Robs Blog

Understanding the effect of pharmacy and narcotics.

2012-01-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

Working with Negative Suggestion

2011-11-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

Don't run... Don't smoke... Don't do this - don't do that...

There's an awesome set of three videos, which cannot be embedded sadly, available on the links below. They show how we are all susceptible to the trap of negative suggestion. We help clients get past this every day. Take a look at the videos and see if this is you... Would you electrocute a kitten? If you're doing this in your office, you might want to get two or three people to watch it with you!

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHaFuYZwX2U

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwIlueCNu8M

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap35u0zB6QM

By the way, we do not generally condone the electicution of small mamals.

Validation - A key approach to overcoming negative suggestion. What you put out, you get right back. A simple approach to dealing with negative suggestion is to adopt a positive attitude - such as the method well illustrated in the short video below.

We are always here to help. Vancouver Hypnotherapy Inc. works with individuals, groups and corporate departments to help maintain and deliver a positive attitude. We have clinical counsellors on staff to help when necessary.

Halloween Hypnosis

2011-10-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

Hypnosis is all around us. Close your eyes in a moment and listen to this masterpiece of poetry by Edgar Allen Poe - The Raven, read by the brilliant James Earl Jones. Take a few long breaths, and then immerse yourself in the words. Just let them wash over you.

Poetry is hypnotic, through it's rhythm and it's rhyme. Loose your self in it' words, it's time - and enjoy this Halloween self-hypnosis.

If you want to learn a little more about The Raven - you can do so here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raven

You can learn much about hypnosis by listening to the use of language, the rhythm, the timbre of voice used here. Actually understanding the words is not really necessary. it's more to do with the delivery and rhythm. Our therapist Svetlana is a master of using her voice well, even in another language (in her case Russian) her words can induce hypnosis.

RH

The Point Of The Exercise. Motivation!

2011-08-21T11:40:00.001-07:00

Sick people and sick societies.

2011-08-09T20:46:00.000-07:00

There's a quote one of my staff mentioned to me recently which stuck in my mind.

'It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.' Jiddu Krishnamurti

It is not dissimilar to something my son said recently after returning from Germany where he had visited Dachau concentration camp.
'Anyone who was not a terrorist in Nazi Germany was guilty.' Lance Hadley

There is something very unforgiving about the wisdom of the young. Regardless of whether this is a matter with which you agree, the fact is society plays a massive role in what we consider healthy.

When Maria, one of our therapists, recently attended a first-nations healing gathering, she described some of the situations she worked with. She talked about working with clients from her own community - something she has done for several years. The manner in which some problems were managed was radically different to what one might expect.

In describing the situation it became evident that in many parts of the process the person who was being helped was present, and also often other members of their family. So much for confidentiality. Sometimes the process goes wider. At times the entire community is involved.

This is an interesting concept and one that is sadly lacking in modern healthcare. In many instances we find the client has issues, but we have a wider problem to address. An obvious example is the client with an addiction, who is surrounded by a support system, such as a family, that is also riddled with addiction. Typically, an orthodox solution may be to give the individual addict a prescription drug such as methadone, as a replacement to their addiction.

In fact the wider organism - the family - is equally sick. Just as treating an individual symptom will probably do little to effect 'cure', treating the one individual with methadone will do little to solve the problem in the long term. The influences that created the addiction in the first place remain. The long term result is often unchanged.

Until orthodox healthcare starts to recognize that the nature of disease might be broader than its immediate effect, it is likely to maintain a blinkered and sadly ineffective approach. Many of us know of cases where a transplant recipient continues to smoke or drink heavily after they receive a transplant. The operation may be a triumph of modern medicine, but the patient is far from 'cured'.

Hypnotherapy may be a tool that helps the individual at a physical level, as well as a psychological one, if it is applied intelligently. It also provides a means to introduce new perspective about paths that will lead to real change. If it is impossible to achieve that change within a community, it can encourage the client to move outside of the community to healthier future.

Trance - What is it and how does it feel?

2011-07-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

We are often asked by clients if they will be 'out' or 'under'. These phrases are somewhat misleading and deserve a degree of explanation. In many cases a prospective client may expect to be put into a deep trance - as they may have seen in hypnosis shows - and yet very deep trances have little therapeutic value.

At Vancouver Hypnotherapy Inc., all our hypnotists are expected to be able to perform on stage, and have a thorough knowledge of all hypnosis techniques - stage or otherwise. These can be useful from time to time, but generally in a therapeutic setting are not used. Deep trance usually is not really remembered. On stage many people simply have no memory of what happened. This would make for a very poor therapy session! During therapy a more gentle and light level of trance is appropriate.

I like our staff to be all round hypnosis experts, and so expect them to be able to execute fast hypnosis, such as the example below. However, this really is not for therapy purposes.

Very subtle suggestions can be introduced during light trance to great effect. Generally a subject during therapeutic hypnosis feels much the way they would at the end of a yoga session, or after some activity in which their mind was very focused and relaxed. People slip into trance when doing yoga, driving or even programming. Any time that you loose track of time, and find your mind drifting, likely you are suggestible and in trance. A competent therapist will use that moment to introduce suggestions that will benefit the subject.

An example of very subtle suggestion, that results in a powerful hypnotic experience is on the link below. It's far from therapeutic, however does show how subtle suggestion can be hugely impacting. Watch the video on the link below:

http://youtu.be/ReWWQLbgjo0

Derren Brown is a master of this type of suggestion.

Another subtle set of suggestions is here:

Trance comes in many shapes and sizes. It's a beneficial experience for everyone as you tend to release the tension and anxiety one picks up in daily life, during trance. This is one reason some people find driving relaxes them, or painting or playing the piano. At Vancouver Hypnotherapy we experiment all the time with different types of trance. As a result we find some interesting ways to help clients.

You should expect your hypnosis to be relaxing, calming and very beneficial. Feel free to ask any of our staff if you need more information.

Sex and cars.

2011-06-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

If you were to go back to an age when we all lived in caves, and wore skins or nothing, owning a precious object or stone was considered a status symbol. We know this because in many ancient burial mounds we see the grave adorned with the precious objects which we assume the deceased owned.

In more recent years we see equally ostentatious displays of wealth throughout society. Whether it is a watch, a ring, a car or a suit, the outward display of wealth is something we humans seem to have an unusual talent for. It’s not just us, though. Magpies and crows are often drawn to shiny objects, and sometimes line their nests with them for apparently inexplicable reasons. There is probably something to be said for the fact that this is an attempt to attract a mate.

The advertising maxim that boldly says that ‘sex sells’ is interesting in this context. When selling a sports car it used to be thought that if we stick a poorly clothed blonde on the bonnet of the car surprisingly it had men reaching into their pockets (supposedly for their check books). The blonde eases the path of the sale. This now dated idea was probably true in the 1960’s. The brain said, car, blonde, sex and finally how much. All were lumped together.

Of course, now things are different. First and foremost the car is equally likely to be sold to a woman. With the success of many women in the senior elevations of the workplace, it may be more likely to be sold to a woman. Secondly, such ostentatious displays of outright wealth are becoming less socially acceptable. Thirdly, with the advent of better access to information, the blonde is less important. A buyer is less likely to be swayed by irrelevant information. Sometimes the relatively understated Mazda really is more powerful, better designed, better at holding the road, more environmentally friendly and most of all has a lower rate of depreciation than the Camaro, or the Porsche. It may also have room for a baby seat.

Nowadays the advertisement with the blonde and the car is a little harder to sell. There will always be some that are susceptible to it, though most wonder 'Nice car, but what is the car company saying about that woman?' or, 'What did she have to do to get the car?' Neither message is going to do much for the car company.

For the individual who still thinks cars attract sexual partners, they may have a point. The problem is they attract the wrong sexual partners.

With the advent of better information we are moving toward a different society. Social selection, where shared values are driving forces, is more influential now than ever before. Making smart choices and lifestyle decisions is more likely to attract the mate than having a shiny object.

Finding America by Charlene Smith: Drugged to their eyeballs – how over-use of medica...

2011-06-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Finding America by Charlene Smith: Drugged to their eyeballs – how over-use of medica...: "by Charlene Smith (c) Forget the Mexican drug lords and the Medellin Cartel; more Americans are addicted to prescription drugs, especially..."

Lying to yourself.

2011-06-05T10:34:00.000-07:00

Do you lie to yourself? Can you tell, at any level, if you are deceiving yourself?

This is a fascinating broadcast that forces you to question yourself in an uncomfortable way. Have a listen, and then squirm a little.

We've used many of the techniques you hear here, in a surprisingly effective manner. Listen to the broadcast and let us know what you think.

Fox hunting and being 'blooded'.

2011-05-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

Where I grew up fox hunting was quite a prized part of life. When one first rode with the hunt, the novice hunters would be ‘blooded’ when their first fox was taken.

It was exciting. It was primal. It was disgusting.

Being 'blooded' was the smearing of fox blood over the faces of those who had not taken a fox before, to the cheers and upturned flasks of other members of the hunt. A young girl sweating with exertion and excitement, being smeared with blood and plied with hard alcohol sounds like something out of a satanic ritual, and yet with hunting season it was not out of the ordinary. All the new hunters went through it, and loved the event. All except the fox, that is.

And Mrs. Barlow’s cat, Mittens.

Yes. Accidents happen. I remember the day when thirty fox hounds took of yelping and snarling after something in the hedgerow, and all the horses chased excitedly down the narrow farm lane. The clatter of steel shod hunters on the tarmac as we followed the baying hounds into the village. Many of the villagers watched as redcoated riders gathered pace, the horses infected by the excitement that had overtaken the hounds, their quarry sighted.

Mrs. Barlow was the post mistress in the village, and her tabby cat, Mittens, was well known, sitting on the stone wall outside the Post Office, a homely reminder that on the Isle Of Wight you need to set your watch back sixty years when you arrive. The cat would watch each visitor to the shop, and scowl.

That morning the tabby, frightened by the baying dogs, broke cover and the hounds took it for a fox. Into the front garden the cat dashed, and the dogs took chase. A frightened look over it’s shoulder and up and into the living from through the open window.

Thirty hounds streamed into the garden. The horses, trained to follow through thick and thin followed. An open window presents no obstacle to a hound with it’s blood up. In went the lead hound, followed by another, and another. In a matter of seconds the entire pack had flowed like a river of brown, black and white through the open window into the front room of the postmistress’s house.

Perhaps you can imagine what happens when you place a trio of excited dogs in a living room, along with a display case of Dresden china, some art pieces, diverse pieces of genteel furniture and a tabby cat. Now multiply that by a factor of ten and you have the general idea.

This is not helped by the fact that most of the hunt were well lubricated with spirits before the hunt moved out, and the horses were definitely the ones in command here. The front lawn looked as though it had been rotavated. By the time the horrified post mistress had seen the dogs dragged from what was left of the front room, the furniture was smashed, the china reduced to a Greek restaurant tragedy and Mittens… Well, there was not much left of anything.

Fox hunting was banned in Britain twenty years later, though that would have been cold comfort to Mittens.

We all have a primal side to us. Some bury it better than others, but it is there.

How anxiety affects allergies and immunity.

2011-05-05T07:35:00.000-07:00

I sometimes joke with my clients that “you humans are such fragile creatures…” We respond in some surprising ways to the things that happen to us. I recently worked with a client who has suffered for most of her adult life from an allergy to a mould she was exposed to. In recent months her allergies had worsened to include a series of other everyday substances and foods.

We eventually traced the first allergy back to a time she had been cleaning out a cellar in a house she had bought. Whilst sorting through some old long abandoned papers in the cellar she found a few personal items belonging to one of the many previous owners of the property. There were a collection of letters and other objects. Being curious by nature, my client examined a few of the letters, which were dated in 1922 and 1923. There were other documents and bits and pieces, and in the gloom of the dark cellar my clients inquisitive nature took hold. In one particular box she found a collection of French photographs that were pornographic in nature. They were mildly shocking, and in the gloom of the moment she felt a little unusual.

The discovery of the pictures, in that unusual environment loaded with some basic primeval triggers could be easily considered nothing more than an unusual event. However it’s my contention that at that very moment she was exposed to the mould she is now allergic to. Her own energy was at that moment a little disturbed; she was off balance emotionally, as well as physically. The invasive nature of the mould hit her at a moment when she was both emotionally and physically out of sorts. Ordinarily it would probably not have affected her.

Now, it’s easy to be a little skeptical about this. I understand that. However, if you think about it there are quite a few instances when the combination of a physical and emotional experience produce a result that is far more destructive than a single issue alone. As an extreme example we could consider the effects of physical abuse. We can all stand being pushed physically a little; kids play fight all the time, with no ill effect. However, the addition of shouted words hurts us, words that make us feel offended, and the combined effect is radically different. The physical act combined with the emotional hurt results in a substantially more traumatic result. That’s a very physical example and one that is relatively obvious. Now let’s take the same idea a stage further. How about if we loose a loved one, and we’re grieving. Often during such a time we experience a lower immunity. This is well documented. If we are stressed our immunity to pathogens reduces. It’s reasonable to draw a correlation between the emotional wound and the resulting physical frailty.

In the case of allergies, as stress increases often we see the allergies increases, as in the case of my client. It’s absolutely normal to find people in their mid thirties developing allergies to substances that they never previously struggled with. Often they are experiencing an increase in the general levels of stress in their lives (children often have that effect). Treatment by orthodox medical means to suppress the effects of the allergies only resulted in other, often apparently unrelated issues developing.

Of course, the emotional impact of various events in our lives is extremely subjective. For one person grieving is a brief exercise. For another it’s a long process. As an emotional disruption this is fairly typical. We all react differently to emotional impacts. The following piece of video is a great example of how we can load something as innocuous as a stone with values that emotionally have an impact. In this video, brilliant English hypnotist Derren Brown creates an extremely physical response to a subtly implied value. The poor subject is visible trembling and emotionally very unsettled, to put it mildly. [On a technical hypnosis note: The techniques of physical hypnosis and confusional hypnotic technique are a brilliant example of Derren Browns skills. If you like to learn a little more about hypnosis skills, see the tutorials on my website.

See the Derren Brown video HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReWWQLbgjo0

Finding some pornography, being exposed to something unsettling, or even experiencing abuse can radically affect our health in surprising ways. It could be allergies, eczema, depression or seizures – or any number of other results. The disruption to our sense of self, our own personal energy, can have an impact that is long lasting and difficult to unravel.

As a hypnotherapist I should be out there saying we have all the answers. Well, we don’t. But understanding where some unusual issues come from helps us move towards solutions. Understanding the importance of the emotional impact on our physical self is important, and raises a lot of questions. For example, is it likely a ten minute appointment with a doctor is likely to really uncover the true causes of an illness? Equally one has to ask, how scientific are some clinical trials, when it’s clear that while all the subjects may be given the same drug, if they come from wildly differing emotional base-lines they will clearly respond differently? A supposedly scientific process suddenly doesn’t look scientific at all.

A simple process to reduce the levels of anxiety in the client resulted in a lessening of allergic responses. Currently she now enjoys a substantially more varied diet, and continues to expand the range of foods which she can enjoy. She does not react to the mold to which she'd been 'allergic' previously.

What is obvious is this. In matters of immunity and general health, the role of mental health and resilience is a very sound starting point. I end up thinking about my daschund, Franki, who sadly recently passed on at the ripe old age of 17 and a half. He was always a happy dog, and therefore always a healthy dog. Is that scientific enough?
RH

Does hypnosis work...

2011-02-15T23:05:00.000-08:00

A short video about Portion Control.

2011-02-09T09:59:00.001-08:00

Orthodox vs Alternative Healthcare.

2011-01-27T11:15:00.000-08:00

As a hypnotist I fall firmly into the camp of alternative healthcare systems. I value the fact that we are an unregulated group. The last thing I want is government regulation of my business. Equally I feel extreme disquiet when I look at some other hypnotists, and other systems of alternative healthcare. My clients need real solutions, not to have their chakra realigned. If we’re in the business of providing an alternative health solution, then let’s keep it real.

So what do we have to offer that the conventional providers cannot provide? Who is this individual, and what could he possibly provide that a medical professional can’t? The truth is that modern orthodox healthcare has lost its way so thoroughly that even if it can provide help to some patients, there are many situations in which it is unable to actually deliver. The average time a visitor to a GP spends with their doctor is only 17 minutes. The orthodox channels of healthcare are so severely hindered by this limitation that they simply cannot service their patients in the manner that the patient requires. This is a result of staffing issues, the way medical training emphasizes the use of pharmacy and the need to maximize patient throughput to assure funding.

The issue is not really with ‘medical science’. It’s more to do with the fact that the provision of medical services has become so compromised. As a result the opportunity for alternative healthcare systems to provide solutions is enormous. However, with this opportunity comes the risk that some providers will deliver a service of no value, or even of a damaging nature. With this in mind I always suggest my clients research myself and other alternative healthcare providers very thoroughly. The greatest reassurance to clients is to look at the performance the alternative healthcare provider has delivered. Testimonials and reputation are the greatest seal of approval for orthodox and alternative healthcare provision. It’s very important to me that our clients are satisfied and feel we have contributed positively in their lives. Websites like http://doctorcheckup.org and RateMyMD.ca help people do this in the orthodox sector. The feedback needs interpretation, but has value. A similar website is yet to emerge in alternative healthcare.

In reality a doctor visit of 17 minutes provides only very basic information. It’s unlikely that a doctor will uncover deep-seated causes of anxiety in such a superficial visit. And yet we know without a shadow of doubt that anxiety impacts recovery time, immunity, even such things as allergy responses. So, when a doctor attempts to discover the causes of anything but the most simple of cases the chances are he is doing so at a great disadvantage. This is just one example, but a relevant one. At best the doctor will treat symptoms, not causes; at worst he will fail the patient entirely – as is sadly often the case.

In discussions with doctors many acknowledge that hypnosis has a great role to play. They also are beginning to see that a pharmacy based treatment system often fails to provide long term solutions. When patients keep coming back to a doctor it’s because they are not getting healthy. The treatment just isn’t working. Doctors can’t argue with the fact that many of their patients see them repetitively, and fail to achieve good health. For whatever reason, in many cases they are not winning with a pharmacy based solution. This observation is often met with the response, “How can we do otherwise! The system doesn’t allow us to spend the required time with this patient!”

This is not to say that alternative health care can always provide a solution. However, with the challenges that orthodox medicine delivery faces, a competent alternative healthcare provider really is a valid option in situations where the issues are anything which requires time and exploration. In many mental health situations this is the case, and until the situation changes, is one that many clients will turn to. By providing a valid alternative we are able to support our clients and also reduce some of the load on orthodox healthcare. So, while I am not proposing a replacement to orthodox medical treatment, I do sincerely believe that those of us operating responsibly do have a substantial contribution to make.

My best advice to clients is always to check your provider thoroughly and be sure you are comfortable working with them. Most are categorically not healthcare professionals, which in many instances is fine. In the case of hypnotherapy, explore their website carefully and satisfy yourself that their offerings fit comfortably in your own belief system. In the end many of our clients need more than a change in their prescription. They are looking for a change in their life.

2011-01-20T11:26:00.000-08:00

How are you identifying yourself?

Many clients come to us for help with self image and issues of self confidence. All too many times we see a disturbing common trait in the way they present themselves. Often their email address will contain a phrase or expression that is self limiting, or diminishes themselves somehow.

It sounds so obvious, however the email address 'wornoutanddisinterested@hotmail.com' is likely create a poor image of the sender right from the start. And yet, we see these things regularly. That example is fictitious, by the way, but mild compared to some we see.

Labels such as an email address or a Skype ID are often chosen with a view of creating a humorous impression. The trouble is, after two or three dozen emails, the joke has worn thin to the point of non existence - and you are still stuck with that label. These optimistic attempts at humor, however, often speak of a hidden truth. We sometimes say the most painful truths with a dismissive laugh and a shrug. The problem is, the listener isn't necessarily laughing.

You may find it interesting to take a look through your email box sometime and identify what labels people are using for themselves and ask if there is a ring of truth to some of them. Ironically, the issue of identity, in technology channels or even our names, occupies a special place in the way the mind works. For example, for people who struggle with stuttering saying their own name is often disproportionately difficult. the same goes for their phone number and their email address. Our mind handles issues of identity in a special and unique manner.

Sometimes in hypnosis demonstrations we do a little trick and get a subject to forget their own name. It's a simple stunt and usually quite impressive. You can see one example here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlJiBmxdyUE

Some subjects loose their name very easily, others never loose it. What we do know is that the entire issue of identity is managed in a very special way by our brain.

Stuttering - A success story.

2010-12-04T10:53:00.000-08:00

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 child life was basically no fun. Particularly at school during reading when I was asked to take my turn to read a paragraph.
After stammering and stuttering for two minutes the teacher would thank me and ask me to sit down. What is wrong with me, why don’t my parents take me to a doctor to get healed? I was a shy kid and you would be too if you failed grade three, grade 8 and grade 10 because my head and emotions were so mixed up.

A life changing venture was about to happen, my parents sent me to a school for problem kids for two years to complete my high school education. It was there that caring teachers and a minister counseled students to resolve their problems. In my case I was encouraged to participate in a public speaking contest in front of 100 other students. I believed if I was ever going to beat my stuttering I was going to accept every challenge and open every door to make it happen. My speech was to be five minutes long, I knew If I could get the first word out and memorize the speech
my built up emotional energy would carry through to the judges.
Once my speech was written and memorized, on three occasions I set my alarm for 4:00 AM, went down four flights of stairs to the auditorium, turned the lights on and practiced my delivery. My starting to speak was very difficult so I used a technique to leave the choice of my first word to the last second, it worked. I won the contest which was a confidence builder to continue my goal of being able to speak freely. At the end of my second year I was president of the students council which required me to speak in front of the student body every week.

Every year a gold medal was presented to the “MOST IMPROVED”
Student at graduation; I received it. My life was turning around.

Let’s move forward to a period when I was happily married, twenty four with a young son. We were members of a church that offered counseling. During the counceling session I was hypnotized and regressed to understand and relieve past negative emotional experiences. After several sessions my anxiety level of speaking decreased, my confidence was higher and I no longer had a stuttering problem.

I was now working with IBM servicing machines which were the forerunners of the powerful mainframes we have today. I was hooked on being a better speaker, joined Toastmasters, bought books on making effective presentations and accepted every invitation .to speak at branch office functions. There was a request to send three Canadians to the united States to learn how to help IBM customers by running one or two day seminars at their business location. I did this for many years across Canada, Brazil, Hong Kong and other locations.

Life is so much better without stuttering. I believe my problem started as a young enthusiastic child when I was not allowed to verbally express myself. When I tried to talk at the dinner table I was told not now, later. After experiencing this many times I was afraid to talk and my stuttering started. It was not until I knew the source of the problem, relived the experiences, had catharsis to relieve the energy was I finally free.

Why am I writing this? To make me feel good, no I feel great. I am writing this to give hope to other stutterers that they may not have to live with stuttering. I have found little evidence that stutterers are having this problem fixed. They have had guidance as to minimizing their stuttering or they have felt comfort in associating with other stutterers, but where are the success stories of being able to successfully speak anywhere any time.

One percent of the population stutters. I think too much time has been spent in advising how to live with the problem instead of keeping an open mind to alternative methods to solve the problem.

Bold statements….what do you think?

David Lay

Who can change their life?

2010-09-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

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 by a few individuals, but by an entire nation as they prepared to step forward with a new world beneath their feet was beautifully captured in a song that reflected the moment, by South African Band, Mango Groove.

If South Africa, an entire nation, can overcome their fears, so can you.

Stand still and die.

2010-08-26T09:02:00.001-07:00

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 slow mass of humanity snaking across the land towards us.
This was the movement of 120, 000 people, mostly women and children, walking out of Ethiopia (where President Mengistu had been deposed days before) and returning to the land they had left years before. Starved and dying they walked, and faltered and died on that mass exodus back into Sudan - a country ravaged by a viscous war of its own.

This was what the press later described as an exodus of biblical proportions. Each morning we would hear the sound of the Sudanses Air Force Antonov bombers, and run for cover as they bombed this sprawling mass of humanity, claiming that they were a rebel army. The bombs fell from about 10,000 feet. We could see them fall toward us, and there was literally nowhere to hide. You never forget the sound of the engines.

The death toll was enormous. And yet most people found their way to Nasir, where Unicef set up initially a tiny relief station, but what later became an enormous emergency response effort.
During that time I learned a bit about worry, and coping with disaster. I can remember seeing tribesmen walking naked, carrying only their AK47s. Clothing, the shame of their nakedness, embarrassment was all left behind. It became irrelevant. Pride is an expensive commodity.

These people had nothing. Literally, nothing. A mother would carry a child as best she could and move ever westward toward help, not knowing if there was food or when relief might arrive. The people became so hungry they would eat this coarse grass that grew in the hope it would give some nutrition.

Eventually, we learn what the important stuff is. Life is too short to worry about the other stuff.

In working on yourself you will start to reassess what’s important in your own life. Some of these things will be obvious. In other cases there will be a slowly dawning realisation that some value or idea that has always been ingrained in you is actually entirely irrelevant. Be prepared to change your mind - literally. There’s nothing wrong with changing your view - it’s how we adapt and change. It is in many ways our greatest strength. If we remain the same, we do the same things - we’ll experience the same results and often the same disappointments. All that changes is that it’s no longer a surprise.

We need to adapt. It’s what kept this species we belong to on top. And as my son so aptly puts it when he plays a Halo, “Stand still and die...”

Ironically twenty years later I was filling my car with gas at a gas station and a young man was doing the same at the next pump. I looked at him, he must have been about 20. He had the Nilotic features of the Nuer. I wondered, could it be possible? I walked over to him and asked where he was from. He replied in perfect English, ‘Burnaby... but my mother was from Sudan.”

I asked where abouts.

He replied, “Some tiny village in the south. A place called Nasir. I saw it on Google maps once.”

I love living in Canada.

Laughing Disorder?

2010-08-05T08:44:00.001-07:00

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:

It's not actually a disorder, though it's only a matter of time before someone starts calling it that. What you are experiencing is an anxiety response that triggers a laughter reflex. It's not that you find something actually 'funny', but that laughter becomes a mechanism triggered by anxiety.

Oddly enough you can see something similar in the ex president Jimmy Carter. He used to smile at inappropriate times quite often. During the Iran hostage crisis he was on TV in a press conference grinning like an idiot. Unfortunately this was because he had a propensity to smile as an anxiety response. You may be able to find some of those interviews on Youtube to see for yourself.

You can get over it quite easily by using any self hypnosis MP3 designed to address anxiety issues or panic attacks. They will help you dial down anxiety and as a result reduce the effects. You can find some good ones at http://www.UltimateHypnosisDownloads.com (yes, UHD is owned by my company...)

RH

Working With Gambling Addictions

2010-05-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

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.

There are often social triggers associated with an addiction of this kind. 'My friends just want me to tag along... I won't actually spend anything..." The sense of belonging, the atmosphere and a secret pleasure of sharing guilt all conspire to seduce an addict further. In reality, when the stakes are high enough, there is no 'straight' game. There are no winners in the long run, except the house. It doesn't matter how good, or how smart the addict is. They will loose.

Do I have a gambling problem?

Take the test below. If you answer 'Yes' to seven of the questions, then you should seriously consider getting some help - either from us, or another agency.

Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling?
Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
Did gambling affect your reputation?
Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?
Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or otherwise solve financial difficulties?
Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win back your losses?
After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone?
Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
Were you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures?
Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your family?
Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned?
Have you ever gambled to escape worry, trouble, boredom or loneliness?
Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to finance gambling?
Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an urge to gamble?
Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of gambling?
Have you ever considered self destruction or suicide as a result of your gambling?

If you answer the above questions honestly, and find that seven or more generate a positive response, you should do a few things immediately.

A. Build a support network to get you through this.
You need to talk to someone you trust about this, and explain you have a problem. This is probably a family member or close friend. In the preparation to overcome your addiction, you will need support from people around you. Some people find it impossible to tell their spouse, because it may lead to marital conflict. If this is the case look for another supporter close to the family, in the knowledge that sooner or later you will have to share this with others in your family. In these early stages though, let's stop the financial pain and just get the process started. If there is no one else, feel free to contact us at 604 484 0346. Don't try to do this alone. Believe me, it's bigger than you are.

B. Try to visualise how you would like the outcome to look.
You didn't always gamble. Life before gambling was not so bad. What did you like most about it? How would your like you life to look, if you did not face the problem of gambling, or the associated worry and debt? Write down clearly the details you would like to see in your life. What matters most to you? Once you have this, share it with your supporter.

C. Next time you feel the need to gamble, phone or contact your supporter immediately.
Urges to gamble are as real as withdrawal symptoms from hard narcotics. Don't expect to be able to fluff through this alone. You will need a process. Vancouver Hypnotherapy is one of a series of possible support systems you could put in place. You could also try Gamblers Anonymous, or finding another therapist or counselor.

D. Start managing the stresses in your life better.
I always recommend clients who have a behaviour linked to stress or anxiety, to read Dale Carnegie's wonderful book, 'Stop Worrying And Start Living'. In many instances better stress management plays a huge role in the elimination of an addiction. You should also ensure you are eating three meals a day, and get at least two sessions of exercise (even if it is just walking) in every week. Don't make the mistake of underestimating the importance of this.

E. Be honest. Start accounting the full cost of your gambling over the past month.
You need to understand what this has cost you. List the absolute cost over the last month. If it is more than you are earning, you will need to put in place an arrangement where your partner or supporter starts managing your finances.

By this stage you can start getting a realistic idea of the impact of gambling on your life. It is a complex and viscious addiction. We are able to help clients that are prepared to work on this issue, and have done many times in the past.

Examples of addictions successfully treated by Vancouver Hypnotherapy include one gambler who quite literally gambled away her husband’s house, without his knowledge. He had put the property in her name many years prior to her addiction, as he wanted to set up his own business. With the misplaced idea that transferring assets to his spouse would insulate her in the case of a business failure, this appeared like ‘a good idea at the time’.

As her addiction set in, the bank extended a line of credit (secured against the house). In time the line of credit need to be renewed and extended further. It was not long before the delusion of addiction was overwhelming and the otherwise quite competent woman was making very seriously flawed financial decisions, and keeping them from her husband. The remortgaging of the house was one such flawed decision. Within two years the house, which had been bought and paid for by her husband’s small business, was fully owned by the bank.

Getting her addiction under control was far from simple. We managed, through a course of therapy and counseling. Explaining to her husband that the house he thought he owned, was in fact owned by the bank was a great deal harder.

We work on gambling addiction frequently. We are able to help if you are ready. Contact us for an appointment.

When a duck is not a duck.

2010-05-10T00:42:00.000-07:00

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 which she would feed on fish caught from the stream nearby.

As she grew she became a very proud young lady and a confident one. She felt the world was at her feet and why wouldn't it be? She had all she could wish for.

Then came a day when she was talking about her horse and one of her uncles said to her, "Young lady, that's not a horse."

"Of course it's a horse, don't be so silly," she replied.

"No, my girl, look in this book. You see? It's a donkey.."

She looked at the picture, and sure enough it looked very much like her horse. In fact as she looked at pictures of horses, and compared them to her own, it pretty soon became evident that she had for the last three years been riding a donkey, and a pretty ropey one at that.

Her life did change a little after that. She would study the animal encyclopedia often and she became an authority on the animals about the village. While she kept it quietly hidden within, she decided not to trust people quite so freely.

She loved her donkey - but now he was 'just' a donkey. Something was lost that would never be regained, and some of the girls cousins would tease her about her 'horse'.

And then came a day when all the children were playing in an area far from the village, in an abandoned farm. There was a well there, and through some mishap a child ended up falling into the dark hole and down into the water. Such things had happened before, and this would not be the first child that drowned in an abandoned well. The other children ran back towards the distant village to try to get help. In the cold black water far below it was clear the frightened boy would not last for very long. He was already too weak to pull himself up on the rope that held the bucket far below in the well.

Calling down to him, she told the boy to tie the rope around his chest. She was far too weak to pull him up, but she called to the aging donkey, and he trotted over to the side of the well.

She took the rope from the well and looped it around her donkey's neck, and began leading it steadily away. This weight was nothing for the old, but still stout little donkey, and very easily the child began to climb up towards the light. In a few minutes he was standing beside the well, wet and frightened, but otherwise unharmed.

From that day on, no one teased her about her donkey.

You may be wondering what all this has to do with hypnosis. Well, quite a lot, actually. You see, when we use hypnosis all we do is slightly alter perception. The reality takes care of itself. And just as the perception for my friend was that she had a wonderful grey horse, it was sadly altered by the inconvenient truth that it was in fact a donkey. However, when it really came down to it, it was what she needed to get the boy out of the well.

Horse? Donkey? Who cares. It worked.

Moderating Alcohol Use

2010-05-06T06:22:00.000-07:00

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 key things here is to look for the pattern. Few binge drinkers start drinking alone - or do so everyday. More often they experience a social situation that moves from a recreational and healthy use of alcohol, to a point where the alcohol use becomes out of control and moves into a very unhealthy process. We use a slightly different approach with clients of this type. If the binge drinking client is female, it's definitely worth asking if they have ever been bulimic, as this can hold many clues to their relationship with alcohol.

When working with a client in the group A category we apply a simple test. A hypnosis session is given purely to establish a limit. The limit should be at about 60 - 70% of their general usage (but should exclude any spirits). The objective is a beneficial reduction, but one that is achievable. If the client is able to hold that limit and not exceed it for seven days, we have a client who we can work on reduction and moderation with. If they fail, they are likely alcoholic and we have to forget about moderation. If they wish to move forward it should be to eliminate alcohol, as they will never be able to control their drinking.

When working with a type B client we face some different challenges. Establishing a limit is irrelevant as they often go weeks or months between binges. Accurately assessing which type of client one is dealing with is important. Curiously, Alcoholics Anonymous categorizes both binge and constant use drinkers in the same way, as alcoholics. From the point of view of a hypnotherapist, we can work with them very differently. While one is alcoholic, the binge drinker (who may go months between binges) is 'abusing alcohol' but not really an alcoholic.

As such, at Vancouver Hypnotherapy (www.VancouverHypnotherapy.Org) we use the technical hypnosis solution, of looking for the triggers to the binge events, and then getting our client to recognise the situation, and alter their response to it. This is simply done using regression and an approach that motivates the client away from those 'risk' moments.

Our standard method for helping reduce alcohol consumption is based on removal of all spirits (hard liquor), and spacing each glass of wine or beer with an equal quantity of water. Reduction down to the level the client finds acceptable is then not difficult. This should be done over a period, reducing in easy steps and need only take three or four sessions.

In a study done in the UK (The 1,000,000 women study) it was shown conclusively that even 1 glass of wine a week increased the likelihood of cancer. While I doubt alcohol is going to come with a health warning anytime soon, that is a sobering thought.

I am not a zealot on this subject, although I have not drunk alcohol in 16 years. In my case, I had malaria while living in Africa, which toasted my liver and kidneys. I don't drink and to be honest it's probably a very good thing. To me it is literally a poison.

Feel free to contact me to talk about treatment methods, or if you are a therapist interested in our techniques, let me know and I can provide our treatment plans.

RH

If you can't trust Dr. Koczapski who can you trust?

2010-03-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

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 rules about it's use, however the nature of a psyche ward being what it is, the overseeing doctor can use his discretion about it's application. It is not meant to be used as a punishment – and should only be applied if the patient is a risk to themselves or others on the ward.

In this instance the patient was requested to go to the common area, and when her visitor stepped out for a moment was apprehended and forcibly sedated. Obviously, if she was asked to be in the common area, she was not considered a risk to other patients. Instead she was herded into a seclusion room, stripped naked and sedated.

The patient in question is barely 120 lbs. Three nurses and four Paladin security guards were used to sedate the patient. The doctor (male) was present. Also present were outside contracted male security staff. When asked what the nature of their medical training was Dr. Koczapski was unable to tell me. This process was witnessed, however and the witness has agreed to provide an affidavit should it be necessary to do so. Paladin security guards are usually charged with the testing task of patrolling the car park. The nature of their medical training remains a mystery.

That male non-medical staff were used is a gross indignity committed on a helpless young woman, traumatised by the experience. That the doctor was unable to describe the nature of their training was equally worrying. As a professional contracted in the care of a patient, his lack of knowledge of the background of people on his ward is somewhat like having a baby sitter you don't know look after a child. This young woman, who could be anyones daughter or sister, was exposed to a gross invasion of her privacy at a time when she was at her most fearful and vulnerable.

I am not going to detail the history of this patient, however I will say I did see her as a client at some point. At that time she was functional, working and pursuing her studies diligently. She was involuntarily certified at VGH Concurrent Disorders Unit on February 22nd, 2010, and subsequently put on Epival.

Her dosage was increased following her forced sedation. One effect of the high dosages is the dysfunction of her eyes – one now constantly wanders. She is incoherent. She is unable to function effectively. While no existing addiction was in place prior to her being certified, she was offered was offered MDMA on March 8th, whilst in the ward. Dr. K was informed of this by the patient on March 9th.

On March 11th I was made aware of the situation regarding the MDMA, and asked Dr. K precisely what action he had taken after being informed of the presence of MDMA on the ward – supplied by a patient – I have his christian name and will provide it to anyone interested. Dr. K would not respond to the question. This suggests that no action was taken – however if he is able to show documentary proof that written instruction to his staff, or some other form of action about the issue was taken, I would gladly publish it here. I am interested in the truth. I would like to see what he did to safeguard the patients in his care on the ward. There is additionally the question of whether or not Dr. K reported the incident to the police. If not, why not?

Asked if he thought her condition were improving, he inexplicably said 'yes'. She now has an epival addiction, is traumatised by her brutal treatment and is possibly using MDMA. Her eye function is reduced, and her overall health is substantially worse. No one has thought to address the question of drug interaction between her high doses of Epival and her use of MDMA.

The BC Mental Health Act states, under section 8 paragraph A, “(a) that each patient admitted to the designated facility is provided with professional service, care and treatment appropriate to the patient's condition and appropriate to the function of the designated facility” Failure to provide 'appropriate' treatment can result in immediate release (Section 32, para 2). The unsupervised use of street drugs, the inappropriate use of untrained opposite sex staff easily satisfy the term 'inappropriate' care.

Now the tragedy of this story. This is the sad punchline. Actually, the safest place for this patient is probably in the Concurrent Care Unit. She is a sick woman. She belongs in care. Her family cannot pay for private treatment, and few treatment centres would take her even if they could. And so we are left having to trust the Dr. Koczapski's of the world with the care of those less fortunate than ourselves. And that really is a tragedy.

Perhaps you'd like to ask Dr. Koczapski about the nature of his treatment. He can be reached on:(604) 875-4139 during office hours. They are quite happy to take a message for him outside of office hours.

Alternatively you can email him on: pcqo@vch.ca

Please forward this email to anyone you feel should know. This could, after all be your daughter or sister.

The 100th Monkey -

2010-02-13T23:03:00.000-08:00

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. Certainly it was convenient, and it turned out serendipitous. The monkeys started to frequent the beach where the food was left, and then one day one of the monkeys, a young female the ethologist's named Ito, started to wash the sand off of the yams. Soon other young females and juveniles of both sexes started to imitate her, and gradually the behaviour spread through the colony. The older animals, and adult males in general, did not learn the new behaviour. (footnote:Max Plank, the father of quantum physics said that new theories don't become established by convincing the old academic order, they outlive them.) So we see the same pattern in the spread of innovation in man and in monkeys.

Some time later the ethologists started leaving rice on the beach. Again a young female, a niece of Ito, came up with an innovation. She scooped up a handful of rice and with it, inevitably, some sand. She took this down to the water with which she was familiar from washing yams. She threw the handful of rice and sand onto the water. The sand sank, and she skimmed the rice from the surface. Again the behaviour spread gradually through the troop as young females and juveniles of both genders copied it. (footnote: actually, wasn't she being a bit dense - she was treating the granular rice like a solid yam. Stupidity can be a mother of invention)

The ethologists also saw a behaviour which I call "the Tyrant's Option".

The Tyrant's Option: The dominant males did not copy the new behaviour, but they'd go into the water when the other monkeys were busy separating rice from sand, and they'd exercise the Tyrant's Option: they'd take what they wanted. They’d wait for another monkey to throw the rice onto the water, and skim the pickings.

The Tyrant's Option - force and threat of force - has been a winning strategy till now. Now with the scale expanded to a global locust plague, the option is running out.

Watson’s "100 Monkeys": Some time in the 70s Lyall Watson was travelling through Japan when he heard, or misheard, someone talking about Koshimo Island, and he elaborated from this a beautiful fiction which he named the "100th monkey". His fabrication was this:-

The yam washing "pre-culture" spread gradually through the troop as young animals learned it by watching and imitating their brethren, until... until a certain mass was reached and then the knowledge spread explosively, reaching everyone. One autumn day, Watson says, the critical point was attained. "Let's say 99 monkeys had learned the behaviour," he said. When the 100th monkey learned it a "critical mass" was passed and now, suddenly, all the monkeys started to show the behaviour. It became part of their collective unconscious/conscious, not only on Koshimo Island, but all over Japan! The idea is that when enough individuals repeat a particular thought pattern, that pattern is facilitated for the whole species. We'll come back to the concept, but first let's look at the data.

In fact in the period in question, autumn '69, two new animals learned the behaviour bringing the total of creature displaying the behaviour from 36 to 38, and there was no subsequent acceleration in the acquisition of the pattern. Nor did it spread to the mainland, to other troops. Though it might have, for the ethologists observed one of the Koshimo Island monkeys, an adult males, did move to the mainland where he joined a new troop. He stayed for four years, and then swam back to the island.

The whole 100th monkey story was a fiction, and Watson did not take the trouble to read the data, to get the story straight, though it's published in readily accessible journals. Oh well: never let the truth stand in the way of a good idea.

Understanding the nature of disease.

2010-02-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

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 bulimia – it is best managed by managing the anxiety – the word ‘bulimia’ is almost superfluous. It’s just a label describing the illness, not a diagnosis. It’s a description and does nothing to help us find the cause.

The hereditary nature of some diseases is quite extraordinary. The actual disease (there’s little point giving it a name) can manifest in many forms. I have a client whose grandfather was alcoholic, her father suffered a rare form of arthritis, she is alcoholic, and her children both suffer that same rare form of arthritis. While I know many might find this hard to swallow, my belief is that they all suffer the same disease.

The arthritis is caused by an immune deficiency disorder. The actual disease is manifested in her father and her children by a suppression of this immunity, caused by the way they manage stress. She, and her grandfather, managed stress with the use of alcohol. So the disease is more to do with the actual cause (poor stress management) than simply alcohol or arthritis. Far fetched? I don’t think so.

We are what we eat – and see, hear, smell, touch, taste.

2009-10-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

We are influenced at an emotional level by all our senses. In hypnosis we typically use soft words to create a receptive feeling as the subconscious open to suggestion. However, aggressive words also create a response, often the reverse. Our guard goes up, and we become defensive. We are anything but receptive. Many of us will dig our heals in and respond to aggression by refusing to co operate.Actually when we are very stimulated we have all our senses working overtime, as the XTC song says.

As a hypnotist I tend to be very aware of the importance of these sensory responses. Some are subtle and others less so. If you listen to harsh aggressive music, guess what… You’ll become harsh and aggressive. Listen to sad melancholy songs all the time and you are going to have a response too. One way to beat depression for some people is to play upbeat music, watch comedies on TV and dress up in brighter colours.

Even exposing ourselves to the news can have a negative effect for some of us. My best advice is to take a break from the news now and then if you find it depressing. Keep a little balance in your life. Whatever dreadful happenings are going on half a world away, if you are feeling down, turn off the TV news. The world will manage without you for a few days.

Humans are very responsive to their environment. Some smells make us feel relaxed, as the makers of aromatherapy candles have long known. Looking out over a calming seascape, or mountain view does the same. Even the process of stroking a dog or a cat can bring us a feeling of calm. Tastes, smells, sounds, sights and touches are all able to positively affect us. Making a note of those things we find relaxing, and actively increasing them in our lives is a simple way to make ourselves feel better every day. Try it – you’ll find the results surprising.

Alcohol and Antidressants.

2009-09-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

I see a great many clients about the challenges of managing their alcohol intake. For some it is about moderation - for other cessation is the only option. The therapies I provide can either reduce or eliminate their use of alcohol.

A disturbing trend over recent months has been developing. I see an increasing number of people who are by any definition alcoholic and who have been prescribed antidepressants by their doctors. Some antidepressants come with a warning against using alcohol while on antidepressants, though by no means all. Nonetheless, there is widespread knowledge and reports of interaction between most SSRI antidepressants and alcohol; and yet medical professionals still prescribe them to patients who make no secret of the fact that they are alcoholic.

These patients are not going to simply not drink. They often drink because they are unable to stop. Simply being on antidepressants is not by any stretch of the imagination going to change this. And yet the known interactions are not merely mildly harmful, they can be massively damaging.

I have had clients in my office, unable to walk because their doctor has prescribed them antidepressants while they've been drinking. In some cases they are completely incapable. One particular doctor on the North Shore has several patients that have ended up coming to me for help because they are so hopelessly unable to function - and yet that doctor continues to prescribe dangerous quantities of antidepressants to alcoholic patients. They become a danger to themselves and anyone around them.

Cipralex carries a gently worded notation in the inserted documentation provided with it: "No pharmacodynamic or pharmacokinetic interactions are expected between Cipralex and alcohol." It continues:

"As with other psychotropic pharmaceutical products, combination with alcohol is not advisable. When co-administered with alcohol in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, volunteer study, Cipralex did not further impair performance compared with alcohol alone; paradoxically, it significantly improved performance in some tests."

Reality is rather different. Firstly, not everyone responds the same to alcohol; secondly not everyone responds the same to Cipralex. Judging from direct experience of my own client base this is so ludicrously at odds with the reality of alcoholism that it is wildly irresponsible.

Much the same is true of Celexa. Some clients have had dreadful experiences on alcohol/celexa combinations.

In the end, the pharmaceutical companies simply do not know how you will respond to some pharmacy. Everyone is a little different - and some times not just 'a little'. When combined with another drug - such as alcohol - to even pretend to know is arrogant and irresponsible. If you are using antidepressants and experience an unusual reaction to alcohol don't be surprised. More importantly, be smart enough to steer clear of either the antidepressant or the alcohol, regardless of what a doctor tells you about how safe it is.

After all, for some people something as benign as sugar can be deadly.

Rob Hadley CHt.
http://www.vancouverhypnotherapy.org/

Fear of Flying

2009-09-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

When we work using regression we regularly see the most extraordinary results very swiftly. Suddenly things become plain to the client and they understand why something happened. Subsequently their ability to manage their issue becomes very much more easily understood.
Dave Elmans book, Hypnotherapy provides a good roadmap for anyone using regression generally to manage an issue. However the pattern occasionally swings out of the norm.

Typically an incident in the recent past is associated with an incident in the clients’ early life that had traumatic elements and introduced stress and anxiety. By reframing the earlier incident the issue in the recent past is resolved – and future occurrences defused. This is not an unfamiliar process to most hypnotherapists.

A client saw me recently about a fear of flying that put a rather unusual twist on regression. The client has been growing increasingly distressed with air travel. Recently he felt overwhelming anxiety on a plane heading to the east coast, and embarrassingly needed to be handled by flight crew. This is entirely out of character in what is a skilled professional at the front of his industry.
In pretalk several points came through:

· He plans to marry in the next few months, his fiancée having been with him about 5 years.
· He moved out to the west coast about 4 years ago, having finished his degree.
· His anxiety seems to abate if he talks about his concerns whilst they are happening. (This is interesting as it occupies the conscious mind, and seems to displace the anxiety. This suggests his conscious mind can be diverted from these feelings – and raises the question ‘is this really about flight’?
· The client has a good understanding of engineering. He knows that if there is a total systemwide failure an aircraft is design to return to straight and level flight. Rationally he understands this means an aircrash is generally survivable. His engineering background tells him he should not be afraid, yet he is.
· His parents separated when he was eleven.
· At 12 he was very ill with meningitis.
· His fiancée has a sister who cuts herself.
· He had flown with no problems at all many times prior to the emergence of the problem.

Once in hypnosis the client went swiftly to the moment of discomfort in the flight. They showed a clearly elevated heart rate, and visual displays of fear. He described his fears well, and there was no question that this was an extreme response. I then regressed the client to the first incidence of of similar feelings. I would expect this to be in early childhood.

To my surprise the client opened his eyes and sat bolt upright staring into the middle distance. He regressed not to childhood at all, but moments before the flight left.

"I’ve got it," he said. "It was in the terminal. It was an hour before. I was saying goodbye to my fiancée. I was afraid because I was leaving her with her sister who has all these problems. I was afraid for her. It reminded me of my parents. It was as though I was my father leaving my mother, when I was sick."

Around this time the client had come out to the west coast to find work, with no idea at all if he would be successful. His fiancée was very worried about their prospects. Additionally his fiancées sister was essentially in his charge. As a man of 30 years old, he found himself in the position of a husband and father with a sick child (the sister being 12 years old). The departure at the airport was almost a re enactment of a situation with his parents as they separated when he was 12, with the roles switched around and he was cast as his father.

The session ended quite swiftly with no doubt whatsoever in the clients mind that this was an issue now that had nothing to do with flying. It was entirely about his ‘desertion’ of his fiancée. The moment of realization was absolutely clear to the client; the problem simply ceased to exist. This had nothing to do with flying whatsoever.

I suggested he go and reassure his fiancée as demonstrably as possibly, for her but also his own good. He was quite a reserved person, but could see that this would lay to rest some of these anxieties. He knew now that this was something that could be easily managed and understood. It is truly wonderful when a client leaves the office so elated and relieved.

Managing Self Doubt

2009-06-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

From time to time we all get hit by self doubt. It haunts some of us everyday. However, the absolute knowledge that success is assured can make us almost superhuman. Confidence is like a steamroller. Resistance is futile.

Hypnosis can instill confidence - just as conditioning can. In the clips below, Derren Brown - an amazing English hypnotist, takles the issue of self doubt. It's a very surprising outcome. Keep in mind this is a British TV episode, and has none of the restraint of a North American TV show. No one sues you in England for electrocuting a kitten...

Part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHaFuYZwX2U&feature=channel_page

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwIlueCNu8M&feature=channel_page

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap35u0zB6QM&feature=channel_page

Why do Hypnotherapists use regression?

2009-06-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

Regression is one of the most powerful tools we have in Hypnotherapy. Here's an example. I had a client that gave up smoking successfully, however would restart after two or three months. Her pattern went back years. When she came to me she was skeptical because she knew she would stop, but did not want to restart.

In regression it turned out the causes originated far back as a four year old child. She had gone to a fair that was visiting town one day with her mother. She'd enjoyed a couple of hot dogs. Her father had taken her with her sister later that day, and she enjoyed two more hot dogs.

Later she threw up and it was quickly evident that the hot dogs were giving her severe problems. She had food poisoning. While she was not in a life threatening illness, it was a very disturbing tie for the young child. She couldn't keep anything down for days, and had to stay home from school. Her mother would read to her and looked after her. As she recovered this became a time she even enjoyed - with all the attention from her mother. By the third day she was able to drink water, and began slowly eating again.

About this time her father had the chimneys swept. The chimney sweep, however, managed to block a flew, so the next time her father lit a fire, the whole house filled up with smoke. This smell of smoke was so strong that she remembers it clearly - and associates it with the recovery from her illness, and a time she felt very cared for and loved.

We could see clearly that each time my client restarted smoking, it was when she was recovering from a cold or an illness. This proved absolutely accurate and explained why she was always returning to her habit.

Once she understood the reasons, things were simple. Just a case of reframing the issues - and guess what? She's still smoke free a year later.

Sometimes, clients don't want to use regression. I understand this. In many cases it's not necessary. To some degree, just because there's a dent in the front of the car, we don't necessarily have to know what colour the lampost you hit was to fix it. There are however times when regression can provide a clue to what triggers a behaviour. In those cases, it's a very powerful tool.

RH

It's not just about cigarettes...

2009-06-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

Just when you think you’ve seen everything a regular ‘non smoking’ therapy can be, something new comes along. This is the true story of a client who had come with his wife and had achieved deep trance levels, with every expectation of a successful outcome.

I had done my usual exploration of reasons why he’d started smoking, history of addictions in his family, search for trauma in his background. Not only was he an extremely confident and comfortable individual, he seemed the perfect husband and provider. He was a genuinely nice guy, affable and easy going.

Once he’d gone through induction he swiftly went into a trance and accepted suggestion readily. Using two or three tests I could see he was clearly in hypnosis. I was somewhat surprised when two days later his wife called to say he was having trouble remaining smoke free. Whilst he had not smoked, he was clearly struggling. He was agitated and anxious, mostly at work.

I got him straight back into the office during a slot the following morning. In hypnotic regression the following three issues emerged:

As a child he had been asthmatic. His sister would hide his inhaler, and spray it to waste the medication, often bringing on an asthma attack through anxiety. On one occasion she had tossed it out of the window, and he’d gone out into the garden in his pyjamas. She’d then locked him out of the house. This was in Ontario in the winter and the temperature was 20 below. He’d been outside in the snow in his pyjamas and developed hypothermia.

His mother had once come on the back of a motorcycle, and found him smoking. He’d been standing on the sidewalk, holding a pack of Marlboro, with one in his mouth. He didn’t realize it was his mother in the leathers and helmet. She’d reached out and taken the cigarette from his hanging jaw as he’d been so surprised, and disappointed in himself and for letting his other down through his behaviour. It had troubled him over the years and he remembered her words exactly – “I’ll be taking those!” He was caught, literally ‘red handed’.

In his first workplace his boss had been a heavy smoker, a bully and entirely incompetent. He would come to work wondering what he would be blamed for this time, as the youngest member of a crew. Work was unpleasant, and a smoke break was a sanctuary of sorts.

So – first things first. The sister, the inhaler taken away – a horrible picture rekindled by the removal of his recent ‘inhaler’ – his cigarettes. This needed substantial reframing and deconstruction – including homework to go and see his sister and chat about the entire episode and desensitize it.

Next, the mother. He felt sad to have let his mother down, not to mention surprised and shocked at her sudden appearance. In this we have an ally. After getting him to re experience the episode in hypnosis I asked him to go and see his mother, photograph her, and paste the picture to the dashboard of his truck with the words ‘I’ll be taking those’ written on the picture. His truck (part of his work) was an area he’d had difficulty avoiding smoking.

Finally, at work – He was as much afraid of being like that first incompetent boss, as he was of giving up his ‘sanctuary’ – the smoke break. This man had extremely high personal standards – he was a model husband and an extremely practical individual. He was the leader of his work crew and treated them well, having experience bad leadership in the past. We examined the work situation he’d experienced all those years ago, and then compared it to his current situation – and looked at the fact that his leadership and kindness to his colleagues marked him out as different. It established him as a role model. No role model would condone smoking. He was motivated to set an example in the workplace, the principle area of challenge for him. As a leader he had been struggling to suppress memories of a difficult workplace experience with each cigarette he’d lit.

This really is a case of being torn in two directions at once. On the one hand, ending the relationship with cigarettes rekindles memories of being without the inhaler, and remaining a smoker challenged his desire to be a good leader in the workplace (was he turning into his incompetent first boss?).

We not only took care of the issues in hypnosis, my client also committed to going to see his mother and his sister and chat about these issues n a non challenging way. If you can laugh at the causes of an issue, then you can take its power away.

Two or three days after this second session my client reported he felt great, had had the best sleep he’d experienced in months, and he was closer to his family than ever before. The moral of the story? It’s never just about cigarettes.

The covert consumer in the midnight kitchen.

2009-06-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

In hypnotherapy we hear many times of the careless act that leaves a child scared for life. An unjustified scolding, or a bullying episode that a parent never learned of finds its way deep into a child’s memory, only to surface many years later as a trigger for later anxiety. And yet, from time to time we see this flow from one generation to another move the other way. This was one such situation.

My client was a gentleman who was successful at the highest levels in the performing arts. His high profile, abundance of talent and ability to bring joy to so many contribute to what appears a happy and successful life. However, like so many of us, he also has a secret habit he feels ashamed of and embarraseed about, which he hides from even his closest friends.

Many mornings when he gets up, he comes into the kitchen to find remnants of food. These are often left overs of the most elaborate dishes, always prepared for one. He has no memory whatsoever of any visitor, or providing any such meal. It is just as though someone has come into the house, feasted plentifully and then left without clearing anything away. This sometimes happens twice a week.

My client knows it is impossible that anyone could be getting into his house. This is not an isolated incident, it has happened periodically over many years, sometimes lasting months with a frequency of about twice a week. At times it fades for a few weeks, only to start happening again. As disturbing as the situation has become, my client has known for a long time there is only one explanation for the situation. It is he himself that is enjoying this feats, though he has absolutely no memory of it whatsoever. He even went to the extreme of weighing himself before sleeping, and on waking up to look for weight shifts.

He came to me when he found there was really no credible solution to this habit. On my suggestion he went back and plotted the last few incidents and we looked at the results. While there was no particularly obvious cause for the night eating episodes, it was evident that they would often take place on Fridays or Saturdays. At first I thought we were looking for something he did himself at weekends, that would trigger the resulting action.

It was evident that the sources of stress in my client’s life had increased significantly in recent years. Although he’d raised a daughter alone, he’d had a life relatively free from tension up until the teen years of one of his daughters who had acted out quite severely in her teens, until finding her path. She is now an acclaimed singer in her own right. She did however provide a good deal of grief, particularly as a fifteen year old.

It turned out that when in hypnotic regression my client revealed his deep seated fears about his daughter during her teen years. She would go out at weekends, sometimes with men her father resented and distrusted. The fifteen year old would stay out till all hours of the night, sometimes returning drunk. For a father raising his daughter alone this was deeply upsetting. His daughter was reacting against her only parent, a father who loved her dearly.

Although his daughter came through this period relatively unharmed, her father would wait up many nights – generally at weekends, waiting for her to arrive home. He’d wait up in the kitchen, sometimes preparing the most elaborate dishes. He found this kept him awake and took his mind off whatever was happening to his daughter. In hypnosis it became evident that the later feelings of insecurity and anxiety were triggering a repeat of these lonely nightly vigils. It was a behavior that had served him well in the past. His mind simply decided to re-enact the same activity to deal with the new and unrelated stresses of his life. He was quite literally still sitting up at night waiting for his teenage daughter to come safely home. The fact that she has been married for the last twenty years to a loving husband in California was something his subconscious mind had conveniently overlooked in its desire to find a coping tool for stress.

Once identified this was a simple situation to remedy and my client left feeling greatly relieved and three months later has not had a single instance of night eating since. He was able to chat with his daughter about the situation and laugh about it how it had affected him for all these years. His daughter, incidentally now has three daughters of her own, just entering their teenage years.

Working with Anxiety

2009-06-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

Understanding anxiety

Anxiety is an issue that afflicts most of us at some point in our lives. Our tendency to play own its importance and to try to ‘tough it out’ can often exacerbate its effects. It is worth for a moment looking at the idea of anxiety in a historical context.

When I was very young I remember an old man that lived on our street in London. We would see him working on the tiny garden in front of his house from time to time. On the other side of the road was a churchyard with old iron railings painted a gaunt black. The years of painting had softened the look of that fence. One day I remember seeing a young boy run alongside the fence with a stick held out – as it rattled along the iron railings it gave out a loud rattatatat sound. These were the sounds of life in our street.

Now, another look at that apparently ordinary scene. The old man was on his knees weeding his garden when he heard the sounds of the rattatat. For him, in an instant he was transformed back to that moment in 1916 when he was first deployed to the Somme. As a frightened teenager he had been quite literally terrified, uprooted from his childhood home to fight a horrific war he had been deployed to the Western front into the thick of the fighting. Like so many of Englands youth of the time, he had no idea what to expect. He quite possibly had never left home before. As a young man, hopelessly badly prepared he would have been as afraid of the process of being dispatched to war, as he was of the enemy. Seeing his friends and brothers killed right before his eyes with industrial efficiency he was exposed in a short time to enormous trauma.

Finding himself in a wet trench surrounded by heavy fire, the sound of machine guns in his ears at some point he literally shut down at a neurological level and ceased functioning. It used to be called ‘Shell Shock’. Nowadays we call it Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The immediate effects were obvious – he would have found himself rooted to the spot, unable to function and quite terrified of everything going on around him, until he shut it all out. Blacking out, or feinting or simply going into catatonic shock is an immediate result of such trauma in some people. Unable to function, much less to fight, he would have been shipped home.

What is less understood is the long term effect of shell shock. For the old man in the street, the sound of that stick being rattled along a railing transported him back to the trenches in an instant. For him it was the sound of the machine gun all over again. In a moment he was transfix and then collapsed in absolute terror shaking on the ground.

Just as Pavlov’s dogs salivated on hearing the bell, so he played out the response he experienced with the sound of the ‘machine gun’. Some of the kids playing in the street saw him collapse and ran and got an adult. As I remember it, one of the parents went and helped the old man; they’d seen this before periodically. It was something which happened now and then and had been a part of his life these past fifty five years. The people in the street knew of the old man’s trouble and helped him back inside and calmed him down whenever he had one of his ‘turns’.

This enduring memory from childhood is an extreme example of how anxiety can affect us. In this case it’s a response to a very defined trauma. Both the original trauma and the response were extreme, which both go to illustrate the point. For some, that trauma is less defined. It could be fear of an accident, or fear of being alone, or even something as apparently benign as not being asked to be in the Sunday school play.

In each case a response of anxiety – extreme or otherwise – can be debilitating and hugely impactful on our daily life. Not all of us will end up cowering in a flowerbed, with bemused children playing in the distance. For most people it will feel more like an increasingly present feeling of unease in our stomach. From time to time it will well up in waves and make itself felt with a malevolent darkness that is unmistakable.

From the point of view of hypnotherapy, we often see a trigger of some type, and a response to it. The hypnotherapists job is to try to uncouple those two elements. Going back to Pavlovs dogs, we need to get the dog to stop salivating involuntarily when that bell rings.

Before we go too deeply into the efficacy of hypnotherapy in this field let’s take a brief look at what has been done by medical doctors over the years. In the middle ages the mentally ill were driven out of the house and condemned to wander homeless depending on the charity of passers by. Here we have the origins of the ‘village idiot’.

If you go back a couple hundred years there was a belief in an idea called ‘degeneration’. This was the idea that ‘madness’ was hereditary and passed down the generations. It may start as an eccentricity and in the following generation come out in the form of manic depression. The next generation may exhibit a family member with epilepsy or another increasingly evident manifestation of the problem. Ultimately the family line would terminate in a dementia laden generation of cretins. This idea was expounded in the 1850’s by Benedict-Augustin Morel. Anxiety was merely a stepping stone on this path.

Morel was both hugely influential and an idiot. His idea contributed to some of the most hideously unjust results of mental illness. Families in England would literally hide away their mentally ill relatives, for fear their condition would become known, and condemn the family line. Who would want to marry into a family so clearly and scientifically known to be headed to the asylum? This is where we get the idea of the mad brother chained up in a secret room behind the library.

Now keep in mind this idea had some currency until not that long ago. One hundred and fifty years is not so far back, and the idea stayed around for a while. Doctors these days are a little more on the ball. But who is to say that in a hundred and fifty years time we will not look at the ideas of today and scoff, the way we now do about ‘degeneration’?

The modern solution is to anxiety is often to prescribe an antidepressant. Let’s just think about that for a moment. Firstly, many anti depressants are now known to actually have a side effect of – wait for it – causing anxiety. Secondly, there really is no question about the fact that this is a prime example of treating the symptom rather than the problem. (‘We’re not worried why you experiencing anxiety; we’ll make you feel better about it’… This is much the same as saying ‘We’re not worried why your legs just became paralysed, but we’ll make you feel better about it’.) Thirdly, in an antidepressant solution, most doctors readily admit they do not know how long you’ll stay on the medication, what the side effects will be, or even why they work. It’s a little like saying ‘stand on one foot, face the wind and say abracadabra three times – I don’t know why it works but it does…’ These are not promising indicators of the current solution being any more relevant than Morels idea of degeneration.

So, why hypnotherapy? Firstly, hypnotherapists do try and find the root cause of the problem. Secondly, it’s generally accepted that anxiety is a psychological issue. Hypnosis works on that level. Why should a pharmaceutical solution that does not address the root cause, solve a psychological problem? We are not talking about chemistry here. We are talking about how we live.

Rob Hadley.
www.vancouverhypnotherapy.org

Working with addictions in hypnosis.

2009-06-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

My client, a wealthy financier, said quite seriously “I only use the best stuff. Like my food, I like to eat organic. Everything. Organic vegetables, meats – I mean everything. If I could get organic cocaine, I would.”

Great, I thought. Maybe a ‘Fair trade’ version would be next.

And yet, this client was not unusual. It’s quite normal amongst cocaine users of a certain genre to have very high personal and ethical standards. Their use of cocaine is an anomaly in their lives. Often it’s the only anomaly. Most of my clients are extremely affluent and in the above case, he was maintaining a $1000 a day coke habit while remaining essentially a fully functional human being. For the time being. Not many people can do that for long. The heart eventually simply stops.

I work with many drug users treating their addictions. I am a clinical hypnotherapist, and I specialize in addictions. From cigarettes across the spectrum to crack. Treatment requires a number of steps but is extremely effective.

First of all clients are prepared for a successful outcome. It will require them to amend their diet, and work at an effective exercise regime. There is unlikely to be a successful outcome without these elements in place. Hypnosis is used to create motivation to eat healthily and to exercise.
Then a weaning process is set in motion. The substance used is reduced over a period, and eventually eradicated entirely. Some substances have to be gradually reduced, others can be swiftly stepped down. It entirely depends on the substance type. A rapid cessation of either alcohol or cocaine (from high consumption levels) can place the client under enormous pressure, and even result in heart failure.

During the weaning process there is time to develop an exploration of the original causes of the addiction. This is where hypnosis and hypnotherapy really comes into its own. Learning what caused the original addiction, and reorganizing the way the client allows certain activities to trigger drug use is the single area that is most effective in this form of treatment. For this reason addicts that go through hypnotherapy are among those least likely to slip back into drug use at a later date.

Ultimately hypnosis is used to maintain a healthy lifestyle and motivate the client into a set of behaviors likely to exclude any form of drug use. Apart from hard drugs, I also work with alcohol, pot, pornography and gambling addictions.

The hardest addiction to work with? Crack?

No, actually crack is not that hard. The toughest of all is gambling. The reason being there is rarely a physiological element to it. One has to wait for a ‘life crisis’ before the addict is ready to deal with it. Most drug addicts can’t help but notice when certain parts of their body just cease to function properly. But Gambling is different. The addict is only going to be ready when a crisis happens, and gives them a wake-up call. One has to hope it happens before things fall apart completely.

My worst addict?

$1,600 a day betting on game results. Every day. Yes, I did get him clear - after about two weeks.

My $1000 a day cocaine addict? Yes, I got him clear. And a year and a half on he’s still clear. The jury is out on how long he’ll stay clean, but I think he’ll be fine.
RH