Explore The Range of Services We Offer To Support Healing & Growth
Personalised, evidence-based hypnotherapy for the issues that haven't responded to everything else you've tried. Tara Gilligan is an NGH-certified, trauma-informed practitioner who build every program around you, not a generic script, not a template. If you're discouraged, that's understandable. You're also in the right place.
Cessation Programs
Structured programs to help you break free from cigarettes and vaping.
Mental and Emotional Health
Grief and Loss
Grief does not follow a schedule and it does not always respond to talking. Hypnotherapy for grief works gently with the subconscious mind to process loss, reduce the intensity of pain, and support you in moving forward without forgetting. Online across Canada.
Feeling Stuck
When you know what you want but cannot seem to move toward it, the block is usually unconscious. Hypnotherapy identifies and shifts the underlying beliefs and patterns keeping you exactly where you do not want to be. Online across Canada.
Self Esteem and Confidence
Low self-esteem is learned, which means it can be unlearned. Hypnotherapy for self-esteem works directly with the subconscious beliefs formed early in life that continue to drive self-doubt, self-criticism, and self-sabotage. Online across Canada.
Resistance to Change
If you find yourself repeatedly unable to follow through on changes you genuinely want to make, the resistance is not a character flaw. It is a subconscious pattern. Hypnotherapy makes that pattern visible and shifts it. Online across Canada.
Guilt and Shame
Chronic guilt and shame are among the most exhausting emotional experiences a person can carry. Hypnotherapy works at the level where those feelings are stored, reducing their grip and rebuilding a more compassionate relationship with yourself. Online across Canada.
Worry
Persistent worry is the mind attempting to control what feels uncontrollable. Hypnotherapy for worry calms the nervous system, interrupts the rumination cycle, and builds genuine tolerance for uncertainty. Online across Canada.
Trauma
Trauma-informed hypnotherapy supports healing from past experiences that continue to affect the present.
Sadness
Persistent sadness that does not meet the threshold for clinical depression is still worth addressing. Hypnotherapy works with the emotional and cognitive patterns that sustain low mood and creates space for something genuinely different. Online across Canada.
Low Mood and Depression
Hypnotherapy for low mood and depression is used as a complementary support alongside medical and psychological care. We work collaboratively with your existing treatment team and do not position hypnotherapy as a standalone treatment for clinical depression.
Loneliness and Isolation
Loneliness has a profound effect on mental and physical health. Hypnotherapy can address the beliefs about self-worth and connection that make reaching out feel impossible, and support the internal shifts that make relationship feel safer.
Burnout
Burnout is not solved by a vacation. Hypnotherapy for burnout addresses the identity-level beliefs around productivity, worth, and rest that keep high-achieving people running on empty long after they should have stopped.
Fears and Phobias
Fear of Flying
Persistent sadness that does not meet the threshold for clinical depression is still worth addressing. Hypnotherapy works with the emotional and cognitive patterns that sustain low mood and creates space for something genuinely different. Online across Canada.
Public Speaking Anxiety
Fear of public speaking is one of the most common anxiety responses there is. Hypnotherapy works with the physiological fear response and the self-critical thoughts that hijack performance, replacing them with calm, presence, and genuine confidence. Online across Canada.
Fear of Needles and Medical Procedure
Needle phobia and medical anxiety keep many people from getting the care they need. Hypnotherapy for fear of needles works directly with the anxiety response, making medical and dental appointments manageable and sometimes unremarkable. Online across Canada.
Fear of Driving
Fear of driving hypnosis addresses the anxiety, hypervigilance, and avoidance that make getting behind the wheel feel impossible. Whether the fear developed after an accident or gradually over time, hypnotherapy works with the response at its root. Online across Canada.
Fear of Heights
Hypnotherapy for fear of heights works with the automatic threat response triggered by elevation, changing the physiological reaction rather than simply teaching strategies to manage it. Effective and lasting, typically achievable in a small number of sessions. Online across Canada.
Fear of the Dentist
Dental anxiety stops many people from getting necessary care. Hypnotherapy for fear of the dentist reduces anticipatory anxiety, the in-chair panic response, and the avoidance behaviour that allows dental health to deteriorate. Online across Canada.
Fear of Spiders and Insects
Arachnophobia and insect phobias can significantly limit daily life. Hypnotherapy resolves the fear response efficiently, often in fewer sessions than clients expect. Online across Canada.
Social Anxiety
Social anxiety hypnotherapy works with the core beliefs about judgment, rejection, and self-worth that make social situations feel threatening. Unlike general shyness, social anxiety is a genuine anxiety response and hypnotherapy addresses it at that level. Online across Canada.
Food, Weight, and Body Image
Body Acceptance
Hypnotherapy for body acceptance works at the level where self-criticism lives, not in what you eat or how you exercise, but in the deeply held beliefs about your body that no wellness program has ever reached. Online across Canada.
Binge Eating
Binge eating is rarely about hunger. Hypnotherapy for binge eating addresses the emotional triggers, the shame cycles, and the automatic patterns that drive the behaviour. Compassionate, evidence-based, and non-judgmental. Online across Canada.
Sugar Addiction
Hypnotherapy for sugar addiction works with the subconscious patterns that make certain foods feel compulsive. A drug-free, psychologically intelligent approach that addresses the craving at its root rather than relying on willpower. Online across Canada.
Overeating
Chronic overeating is almost always driven by something other than appetite. Hypnotherapy helps you reconnect with genuine hunger cues and address the emotional drivers that override them. Part of our structured food and weight program. Online across Canada.
Emotional Eating
This is not a diet program. Our hypnotherapy for emotional eating addresses the psychological drivers that no calorie count has ever touched.
Physical Health and The Body
Menopause
Hypnotherapy for menopause has strong clinical evidence behind it, particularly for hot flashes and sleep disruption. A drug-free, evidence-based approach that works with the nervous system rather than against it.
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome
Hypnotherapy for mast cell activation syndrome supports nervous system regulation, which plays a significant role in mast cell reactivity. Used as a complementary support alongside your medical care team.
Nervous System Regulation
Chronic stress, trauma, and anxiety all dysregulate the nervous system. Hypnotherapy for nervous system regulation works directly with the autonomic nervous system to build a genuine baseline of calm that persists beyond the session.
Stroke
Hypnotherapy for stroke recovery is used as a complementary support for rehabilitation, addressing the psychological impact of stroke including anxiety, depression, and loss of confidence, alongside physical recovery.
Hypnobirthing
Hypnobirthing uses hypnotherapy techniques to reduce fear and tension around labour and birth, replacing the anxiety response with calm, focus, and confidence. Evidence-based and suitable from around 30 weeks of pregnancy.
Sexual Issues
Hypnotherapy for sexual issues addresses the psychological layer of concerns including performance anxiety, loss of desire, and shame around sexuality. A compassionate, non-judgmental approach in a safe and confidential setting.
Tics
Hypnotherapy for tics works with the unconscious patterns and stress responses that drive involuntary movements and sounds. A gentle, evidence-informed approach used alongside any existing medical care.
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Hypnotherapy for IBS has strong clinical evidence behind it and is recognised by gastroenterologists as an effective treatment approach. By calming the gut-brain connection and reducing the stress response that drives symptoms, most clients experience meaningful and lasting relief. Online across Canada.
Skin Conditions
Stress and the nervous system play a significant role in inflammatory skin conditions including eczema, psoriasis, and dermatitis. Hypnotherapy works with the stress response and psychological patterns that drive flare-ups, as a complementary support alongside your dermatological care. Online across Canada.
Migraines and Headaches
Hypnotherapy for migraines and headaches has strong clinical support. By working with the nervous system's pain response and the stress triggers that precede migraine onset, most clients experience a meaningful reduction in both frequency and intensity. Online across Canada.
Tinnitus
Hypnotherapy for tinnitus significantly changes your relationship to the sound. By working with the nervous system's threat response, most clients experience a meaningful reduction in distress and the anxiety that amplifies perception of the sound. Online across Canada.
Fibromyalgia
Hypnotherapy for fibromyalgia works with the central sensitisation that amplifies pain signals, reducing perceived intensity and improving sleep, mood, and daily function. Used as a complementary support alongside your existing medical care. Online across Canada.
Behaviours and Compulsions
OCD
Hypnotherapy for OCD is used as a complementary support alongside evidence-based psychological treatment. We work collaboratively with your existing care team and do not position hypnotherapy as a standalone OCD treatment.
Hypochondria
Health anxiety keeps the nervous system in a state of constant threat assessment. Hypnotherapy for hypochondria works with the underlying anxiety driving health preoccupation, reducing the compulsive need to check and reassure.
Perfectionism
Perfectionism is not a personality trait. It is a coping strategy built on the belief that your worth is conditional on your performance. Hypnotherapy works with that core belief directly, not just the surface behaviour.
Anger and Irritability
Chronic anger and irritability are almost always driven by unprocessed threat responses in the nervous system. Hypnotherapy for anger management works at the physiological level, reducing reactivity and creating space between trigger and response. Online across Canada and in-person in Ottawa.
Nail Biting
Nail biting is an automatic, unconscious behaviour that willpower alone rarely stops. Hypnotherapy for nail biting works at the level where the habit actually lives, interrupting the automatic pattern and replacing it with a more comfortable default. Online across Canada.
Teeth Grinding (Bruxism)
Teeth grinding is almost always driven by stress and anxiety held in the body overnight. Hypnotherapy for bruxism works with the underlying nervous system tension that causes grinding, reducing or eliminating the behaviour without relying solely on a mouth guard. Online across Canada.
Skin Picking and Hair Pulling
Skin picking and hair pulling are body-focused repetitive behaviours driven by automatic, unconscious patterns. Hypnotherapy works at the level where these behaviours originate, interrupting the cycle with compassion rather than willpower. Online across Canada.
Performance and Motivation
Performance
Hypnotherapy for performance removes the mental blocks between where you are and what you are capable of. For athletes, musicians, public speakers, and professionals. Addresses performance anxiety, mental rehearsal, and pre-performance confidence.
Motivation
When motivation is consistently absent it is usually because something unconscious is working against the conscious goal. Hypnotherapy for motivation identifies and shifts that internal conflict, making sustained action feel natural rather than forced.
Sports Performance
Elite and amateur athletes use hypnotherapy for sports performance to sharpen mental focus, manage competition anxiety, build consistency under pressure, and recover from performance slumps. The mental game is half the sport. Online across Canada and in-person in Ottawa.
Enhanced Creativity
Creative blocks are almost always rooted in fear, self-judgment, or perfectionism. Hypnotherapy for creativity works with the subconscious resistance that interrupts creative flow and builds the internal safety that genuine creative expression requires.
Exam or Test Anxiety
Hypnotherapy for exam anxiety addresses both the physiological stress response and the negative self-talk that undermines performance under pressure. Effective for students of all ages. Online across Canada.
Writer's Block
Writer's block is creative anxiety in disguise. Hypnotherapy works with the fear of judgment, the perfectionism, and the internal critic that prevents words from reaching the page. Online across Canada.
Procrastination
Procrastination is almost never laziness. It is avoidance driven by fear, perfectionism, or overwhelm. Hypnotherapy for procrastination addresses the unconscious resistance that makes starting feel genuinely impossible.
Academic Performance
Hypnotherapy for academic performance addresses the anxiety, self-doubt, and mental blocks that prevent students from performing at the level they are genuinely capable of. Effective for university students, professional certification candidates, and lifelong learners. Online across Canada.
Interview Confidence
Job interview anxiety is one of the most common performance fears there is. Hypnotherapy for interview confidence works with the self-doubt and physiological anxiety response that undermines performance under pressure, replacing it with genuine calm and presence. Online across Canada.
Leadership Confidence
Hypnotherapy for leadership confidence addresses the imposter syndrome, fear of visibility, and self-doubt that hold capable people back from leading with authority. For executives, managers, and emerging leaders. Online across Canada.
Focus
Hypnotherapy for focus works with the distractibility, mental noise, and avoidance patterns that prevent sustained concentration. For professionals, students, and anyone whose mind will not settle long enough to do the work that matters. Online across Canada.
Relationships
Divorce or Separation
The end of a relationship can destabilise identity as much as it disrupts daily life. Hypnotherapy for divorce and separation supports emotional processing, reduces anxiety about the future, and helps rebuild a sense of self.
Getting Over a Narcissistic Relationship
Recovery from a narcissistic relationship involves dismantling patterns of self-doubt that were deliberately instilled. Hypnotherapy works with the subconscious residue of that experience, rebuilding trust in your own perceptions and judgment.
Forgiveness
Forgiveness hypnotherapy is not about excusing what happened. It is about releasing the ongoing cost of carrying resentment in your own body and mind. A carefully guided, trauma-informed process.
Passive Aggressiveness
Passive aggressive patterns are almost always rooted in an early learned belief that direct expression is unsafe. Hypnotherapy addresses that root belief, making more direct and authentic communication feel genuinely possible.
Creating Boundaries
Difficulty with boundaries is usually driven by deep-seated beliefs about worth, safety, and what will happen if you say no. Hypnotherapy for boundaries works at the level where those beliefs live, not just at the level of communication technique.
Rebuilding Trust
Whether trust was broken by another person or eroded by repeated disappointment, hypnotherapy supports the internal work of becoming willing to trust again without bypassing the legitimate caution that experience has created.
Younger Clients
Children, Pre-Teens and Teens
How Our Process Works
Learn About Hypnosis, The Process, and How to Prepare for Your Sessions
FAQs
Does hypnotherapy work for anxiety?
Yes. Hypnotherapy for anxiety works at the nervous-system level, calming the physiological stress response and shifting the thought patterns that keep anxiety running. Sessions are personalised and evidence-based, not scripted. We see anxiety clients online across Canada.
How many sessions does hypnotherapy take?
It depends on the issue. Smoking and vaping cessation programs are four sessions. For anxiety, sleep, chronic pain, emotional eating, and other concerns, the number of sessions is quoted individually after a free 20-minute consultation call. We do not pad programs with sessions you do not need.
Do you offer online hypnotherapy across Canada?
Yes. We see clients online across Canada. Pre-teens and teenagers aged 11 to 17 are seen online across Canada. Children aged 5 to 10 are seen in person in Ottawa, currently by waitlist only.
What is your success rate for quit smoking hypnotherapy?
Our hypnosis to quit smoking program has a 90% success rate. Most clients complete the program in four sessions. Our hypnosis to quit vaping program carries the same 90% success rate. Both are available online across Canada.
What makes National Institute of Hypnotherapy different?
No generic scripts and no generic protocols. Tara is NGH-certified and a trauma-informed practitioner who builds every program around the individual. She bring years of experience and education and collaborate with physicians and specialists where appropriate.
Do you offer hypnotherapy for teens and pre-teens?
Yes. Tara works with pre-teens and teenagers aged 11 to 17 online across Canada for anxiety, stress, low confidence, and sleep difficulties. Her approach is trauma-informed and designed specifically for this age group.
Do you offer hypnotherapy for children?
Tara sees children aged 5 to 10 in person in Ottawa for bedwetting, anxiety, separation anxiety, stress, sleep difficulties, and focus and performance. Tara is not currently accepting new child clients. Contact us at 613-296-7425 to be added to the waitlist.
