Stephen Mawdsley Reviews 

I had called Steve in November last year as I wanted to stop smoking.
At first I have to admit to being a little sceptical but I needed to try !.
Steve explained everything to me in such a manner that I was very relaxed and comfortable from the start.
After the 2 hours I was exhausted as if I had been jogging. ( I don't jog😆).
After 15 more minutes it was a great feeling as if I had a weight lifted from me. That's the only way to describe it.
Steve is always at the end of the phone or computer if I need anything else to keep me on track.
Thankyou Steve.

I have struggled all my life with bullying both at school and in the workplace, the latest events were the worst as it was an underhand slow process as i now know is passive aggressive behaviour. I had survived 4 years of bullying and insults from one colleague so when a new colleague started i just crumbled. I am a very strong person and have a great personality i am full of confidence and am full of passion when it comes to work. The only problem i have is direct attacks from someone when im in a position that i cant run, i can deal with aggressive customers i can talk anyone down but i clam up with direct bullying. I had broken down this time and the cycle began depression anxiety which kept me awake all night wandering around thinking thinking and more thinking i was worn out and had become suicidal. Luckily i had the strength to call my gp and i ended up under the crisis team and minds matter but for treatment i was on a 26 week waiting list. I had a humongous panic attack at work and ended up on a weeks sick leave, whilst away the bully in question began her campaign to oust me out. I couldnt go on like this anymore so i contacted stephen mawdsley who could see me within days hes a hypnotherapist and counsellor. I met him and immediately felt comfortable he is a very nice man good fun and natural. We spoke about what i was experiencing and why i handled it the way i do, this had become a habit from childhood i handled bulling by as i say turning the other cheek i found it impossible to defend myself as my brain just flew into panic. So my first session was amazing i was fully aware of everything in the room but was in such a deep state of relaxation so stephen then spoke about how i react and how i should react to bullying. I had 3 sessions with stephen at dacrelands lancaster and even minds matters on my follow up were amazed at the difference i feel so solid and today have been promoted to supervisor in my workplace. Life changing in a nutshell, ive stopped at the moment but i will be seeing stephen again purely for the relaxation i cant recommend him enough thankyou stephen mawdsley x

I had suffered with an ever increasing phobia of frogs & toads (and anything in between) for over 35 years.
This fear had been with me since a childhood incident, that had meant I could not look at a photograph of them or even say the words 'frog' or 'toad' without feeling intense fear and literally freezing up. I would hide behind a cushion if they came on TV, & have to ask when they had gone or change the channel. I wouldn't go into my parent's back garden at certain times if the year, due to their neighbour having a pond. Recently it became more of an issue on a holiday to Wales with my boyfriend, where at the end of an adventure day, we were walking back down a hillside. As we got halfway down, some of the kids in the group were looking in a large puddle with one of the guides. As soon as I got closer to them I froze, realising what they were looking at. There were tadpoles & small frogs in the puddle. The options at this point for me were either; 1) simply walk past the puddle, or 2) try & slide down several feet of a dangerous part of the hillside to avoid it. I actually tried to start attempting to slide down the hillside, creating a safety issue for the guides. This wasn't a viable option without probably breaking some bones, so I ended up with my boyfriend & the guide holding on to me so I didn't panic and shoving me past it on the edge of the drop, so I didn't touch the puddle. That was probably the worst I've ever felt, and made me realise how strongly this phobia had affected me. It made me think that at the age of 45, I shouldn't feel like this, but it had just got worse as the years went by. I never expected to ever be able to change that feeling & just learned to work around it, but to be in a situation where I was happier to choose the possibility of broken bones due to fear, made perfect sense at the time, but afterwards didn't feel good. Something had to change. After how I felt on holiday, I decided to give hypnotherapy a go. What did I have to lose anyway, I couldn't feel any worse could I? I've never been hypnotised before, apart from an audience participation experience, that didn't work on the majority of the audience. I didn't know what to expect & as I was a bit nervous, I had my boyfriend present to give me support. Steve made me feel at ease from the start and explained exactly what would be happening throughout the session beforehand and made sure I was happy with that before starting. I felt relaxed and comfortable the whole time.
As soon as the session was over, my boyfriend brought up some images of frogs on his laptop for me to attempt to look at. I looked at them & when asked what they were I replied 'froggies', like they were suddenly cute or something!
I couldn't quite register at first that I'd looked at them at all, but since then I've seen lots of pictures of frogs, I've watched them on tv and I've actively looked for them a few times (not found any yet though). I'd even like to go to a reptile centre that I know has a really big toad called 'Tubs', so I can prove how much this has changed my reactions and fear triggers that I've had for most of my life. Incredible! My boyfriend can't believe the change either and he was there!
At the same time, I had another shorter hypnosis session, to help with another anxiety of aeroplanes flying over me while I'm driving (just while driving, I know it's a strange one, but real). This had affected me for about 13 years and I've even pulled the car over, rather than continue to drive under the flight path of a plane going over me at the time. It made me shiver and feel physically sick. Since the hypnotherapy, I've been pointing out features underneath planes going over me & have no bad feelings about driving under a busy flight path anymore. Just not bothered by it at all now.
I feel more confident generally, which I believe has helped me to reassess anxious and difficult situations, with a clearer understanding of how to react to them. I actually feel liberated from having such strong negative feelings and free of the restrictions they have placed in my life.
I would recommend hypnotherapy with Steve to anyone who has any phobia, stress related anxiety or lacks confidence in themselves or their ability to deal with something. I would quite happily look to have further sessions for other issues and have been amazing family and friends with how successful the hypnosis session has been for me.
Thanks again Steve, you've helped me immensely.
Stephanie (Aberdeen - August 2014).