“My greatest achievement, so far? Getting a needle-phobic client to have their first injection in 51 years. And allowing someone to not only get on a flight without having a panic attack but also to enjoy it with her kids,” says Emma Haines, a holistic healer based in Frome, Somerset…
Emma Haines is a hypnotherapist, reiki healer and Belief Coding® practitioner
You offer hypnotherapy, as well as other holistic services. How do you describe the work that you do?
I’m starting to think of myself as a holistic healer. What started as hypnotherapy has evolved into several other practices and I have so many tools to draw on now. As well as hypnotherapy I have done my Reiki 1 and am almost accredited in a new modality called Belief Coding®. This is an amazingly powerful healing tool that draws on aspects of energy healing, EFT (emotional freedom technique, or ‘tapping’), NLP (neuro-linguistic programming and deep intuition to change your life and your mindset, one belief at a time.
How did you get into this line of work?
My pre-children career was as a subeditor and freelance writer. I’ve worked at all sorts of magazines from supermarket mags to heat, ELLE and Marie Claire. But some of my first jobs were my favourites – especially the ones at a tiny natural health magazine called Here’s Health and freelancing for Spirit & Destiny. This really sparked my interest in the more woo-woo aspect of health and wellbeing, using natural remedies, crystals, mindset work and trying out all kinds of weird and wonderful therapies and treatments. An overnight course on lucid dreaming and trying to learn astral projection was a typical but particularly off-the-wall assignment. I also used to belong to an energy meditation community with a guru in Bali.
What were you doing previously?
Before changing to hypnotherapy I was working as a social media manager and consultant. It was something I could fit around my chaotic home life (I have two children, the eldest of whom has a complex disability) but it never really made me happy. It wasn’t something I enjoyed and so I never felt particularly inspired by it or good at it, if I’m honest. When we had to lock down in January 2021, I knew I had to make a change. I had just recovered from Covid, my family needed my attention and I knew I had to start doing something fulfilling. Something that was helpful to people and that made me feel like I was putting good energy into the world.
My experience with hypnotherapy was limited to hypnobirthing and I had listened to a few self-hypnosis audios but I felt so drawn to this therapy. In some ways it was on a total whim that I decided to retrain but I also felt like I was getting a message that this was the right path for me. I just knew it was right, picked a course that seemed good with a well-established training course in Bristol and went for it.
If there’s one thing I have learned, anything is possible if you just give it a go.
How is business going?
It’s great. I have some lovely regular clients on my books and a steady flow of new enquiries. I never fully book up my week as there are always curveballs to deal with! Plus I am focusing on setting up my new treatment room (my husband has moved his business out of the garden workshop and into a warehouse so my sister and I are setting up a healing space in there instead).
What does your working week look like?
Right now, my working week is split between seeing clients, delivering initial consultations to potential new clients and studying Belief Coding®, which includes doing reciprocal practice sessions on other facilitators and existing clients/willing friends and family. I try to keep it all in balance because I know I get too stressed if I have too much in my diary. My working hours tend to be within school hours; it’s practical and I am much sharper in the day time. I also like to leave time to walk, run, swim or workout in my week. Again, I need that balance and the grounding effect of being out in nature or I get overwhelmed and negativity creeps in.
How do you find clients?
I’ve treated a few members from my co-working network, as that was a really natural place to offer reduced price sessions while training. Many of those women have given me nice feedback, which has helped to attract new clients. I also get a lot of word of mouth referrals from happy customers, as well as some coming to me via Instagram and Next-door.
What is your greatest challenge, as a practitioner?
To accept that I can only do so much for someone. I can take people so far in reducing stress and anxiety and helping them to heal trauma but they have to take the progress and turn it into action. Nothing changes if nothing changes. It’s hard not to put immense pressure on myself to heal someone completely and quickly. It takes as long as it takes and that’s different for each client.
What has been your greatest achievement, so far?
Getting a needle-phobic client to have their first injection in 51 years. And, very recently, allowing someone to not only get on a flight without having a panic attack but also to enjoy it with her kids. The achievements are actually not always a dramatic change, but to see people go from anxious or depressed to feeling full of positivity and hope will never get old. For some clients, the tiny steps forward are huge leaps. Often not much may change in the everyday mechanics of their lives, but their thinking changes and therefore the difference in how they cope with and experience life is enormous.
What are your dreams, for your work and business?
Right now, I’m trying to visualise where I want to go with all this. I love helping people 1:1 but I want to bring healing to so many more people and teach them how to help themselves. I suppose the answer is courses and memberships but before any of that could succeed I need to spend a lot more time growing an audience. Finding the time to work on my business with proper marketing, sending newsletters and creating some physical products like audios would help. I did have ambitions of opening a crystal shop as I saw a gap in the market but about three places doing the same seem to have popped up in Frome recently. I’m trying to dream big and not limit myself to what I think is possible. If there’s one thing I have learned, anything is possible if you just give it a go.