Rob's Blog

I wouldn't take your pain away, even if I could. “ She heard him mutter, ‘Can you take away this grief?’ 'I’m sorry,’ she replied. 'Everyone asks me. And I would not do so even if I knew how. It belongs to you. Only time and tears take away grief; that is what they are for.” ― (Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight) I am asked, about once a week generally, if I can use hypnosis to help someone forget a former love. They want the entire idea of that person removed from their memory. Now, in theory, one could use hypnosis to do this. You may have seen in shows, a subject put into a state where they cannot remember their own name. The thing you don't really hear is that such a condition is very short lived. Especially when it comes to names – anything to do with identity – this is a very temporary state. The mind handles a few areas, including identity, sexuality and security, in a way that is very hard to manipulate. However, the way we d...

I think one of the most dysfunctional and disturbed, not to mention disturbing, groups of people I know are therapists. In their various forms and shapes we have a strange collection of therapy types out there, and equally varied therapists to go with each one. One client came to me recently who had been seeing a therapist elsewhere. They had stopped seeing the therapist after showing up to their office to find it had closed, and that the therapist had been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility. While I would be the first to admit that my own stress levels sometimes get up there a bit, I don't think things have got quite that bad, yet. The psychiatrist in the great 1983 movie, Local Hero, is not so far from being true to life. Coincidentally, he should also have been locked up. You can watch the entire movie above. It's worth every minute. When I look through the feeds on my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts I can see a diversity of humanity that is truly...

I was recently shocked to hear of one woman’s battle with a gambling addiction. She had originally approached Vancouver Hypnotherapy for some help, but instead went to her doctor. She was short of money, and felt that working with a solution covered by her government health insurance was the better bet (pardon the pun). Her doctor referred her to a psychiatrist. She had a four month wait before seeing a psychiatrist, during which her addiction cost her a further $16,000, and the psychiatrist then prescribed antidepressants. Asked how long she would have to take them she was told “We’ll see”. After two months, with no benefit she returned to the psychiatrist. She was concerned that she felt she was becoming addicted to the antidepressant, but that it was not having any effect on her gambling. His response was to  raise the dosage level. After a further three months she found she had no benefit whatsoever from her prescription, and n...

After nearly three months of working with a hard core bulimic client, I have just had a session that has left we with such respect for this young woman. It's been log and slow progress, but now she's become happier, motivated, and has reduced the swing between bingeing and purging, and the pain of restricting. When using hypnotherapy with most clients we see a rapid result and evidence of progress is obvious. In this case progress has been slow and painstaking, but in reviewing her condition she is now clearly moving easily toward resolution. I've seen her go from desperation, through release of her fear, to a point where she embraces her creativity, and physicality. She's doing pottery, exercising (yes, I even got her into yoga) and she's now enjoying her job. She's got a great place to live now, and she's done all these things through her own determination. Now, she's less anxious and her bulimic nature is slipping into a controlled place. ...

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 t...