Neither meditation nor hypnosis is a form of sleep as people in either situation are fully aware of events around them. In neither state is their a loss of control. In both states, which are actually different approaches to the same state, a person is deeply relaxed physically with a mental and emotional calmness soon following. I realise that by helping a person to achieve a state of hypnosis over a number of sessions, I’ve also taught the person to meditate for the purpose of stress management through inner calm.

It was pointed out that the biggest contributing factor to cancer among men was smoking, while for women it was being over weight. Other contributing factors to cancer in both genders was alcohol consumption, diet and a lack of moderate exercise. A woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer, and overcame it,described taking up exercising every day, eating smaller portions and quitting alcohol consumption.

The doctor being interviewed on the Breakfast program hastened to point out that about 50% of cancers were the result of family background and could not be entirely avoided, but by making lifestyle changes a person “could stack the odds in their favour”. The doctor being interviewed recommended quitting smoking and “managing weight”. These are simple truths and while these lifestyle changes can have have tremendous benefits, people often struggle to begin to make these changes.

Weight management is something I specialise in helping a person achieve. Quite often people I see have a complex relationship to eating and food that involves guilt from poor eating habits, poor eating choices, diminishing health and even poor health. Many people I see have a relationship to food that almost always guarantees they will feel guilt and guilty. The habit is not just the relationship to food but the habit of feeling guilt. I can help impart control in such a way as to dissolve the relationship between food and guilt. This doesn’t mean a person will continue to overeat and simply not care. The absence of guilt is replaced with the will power to eat less and to feel good about enjoying smaller portions, eating healthy, not eating when not hungry and stopping when you’ve had enough. All of this and more can be accomplished with positive suggestions provided with hypnotherapy.

These worrying trends could see a general increase in the temptation to try fad diets. As has been stated on this blog frequently, fad diets can provide short term results but with no strategy or support to sustain the weight loss. After a fad diet, a person can not only end up regaining the lost weight but put even more weight on. Hypnotherapy at the Clevedon Hypnotherapy Centre will help a person gradually lose weight and keep it off. I certainly can’t wave a magic wand and make people thin over night, but with positive suggestions I help a person reorientate their relationship to food. Eat less. Enjoy more. Stop snacking. Exercise. Feel good. Look good.

During the BBC Breakfast program, women on the street were briefly interviewed and confessed to the diets they had tried. These diets include the Cabbage Soup Diet, The Grapefruit Diet, and others that had been around for years including the Atkins Diet and the Scarsdale Diet. One woman interviewed asserted that she had never needed to diet.

The fundamental truth is that when a person consistently eats smaller portions than when they were a teenager, consumes alcohol very moderately and exercises regularly, their weight can be reduced and managed. Hypnotherapy with Ron van der Holt at the Clevedon Hypnotherapy Centre can help a person to achieve permanent weight loss without fad dieting. Hypnotherapy will help impart a sense of control and satisfaction to losing weight and keeping the excess pounds off.

Smoking cessation and weight management through reduced intake and moderate exercise are very sensible goals to improve health. Hypnotherapy is a safe and effective way to help a person to achieve all these. I’m just very pleased people are seeing the sense in a gradual approach that involves dealing with one issue at a time as part of an overall strategy of physical and therefore emotional well being.

PTSD has long been recognised. Many veterans from the Falklands War suffer from PTSD. Manifestations of the disorder include, but are not limited to, depression, insomnia, panic attacks and anger. These in turn may lead to alienation, drug and alcohol dependence, unemployment, homelessness and even suicide. The same symptoms are evident in some men and women who fought in the First Gulf War, the Iraq War or are currently involved with the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.

The BBC program highlighted that help is available for PTSD. The specific type or types of help were not elaborated upon, but no doubt they were referring to various forms of counselling or talking therapies. Counselling certainly can help and there is a general recognition that non-medical or non-prescription approaches to PTSD are effective. As the underlying causes of PTSD are emotional, it seems to me that hypnotherapy is very well suited to help anyone with PTSD or anyone suffering with depression, insomnia, panic attacks or anger as an individual symptom, or in combination. With an experienced and skilled hypnotherapist, a person suffering with PTSD learns to confront and assuage the fear and guilt that often form the foundations of PTSD. Suggestion therapy and hypnoanalysis are safe and effective methods of healing the emotional wounds that surface as PTSD.

Thanks for emailing me, I’m doing well thank you.

The first two weeks after seeing you were OK. But like last time, two weeks Saturday I felt terrible which was a little worrying. I was terribly depressed and sat about in a day dream. It was like a proverbial lid was lifted off and my emotions ran amok. Fortunately it only lasted a week; Saturday 17th I woke and felt great! I also have found myself remembering the school with a lot more clarity as if I’ve had a recent tour around. Fortunately the unpleasant flashbacks seem to be dying off and I’m feeling a lot more relaxed.

So far so good though and I’m hoping I will continue with this good feeing.

A little of topic, I do have a question that I have been in wonderment over. I don’t suppose you have ever heard of Interstitial cystitis? You see, I have been suffering with this condition since I was 9-10 years old and I truly believe that my CSA has something to do with it?
I do know that sufferer’s often have IBS as part of the condition and stress, anxiety flare up both. Since coming to see you and understanding IBS and it’s causes I did a little research of my own. I had Googled to see if I’m not alone in this thinking and it does appear I’m not. Just interested in your thoughts with this one?

Hope to speak soon.

Reply:

The process of hypnoanalysis that you engaged with such determination allows for deliberately forgotten memories to be re-experienced with the original emotions. After therapy, I experienced considerable anger in sometimes short but very intense bursts that were never externalised. After therapy, I knew where the anger was coming from. Previous to therapy the anger was more intensely present just beneath the surface (subliminally) but without the knowledge and experience of where the anger originated. When your proverbial “emotional lid is lifted off” you consciously clear out more of the residual terror, anger, shame and humiliation of your childhood ordeal. I’m very aware it isn’t easy, but it should get easier over time or to put it another way the unpleasant emotions will diminish.

Knowing what you endured as a child, it’s easy to understand why you might be vulnerable to other conditions exacerbated by stress and anxiety: IBS, depression and interstitial cystitis (IC) to name but a few. Your abuse may not have been the direct cause of IC but the abuse left you emotionally vulnerable. I was vulnerable to self harming and self medicating. These are “symptoms” that you are to be commended for having avoided. Nevertheless, you suffered and not only are you exploring the parameters of your suffering but finding you’re far from alone in the path you’ve taken.

If I can help you manage the process of recovery please let me know. Sometimes, just a session of suggestion therapy helps instil clarity and confidence. Please let me know your thoughts when you have a chance.

Best regards,

Ron van der Holt
www.clevedonhypnotherapy.co.uk
0783 422 5680

Having actively listened to any and all concerns, I usually begin by telling a person about what hypnotherapy is not, particularly if the prospective client hasn’t experienced hypnotherapy, doesn’t know anyone who has and whose perceptions are shaped by what was seen on television. Their relief is almost palpable when I assure them they won’t be made to perform like a monkey or swing from the chandelier. Immediately, the prospective client understands that I’m a hypnotherapist and not hypnotist. I then take a moment to explain how a hypnotist “finds” suggestible participants. Thankfully, after further separating my skills from mere performance, the words “Paul McKenna” are never mentioned again. Until the next initial consultation.

After the initial consultation the client has gained some understanding and reassurance. I have assessed their suitability for therapy and they feel I can help them make real and lasting changes to their life. The client will also come to understand that hypnosis is a natural state of deep physical relaxation. We all pass through the state, albeit very briefly, twice a day. Hypnosis is safe. A client will not be in a trance, nor be asleep, nor be compelled to do anything that constitutes a loss of their personal control.

What hypnosis and thus hypnotherapy (hypnoanalysis) can do is gradually allow access to conscious, subliminal and subconscious content simultaneously. In the care of an experienced, compassionate and patient hypnotherapist hypnoanalysis can help an individual transcend chronic depression, PTSD, panic attacks, IBS, bulimia, anorexia, self harming and many other afflictions. Unfortunately, the misconceptions about hypnosis are still prevalent but these misconceptions are gradually giving way to a broader understanding and acceptance.

Just as the client was about to leave he mentioned that he had given up smoking just 6 days previously and was completely confident that he was now a “non-smoker”. I congratulated him on making a decisive step he would never regret and then he not only mentioned that hypnotherapy had also been the “cure”, but that the hypnotherapy had been provided by a downloaded iPhone app. I was neither surprised by the admission nor particularly worried upon reflection.

Having been in practice for 5 years, I’ve recognised that my catchment area encompasses a 20 mile radius. People have come from much further afield for hypnotherapy and particularly hypnoanalysis, but generally they live within a 40 minute drive of my office in Clevedon. The way, or ways, to help people far and wide even on a global level are clear and readily available. Last year while in Greece 3 recordings were made with Andy Dench and these are available from my website as Audio CDs. Several more recordings have been completed, but my client points to another phenomenon well under way: hypnotherapy for smartphones. I’m certain that my face to face client base will always be a 20 mile radius around Clevedon, but to reach a global market smartphone apps certainly seem to be the way forward.

Generally, the article framed hypnosis and hypnotherapy in a positive light by assembling much of what is already generally known about hypnotherapy combined with recent developments within the NHS. The article stated that while hypnotherapy isn’t yet available on the NHS, hypnotherapy is helpful in treating anxiety based conditions. The article also goes into further depth by quoting Dr. Peter Naish, President-Elect of the Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine Section, that hypnotherapy can achieve a better rate of healing for certain conditions. The article also quotes Dr. Raj Sharma of the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, that hypnotherapy might be one of several approaches to helping people suffering with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). The National Institute for Health and Excellence (NICE) also recommends hypnotherapy for IBS if symptoms persist after 12 months the article adds.

The article adds balance by asserting that hypnotherapy may not be effective for everyone and adds a note of caution that the profession is self regulating and qualifications may not designate a practitioner as “professional”. Seeking a referral from a GP might be a good way forward.

On the whole the article was reasonable well balanced. Unfortunately, the title beginning “Look into my eyes..” perpetuates misconceptions that hypnotherapy is some form of mind control and in doing so presents hypnotherapists as merely hypnotists. In my practice, I have to dispel that misconception almost every day. The next egregious mistake was the accompanying photo of a young woman staring at a swinging watch held my a man in front of her. This image perpetuates many of the worst misconceptions about hypnotherapy. A worse way to present hypnotherapy could not have been chosen. The myth conveyed is one of “trance” and mind control. In fact, “patients are encouraged into a state of trance”, was in the article.

Much of the information in the article was helpful, but the title and the photo caption were misleading. I would have to conclude the article was one step forward and two steps back.