneath that, by a prediction your brain makes before you’ve had a chance to think. You can’t out-think something that’s already fired.
So I don’t start with your thoughts. I start with the prediction. We find it, we change it, and the response stops showing up. That’s the difference between managing something and not having it any more.
Take social anxiety. If the prediction is that talking to people is dangerous, that they’ll think you’re stupid, then every conversation costs effort. Fix the prediction and the person doesn’t have to push themselves into the room and regulate their way through it. They just go, and talk, and say yes to the invitation. Most of them don’t notice they’re doing something they couldn’t do before, because it feels normal. That’s the test I use. No effort needed.
I’m studying neuroscience at postgraduate level at the University of New England, and UNE has put forward a funding proposal for two of us to research anxiety through predictive processing: we will be using EEG to capture the moment that the subconscious changes the prediction so the fight or flight response stops firing, and developing a way to measure that the prediction that something is dangerous is actually gone, rather than still there and being managed.
Two different approaches
Managing the response vs changing the program
| Counselling and talk therapy | Modern hypnotherapy & NLP with Helen | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it works | The conscious, thinking brain | The subconscious program that fires first |
| What you’re left with | The response still happens, plus tools to manage it | The response often doesn’t fire at all |
| What it relies on | Ongoing willpower and remembering to use skills | A reprogrammed automatic response, no effort needed |
| How it feels day to day | Bracing for triggers and coping through them | Moving through moments without the old reaction |
| Who does the work long-term | You, every time the feeling turns up | You learn to reprogram your own mind for the future |
| Typical length | Often many months to years of weekly sessions | Usually 2 to 4 sessions |
This describes a general difference in approach. It is not a claim that hypnotherapy is a substitute for medical or psychological care where that is needed, and everyone is different.
What it takes to resolve it
Fewer sessions, lower total cost
One of the questions people ask most is how long this takes and what it costs. Because we work at the source rather than managing symptoms week after week, most people resolve their issue in a handful of sessions. Here is a rough comparison of typical session numbers.
Session numbers are typical ranges, not guarantees. Individual results vary depending on the person and the issue. Talk therapy and medication figures reflect commonly reported treatment lengths for anxiety.
Hear it in my words
A quick look at how this actually works
Sometimes it lands better hearing it than reading it. In this short video I explain the idea in about a minute, why your reaction fires before you’re aware of it, and why going straight to that subconscious program changes everything.
If it makes sense to you, the next step is simple. Book a free 15 minute chat and we’ll talk about what’s been happening for you and whether this is the right fit.
What this helps with
Different problem, same underlying mechanism
Anxiety, depression and addiction can look like completely separate issues. Underneath, they very often share the same thing, an automatic subconscious pattern firing before you’re aware of it. That’s why the same approach works across all of them.
How we work together
Resolve it, then learn to do it yourself
This isn’t about becoming dependent on a therapist. My whole aim is for you to walk away not needing me. So the work does two things at once. We resolve what brought you in, and I teach you how to reprogram your own subconscious mind so you can handle whatever life sends next.
That’s the part that stops the old pattern coming back. Whether it’s anxiety, depression or addiction, you’ll have the skills to catch and change these responses yourself, resourcefully, long after our sessions are done.
Understand your specific pattern
We work out exactly what’s firing, when, and what it’s been trying to protect you from. This is where change starts to make sense rather than feel like magic.
Update the subconscious prediction
Using hypnotherapy and NLP, we go to the level where the response is generated and change it there, so the old reaction stops firing automatically.
Test it in real situations
You notice yourself moving through moments that used to trigger you, often without even realising the old response is simply not there.
Learn to reprogram yourself
I teach you the skills to do this for yourself, so future stress doesn’t pull you back into old anxiety, low mood or addictive patterns.
Take-home support
You leave with audio tools and techniques to reinforce the change and keep strengthening it in your own time.
Done counselling? Still stuck?
Book a free, no-pressure consultation with Helen. We’ll talk about what’s been happening for you and whether this approach is the right fit. No referral needed, no waitlist.
Book a free 15 minute chatYour questions answered
Common questions
What can I do if counselling hasn’t helped my anxiety?
Does hypnotherapy work for anxiety?
Can I keep seeing my counsellor or psychologist?
Where are you, and do you do online sessions?
Is a hypnotherapist a replacement for a psychologist?
How is this different from what I’d get with CBT?
How many sessions will I need?
Will the results actually last, or will it come back?
Will I be unconscious or out of control during hypnosis?
Do I need a referral or a mental health care plan?
Can we do this online?
- In person, Ballina
- In person, Goonellabah
- Online via Telehealth
- By phone
Tell me a little about what’s going on
Fill this in and I’ll be in touch to arrange a time that suits you. If you’d rather talk now, call 0403 740 054.