Lisa Davidsson – My Story

I am Lisa Davidsson, I’m a psychologist from Sweden turned hypnotherapist. This is my story of how and why I left a prosperous career as a psychologist and business owner in Sweden to move to Bali and build a retreat center and from there find the world of hypnotherapy.

As a psychologist in Sweden I come from a science heavy western training in psychology and mental health practices. I have years of experience working with children and adolescents through the social system in Sweden. It’s a very strict ground of practice, as it should be. Hence, I know every psychological theory there is, each diagnostic criteria front to back, and every do and don’t in the realm of therapy. …and I still felt it wasn’t enough to properly help people. I felt that this science heavy training and the need to diagnose and label every behavior and feeling left very little room for the individual and their actual needs and struggles. I felt a lack of understanding of things like the mind, how trauma affects us, the role of the nervous system, how our mind is connected to the body. In short, I felt a lack of more holistic practices. Beyond not having enough tools to help people I felt that working and having a career in Sweden, similar to many western countries I believe, left very little room for my life outside of work. I personally suffered from stress, depression, and burnout very early in my career. I clearly needed a change, and I needed a new framework for understanding the human condition. Selling the family business gave me the opportunity to explore just that.

My search led me to Bali, Indonesia. In 2016 I moved to Bali to explore a slower life and a life with more room for joy and relationships. I needed to not constantly feel guilty for taking time off. In Bali I found a way of life that celebrated time off instead of shaming a lack of productivity. In that environment I found a way back to myself and to what I am passionate about, which is helping people. I built a retreat center focused on recovering from stress and burnout. It was completed just before the pandemic hit and travel came to a shocking halt and so did that business, unfortunately. …until things picked up again in 2022. So again I needed to change tack and I started working with water related trauma and surfers instead. Tourism might have left Bali but the surfers never do.  Switching tack and working more closely with trauma and fear led me to discover hypnotherapy.

I first encountered it through a friend who is a hypnotherapist. He offered to helped me get over my lifelong crippling phobia. Which he did within 2h. I honestly couldn’t believe it. How could something that had troubled me since I was 10 years old, so for 20+ years of my life be gone in 2h? And it’s not like I had a light phobia, I couldn’t even name the object of my fear without being affected. It was ridiculous and incredible and life changing on so many levels. What had I been doing my whole career? What was this magical and incredible mode of therapy that I had heard next to nothing about during my education and during all those years working in the field? Obviously, I could no longer faff about with other things, I had to become a hypnotherapist. I did my training in 2021 through Maja Healing in Bali. It was one of the most excruciating and transformative training I have done in my life. Maybe the hardest thing I have ever done. I got my degree in 2022 and now I possess the most effective therapy tool I myself have ever experienced, as a client and as a practitioner. Nothing gives me more joy than to confidently be able to say, “I can help”, and know that it is true. Most issues my clints come to me with can be healed in just a few sessions. Or at least the impact of it can be reduced to the point of it not negatively affecting you anymore. One session is three hours long and each session will be a herculean effort in emotional work. It is not easy in any way, but you will immediately feel better, and you will see change from day one. You will likely need a few sessions, but you will not need years of it. That’s it really, stop wasting your time and go get some hypnotherapy. You won’t regret it.