This work is deeply personal to me.

I did not find my way into this work by accident.

I grew up in New Zealand in a family where trauma and addiction had passed from one generation to the next.

My mother had experienced significant trauma throughout her childhood and relied on cigarettes and prescription medication as a way of coping with a life she often found overwhelming.

As a result of my mother not coping, I was neglected during my early years. I suffered severe ear infections as a baby, which left me with significant and permanent hearing loss.

At around two years of age, my brother and I were placed in a children’s home. Soon after, we were separated, and I saw very little of either my mother or my brother throughout the rest of my childhood.

I saw firsthand how trauma, addiction and deeply ingrained patterns could affect not only one person, but an entire family.

Choosing a different path

My childhood taught me a great deal about survival, resilience and the choices people make when they do not have the tools or support they need.

I often wondered what might have been different if my mother had been given access to the kind of help and understanding that is available today.

That question stayed with me and became part of the reason I was drawn towards helping people overcome addictions, trauma and the unconscious patterns influencing their lives.

Turning experience into purpose

For more than a decade, I have worked with people experiencing addictions, anxiety, trauma, unwanted habits and emotional and behavioural patterns they had often tried unsuccessfully to change for years.

What has always mattered most to me is watching someone move from feeling powerless and controlled by a pattern to feeling empowered, free and alive again.

This purpose also led me to write Is It a Habit or an Addiction?, bringing together my personal experience, professional knowledge and practical approach to helping people regain control of their lives.

Sharing my experience

I have also trained, coached and mentored hypnotherapists and practitioners, sharing the clinical knowledge and practical skills I developed through years of working directly with clients.

What I began to see

Through working with thousands of people, I began to see that the same unconscious patterns behind addictions, anxiety and unwanted habits can affect many other areas of a person’s life.

Through working with thousands of people, I began to recognise that unconscious patterns do not only appear in addictions or clinical problems.

They also influence:

• How people respond under pressure
• How they communicate
• The decisions they make
• How they handle emotions and conflict
• The habits they fall back into during stressful periods
• How successful and fulfilled they feel in their lives

This understanding led to the natural expansion of my work into behavioural performance, workplace workshops, speaking and deeper private transformation.

The work I do today

Today, my work extends across two distinct but closely connected areas.

Through Activate Hypnotherapy, I continue to help individuals overcome addictions, anxiety, trauma, unwanted habits and personal challenges.

Through Juanita Smith Behavioural Performance, I work with individuals, leaders and teams through workplace workshops, speaking and private transformation, including The Alignment Protocol™.

While the setting and the people may differ, the foundation of my work remains the same:

Helping people identify and change the unconscious patterns shaping how they feel, behave and perform.

Contact Juanita