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 and Shelley Murphy are NGH-certified, trauma-informed practitioners 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.
Quit Vaping
Vaping can become so automatic that it feels almost invisible. Our Freedom From Vaping Program™ helps you eliminate nicotine dependence and regain control.
Mental and Emotional Health
Grief and Loss
Feeling Stuck
Self Esteem and Confidence
Resistance to Change
Guilt and Shame
Worry
Trauma
Sadness
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
Public Speaking Anxiety
Food, Weight, and Body Image
Body Acceptance
Binge Eating
Sugar Addiction
Overeating
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)
Skin Conditions
Skin Conditions
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.
Public Speaking Anxiety
ear of public speaking is one of the most common anxiety responses there is. Hypnotherapy for public speaking anxiety 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.
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.
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. Tara and Shelley 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 clarity call. We do not pad programs with sessions you do not need.
Do you offer online hypnotherapy across Canada?
Yes. Both Tara and Shelley 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 by Tara, 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 and Shelley are NGH-certified, trauma-informed practitioners who build every program around the individual. They bring years of educations 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.
