About Pete Luce Hypnotherapist

My previous career was in nursing. I began my general nurse training in 1976 and my mental health nurse training in 1980. The picture shows me in 1980, when I was a staff nurse at Mayday Hospital in Croydon.
I was a ward manager for eight years, mostly on a very busy acute admissions ward in a multi-cultural area of London. Later I was a Community Mental Health Nurse in the same area.

I helped set up one of the first NHS Crisis Intervention Teams, and also one of the first NHS walk-in counselling services, based in London’s biggest council estate.
I was recognised by psychiatrists as having special abilities in helping people diagnosed as having “personality disorders.”
I helped to organise a campaign to make the hospital safer for patients and staff, by improving training and facilities.

My first training was with Peter Savage of the National College of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy, Britain’s oldest hypnotherapy school. This was a full psychotherapy training, in hypnopsychotherapy, not just hypnosis, although I do use hypnosis with most of my clients as this speeds up their progress.

At the end of this training I obtained the J.P. Noble Award for the best dissertation that year. The J.P. Noble Award is an academic prize given by the National College of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy (NCHP) in the United Kingdom. It is awarded annually.

The NHS recommends the CNHC (Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council) for people seeking hypnotherapy, and UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy) for people seeking psychotherapy.
I am registered with both. You can check my entries on the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council website. and the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy website. On that website I appear under my full name of Peter James Luce.
I am also registered with the National Council for Hypnotherapy and I belonged for many years to the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis where I attended workshops and meetings to share knowledge with professional colleagues including doctors, dentists, and psychologists.

Later I trained with Dr Brent Geary of the Milton Erickson Foundation in Arizona USA, which is the legacy of Dr Milton Erickson (see picture below), often rated as the greatest hypnotherapist of the 20th century. I’ve done further courses with Dr Geoff Ibbotson, and Adam Eason.
I’ve also trained in Mesmerism with Lee Gerrard Barlow who works with the Italian expert Dr Marco Paret.

I also have a BSc Honours degree in Psychology from the University of Plymouth, and a Diploma in Counselling, also from the University of Plymouth and Cornwall College.

I qualified in 1993 and I’ve been working professionally as a hypnotherapist since 1994. That’s over 30 years in the profession. Very few hypnotherapists have this much experience, as you can see from my research HERE.

In 50 years of health work I’ve learned a few things- the kind of things you can’t learn from a book, or a weekend course, or even a university degree (although I’ve done that too!)
I have talked down “jumpers” from tall buildings.
I’ve had to tell people the news they most dreaded hearing about the people they most cared about.
I have persuaded people to give up weapons with which they had intended to harm themselves.
I’ve cared for many people in the last hours of their lives.
And I have dealt with serious violent incidents, and still maintained a good relationship with those involved.

There is always something to learn from every client and every session. In the past 30 years as a hypnotherapist I’ve helped people overcome problems which had ruined their lives, like fears, bad memories, destructive behaviour patterns.
Many of these people had been to other therapists, including other hypnotherapists, who had been unable to help them.

As Pete Luce hypnotherapist I now work entirely indepedently, but in the past I’ve worked for several organisations in both paid and voluntary roles.
I have worked as a counsellor (both paid and voluntary) at Plymouth College of Art and Design and at Plymouth MIND which used to have a free counselling service for people with severe mental health problems.
I’ve also worked as a counsellor/psychotherapist for several Employee Assistance Providers, helping clients who were referred by their workplace occupational health services.
Outside of therapy I’ve also volunteered with Advice Plymouth (linked to Citizens’ Advice Bureau). During my NHS career I was a trade union shop steward and assistant branch secretary, which gave me very wide experience in helping people with employment related problems.

Yes. I’ve specialised in hypnotherapy for phobias because I used to have a phobia myself. From early childhood I was afraid of dogs. As you see from the picture below I overcame that fear and am now comfortable even around very large dogs. But I can still remember the inconvenience, worry and embarrassment of this phobia, and the unhelpful comments from people who had never had this phobia and could not understand it. I understand that my clients’ fears are very real and distressing even when the thing they fear is totally harmless.
So rest assured that Pete Luce will never mock or dismiss you for the fears and other extreme feelings you experience.

To read more about my own style of doing hypnotherapy, click HERE.

Click the icons below for the Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin pages of Pete Luce hypnotherapist. But only use the contact form on this website to contact me, as I don’t use social media very much!

I cannot answer every possible question on one web page, so if there’s something else you’d like to know, just email me using the contact form HERE. I reply to every genuine inquiry. Genuine replies from me, not AI-generated!