Rob's Blog

I was recently contacted by a gentleman that had suffered deeply with speech difficulties in his youth. He made a very good point. He said that generally one hears about how difficult it is to get over the problems, and systems for living with the issue. In reality we should try to find the cause, and get past it. His point is very well made. In the article he sent me he tells his inspiring story, and I am very happy to reproduce it here, with his permission. In this case we can't take the credit for helping David overcome his stuttering. However in many cases we do indeed help, and have substantial success in this area. The following story is inspirational and will provide an interesting insight to those unfamiliar with the problem. RH November 26/2010 Stuttering is with you all the time. The anxiety it produces is draining Just like you I know about stuttering. I was a stutterer from age six to seventeen. I found the cause and my life changed. As a

On April 27th 1994 people changed. 30 million of them. South Africa elected Nelson Mandela as their president. Two years prior to this such an outcome seemed far beyond the hopes of the most optimistic reformer. And yet it happened. Mandela once said, "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." On that day, a nation conquered fear. No one that was there will ever forget it. I had met Mandela several times, and had dinner with Mandela, the amazingly dignified Walter Sisulu and Joe Slovo on one occasion in Bloemfontein in the run up to the elections. Ironically dinner with Joe Slovo consisted mostly of chatting about Manchester United - which seemed a little sublime as we were approaching what everyone assumed would be a bloody and violent election. At the time I was working with my close friend Charlene Smith, on the Sunday Times. The enormous leap of faith, not

In 1991 I was a young press photographer working for Associated Press. I was sent into South Sudan to cover the war in the south. At the time conditions were thought to be hard, though no one really knew what was going on in the remote and poorly understood country. After a tiny aid plane left me in Nasir, a remote town in the south east I walked toward Ethiopia - there being no cars, no gas, no money and most of all no food anywhere. I had a hunch that the instability in Ethiopia would have reprocussions in the border area. I walked with two Nuer tribesmen along the Sobat, a branch of the White Nile. The hauntingly empty landscape was remote but beautiful. We would sleep on the ground, under a shade tree and start our walking with the rising sun. As we slowly moved east we woke one day to a sound that was a little like that of a football crowd. That day, instead of the empty flat land with scrub bushes and ant hills the only landmark, we were greeted with the sight of a

Do you laugh in the face of danger? Do you tweak the nose of disorder? This recent question came up - an my response is below. Question: Is there such thing as a laughing disorder? Okay this started when I was just a boy. My father and I would have serious conversations and all of a sudden out of nowhere, I started laughing. He thought it was funny at first but when it increased, he got so annoyed. Same with my mother. Years later, as a mature adult (age 21), we went to an event and all of a sudden I started laughing again. Now it's been happening like crazy. In class, romantic times with my girlfriend who I piss off a lot when it happens (and she thinks it's her fault). And also during public presentations, funerals, movies that are sad and everything. I am thinking of going to a hypnotist or something. I looked this up and it might be Pseudobulbar disorder which causes that. I need HELP!! I want to stop looking like a laughing freak! FSC Answer:

Gambling addictions are among the most difficult addictions to treat. Unlike many addictions, a serious gambling addiction may show few apparent signs to the people around the addict. With the easy availability of credit and the apparent respectability of casinos, gambling is a sad affliction that can decimate the life of an addict and their family. Our proven track record in this field is backed up with quality follow up and ongoing support. Few gamblers accurately monitor how much they have spent, and how much they have lost during the night out. Only later do they really understand the cost of their habit. While narcotics addictions are frequently accompanied by health issues, it would be wrong to think that gambling addiction differs from other addictions in this way. Many gamblers suffer depression, struggle with many aspects of moderation (such as binge drinking or eating), and suffer a higher than average rate of heart disease. Insomnia is also quit common among gambling addicts

I have a friend who told me a story of her childhood. It was a time she spent in Turkey, with a huge extended family. As a five year old she would ride around the local village on a beautiful grey horse. A child of great privilege, she enjoyed riding through the village and around surrounding farms. She was greatly envied by the other children as she rode past them. A happier little girl you could hardly imagine. When she would go to the city other members of her family would ask her how she liked the country life. She told them excitedly of the adventures she had on her wonderful horse. They would smile and probably laugh to themselves thinking those adventures were largely made up, although they weren't. To be so young, to have a horse that was the envy of all her friends, and to ride through villages and hillsides so freely was a young girls dream come true. Her friends numbered not only the local kids, but also the calves, goats and sheep, not to mention the cats in the village

Many clients wish to reduce their alcohol consumption, though they don't want to go completely dry. Perhaps they work in a job which requires them to socialise, or they don't want to give up that glass of wine occasionally. Some simply want to reduce their alcohol use, because they realise it works against a healthy diet, and they'd lke to loose a few pounds. When a hypnotherapist assesses the client the key is to understand their alcohol use. Below are a couple of examples of types of drinker. A. If the client is habitually using large quantities of alcohol there is a real possibility that they are an alcoholic, in which case reduction is unlikely to be effective. If on the other hand, there consumption is gradually increasing and simply needs to be staid, there's unlikely to be much difficulty in reduction. In either case a tested and proven method exists for managing the client. B. Another type of alcohol user who looks for reduction, is the binge drinker. One of the

Originally published on March 14th, 2010. For an update see the end of the post. This is the true story of a young woman currently in the Concurrent Care Unit of Vancouver General Hospital. She's twenty two years old, and could be the sister or daughter of anyone on this list. Tonight she will not be going home to her mother. Instead she is in a seclusion room in the Unit, having been involuntarily sedated. Confidentiality concerns prevent me from mentioning her name, however I am able to mention her doctor's name. Dr. Koczapski ordered her involuntary sedation. Now, a quick word about seclusion wards and sedation. A seclusion room is a room containing a mattress and nothing else. It has a small window for the staff to inspect the occupant. It is, within the corrections world, the equivalent of 'Solitary Confinement'. The patient may be let out at certain times at the discretion of a nurse. Involuntary sedation is a questionable practice at best. There are strict

The 100th Monkey: Fact and Fiction - By Dr. Norman Allen I came across this and found it interesting. Dr. Allen is a noted homeopath as well as practicing a broad range of other modalities. His writing is a joy. He can be found at http://www.normanallan.com . The following is one of many interesting and well researched pieces he has written. I have edited it for use on VancouverHypnotherapy.org I think it was Lyall Watson who coined the term "the 100th monkey". Koshimo Island: In the 1950s, in order study the behaviour of macaque monkeys on Koshimo Island, some Japanese ethologist ( footnote "ethology" is the science of behaviour. Konrad Lorenz, he whom the greylag geese followed, was the father of ethology, the study of the natural behaviour of animals, mankind included ), left out food, yams, on an observable beach to draw the monkeys there. So they weren't exactly observing behaviour in the wild, but they thought it would be the next best thing.

I work with addictions and eating disorders mostly. It’s a fairly tough area of hypnotherapy, because you can see immediately how effective treatment is. It either works or it doesn’t. There’s not much in the way of a ‘grey area’ if your client is still using cocaine. I am fortunate enough to have studied homeopathy as well as hypnotherapy. As a result I have the benefit of several different views on the nature of disease. When we look at the cause of conditions in Hypnotherapy, we can learn a lot from our colleagues on the homeopathy side of the fence. The system of homeopathy which I studied had quite a lot to say about the nature of disease. While orthodox medicine treats disease generally symptomatically, most hypnotherapists know that we should look for the actual causes. Under this regime, treating bulimia is best treated by managing the sources of anxiety, rather than simply force feeding and preventing purging. One system works, the other simply doesn’t. So, in the case of buli