Clinical Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy – The Best and Most Established Leading Male Hypnotherapist and No1 Best Rated in Bristol with almost 100+ Google Reviews +21 years Full time clinical experience

Award-Winning Clinical Lead. Senior Hypnotherapist and Senior Psychotherapist. Senior Clinical Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy Supervisor Est 2005

Bristol’s Premier Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy Clinic since 2012 in one of the UK’s most desirable properties – 5 College Fields in Clifton.

College Fields in BS8 is recognised as one of Clifton’s most prestigious, quiet residential streets, offering views over Clifton College playing fields.

Located 10 minutes walk or 2 minutes by car from Clifton Village. 13 minutes from Bristol City Centre by car.

Face-to-face sessions and Online Globally via Zoom for adults 18+ for therapy.

 

 

  

 

21+ years of providing psychotherapy and hypnotherapy since 2005

Unequivocally, the leading, most experienced therapist, Clinical Lead, Senior Supervisor and busiest mental health practitioner at College Fields in Clifton. Voted the top rated Google Reviewed male hypnotherapist in Bristol. I’m an award-winning hypnotherapist, thanks to a professional award.

I have 21+ years in full-time practice with over 30,000+ hours of clinical experience and thousands of hours of supervisory expertise of supervising other therapists. I’m a well known a leader in the field and expert of neuroscience-informed clinical hypnotherapy and psychotherapy – working from a pluralistic approach.

Having embarked upon a neuroscience- and neurobiology-informed path of healing 40+ years ago, Michael has cultivated a deeply attuned self-awareness and a depth of insight shaped by time, discipline, and lived experience. Drawing on his profound knowledge of neuroscience, neurobiology and body-based trauma informed therapy, Michael seamlessly weaves this depth of expertise and understanding into his work. 

Please read my 98+ Google reviews to gain insight into the positive client feedback and clinical outcomes in order to help you make an informed decision before arranging an appointment.

Demand for 1:1 sessions is currently exceptionally high, and availability may therefore be limited, with a waiting list in operation at times.

Enquiries regarding availability may be made via text (not WhatsApp, which is not monitored or used for work due to its intrusive nature. I will not reply), you can email, or leave a voicemail. If you ring off without leaving a voicemail message – I don’t ring random numbers back in case they are spam calls. Please allow up to three working days for a response. In some cases, an initial acknowledgement may be sent while a full response is prepared at the earliest confidential opportunity.

The offer of a slot depends on whether I feel I can work with you, your willingness and your commitment to the process, suitability and the issues that you are seeking help for. Alternatively – I may offer a referral to another psychotherapist.

“Seeing Michael Hughes was truly transformative. And if you are reading this right now, I could not encourage you more to have a consultation and explore this potential treatment option as it really could change your life. After over a year of personal struggle, seeing multiple doctors/specialists/therapists without any resolution, I was reaching the end of what I thought all of my options were. And then I met Michael.
Over a series of sessions, in nothing short of what I now consider a small miracle, even if I started as a mild skeptic to this world, I became my old self again. Without his help and guidance I am genuinely not sure what would have happened. I will forever be grateful. The man is magic.” – Dr Rhodri Thomas, Bristol. January 2024

“I came to Michael for help with recovering from long covid and I am so pleased with the results. Since having hypnotherapy my recovery has massively improved and I feel a lot more relaxed and confident. Over the sessions it was lovely to see how much my stress level was reducing and I have started to feel more like myself than I have in a very long time. I can’t recommend doing hypnotherapy with Michael enough as it has made a huge difference in my life.” - Georgia Moody, Bristol. January 2024 

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Announcenent therapy agreement update 1st Nov 2023

Note that with effect from 1st November that the therapy agreement will be updated to become a “course of treatment”.

Announcement update: prepayment 

Prepayments for subsequent sessions after the initial consultation will be expected 1 week in advance via BACS transfer . You always pay in advance for the next session to secure it or it will not be secured in the diary, lose priority booking and have to wait to continue. This was as a result of certain people in the past not paying when they should have and this will now stop any of these instances.

Annual Leave 2026
Please note that my practice will be closed for one week from Monday 20 July 2026 whilst I attend an off-grid digital detox retreat.

During this time I will have no access to emails, telephone messages or other communications, and you should not expect to receive a reply. The clue is, after all, in the name.

All enquiries received during my absence will be responded to as soon as reasonably practicable upon my return.

Appointments

I work on the basis of first to prepay to secure a regular time slot in the diary.

Upcoming Face to Face Availability in Clifton 

Any appointments only become available once previous clients have successfully finished their course of treatment with me. Be mindful that times are booked in fast as other patients are also regularly checking this home page for availability. Unfortunately, people cannot request specific days or specific times as they be may already be booked out already by existing patients. I will let any new enquiries know what appointments are left and you’ll need to be flexible to take what you are offered.

Contact can be made via call, text (Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm only), or email, and requests should be directed within these hours.

WhatsApp messages will not be monitored or responded to and will be disregarded. Communication outside of working hours will not be answered, as protected time for rest and recovery is essential given the demands and complexity of the caseload. This boundary is in place to ensure consistent, high-quality care and is maintained at all times.

(*I am a well-boundaried practitioner and I do not reply weekdays after 5 pm or at weekends)

 

First to enquire and prepay secures the slot. Due to so many people wanting appointments, slots will not be held on pencilled in without prepayment to secure the time in the diary.

Zoom Online Sessions – Current Availability 

Call, text or email me to request.

(*I am a well-boundaried practitioner and I do not reply weekdays after 5 pm or at weekends)

Please note that I will soon be reverting to taking card payments for prepayment as BACS payments requests I’ve asked for previously were not all paid a week in advance as I requested them to be. Failure to make the prepayment when instructed to do so will result in breach of the terms. 

Please note I only see adult clients over the age of 18 years for therapy (I don’t have the time anymore to deal with the admin regards clinical caseload for children or teenagers) but there’s limited availability for face to face appointments as I only work face to face in Clifton, Bristol on a Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at designated times so face to face times are highly sought after (and subject to who secures the rolling slot first) or the rest is online via Zoom on Tuesday and Friday at designated times – please be mindful that requesting a time preference when that rolling time slot might be already taken by someone else is not always possible and you’ll be offered the alternative slot that is available. Messaging with “I can only do this time on this day” simply isn’t going to happen.

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Face to Face – just like psychoanalysts do, I operate in a similar way, whereby an appointment time is allocated and reserved solely for an individual (of which they are responsible for) at the same venue and the same time each week. My therapy agreement also follows these principles; this is known as prepayment to hold/reserve an ongoing space in the diary. Face to Face appointments are now limited availability and are now held on three days only (the other days are online via Zoom). New patients are offered a specific time and day and they stick to that allocated day and time. The days and times I work are:

Mondays in Clifton 10 am until 4 pm
for face to face appointments

Tuesday – WFH Zoom appointments online worldwide.

Wednesdays in Clifton 10 am until 4 pm
face to face appointments

Thursdays in Clifton 10 am until 4 pm for face to face sessions

Fridays via Zoom online – Friday WFH online worldwide

The maximum number of patients I will treat in a single day is 5 patients in order to prevent burnout and allow myself to decompress after therapy work.

50 minute appointment times are set 10 am until 4 pm and cannot be changed. New clients are offered a specific time that is vacant as other times may be booked to other patients and therefore allocation is purely based on times that are available when enquiring. Requesting a preferred time is not always possible as it may already be filled by another patient. Therefore, new prospective patients will be offered a time that is left (if any) or be offered to go to another practitioner therapist referral.

I finish treating patients by 4 pm and my phone is switched off at 5 pm to ensure/maintain boundaries and time to decompress my caseload. Rest time for any therapist is imperative and I make sure this time is protected through maintaining strict boundaries.

Zoom Online Appointments 

Limted to a maximum of 5 online appointments per day on Tuesday and Friday at set times only. Due to other therapy work and study commitments these times are set and do not change. Allocation of a specific day/time (which individual patients are responsible for) is dependant on what times are currently available as other times may be booked by other patients. New patients will be offered specified times that are left, as preferred times are not always available because they are already likely be booked by another patient.

The designated fixed times are:

9 am

10 am

11:30 am

1pm

2.30 pm

I finish zoom treatments by 3:30 pm on these days as I have other commitments on these days that cannot be altered. If you cannot make the times specified then you’ll be directed elsewhere as requesting time outside of my set clinical hours is simply not possible. Requesting other times is not possible and you’ll be allocated what is available.

Ad-Hoc Appointments – limited Zoom only or contact privately

Ad-hoc appointments are available on request only for those who have completed their block of treatment that require maintenance ”stress bucket” emptying sessions and is dependent on what space is available in the diary (only via zoom if available or in exceptional circumstances if someone else is away that week etc) and will be offered accordingly. However, this will not disrupt an existing client’s rolling weekly slot. Ad-hoc face-to-face isn’t something I can accommodate as there are too many people waiting to see me and ad-hoc is unfair to other patients waiting.

Regular Attendance 

Sporadic attendance/missing sessions or moving to another time is not the way I work in clinical practice nor is it conducive or helpful to the efficacy of any therapy. I expect that my patients regularly attend their scheduled sessions and this is fully explained in the initial consultation.

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Celebrating 21+ years of professional practice in 2026

My name is Michael Hughes and I’m a very experienced Senior Accredited Clinical Hypnotherapist, Senior Accredited Psychotherapist, and Senior Accredited Clinical Hypnotherapy Supervisor with 16+ years of supervising other therapists at all levels. I’ve been in private clinical practice since I trained in 2005 on intake 36. I have over 30,000+ hours of 1:1 face to face and Zoom clinical experience to date. I’ve also trained with some of the most prestigious organisations and respected practitioners from the UK, US, and Australia.

I only work with adults 18 years or over (I no longer treat children or teenagers as I do not have the time for the additional administrative aspects or additional workload this requires as I am simply too busy) and my high level of clinical experience enable me to help people to overcome a wide range of issues and assist them with their goals.

I work with people who are committed to positive change. Hypnotherapy can effectively help with areas such as:

• Improving Confidence and Self Esteem
• Reducing Stress, Anxiety, and Tension
• Overcome Fears and Phobias
• Eliminating Panic Attacks
• Finding your way back to Being You
• Transform Negative Thought Patterns
• Weight Control and Relationship with Food
• Gut-directed hypnosis for IBS
• Processing Complex Trauma/Guilt & Shame…Trauma that you don’t deal with continues to deal with you.
• Overcoming Narcissistic relationship abuse – I’m a survivor of narcissistic abuse myself and I’ve transcended the experience, tirelessly researched abuse recovery and I teach and lecture others on all things NPD, Narcissists, and Narcissistic abuse recovery – becoming to No1 expert in Bristol for Narcissistic abuse recovery – heavily focused on the neuroscience for Narcissistic Personality Disorder and its recovery protocols.
• Helping students overcome anxiety, lack of motivation, self doubt, lack of confidence and limiting beliefs
• Understanding and overcoming complex areas of  OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (I used to suffer from this in my extensively in my twenties prior to training as a therapist)
• Helping patients with complex areas of Health Anxiety (I used to suffer from in my teens and twenties)
• Assisting patients in lowering anxiety.
• LGBTQ+ Issues and empowering people with identity, sexuality, self-esteem, confidence etc
• Helping patients that are subjected to bullying and workplace bullying to become empowered in these instances and to increase the strength and determination to move forwards in a positive way.
• Assisting patients that feel stuck in repetitive patterns of behaviour to get of the proverbial hamster wheel of mental exhaustion, stress and anxiety.
• Overcoming Anger/Resentment or Jealousy
• Overcoming Social Phobias and lack of confidence in socialising and restoring the balance of positive interactions.

Sometimes modern life can become stressful and we suddenly find we’re anxious, stressed, angry or depressed and it’s like it’s just crept up on us. It can be a result particular life events like relationship difficulties or emotional issues, bullying, work issues, loss, separation or feeling overwhelmed and these types of life’s events can increase stress and anxiety until it becomes too much to deal with. When we are going through times like this, various symptoms of stress can manifest and this is precisely when hypnotherapy can help us cope with life’s challenges and restore control.

The above are just examples so do enquire if your issue isn’t listed. I have provided as much information about Hypnotherapy as possible to allow you to decide how hypnotherapy can be an effective tool to help you make changes in your life.

During your initial consultation, you can ask questions and I’ll be able to explain how simple it is to change and how hypnotherapy works. You can find a FAQs section can answer the most common questions people tend to ask.

Please browse through this website and get in touch if you have any questions about hypnotherapy, or, if you’re ready to make a change in your life and want help, I’d be delighted to hear from you. You can contact me on 07967122938.