Silverbrook Hypnotherapy

18/09/2026

Everybody in the room thought she was confident.

She was usually the first person to volunteer to speak... but they couldn't hear what she was saying to herself.

*𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦.*
*𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯.*
*𝘐'𝘮 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨.*

This came from a conversation I had recently with a very capable, experienced businesswoman.

She'd spent around 20 years in teaching, so she knew how to engage an audience, explain things clearly and tell stories.

And yet, when it came to talking about her own business, she worried about losing her train of thought, using too many “ums” and “ahs”, and not sounding intelligent or polished enough.

From the outside, she looked confident but on the Inside, she was getting in quickly before the self-doubt had time to grow.

What struck me was that she already had years of evidence that she could communicate well -but she just wasn't counting it.

And I think that's something many of us do.

We can be very good at noticing the moments that confirm our doubts... and surprisingly bad at noticing all the evidence that tells us we're actually much more capable than we think.

C𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁. 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲.

If that sounds familiar, my free confidence guide has some simple, practical techniques to help you start building that self-belief.

👉 https://info.silverbrookhypnotherapy.co.uk/confidence

15/09/2026

Sometimes my job at BBC Children's was to make difficult decisions...

For example, on 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙧𝙨, we received thousands of applications from children who dreamed of having their own bespoke den, and sometimes choosing between them was incredibly difficult.

If we were building a football den, for example, there might be hundreds of children who would absolutely love it.
The casting team would passionately champion the children they'd got to know but as the Executive Producer, the final decision was mine.

However, my job wasn't to decide which child was the most “deserving”. It was to step outside the emotion for a moment and remember what we were trying to make: a television programme for millions of children across the UK.

I had to listen. Look at the evidence. Think about the balance across the series. Imagine it from the audience's perspective.

And then decide.

Not because I could know with 100% certainty that I'd made the only possible right choice, but because I'd been clear about the outcome, considered the information in front of me and trusted my judgement.

I think that's something we sometimes forget about confidence.

We wait to feel certain before we make a decision.

But confidence isn't certainty.

Sometimes it's being able to say: I've thought this through. I know what matters here. I'm going to trust myself and decide.

And then stop reopening the decision.
-belief -trust

10/09/2026

If you’d like to listen to my recent interview re “empty nest syndrome”… here’s the link👍🏻🎙️📻

🏠 The car's unloaded, the room's tidy, and the house has gone very, very quiet.

If your eldest headed off to uni this month, this one's for you.

Annette Williams, our resident hypnotherapist on Phil In The Morning, joined Phil this week to talk about the September silence nobody really warns you about — and she speaks from experience. When her daughter Chelsea left, it was just Annette in the house. No dog, even.

Her advice starts somewhere unexpected: take the credit. You got them through A-levels. You raised someone who looks at the world and sees opportunity.

Most parents skip straight past that bit and go to the worrying.

She also talks about agreeing the ground rules before they go, why the void is worth feeling rather than wishing away, and the thing headteachers keep telling us they worry about most — resilience.

Oh, and you were somebody before you were a parent. 💙

Full write-up and the audio in the comments 👇

09/09/2026

What at great day at Social Media School👍🏻📚🎓

08/09/2026

When your child leaves for university, it’s a big change for parents too.

I was back on Cheshire's Mix 56 this morning talking about “empty nest syndrome” - that strange mixture of pride, excitement, sadness and suddenly having to adjust to a very different home.

Here’s one of the tips I shared with Phil on the Morning Show.

And if you’re waving someone off to university over the next few weeks, be kind to yourself too. It’s a new chapter for both of you. ❤️

03/09/2026

September often seems to be the point when things start moving again.

The holidays finish. People return to work. Conversations restart. New opportunities appear.

And sometimes that's exciting.

Sometimes it's also the moment the self-doubt pipes up.
“Am I ready for this?”
“Can I actually do it?”
“What if they realise I'm not as confident as they think I am?”

One of the things I've learnt, both from 38 years at the BBC and from the work I do now, is that you don't have to wait until you feel completely confident before you take the opportunity.

Very often, confidence catches up with you afterwards.
You prepare.

You take the step.

You discover you can handle it.

And that's another little piece of evidence to add to the pile.

So if September brings something new your way, perhaps the question isn't:
“Do I feel confident enough?”

Perhaps it's:
“What would I do if I trusted myself?”

31/08/2026

I'd like to share a lovely message I've just received...

It's from a client I've been working with on their fear of flying.

They'd just come back from holiday and wanted to tell me that the flights had been absolutely fine - even though there had been delays and some unexpected changes along the way.

And actually, that last bit made me particularly happy.

Because it's one thing to feel OK when everything goes exactly to plan.

It's another to discover that you can cope when it doesn't.

For me, that's what this work is really about.

Not making sure nothing uncomfortable or unexpected ever happens...but helping you feel much more confident in your ability to handle it when it does.

And when you're going on holiday, that's exactly what you want.

The journey gets you there, but the holiday is the bit you want to remember. ✈️☀️

29/08/2026

Technically, Muffin shouldn’t really be our dog. 🐾

I’ve been allergic to animals since I was about eight or nine. Dogs in particular would trigger my asthma, so for more than 40 years I simply avoided them.

Then my neighbour got Lola, a Cavapoo.

And gradually I realised something rather strange... I could be around Lola without getting wheezy.

My dog-loving daughter was delighted!

So, after approximately a year of using somebody else’s dog as an unofficial allergy test 😂, we took a calculated risk.

And Muffin arrived.

She’s a Cavapoochon and, thankfully, it turns out I’m not allergic to her.

She is now very firmly the third and equal member of our family.

She’s affectionate, funny, cheeky and extremely opinionated. She prefers humans to other dogs, gets through life largely on her looks and absolutely knows it.

Her favourite place is my lap. If that’s unavailable, frankly, anybody else’s lap will do.

We’d never had a dog before, so I’m quite prepared to admit we made a few mistakes with the training. She has trained us beautifully, though.

She’s also developed an unexpected sideline as my hypnotherapy assistant and is often asleep on my desk while I’m working with clients.

Occasionally I have to explain that if they can hear snoring during their hypnosis session, it’s Muffin, not me. 😂

Six years ago, I couldn’t have imagined having a dog.
Now I can’t imagine our family without her. ❤️

𝗔𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗽𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝗽 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱?

27/08/2026

𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁? 𝗧𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂.

Something that sometimes comes up with clients who want to feel more confident at work is that they feel rather self-conscious about practising: "But people will notice if I suddenly start behaving differently."

And I understand that.

If you've spent years being the person who sits quietly in meetings, avoids eye contact or speaks so softly that people talk over you, suddenly turning up at work as the poster child for confidence can feel rather conspicuous!

So don't start there.

Practise somewhere neutral.

Try out those more confident behaviours somewhere nobody knows how you "normally" behave:
At the supermarket.
Walking the dog.
Getting a coffee.

Try to:
Stand a little taller.
Make eye contact.
Speak clearly and at a volume that can actually be heard.
Look up rather than down as you walk.

These are small adjustments, but that's the point.

You're giving yourself the opportunity to experience what those behaviours feel like without worrying about what anyone thinks about the change.

And you're giving your brain some useful evidence: I can do this.

Then you can start taking those behaviours into the situations where they really matter.

You don't have to unveil a completely new personality at work on Monday morning.

𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺.

25/08/2026

I love a fresh start.

January. September. A new season. Even a new notebook. 😂

There's something wonderfully optimistic about deciding: right, this is where things change.

Give me a brand-new exercise book and the promise of becoming a dazzlingly improved version of myself and I'm in!

But fresh starts have a downside too.

At this time of year it's very easy to think:
I'll do it when the kids are back at school.
I'll wait until everyone's back from holiday.
I'll start properly in September.

Sometimes that makes perfect sense.

But sometimes we're not waiting for the right time. We're just putting off taking the first step.

There isn't an official first day of your next chapter.

You get to choose it.

It can be 1st January. It can be 1st September.
Or it can be a perfectly ordinary Tuesday at the end of August.

One small action today will usually get you further than a lovely plan to start "properly" sometime later.

So, what have you been telling yourself you'll start in September?