Feel safe enough to fully live your life
Sometimes our lives get smaller without us even realizing it. We avoid what scares us, hold ourselves back from things we want, or stay inside familiar patterns even when they no longer fit.
And sometimes we understand exactly why we feel or behave the way we do, but still can't seem to change it.
My work begins at the "but"
You may already know how you want to live, but something keeps getting in the way.
You know you're safe, but your body doesn't feel safe.
You want to move forward, but fear keeps pulling you back.
You're exhausted, but you can't switch off.
You understand why you do what you do, but understanding hasn't been enough to change it.
I'm a clinical hypnotherapist, and this is where my work begins - in the space between what you consciously know and want, and how you actually feel, respond or behave.
Often, there is intelligence in the very thing you're trying to get rid of.
Anxiety, fear, avoidance and unwanted patterns can be ways your mind and body have learned to protect you, regulate you or keep you safe - even when they're now getting in the way of the life you want to live.
Rather than fighting against those responses, we get curious about them. Through clinical hypnotherapy, we explore what's happening underneath the pattern and work with the subconscious processes keeping it in place, to help your mind and body discover safer, more useful ways of responding.
The goal is freedom
Freedom from organizing your life around fear, protection and old patterns, so you can make choices based on what you want rather than what you're afraid of.
To feel safe enough to expand. To grow. To try things. To return more fully to yourself and the life you want to live.
To feel safe enough to fully live your life.
Since everything is a reflection of our minds, everything can be changed by our minds.
-Buddha
Meet Robyn
I'm Robyn Murphy, a Clinical Hypnotherapist. I help people understand and change the patterns that keep them stuck, particularly when fear, anxiety or an unwanted response persists even when they consciously know and want something different.
My approach is gentle, curious and deeply collaborative. I don't believe change comes from fighting with yourself. I'm interested in understanding what your mind and body are trying to accomplish, and helping you find a different way forward.
I hold a Diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy with Distinction and am committed to ongoing professional development, clinical supervision and evidence-informed practice.
Before becoming a hypnotherapist, I spent years working as a journalist and documentary producer, listening closely, asking questions and looking for the story beneath the story. That same curiosity and pattern recognition now deeply informs the way I work with clients.
Two Ways to Work Together
Clinical hypnotherapy is available both online and in-person in Toronto's Beaches area. Choose the setting where you feel most comfortable and able to focus on the work.
In-Person Sessions
Toronto Beaches
Join me in my private Toronto Beaches area practice — a quiet, dedicated space for focused, one-to-one hypnotherapy work.
Virtual Sessions
Available Everywhere
Work with me from the privacy and comfort of your own space. Clinical hypnotherapy can be offered effectively online, allowing you to settle into the work without travelling to an appointment.
How We Create Change
Working with what's in the way, rather than fighting against it
Real, lasting change doesn’t usually come from forcing yourself to try harder.
If anxiety, fear, avoidance or an unwanted pattern is serving a protective purpose, simply trying to eliminate it can create an internal tug-of-war.
My approach is different. We get curious about what the response is trying to accomplish, what it needs, and what might allow it to respond differently now.
Using clinical hypnotherapy and experiential change work, we work with the subconscious processes underneath the pattern — helping your mind and body discover safer, more useful ways of responding.
Here’s what that can look like:
1
Get Clear on What You Want
What would be different if this problem were no longer organizing your life? We begin with where you are now, where you want to go, and what seems to keep getting in the way.
2
Get Curious About What's Underneath
Rather than treating the unwanted response as the enemy, we explore what it may have been trying to accomplish for you. Often, a pattern that no longer serves you began as an attempt to protect, regulate or help you cope.
3
Work With the Subconscious
Through hypnosis, imagery, metaphor, parts work and other experiential approaches, we work with patterns at a level that conscious understanding alone may not reach. The aim isn't to overpower the response, but to help your system discover that another response is possible.
4
Create New Possibilities
As old responses begin to loosen, we strengthen new associations, perspectives and ways of responding — ones that fit who you are and how you want to live now.
5
Bring the Change Into Your Life
The work matters because of what becomes possible outside the therapy room: sleeping more easily, taking the trip, setting the boundary, making the decision, facing the thing you used to avoid, or simply having more choice in moments that once felt automatic.
The Goal? More Freedom
Not necessarily to never feel fear, anxiety or discomfort again.
But to have more choice in how you respond to them.
To stop organizing your life around what you're afraid might happen. To feel able to move toward the things you want. To trust yourself with uncertainty, discomfort and change.
To feel safe enough to fully live your life.
What I Can Help With
People come to hypnotherapy for many different reasons, but often the presenting problem is only part of the story. Whether you're struggling with anxiety, facing a specific fear, moving through loss or transition, or preparing for birth, we'll explore what's keeping the pattern in place — and what might allow something different to become possible.
Anxiety, Fear & Unwanted Patterns
Sometimes you know you're safe, but your body reacts as though you aren't. Or you know what you want to do, but anxiety, avoidance, overthinking or an unwanted pattern keeps getting in the way. Hypnotherapy allows us to explore what's happening underneath the response and help your mind and body find another way.
Hypnobirthing & Birth Preparation
Prepare for birth with greater calm, confidence and trust in yourself and your body. Hypnobirthing uses hypnosis, relaxation and mental rehearsal to reduce fear, build confidence and help you approach birth feeling more prepared and resourced. These tools can also support you in staying present and flexible when birth unfolds differently than expected.
Grief, Change & Life Transitions
Loss and change can alter our sense of who we are and how we understand our lives. Whether you're grieving someone you love, navigating a relationship or identity shift, caregiving, burnout, retirement or another major transition, this work offers space to process what has changed and discover how you want to move forward.
Recent Blog Posts
Ready to Begin?
If something keeps getting in the way of how you want to feel, respond or live, we can start with a conversation.
A complimentary consultation gives us a chance to talk about what you're experiencing, what you'd like to change, and whether hypnotherapy, and my approach, feels like the right fit.
Clinical hypnotherapy is available in person in Toronto's Beaches area and online.
