Piece of Mind Hypnotherapy
Main Menu
book a free consultation
Piece of Mind Hypnotherapy

How my Anxiety turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me

  • No Comments

How my Anxiety turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me

I feel I am very lucky as I have experienced many wonderful things in my life, I have travelled extensively, I have started several businesses and had many successes and a fair few spectacular failures.
Throughout my life I knew was there was something not quite right.
I came from a home with a broken marriage, and one of my earliest memories of childhood is my Dad telling my Mum he wanted a divorce and me standing there wondering, what the hell is a divorce?
I was very fortunate to have a fantastic mum however, I know from that day things changed for me and although I didn’t realise it I was carrying some serious emotional baggage.

This is the part of the story where I tell you how I worked with a coach and how they helped me to discover that there was much more to my life and that my story did not define who I am. You know the story….. a full life transformation as I strolled off into the sunset, trained as a therapist and started a thriving practice helping others. 
And yes this is sort of true….but there is more…..
Through various things that happened early on in life, I became an absorber, a people pleaser, the guy that always liked to say YES.
At the time my coping strategy was to make sure I felt popular and liked. Little did I know that my behaviour created a great deal of anxiety and worry for me, it also created so many problems in other areas of my life. 
Over time my behaviour patterns contributed to the failure of a marriage, a spectacular business failure and dire financial issues.
My thoughts led me to let down and disappoint the people I loved most and at the time I thought there was nothing I could do about it.
You see my behaviour trait had followed me through my school years, my teenage years and into my adult life.
A few key moments in my life sparked off my a lot of unwanted behaviours.
21 years ago, something was wrong, very wrong. I was feeling really ill and after days and days of ignoring numerous symptoms I ended up in hospital. 
It turned out that I had thrombosis – a rather serious condition, I can remember the moment the doctor told me that if the blood clot had made its way to my heart I could have died. 
I was shocked and confused. It’s weird because I remember thinking at that moment, OK, I could have died but I didn’t, I was rather matter of fact about it and didn’t get overly emotional.
The hospital assured me that I was now totally okay. I felt I was together and dealing with it, and that I would be totally fine.
Thing is I wasn’t fine!
At the time I did not realise it but I had battled anxiety and worry issues for a large chunk of my life, but things were about to go to a whole new level.
I remember one day, boarding a first class long haul flight, I stood in the queue waiting to board the plane and my world started falling apart.
I thought to myself, you are going to die on this flight and all these people are going to see it happen. I was experiencing the most intense anxiety and panic and I felt very much alone with it, my thoughts were racing and my inner voice was screaming to me, “You are completely alone in this, you’ve got to get on this flight and it’s going to be hell.” 
Walking onto that plane felt like a death sentence.
The next eight hours were possibly the worst of my life as I watched that little map in the headrest, that little plane icon slowly moved plotting our progress. I was completely freaking out and was looking for anything to reassure me.
Back at home, I became the master pretender. Always appearing to be having fun and happy, yet on the inside, it was a total contrast ugly and dark and I was really struggling, the only way I could cope with it was to numb it out. To not allow myself to feel anything.
The anxiety and stress that had been locked in my head for so long finally exploded, and it manifested itself in horrific anxiety, worry, over thinking and panic attacks and really weird thoughts that freaked me out.
I spent many more years being okay but not really okay, putting on an act and ‘getting through’. To the world everything looked alright on the surface, I started several businesses and managed to pay the bills, I went on holidays but I still felt empty and my anxiety was out of control.
And this is the point of my story where I started to look for the answers

I knew I had no control over my thoughts but they had absolute control over me. My thoughts defined how I felt.

Having overcome many personal issues in my own life, I am a living example of the capacity for change we all hold within us. My achievements in overcoming anxiety and low self-esteem amongst other problems led me to discover my passion for helping others to do the same.
In 2006 I discovered a motivation to find out the secret of a better life. I discovered a great deal about myself and for a while felt okay but it was only ever temporary. I became a self-help book junkie. I thought the answer must be out there if I could just read one more book I will surely find the answer.
Through a friend I was introduced to a very effective form of therapy that for me changed everything. At the time I remember feeling a little robbed, robbed of my time, my happiness and my life. The answers I had been searching for all along were within me.
I was so taken aback by the powerful transformation, I felt I needed to learn more about therapy. 
I decided to train as a clinical hypnotherapist and with some straight-to-the-point, nurturing, understanding and guidance, I made huge changes in my life. I continued my training with a Harley Street practitioner in London and then Manchester and continued my training in Toronto Canada ultimately qualifying as a Clinical Hypnotherapist.
And today I help people just like me, normal, everyday people just trying to get along in life. My horrific battle with anxiety enabled me to help hundreds of people escape the grips of anxiety.
As I sit writing this my Anxiety Unplugged program has helped over a 1000 people become anxiety free. And who would have thought that my story today would motivate others to follow in my footsteps.
Looking back to those dark dark days where I thought life was coming to an end it was actually a new beginning.  
Very often in life the worst things that happen to us can lead us to new places and understandings. My story has helped so many other people realise they can make changes, so to my anxiety I am forever grateful.
If you are struggling with anxiety or would like to start a career helping others feel free to get in touch
[button link=”https://piece-of-mind.co.uk/contact-us/” color=”green” newwindow=”yes”] Contact Me[/button] .
 

Scroll to Top
Ian Young

Ian Young

Training & Development

Tagline: Grounded, real and genuinely hard to forget.

LinkedIn:

Ian is an experienced therapist whose work spans trauma, addiction, anxiety and recovery. His approach is shaped as much by lived experience as by professional training and that combination makes him exceptionally relatable to the people he works with.

People who’ve worked with Ian consistently say the same thing — he gets it in a way that goes beyond what most trainers can offer. He doesn’t just understand the subject. He understands people.

Within Piece of Mind Training, Ian also plays a key role in business and strategic development, bringing a practical, grounded perspective to how the organisation grows and evolves.

David

David Gowans

Training & Development

Tagline: He’s seen mental health crisis at its most acute. And he knows what actually helps.

LinkedIn:

David’s background is probably unlike anyone else you’ll meet in a mental health training room.

Twenty-three years on the frontline of emergency services first as a police officer, now as an HCPC-registered practising paramedic. He hasn’t studied stress, trauma and burnout from a distance. He’s carried them, in uniform, responding to people at the absolute worst moments of their lives. He understands the culture that makes asking for help feel like the hardest thing in the world because he’s lived inside that culture.

That frontline experience sits alongside his clinical practice as a qualified hypnotherapist and accredited EFT practitioner. David works with real people navigating real challenges every single week. What he brings to Piece of Mind Training isn’t theoretical. It’s current, grounded and built entirely from the inside out.

As part of the team, David delivers training, practises as a therapist and plays a key role in the development and direction of the organisation making sure that everything Piece of Mind produces is professionally rigorous and genuinely human.

David is responsible for development and ensures that Piece of Mind Training programmes are grounded in real-world application. Not what the textbook says should happen. What actually works when it matters.

Iona

Iona Russell

Growth & Partnerships

Tagline: She’s written the book. Literally.

Iona has spent more than twenty years working at the intersection of human potential and real-world impact — across psychology, coaching, education, broadcasting, the charitable sector and social policy, in both the UK and the USA.

She is a Master Positive Psychology Coach and twice bestselling author who has supported hundreds of people through coaching qualifications and worked alongside some of the most respected names in positive psychology and personal development. As a keynote speaker and leadership advisor, she helps organisations rethink what success and human flourishing actually look like.

But what drives Iona’s commitment to mental health work goes deeper than her professional background. She lost her brother to suicide. That experience — and everything it taught her about the gap between what people are going through and the support available to them — shapes everything she brings to Piece of Mind Training.

At Piece of Mind, Iona leads our partnerships, builds community impact and drives our growth across Scotland and beyond. She brings commercial insight, deep human understanding and a personal reason for being here that no CV can fully capture.

Ann

Ann Stewart

Head of Training

Tagline: The person who makes sure the learning delivers every time.

LinkedIn:

Ann has spent her career helping people make sense of the things that are weighing on them and finding a way forward when everything feels tough.

Her background is genuinely rare. A qualified teacher, certified hypnotherapist, coach and First Aid for Mental Health practitioner, Ann brings together an understanding of how people learn with a deep, practical knowledge of how people struggle. She still works directly with adults and young people every week supporting those experiencing anxiety, low confidence, emotional distress and the kind of quiet difficulties that don’t always have a name but make everyday life feel impossibly hard.

As a trainer, Ann knows that the best mental health training doesn’t just inform people, it changes how they see themselves and the people around them. She brings that belief into every session she delivers, whether she’s working with a room full of HR professionals or a team who’ve never talked about mental health at work before.

As a therapist, trainer, teacher and mum of three, Ann understands that most people are dealing with far more than anyone around them realises. That understanding is the foundation of everything she does.

At Piece of Mind Training, Ann leads on training quality and consistency, making sure that what we promise is what every learner experiences, every time.

Andy Griffiths

Andy Griffiths

Founder

Tagline: The man who built this because he needed it himself.

Qualifications include:

Clinical Hypnotherapy

NLP

Psychotherapy

CBT Coaching

Trauma-Informed Practice.

Andy is a practising therapist, clinical hypnotherapist and the founder of Piece of Mind Training. He’s spent over a decade working with clients across anxiety, trauma, panic disorder and complex mental health presentations not as a theorist, but as someone who has experienced many of these challenges himself.

His personal journey through mental health struggles, panic disorder and years of pretending everything was fine is the reason Piece of Mind Training exists. He built what he wished had existed when he needed it most.

As a trainer, Andy is known for his directness, his warmth and his ability to make people feel genuinely seen. He doesn’t stand behind a slide deck and talk at people. He brings the subject into the room.

Start Learning Hypnosis TODAY!

Free Forever. Starts immediately.

No credit card required.