For more than a decade, Lana Butterworth, a Ukrainian-born mum of two who has lived in the UK for the past 20 years, battled severe depression and OCD that left her feeling trapped in her own mind.
Lana said:
I stopped enjoying everything that once made me happy.
I used to love seeing friends and going to the gym, but I slowly became a hermit. I overate to numb my feelings and then felt guilty. My thoughts were so dark and frightening that I couldn’t share them with anyone — not even my husband.”
She says she reached a point where life felt empty.
Lana said:
I wasn’t really living — just existing. I used to think, ‘I’ll just wait until my kids are grown up, and then I can be gone.’ It was such a dark, lonely place.
During that time, Lana Butterworth was heavily medicated, experiencing side effects but seeing little improvement. Determined to find a way out, she tried therapy, CBT, breathwork, diet changes — anything that might help her feel like herself again.
Then came an unexpected turning point. Struggling with an additional fear of flying, she decided to try hypnotherapy — something she didn’t believe in at the time.
Lana said:
I went to see a hypnotherapist and asked her to hypnotise me so I wouldn’t be scared of flying.
To my surprise, she said, ‘I can’t hypnotise you, but I can help.’ She explained how our brain works and why we feel the way we do — and suddenly it all made sense.
For the first time in years, I saw light at the end of the tunnel.
That single session changed her life.
Lana said:
When I walked out, I felt like a different person.
The heavy fog lifted. It wasn’t magic — it was beginning of understanding and healing on a deep level.
Today, Lana Butterworth is 100% depression-free, off medication, and living her best life. True to a promise she made to herself in her darkest moments, she has since retrained as a hypnotherapist to help others who are struggling as she once did – Hypnotherapy with Lana.
Lana said:
I remember saying to myself: ‘If I ever get better, I’ll help as many people as I can.’ And that’s exactly what I’m doing now.
I know what it feels like to lose all hope — and I want people to know there really is light at the end of the tunnel.
- Hypnotherapy is a therapeutic technique that combines hypnosis with psychotherapy to help individuals make positive changes by accessing their subconscious mind. It involves guiding a person into a deeply relaxed, trance-like state where they are more receptive to beneficial suggestions from a trained therapist.
- Unlike stage hypnosis, the individual is fully in control and the goal is to help them overcome personal challenges, improve wellbeing, and achieve goals such as reducing anxiety, stopping smoking, or managing pain.
