About Ian Franklin
Clinical Hypnotherapist Colchester & Essex
My Journey to Helping Others Thrive
When you're choosing a hypnotherapist, qualifications matter — but so does the person behind them. I'm Ian Franklin, a Clinical Hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner, practising professionally since 2012 from my dedicated therapy studio in Wivenhoe, Colchester, as well as working with people online.
Over the years I've worked with people from many different backgrounds and at very different points in their lives. Some come to me struggling with anxiety, panic or a fear that has restricted their life. Others want to stop smoking or vaping, change an unwanted habit, improve their confidence or performance, sleep better or feel more in control again.
Whatever brings somebody through my door, I never forget that I'm working with a person, not simply a problem.
A Career Built Around People
Long before becoming a therapist, my working life was about people. After leaving school, I worked in theatre and radio before spending many years entertaining and communicating with audiences across the UK.
I worked as a host and manager at major UK holiday resorts, trained as a close-up magician and children's entertainer, wrote and toured a full-length theatre production nationwide and eventually founded and ran a successful management agency. That business led to managing & working with performers, celebrities, major events and organisations, including arranging corporate wellbeing through laughter at Google's UK headquarters. The business also became the subject of two BBC documentaries.
Those experiences might seem a long way from hypnotherapy, but they taught me something that has remained invaluable throughout my therapeutic career: how to communicate with people. People want to feel heard. They want to feel comfortable. And when they're struggling, they don't want to feel judged.
That understanding remains at the heart of how I work today.
Becoming a Clinical Hypnotherapist
I qualified as a Clinical Hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner in 2012 through the Clarendon House School of Hypnosis. My qualification followed four years of intensive, structured training in hypnotherapy and NLP, with progressive study and examinations throughout the different modules.
But qualifying wasn't the end of my education. Since 2012, I have continued to undertake advanced training and Continuing Professional Development. I invest thousands of pounds each year in developing my knowledge, skills and therapeutic approach, and I also assist with the training and development of other practitioners.
I'm CNHC Registered, a GHR Accredited Practitioner, fully insured and DBS checked. For me, experience and continuing professional development serve the same purpose: they give me a broader range of knowledge and approaches to draw upon so that the person in front of me doesn't have to fit into a standard script.
When Life Challenged Me Too
In 2015, my understanding of fear, uncertainty and resilience became deeply personal. During a complex spinal operation, a surgical complication left me unable to eat or swallow normally. For months, my future was uncertain and my wife had to feed me liquid nutrition through a tube.
This left me with PTSD Severe Anxiety also Depression.
It was frightening. During that period I found myself drawing on many of the psychological skills I had spent years learning and using professionally. Hypnotherapy and NLP became part of how I maintained focus, managed difficult moments and kept moving forward.
I would never suggest that my experience is the same as somebody else's. But it changed me. It deepened my understanding that behind every person asking for help is a story that deserves to be heard.
What Working With Me Is Like
My approach is calm, positive, practical and highly personalised. I'll listen to what's happening, what you've already tried and, importantly, what you would like to be different.
I don't believe that everybody needs the same technique, the same script or the same number of sessions. I also don't believe in automatically booking people into a predetermined block of therapy. Everyone is different. We'll work at a pace that's appropriate for you and review your progress together.
My aim isn't to keep you in therapy for longer than you need. It's to make the time we spend together purposeful and focused on helping you move towards the outcome that matters to you.
You Remain in Control
This is not stage hypnosis. You won't be made to do anything silly and you don't hand control over to me.
Modern hypnotherapy is a collaborative process. I'll guide you, explain what we're doing and create an environment where you can feel comfortable, but you remain an active participant throughout. Therapy should feel like something we're doing together — not something being done to you.
The Part of My Work That Matters Most
Over the years I've had the privilege of working with NHS staff, teachers, carers, civil servants, members of the armed forces and police, parents, teenagers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, professional performers and people in the public eye.
I've also worked with people who would never describe themselves by their job or achievements. They simply wanted their life back from something that had begun controlling it.
The most rewarding part of this work isn't certificates on my wall. It's hearing what somebody has been able to do afterwards: taking the flight they once thought impossible, driving on a road they had avoided, going through a day without organising it around cigarettes or vaping, facing a situation without the panic they once expected, sleeping differently, speaking confidently, or simply feeling more like themselves again.
No therapist can guarantee another person's outcome, and everybody's experience is individual. But after practising since 2012.
Those moments are still why I love doing this work.
From Colchester to a Worldwide Community
My practice is based in Wivenhoe, Colchester, where I work face-to-face from my dedicated professional therapy studio. I also work online, which has allowed me to connect with people beyond Essex and the UK.
In 2025, I launched the English Therapist Wellness YouTube channel to make hypnotherapy and wellbeing resources freely available to a much wider audience. That community has since grown to more than 10,000 subscribers worldwide.
For me, its growth reinforces something I've seen throughout my career: wherever somebody lives and whatever their background, many of the things people struggle with — fear, anxiety, habits, confidence and wanting life to feel different — are remarkably human.
Why I Still Keep Learning
I've been practising professionally since 2012, but I never want experience to become complacency. I continue to study, undertake advanced training and invest substantially in Continuing Professional Development every year. I also assist with the training and development of other practitioners.
The field continues to develop, and I believe I should too. My clients deserve somebody who brings experience to the room but is still curious, still learning and still prepared to adapt.
You Don't Have to Decide Today
Contacting a therapist can feel like a surprisingly big step. You might have been thinking about it for months. You may have tried other things already. Or you might simply be wondering whether hypnotherapy could be right for you.
That's why I offer a free initial telephone consultation. There's no obligation to book a course of sessions. It's simply an opportunity for you to tell me a little about what's happening, ask questions and get a sense of whether I'm the right person for you.
Because before any technique, qualification or therapy can matter, you need to feel comfortable with the person you're choosing to work with.
If that feels like the right next step, you're very welcome to get in touch.
Mental Wellness for Companies & Employees
Alongside my private hypnotherapy practice, I work with companies and organisations, including teams of approximately 20 to 500 employees, helping support staff mental wellness, resilience, stress management, confidence and focus.
Corporate mental wellness sessions can be delivered face-to-face or online, making them suitable for office-based, remote and hybrid teams.
I understand that workplace wellbeing needs to be practical. Businesses don't need another lecture that staff forget as soon as it ends. My aim is to provide engaging, accessible mental wellness sessions that give employees practical techniques they can understand and use in everyday working life. Sessions can be tailored around the needs of the organisation and its people, including areas such as managing stress, mental reset techniques, resilience, confidence, focus and maintaining wellbeing in demanding working environments.
Working Locally, Across the UK & Internationally
Although my professional hypnotherapy studio is based in Wivenhoe, near Colchester, Essex, people are not limited by geography. I provide face-to-face hypnotherapy in Colchester and Essex and online hypnotherapy across the UK and internationally. Over the years, people have travelled considerable distances to work with me in person, while online sessions allow me to work with people much further afield.
I deliberately don't identify individual clients or connect locations with particular treatments or experiences. Client confidentiality always comes first.
My Professional Therapy Studio
Face-to-face sessions take place at my dedicated therapy studio:
Ian Franklin Hypnotherapy
31 Wivenhoe Business Centre
Brook Street
Wivenhoe
Colchester
Essex CO7 9DP
The studio provides a calm, private and professional environment away from my home and yours, allowing you to talk openly and comfortably. There is free on-site parking, a waiting area and facilities within the business centre. Wivenhoe railway station is also only a short walk away.
If you’re ready to take the next step, I’d love to help. Together, we’ll make lasting change happen.
Studio & Location
Your sessions take place in a dedicated professional therapy studio, providing a calm, private and confidential environment where you can relax and speak openly.
My studio, which is a clean, bright, airy & relaxing space, is based at the Wivenhoe Business Centre. There is also a waiting area and Female & Male toilets situated on the same floor. Choosing to visit a professional business premises for therapy ensures a more discreet, private, safe, secure and respectful experience for you the client.
Ian Franklin Hypnotherapy
31, Wivenhoe Business Centre,
Brook St, Wivenhoe,
Colchester
Essex CO7 9DP
Free Parking On Site.
Wivenhoe Train Station is a pleasant 5 minute walk to the studio. The nearest Bus stop is 3-4 minute walk to the studio.
There are numerous cafes/patisseries/Art galleries in Wivenhoe & the estuary front is 1 min walk from the studio.
The Beautiful front of Wivenhoe is 1 minutes’ walk from the studio
If you haven’t been to Wivenhoe before or are travelling a distance please allow yourself the pleasure in seeing why Wivenhoe's was named the most desirable place to live in the East of England by the Sunday Times in 2024/25
My Professional UK Studio
Wivenhoe Business Centre, Wivenhoe, Colchester, Essex United Kingdom CO7 9DP
Hypnotherapist Colchester, Essex
Serving Colchester, Wivenhoe, Brightlingsea, Clacton, Harwich, Frinton, Chelmsford, London, and across Essex — plus online hypnotherapy worldwide.
Modern, confidential, positive therapy that works.