About your tutors
Somerset School of Hypnotherapy was founded by Lindsey and Steve Extance in 2014. We built it because we wanted something different from the schools we’d come across ourselves. Something warmer, more practical, more honest about what this work asks of a practitioner. Over a decade later, we’re still teaching in small groups, still working alongside our graduates after they qualify, and still doing the work we love.
About Lindsey Extance
Oh gosh, just where do I start?
My journey through life has been an interesting one indeed. I will not bore you with every detail, but it probably helps to understand how I came to teach hypnotherapy and why it still matters so much to me today.
I grew up in a time before mobile phones, before the internet, when computers were large machines found mainly in offices, and televisions were black and white. If you wanted to learn something, you went to a library and read a book. By today’s standards that may sound old fashioned, and yes, some people might call me old, but I am only 60 and very much still curious about life.
If someone had told me in my early twenties that I would become a hypnotherapist and later teach it, I would have thought they were completely mad.
I lived in Oxford, studied Psychology, and later Personnel Management, now more commonly known as Human Resources. I went on to become a Personnel Manager within the music and entertainment industry, then later moved into the fast paced world of recruitment consultancy. In time, I helped run a large transport and warehousing company in Oxfordshire, until the credit crunch of 2007 changed many people’s lives, including ours.
My first real introduction to hypnotherapy came much earlier, back in the late eighties, when a close friend trained as a hypnotherapist. I watched her help people overcome a wide range of difficulties and quietly admired the impact she was having. She often said I would make a good therapist myself, but at that time my life was full and my main passion outside of work was horses.
Alongside full time work, I taught horse riding and specialised in working with nervous adult riders. One particular client struggled with anxiety to the point that it affected every lesson. My hypnotherapist friend suggested that hypnotherapy might help her relax and feel safer. I was fascinated.
After the sessions, the change was obvious. The client was calmer, more confident, and far easier to teach. That experience really lit something inside me. My friend offered to teach me everything she knew. I borrowed her books, studied her training notes, and sat in on sessions as a student. I was completely hooked.
Although I had studied psychology and understood some of the theory, I quickly realised that hypnotherapy was a very different way of working. It was practical, human, and deeply effective. After a long period of study and practice, my friend felt I was ready to work with clients of my own. I set up in practice and saw wonderful results, not only within horse riding, but across a wide range of issues.
Years later, I relocated to Somerset, where I met Steve through completely ordinary life circumstances. At the time, he was working as a builder and struggling with his health and smoking. I offered hypnotherapy to help him stop smoking, and to my surprise, he agreed. The session worked, and that experience sparked a deep interest in him.
Steve became fascinated by hypnotherapy and asked if I would teach him. Although I had years of experience as a practitioner, I did not yet train therapists, so I encouraged him to look for a suitable training school. He searched widely but did not feel comfortable with what he found. Some places focused heavily on academic background and qualifications, and that left him feeling judged rather than supported.
Eventually, Steve found a training organisation in Yorkshire and suggested that I train as a hypnotherapy teacher myself. At first, I resisted. I felt too old to retrain and doubted whether I really needed to. But after speaking to the trainer there, someone I still fondly call my guru, I was encouraged to take the step.
He insisted that before teaching, I attend all of the courses he ran. This meant multiple trips to Yorkshire to complete foundation training, diploma training, specialist workshops, and finally a teacher trainer qualification. I loved every minute of it. It refreshed my skills, expanded my understanding, and reignited my passion for the work.
After qualifying as a teacher, I trained Steve as a hypnotherapist and watched him grow into the role, helping people in his own very natural and grounded way. Together, through shared values and experience, we went on to develop and run the Somerset School of Hypnotherapy.
We have developed a holistic approach that recognises that excellent hypnotherapists come from all walks of life. Not everyone has a degree. Not everyone has studied formally for years. What matters is empathy, curiosity, integrity, and a genuine desire to help others.
I have been a vegetarian for over forty years, though I do not preach as everyone is free to choose their own path. I am a Reiki Master. I love animals deeply, especially dogs, horses, and cats. I enjoy the occasional glass of wine. I have never smoked, yet I have helped many people stop smoking, which proves that you do not need to have lived every experience yourself to help someone through it.
What you do need is care, commitment, and a passion for helping people change their lives.
That is what we believe in. That is what we teach.
About Steve Extance
To write about yourself is actually quite a hard thing to do. When people ask who I am, my answer is usually something like, I am Steve, I am a therapist. But I know I need to say something a little more interesting here, so this is my story.
I am co director and trainer here at the Somerset School of Hypnotherapy. I train alongside Lindsey as a fellow trainer. We are not a couple, but we do work closely together, and we share the same values around calm, ethical, practical hypnotherapy that genuinely helps people.
My journey with hypnotherapy began over a decade ago, after a smoking cessation session worked so well it completely changed my view of what the mind can do. That one experience sparked a deep fascination, and it eventually became the work I now love, practise, and teach.
Fifteen years ago, before I became aware of the power of hypnosis, I was a completely different person. I was running my own property renovation company and living a very full on life. I smoked heavily, drank far too much, my diet was poor, my stress levels were through the roof, and I was carrying a lot of excess weight. Looking back now, that lifestyle was making me physically unwell.
At the time, I did not really recognise what was happening, but I can now see that I had always been a little different on the inside. I have always wanted to do the very best I can for other people. Even in my building work, before starting a renovation, it was not unusual for me to sit quietly in the property first, taking in the feel of the place and allowing it to guide how I approached the work.
I met Lindsey when she asked me to renovate what has since become her home and the training centre for hypnotherapy. She was an experienced hypnotherapist and noticed that I was clearly out of condition physically. She offered me hypnotherapy to help me stop smoking.
I will admit, I did not really understand what hypnotherapy was at the time. I knew of someone who had used it to stop smoking, but I had never considered it for myself. I knew I should stop smoking and had tried many times, but nothing had worked.
When Lindsey offered me a hypnotherapy session, I was sceptical. I remember thinking how can someone just talking to me make me stop smoking. Not wanting to be rude, I agreed to the session. From that moment on, my life changed completely.
I was genuinely amazed. Whatever was said during that session stopped me from even wanting another cigarette. At first, I was not entirely pleased with myself. Surely, if I really wanted to stop smoking, I should have been able to do it on my own. Lindsey then explained why hypnotherapy had worked so effectively for me, and that explanation changed how I viewed the mind forever.
I was fascinated and knew I had to learn more about this incredible process called hypnosis.
From there, everything shifted. I studied relentlessly and became deeply committed to understanding how the mind works and how real change happens. I went on to complete a Hypnotherapy Diploma and became a hypnotherapist myself. Since then, I have helped hundreds of people with a wide range of issues, including anxiety and depression.
Alongside hypnotherapy, I followed my passion for helping people in other ways too. I am now a Reiki Master Trainer in traditional Usui Reiki and an Angelic Reiki teacher. I also work with Reiki Drum, sound and vibrational healing, mindfulness, NLP, meditation, gong baths, and past life regression. I also work with animals, and I am a vegetarian.
I understand now that although I was once caught up in the pressure and stress of the business world, I had always been different at heart. Hypnotherapy helped me give myself permission to change and become who I truly am.
I genuinely believe that hypnotherapy saved my life. My purpose now is simple. To share what I have learned and help as many people as I can.