About Pete Luce Hypnotherapist

For best results in hypnotherapy you need to trust your hypnotherapist.

So of course you want to know a bit about them.

Here’s some history about Pete Luce Hypnotherapist in Exeter.

One of Devon’s most experienced hypnotherapists.

I have been working as a hypnotherapist since 1994, more than thirty years in the profession.

Very few hypnotherapists have this length of experience.

A Background in a Trusted Profession

Before I was a hypnotherapist I was a nurse.

I began my “general nursing” training in 1976, having earlier worked as a nursing auxiliary.

“General Nursing” (now called “Adult Nursing”) means caring for physically ill patients.

But after qualifying and working on a medical ward I switched to “mental health nursing,” qualifying in 1982.

So I have more than forty years experience in mental health work.

From 1986 to 1993 I managed the nursing team on a very busy mental health ward in Lewisham.

I then worked as a Community Psychiatric Nurse.

I was part of one of the first NHS Crisis Intervention teams, and also one of the first open-access NHS counselling clinics.

My staff and students said they felt safe when I was in charge, and that I listened intently to patients no matter what was going on around me.

The consultant psychiatrist remarked that I could relate easily to people with “personality disorders.”

He thought his was a rare ability. 

I always wanted to understand my patients, and to help them understand themselves.

This led me to train in my spare time as a hypnotherapist from 1987 onwards.

What I learned from Mental Nursing

I’ve now been a mental health professional for over 40 years.

I’ve learned a few things in my time.

Things you don’t learn in a weekend, or from a book or video, or from a marketing or business course.

As a nurse 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.

And in the past 30 years as a hypnotherapist in Exeter (and previously Plymouth) I’ve helped people overcome problems which had ruined their lives.

For instance, fears, bad memories, destructive behaviour patterns.

Many of these people had been to other therapists, including other hypnotherapists, and not been helped.

Training with World Class Experts

Over the years I have trained in person with many experts from Britain and America.

These include Dr Brent Geary of the Milton Erickson Foundation in Arizona USA, Dr Geoff Ibbotson, Adam Eason, and the late Peter Savage of the National College of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy.

I have also studied the European tradition of Mesmerism with Lee Gerrard-Barlow, who is the UK representative for the Italian expert Dr Marco Paret.

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

My trainer Dr Brent Geary was himself trained by Dr Milton Erickson, who is generally reckoned as the greatest hypnotherapist of the Twentieth Century.

My Special Interest: Phobia Hypnotherapy

I have helped clients to overcome a very wide variety of problems, but phobia hypnotherapy is my main speciality.

I was interested in phobia because I used to have a phobia myself.

From early childhood I was afraid of dogs.

As you can see from the photograph I am now very comfortable around even very large dogs!

But I can still remember the inconvenience, worry and embarrassment of this phobia.

I also recall the unhelpful comments from people who had never had this phobia and could not understand it.

So I’m determined to give clients useful and practical help.

I understand that their fears are very real and distressing even when the thing they fear is totally harmless.

For more about my style of working, click HERE.

A Registered Hypnotherapist

During my previous career in the nursing profession I saw the importance of belonging to a professional body with a code of ethics and standards.

In hypnotherapy there is no legal obligation to belong to any register, however I choose to be registered with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) and to abide by their code of conduct.

The NHS recommends the CNHC for people seeking alternative or complementary therapies.

You can check the entry about Pete Luce Hypnotherapist on the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council website.

I am also registered with the National Council for Hypnotherapy and I belong to the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis where I continue to attend workshops and meetings to share knowledge with professional colleagues including doctors, dentists, and psychologists.

My Own Research

If standards in the hypnotherapy profession are to improve, hypnotherapists will need to do their own research as well as learning from doctors and psychologists.

At the University of Plymouth I researched the psychology of smoking.

More recently I have researched the hypnotherapy profession in the UK, publishing my results in a map showing the distribution of hypnotherapists and a diagram showing how long most hypnotherapists have been practicing.