Hypnotherapy Business Reflections and Advice

Jessica talks to We Are The City and reflects on a career in the hypnotherapy industry spanning a decade.

Tell us a bit about yourself, your background, and your current role

My name is Jessica Boston; I live in London with my little dog Josefina, and I have over a decade’s experience working with Cognitive Hypnotherapy and Somatic energetic practices to help women remove the blocks of self-doubt, perfectionism and generational trauma that get in the way of them being unstoppable. I think of my work as undoing a spell and then working to co-create a new one. Redefining the invisible forces that shape your personal, professional, and emotional life and identifying your own path forward.

Did you ever sit down and plan your career? 

I have at many moments planned felt strongly connected to a plan and then have had to sat down to reassess whether or not it was my plan and that’s ok. When  I started my career, my focus was on hypnosis as a tool to help language learners. I am still fascinated by this relationship and often work with professionals that struggle with language learning because they are held back from their school days. I enjoy it as language is an integral part of hypnosis and changework but it is no longer my only focus. My business has a fixed direction I am going in, a North Star so to speak but I’ve allowed it to flow and myself to wander along the way. I let myself grow and learn and be inspired. I’ve let my business adapt as I do.

Have you faced any challenges along the way?

Many. There have been plenty of challenges along the way. I would say the most challenging year of my professional career, yet somehow also the most rewarding was around four years ago in 2017. It was a year of death and rebirth. I was experiencing severe heartbreak, the end of an important relationship, the death of my father, and a move back to London after 13 years in Barcelona.

I was in pain and decided to write and dedicate time to the meditation album I had been planning to make for years. What emerged was THIS FEELING IS YOU, a hypnotic journey which helped me repurpose my emotions and energy in the hope of the knowledge it might someday be useful to others. I allowed myself to be inspired by creativity, action, collaboration, and nature to heal me, and that is a large part of the message of the journey it takes you on.

Making this album and leaning into something I was so passionate about it improved my business because I helped more people understand what matters to me in my work, it helped my people find me, and this process allowed all the concepts I work with to take on a deeper dimension which in itself improved yet simplified my processes. Trusting that was the best and what felt like the only option I had to help me through my darkest hour is something I am eternally grateful to the me of yesterday for.

What has been your biggest achievement to date?

I think my client’s success stories are my biggest achievements; even though they are not fully mine to own, they belong to both of us. I feel a wonderful sense of joy and ease in knowing there are plenty of people in the world that sleep easier because of me. I’ve helped people leave abusive relationships, give up smoking, drugs, and drinking habits, fall in love with themselves, and repair relationships. The possibilities are limitless, and it’s a joy that that is my life.

My greatest personal but work-related achievement would be having the album This Feeling is You performed by Desert, the musicians I worked with the project on at the MACBA in Barcelona; it felt like a real moment of big dreams coming full circle and was a gentle reminder that its always worth pushing for what you believe in. Even if it takes you longer than you had planned to get there.

What one thing do you believe has been a major factor in you achieving success?  

I would say it has been being a living embodiment of what I help my clients internalize; my ultimate goal in the work is to move their thinking from a performance mindset to a growth mindset. This is what keeps the fun alive in my work. You might not think resolving mental pains to be much fun, but I am endlessly curious and always creative in finding new and more effective solutions; I think of every client like a fascinating mystery to be solved, “how did you become you and isn’t it exciting that we are going to find out together how to make that unique combination of experiences, thoughts, and feelings have even more fun being you?”

The fun of the work stops bad days burning me out because I know I will get some rest and fall back in love with my work again tomorrow. There is no one thing; success is compounding; you take small yet significant actions every day, you plant seeds and wait for the ones to grow that will, and you support them and learn how to help them flourish better.

How do you feel about mentoring? Have you mentored anyone, or are you someone’s mentee?

Mentorship is key. Community is key and was my alternative answer to the question above. I mentor a fair few people professionally; mentorship is part of what I offer my clients; I also have different coaches that mentor me. It is fundamental to have plenty of perspectives and ideas to play with and then to direct that focus so your ideas come to fruition and you talk to people that have or can make that happen.

If you could change one thing to accelerate the pace of change for Gender Equality, what would it be?

What needs to be done is more listening without looking to defend or justify. This is the kind of listening that results in action. When people say there is an issue that needs to be addressed, there is an end of sentence. We can’t ignore conversations because they make us feel uncomfortable. It is the classic stance of protecting feelings over wellbeing. If you feel uncomfortable addressing issues that impact others, perhaps you are part of the issue. Suppressing issues has historically never worked for anyone; it just leaves resentments to fester, waiting for their day. Technology has opened the world up to viewpoints and perspectives we never had access to on this scale; this, of course, has created disruption because there is discomfort in access to so much information and a sensation of collective overwhelm, but rather than centring your pain direct that energy into being part of the conversation that creates the solution, use that emotion, channel that energy into action and set yourself and others free.

If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

It slightly depends on which younger version of me I am talking to, but the words that stick out, as cliché as they sound, are… “it gets much better, so stick with it, my love.”

What is your next challenge, and what are you hoping to achieve in the future? 

I am currently planning my second meditation album, and I’m in the research and development mode at the moment, I am also working on group courses to add alongside my 1:1 work. I just keep moving towards my North Star and continue to allow myself to be inspired. If you want to make your life more meaningful and work on building your self-confidence.

In my signature 90-day programme, HOMECOMING, we look at absolutely everything in your life contributing to your current lack of confidence and how it might have become a hindrance to the successful life you dream about. In fact, we look at absolutely every area of your life to map out what action needs to take place. We make a subconscious life plan, and using my approach, we work through all that’s getting in your way both internally and externally so that you can finally start living the confident, fun, free and fulfilled life of your dreams.

Homecoming is the real deal, read the testimonials to see for yourself and if you’re ready to get started, take the quiz to begin the process to find out how radically different your life could be in 3 months’ time. Your Homecoming is waiting.