Anne Cheshire

Hello.  I’m Anne Cheshire, SEP, MINMH, and I’m a trauma therapist, a teacher and a medical herbalist, and I’m best known for my work in empowering people to connect with their Sense of Self and reboot their unconscious brains, so that they can build their future in alignment with who they really are. 

I‘ve been called the brain power lady who helps people  stuck in doubt, confusion and unconscious brain overwhelm  with the Whole-Brain Reboot system so that they can live an empowered, fulfilled life.

I have been first and foremost a thinker.  I have a degree in Philosophy and Modern foreign Languages, and another in Herbal Medicine.  I have always been fascinated by people’s brains, and about what makes them tick.  With three small children I trained as a comprehensive school teacher and I observed hundreds of school children in my care, for over a decade, noticing how their brains worked for them or against them, and how their early experiences affected them for life.  In those days we thought that once the patterns were set, it was almost impossible for their brains to change. 

But sometimes I saw something else happen.  A child would begin to think differently, and their whole school experience changed, their grades improved, they became happier and more independent.  It was amazing to see.  I was always asking myself ‘How can we use our knowledge and understanding of how young people’s brains work, to help them feel safe, confident and empowered, no matter what their background is’?

To help with this I trained as a neurolinguistic programming practitioner (NLP), exploring how the unconscious brain responds in stress and overwhelm, and learning how to intervene in some of our brain patterns.  In the beginning I just used this in the classroom, to help my students.

But I was still facing challenges myself, sometimes feeling unable to make big life decisions, and I undertook a lot of my training in order to help myself! 

What I knew was that I regularly battled against my unconscious brain, which was trying to keep me safe by stopping me from taking action. 

Again and again I stood at the crossroads both at home and at work, trying to find my way, and kept on coming up against patterns of thought that just would not go away.  Doubts like What if I fail?  What if my friends don’t stick with me?  What if it doesn’t work?  What if I find out that this is not what I want after all?  Or I was confused – I don’t know what to think any more.  I have lost sight of who I am (I did say I had had plenty of life experience!).  I don’t know whether I can trust my intuition any more.

NLP had helped a great deal, but it hadn’t solved the fundamental problem of what was happening in my unconscious brain to stop me from going forward with confidence.  I carried on working on my emotional patterns, using all the tools in my tool box, and researching and trying several more.  Some things helped a little, but I kept on coming back to the same old issues again and again:  I couldn’t find a direction in life I felt truly comfortable with, and when I tried to make changes, it felt unsafe, and I was beset by doubts and irrational fears and lots of procrastination.

After being a teacher for a decade I took a career change and trained as a trauma therapist.  This gave me more training and more insight into how our brains work, but I still kept seeing people struggling to make big life or business decisions, no matter how hard they tried.  I loved working one to one with people, helping them manage their difficult life circumstances and seeing them heal from shock and overwhelm, but to begin with they were just managing, not changing at the brain level.  But bit by bit, as I searched and observed, and did my best with these clients, I started to see some new, exciting patterns.

One day, I had been in practice for a couple of years already, the jigsaw pieces started coming together for me.  What I saw was a problem that was both incredibly simple and really difficult to solve.  There are three parts to the solution.  The first two elements depend on unconscious brain activity, the third used the rational brain.

1. Sense of Self: We have to have a strong sense of self, know exactly who we are, to give us a compass in life.  How else do we know what we want? 

2. Unconscious brain: Then we can have confidence in finding a direction and taking aim on a destination which is totally in alignment with who we are.  This gives our brain a clear GPS on where we want to go, so we don’t wander around without a purpose, or feeling lost. 

3. Rational brain: When we have a destination or a purpose which is fully aligned with our Sense of Self, we can go about building a plan which is workable, makes sense, and is supported by all parts of our brain.

As I said, this was both simple and really difficult.  It was mind-blowing!

By this stage I had amassed a whole heap of really useful strategies and techniques to work with both parts of the brain – and now I had the insight as to how to put them together to change lives fundamentally.  The more I worked on this the more confident I became, as I was working with the unconscious brain and not trying to live my life in spite of it!  My own life turned around and I started to make rational decisions which were completely in alignment with who I was, which inspired and empowered me.  I made real changes and knew they were absolutely right for me. 

And I worked with my clients in the same ways, and they saw their lives turning around, much as mine had done, allowing them to feel connection with who they were, and live their lives with confidence and pleasure.  Some of them made massive changes in their lives, whilst with others you would hardly have known that anything was different, but inside, they felt totally different, totally renewed.

After helping thousands of clients facing life decisions, to reconnect with themselves and empower their lives, I have found that it is not just about knowing rationally what to do, but about enabling the unconscious brain to allow action.

I would be honoured if your were to join me on that journey yourself.