Your practitioner

Laura McDonald

A bit of background info about your practitioner

The Beginning

It all started back home in London, 2003, when I had just left Waitrose (John Lewis) after 11 years. I was looking through the newspaper (that sounds weird!) for work that was in line with my English Linguistics and Literature degree. I wasn't sure if I wanted to become a speech therapist, a teacher, or something else.

A familiar ad sprung out at me for a hypnotherapy training course, which I'd originally enquired about in 1998. This time was different, though. it was REALLY calling me. I decided to apply and started the training in January 2004. It was more for my own mind than anything else - I certainly didn't foresee having a career in anything like this. But in the lunch break very first day of the training, I phoned my Mum and said 'this is it Mum, this is what I am going to do! It is just mind-blowing!' and that was it. I completed the training, set up my first appointments working with pregnant smokers in a clinic in Ladbroke Grove, with Kensington and Chelsea Council, London..

I then found a gorgeous holistic centre in Willesden Green, and rented a room there, seeing clients for stress, anxiety, smoking cessation, performance, confidence and so much more. I learned so much in that first full year of working with people and their problems. I learned so much about business and potential scams from people promising me the earth in magazines that didn't exist (might write a blog about that one).

As all practitioners know, we continue to train extensively and carry out a certain number of CPD hours each year. In the last 21 years I can't count how many courses, trainings and qualifications I've acquired. Most of them, I barely use any more due to the fact that I have under my belt the most amazing therapeutic intervention there is - more about that in a moment!

Teaching

As well as studying various other modalities, I also made a big life change by moving from London to Ireland. My Mum was from Castlebar, and I'd visited multiple times a year throughout my childhood. I had met my future husband a while before we actually got together and in December 2006, I made the move. I thought it would be easy enough; it's an English speaking country, what more do you need? How wrong I was - a massive culture shock that I don't know I'll ever get used to. Who knows what the future holds - but regular trips back home help keep my soul aligned!

In 2016, I opened up the first and only Hypnotherapy training school in Connaught. I had been practicing hypnotherapy over 10 years by that point, and taught my first course in Castlebar to a group of the most amazing people, one who I went on to co-author a book with! I taught Terence Watts' hypnotherapy course until 2022 and met some amazing people. In 2017 I taught BrainWorking Recursive Therapy for the first time, and still am today, online and in person. So, what is BWRT?

One of the CPD trainings I did back in 2014 was BWRT. I used to go to my CPD courses in person in London, but being here in Ireland, there were very little, or they were too far away. So, I did all my CPD online, mostly with Terence Watts. I got the points for the training, and left it for a while, it being too different to what I already knew. But, so many practitioners reported outstanding results that shocked even Terence, and I decided to revisit it and use it with my clients.

Everything changed.

People started hearing about BWRT and getting in touch, requesting it specifically. My practice blew up and I had waiting lists I couldn't keep up with. The results were just astonishing. When people ask what it can help with, it's hard to say with a straight face but, it can help with everything. Trauma, confidence, fears, phobias, addictive behaviours, business success, sports performance, grief and so much more.

I am so proud to be a global supervisor too, to other practitioners all around the world. So, if you're a BrainWorking Recursive Therapy Practitioner, get in touch to book your 3 (or more, if you wish) annual sessions in advance.