THE HypnotHerapy Journal€¦ · The NCH is a member of the UK Confederation of Hypnotherapy...

THE

HypnotHerapyJournal

moving therapy forward

Issue 1 Vol 9 www.hypnotherapists.org.uk Spring 2009

paul White NCH Chairman talks about Life, the NCH and Everything

Hypnotherapy

Is there any evidence?

Website Design

5 tips for success

Stereotypes

Impact on performance

The National Council for Hypnotherapy, established in 1973 under its former title “The Hypnotherapy Register”, represents the practice of Clinical Hypnotherapy as a discrete profession in its own right. Membership is open to those practitioners able to demonstrate appropriate knowledge,

evidence of training and clinical experience relevant to the field. The NCH is a member of the UK Confederation of Hypnotherapy Organisations.

NatioNal CouNCil for HypNotHerapyAddress: PO Box 14542, Studley, Warwickshire, B97 9HHPhone / Fax: 0844 736 5806 / 0844 736 5762Website: www.hypnotherapists.org.ukEmail: [email protected]

CoNteNtsEditorial ..........................................................................................................................................................1Committee News and AGM ...........................................................................................................................2Letters to the Editor ......................................................................................................................................6The Power of Appreciation ............................................................................................................................8Hypnosis, Stereotypes and Performance ....................................................................................................10Paul White: View From Behind The Chair .................................................................................................12Crossing the Void .........................................................................................................................................15Supervision: Necessary Nuisance or Value-added Benefit? ......................................................................20‘Omen Nomen’: Naming and the Nature of Life .......................................................................................23Hypnotherapy as an Empirically-Supported Treatment (EST) ................................................................28Successful Website Design ..........................................................................................................................31Metaphor Corner ..........................................................................................................................................32CPD Diary, Noticeboard and Classified .......................................................................................................34Book Reviews ................................................................................................................................................35

tHe NCH CommitteeChairman: paul White Tel: 0208 669 6990 email: [email protected]

Company secretary: martin armstrong-priorTel: 0116 276 4911 email: [email protected]

marketing Director: paul HowardTel: 0208 669 6990 email: [email protected]

ethics Director: trevor silvester Tel: 01638 720020 email: [email protected]

technology Director: rob WoodgateTel: 0844 736 5806 email: [email protected]

research Director: Donald robertsonTel: 01403 248266 email: [email protected]

Development Director: position Currently VacantTel: 0844 736 5806

supervision Director: Nick CookeTel: 0121 444 1110 email: [email protected]

ex-officio roles

administrators: Brenda Bentley and margaret WiggallTel: 0844 736 5806 email: [email protected]

training & accreditation: John Harrington Tel: 0844 736 5806 email: [email protected]

professional standards: Jo-anne Kelleher Tel: 0844 736 5806 email: [email protected]

Journal editor: rob Woodgate Tel: 01474 740724 email: [email protected]

1hypnotherapists.org.uk - Issue 1 Vol 9 - The Hypnotherapy Journal

A h Spring. A time for new growth, renewal and opti-mism. A time of gambol-ling lambs, flowers and

positive thoughts of summer days to come... Yes, I am purposely leaving all doom and gloom of credit crunch and economic turmoil out of this edi-torial in the interests of balance. You can get plenty of that elsewhere if you want it.

So here is your advanced warning - if you don’t want a dose of rampant optimism, turn the page now.

Still with me? Thanks, I knew I could rely on you...

I made a choice a number of years ago to stop following the news, with its steady diet of murder, despair, injustice and disaster. I still keep tabs on what is happening in the world, but I don’t allow myself to get drawn into the detail too much, unless it is an inspiring story. And, on the whole, I have been a lot happier as a result.

As hypnotherapists, we know that people often get stuck because of fixed ideas and limiting beliefs: the way a person perceives the world is heavily influenced by their beliefs about the world, and these beliefs in turn are strengthened by these filtered perceptions. Vicious circle.

The media is an extension of this process; news editors supply the types of stories that their readership expect, making them as ‘informative’

editorial

(read: sensational) as possible and their readers absorb that viewpoint of the world, creating more demand for that viewpoint.

Science seems to back this up too. Studies on something known as the ‘availability heuristic’ have shown that our minds pay more attention to the emotional impact of some-thing than the probability of it occur-ring. So when we are bombarded by a constant stream of selective (and usually negative) news reports and images, all with highly emotional content, our minds fixate on the emotional aspect and our cognition is skewed as a result.

This is one of the reasons why stories of high profile plane crashes played endlessly in ‘breaking news’ cause flying phobics to freak out - even though statistically a person is five times more likely to die falling out of bed than of dying in an aeroplane crash. It seems you are even safer if your pilot is called Chesley B ‘Sully’ Sullenberger III.

Apart from having a name that puts a smile on my face, ‘Sully’s’ story of heroic coolness under pressure as he landed Flight 1549 safely into the Hudson river after a double bird strike, was inspirational.

To flying phobics, however, it was probably another good example of why flying is so awful.

The point I’m trying to make is that

events are neither good nor bad; it is the personal meaning we attach to them which informs our perspective, and every cloud has a silver lining, if only we care to look for it.

Closer to home, the news that the NCH cancelled the 2009 annual conference will have been seen as ‘bad news’ by some, and I must admit the sugges-tion raised my eyebrows when it was proposed at the committee meeting, until the facts were presented.

The silver lining comes in the form of a one day ‘Hypnotherapy Extrava-ganza’, to be held at the Royal Society of Medicine in London on Saturday 20th June (the old conference date is still free in your diary, right?)

The line-up is very impressive - including Professor Susan Black-more, who is a leading psychologist and contributor to The Guardian; Dr. John Butler, who is one of the lead-ing lights in the practice of hypnosur-gery; Dr. David Kato, who is an inter-nationally recognised expert in CBT; Gary May, who is a leading marketing guru; and Maggy Wallace, who is the co-chair of the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), the body responsible for co-ordinat-ing the Government’s Voluntary Self Regulation (VSR) process.

What’s more, NCH members get first option to register, at the special rate of £50 (yes, you read that correctly). Oh, and you also get a CPD certificate for 7 hours.

Quite simply, it’s not so much a silver lining as a whole silver sky. You can read all about it in the centre pages

of this edition.

Enjoy the read.

Rob Woodgate

2 The Hypnotherapy Journal - Issue 1 Vol 9 - hypnotherapists.org.uk

View from the Chair

Well it certainly is fun; the snow I mean. I have just ploughed through snow, abandoned buses, and drifts to get to my consulting rooms

and cannot help reflecting on the link between people who cancel their appointments and their underlying conditions. I can almost hear Donald Robertson’s Scottish brogue in the background suggesting a bit of “evidence based research!”

I am little surprised that the testimo-nial debate is still continuing, but it is refreshing that we are continuing to encourage such lively debate.

To help define a little better the definition of testimonial we have a clear form of words: “A testimonial is a formal statement testifying to someone’s character and/or qualifi-cations.”

We have advised this definition to U.K.C.H.O.

Many of you will have taken advan-tage of the link to the “myth bust-ing video“ on the NCH website. This video is a testament to a process and not the skills of an individual, so it doesn’t conflict with the testimo-nial rule. UKCHO anticipates that as

VSR progresses, new testimonial rules are likely to be introduced for every-one, because of the multidisciplinary approach of the Complementary Natural Healthcare Council. These rules may be less prescriptive than our current rules and more inclusive, But it’s early days and a consultation process will have to take place before any changes are proposed or made.

Talking about change, we are proposing a two level approach to our conference plans. We intend to utilise the date that many of you will have in your diary for our cancelled conference on the 20th of June to hold a one day “CPD Extravaganza” in central London. The delegate rate will be £50, we are hoping to make a profit from this event, which we will use to subsidise our “Conference” later in the year. I am aware that this June date may clash with other events, however we have always thought of this date as being an “NCH date” and believe that an affordable “special event” is what our members want. We will be advising you of speakers (possibly in this issue) or in the very near future.

I feel that as I also have an interview in the journal that I have a rather large input this quarter so I will draw to a close.

Best wishes to everyone. I look forward to seeing all in June.

Paul White

standards News

I would like to introduce myself as the Standards Officer (which is the role formerly known as the Public Protection Officer). I have

over 20 years of experience dealing with enquiries and complaints from the general public and I look forward in contributing to the success of the NCH.

I hope to bring awareness to members of any issues that may appear ambig-uous or need more clarification.

One such issue is that of NHS logos.

The NHS has advised that the use of the NHS logo, or phrases such as “NHS registered provider”, in any form of advertising (including a website) could mislead the general public by giving the impression that the NHS is endorsing the work of that hypno-therapist.

Possession of an NHS number does not give any rights to use the NHS name or logo, and the NHS have advised that use of the logo in this manner is considered a violation of their legally registered trademark.

Hypnotherapists cannot use the NHS identity nor imply any association between themselves and the NHS.

Any member displaying this logo will therefore be in breach of section 6 (Advertising) of the Code of Ethics.

If any members have any concerns or issues that they want clarifying, feel free to contact me.

[email protected]

Jo-Anne Kelleher

Committee News and aGm


research News

First of all, I’d like to thank the other committee mem-bers for their support since I assumed the role of Research Director. Second,

I’d like to get straight down to business...

If NCH members are going to truly benefit from research in their field then I think most of you will agree that there needs to be a general rais-ing of awareness about the resources available and the content of scien-tific evidence supporting the use of hypnotherapy and defining its nature. Research is one of the main factors which can contribute to confidence in your practice; it acts as a coun-ter-measure against the hype and pseudoscience which sadly tend to predominate in the hypnotherapy field; it provides you with evidence to present to others in promoting your services. However, nowhere is the notorious gulf between clinical practice and research evidence more apparent than in the field of hypno-therapy.

I therefore welcome, and heartily encourage, all enquiries from NCH members regarding research on the subject of hypnosis. However, we could probably do a bit more to facilitate these questions and to put the relevant factual information at members’ fingertips. I have several proposals in mind but I would also like to encourage members not to hesitate in getting in touch with me directly with any suggestions for services which they feel the NCH Research Director could be provid-ing. Some questions which I hope to investigate in the next few months include: Do members feel that they would benefit from specific guidance leaflets on evidence-based practice

in hypnotherapy? What proportion of NCH members actually subscribe to the main research journals in their field? Do members require additional training (CPD) in research methods and evidence-based practice? Are members able to access the existing resources in this area? Let me know your thoughts by emailing me at [email protected].

In the meantime, I would like to begin by drawing attention to the funda-mental question… “Which applica-tions of hypnotherapy are scientifi-cally supported?” My article in this edition of the journal attempts to help answer this question by summarising in tabular form the findings of a recent review of the research, published by David Wark in the American Jour-nal of Clinical Hypnosis, which used established criteria for identifying “empirically-supported therapies” or ESTs. I think this provides an ideal starting point for future discussion in this area and I’m sure that NCH members will find it stimulating and of considerable practical use in their own work with clients. So the next time you hear someone complaining, “It’s a pity there’s not more research on hypnosis!”, you can slap them around the head a few times with a rolled up copy of this journal and set them straight on the facts.

Hypnotherapy is the original psycho-logical therapy, and although there is always an infinite amount of “addi-tional research required”, we stand on a broad-based and fairly stable foun-dation of experimental and clinical evidence that should frankly make us the envy of most other psychological therapies. Do me a favour. Visit the website below right now. It’s PubMed, the portal for accessing health-related research run by the US Government’s National Institute for Health.

h t tp : / /www.ncb i .n lm.n ih .gov/pubmed/

Do a search for articles containing the

The James Braid SocietyThe society is non-profit mak-ing and offers an open invita-tion to therapists to come along to one of its monthly meetings, whether members or not.

Annual subscription is a one-off payment of £30.Visitors are welcome to come and “try out” the club before joining by just paying £7 entrance fee.

Meetings are held in Central London, upstairs at “The Car-penters Arms”, 12 Seymour Place, W1H 7NE. Nearest tube station Marble Arch.

Talks cover a range of subjects of interest to anyone involved in clinical hypnosis. Expert speakers are always welcome.

The meetings begin at 7.15pm and end at 9pm on Thursdays.

Dates for 2009:

Mar 19thApr 16thMay 21stJun 18thJul 23rdSep 17thOct 15thNov 19th

Chairman, Leila Hart 0207 4024311 Secretary, Fiaz Ayub 0207 2864107Membership, Margaret Sin-clair 0208 3956766

www.jamesbraidsociety.com

http://www.jamesbraidsociety.com


words “neurolinguistic programming” (in quotes). I get 72 hits! Now you can have fun all evening making a graph comparing the number of citations you get when typing in the names of other therapies. Gestalt therapy? 154 hits. Let’s be generous and try “Adle-rian or Jungian” put together… 675 hits. What about hypnotherapy? You need to type “hypnosis” OR “hypno-therapy” (with quotes). How many results come back? That’s right: 9,537 nearly ten thousand individual citations. To be fair, some of those are about “hypnotic” drugs, but there are still clearly several thousand refer-ences to hypnotherapy and clinical hypnosis.

Hypnotherapy lags pretty far behind CBT in terms of its empirical support, but in the same regard it arguably stands head-and-shoulders above most other psychotherapies, despite their long-standing tendency to look down their collective noses at it. However, the growing emphasis upon evidence-based practice may well result in a rude awakening for those who previously viewed hypno-therapy as a poor relation because it looks as if by getting there first, in the “prehistory” of psychotherapy, James Braid staked his claim to certain “well-established” psychological and physiological laws, such as the power of suggestion and focused attention, which have stood the test of time and look set to be confirmed again and again in coming years.

Donald Robertson

marketing News

So what have we been up to with regard to the marketing? Well, we worked with a journalist from THE SUN, just

before Christmas. Her name is Sarah,

and we helped her stop smoking. She is still going strong, so hopefully, if she stays a non-smoker, her story will be going into the paper.

Currently we have a great article and video on their web site see:

http://tinyurl.com/cdq93d

The Jewish Chronicle is writing an article on Hypnotherapy in their health and wellbeing section, in which we are featured quite heavily. This will be coming out the week of the 27th February.

We are in the early stages of work-ing with a BBC production team on a documentary about eating disorders and working with kids.

The CPD extravaganza that we are planning for the 20th June in central London is taking a lot of time to organise. However with the current line-up, we are hoping that we can attract a lot of media interest. As a member you need to get in quickly for this event because in April we are going to open it up to non-members as well, and we are limited for space - so don’t miss out, see the centre spread in this journal.

Finally we are developing a completely new website under the guidance of our Technology Director. This will be going live soon and will provide all the old functionality plus a much better customer experience for the prospec-tive client. The aim of this change is to help the prospective client find you more easily, and to offer more rele-vant information to the public and a better service to our members. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Paul Howard

training & accreditation News

Over the past few days, the NCH has reached yet another milestone with the HPD… we have now regis-tered over 2,000

candidates! To add to this, the current number of people that have achieved that HPD stands at 1,253; this has been added to by 84 people in Decem-ber – well done to you all!

The December verification was the first one that I undertook using the ‘Direct Claim Status’ system. This has made the process a little more streamlined as I am able to claim the certificates at the point of ‘Internal Verification’. We will still be having an ‘External Verification’ from the NCFE twice a year to ensure that we maintain our high standards.

NCH ‘Trainee Membership’

All students registered on an NCH Accredited Training School HPD course need to become ‘Trainee’ members of the NCH. The reason behind this is to give students an independent appeals process and to provide schools with support for second level grievances. This has been supported by the NCFE and is a requirement of the External Verification process.

From a purely practical point of view, I use the NCH database to obtain the addresses to post the HPD certifi-cates. There are also benefits to the students, the trainee membership is free and they get a quarterly copy of this wonderful journal! Students become trainee members by complet-ing an online form on the NCH website.

HpD registrations – student names

This is a plea to all training schools…


for Integrated Health (FIH) towards the forthcoming voluntary self regu-lation of our profession. As part of this process there has been a series of meetings which have resulted in a coming together of the different interested parties representing our profession. This should enable us to present a unified front to the Prince’s Foundation, ensuring that we have across the board representation on the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) who have been set up to oversee the regulation of all complementary and alternative health care professionals.

The UKCHO national register was a year old this last December (2008). FIH state that it is hoped that Hypno-therapy will be part of the CNHC by the spring of 2010, and, if this happens, it is envisaged that the UKCHO national register will be integrated with the new CNHC register.

What happens next?

Part of the criteria includes the estab-lishment of a National Committee for Hypnotherapy Regulation, whose membership would include a Lay Chair and at least one Lay Member, together with representatives from the hypnotherapy profession. (The present joint UKCHO and Hypno-therapy Working Group negotiators along with others may initially act as representatives for the profession in the CNHC). The programme of work for the National Committee would include the preparation of agreed standards for education and train-ing, agreed codes of conduct, ethics and practice, together with a public register of accredited hypnothera-pists, who were safe and competent to practice.

Whilst there is still much work to be done before we are ready to become part of the CNHC, the UKCHO has been in consultation with affiliated training schools to agree on a set of standards for education and training,

and representatives of UKCHO. At this meeting it was agreed to issue the following Joint Statement to all hypnotherapy organisations, hypnotherapy training schools and hypnotherapy practitioners. (NB. The Working Group and UKCHO collectively represent an estimated 95% of the UK hypnotherapy profession.)

“We, The Working Group for Hypnotherapy Regulation and The UK Confederation of Hypnotherapy Organisations (UKCHO) agree that both organisations have a central role to play in contributing to the development of the profession of Hypnotherapy. We honour and support each others’ contributions to this development to date, and recognise each others’ respective achievements. As our profession will best be served by co-opera-tion and unity, we intend to put any remaining differences aside and to explore working together for the purposes of voluntary self-regulation of the UK hypnotherapy profession in the future”.

William Broom & Chris Forester: Working Group for Hypnotherapy Regulation

John Lawrence & Peter Matthews: UK Confederation of Hypnotherapy Organisations

This represents an unprece-dented level of co-operation within the hypnotherapy community and which can only bode well for the future of our profession.

The first joint meeting, again under the auspices of The Prince’s Founda-tion, has been arranged for Wednes-day 18th February 2009.

This gives grounds for optimism that can only be welcomed by all. As you will be aware, the NCH as part of UKCHO has been actively work-ing with The Prince’s Foundation

please can you make sure that the students’ names are spelt correctly on the HPD registration forms! Once an HPD certificate has been issued, it can cost up to £25 to get a replacement for amending a name. This is a cost that will have to be covered by the training school or the student. Please also ensure that students update their NCH membership entry if they change address.

Verification deadlines:

• 28th february• 30th April• 30th June• 31st August• 31st October• 31st December

John Harrington

uKCHo News

The profession continues to zigzag its way towards the goal of Voluntary Self Regulation. Being the NCH rep and chair of UKCHO

has meant that I have to be prepared to swerve between optimism and dejection at a moment’s notice. Generally however, for this issue of the Journal anyway, the trend is towards optimism. This is no small part because of the progress and rhetoric as detailed in the attached GHR bulletin:

E-Bulletin: January 2009 - Hypnotherapy Regulation Update: PROFESSIONAL UNITY ANNOUNCED

We are pleased to report that, on Tuesday 9th December 2008, organised by The Prince’s Founda-tion for Integrated Health (http://www.fih.org.uk/), a meeting was held between the Working Group


Brickbats

Dear Rob,

I am writing to express my concern at the fact that the latest edition of the HJ which arrived this morn-ing, did not correct the error in your reply to an anonymous letter in the last edition, despite me highlighting this to the Chair who assured me he would raise this with you.

In that edition (Autumn 2008) you said: “Although the vote was close on the floor, the motion to overrule was defeated by the proxy voters, most of whom, I understand, chose not to instruct their proxy how to vote”. You also mentioned the latter part of this in your editorial.

The vote on the floor was 19 for, 65 against with 8 abstentions. Hardly close!

Also, you may “understand” that most proxy voters choose not to instruct their proxies, but, speaking for myself, some of mine do, but most, when I ask (and I do often ask if I get the chance) say that there is no need to tell me because it’s obvious how I’m going to vote anyway! After all, most proxies are given to the executive and their position on all votes, other than elections, is clear from the outset.

I would like, therefore, to ask for an explanation as to why this was not

codes of conduct, ethics and prac-tice.

After ten years of dallying within the profession the time for action is now. The VSR bus for hypnotherapy is about to leave, and UKCHO is deter-mined to be on it. There are some within the profession who still have reservations and despite the view held by some – we will be able to get off at any stage. This will happen if it transpires that it is not within the best interests of the profession.

Speaking personally it is my view that further dallying and hesitancy on our part may well result in a swift action that will put the profession some-where it does not want to be. If we delay to the extent that we become one of the last few complementary health professions operating outside any Statutory or Voluntary regula-tory framework then we will be ripe for such action. So if you have any comments/observations that you want me to pass on to the UKCHO Executive, please let the NCH exec-utive know by emailing the NCH administrator.

[email protected]

John Lawrence

addressed, and to know what will happen about it now.

Just as an aside, there is the question of why you are publishing anony-mous letters in the first place. That issue came out just before a course I attended and I overheard a couple of members saying they presumed you had written it as an excuse to say your bit.

Fiona Biddle

Editor’s Reply: Alas, we are all human, and not even the Journal is immune from the occasional gremlin. Your request was overshadowed by a number of other errors in the last edition (see box right).

If any member has comments about anything in the Journal, it is better to bring to my attention by emailing me directly and I can ensure your view-point is expressed via this forum.

Allowing anonymous letters on the thorny subject of testimonials was not a decision I took lightly. I strongly believed that members were loath to discuss this issue for fear of victimi-sation, even bullying, from certain quarters of the NCH membership. Although I probably wouldn’t offer anonymity again, my personal expe-rience in expressing a contrary view-point suggests to me that it was the right thing to do at that time.

In any case, I would have no need to make an excuse to ‘say my bit’

letters to the editor

Got something to say?

Whatever your view, email your letters to me at:

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


- I have the Editorial to express my opinions should I wish to do so - and the members have the ‘Letters’ page to express theirs.

The Journal is an open forum for members to express responsible and legal opinion, and all viewpoints are welcomed, even if they are not ones I agree with personally.

Bouquets

Dear Rob,

I hope you had a good Christmas and a fun new year. Due to my many escapes from extended family members I managed to find enough hiding places and time to read your journal from cover to cover. Very interesting and diverse!

Your interview with Gil Boyne certainly posed some interesting questions such as, what drives his enormous conviction, belief and certainty that enables him to “overwhelm the criti-cal factor” (as you so succinctly put it)? I would loved to have been a fly on the wall.

I also enjoyed the article on Shaman-ism by Martin White. Funnily enough, it was the article I least expected to like, but his translation of the arcane into the mundane was refreshing and clear.

I don’t know how much feedback you get for all your work on the journal but, for what its worth, I think it is one of the most essential elements of the NCH.

Ensuring that it reflects the face and direction of the NCH, caters for all the inclinations of the readers, enter-tains and seriously informs must be a nightmare!

John Hayes

Confessions

Dear Rob,

Sometimes I get it wrong… big style.

A client came to me with a common problem which I was able to immedi-ately eradicate after only one session. The women suffered the most awful headaches. Easily able to enter into trance I taught her some techniques to use at home. ‘Stand in front of a mirror… go to that wonderful place and repeat an affirmation such as:

“I do not have a headache...I do not have a headache...I do not have a headache...”

The following week her reluctant husband arrived at my surgery. So delighted were they with the results she had sent him along to see if I could do anything about not being exactly… how shall I say it… a ball of fire in the bedroom. I decided to use a similar approach.

A few day’s later the furious women appeared absolutely spitting bullets. Apparently, following the appoint-ment, her husband came home, ripped off her clothes dragged her upstairs, put her on the bed and said ‘Don’t move I’ll be back in a minute’ He went into the bathroom, then came back and made love to her like never before.

Round two, after another visit to the bathroom, it was even better than before. Shortly after, with her head spinning she is flabbergasted to hear him say ‘Don’t move I’ll be back in a minute.’

At this point I interrupted, ‘surely you must be delighted!’

‘Oh, don’t get me wrong I’m abso-lutely over the moon’ she replied ‘except for one thing… I decided to

follow him into the bathroom this time to see what he was up to… he was standing in front of the mirror repeating

“She’s not my wife...She’s not my wife...She’s not my wife...”

Vicki McKay

Editor’s Reply: Ah, the old ones are the oldest...

Gremlin WatchaGm minutes

The AGM minutes incorrectly stated that the motion to change the rules on testimoni-als was agreed. It should have read:

“motion defeated with 83 votes for, 345 votes against, and 10 abstentions.”

progressive pause

Apologies to Alan Grievson, whose efforts in sourcing, procuring and converting the Charlie Curtis resources (Letters to the Editor: Winter 08) for NCH member use were not recognised.

Without Alan’s efforts, these valuable resources would not be available to members.


wife and I, how our life was; and when I mentioned that Bex has been dragging a virus around for a couple of months now he was concerned. I felt ridiculous for bringing it up, but his interest was so genuine it came out as part of a natural flow in an unnatural moment.

So the man is dying and he still puts his tracksuit on and brings his pain to the gym. Why? “You’ve got to live while you’re living, haven’t you, son?” He said. “I’m going to keep on doing what I want to do, while I want to do it. And I want to do this.”

I left him hanging on for Pat, a young professional boxer who is fighting this weekend in London. Bill wants a ticket, in case he has the energy to go, but partly I think he just wants Pat to know that he cares.

I teach and preach positive psychol-ogy. I routinely talk about how it’s not what happens to us but our response to it that dictates who we are. I quote Victor Frankl when he said that man’s last freedom is his attitude to his situ-ation. But rarely have these things leapt from a page and into my life in the way they did today. Bill contin-ues to inspire me, and now I know he always will. But not just to keep fit, but to appreciate the small things I can do for others that matter, and the things that others do for me that remind me that I matter too.

T his seems to be a year when old men called Bill have brought me a lesson.

When we moved home 4 years ago we joined a gym in Newmar-ket. We like to train early and, every morning as regular as clockwork, one of the people through the door with us would be a man called Bill. He’s 76, and always buzzed with life and energy. To be honest he was an inspi-ration, because when I’m that age I hope to still be training as well as he was – and to look as fit.

Like many things, Bill became a small part of the fabric of our life. We’d exchange brief words about football, or he’d try to encourage me to watch Strictly Come Dancing (he’s a big Brucie fan), but mainly it was just a friendly wave as we got on with the business of training.

In May of this year he stopped appear-ing, and word came from the reception-ists that he had cancer. I remember our shock at this tear in the fabric, the sense of unfairness for someone so vital to be struck down in this way. We hoped for the best but somehow reconciled ourselves to the worst – after all, he’s 76… A card was organised from all his friends at the gym; I guess for many of us a desire to do something, but with the ridicu-

lous British reserve that made us feel we didn’t know him well enough to impose ourselves more.

This morning, a cold December morn-ing, I was on the running machine. It overlooks the weights area, and I suddenly noticed an old man on the leg extension. It was Bill. Look-ing older, more frail, but still Bill. I watched that man for the next twenty minutes, moving from machine to machine, so slowly and carefully, obviously in pain, but so obviously determined. I felt humbled by his effort and I’m not ashamed to say that my vision became increasingly blurry. That’s a British way of saying that I was in tears.

I found him in the dumbbell room sitting on a bench. Tired as he so obviously was his face still split wide

in a grin. I was so overwhelmed to see him that I hugged him, sweaty as I was. He took it in good part.

Bill is dying. He’s had the operations, but, from as much detail as he wanted to go into, it’s a question of time. Yet what he

wanted to talk about was how he appreciated the card we sent, “those little things really matter”; he was so amazingly grateful for such a small effort, and returned to it several times. He wanted to know about my

the power of appreciation

By Trevor Silvester

“You’ve got to live while you’re living, haven’t you, son?”

QUOTE-NOTES

“Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.

Sarah Caldwell”


www.soundboarduk.com


H ow do some people per-form better at abstract reasoning, mathemat-ics and other forms of

complex problem solving? How can a change of social context be detri-mental to ability? Can we help people improve their performance?

In the June/July 2008 edition of Scientific American Mind (SiAM), Andrew W McCollough and Edward K Vogel reported on studies to deter-mine how people who were good at abstract problem solving utilised their brain as compared to those who were less able to perform complex cogni-tive tasks. Initially it seemed that there was a physical difference in capacity, that is, better performers simply had more working memory with which to compute. This was because they were able to remember more information at once and performed better on abstract tasks.

Although there is no known limit to long-term memory capacity, it is well documented that there is a limit to how much of that stored information we can have conscious awareness of at any one time. This conscious awareness or working memory may be limited by one of two factors. The first, which is mentioned above, is capacity; the second may be how efficiently that capacity is used.

By monitoring electrical activity in the brains of subjects considered to have high or low capacity work-ing memory, McCullough and Vogel,

found that the major difference between the two groups was how effectively they filtered out irrelevant information. Or in other words how effective they were at keeping their attention or focus on the task in hand. The supposed high capacity performers were efficient at filtering out information that was irrelevant to the problem while low capacity subject weren’t. Paradoxically though, they also discovered that the so-called low capacity subjects actually used up more working memory than their counterparts and it was because much of that information was irrel-evant to the task in hand they under performed.

So, what has that to do with ther-apy?

When considered in context with other research into what affects perform-ance I hope to show that having this knowledge enhances our repertoire of interventions and increases the potential benefit for clients.

In the previous edition of SiAM an article by S. Alexander et al, entitled The Social Psychology of Success the authors highlight what they call the Effect of the Stereotype Threat.

“Peoples performance on intel-lectual and athletic tasks is shaped by awareness of stereotypes about the groups to which they belong.”

A study by Steel and Aronson in the 1990’s demonstrated that

Hypnosis, stereotypes and performance

By John Peters

iNterNatioNal aCCreDitatioNThe National Guild of Hypnotists is the oldest (founded in 1951) and largest professional society for hypnotherapists in the world.

The NCH has negotiated a reciprocal agreement with the NGH in the USA, which currently has members in 40 countries. Check their website at www.ngh.net for more information about their conferences and publications.

A 20% discount is available for your first year’s membership, which brings with it four editions of the Journal of Hypnotism and four editions of the Hypno-Gram.

If you would like to take advantage of this opportunity please contact Su for an application form.

http://www.ngh.net


high achieving African-Americans performed worse in tests when they were told that the test was for intel-ligence rather than knowledge. That female students who have been made aware of the stereotype that men have better mathematical skills than women, subsequently perform worse in complex mathematical tasks than they do when not made aware. Other stereotypes may also affect perform-ance. The Australians do not perform as well as they might be expected to in the Masters. Could this be because an Australian has never won inter-feres with their ability? And what about England’s record in penalty shootouts?

Studies at the University of Padu in Italy show that women exposed to the math stereotype have more intrusive thoughts. For example, they think things like, “These exercises are too difficult for me.” Or “I’m no good at math.” This sub-vocalisation of the stereotype affects the individual at the identity level. (I am … …).

This effect seems to be most pronounced when things have to be thought through and require phono-logical effort.

It seems then that stereotypical beliefs about our social, gender or racial group can affect us at a cognitive level. And that affect is manifested through intrusive thoughts that interfere with our ability to process

information. It also appears that the ability to filter out information that is irrelevant to the task in hand may be the way to enhance performance.

How do people who manage to avoid this trap do so? And what can we learn from that to pass on to others?

There are three proposed ways of thinking that allow people to cope and are ways of thinking about ones self at the level of identity, either personal or social.

Accept the prevailing stereotype: “We are inferior, but I am not.”

Redefine the prevailing stereotype but don’t directly challenge it: “We are different”

Propose alternatives and engage in social competition: “We are not inferior.”

I believe that as therapists we can develop templates that teach people new ways of thinking. By offering an explanation based on the above information we can prime clients for this approach to therapy. Therapy that can help clients to understand that it is not how clever or gifted someone is, it is how they utilise their cognitive abilities that makes the difference. In hypnotic terms, people can experience the effects of Deep Trance Phenom-ena (DTP). For example, amnesia for their true ability, age progression

•

•

•

by seeing themselves in the future having failed or time distortion when time seems to drag forever. It may be that clients disable themselves with self-talk that supports the DTP; self talk that is a post hypnotic sugges-tion for failure.

We can also explore whether the change that will make the differ-ence should be aimed at the personal or social identity level. I think that sometimes we can get so involved in promoting personal freedom that we miss the potential conflict with a client’s social identity.

Clients use words in their self-talk that incapacitate them. This is the irrel-evant information mentioned above. By using hypnosis to utilise the DTP we can help clients learn how to filter this information out and give them the skills to manage their focus in any social context. They can then believe at the subconscious level that they are as competent as they know they are at the conscious level

References:Scientific America Mind April/May 2008 The Social

Psychology of Success. Authors, S Alexander Haslam, Jessica Salvatore, Thomas Kessler and Stephen D Reicher

Scientific America Mind June/July 2008 Your Inner Spam Filter. Authors, Andrew W McCollough and Edward K Vogel

http://www.sportshypnosis.org.uk


paul White: View from Behind the Chair

By Rob Woodgate

rW: Paul, tell us a little about your-self... you were on the board at BMW weren’t you?

pW: Yes I was, although we are going back few years now. My last posi-tion sounded very grand. The French have a very elaborate way of saying ‘Managing Director’. They say ‘Presi-dent Directeur Generale’ so my last couple of years before I retired were based in Paris looking after France; before that I had been Operations Director of the BMW FS Group in the UK and subsequently Managing Director Land Rover FS UK.

rW: How did you get into Hypno-therapy?

pW: It was rather a surprising transi-tion. My son Mark was working with an internationally renowned group of therapists in Harley Street who specialise in the entertainment indus-try - so you know when, for example, pop groups fall out with each other, the record company call in specialist therapists to help salvage their multi million pound investment. Anyway, in his practice he spotted on the notice board a seminar run by Gil Boyne. I was mentioning to Mark that after the first few months of my retirement, now that summer was over and I was playing less golf, boredom was begin-ning to set in - so he suggested I go to the seminar. The rest is history.

rW: What is your vision for the NCH?

pW: There are some guiding prin-ciples which help shape our path. I discussed these with our executive at my inaugural meeting as a chairman. We need to be the ‘Best’ in the eyes not just our members, but everyone in the profession, other health care professionals and the general public. We need to maintain the high-est ‘Standards’ and provide benefits that meet and exceed our ‘Members’ expectations, I mentioned in that meeting that every decision we make, every initiative we start must move along that path: Best, Standards, Members (BSM).

rW: What do you like to do when you are not hypnotising people?

pW: I have already mentioned golf of course. I also play tennis and run between three and five miles every

day, so basically that keeps me in shape. I am a prolific reader of books. I also love anything to do with motor sport; I used to do bit of motor racing myself but now I am more of specta-tor. I live in central London and love the theatre and opera; I manage to visit one or the other every month. Eating out is also a great adventure for me, and on the less fun side of things I am also involved in Corpo-rate Mentoring and running a couple of non Hypnotherapy related busi-nesses.

rW: What can we look forward to from the NCH in 2009?

pW: The first thing I would like to do is to clarify the decision about the conference. There appears to be a little misunderstanding out there, maybe even a little misin-formation. It is correct to say that we did cancel the 09 conference, although, we made it perfectly clear that we ‘hope to organise an alter-native, less expensive (but maybe shorter) conference later in the year at a different venue’. That statement wasn’t a hollow aspiration. It is our firm intention to have another event, an event that is both affordable for most of our members and one which excites the membership. I believe, and your executive shares my view, that asking our members to part with over three hundred pounds in the current economic climate is to ignore real-ity and disregards our members’ own financial constraints. Our conference last year was certainly greatly enjoyed by many who attended, although not by everyone, but importantly it was also significantly subsidised by the NCH. In other words, income from those who attended did not cover costs. Of course, I would have liked to have consulted with all our members regarding this big change in our calendar; unfortunately we didn’t really have time to consult as we had to contact the venue before year end to fulfil our contractual obligations.

Paul White, NCH Chairman


A couple of members have written to me expressing their disappoint-ment; I have spoken to them person-ally and reassured them as I would like to reassure all our readers that we will be having a get together this year. At this moment the executive is coming up with ideas, suggesting speakers, pricing venues and looking at timings. It is not just an event, it is an important get together for all of us - an exchange of ideas and meeting up with many old friends and colleagues. I passionately believe it must be accessible to as many of our members as possible - currently, less than ten percent of our member-ship attend the conference, and that includes all those members who attended only one day, which just isn’t enough.

Another big issue in 2009, it is the beginning of the journey towards voluntary self regulation (VSR). John Lawrence of UKCHO and other lead-ing members of our profession have done a great job in getting together to provide a coordinated response to the Prince’s Foundation and ultimately The Complementary and Natural Health Care Council (CNHC). CNHC are already getting good media expo-sure as their organisation takes shape, we need to provide every support that we can to ensure the success of this vital initiative. It will be a long haul, but we are on our way. We are always mindful of our commitment to the standards in our profession - we are almost at the point of Open Univer-

sity recognition of the HPD, and John Harrington has done some tremen-dous work in agreeing a provisional understanding with the University. As soon as we have confirmation we will let you know. John will also be working with Donald Robertson, our new Research Director, to introduce a new higher level HPD+, but again more later when we have more detail and have discussed the proposals with our training schools. Donald intends to initiate research projects and a research model that can be shared by all; in other words, helping us to validate evidence based therapy. This is undeniably the way ahead, we will get this moving this year.

There is so much more. Just think-ing out loud, the Journal has been transformed by you (Rob), and we want to make it more accessible and expand our readership. We need to reinforce supervision and importantly provide an effective entry route to the role of supervisor. Nick Cook, our Supervision Director will have a plan shortly. Our administrators are doing a great job but are battling with anti-quated systems and procedures, Rob as our newly appointed IT Director is changing not just the system for administrators but making processes more simple and effective for our members.

We will be revising our strategic plan at our next executive meeting, and we will share the plan with everyone when it is agreed. In the meantime,

if anyone has any ideas or thought about our future, please give me a call to discuss - ideally we should all be involved in this process. To summa-rise, there is a lot happening!

rW: you are not kidding! on a personal note, what is your favourite film (and why)?

pW: Being there, it is based on a book by Jerzy Kosinki and stars Peter Sellers, who plays a simple gardener who has lead a life of complete isola-tion with only his garden and TV for company. All his needs are taken care of by a rich benefactor and his house keeper. His benefactor dies and the gardener ventures from the house, and unaccustomed to traffic he has an accident. From this moment, using only what he has learnt from garden-ing and TV, he becomes a political insider and prominent celebrity whose simple utterances are mistaken for profundity. To me it represents great insight into society, the fickle nature of celebrity and, as a therapist, the yawning divide often evident between what is said and what is heard.

rW: and if you had to recommend one hypnotherapy book, what would it be?

pW: Obviously a trick question! It would have to be the new NCH book on James Braid, edited by Donald Robertson available shortly. I have had a preview, and it is a bargain.

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What would it be like to be seen as a hypnotherapy and/or golf expert in this community?

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rW: Who do you most admire in the profession?

pW: One of those difficult questions, because I admire many people in our profession. Some are the better known names, and others who make up the great many dedicated people working maybe part time in their own homes, with limited resources but resolved to help people in need. If I really had to pick one, of course it would be Gil Boyne who got me into the profession in the first place. He inspired me all those years ago and he

Congratulations to our latest HPD qualifiers!

Tamara AU-YEONGDavid BECKSara BEVINSThomas BLACKMANNick BRUNGERJacqueline CARPENTERMark CHARLESAlex COOKEleanor COPPCarol DALTONPaul DANIELSSusanne-Katrin DROSTETracey DUDYTSCHSharon DYKERachael EDWARDSAndrea EVANSEifion EVANSSally FALCONER-HALLBarrie FAULKNEREmma FISHERAnna FRETWELLPembi FURNISHMandy GAHANJane GAMBLINJulia GEORGE

Lee GLOVERJim GRANTMartin GUEDALLAPaul HANCOCKSBarry HARTFiona HINDRUPPPaul HOOKEREileen JACQUESMorag JEFFERYKen LUSTEDNick MAWERPeter MCLINTONGerald MEIKLEPeter MEYERMahyar MOHAMMADZADEHSusan MOORHOUSEJanet NUNNEYJohn O’FLYNNDaniel OLIVERJoanne PACKEJoanne PAINTERAmanda PANTONSunita PARMAR-READeborah PEARCENick PEASE

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still does now.

rW: If you were granted one wish, what would it be?

pW: If all politicians on appointment to office were to have a plainly visible ‘truth meter’ implanted in the centre of their forehead which could also have the added refinement of caus-ing some discomfort in the event of an untruth being told or a question being avoided. The meter would also flash a pulsating bright red signal visible to all at the appropriate time.

rW: If you had a book in you, what would it be about?

pW: Yes I have. I have written it but won’t be published until ten years after my death, it would be inappro-priate to divulge the content at this early stage.

rW: finally, if you had to sum your-self up in 4 words...?

pW: Very very very lucky...


ing the shifting relationship between the worlds of hypnotherapy and coun-selling is through imagining them as having begun as two parts of a single continent called “psychoanalysis”. One of the forefathers of this conti-nent, Freud, initially viewed hypnosis as an integral part of psychoanalysis but later moved away from it, thus prompting the continent to slowly divide into two distinct sub-conti-nents, each evolving and developing its own dialects, beliefs and cultures. Today, one hundred years on, such is the apparent magnitude of the differ-ences between these two cultures and dialects that moves by government to increase regulation have prompted one of the main bodies that represent counsellors and psychotherapists, the BACP, to actively distance themselves from hypnotherapy. This has been seen by various sections of the profession to be effectively de-classify-ing hypnotherapy as a legitimate psycho-therapeutic technique. As a consequence, the “sub-continent” hypnotherapy is perceived by many as much the poorer of the two.

The position of the BACP may be in part due to a lack of understanding between the two traditions. It could also have been influenced by the different levels of regulation required by the established representatives of Hypnotherapy for their members. For

example, not all require their members to receive supervision or to partake in ongoing professional and personal development. More pertinently perhaps, hypnotherapy ascribes to no clear model, nor is there any mutu-ally recognized definition of what hypnosis is. Yet, as a hypnothera-pist, I wholeheartedly believe in the effectiveness of hypnosis as a tool to facilitate profound personal internal change and growth.

However, if hypnotherapy remains in its current position in relation to psychotherapy there is a danger of it becoming marginalised and the potential gains that hypnotherapy and psychotherapy can offer one another will be lost. Safe Space hopes to go some small way to help facilitate understanding and learning between the two disciplines by utilising a language that can be understood by both approaches from within their own frames of reference.

David Slater: You say that the Safe Space model draws on therapeutic concepts. What are these concepts and can they realistically and effec-tively be incorporated into a hypno-therapist’s practice?

John Hayes: The Safe Space model draws on the psychothera-peutic concept of sub-personalities. It is a stand alone model specific to trauma related anxiety and panic. That is to say, the model is practi-cal and can be used

without having knowledge of other models.

The Safe Space model is obviously not the first model to draw on the idea of sub-personalities. All models or conceptual systems bring in the idea of selves or sub-personalities in one form or another, using differ-ent terms and ways of describing

D oes a new meeting point exist between the shifting worlds of hypnotherapy and counselling – one

that is enriching for both?

Not so long ago hypnotherapy and psychotherapy were aspects of a single discipline. John Hayes, in his book Safe Space: a self-help manual and practitioner’s guide for treating anxi-ety & panic, has reunited these two old friends by offering a new frame-work for hypnotherapy that develops a therapeutic model specific to trauma related anxiety and combines it with a short term step by step procedure that embraces standard hypnotherapeutic techniques. The Safe Space model and procedure expands on tradi-tional hypnotherapeutic frameworks by including a client centred cogni-tive process which allows the client to understand, explore and develop their own healing process. The book is primarily aimed at hypnotherapists and the competent self-helper, but is also accessible to counsellors and psychotherapists.

Although Safe Space has earned its acclaim by virtue of its model and procedure, it is the books position-ing between the shifting worlds of hypnotherapy and counselling that we examine here.

But what are these shifts? I put the question to the author of Safe Space.

John Hayes: One of the ways of view-

Crossing the Void

By David Slater and John Hayes

if hypnotherapy remains in its current position in relation to psychotherapy there is a danger of it becoming marginalised


them. Indeed, many hypnotherapeu-tic techniques are based on the idea of the individual being composed of different selves or sub-personali-ties: Regression therapy, for example, uses the idea of an adult self and a child self who exist simultaneously in an “episode” in order to shift the individual’s relationship to the event. PARTS therapy uses dialogue between conflicting “parts” of an individual in order to facilitate compromise and integration. Likewise, in the world of counselling, Gestalt has it top dog and underdog, TA talks in terms of arche-opsychic ego states and sub selves. Psycho synthesis aims at the inte-gration of elements or semi-autono-mous sub-personalities. Psychodrama prompts dialogue between “doubles”.

What distinguishes the Safe Space model from other models is that it is that it is specific to treating trauma related anxiety and panic and that it that provides a framework in which specific hypnotherapeutic techniques can be fixed. By providing such a model, I do not purport to incorpo-rate into the world of hypnotherapy something different, but rather set out to define a model that is already implicit in many hypnotherapeutic procedures. The techniques and inter-ventions adopted and developed in the procedure are not new, but have been bundled together in a specific order to complement the model. They include regressions to help heal past traumas, progressions to reinforce

new behaviour patterns and NLP strategies to help re-train internal protective mechanisms. By develop-ing such a framework specific to anxiety and panic, I hope to provide a new and stimulating approach for hypnotherapists working with anxiety and panic, and to promote hypno-therapy as a respected facilitator, emotional bridge and acceler-ating technique that can be used by practi-tioners within differ-ent fields. For trainee hypnotherapists and individuals seeking self-help, Safe Space also provides the techniques, skills and scripts required to carry out all the visualization tasks in the Safe Space procedure.

David Slater: It is generally considered that hypnotherapists have a deter-mining role to play in the process of change, whereas counsellors tend to resist the idea of having any kind of controlling influence. What role does the hypnotherapist take in the context of the Safe Space model?

John Hayes: Not all hypnotic tech-niques involve leading or directing. Certainly most regression work and Parts therapy actively avoid any kind of leading. Having said this, Hypno-therapy has never tried to hide the fact that the practitioner can be directive.

However, just as there are different interventions a hypnotherapist can use, there are crucial differences in the degree of directiveness, ranging from direct suggestion and guided interventions to indirect sugges-tion and semi-guided interventions, metaphor and analogy. As long as

the needs and wishes of the client remain paramount, there is obviously a place for all of them.

All the visualisations offered in Safe Space focus on the client constructing and directing their own healing. The practi-

tioner acts as a responsive guide who accompanies the client along their journey and supports them when overcoming any obstacles they may encounter. For example, if the client imagines the obstacle to be a “boul-der”, the responsive guide can discuss the composition of the “boulder” and how it got there, elicit and explore ways of getting around it or moving it, and support the client as they attempt to do so. Responsive guiding not only helps the client to look at scenarios in alternative ways, but also involves eliciting the tools and inner resources the client will use to confront, pass, move, eliminate or change their rela-tionship to the “boulder”. Responsive

Therapists and GP’s are finding their

waiting rooms full of people wanting short

term solutions to what is often a long

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guiding deals very much with what emerges. Naturally, it is crucial that the practitioner understands and is aware of how their own process inter-acts with the client’s as, inevitably, a practitioner will at some level affect the therapeutic process.

To summarize, Safe Space attempts to combine and balance the more client-centred, circumspective and exploratory nature of counselling with the more instructive, directive nature of short term, goal orientated approaches such as hypnotherapy and NLP. The position of the hypnothera-pist, then, is to be as non-directive as possible within the bounds of a short term focused model.

David Slater: Safe Space offers a short term procedure. Do you feel that it is realistic to treat a potentially long term problem such as trauma related anxiety in such a limited amount of time?

John Hayes: Whatever the cause of anxiety and panic, western culture seems to have resigned itself to a way of being where personal anxiety, like stress, is accepted as part of the fabric of everyday life.

I don’t know that society has become more stressed and life more urgent, whether we have simply become less tolerant of abuse and trauma, or that we simply have more time to deal

with them. What I do know is that therapists and GP’s are finding their waiting rooms full of people wanting short term solutions to what is often a long term condition. Current medica-tion available has varying degrees of effectiveness, and not everyone wants to take pills to ease their minds.

This shift towards the desire for more short term solutions in the last decade has been reflected in the emergence of companies who offer large organization and institutions short term support (EAPs) for their employees. By short term, I mean procedures that have a fixed duration, a fixed cost and a means to meas-ure success. In the corporate world of outcomes, products, targets and mission statements, it is not incon-ceivable that this penchant for offer-ing short term solutions has largely been determined by their cost-effec-tiveness and manageability. The more cynical minded of us may believe that the primary motive is to reduce the amount of sick leave employees take. The more pragmatic of us may believe that the ability to measure and quan-tify treatments is that which makes them useful. The popularity of CBT with large institutions certainly backs up this belief. On an individual level there is also a growing demand for the more solution focused and goal orientated short term approaches like hypnotherapy, NLP and life coach-ing.

Whether for companies or individuals, short term solutions are what most people seem to want. But can short term approaches effectively address the underlying causes of anxiety and panic? Even if they usefully manage symptoms, will the symptoms keep coming back? Safe Space attempts to find a middle ground by using a coherent therapeutic model specific to anxiety and panic and a short term step by step procedure that changes the client’s relationship with the root of anxiety and panic so that the potential of symptom recurrence is significantly reduced. The book also provides the client with the tools to support the changes they have made, to counter any resurgence of old behaviour patterns and to re-examine areas of their life.

www.johnhayesuk.com

Editor’s Note: You can read my review of “Safe Space: A self-help manual and practi-tioner’s guide for treating anxiety and panic” in the Winter 08 edition of the Journal.

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-The National Council forHypnotherapy presents a

This is not just an opportunity to meet with colleagues and to be entertained,educated and informed; this is also an opportunity to learn how the mostsuccessful people in business achieve their success. Of course you can be the besttherapist in the world, but if nobody knows about you, your talents are wasted. Forthis reason we want to help to maximise your client base. Put simply, if you don’tget at least 1 extra client per week we would have to ask you if you were payingattention during the day.

Each topic will be presented by internationally renowned experts in their field,some of the ideas you will find challenging and some of the practicaldemonstrations fascinating.

Subjects covered will include

SpeakersProfessor Susan Blackmore BA MSc PhD Dr John Butler PhD (Lond.), MBSH, CHT, MA, BA(Hons.), BSc(Hons.), FNRHP Dr David Kato PhD. DCH. DHP. C.htGary May & Steve Mills - SAQQARAMaggy Wallace, coChair, CNHC (Complementary Natural Healthcare Council)

20th June 2009The Royal Society of Medicine

1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE

ExtravaganzaHypnotherapy

ConsciousnessHypno-surgery and Pain ControlMarketingCBTVoluntary Self-Regulation

Professor Sue Blackmore is a psychologist and writer researching consciousness, memes, andanomalous experiences, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. She has a regular blogin the Guardian, and often appears on radio and television. Her book The Meme Machine (1999) hasbeen translated into 13 other languages and more recent books include a textbook Consciousness: AnIntroduction (2003) and Conversations on Consciousness (2005). Ten Zen Questions will be publishedin March 2009. She is a thought provoking and controversial speaker.

Dr. David Kato is internationally known and is the renowned UK expert on depressive disorders. Heprovides lectures seminars and workshops to medical departments in universities, hospitals and tovaried clinicians and physicians in the UK & USA. He has been using CBT in his own practice for 15

years with great success.

Founders of The Business Acceleration Company, SAQQARA, Steve Mills & Gary May are sharingtheir knowledge and experience with NCH members, inspiring change and delivering results. Havingbeen consulted by and worked with business leaders, top telecoms companies to business start ups,their successes are not only proved but sustainable. With their strategies companies have gone on toreceive accolades and successes such as: Sunday Times/Virgin Fast Track 100 and National BusinessAwards.

Dr John Butler is a highly regarded hypnotherapist with over 28 years and over 30,000 hours ofpractice as a successful clinical practitioner. He is an instructor in hypnosurgery, teaching clinicalhypnosis applications to surgeons and anaesthetists in a course accredited by the Royal College ofAnaesthetists. He has made more than 20 television appearances as an expert in hypnotherapy withseveral programmes focussing on his use of hypnotherapy as an anaesthetic for chronic pain and ininvasive surgeries.

Maggy Wallace, CoChair CNHC, has a substantial background in professional education, the healthservice and professional regulation in the UK and internationally. CNHC's mission is to support the useof complementary and natural healthcare as a uniquely positive, safe and effective experience. CNHCkey purpose is to protect the public by means of regulating practitioners on a voluntary register forcomplementary and natural healthcare practitioners.

PricesDelegate - NCH member ...................................£50Delegate - Non NCH member ......................£100Evening member dinner ....................................£36

All prices exclude VAT

Don’t delayCurently this is only open to NCH members. Howeverwe will be opening it to non members late April. So

make sure you get in quick, as space is limited.

To book go towww.hypnotherapists.org.uk/event

0844 736 5806

We are holding a members dinner in the evening to finish off thisincredible day. It is only open to NCH members. The numbers for thedinner are strictly limited so book early to avoid disappointment.

Attendees are

awarded with a

7 hour CPD

certificate.


S upervision is a mandatory requirement for membership of the major hypnotherapy organisations and is gener-

ally regarded as essential to the pro-vision of effective therapy. For those new to the concept however, there is often confusion as to exactly what supervision is and why it is so impor-tant to good practice.

What is supervision?

Supervision is a structured support system that encourages supervisee competence by providing an oppor-tunity for feedback, appraisal and growth in a safe and confidential environment. The focus might for example be on reassurance, help and advice on issues with client work, practice building, training or skills and career development. Supervision has a different dynamic to that of friend, colleague, business associate, coach, therapist, trainer, mentor or advisor although at times there will be elements of all of these relation-ships.

aims of supervision

The aim of supervision is to provide an attentive and supportive climate within which we can develop new options for managing our work (and ourselves) with greater satisfaction and effectiveness.

Supervision aims to achieve this by

Considering responsibility for standards and ethics

Sharing the responsibility for the professional development of skills, knowledge and understanding

Providing opportunities to both off-load and regenerate (thus avoiding ‘burnout’)

The role of the supervisor is to support you and enable you to learn from your work so that you can give a better quality service to your clients. Clearly this involves a number of tasks but for example might include ensuring that the needs of the client are being met, monitoring the dynamic between you and your client to maximise the therapeutic effectiveness of the rela-tionship and checking that the work is based on sound theoretical and ethical practice.

supervision vs therapy

There are many obvious parallels between supervision and therapy. For example, both are interactions where the dynamic of the relationship is of paramount importance, both involve a mix of support and challenge, both involve a high degree of interpersonal and communication skills, both focus ultimately on the best interests of the client, both explore feelings, percep-

•

•

•

tions and responses, both may have teaching, monitoring and administra-tive functions etc.

The differences between the two are perhaps more subtle. Whilst both supervision and therapy are based on structured ongoing relationships, the nature of the relationship is different. Therapy and supervision relation-ships have more commonality in their developing and terminating phases; the greatest difference arises in the mature phases. Here the longer-term nature of the supervisory relationship becomes more evident as the rela-tionship becomes less role bound and there is an increased social bonding and influence potential which does not (or should not!) apply to thera-peutic relationships.

supervision frameworks

Supervision, like therapy requires a flexibility of approach. Accredited hypnotherapy supervisors are taught a variety of models that can support the needs of the supervisee. One of my favourites is Francesca Inskipp and Brigid Proctor’s Seven-Eyed Supervi-sor Model. This outlines a process model of supervision that has seven focus areas of what supervisees can bring to supervision. The seven focus points are:

1. Clients (individuals, groups, organizations) that are the focus of our work.

The first focus area helps the thera-pist consider the client as a unique individual, rather than labelling or comparing with previous clients. It explores the client’s presenting issues, their history, their family background, their goals, their present roles and relationships, their behaviours and levels of self-awareness and under-standing.

supervision: Necessary Nuisance or Value-added Benefit?

By Sue McIntyre


2. interventions (what are we doing to bring about a difference?)

The second focal point relates to specific skills, strategies and inter-ventions adopted by the therapist in relation to the client’s “story”. Here the discussion will be around possi-ble techniques and strategies that will achieve a particular goal.

3. relationships (what kind of rela-tionship is involved and is it work-ing?)

The third area of focus explores the therapist-client relationship. It encompasses an understanding of the dynamic of the relationship, its metaphors and boundaries, how it has developed and any transference/counter-transference issues.

4. reactions (what is happening to the supervisee as he/she is doing the work?)

The therapist becomes the fourth area of focus. This is likely to include exploration of responses to presenting and underlying problems, responses to patterns and blind spots, approaches to consistencies and inconsisten-cies, to incongruence, to avoidance, defence mechanisms etc.

5. What is happening between supervisor and supervisee? is this reflecting in any way what is happening between the supervisee and their work?

The next area of focus is the super-visor-supervisee relationship. Some-times the very problem that the client has brought to the therapist is played out in supervision. For example a client may ‘overwhelm’ a therapist with a wealth of information so that it is impossible to take it in rapidly and the therapist may then ‘pour out’ to the supervisor all this infor-mation and repeat the very process that s/he is struggling with in the client sessions. Or the client may be

complaining of feeling helpless and the supervisee will bring his/her own feelings of helplessness and inad-equacy to the supervisor. This ‘paral-lel process’ enables the supervisor to work through the process with the supervisee during the supervision session. The focus within this area is also on reviewing the effectiveness of the supervisory alliance, exploring any conflicts and if necessary revisit-ing the original contract.

6. What is happening to the super-visor as s/he listens and works with what is brought to supervision?

The sixth area of focus concerns the supervisor and may include sharing the experience of how the supervi-sor’s thoughts, feelings and images are stirred up by specific aspects of the interaction. This immediacy may generate insights into the uncon-scious dynamics of the therapist-client relationship.

7. What organizational issues are having an impact on the work?

Finally there is a focus on the ‘Systems’ affecting the dynamics of the relationships – this may involve class or cultural implications, training or employing organisations and the client’s family.

supervision in practice

Lets imagine that the supervisee (Andy) is displaying signs of irritability because the supervisor (me!) will not tell him exactly what to do with his difficult anger management client.

Working within the Inskipp and Proc-tor “7 Eyed” process model, as a supervisor I might ask Andy to focus initially on his anger management client (focus 1). Rather than discuss any possible interventions (focus 2) at this stage, I would ask Andy

to consider the “difficult” nature of the therapist/client relationship particularly with regard to how this has developed and any transference/counter-transference issues (focus 3). I imagine this would lead naturally to continue the discussion around how Andy feels about this client (focus 4) and so provide a fertile ground for further discussion related to areas where he ‘gets hooked’ by clients and/or in providing valuable informa-tion about how this particular client impacts on other people.

Leading on from these insights, I might then point out the current parallel process attached to the super-visor/supervisee relationship (focus 5) supported by my own immediacy (focus 6) and be able to explain how such parallel process dynamics can be very effectively focused on in the supervision with a view to finding a way forward in the client work (thus perhaps diffusing his ‘irritability’ at

http://www.talkingcurestraining.com/


this point!). Hopefully this will take the process full circle so that by the end of our discussion, Andy will have much greater insight into what is happening with his anger manage-ment client and so discover the way forward for himself.

supervision as Coaching

A coaching dynamic could arise within supervision when the focus is temporarily shifted away from issues relating directly to the client and aligned instead to the develop-ment of the supervisee. Coaching is used to enhance the performance of the practitioner with an empha-sis on the attainment of practical skills, self-assessment and positive feedback. Particularly valuable tech-niques in this context are those that encourage goal setting and generate motivation. A common application of coaching techniques within supervi-sion is in developing practice build-ing skills and these may well involve working to reconcile the almost inev-itable conflict arising for therapists who have an inherent distaste for the business of making money out of other people’s difficulties.

The supervisor working within the coaching role seeks to provide learn-ing opportunities for the supervisee to better understand their role in professional practice and to perform effectively. One of the ways in which this will be achieved is to enable the supervisee to identity their potential and resources.

Conclusion

So is Supervision a necessary nuisance or a value-added benefit?

I think that depends on how you choose to look at it and how much you are prepared to invest in the

process. I sometimes use this meta-phor in therapy and perhaps it illus-trates what I mean here too…

There was a traveller who trav-elled for many days and weeks over snow-capped mountains and through dry and dusty desserts until he came at last to a city. By the gate of the city, there waited an old man and the traveller rode over to him.

“Tell me Father” he said “What kind of people dwell in this city? What opportunities are there here?” And the old man said, “Tell me my son, what are the people like in the city you have left? What opportunities for advancement did you discover there?” The travel-ler replied, “Oh Father, they were the most dreadful kind of people, arrogant, mean, unkind and not at all the sort of people who would help me improve my life” where-upon the old man said “It is most unfortunate. I have to tell you that the people who dwell in this very city are just like that”. The traveller went on his way and did not enter the city at all.

A few days later, another travel-ler came upon the city and came to the very same old man waiting by the city gates. “Tell me Father,” he said “What are the people like in this city? What opportunities are there here?” And the old man said, “Tell me my son, what are the people like in the city you have left? What opportunities for advancement did you discover there?” The traveller replied, “Oh Father, they were the most wonderful kind of people – kind, generous, warm hearted and I found many opportunities there”. The old man shook his head. “How

strange” he said, “the people who live in this city, are people just like that. If you seek opportunities, so you will also find them here”.

As we all know, therapy is a very rewarding but also very demanding profession. In setting out to work with problems, it can be no surprise

that there are prob-lems! We can get too involved or be confused about what is happening with a particular client, overlook an important aspect of the work or have doubts about our ability to be effec-tive in certain situ-ations. There may be moral, ethical

or legal implications to consider. It can sometimes be difficult, if not impossible to be objective about your own practice and the opportunity to discuss it in confidence with a suitable person is invaluable. It makes sense - the more supported and effective you are as a therapist, the more successful your practice will be.

Sue McIntyre has been in continu-ous full time practice since 1989 and has been supervising therapists since 2004. She is an accredited hypno-therapy supervisor with both the NCH and the APHP and offers face-to-face supervision as well as supervision by telephone and Skype.

Sue would like to expand this aspect of her practice and currently has availability for supervisees. More information at www.theconsulting-rooms.co.uk or email [email protected]

the more supported and effective you are

as a therapist, the more successful your practice

will be


Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles exploring the interconnections between magic, religion, science and therapy, the last of which was published in the Winter 07 edition.

L et us continue with our metaphor of Adam and Eve’s adventures in the Edenic Garden of Language [2], [3]

with the realization that “Men and women want to live creatively, inten-sively and successfully in the world. They long to fulfil the potential of their nature ... What Adam and Eve sought from the tree of knowledge ... was the practical wisdom that would give them blessing and fulfilment” [4]. But now we learn that on succumbing to this Serpent-given “practical wis-dom” Humankind had already fallen into a philosophical trap in the form of a “ … constant logocentric quest” [5], in search of “the inexpressible, the mystical” where “omen nomen nemoni hominis [est]” – “an omen to no-one is the name of a man.” Now the word “Logocentrism derives from the Greek logos, ‘the word by which the inward thought is expressed’ or ‘reason itself’” [5], and Derrida argues that “Reason has been shaped by a dishonest pursuit of certainty which I have diagnosed as logocentrism” [5]. The problem is that “Logocentri-cism desires a perfectly rational lan-

guage that perfectly represents the real world. Such a language of reason would absolutely guarantee that the presence of the world – the essence of everything in the world – would be transparently (re)present(ed) to an ob-serving subject who could speak of it with complete certainty. Words would literally be the truth of things – like ‘Word made flesh’, as St John put it. Pure communion with the world – that is the seduction of logocentric Reason” [5].

We can negotiate the nature of this language trap metaphorically by invoking Nerval’s “deliciously incomprehensible sonnet” [6] of loss (the first stanza of which is quoted above) in which “He has compressed years of expe-rience into a few words, but these words are the quintessence of that experience, not a series of clues to events in his own life” [7]. We find that in “ … this richly connotative piece, almost every word is a symbol evoking a cluster of ideas and feelings, and, because of this, the reader has frequently selected, according to his lights, the meaning which is appropriate for him” [7]. The problem with this is “ … to determine whether each of several interpreta-

tions of a given symbol is equally important to an appreciation of the work as a whole, or whether there is a basic meaning for each word-symbol to which all others are subsidiary. The crucial reason for this is that “Since poets are dealing with words, and since each of these contributes to the total significance of the poem, it is incumbent upon the critic to find the basic meaning, the fundamen-tal tone, of each word-symbol, and to relegate other meanings to their proper secondary role” [7]. Derrida might well lament with Lacan “Words represent me, but are not for me …” [8] “ … It’s a nightmare! The certainty of reason is a tyranny which can only be sustained by the evils of repress-ing or excluding what is uncertain, what doesn’t fit it, what is different, reason is indifferent to the Other” [5], where “The Other is thus the place of language, external to the speaker, and yet, since he or she is a speaker, internal at the same time” [8].

Now “Man is man only through language” [9], but even so, “Language does not provide us with a proper identity: the words we use are used by other people, on television, in books, in the media. The words do not belong to us. They are alienating. Even when we want to say something intimate, linked to our heart, like ‘I love you’, we might be inhibited because we have heard so many other

people say this. … It is as if the words are the property of someone or something else. … They belong to the Other” [8]. We must therefore naturally ask: what of humankind’s matura-tion and development; its move towards species

individuation through language? How can we escape the “tyranny” of the “certainty of reason”? Well, Lacan’s insight was that “‘The unconscious is structured as a language.’ … This is Lacan’s most famous pronounce-ment. What does it mean? How can

The unconscious only comes to exist after language is acquired

‘omen Nomen’: Naming and the Nature of life

By Patrick Jemmer

Je suis le ténébreux, – le Veuf, – l’inconsolé,Le Prince d’Aquitaine à la tour abolie:

Ma seule étoile est morte, et mon luth constelléPorte le soleil noir de la Mélancolie.

Gérard de Nerval: “El Desdichado” [1].


NCH Specialist AdvisorsSue Adamson 01625 879000 Pregnancy and childbirth

Caroline Barker 01903 237 666 Depression

David Collingwood-Bell 01978 769178 Tinnitus

Gill Drury 0800 0832125 or 01142 552252 Pregnancy and childbirth

Lesley Goddard 01522 882765 Sports Performance

Brid Hendron 07732177110 Dentistry

Rae Jenson 01506 830 190 Weight management

John Lawrence 01506 830190 Pain management (Including Phantom Limb)

Alix Needham 020 7935 1965 Stress

Hilary Norris-Evans 01249 740506 Confidence/self esteem

Edwin Salter 01553 769437 Public Speaking

Anne Thornton-Patterson 02089648591 Trichotillomania

Penelope Walford 01923 282133 Smoking


the unconscious, which is instinc-tual and, by definition, unknowable to the subject, be structured as a language?” [5]. The answer to this is that “The unconscious functions by signs, metaphors, symbols and in this sense it is ‘like’ a language. … But Lacan’s point is that the unconscious only comes to exist after language is acquired” [5]. So the development of the unconscious language is through “Generalized symbolic media [which] are communication devices that allow processes at a lower level in the control hierarchy to be transacted in a higher level system” [10], that is “ … the unconscious … is constituted by a series of chains of signifying elements. Like an infernal translating machine, it turns words into symp-toms, it inscribes signifiers into the flesh or turns them into tormenting thoughts or compulsions” [8].

What is the nature of this “infernal translating machine”? Well, first of all, “Saussure bequeathed a decisive binary model to postmodern theory. Language is a sign system that func-tions by an operational code of binary oppositions” [5]. Now, such oppositions consist of ” … a pair of contrasted terms, each of which depends on the other for its meaning. There are many such oppositions, and they’re all governed by the distinc-tion, either/or. If we accept this, it establishes conceptual order. Binary oppositions classify and organize the objects, events and relations of the world. They make decision possible. And they govern thinking in everyday life, as well as philosophy, theory and the sciences” [11]. Moreover, we might like to think that “The human mind functions in model binary sets – noise/silence, raw/cooked, naked/clothed, light/darkness, sacred/profane and so on. Minds working logically (that is culturally) unconsciously duplicate nature” [5]. For example, “Why have we chosen the colours green, yellow and red for our traffic-light system? Because it is a ‘fact of nature’ that our colour code signals for Go –

Caution – Stop mimic the same struc-ture found in the spectrum. Green is a short wavelength, red is long and yellow lies midway. The brain searches for a representation of the binary opposition (go) +/– (stop), and finds green and red and also the interme-diate colour term (/) caution, yellow” [5]. And there are important implica-tions for this, since “This apparently simple binary contrast of substitution and combination generates higher degrees of complexity and might be said to account for the imaginative or symbolic use of language – in other words, the possibility of meaningful fictions. For instance: paradigmatic substitution involves a perception of similarity which can generate META-PHOR – ‘a tower of strength’, ‘a glar-ing error’ – descriptions that are not literally true. Syntagmatic combina-tion involves a perception of contigu-ity which can generate METONYMY (naming an attribute or adjunct of the thing instead of the thing itself – ‘crown’ for royalty, ‘turf’ for horse-racing) or SYNECDOCHE (naming the part for the whole – ‘keels’ for ships” [5]. Thus in Lacanian terms “It is through language that the child enters the social world, – the symbolic order – as an ‘I’ … But with a crucial differ-ence for the male and female subjects” [5]. We will return to this male-female dichot-omy-zeugma later.

Now “the meaning-ful fiction” of the “ … Symbolic order refers to the system of pre-existing social structures into which the child is born, such as kinship, rituals, gender roles and indeed language itself. Identity assumed at the Imaginary phase is finally constructed by the Symbolic order, the realm of the Father who prohibits the mother-child ‘incest’ relationship. Language belongs to the Father, that is, to the patriar-chal order of the phallus” [5]. Under these assumptions, let us consider the

famous aphorism “’I think therefore I am.’ What happens to this famous Cartesian proof of self-identity in the structuralist view? The ‘I’ or unitary human subject – the very corner-stone of Western logic and philoso-phy – dissolves into a signifying language-user. The ‘I’ is a language fiction, signified by use, not meaning, and generated in much the same way as metaphor or metonymy. Struc-turalism is unhelpful in explaining what motivates the language-using subject, i.e., the individual. The logic of the system entirely surpasses and evades the subject’s reasons for using language. Saying ‘to communicate his personal thought’, is not good enough. How did ‘personal thought’ get into the system, anyhow?” [5]. Furthermore, we are able to go on to answer the question: “What, then, is the ‘universe,’ the bigger, smarter source that chooses the words for us?” [12]. And the forthcoming answer is that my “universe” is “ … a state of the language-brain conditioned by my consciousness, existing only in interaction with it. This is the cove-nant. So that what writes is neither ‘I,’ nor ‘language,’ but I-in-language, the self-process of experience and

desire mapped onto the language-web, physical brain and virtual brain acting together” [12].

However, what if there are circumstances which are “undecid-able” in terms of these binary oppositions, where “Undecidables

disrupt this oppositional logic. They slip across both sides of an opposition but don’t properly fit either. They are more than the opposition can allow. And because of that, they question the very principle of ‘opposition’” [11]. Let us turn our attention to Cain the “wretched one” (whose name connotes “created” or “acquired,” as well as alluding to “smithcraft”) who was the elder son of Adam and Eve and was considered a gracious gift

The world of language can

hardly be grasped by the newborn

and yet it will act on the whole of the

child’s existence


which he or she hears as a child will be incorporated, forming a kernel of insignia which are unconscious … [This explains] how the subject has ‘become’ what a parent prophesied or how he or she has repeated the mistakes of a grandparent” [8]. Now “A word does not reveal its meaning so simply. Rather, it leads on to other words in a linguistic chain, just like one meaning itself leads to others”

[8] and once again we see that “…the sound departed from the heart of God and embraced the whole space of this world; but as soon as it turned out to be evil, then the sound again retreated back” [15].

So in the light of this can we understand that ”In Husserl’s view, to express oneself is to be behind the sign … To attend to one’s speech, to assist it. Only living speech in its mastery and magisteriality, is able to assist itself; and only living speech is expression and not a servile sign” [11]. Thus ”The voice is the privileged medium of meaning … This is phono-centrism: the voice is the centre” [11]. The implication is that for an “expres-sive” sign (as designated by Husserl) “If living intention is to animate it, it will need the presence of its living producer.

So, what’s the privileged form of the expressive sign? The speaking voice, superior to all other forms because it seems present (proximate, immediate) to the silent, interior consciousness. Husserl reproduces the phonocentric priority” [11]. The nominology of this story carries the hidden message that “As we come into the world capable of destruction, we also come into the world with creative capabilities” [13]. And this evokes the idea of “the trace” which suggests “ … that all language is subject to undecidability. The play of the trace is a kind of deforming, reforming slippage – an inherent instability which language cannot

escape. This applied to philosophi-cal language as well. The vocabulary of metaphysics (being, truth, centre, origin, etc) has to be recognized as a vocabulary. It’s a set of words, and they cannot escape the play of the trace. Now if the trace is a constant sliding between presence and absence, those philosophical words cannot establish full, replete presence.

This strikes at the very roots of Western metaphysics, because it’s the claim to full presence which underpins meta-physical concepts and Tprocedures” [11]. Further, we read in Genesis 4 that “{15} … the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him” [16]. We find that “The Mark of Cain, or cross, symbol-izes a hammer, for Cain was a Worker in Metals” [17], and even today, T “… taw [the cross] survives as tav, … its name is still understood in Hebrew to mean ‘mark,’ … According to legend, this branding, final letter, tav, was the ‘mark’ mentioned in the biblical book of Genesis as being placed by God upon Cain” for his protection [18]. And, interestingly, despite subtle snake-lore in the passages we read about Satan, “A monstrous Serpent on his Belly prone, / Reluctant, but in TvaineT: a greater powerT / TNow Trul’dT him, TpunishtT in the shape he Tsin’dT, / According to his doom: he would have spoke, / But hiss for hiss TreturndT with forked tongue / To forked tongue …” (Paradise Lost X: 514 – 519 [19]) we note that “S’s hissing sound need not always be bad: In Jewish mystical tradition, the Hebrew sibilant shin was equated by sound with the element of fire and was exalted as one of the three ‘mother’ letters“ [18]. And returning to Cain, and his mark, we find that there is even a relationship between S and T, as described by Lucian in AD 100, in his ‘Consonants at Court,’ which “imagines a lawsuit between two rival letters: the Greek S letter, named sigma, and the T letter, tau. Speaking before the judges, S denounces T as an agent of dictators

from God [13]. Or was he? For there are other sources which suggest that “the serpent not only desired Eve but actually had sexual relations with her that produced Cain” [14]. But what-ever his genesis, he slew his younger brother Abel (“breath” or “nothing-ness” [13]): so the “Created” murdered “Nothing” and was banished by God. In this logo-myth we can read the Lacanian “ … power and organiz-ing principle of the symbolic, understood as the networks, social, cultural, linguistic, into which a child is born. These precede the birth of the child, which is why Lacan can say that language is there from before the actual moment of birth. It is there in the social structures which are at play in the family and, of course, in the ideals, goals and histories of the parents. Even before a child is born, the parents have talked about him or her, chosen a name, mapped out his or her future. The world of language can hardly be grasped by the newborn and yet it will act on the whole of the child’s existence” [8].

Thus “If the child is captured in an image, he or she will still assume signifiers from the speech of the parents as elements of identifica-tion. As a mother raises the baby to see its reflection, she might say … You look just like your father” [8]. The importance if this is that “These are symbolic pronouncements since they situate a child in a lineage, in a symbolic universe. The baby is bound to its image by words and names, by linguistic representations. A mother who keeps telling her son ‘What a bad boy you are!’ may end up with either a villain or a saint. The iden-tity of the child will depend on how he or she assumes the words of the parents” [8]. Thus “The child does not suddenly decide to put himself or herself in the shoe of some ancestor or family member. Rather, the speech

A mother who keeps telling her son ‘What a bad

boy you are!’ may end up with either a villain or a saint.


ever universal, timeless and stable. Any meaning or identity (including our own) is provisional and relative, because it is never exhaustive, it can always be traced further back to a prior network of differences, and further back again … almost to infinity or the ‘zero degree’ of sense. This is decon-struction – to peel away like an onion the layers of constructed meanings” [5]. In fact, “Undecidability disrupts the binary structures of metaphysical thinking. It displaces the ‘either/or’ structure of oppositions. The unde-cidable plays all ways, takes no sides. It won’t be fixed down. It leaves no certainty of privileged foundational term against subordinated second term. The unfixing of this certainty is the unfixing of metaphysics” [11]. And so it may seem that we Cain set aside the Serpent, its life story stated … Or are we Abel to? We continue this slippery Deconstructivist construction in the following article.

References[1] de Nerval, G (1854) El Desdichado, in TLes

ChimèresT; Études Littéraires. wapURL: 857OBLU.

[2] Jemmer, P (2007) ‘Lingua Creationis’ and The Creative Nature of Language. The Hypno-therapy Journal. Issue 3 Volume 7 Autumn 2007 (in press).

[3] Jemmer, P (2007) ‘Nomen Omen:’ Languaging and the Nature of Names. The Hypnotherapy Journal. Issue 4 Volume 7 Winter 2007 (in press).

[4] Armstrong, K (1996) In the Beginning: A New Interpretation of Genesis. New York NY: Ballan-tine.

[5] Appignanesi, R and Garratt, C (2003) Intro-ducing Postmodernism. Cambridge UK: Icon Books.

[6] Author Unknown (2008) Prosody Guide.

and repression: ‘They say it was T’s shape that tyrants copied when they first set up the cross to crucify men. This vile device is called a stauros, and it gets its name from tau’” [18]. Thus crucifying stauros, tool of redemp-tion through death, itself reminiscent of Greek sauros, ‘lizard’, is born of hissing-S and protecting/crucifying-T. Moreover, “ST can be expressed hieroglyphically as $ symbolizing the serpent and the T, the cross or the Tree of Life. It is the life (serpentine) force pushing thru the growing point, threshold or ‘site’. The pairing of S and T strongly accents foundation, the ‘seat’ of consciousness. Set, the oldest Egyptian god, forms the basis of all the other gods, and being so basic or low he is considered evil” [17]. Thus “It’s always possible to OVERTURN a metaphysical binarism, to reverse its hierarchy by privileging its second term – for instance, to privilege body not mind, Man not God, the complex before the simple, absence rather than presence” [11]. Furthermore in figure of the “serpent and the cross“ we see how “… Derrida sets the trace across the Saussurean sign – an undecid-able presence-absence at the origin of meaning. Language is premised on an interweaving movement between what is there and not there. Language is always an interweaving, a textile” [11], a style of text an interspersing of S and T. From a Deconstructivist perspective we can read this parable as saying that “It was incorrect to suppose that anything reasoned is

wapURL: GJSEUGY.[7] Kneller, J W (1960) The Poet and His Moira: ‘El

Desdichado’. PMLA, Volume 75, Number 4, pp 402 – 409.

[8] Leader, D and Groves, J (2005) Introducing Lacan. Cambridge UK: Icon Books.

[9] von Humboldt, W; Cowan, M (translator) (1963) Humanist Without Portfolio: An Anthology of the Writings of Wilhem von Humboldt. Detroit MI: Wayne State University Press.

[10] Dow, J W (1986) The Shaman’s Touch: Otomí Indian Symbolic Healing. Salt Lake City UT: University of Utah Press.

[11] Collins, J and Mayblin, B (2000) Introducing Derrida. Cambridge UK: Icon Books.

[12] Cornford, A; Dowker, D (editor) (1997) The Alterran Poetry Assemblage 2.0: Cosmology: Intelligence and Infinity in Language. wapURL: 3TDLURD.

[13] Wisnewski Jr, R C (1998) St. John’s Episcopal Church Lenten Meditations and Great Stories of the Bible Written by Parish Parishioners and The Reverend Robert C Wisnewski Jr: Cain and Abel. wapURL: EI28KJZ.

[14] Aschkenasy, N (1986) Eve’s Journey. Pittsburgh: PA: University of Philadelphia Press; Genesis of Eden Diversity Encyclopedia. wapURL: M5C6GIC.

[15] Bely, A (1922) Glossalolija: Poema o Zvuke, Hermann and Co Typographie: Epocha (Berlin); Glossolalia: A Poem about Sound; Beyer Jr, T R (translator) (2001). wapURL: I0LC241.

[16] Author Unknown (2008) Bible: Revised Stand-ard Version: Last Updated 18 February 1997. wapURL: 5OKDC7K.

[17] Author Unknown (2008) Freemasonry Watch: The Mark of Cain. wapURL: IEKSSF3.

[18] Sacks, D (2003) The Alphabet. Unravelling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z. London UK: Arrow Books.

[19] Milton, J (1667) Paradise Lost. London UK: Samuel Simmons; LiteratureOrg The Online Literature Library: Paradise Lost. wapURL: 7QRMSCK.

Note: For brevity, all websites are referenced with unique 7-alphaneumeric “wapURL” addresses generated at http://wapurl.co.uk/. These were all checked and found to be avail-able as of 0000H 12 October 2008. wapURL: 7QRMSCK, for example, can be accessed via: http://wapurl.co.uk/?7QRMSCK

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O ne of the most useful articles to be published recently was a review of those studies on hypno-

therapy which were rated as meet-ing the Chambless & Hollon (1998) criteria for empirically-supported treatments in the field of psychol-ogy, known as ESTs for short. It may not surprise many NCH members to know that when the research litera-ture on psychotherapy was previously reviewed by a task force of nineteen psychologists led by Prof. Dianne Chambless most of the psychological therapies identified as “empirically-supported” (formerly termed “empiri-cally-validated”) tended to be specific forms of cognitive and/or behaviour therapy (CBT). Most forms of psycho-therapy, ranging from the more con-troversial and pseudoscientific ones to some of the more “respectable” and mainstream approaches, do not meet these strict criteria for empiri-cal support. However, one study was identified which demonstrated that cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy (CBH) was “probably efficacious” for weight loss in obese clients. In this respect, hypnotherapy might (tenta-tively) be said to have garnered more

compelling evidence for its efficacy than many other modalities of psy-chological therapy, apart from the cognitive and/or behavioural treat-ments and some brief psychodynamic approaches.

However, over the past decade, many additional studies of a high quality have been published which provide support for the efficacy of hypno-therapy, including meta-analyses and systematic reviews which collate data from multiple studies to form a more general picture of the research find-ings in this area. David Wark’s review entitled ‘What we can do with hypno-sis: a brief note’ identifies over thirty additional studies on hypnotherapy which he rates using the revised Chambless & Hollon (1998) criteria for either “possible”, “probable”, or “specific” empirically-supported treat-ments, depending upon the nature of the evidence available (see the expla-nations below). I have compiled this information into a new table which you will find underneath. Of course, these are not all the possible appli-cations of hypnotherapy, simply the ones which currently have the strongest empirical support, based on

Wark’s rating using established crite-ria for research quality. More studies are published every year which poten-tially meet these criteria and might be included on a future list.

I think it might be observed that certain hypnotherapy treatments for certain types of pain, anxiety, and weight loss are supported by the strongest evidence at present, by this standard. In total, three stud-ies (anxiety due to asthma, public speaking, and taking a test) provide good evidence for the efficacy of hypnotherapy as a treatment for anxiety. Assen Alladin’s recent study which provides support for the use of hypnosis in the treatment of depres-sion is rated as meeting the “possibly” efficacious criteria. Most of the other studies provide evidence relating to the treatment of acute or chronic pain, and certain stress-related or psychosomatic medical conditions such as insomnia, migraine and IBS. Wark even finds one study on hypno-therapy for smoking cessation which meets the criteria for “possibly effica-cious.”

This is consistent with a general trend in the literature, since the Victorian era, which tends to point toward hypnotherapy showing most promise in the treatment of anxiety, insom-nia, pain management, and several stress-related medical conditions, with mixed findings in relation to its use for the treatment of habits and addictions such as over-eating, smok-ing and alcohol abuse. For example, a committee of experts commissioned by the British Medical Association concluded in 1892 that,

The Committee are of opinion that as a therapeutic agent hypnotism is frequently effective in relieving pain, procuring sleep, and alleviating many functional [i.e., psycho-somatic] ailments.

However, we can now go beyond those early clinical observations and

Hypnotherapy as an empirically-supported treatment (est)

By Donald Robertson

I beg farther to remark, if my theory and pretensions, as to the nature, cause, and extent of the phenomena of [hypnotism] have none of the fascinations of the transcendental to captivate the lovers of the marvellous, the credulous and enthusiastic, which the pretensions and alleged occult agency of the mesmerists have, still I hope my views will not be the less acceptable to honest and sober-minded men, because they are all level to our comprehension, and reconcilable with well-known physiological and psychological principles.

– James Braid, Hypnotic Therapeutics, 1853


“specific” empirically supported treatments

1. Anxiety about asthma attack Brown, 2007

2. Headaches and migraine Relaxation + image modification > wait list control Hammond, 2007

“effective” empirically-supported treatments

3. Cancer pain Syrjala et al., 1992

4. Distress during surgery Hypnosis reduces distress and pain > controls Lang et al., 2006

5. Surgery pain (adult) Self-hypnosis reduces drug use > attention control Lang et al., 1996

6. Surgery pain (child) Hypnosis reduces pain + hospital time > control Lambert, 1996

7. Weight reduction Hypnosis + CBT > CBT, differences increase over time

Kirsch, 1996

“possible” empirically-supported treatments

8. Acute pain (adult) Patterson & Jensen, 2003

9. Acute pain (children) Hypnosis > distraction for bone marrow aspiration Zeltzer & LaBaron, 1982

10. Anorexia Staged treatment with hypnosis > same without hypnosis

Baker & Nash, 1987

11. Anxiety about public speak-ing

Hypnosis > CBT Schoenberger et al., 1997

12. Anxiety about taking a test Self-hypnosis > discussion control Stanton, 1994

13. Asthma Hypnosis > attention control Ewer & Stewart, 1986

14. Bed wetting Suggestion with or without hypnosis > wait list control

Edwards & Van der Spuy, 1986

15. Bulimia Hypnosis = CBT > wait list Griffiths et al., 1996

16. Chemotherapy distress Hypnosis > conversation + antiemetic medication Jacknow et al., 1994

17. Cystic fibrosis Self-hypnosis > wait list control Belsky & Khanna, 1994

18. Depression Hypnosis enhances CBT Alladin & Alibhai, 2007

19. Duodenal ulcer relapse Hypnosis + medication > medication only Colgan et al., 1988

20. Fibromyalgia Hypnosis > physical therapy for subjective symp-toms

Haanen et al., 1991

21. Haemorrhage Preoperative suggestion reduces blood flow Enqvist et al., 1995

22. High blood-pressure Hypnosis > wait list in reducing BP long-term Gay, 2007

23. Hip or knee osteoarthritis pain

Hypnosis = relaxation > wait list control Gay et al., 2002

24. Insomnia (primary) Hypnosis + CBT > medication long-term Graci & Hardie, 2007

25. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

Hypnosis > psychotherapy Whorwell et al., 1984

26. Nausea & hyperemesis Hypnotic-like relaxation > control Lyles et al., 1982

27. Obstetrics Apgar score Hypnosis associated with higher Apgar score Harmon et al., 1990

28. Obstetrics pain Hypnosis shortens labour and reduces analgesic use

Jenkins & Prichard, 1983

29. Smoking cessation Hypnosis or relaxation > wait list controls for good subjects

Schubert, 1983

30. Trauma recovery Desensitisation = hypnosis = psychodynamic therapy > control

Brom et al., 1989

31. Wart removal Suggestion with or without hypnosis > control or medication

Spanos et al., 1990


primitive experiments and provide an overview of the therapeutic usefulness of hypnotherapy based on modern research design meeting the highest standards of quality.

These ratings are derived from the review published by Wark (2008), in which the references and criteria are given in full. In brief, the main criteria for the ratings are those set by Chambless & Hollon (1998), which they define roughly as follows but see their article for a more specific and detailed account of the criteria.

possible

A treatment is “possibly” empirically-supported if peer-reviewed studies

meet the following minimum crite-ria. Studies should normally contain samples of at least 25 subjects who are randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, i.e., the study is a randomised control trial (RCT). There is a treatment manual or equivalent (such as a hypnosis script) so that the treatment can be replicated in other studies. Treatment must be conducted upon a specific condition which has been adequately assessed, and adequate outcome measures must be used which are subject to suitable statistical analysis. The outcome must essentially show the treatment to be significantly more effective than a placebo or no-treat-ment control group, or equivalent to another empirically-supported treat-ment.

effective

A treatment is termed empirically-supported as being “effective” if statistically significant superiority to control group measures have been replicated with completely inde-pendent samples or by independent research teams, and data support-ing the treatment in question must be shown to predominate if there are conflicting data from other studies.

specific

A treatment can be considered empir-ically-supported as “specific” (i.e., better than “non-specific” treatment) if it has shown statistically significant

Below are a list of members who have successfully completed the NCH accredited supervisors course or have been granted the designation accHypsup through accredited prior learning.

Peter Adamson Warrington & NW 01942 677 426Martin Armstrong-Prior Leicester 0116 276 4911Fiona Biddle Loughborough & London 0150 988 1411Catherine Bremner Alton, Hampshire 07762 799737Shaun Brookhouse Manchester & London 0161 881 1677Michael Cameron London 0208 445 1369Nick Cooke Birmingham 0121 444 1110Tom Cottrell Edinburgh and Biggar 0131 2254437Julian Davidson Nottingham and Beeston 0115 9135104Josephine Goss Scotland 01343 835705Joy Gower Norwich 01603 700578Kate Harvey Nottingham 0115 948 0815Val Hird York 01904 629 347Pat Hoare Exeter, Devon 01392 410090Christine Hyde Clevelys 01253 864419Christine Key Surrey 01932 560725Simon Kilner Leeds 0113 278 8673Stephanie Kirke Thatcham 01635 869444John Lawrence Linlithgow 01506 830190Mary Llewellyn Doncaster 01302 743113Theresa Long Wimbledon 0208 241 7930Lynn Martin Honiton, Devon 0208 457 2643Gloria May London 0207 486 4553Joe McAnelly Newcastle upon Tyne 0191 286 1161Maureen McCabe Salthill (Eire) 00 353 877730401Susan McIntyre Burnham on Sea 01278 784490Hilary Norris-Evans Wiltshire 01249 740506Paul Peace Sheffield 0114 235 1985Su Ricks Daventry 01327 263355Lynnzie Stirling Edinburgh 0131 66 77 199Josephine Teague Cambridge 01223 235127Graham Thomas London 0207 286 0887Joanne Waine Bedford 01234 852930Carole Wan S.Yorks & London 01246 416 544Patrick Waterson Ballymena (NI) 028 25631415

SUPERVISION


superiority to a placebo (“sham”) therapy or another psychological therapy in at least two independent studies.

ReferencesBolocofsky, D.N., Spinler, D., & Coulthard-Morris,

L. (1985). ‘Effectiveness of hypnosis as an adjunct to behavioral weight management’, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 41.

Chambless, D.L., & Hollon, S. ‘Defining empirically supported therapies’, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66.

Task Force on Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures. ‘Training in and dissemination of empirically validated psychol-ogist treatments: report and recommendations.’ Clin Psychol 1995;48:3–23.

Chambless DL, Sanderson WC, Shoham V, Bennett Johnson S, Pope KS, Crits-Christoph P, et al. ‘An update on empirically validated therapies.’ Clin Psychol 1996;49:5–18.

Chambless DL, Baker MJ, Baucom DH, Beutler LE, Calhoun KS, Crits-Christoph P, et al. ‘Update on empirically validated therapies, II.’ Clin Psychol 1998;51:3–16.

Wark, David M. (2008). ‘What we can do with hypnosis: a brief note’, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, July 2008

W hen designing a web-site you sometimes only have one chance and a few seconds to

keep the internet visitor from clicking the back button on their web brows-er. Whether you are selling a Hypno-therapy CDs or extolling the virtues of your practice, remember your website design represents your business.

For years, we have been told that the first 30 seconds are crucial to build-ing rapport and making a lasting first impression. There is no difference when designing your website than that first meeting or telephone call with a client. You are making a first impression with the internet visitor who has searched for what you are offering in your website design. The first impression can make the differ-ence between a paying client i.e. a conversion or just a visitor to your website.

Here are just 5 simple rules to keep in mind when designing your website.

rule 1. Limit the use or do not use flashy banners and advertisements at the beginning of you website. There is a time and place for the banners and advertisements and I have never found one on my website. In other words I never use them but that’s a personal choice.

There is nothing more annoying than clicking on a website to see cartoon characters and advertisements for other products flashing in front of

your face. This can be too much for your potential customer. Your customer is there to solve a problem and blatant advertisements or flash-ing banners may turn them off and they may just hit the back button before they find what they are look-ing for.

rule 2. Make sure your website design makes it easy for the visitor to find the navigation buttons. If a customer has to search for a navi-gation button to find information about the company or the navigation buttons are not working, the visitor may get frustrated and leave your website.

As a rule of thumb, your navigation buttons should be on the left side of your web page because the major-ity of people read from left to right. Think about reading a newspaper or a book. You look at the headlines then you read from the left to the right. However sometimes the design just wont lend itself to doing that. Ask yourself the question. What’s more important - the design or getting customers?

rule 3. When visitors are brows-ing your site, have a clear indication for the visitor of where they are on your website and how to get to other parts.

You may want to put a link on each page that the visitor clicks to take them to the home page or another page relating to the information

successful Website Design

By Paul Howard

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seen by over 1800 Hypnotherapists

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currently viewing. In other words do not confuse your visitor or your visitor may just click off the website totally.

rule 4. When designing your website pay close attention to loading time, the time it takes your web pages to load. You can reduce loading time by reducing graphics on each page. A good website design should load in under twenty seconds.

The longer it takes the pages to load the more frustrating it can be to the visitor. People want it yesterday not today and definitely not tomorrow.

rule 5. Use a font that is common to all web browsers and easy to read. You have to think of your market. If your target market is older individuals you may want to increase the font.

Most of us are not going to get younger and with age, we find our eyesight is not what it used to be.

In addition, different web brows-ers display fonts differently. There-fore, you want to use a universal font compatible to the popular web browser for better viewing.

Bonus rule 6. Make sure the infor-mation on your website is up to date, interesting and relevant to you. Prospective clients want to know they are visiting a website that has up to date information and is relevant to what they are searching for.

These are just a few rules of website design. There are many other things to adhere to when designing your website for optimal visitors.

When designing your website look at it from the clients point of view. Would you want to visit this website? Would you want to book an appoint-ment from this website? If you answer “no” then correct the problems.

pigeons

I remember when a good friend of mine moved into his brand new home just a couple of years ago. I helped him move his furniture in and we were just about finished is when the noise started; which sounded like somebody walking on the roof. When we went outside we could not believe what we were looking at; there must have been 150 pigeons sat on the roof and in the garden.

The next day he spoke to his neigh-bour and his neighbour told him that the lady that lived in the house before him would feed the pigeons every evening. My friend contacted the environmental health at the council and they told him that the only way to get rid of the pigeons was not to feed them. That night the pigeons came and even though he did not want to feed the pigeons he did because the noise he said was unbearable. But when he woke up the next day he felt frustrated because he had given in and fed the pigeons.

Somebody then told him that if he did something else when the pigeons came it would take his mind off the noise. That night when the pigeons came he distracted his mind away from the noise by playing on his guitar. At the end of the week he went outside and he discovered that half of the pigeons had gone and by week two only around 40 pigeons remained.

When he got to the end of week three the only thing that he could hear was his guitar. When he went outside he discovered to his surprise that not one pigeon was sitting on his roof. He tells me that every once in a while a couple of pigeon sit on his roof but as long as he does not feed them they fly away after a couple of minutes.

By putting up with the noise and not doing the easy thing he now enjoys the house that he has always dreamt of.

Gary Maddison

perfect House

You look around and realise you are in the beautiful grounds of a coun-try mansion. You gaze at the pano-ramic view. There are trees and well pruned shrubs, manicured lawns and ornamental pools. You set off to take a closer look, wandering round the well kept pathways and between the tidy flower beds. Studying the ornate statues, admiring the ordered herb garden and neat rose beds. The perfume of the flowers is delicate, the colours carefully put together.

It is obvious that someone has put a great deal of planning and thought into this, everything is just so. It must take a good deal of work to keep each aspect so neat, so tidy, so immacu-late.

metaphor Corner


full of lightness and, yes, joy.

Your mind clears and you can look forward. There is no going back.

You take a deep breath, that’s better. You are amazed at how much better you feel and see, for the first time, a little way beyond where the balloon was, a house. It is just the most perfect house for you.

It is exactly how you imagined it would be. There are lovely flowers in the garden. The delicious scent wafts up towards you on a gentle breeze as you push open the garden gate, the birds are singing as you walk up the path, the door opens a little welcom-ing you and you walk right in.

Inside it is beautifully cool and light.

You peep through the doorways but don’t explore everywhere just yet.

One of the rooms has a comfy chair in it and you do so want to sit down. The whole house feels so comfort-able and welcoming and the chair is so inviting. You sit down. That feels so good.

As you sit there you look around with surprise. The room is decorated exactly as you would have chosen, with orna-ments and pictures very much to your taste. It is just perfect.

Next to you there is a small table with a book on it. You pick up the book and see it is a picture book. You wonder if it is a history of the house, but no, you see, with amazement, it has pictures of you in it. There you are as a child, a teenager, a student, growing up! They are happy pictures and they bring back such lovely memories. You can conjure up the events as they took place, who was there with you, how you were feeling at the time; cheerful, mischievous, proud, happy.

As you look through you see other

happy scenes of your life, trips out, celebrations, holidays. There are even up-to-date pictures of you enjoying occasions, laughing, chatting, admir-ing the views.

But the pages don’t stop there, they go on into the future. Here you are, visiting your family in their own homes, having a fun night out with your friends, enjoying yourself. Busy at work, efficient and in control, inviting people round to your house, loving to have the company. Driving through the countryside at all differ-ent seasons of the year, admiring the beauty of it all. Confident and serene, enjoying life and looking forward to the new adventures it will bring.

It will be interesting to see what happy pictures are going to be added in the future. The near future and the distant future.

Margaret Wiggal

QUOTE-NOTES

“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.

Henry van Dyke”

However, there is something missing. There is no-where to sit down and very little shade.

You begin to notice how warm the day is and you head for a clump of trees and some shade and maybe a seat to sit on where you can admire the garden.

As you reach the trees you realise you have somehow wandered out of the well tended grounds and into a more wild area. The grass is longer and the ground uneven. The trees and hedges are not pruned. There are nettles and brambles. There are no pathways.

You pause for a moment under the trees, in the deep pool of shade. There is still no-where to sit down.

Perhaps you shouldn’t be here. Perhaps you should go back?…………

Out of the corner of your eye you see a hot air balloon. It lands on the ground and stays there. You are drawn towards it, fascinated by its bright colours. You hurry towards it, pushing through the rough grass under your feet and stumbling on the uneven ground as you go hoping to get close before it takes off again.

As you reach it you realise you are quite exhausted, partly by the rough ground and the warmth of the day and partly by the heavy rucksack on your back. You hadn’t really noticed it before but you are carrying such a heavy load and it is making you so, so tired.

Somehow you know exactly what to do. You take off your rucksack and you dump it into the basket of the balloon, you don‘t need it anymore, and watch with great relief as the balloon takes off again. That was close. You were just in time. The balloon rises up into the air and you feel a huge sense of relief. That heavy burden is gone. The balloon disap-pears over the horizon and you feel


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Vacancy - Development DirectorThe NCH Development Director is at the heart of our ongoing drive to improve standards. This a vital and important role as well as organising our training programmes. The successful candi-date will make a significant contribution to the executive committee and our future success. The core responsibilities are set out below; however we are more than happy to take on new ways of delivering “development” to our members. Responsibilities Include:

Providing monthly CPD events throughout the UK; this involves finding trainers, venues and communicating with members to encourage attendance through email bulletins.Keeping records of attendees and liaising with NCH Administrators to raise invoices and keeping website up to date.Advising Journal Editor of dates and venues.Attendance of CPD events is desirable where appropriate, but not absolutely necessary for all events.

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and suggests it is a perfectly natural step on the way to belief change.

None of the techniques discussed are rocket science, but that just makes the whole book even more accessible and practical. I particularly recom-mend it to anyone starting out who might be wondering how they can apply things they are learning outside hypnotherapy.

ISBN: 0954574834RRP: £7.99Published by Communications in Action

man’s search for meaningBy Victor frankl

reviewed by Jill tonks

This book blew me away. It was writ-ten in the 50’s and is an account of an Auschwitz survivor, Victor Frankl. What made the difference to those who survived such a traumatic expe-rience and those who didn’t he puts down to meaning.

He was an eminent Doctor before and after his experiences, and what kept him going was writing the manuscript he was stripped of when he entered the camp - no mean feat I can tell you - and working as a doctor to typhus sufferers.

There are some very moving and shocking bits in the book, but this is positive psychology before we knew it as we do now. Victor Frankl goes on to explore logotherapy in part 2 of the book which is meaning therapy which he went on to develop.

In terms of PTSD there are some interesting reflections on those who, being freed from the camp, thought

Nlp in Business: a practical Handbook for using Nlp easily and professionally

By peter freeth

reviewed by tom sedge

This is a book I read simply ages ago that I still find myself quoting from.

It’s a simple and straightforward guide to implementing many basic NLP techniques in a day-to-day business setting. Written in a clean, clear and concise style, Peter has a real knack for seeing how to apply patterns in different situations, so much so that I frequently found myself thinking “Of course, why didn’t I think of that?”.

One area that particularly caught my eye was the importance Peter gives to creating a state of confusion. In order to take someone from a strongly-held belief or view to a contrary one, he states that it is first neces-sary to deliberately create confusion. Starting with certainty, we introduce doubt, uncertainty and then confu-sion before reversing the process to reach a new viewpoint. How do to this? Well one way is to get in rapport and then becoming confused your-self, leading the other person on the route you want them to follow.

Peter takes resistance as an excellent sign that the other person is already imagining the thing they are trying to resist. He then paces the resistance

the Courage to love: principles and practices of

self-relations psychotherapyBy stephen Gilligan

reviewed by paul Kimberlee

I really enjoyed this book, which presents quite a different model of hypnotherapy to the cognitive approach I usually work with.

Dr. Gilligan suggests that problems are often from neglected parts of ourselves that we can begin to accept and learn from to help with change, an interesting idea.

There are a lot of simple techniques for relaxation and acceptance which I think can be readily applied whatever your therapeutic preference.

These is also some great informa-tion about centering yourself as a therapist which I liked, and a great dissection of the different styles that therapists work from which I’ve found quite useful.

ISBN: 0393702472RRP: £22.00Published by W. W. Norton & Co.

Book reviews


Utilising our mirror neurons allow us to interpret the expressions and actions of those around us and to respond appropriately. By under-standing the intentions and emotions of others we are better able to under-stand ourselves within the context of those around us, to know how we exist by the experience of the response we give and get from others.

One study in particular posed the question, “how do you know the difference between picking up a teacup because you want to take a sip, or because you’re clearing the table, and can mirror neurons tell the difference.”

In a recent study published in PLOS Biology he and his colleagues found some evidence that they can. The researchers used fMRI to examine 23 participants as they watched videos of a hand picking up a teacup. In one video, the teacup sat on a table amid a pot of tea and plate of cookies - a signal that a tea party was under way and the hand was grasping the cup to take a sip. In the other video, the table was messy and scattered with crumbs - a sign that the party was over and the hand was clearing the table. In a third video the cup was alone, removed from any context. The researchers found that mirror neurons in the premotor cortex and other brain areas reacted more strongly to the actions embedded in the tea-party context than to the contextless scene.

“This suggests that the neurons are important for understanding inten-tions as well as actions,” Lacoboni says.

“This neural mechanism is involun-tary and automatic,” he says - with it we don’t have to think about what other people are doing or feeling, we simply know.

It is why we respond to TV adverts, and violence, people crying, touching

and facial expressions, and how our unfiltered brain responses may not be the ones that our conscious brains are in agreement with or even aware of.

Lacoboni writes with a fluent confi-dent style that makes the most complicated studies on parts of the brain I had no previous knowledge of, easily digestible. His passion for this subject and how it has the ability to be not only the foundation of how we know who we are but how it also holds the potential to influence our lives, in a way that questions just how much control we really have over our responses to the world.

“It seems we’re wired to see other people as similar to us, rather than different,” Gallese says. “At the root, as humans we identify the person we’re facing as someone like ourselves.”

ISBN: 0374210179RRP: £18.99Published by Farrar Straus Giroux

Calling All Bookworms!

If there is a book or hypno-therapy related product you have used recently, why not send in a review?

Or maybe you’ve got a great metaphor you’d like to share.

Email your contributions to:

[email protected]

their dreams were being realised but in fact then realised their suffering was meaningless and went on to experience a second nightmare of being unable to integrate back into society.

It is a powerful read, and consider-ing only 1 in 28 people survived the camp, an amazing account of manag-ing hell on earth.

ISBN: 1844132390RRP: £7.99Published by Rider & Co

mirroring peopleBy marco lacoboni

reviewed by Dani Dennington

This is a fascinating account of the research into Mirror neurons from the first studies on macaque monkey brains back in the 1980’s right up to the present day, detailing numer-ous research projects using fMRI brain imaging looking at everything from autism, addiction and advertis-ing through to the development of speech and human empathy.

Mirror neurons fire when you perform an action, or think about perform-ing an action, they also fire when you watch others perform the same action, especially if that action has some relevance to your experience as a human being.

They help us understand what we read by internally simulating the action we just read in the sentence. The mirror neurons simulate the action and so transform our bodily actions from a private experience to a social expe-rience to be shared with our fellow humans through language

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hypnotherapists.org.uk - Issue 1 Vol 9 - The Hypnotherapy Journal

tHe HypNotHerapy JourNalAddress: PO Box 149, Gravesend, DA11 8XLPhone / Fax: 01474 740724 / 0870 7627329Email: [email protected]: Rob Woodgate MNCH(Reg), HPD, NLP(Master Prac)Proofreader: Lisa Langhorn, 01932 860107Printer: Meridian Printers, 51-53 West Street, Long Sutton, Spalding, Lincs. PE12 9BN

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