How I Work
Supporting You on Your Journey to Change
I offer a calm, supportive space where you can begin to feel safe, understood, and whole again.
My work is grounded in evidence-based research, drawing on approaches that are proven to be effective. At the same time, I take a holistic view—recognising that your mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing are deeply interconnected.
A Personalised, Collaborative Approach
Our work together is collaborative. We’ll explore your emotions, thought patterns, and behaviours that shape your daily life. Where helpful, we may gently look at past experiences to understand how they’ve influenced your nervous system and overall wellbeing.
I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all model. Instead, I draw on a range of tools and techniques, tailoring each session to suit your individual needs, goals, and preferences.
The Three Pillars to My Approach
When working with people on their journey to chronic pain / symptom recovery, I draw on three key pillars:
my personal experience of overcoming chronic pain,
over a decade of helping others create lasting change,
and the latest evidence-based science.
I know how utterly alone, unsupported, distressing and powerless it can feel when you have chronic symptoms, and so I am on a mission to help others like me.
As a trauma-informed therapist, I understand the deep connection between past experiences, the nervous system, and pain—and how we can gently guide the body and mind back to balance. Healing is possible, and I am here to support you every step of the way.
A Revolutionary Approach to Chronic Symptoms
If you’ve been enduring unresolved chronic pain, anxiety, stress or other chronic symptoms despite countless tests and treatments, you’re not alone. Over 1.2 billion people worldwide live with chronic pain, searching for answers that traditional approaches often fail to provide. A similar number suffer from debilitating anxiety.
The good news? There is a solution.
Evidence Based Approach
My approach is based foremostly on the SIRPA approach, which incorporates key elements of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), reflecting the growing evidence base and interest in this area of recovery from chronic symptoms. SIRPA are closely aligned with the clinicians and educators leading this work.
Because of my varied training, I can also incorporate Hypnotherapy, NLP, EFT tapping, Somatic therapy, and Mindfulness Meditation into sessions.
I adapt these evidence-based strategies to the individual needs of each client. By combining these elements with additional education, nervous system regulation and additional therapeutic tools, I support a more flexible, personalised way of working that reflects the individuality of each person.
By addressing the biological, emotional, psychological and behavioural patterns that reinforce symptoms, we create the conditions for lasting change.
The Four Pillars of Success:
Education - Understanding the science
Emotions - Emotional healing techniques
Behaviour - Positive behavioural change
Lifestyle - Sustainable life changes
The Four Pillars of Success
Education
I explain how symptoms are created in the brain and nervous system. Understanding the science helps reduce fear, which is one of the biggest drivers of persistent pain. Through nervous system regulation and brain retraining, the involved neural circuits can be rewired.
150+
Trusted Experts
Proven Results
Emotions
Stress, pressure, learned behaviours, and unprocessed emotions can keep the nervous system on high alert. I assist you with safe ways to identify, address and process these emotional triggers so the brain starts to feel less threatened and safer.
Behaviour
Certain habits — like avoiding movement, being overly cautious, expecting symptoms, or isolating yourself — can reinforce the brain's protective patterns. I help you gently rebuild confidence and create new, healthier neural circuits.
Lifestyle
Stress, perfectionism, and a busy mind can keep the nervous system activated. I help you create long-term strategies to improve stress management and encourage calm, balance, and resilience.
Benefits of working with me
During sessions, you’ll gain practical self-help tools to support your daily life, empowering you to live pain-free while enhancing your mental and emotional well-being.
Key Components of Recovery
Understanding the Brain’s Role in Symptoms – Learn how symptoms are processed in the brain and discover its potential for reversibility.
Building Personalised Evidence for Healing – Identify and reinforce the proof that your brain has the capacity to reduce and eliminate symptoms.
Somatic Tracking for Pain/ Sensation Reprocessing – Develop a safe and mindful approach to observing sensations (eg pain), reducing fear, and retraining your nervous system.
Addressing Underlying Emotional Factors – Explore and release emotional patterns that may be contributing to persistent symptoms.
Shifting Towards Positive Sensations – Cultivate a mindset that fosters comfort, resilience, and well-being.
Reduce the stresses you can control - Come to understand the ways you are causing your own internal pressure, so you can make a change for the better.
Living a Full and Symptom-Free Life – Step into a future where you feel free, whole, and empowered to enjoy life again.
Insight into what is holding you back - you may not be aware of the factors that are prolonging your cycle of pain. Our work together will help you have those a-ha moments to set you free.
6 Weeks of Curable App FREE - when you book a package of 6 sessions or more. Curable has a host of resources such as meditations and information to help you recover from chronic symptoms.
You have the ability to recover - let’s work together to unlock that potential. Why not book a Free Discovery Call to see how I can help you?
MH Wellbeing, Maria Hancock MSc GQHP
Specialist in Anxiety, Stress and Chronic Symptoms
Trauma-Informed Somatic Therapist, Hypnotherapist, Mindfulness Teacher, SIRPA Pain Recovery Practitioner
Local areas: Horley, Reigate, Redhill in Surrey and Crawley, Horsham, Copthorne in West Sussex. English Speaking Online Therapy.
