• 2022 OMNI Designated Certification Instructor
• 2021 Hypnotherapy Supervisor certificate
• 2020 Human Givens Practitioner Diploma (UK) – Psychotherapist
• 2017 Advanced Integrative Therapy Practitioner Certification
• 2015 Facilitator Training for Rape Crisis/Domestic Violence Survivors
• 2012 PhD Educational Psychology, University of North Carolina (dual focus: online learning and child/adolescent development and disability)
• 2011 National Guild of Hypnotists – Certified Instructor
• 2010 Certified Transactional Analysis Practitioner
• 2008 National Guild of Hypnotists – Consulting Hypnotist. Trained by Ron Eslinger and opened   a part-time private practice.
• 2000 Master of Science in Information Science, University of North Carolina
• 1986 Bachelor of Science in General Science, St Andrews University, Scotland

I first learned to hypnotise after seeing a paediatrician on TV working with asthmatic children to calm anxiety, when I was 16. I tested a simple balloon induction on the kids I was babysitting at the time and was surprised that it worked so well! Once I got to university, I expanded my hypnosis repertoire and was regularly hypnotising my flat mates for fun – with their full permission, of course!

In 2011, the year I was certified as a hypnosis instructor with the NGH, I became the first hypnotist in the United States to advertise on the social media marketing platforms Groupon and Living Social. I gained 128 new clients in two days and my business exploded! I made the leap to being a professional hypnotist with a full-time private practice.  I have been in my current location in Chapel Hill, North Carolina since 2013.

In 2015 I collaborated with colleague Dr. Jim Beck of the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry to open a hypnosis clinic for anxious patients. As word spread that there was a hypnosis clinic at the university, I started to see child and adolescent clients referred to me from pediatric gastroenterology, with functional bowel disorders. This remains a specialty of mine. Sadly, the clinic closed in 2018.

I was lucky to be able to take the OMNI Basic to Advanced training co-taught by Jerry Kein and Hansruedi Wipf in 2015. This was one of Jerry’s last classes.

Between 2017 and 2020 I trained as a psychotherapist in the UK and during the pandemic I moved back to my home country of Scotland, where I now live and work for part of the year.

I love, love, love hypnosis and wish more people would consult a hypnotist as a first instead of a last option when something is wrong. I am excited to be an OMNI instructor and look forward to working with you!

 Claire de la Varre