Uncommon Knowledge was born from a desire to provide sensible psychology to people with everyday mental health issues such as anxiety, panic attacks and depression. Over the decades this mission has evolved from in-person training and printed newsletters through CDs and iPods, to apps and online training and multi-channel social media, all the while empowering people to manage their own minds.

From helping tens, then, hundreds, then thousands of people in the UK, Uncommon Knowledge now supports hundreds of thousands across the world and to date well over a million people have used our hypnosis downloads.

Uncommon Knowledge aims to serve two audiences - professional therapists and the everyday person - all underpinned by a strong belief in common sense psychology. We base our approach on the understanding that human beings everywhere have a set of 'primal human needs' which when unmet lead to psychological and physical problems.

Sensible psychology underpins all we do.

Why Uncommon Hypnosis is different:

Uncommon Knowledge: The origin story

1994-1995: A Meeting of Minds

• After training in hypnotherapy, Mark runs his first self-hypnosis workshop in 1994, igniting a passion for hypnosis that would shape his future.


• In 1995, Mark (already building his therapy business) meets Roger (an engineering graduate with a knack for communication and marketing) at a charity fundraising company where they both work. This meeting sparks a friendship and a business partnership that will lead to the creation of Uncommon Knowledge.


• Roger joins Mark running hypnosis workshops and they spend many a weekend on the road travelling around England distributing marketing materials and presenting the workshops.


• Mark and Roger move on to working with Mark's father, Ivan Tyrrell, at MindFields Seminars, a psychology trainer to the NHS and Social Services in the UK (now named Human Givens College).

1998: Uncommon Knowledge is Born

• Mark and Roger officially establish Uncommon Knowledge Ltd in Brighton, UK, with the mission to provide practical psychological tools to address mental health issues like anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.


• They continue running their in-person training hypnosis workshops, laying the foundation for what will eventually become a global enterprise.

1999: First Diploma and Newsletter

• The first Uncommon Knowledge Diploma in Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy is launched, setting a new standard for professional hypnotherapy training in the UK.

The quarterly print newsletter, which would later evolve into the Clear Thinking email newsletter, is created to keep in touch with course graduates.

Image:Â Publishing newsletters since 1999

Going Digital

Image: Uncommon Knowledge launches website

• The first Uncommon Knowledge website goes live, offering a mix of psychology articles, training courses, and self-help audio products. This marks the beginning of their online presence and is followed by a range of other small, topic-focused websites.

2003: HypnosisDownloads.com Launches

Image: HypnosisDownloads.com website design in 2003.

• Inspired by a chance conversation while touring New Zealand with his wife, Roger records the first hypnosis audio sessions in Wellington, NZ. This leads to the launch of Hypnosis Downloads.com.


• Meanwhile in the UK (now in city centre offices in Brighton with therapy treatment rooms and staff), Mark was having an epiphany after a session with a client: "Why limit yourself?" asked the client, a successful businessman. "Think big, Mark! Why only see eight people a week when you can teach one hundred, a thousand others to do what you do who could, in turn, each see eight troubled souls a week? 8,000 people a week!"

These were the seeds that germinated into flowering motivation, possibility and action, and so Mark and Roger set what felt like a huge goal to create 100 downloadable hypnosis audio sessions, and the site where you're reading this, Hypnosis Downloads.com, was launched in 2003. There are now more than 1300 sessions on the site.

• The Growth Zone membership area is introduced, providing subscribers with ongoing access to new content and resources.

The Growth Zone logo from 2005 on the left, with today's logo on the right

2008: A New Chapter

• Following the 2008 financial crash, Uncommon Knowledge pivots from in-person training to a fully online model, ensuring sustainability and growth.

Mark and Joe recording audio for the online Precision Hypnosis course

• Uncommon Knowledge headquarters moves to Oban, Scotland, marking the beginning of a new era focused on digital delivery. At this stage, around 500 downloads have been created and are now promoted by a large group of online partners.

Image: Oban, Scotland - Home of our Uncommon Knowledge office. Credit: Etive Photography

2011: Rebranding

• The original swinging watch logo is replaced with the logo we use today.

From:

To:

2012: App Launch

• The first Hypnosis Downloads app is released on the Apple Store, followed by an Android version, making it easier for users to access hypnosis sessions on the go.

2013: 10 Step Courses

• To meet customer requests for more in-depth hypnosis experiences, 10-Step Courses are born.

2014: Growing the Team

• With the business expanding, Uncommon Knowledge moves to a larger office in Oban.

2020: Going Fully Digital

• The pandemic accelerates the shift to fully digital products, ending the era of physical product shipments and ensuring that all resources are available instantly, online.

2023: Innovative Assistance

A new conversational AI hypnosis assistant is introduced to help users find the perfect hypnosis session.

Our Philosophy and Ethics

Sensible Psychology for All

At Uncommon Knowledge, we believe in common-sense psychology, addressing primal human needs to prevent psychological and physical issues. Our methods combine scientific understanding with practical applications based on experience, ensuring our products are both effective and ethical.

View our Sensible Psychology Dictionary here.

Our Unique Approach

We use 'uncommon hypnosis,' a method that blends hypnosis with storytelling, metaphors, and analogies as we believe this is the most effective way to communicate with the unconscious mind. This approach sets us apart from traditional hypnosis methods, making our sessions relatable, impactful and usable by everyone.

• We're in full control of what we do, there are no shareholders or investors driving the agenda. This has its downsides in that we have to develop our technology ourselves but you can be assured that our focus is fully on the quality of our product.
• We don't use hired or AI voices, only Mark and Roger will do it for us!
• We don't tend to pursue fame or publicity (although that's perhaps because we're a bit too British when it comes to that!). Because of this we rely on our customers to spread the word - thank you.
• Every script is brainstormed by Mark, Roger and Joe and written from scratch, we don't have standard passages that we copy and paste. Each session is conceived, created and delivered with the customer in mind.

Our Customers

Customer stories are hugely motivating for the whole team. Whether it's someone who has stopped biting their nails or someone who says our product saved their life, that's why we do what we do.

We pride ourselves on delivering exemplary customer service. More than 98% of the time we respond to emails within 24 hours and, as our reviews below show, our customer service team is greatly appreciated by our customers.

We are in constant communication with our customers, so please feel free to get in touch with us by email, or via our social channels.

Our Uncommon Team

We are proud to say that our team has been with us for a long time. It's a privilege to work in such a productive small team who know the business and each other so well.

Key Team Members

• Lyndsay, Roger's wife, who has been with us from the start, providing an understanding ear and alternative perspectives on many long walks over the years.


• Ruairidh: Joined in 2007, focusing on websites, apps, and project management.


• Kirstin: Joined in 2009, our operations manager who also happens to be a legend among our customers.


• Paul: Joined in 2013, managing online marketing, video production and more.


• Joe Kao: Scriptwriter and trainer, crafting hypnosis scripts since 2006.


• Rebekah: Customer care superstar, and script editor, full-time since 2014.


• Archie: The office dog.

Our company practices include daily huddles and a weekly kickoff meeting in our local chocolate shop, our office is in a community run building and we can use company time to volunteer in the community. Roger is on the board of our community run leisure centre and Mark regularly helps raise money for The MND Association with his wife, Jill.

We believe learning is of value to everyone and put company money towards non work related learning which has seen classes in improvisation, learning to sea kayak, karate and powerlifting.

We've always supported charities and all our cancer related hypnosis sessions are either free or, if paid for, the money goes to two customer nominated charities.

Uncommon Knowledge for professionals

Mark teaching an audience of hypnotherapists in London, 2016

In addition to our public focussed products on Hypnosis Downloads.com, we have continued in our role as trainers to professional therapists, counsellors and psychologists.

Mark and Roger recording client commentaries for Uncommon Practitioners TV, 2018

Mark writes a regular blog for professionals and we deliver online courses through our platform Uncommon U and provide a visual learning platform - Uncommon Practitioners TV. You can subscribe to his thriving professional-focused YouTube channel here.

We are an on-demand therapist in your pocket

Our Hypnosis Download app gives you your own therapist in your pocket, available any time of night or day.

We've woven our decades of expertise in story-based approaches to hypnotherapy into each and every hypnosis session, speaking the language of the unconscious mind and using intricate psychological patterns to help you change your mindset. We call this 'uncommon hypnosis'.

There are countless people who go to sleep each and every day with Roger or Mark in their ear!

Join us on this journey

Explore our vast library of hypnosis downloads, tailored to address a wide range of issues. Whether you're a professional therapist or someone seeking self-help, Uncommon Knowledge offers the tools you need to improve your mental well-being.
It may not be immediately obvious which hypnosis session will be most useful for you and navigating our extensive library can take a while so for a little help, try our new conversational AI hypnosis assistant.

You're welcome to join us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, for more everyday resources and updates.

Mark's professional therapist focussed socials are Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, X (@MarkTyrrell) and YouTube with further resources available on Spotify, Amazon and you can sign up for our Clear Thinking therapy tips email direct to your email inbox.

The Hypnosis Downloads script team

Mark Tyrrell HGDip, DipHypNLP(BHR) has been working as a hypnotherapist and trainer since 1995. He has worked with many thousands of people looking for help to improve their lives. He has also given lectures to thousands of health professionals on a wide range of topics. He is author of New Ways of Seeing and other books for professional therapists and‚ has authored and co-authored over 1000 hours of self help products, recorded hundreds of live therapy sessions and hosts a busy YouTube channel.

Mark also has a passion for anything physical and in his spare time, you'll find him down the gym or perfecting some esoteric martial art. And if it's summer, on the tennis court.

Roger Elliott DHypPsych(UK), BEng(Hons) has been working as a hypnotherapist and trainer since 1998. In this time he has developed many ground-breaking methods of educating people about their own psychology. Roger also enjoys contributing to his local community as a volunteer director of Atlantis Leisure, one of Scotland's longest established community-run social enterprises. When he's not doing that, he's spending time with his family, chopping wood to get the family through the long Scottish winters or getting out on the water, of which there is a lot around his home in Oban.

Joseph Kao DHypPsych(UK) began training in hypnotherapy and NLP in 2001, and he has run a private hypnotherapy practice in London since 2005. Joe has co-authored hundreds of professional hypnotherapy scripts for Hypnosis Downloads, and he is the co-presenter of Precision Hypnosis, the Uncommon Knowledge advanced hypnosis training course. Joe also teaches workshops around the UK on hypnotic language and therapeutic metaphors. In his spare time, Joe grows his beard a bit longer, puts on renaissance costumes and acts in Shakespeare plays.

Rebekah Hall (BA English, MA Psychology-Marriage and Family Therapy) has been fascinated by hypnosis since childhood and has a 7th-grade research paper to prove it. Inspired by Uncommon Knowledge's sensible approach to psychology, she retrained in Marriage and Family Therapy, earning her graduate program practicum hours working with at-risk teens at SafeHouse of the Desert, and has taken hypnosis training with Uncommon Knowledge and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH). She has been editing for Uncommon Knowledge since 2009 and in 2015 became script editor for Hypnosis Downloads. The rogue Yank of the team, Rebekah's love of a good story encompasses films and adventuring in virtual worlds.

Thank you

Without our customers, Uncommon Knowledge simply wouldn't be here. So our deepest thanks go to every one of you who has purchased a product, taken a course, spread the word or simply spent some time with out materials. To find out more about what we do, see our company homepage at www.unk.com.