Grantham mum is hynobirther to Hollywood
From her home in Barrowby, ‘Mindful Mamma’ Sophie Fletcher will sometimes be online talking to Hollywood celebrities about their ‘secret’ pregnancies.
The 45-year-old mum of two is a clinical hypnotherapist and mindfulness practitioner and author based at Grantham Tennis Club.
She also runs an international business that offers mindful hypnotherpay antenatal classes in the UK, Australia and the Caribbean. Her book has sold more than 30,000 copies.
Sophie was born in Surrey and did both her undergraduate and Masters degree at Manchester University. She began working in Nottingham in 1999 as economic policy advisor for the Arts Council and then moved to the regional development agency.
After using hynotherapy – a type of alternative medicine which uses the mind to cope with problems- during the birth of her son, Sophie retrained and began a new career.
She said: “It’s definitely not the swinging pendulums and ‘look into my eyes’ I imagined it to be.”
In 2008, Sophie set up Mindful Mamma offering hynobirthing antenatal classes, also lecturing at Nottingham University and training others to teach hypnobirthing all over the world.
Last year, she even trained hypnobirthing practitioners in Sydney, Australia, though she still runs workshops in Grantham.
About four years ago, the member of Grantham Tennis Club, began running clinics at the club every Monday, which involves working with adults and children with a range of things such as phobia, stress reduction, pain management, confidence.
Sophie said: “People often don’t realise that evidence shows even things like Irritable Bowel Syndrome can improve after a course of hypnosis. “
“Over 50 people teach my classes in the UK as licensees and this year we won the Luxe Awards UK Hypnobirthing Provider of 2018 which is great achievement. I’ve even had Hollywood A-listers as clients and professional sports people.”
Communication with such top people is done online, using Skype or Facetime, though Sophie declines to say who they are.
“It’s hilarious! They get in touch as normal people. I often don’t recognise them as they look so different to how we usually see them. They like the fact that I haven’t recognised them. They love the anonymity and privacy.
“If you go online, there will be rumours they are pregnant. they like the privacy. That’s why they come to me The press will never find out.”
Becoming an expert on the subject led Sophie into writing.
“I have always loved writing, and like many people, always wanted to write my own book. I found my outlet blogging initially, I didn’t think anybody read them!
“It seems I was wrong as an editor got in touch with me, loved how I wrote and within around six months a contract from Penguin Random House landed on my doorstep.
“Mindful Hypnobirthing has been a huge success and has now sold over 30,000 copies. It’s such a joy as I get emails from people all over the world who say that the book has changed their life. The audiobook is proving to be very popular in the States, people seem to love my accent!
Sophie has been a member of Grantham Tennis Club
for eight years, which led to her starting her sessions there.
“ I have played tennis all my life, I play for the women’s first team, so to have my hobby and job in the same place is an added bonus. I love how the club is so accessible, and open to everyone, we are really fortunate to have such a wonderful resource in our town.
“Sarah, the manager, is a very keen to integrate physical, so we have the physical side with the gym and the tennis, and are now growing counselling, hypnotherapy and mindfulness services.
“There is also massage and beauty, as well as lots of community groups that use the club’s events room. It’s really exciting seeing the club evolving as a centre for overall wellbeing and I much prefer working in a town like Grantham to a big city because of this type of community engagement.”
“I am developing workshops for people in the workplace and in schools based
on the award winning
workshops I run at the moment. This involves learning about mental health, and practical techniques that individuals can use to improve wellbeing at work and life in general.”
Sophie stresses her treatments involve more than just birth and fertility.
“I work with all sorts of general hypnotherapy, stress reduction, phobias, confidence, weight loss, sports performance, pain management etc.
“I was executive director of the National Council for Hypnotherapy, for three years and awarded a Fellowship for services to the profession in 2012.
“I run introduction to mindfulness sessions as well. I run a general clinic every Monday at the club working with adults and children.
“We are doing a lot of work to develop the aspect of complementary therapies at Grantham Tennis Club and this is a wonderful endorsement of the classes and therapies on offer there. people often think it’s just tennis but there is so much more!”
