Welcome. I’m James Hislop, a licensed clinical social worker and certified hypnotherapist serving adults in the Capital District. I provide psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, and stress-management services for clients age 18 and older who want to reduce anxiety, deepen emotional resilience, and create meaningful personal change.

For more than twenty-five years, I’ve worked with individuals seeking relief from stress, trauma, grief, emotional overwhelm, difficult transitions, and long-standing patterns that no longer serve them. My approach blends the clarity of professional psychotherapy with the practical, transformative tools of clinical hypnosis, mindfulness, and mind-body wellness.

I believe healing is most powerful when it occurs in a warm, respectful, and collaborative relationship. My clients often describe feeling calmer, clearer, more understood, and more grounded as we work together. My goal is to help you reconnect with your own strengths, loosen the grip of stress and fear, and move forward with confidence and self-trust.

In addition to my clinical work, I teach a 100-hour Hypnotist Certification Training Program, designed for clinicians, therapists, and wellness professionals who want to learn advanced hypnosis skills. I also lead monthly group hypnosis meetings and contribute to a growing community of skilled, compassionate practitioners in the Capital District.

You are welcome here — whether you’re seeking psychotherapy, stress-management hypnosis, help with weight or body-image concerns, anxiety relief, or professional hypnosis training.
I look forward to meeting you and supporting your journey toward greater well-being.

My practice is located at 939 Route 146, Suite 210, Clifton Park, NY.
Convenient parking and easy access make visits simple and stress-free.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, attend a hypnosis workshop, or learn more about the services I offer, feel free to reach out.

Why Consult a Therapist?

Why consult a psychotherapist when you could talk to a trusted friend or family member? What is it about some stranger with a degree, supposedly educated and available for consultation, who would have something better to say than the average person? Presumably, a certified, state licensed therapist would have certain qualities and information that would not be easily available in one place from anyone else. He or she also would have requirements of practice that would respect the safety of everyone involved. Indeed, there are the basic requirements for any form of professionalism. In addition, I have composed a modest list here, to be amended as insight requires. A psychotherapist would also offer,

1. Insights into an overall theory of emotional, social and intellectual development, allowing for a workable diagnosis.

2. An appreciation of societal and cultural influences, including influences from a media and our marketing-saturated consumerism culture.

3. Available instruction on mindfulness and self-care practices to cultivate emotional self-regulation and distress tolerance abilities.

4. A general theory of trauma and the process of healing.

5. An appreciation of spirituality distinct from religion.

6. An appreciation of addictions and the process of recovery.

7. Knowledge of the inevitability of grief and the process of grieving.

8. Willing to offer a nonjudgmental relationship where a person can explore ‘’be yourself’’ within appropriate limits.

Different clients start from different places.

For some, medication dulling the feeling is sufficient. 

No curiosity. Others are willing to inquire into the present feeling to identify the old mis-perceptions that maintain the impairment.

Still others are willing to identify the source of the feeling, and correct the original disillusionment or trauma. The job is to experience emotions now that were not allowed before.

We may find yet another feeling, from yet another experience, that also is appropriate to address. Ultimately, the healing and growth process is to cycle deeper and deeper into a given issue, sometimes now, sometimes later, with the same or sometimes different therapist. We're done when there's an experience of acceptance and peace.