How arrogant are you to believe that the world even gives you a second thought?!
You think the world is against you.
You think that you are a junkie and everyone hates you.
You feel judged, you feel criticised for your choices and your actions.
 
I want to challenge the belief that the world is against you and that everyone hates you.
 
Who is everyone?
The majority of the world’s population don’t even know you exist, let alone have anything against you.
So if they have no knowledge of your existence and your life choices, how could they possibly hate you?
 
A large proportion of the population are against the idea of recreational drug use or substance misuse.
They are against the idea of finding drug paraphernalia lying about in children’s play parks.  They are against the drug and alcohol related costs to the NHS, the prison service and the taxpayer.  They are against the idea of having to deal with the volatile and sporadic behaviours of those under the influence.  They are against all of the dangers associated with substance misuse.  They are against the idea of people driving under the influence and causing fatal accidents.
 
They are not against you as a person. 
They do not agree with or understand your choices. 
Equally, it is the situation and the effects of the drugs that people hate. 
They do not hate you specifically.
 
There may be a microscopic percentage of the population, that do actually know you personally, who completely disagree with your choices and they probably don’t have any problems with sharing their opinions with you.  But they are not everyone.  They are not the world.  And it is highly unlikely they actually hate you.  Hate is a very strong word and you would have had to have done something seriously bad, for someone to feel such an emotion towards you and even if you had, again, that is not everyone.
 
I think a lot of people are very quick to come to their own conclusions and pass judgement on the actions and decisions of others. 
 
I know that drug and alcohol addicts are regularly given a bad press and so I totally understand why you may think that you are being judged and criticised.  But it’s not your fault.  A lot of people either aren’t aware or choose to ignore the fact that a large proportion of addicts are using to escape pain, to erase trauma, to try to forget.  They don’t realise that you are struggling mentally, emotionally and physically; That your usage is a reflection of your desperation.  They aren’t aware of the changes that can occur in the body and more specifically the brain, after long term drug use.
 
They don’t get it.  BUT I DO. 
 
The world is not against you, nor does everyone hate you.
If they do attempt to judge you or criticise you, it is because they do not understand why you do what you do.
 
If you are ready to make a change in your life and give drugs and alcohol the boot for good, send me a message to find out how I can help you make that transition easily, with the use of hypnotherapy and the Drugs to Dreams Programme.

Crystal is 35 years of age and is no longer a poly-drug user.  She is now a non-smoker and no longer drinks alcohol. She has a 6-year-old daughter, who she now has regular contact with and is in the process of putting plans in place for her to come home, with the support of her Mum. 

The world is a much less painful and stressful place for Crystal now as she has learned techniques to control her stress and anxiety.  She has also done a lot of trauma release work and has been able to start healing and moving on from her past.  Crystal has made a couple of new friends from our facebook group, who she feels really understand her and as they are all on the journey together, they are able to support and motivate each other.  She doesn’t feel alone anymore.  She has cut contact with “the old crew”, so is no longer surrounded by the temptation to slip back into the old ways of living. 

Crystal now feels more in control of her life and is far better equipped to function on a day-to-day basis, without the need for drugs and drink. She simply doesn’t want them anymore.  She knows there is more to life.
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Crystal no longer needs or wants to feel numb.  She feels confident.  She feels capable.  She feels happy.  Crystal accepts what has happened in the past and she accepts herself.  She is excited at the prospect of her daughter coming home in the near future and wants to make up for lost time.  She has done all this work for herself and her little girl.  She is actually looking forward to the future now.

I'd like to tell you about Crystal - before she signed up for the Drugs to Dreams Programme. This is a common story among many of my clients and if you can relate to it, even just parts of it, then I urge you to reach out and message me and we can discuss how I can help you change YOUR story.
Crystal is 34 years of age and is a poly-drug user, who also smokes and drinks alcohol. She has a 5-year-old daughter, who currently resides with Crystal’s parents as she is no longer able to take proper care of her at home. The world is a painful and stressful place for her, full of judgement, rejection and neglect. She feels like nobody sees her, and even if they do, they berate her for her habit, tell her its all self-inflicted and sometimes even wish death upon her. Crystal has one or two “friends” who she hangs about with, who also use and/or supply drugs. Most of the offers she is surrounded by on a daily basis are those of more drugs, more smokes, more pills, more alcohol, more ways to try and escape reality. Her usage is having a major impact on her life and she is now struggling to function on a day-to-day basis.
Crystal feels scared, anxious, depressed, stressed and alone. She feels that life really has dealt her a shitty hand that she did not deserve. She feels torn between just wanting to feel numb and escape, to wanting to feel good and in control of her life again. Crystal really wants to try to Drugs to Dreams Programme but does have some feelings of apprehension. How does it work? What if it doesn’t work? But deep down in her heart, she wants to change, she needs to change. She desperately wants to stop abusing her body, she is just afraid of how her life will look and feel like without the drugs and alcohol. She is worried that she might not be able to cope.
She says that although the drugs help to numb things, they are ruining her life. Crystals attitude is still one of hope, not yet defeated. She had her reasons for starting using but she also has very good reasons to stop. She is naturally apprehensive about the programme, curious as to how hypnotherapy works, but she is open to the possibility that it could work for her. She doesn’t really speak to anyone about her drug taking or any of her other issues and while in the beginning, she is very guarded when speaking to me, she soon views me as her safe place, where she can open up and talk freely about her life, without any fear of being judged.
Crystal wants to get clean and sober. She wants to feel able to cope with life. She wants to be happy and confident. She wants to be able to deal with all the crap from her past, so that it doesn’t hurt her anymore. She wants to get her daughter back and create a loving and happy home for her. She wants to make something of her life. She might even consider going back to college part time, while her daughter is at school.
CRYSTAL IS AN IDEAL CANDIDATE FOR THE DRUGS TO DREAMS PROGRAMME 💜
Can you relate to Crystal's story?
Send me a message and let's talk.

As a young child, I remember spending a lot of time with my dad and I don’t think that ever really changed. I formed a close bond with him.

He was a very talented carpenter by trade and worked as a bench joiner for a company on the local trading estate. I was amazed at his skills. I was in awe of his talents. This man, my father, could take a lump of wood and turn it into something magnificent. I remember watching him build a huge wooden workshop in our back garden. I remember seeing photographs of exhibition work that he had done. I remember watching him make pieces of furniture, wooden desk tidies, pencil boxes, toy boxes and so much more.

These times taught me that transformation is a beautiful thing – in the right hands, that boring, ugly lump of wood, could be turned into something amazing, something functional, something beautiful.

I think this shines through in the work that I do now. No matter how ugly or broken or useless you may feel, I can help you to transform into the wonderful person that you want to be, that you were born to be. 
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.Zoe, 25, came to me as a cocaine and cannabis user.  She also smoked cigarettes and drank quite heavily too.

During her teenage years, she was bullied at school and witness domestic violence at home, towards her mother.  She frequently truanted from school, leaving at 16 with no real qualifications.  She went from job to job, struggling to hold any of them down for any length of time.  Her mental health was rapidly declining.

She had terrible memories of her school years, constantly being picked on.  She had even worse memories of her home life, seeing her mother experiencing violence at the hands of her partner.  She felt helpless and dreadfully depressed and that’s when she started using.
After years of abusing her body with drugs and alcohol, trying to erase the painful memories of her past, she came across an advert for my Drugs to Dreams Programme.  She wanted everything that it offered, but she was afraid that if she stopped using and drinking, that she would no longer be able to keep all those traumatic memories at bay.  They were too painful to think about… too terrible to face.  Drugs and alcohol had become a way of life for Zoe, they were her coping mechanism.

I listened to Zoe’s fears and concerns and told her that I completely understood.  I explained to her that hypnotherapy can help to deal with those frightful things from her past; That I could help her accept, move on and start to heal from them and we could do it in such a way that she felt safe, in control and that she didn’t need to consciously relive them.  She could decide what to do with those memories.  She could make the choice to let go of the past and start working on carving out a new, positive future for herself.  She didn’t need to be afraid.  We could work at a pace that worked for her.

Zoe started working with me soon after this and we did a lot of work on releasing that trauma.  Here’s what Zoe had to say about the process:  "Amy listened.  She never judged me.  She validated my experiences.  Over a few sessions, Amy helped me to let go of so much stuff from the past that I had been trying to block out for so long.  I was so scared in the beginning, but Amy really helped to put me at ease and even though some of it was quite hard, it has already made such a big difference.  I want to live my life, not hide from it.”

Zoe now has plans to go to college to get herself some basic qualifications and she has lots of ideas for things that she wants to achieve over the next couple of years.

Rob, 30, came to me whilst still using cocaine and heroin. He used both on a daily basis; The cocaine to give him a high, make him feel confident and full of energy and the heroin to bring him back down and stop his physical and emotional pain.

He felt that the drugs had completely taken over his life and rather than him being in control, the drugs were controlling him. Rob had lost a lot of weight, had lost his job and spent most of his time just working out where his next fix was coming from.

His family had done their best to support him in the past, but he found himself facing an ultimatum – get clean and sober or get out. He made his decision – he wanted to take back control of his life – but he was scared.

Rob knew that withdrawal was going to be hell. He knew that just a few hours after he took his last fix, that he was going to feel very ill and he would have to endure days, maybe weeks of the horrible side effects of withdrawing. He wasn’t sure he could cope with that.
I reassured Rob that he wouldn’t have to go through this on his own. Yes, he will feel ill but that I would support him through that and using hypnosis, would teach him techniques that he could use to relax, reduce anxiety, create pain relief, help him sleep etc. I would be available for him to talk to and do hypnotherapy sessions with several times over that first week.

After a lengthy chat, Rob made up his mind, he was in and he wanted to sign up for my Drugs To Dreams programme, comforted by the fact that I would be there to help him for a whole year. So we completed his first session to help him to actually stop using, reaffirming his decision to get clean and sober. I then set aside time that week to check in with him regularly and to schedule skype calls that coincided with the withdrawal starting.

Over the next few days Rob reported feeling anxious, feeling sick, having headaches, getting muscle spasms, difficulty sleeping and of course, cravings. So as these symptoms came up, we worked through them. I taught him anxiety relief techniques, headache relief techniques, general relaxation techniques and did another session to reduce his cravings and once again reinforce his decision to stop using.

Using these tools and techniques, Rob reported the withdrawal process to be “Not as bad as I thought to be honest. I felt pretty rough, but the hypnotherapy really helped. I was amazed at the way I could reduce my pain, just using my brain and when we did the session to help me sleep, that was a God send! I’d never had hypnotherapy before, but I wish I had tried it a long time ago.”

So despite Rob’s fear of how he would cope with withdrawal, he got through it and much more easily than he expected to. He knew it was never going to be easy, but it was something that he needed to do and with the support of hypnotherapy, it was so much more bearable. He was able to reduce his anxiety, control his pain and discomfort and actually get some sleep, allowing his body to start healing.
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Rob went on to reconcile with his family and hasn’t looked back. He is clean and sober and has plans to start his own gardening business – something that he had always wanted to do.

What is it that's holding YOU back?

​​Cocaine use in Kirkcaldy is at epidemic proportions and it is doing harm to our town. 

Recent data from the Scottish Drug Misuse Database found there had been a spike in cocaine use in Scotland, coinciding with a drop in the price of the drug.  Researchers also found users in Glasgow can have cocaine delivered to their door, faster than a pizza! That’s scary!

In January, there were reports of six pupils at a local high school, requiring emergency treatment, four of whom had been rushed to hospital, as a result of having taken pills outside the school grounds, during their lunch break!
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Fife recorded it’s highest number of drug related deaths in 2017.  66 people died as a result of drug misuse.  Drug related hospital stays also increased by 144% in the 14 years up to 2016-17.  There is a dramatic increase in the number of women dying because of drug use.  While the issue still affects more men than women, deaths among females have risen by a startling 750% in the last decade.  This compares to a 60% increase in men.  These figures are so worrying.

It is heart-breaking to read these statistics.

This is a crisis across Scotland.  So many people losing their lives.  So many families losing loved ones.

Just one bad hit... One bad pill....and it could be GAME OVER for you.

Photographers capture those special moments… they help to create memories… or even capture events on camera that you may not otherwise have ever actually seen for yourself.

Cake decorators create edible works of art, that make a celebration extra special by producing an amazing cake for everyone to enjoy looking at and of course, eat!

Doulas offer practical and emotional support before, during and after the birthing process.

These are three examples of skilled and passionate people that tend to come into your life at certain points and help to create positive experiences for short periods of time – and of course, to create the positive memories that those times provided their client with.

Hypnotherapists on the other hand, can actually assist their clients to strengthen neural-connections and create new neural pathways in the brain, that can cause great changes to their lives.  Hypnotherapy can accelerate so many processes.  For example, when it comes to quitting smoking, the NHS website states “By six weeks of NRT treatment, you should aim to have cut your usual cigarette consumption by half and have stopped smoking completely by six months.” – Six months to stop smoking?! I can help you stop smoking immediately, in under two hours!  The brain has the power to do it, you just need a little help to give it the correct prompts, then hey presto, you’re a non-smoker!

Using hypnotherapy, I can help clients to stop using highly addictive, lethal, class A drugs and help them get through withdrawal, deal with the issues that caused them to start using in the first place, as well as addressing a myriad of other issues and helping them to create a positive future.  In doing what I do, I can save lives, by helping my clients to stop using, before the drugs quite literally kill them.  This can all be done, in many cases, without the need for methadone.

I certainly don't want to offend any photographers, cake decorators or doulas, as I have a lot of respect for the work they do.. I just want to explain from a different stand point, WHY I am so passionate about the work that I do.  While all of these highly skilled people can help to change moments in a life, I can, in theory, help to change a whole life - to SAVE a life... and that is immense! 

I know the struggle is real when it comes to trying to lose weight - even more so when you are also battling food and drink related addictions and just cant seem to control your eating.  Fear not though, for help is at hand! And it doesn't involve starving yourself or consuming copious amounts of cabbage soup - Yuck!  I absolutely LOVE working when men and women to overcome these issues and help them to achieve the ideal weight and shape for the their height.  

So I shall describe the kind of person that I feel so passionately about helping.  Maybe you will recognise yourself in my writings.

You are aged 35-45 and you want to lose at least a stone in weight.  You tend to snack between meals, struggle with portion control, feel like you don’t have a “full button” and often opt for takeaways or ready meals over healthy, nutritious, home cooked food.

You probably don’t drink enough water and may even rely heavily on caffeine to get you through the day.  You lack the motivation and energy to exercise and tend to turn to food for comfort when you are feeling emotional.  You probably also eat just for something to do when you are bored too.  You then often feel guilty for eating junk, which makes you feel worse, so you eat some more and then feel even worse and you get trapped in this unhealthy cycle.

You have tried loads of fad diets with little success and have maybe attended a slimming group that helped for a while.  You find yourself able to stick to a healthy eating plan for a short time, but then you fall off the dieting wagon again as you feel deprived.

Your longstanding weight issues have lowered your self-esteem and knocked your confidence.  You have realised that your physical and mental health are suffering, and you are now ready to do something about it.

That’s where I come in.

Using hypnotherapy, I can help you to change the way that you think, feel and behave around food.  I can also help you to overcome food and drink related addictions such as sugar, chocolate, caffeine etc.  I have successfully helped many men and women to lose weight and change their eating habits, without them ever feeling like they are being deprived or going without...

And as a bonus, their self-esteem and confidence also improved drastically!

Doing what I do, I have the potential to help a lot of people, with a variety of issues, but I absolutely LOVE being able to help clients overcome drug and alcohol addiction as it is such powerful and transformational work.  So, let me tell you a bit about the clients I feel most passionately about helping, and you never know, it might be YOU!

You are aged between 18-35 and you are a poly drug user, who drinks and smokes and probably has a traumatic or abusive past.  You spend hundreds of pounds a week on your drug(s) of choice and you use to escape the pain, the past and reality, because it seems to hard to deal with. You use to numb yourself or to forget.

You feel lost, hopeless and in despair and feel like there’s no way out or no way back.  You desperately want to get clean and sober, because you hate your life right now, but you are scared.  You are scared of how bad the withdrawal might be; Of having to delve in to the past and face the reasons you first started using; Of having to live in the real world again, with nothing to help you escape.

You have hit rock bottom and your future is looking bleak.  You are just one fix away from possible death.  You want to turn things around and start again, you just don’t know how, or you don’t feel strong enough. 

That’s where I come in!

Using hypnotherapy, more specifically, the Drugs to Dreams 12 month Transformation Programme, I can support you from the moment you decide to stop and throughout the first year of your recovery journey and life transformation and equip you with tools and techniques that you can use to make withdrawal less traumatic, to make the idea of addressing the root cause of the problem less daunting and painful and to make creating a brighter, more positive and healthy future, a reality for YOU!

Imagine leading a life without having to rely on drugs, alcohol or food to bring you comfort or help you escape.  Imagine being able to take control of your life, to heal and move on from your past.  Imagine feeling really good about yourself and being able to finally overcome your addiction and start living the life you always wanted to live.

​This is precisely what I help my clients to achieve.  I specialise in Drug & Alcohol Addiction and Food Addiction & Weight Loss.
I feel very passionately about the work that I do because, using hypnotherapy, I can not only help to TRANSFORM lives, but I can help to SAVE lives – and that is an amazing thing! 

I chose to work in the field of addiction as it is a subject that is close to my heart.
In my teenage years, I saw first-hand, what drugs did to a good friend of mine.  I saw him lose his job and how his addiction was ruining his life.  Growing up, I witnessed my father’s many failed attempts to quit smoking, despite using a variety of NRT, as well as being prescribed Champix.  I saw the difficulties he faced.  As a young adult, I watched my mother constantly battling with her weight.  She fought with these issues for many years and they, in part, contributed to her untimely death.

Over the years, I have lost both of my parents, as well as other close friends and relatives and I wish I’d had the skills back then that I have today and that I could have helped them… that I could have saved them.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t turn the clock back, but I used my painful experiences as inspiration for starting www.amygibbstherapies.com so that I could go on top help other families overcome addiction before it’s too late.

I want to help reduce drug related crime and death rates. 
I want to help reduce food addiction and eating disorder related death rates.
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My name is Amy Gibbs.
I may only be one person, but I want to SAVE LIVES.