Welcome

Hello, and a very warm welcome to the website of Minding the Curve. I am Carl, a Clinical

Hypnotherapist, Psychotherapist and Hypnoanalyst. My journey into the world of therapy has been exciting and, if I am being brutally honest, one I could never have envisaged taking before the pandemic in 2020. At that stage I was working abroad in the Middle East and had been successful at what I was doing for a long time. Enter Covid!!

It literally deflated my tyres as it did for so many around the world. We had a ‘’new norm’’ to

contend with and I, like so many in a similar situation, wasn’t sure how things would work out other than ‘’somehow I’ll be okay.’’ After all, I was an experienced and knowledgeable operator in my field and the opportunities will find me once we emerged from the dying embers of the pandemic. They didn’t. The opportunities didn’t find me and I couldn’t find them. The more I tried the more the doors seemed to close on me. The challenge of being over 50 and not having physically worked in the UK since 2006, I had been abroad since then, brought its own challenges. As tough as I found that, I had to find a way of getting through it. I didn’t. I went into my shell and, if honest, felt sorry for myself. I was confronted with a new challenge and it was something that I had no idea how to deal with. Something had to change and it was never ever going to be the job market. It had to be me! I knew I had to make a transition but still wasn’t sure how to or even what the first step would be. I was quite literally in the doldrums. Somehow, I had to let go and grab onto something new.

My interest in the psychology field had always been deep rooted and developed when I was a serving policeman in South Africa. To help me establish a path forward, I decided to seek out support with my predicament and started to research various forms of complimentary therapy to assess whether it could redirect me. I found a fantastic hypnotherapist who conducted a number of sessions with me. The shift in focus, priorities and my overall psyche was monumental. Had I let go entirely? Of course not. I was however less focussed on the past and had a zest for learning and trying something new. I also knew that my future needed to be more focussed on helping others. It was then that I made the decision to look deeper into hypnotherapy and assess whether it was something that I could be successful at and, more importantly, whether I could make a positive difference in someone’s life.

I had a 30 minute phone call with someone who was soon to be the senior tutor on the brilliant course I was to attend and immediately knew that it was something I just had to be part of. From being someone who wasn’t going to settle on a job below my qualifications,

experience and status, whilst training for my new exciting career, I drove a van and worked in a prison. Not only had my focus shifted, I felt reenergised and reinvigorated. The entire shift just felt amazing. I was a new person; the transition had started and I was so enthused by what the future held.

I have no doubt that this short blog resonates with so many. Our breaking points will be tested so many times during our lives and we will get bogged down under the pressure of the unknown on occasion. Transition isn’t easy. Even those that we know are coming, like retirement, require paradigm shifts in focus which just don’t simply fall into place at all times. Sometimes we just need a little help to let go, refocus and go again. Please never feel ashamed or embarrassed to ask for a little help if you ever get into that position. I did, and I will never ever regret that.

Thank you so much for taking time to read this blog. Have a wonderful day.

Carl