Jula Lewsey

Taking the first step towards therapy can sometimes feel daunting, but it can also be the beginning of meaningful and positive change. Having a safe, supportive space where you can talk openly and explore what is happening in your life can help bring clarity, understanding and a renewed sense of direction. Jula offers a calm, confidential and compassionate environment where clients feel genuinely heard, respected and supported without judgement.

Jula Lewsey is a founding Partner of White Lodge Therapy LLP and a fully qualified Senior Accredited Psychotherapist, Counsellor and Hypnotherapist. She is a registered member of the National Counselling & Psychotherapy Society and the National Hypnotherapy Society.

With many years of clinical experience, Jula works with individuals to explore their thoughts, feelings and experiences, helping them overcome difficulties and develop greater self-understanding, confidence and emotional well-being.

Known for her warm, down-to-earth and straight-talking style, Jula creates a safe and trusting therapeutic space where clients can feel comfortable discussing even the most challenging aspects of their lives. Her approach combines professional knowledge with deep empathy, allowing clients to feel supported while also gently encouraged to gain new insight and perspective.

Jula works as an integrative therapist, drawing on a range of therapeutic approaches and tailoring her work to meet the unique needs of each client. Her focus is on understanding the deeper roots of difficulties and supporting meaningful, lasting change.

Her work incorporates a number of established therapeutic models including:

• Hypnotherapy - A gentle yet powerful therapeutic approach that works with the subconscious mind to support positive change. Jula integrates hypnotherapy with her broader psychotherapeutic training, sometimes incorporating techniques such as regression, parts therapy and inner child work, helping clients explore and resolve underlying emotional experiences in a safe and supportive way. The aim is to create meaningful change by addressing not only symptoms but the deeper patterns that may be maintaining them.
• Psychodynamic Therapy and Transactional Analysis to explore unconscious influences and relationship patterns. 
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to address unhelpful thinking styles and behavioural patterns.
• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) to support the processing of trauma and distressing experiences.
• Gestalt Therapy to increase self-awareness and emotional presence.

Through this integrative approach, Jula helps clients develop healthier ways of thinking, feeling and relating to themselves and others. Whether you are experiencing anxiety, low self-esteem, trauma, relationship difficulties or feeling stuck or overwhelmed, therapy can help you move forward with greater clarity and confidence.

Before training as a therapist, Jula spent many years in a senior Human Resources career and served as a Board Director. This background allows her to offer additional insight to clients experiencing workplace stress, burnout, leadership pressures, career transitions or professional challenges. She understands how work-related demands can impact emotional well-being, identity and relationships.

If you are considering therapy and wondering whether it might help, Jula warmly welcomes you to make contact. Reaching out for support can be the first step towards a more balanced, fulfilled and empowered life.

Clinical Supervision
Jula also provides clinical supervision for counsellors, psychotherapists and hypnotherapists. Her supervision style is reflective, collaborative and supportive, offering a space where therapists can explore client work, ethical considerations and their own professional development.

Her approach is integrative and relational, drawing on her breadth of therapeutic training to support supervisees across different modalities and levels of experience. Jula aims to create a safe, non-judgemental environment where curiosity, openness and honest dialogue are encouraged.

Balancing warmth with thoughtful challenge, she helps therapists deepen their clinical insight, strengthen their practice and remain grounded in ethical, compassionate care. Her supervision supports not only clinical work but also the therapist’s wider personal and professional growth.

The first session will be an assessment session, where we will decide if you feel we can work together.  Should this be agreed, we will commence therapy with an open-time contract which means that wherever possible we will both commit to on-going therapy until you feel the work is complete. The initial assessment will include a full history take and the treatment plan, duration and frequency of ongoing sessions will also be discussed and agreed.

As a guide, the Practice fees are:-

Initial Assessment            £65 (60 minutes)
                                             
Further Appointments      £65 per session (60 minutes)

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Who can be hypnotised?

Virtually anyone can be hypnotised. Although some people are more readily able to be hypnotised than others, that largely depends upon the willingness to be hypnotised at that time. Nobody can be hypnotised against their will, so if you choose not to be hypnotised, you will not be.  However, it is said that if you allow the process to occur, then most people can be hypnotised.

Who may benefit from hypnotherapy?

Again, the answer to this question is virtually everyone. Given that hypnotherapy can be utilised to access a person’s inner potential and that probably no-one is performing to their actual potential, then this answer is literally true. However, it is not just potential which hypnotherapy is well placed to address but also one’s inner resources to effect beneficial change.

What are contraindications?

Although there are many presenting issues where hypnotherapy may bring relief and wellbeing, there are instances in which it may be contra-indicated. In some cases, GP approval will be required before hypnotherapy can start although this will be explored at the initial consultation.

Is it safe?

Hypnotherapy is a perfectly normal and safe alternative state of consciousness. People are sometimes concerned that they will lose control during hypnosis however, regardless of how deeply you go into hypnosis and however passive you may appear to be, you actually remain in full control of the situation. You will be able to communicate with Jula during hypnosis if you wish to and you can instruct her to stop at any time.  You are always in control.

Stage hypnotists (such as people you may have seen on the TV) use similar techniques (e.g. trance, suggestion and visualisation) that a hypnotherapist will use but this is where the similarity ends. Hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis positively, helping people to access their inner resources in a powerful and permanent way – it is not, under any circumstances, used for amusement or entertainment.

What does hypnosis feel like?

You know how you feel when you allow yourself to drift off to sleep and how to recognise that feeling of relaxation as the body senses slow down? The hypnotic trance shares the same commonalities, the only difference being, the hypnotherapist will induce the state of relaxation.  Hypnosis is not the same as sleep. It is an altered state of mind similar to daydreaming or becoming absorbed in an activity that you lose track of time. During these times you are not asleep, merely unconcerned about your surroundings at the time – for example, becoming absorbed in a book. Your attention is absorbed in the book, to the exclusion of everything else, which means that sensations can go overlooked or even ignored.

How many sessions will I need?

Every case is different and it varies with each person. Smoking cessation usually takes only 1 extended session (with some people taking advantage of the free booster session) but Jula's aim with everyone is to get you a little better or to give you a little bit more insight after every session. Jula's advice is, if you think you are getting better then keep coming and if you feel you’ve reached where you wish to be, then stop coming. Jula will always be honest with you and if she feels she's taken you as far as she can she will bring an end to therapy or if she feels it is not working for you, she will stop. 

Will I give away my secrets?

You are in complete control of yourself, you will not say or do anything that will be against your will. There is no need to divulge any more information than you feel is necessary to alleviate your presenting problem.

Are there any side effects from hypnotherapy?

The worst possible side effect is that you may fall asleep! If Jula were to stop talking for a while, you could either allow yourself to become more relaxed and so fall asleep, or you could open your eyes. You are in total control of your trance experience. Some people become emotional during hypnosis or a few days following therapy, but this is often an emotional release. On the other hand, the best possible side effect is that you will notice a complete alleviation of your presenting problem, and the knowledge that you are able to create your own success and live the life you wish for.

Will I remember everything during hypnosis?

Total amnesia for the entire hypnotic procedure is unlikely. Sometimes it will be necessary to remember certain portions of the process in order to ensure your total success.

Does hypnotherapy involve drugs?

No, not at all.  Jula merely uses her voice to create scenes which may mean you will be picturing, as in a daydream, the things that are being spoken of. In some cases you may experience the associated feelings.