For years I dug deep and got on with it too. Burnout changed that. And it changed me.

My journey: from public sector burnout to clinical practice

I became a hypnotherapist because talking therapy didn’t suit me. I didn’t want to pick over the past, that wasn’t my problem. My present was. So I went and found something that actually did the job. Before mindAbility I spent 17 years in the criminal justice system. Safeguarding, domestic abuse, working with survivors of sexual violence, with mental health as my specialism. That kind of work teaches you how people really break, and I don’t mean the tidy textbook version, I mean the real one. I loved it, genuinely. But like a lot of people in purposeful, high-stakes roles, I eventually ran myself into the ground.

Quick heads-up: the next paragraph briefly mentions pregnancy loss.

When my own burnout hit, the only thing work offered me was a few sessions of CBT through an EAP scheme. I was going through a miscarriage at the same time, and those sessions kept circling back to whether my stress had somehow caused it. It hadn’t. That’s not how miscarriage works, and it’s not something I needed a therapist hinting at while I was already in bits. A few sessions in, I was done. I’m logical, I face forwards, and being asked to trawl back through my childhood felt like being handed a map to somewhere I’d already left. I didn’t want to sit in something that wasn’t relevant and keep picking at it. I wanted to know what had actually caused it, and put my energy into rebuilding myself instead of pulling myself apart even more.

Why I understand what you’re carrying

Like most people, I’m made of layers. Some have brought me joy, some have quietly held me back for years. I’m Gen X, so I was raised on hustle culture. You watched the adults around you dig deep, get on with it, and never once mention how they actually felt. Emotions weren’t a conversation, they were something you got over. Then there’s the cultural layer I carry as a South Asian woman, with all the expectations stitched into it. And then there’s simply being a woman, where the world’s handed us plenty more opportunity but somehow the caring responsibilities never left our side of the table.

I don’t lead with any single one of those, because you’re not one thing either.

What matters is that I understand how these layers stack up inside a person and shape the way they cope, and that’s why I can work with just about anyone. I work particularly well with Gen X professionals, because I know that conditioning from the inside. And with people who grew up in communities or families where you were expected to be strong, be useful, and never be the problem. South Asian, Irish, whoever you are, round here or anywhere else. It’s rarely the crux of the work, but it’s often part of the picture.

Why I never stopped training

I kept training because I won’t hand anyone less than the thing I went looking for myself. The same instinct that took me from probation officer to specialist, spotting a gap and going and closing it, is the one that’s kept me learning ever since. Clinical hypnotherapy first, at CPHT. Then EMDR-informed work, menopause and women’s health, Oxygen Advantage breathwork, DiSC and the Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team.

And I’m fussy about who I learn from. I don’t grab the cheapest weekend course so I can slap another badge on a page. My EMDR-with-hypnotherapy training is GHR-accredited.

when I trained in the MUSS Rewind technique for trauma I learned it from David Muss, the man who actually created it, not some third-hand version of it.

My registering bodies, the CNHC especially, hold some of the most demanding standards you can sign up to. That matters more than it sounds, because when you’re sat in front of me, you’re trusting that what I learned was taught properly, by the people who know it best.

The frontline years taught me how and why people fall apart. The clinical training taught me how to help put them back together, without dragging them back through every bad year to do it. So when I tell you recovery is possible, I’m not flogging you hope. I’ve done it myself.

There are too many CPD courses and academic qualifications to list here, but these are the formal credentials that matter most:

• Clinical training: I trained at Clifton Practice (CPHT), the gold standard in Solution Focused Hypnotherapy.
• Accredited standards: My qualifications are accredited by the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) and governed by the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (AfSFH).
• Government-backed trust: I’m registered with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), an accredited register approved by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA). In plain terms, my practice meets the standards required for GP referrals and for cover by many private health insurers and Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs).

Who I’m actually for

I work best with people who are burning out and have no patience left for fluff. Burnout is the sneaky one, and it’s not the same thing as anxiety, even though everyone lumps them together. On the outside you look calm, capable, completely on top of it, like a duck gliding across a pond while its legs are going nineteen to the dozen underneath where nobody can see. That’s the bit I understand. Menopause is the opposite, it shows. You get more irritable, less patient, more emotional, sloppier than you’ve ever been, and the people around you clock it before you’ve even worked out what’s happening. I’m really bloody good with professional women carrying both at once, and just as good with men who are burning out and want to look in the mirror and recognise themselves again.

If you want someone to put you into regression and rake back through your childhood to explain every last thing that’s happened to you, I’m not your person. But if you’re sick of grinding yourself down just to get through the day, going to bed exhausted and waking up just as knackered as you were when your head hit the pillow, and you want to get back to being who you actually are, that’s exactly the work I do.

Menopause and the power of the breath

Menopause deserves its own mention, because it knocks your physical and mental resilience sideways, and I know that first-hand. I’m a certified Oxygen Advantage® breathwork coach, and I pair that with clinical hypnotherapy to settle the nervous system, ease high-functioning anxiety, improve sleep and take some of the edge off the physical side. It’s practical and grounded in the science of how you breathe, and a lot of women tell me it makes a real difference. If you want the fuller picture — what’s actually happening hormonally, and how I work with it in more depth — I’ve written specifically about that here.

I work with teams too

I don’t only see individuals in my Solihull clinic. I also go into businesses, because there’s no point fixing someone’s burnout and then sending them straight back into a broken culture. If a team runs on no trust, dodges every hard conversation and never learns how each other actually works, no amount of “wellbeing initiatives” will touch it. That’s a plaster on a broken leg. It’s a whole separate piece of work, and it has its own home, so if that’s what you need, take a look at my corporate services.

Let’s have a chat

Whether you want to get your own head straight, get through menopause feeling more like yourself, or sort out what’s going on in your team, it starts the same way. A conversation. Book a free 15-minute call. No sales pitch, no jargon, no pressure. Just a straight talk about where you are, where you want to get to, and whether I’m the right person to get you there. And if I’m not, I’ll tell you straight. Book your free 15-minute call.