Rob's Blog

Many times I see postings on forums asking if people have as script for - and then an obscure issue gets listed. It's as if the common issues are all contained in a giant book of scripts and anything else one can go out and ask the community of hypnotherapists at large and someone will have it. Every time I see this I am forced to wonder, is this really serving the client, and is it the correct approach to hypnotherapy? There's no doubt, if one has nowhere else to start from, a script is better than nothing. However, that is virtually never the case. When training therapists I always hammer home the things that helped me as I was learning my craft. hief among those things is asking questions. A one does so one realises swiftly that in almost all cases one is not working with 'arthritis' or 'depression', one is working with Josephine Smith, or Danny Demitrio.  I don't know where those names popped up from, but they are quite suggestive and to the poin...

Mental healthcare in BC got of to what might at best be called a shaky start. Here's short account of the first reported incident relating to mental health in this, the most beautiful of Canadian provinces. In 1850 British Columbia recorded its first case of insanity. A Scottish migrant who had recently arrived on a ship, assaulted Dr. John Helmcken, the local doctor at the jail in Victoria. From 2.bp.blogspot.com There is something wholly unsurprising about a Scotsman getting off a ship and promptly hitting someone. This may be a sad comment on my own deep seated prejudices, but the fact remains. I like Scottish people. I even like bagpipes. I used to spend every Christmas on the Isle Of Skye. As a result I can picture the scene with crystal clarity. A man stumbles down a gangplank onto the quay in Victoria harbor. He turns to a stranger, and says,”Fok, mahn, where the heel am aye?” A helpful passer-by says,“Canada.” “Wha?” says the new arrival and then punches him i...

I often get asked this question.  There are several answers, but the most obvious is that the medical profession does not really embrace hypnosis as a modality it recognises. While some hypnotherapist are concerned about this, it ceased to be an issue we were concerned with at Vancouver Hypnotherapy a few years ago. We adopted this position primarily because most of the clients coming through our doors treat the medical profession with skepticism, as a result of their own experiences. As such, our bookings calendar is increasingly full, and many of the clients consider the use of pharmacy a step backward, particularly when it comes to addiction. Increasingly the general public treats orthodox medicine as flawed. This is not to say that they reject the 'science' of medicine. They are merely appalled at the way it is delivered, and the extremely questionable practice of medicating someone as a solution to what is often a psychological or behavioural issue. Hypnotherapy is ...