I didn’t grow up imagining I would one day become a clinical hypnotherapist. If anything, I spent my younger years just trying to survive and, like many kids who feel things deeply, daydreaming about becoming a rockstar or maybe even a superhero.
At nineteen, I was living in East Vancouver, right off of East Hastings, surviving in a world that many people only see from the outside. I had already carried more loss and trauma than words could explain. I knew the inside of food banks, I knew what it felt like to live in spaces with dirt floors and bars on the windows, and I knew what it meant to carry grief in my body while still having to move through each day.
What helped me keep going was a deep belief that there had to be more to the life I was living, something greater than just surviving. And right alongside that quiet sense of something more was music. Music gave me structure and focus, and it helped me express emotions I didn’t know how to say out loud. I later went on to study music formally, perform internationally, and eventually teach it. I launched rhythm-based and mindfulness programs in schools, and I even started a music program in Costa Rica. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was already witnessing the power of neuroplasticity. How rhythm, repetition, and emotion could rewire the brain.
Years later, all the survival wiring and suppressed pain I had pushed through started to catch up with me. Trauma that had built up over years came to the surface. It was time to stop just getting through and actually begin to heal. That’s when I found hypnotherapy. Or maybe it found me.
Through this work, I began to change the emotional patterns that had shaped me. I moved through grief, anxiety, and old trauma. I shifted how I related to my past and how I saw myself.
Today, I help others do the same. I work with trauma, anxiety, grief, and the invisible weight we carry from stories we never felt safe enough to share. We work directly with the systems that hold the pain in place. That includes your thoughts, your beliefs, and the wiring of your entire nervous system.
The subconscious mind is powerful, but it doesn’t work alone. The brain and the body hold memories. When we trace those emotional patterns back to their roots and tend to them gently, healing becomes possible.
My work blends neuroscience, compassion, creativity, and sharpened instincts. I help people rework the survival patterns that live in the nervous system.
My story, Streetwise and Soul Led: From Surviving to Rewiring, is featured in the new book Awakened Hearts: Stories of Embracing Light, Love, and Limitless Possibilities, launching June 23. This global anthology includes 32 authors, each sharing a personal story of healing, transformation, and awakening. It features voices like Marci Shimoff from The Secret and Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul, and Karen Weaver from Hear Us Roar. It’s for anyone navigating emotional healing, spiritual awakening, or rising up from hard places.
I wanted to show that healing is possible. Not just at the surface level, but deep nervous system healing. We are more than just a brain and a body, but we do have both — and they deserve care, safety, and support.
If you’re ready to reclaim your story, just know this. The next chapter could be your most powerful one yet. You’re not here just to survive. You’re here to be your full, authentic, and whole self.
Want to know more or book a session? Reach out. I’ve got your back. And your brain.
📘 Get your copy of Awakened Hearts today
Available now on Amazon Kindle for as low as $2.70
👉 www.awakenedheartsbook.com
More info: www.shannonshypnotherapy.com
Want to learn more about Shannon’s story and her recent book feature?
Check out the official press release for full details on her journey, the Awakened Hearts publication, and what this milestone means for her work as a hypnotherapist.