Hypnotherapy

My Dad was a GP and also a qualified hypnotherapist - excellent for all sorts of things such as phobias, smoking cessation, anxiety and even pain control. I also knoa it is used a great deal in asia and actualy saw years ago a documentary where a patient had major chest surgery with just hypnotherapy. I used it during when We had our kids, so have up close experience that it works very well as part of an overall strategy for healthcare, but it needs a practitioner who knows what he or she is doing.

Celeste, I think you are right...and she was not cheap either !!!

Joe...my husband was a GP and later a GP trainer. You are correct that practices are limited to a degree with referrals...its tough to be referring people to services that charge, and sometimes heftily for their services. We have got used to the NHS in the UK...and most people dont expect to have to pay...its the great dividing line between those that can and those that cant pay. However..I think you will find that there are plenty of open minds...most GPs personally feel that if there is back up research..proving a therapy works all is good... its difficult to refer a patient to an unproven therapy...GPs do have a duty of care for their patients.

I've not been hypnotised, ever, but was with a friend who was put under by a hypnotist. What she did, and said was recorded, and she was shocked so much as not having remembered, or believed she did all that she did, that, upon seeing the footage, she threw up.

Was it the assasins episode, James?

You are correct Celeste...made me a bit more cynical....however...I am one of the best people to have any type of therapy....be it hypnotherapy, massage, reiki etc....it all appeals to my inner self....just waiting to enjoy having time to myself!

David your experience sounds wonderful....sounds like something I would really get a lot out of....its a case of finding the right practician I expect.

I was hypnotied to stop smoking...had to relax and watch a TV screen on which subliminal messages were put...whilst the hypnotist talked to me...had to throw away the ciggies whilst in the room!!!! Sure she picked them up and smoked them after I had gone!!!! Anyway the hypnosis lasted 2 days and I was a bit dazed..then just started smoking again, so never worked for me !!!!

Well said David. The problem is that GPs often feel restricted by NICE and also fear (unjustly) giving credence to any complementary therapy.

Hypnosis works on the subconscious. In an open relaxed state, suggestions may be made for your subconscious to get to work on to make 'true' for your conscious mind. Affirmations work in the same way.

As has been said, you cannot be hypnotised against your will, and you have to want to do it, in other words, be open to suggestion. I also took a course in hypnotherapy and was accepted for a masters at London University. My life changes at the time caused me to pass that chance by, which is a pity in retrospect. The workings of the mind make fascinating study!

I have had hypnotherapy. In the first instance for stress management. One of my workplace colleagues shocked me one day - her comment was so out of character. She said she had had hypnotherapy and it had changed her entire outlook at work, to the point of looking after herself much more in the workplace ( which had become toxic with stress). I had one session and felt like I had been cleansed. Magic! So I then tried it for some deeper issues. Totally amazing results, far far superior to more than a year of visiting a psychologist for the same issues.

There is good evidence to show it helps with weight loss. Far less expensive and less intrusive / dangerous than lap band surgery.

It is not used much - because it is out if the narrow minded ways of most GP’s.

My hypnotherapist is now being referred patients who have had lap band surgery and still managed to gain weight !!! - blended McDonlds!

I have been a health professional for over 30 years. Hypnotherapy is far better than most ‘medical’ treatments.

Time for GP’s to ‘wake up’ :slight_smile:

Celeste excellent breakdown between stage hypnosis and hypnotherapy.

Glynn I understand your dilemma. I first tried hypnotherapy when I wanted to quit. It worked for a week. It wasn’t particularly difficult to stop, but I went back on them on a night out thinking I could just have another session to stop. Unfortunately, it just didn’t take and it would be another five years before I finally stopped with Allen Carr.

Although it didn’t work for me that second time, I was fascinated by the experience and took training with the National College of Hypnosis and Psychology. The National College definition of hypnosis: “Hypnosis is a condition of profound relaxation which you allow yourself to enter, during which time there is an altered state of conscious awareness”. I qualified with them but didn’t give up my day job. I helped people with smoking although I was still smoking myself at the time! I also helped with sleep problems, weight loss, fear of flying and one woman with a fear of surgery. I still do some work here but only for friends. I have not kept up my registration and don’t charge.

To answer your point James, yes, hypnotherapy can have amazing results but as others have said on here, there has to be a rapport between therapist and client. It is being more widely accepted in among the medical community but has a long way to go. Part of the problem is that it is not properly regulated and standards are not monitored closely enough. Unfortunately the profession does itself no favours with wild claims about its success in many fields – particularly for stopping smoking.

When it comes to stopping smoking with hypnotherapy, there is no accepted clinical research to show how effective it is. When I eventually stopped smoking with the Allen Carr method, I knew immediately that I would never smoke again. I bought the Allen Carr franchise for Scotland and had great success with that method. I never used hypnotherapy for smokers ever again.

For more discussion on smoking meet me in the Smoke Room http://www.survivefrance.com/group/smoke-room

I've had hypnotherapy for panic attacks which developed after I had my first baby. Afteer two sessions I never had another one.

My brother in law is a hypnotherapist; he's had some remarkable successes, especially with children with phobias. He says the key is really wanting the treatment to work - which is why it's so good for phobias, as no-one wants to be afraid of flying or spiders or leaving the house without counting the spoons... however for things like giving up smoking he says hypnotherapy is probably no more successful than any other method, the problem being that most smokers who say they want to give up don't really, really want to deep down.

Not had hypnosis but do believe in alternative therapies. A friend of mind does raiki and reflexology and it has worked a treat on my sinuses! She lives near Moissac if anyone is interested.

My son went to watch Derren Brown in London when he was making a programme...Tom is very keen on magicians...always was...and says Derren Brown unusually talented...he saw people hypnotised and says it was quite eerie.....on the other hand....20 years ago I tried to give up smoking...and together with 4 other friends we paid a small fortune to a hynotherapist who practiced in Basingstoke...we ended up lying on the floor of her council house sitting room....and realised she had gone out and turned on a tape, when her dog came round sniffing all of us.....that was £35 each...for half an hour....so £175 for half an hours work...we all lit up in the car on the journey home...! (I did give up 3 years after this....on my own...using willpower!) having said that Ive seen people undergo surgery with only hypnosis providing their anaesthetic....ditto women giving birth...not sure if its more to do with how some people believe and therefore succumb and others are less so....and dont...

It is correct, Celeste - no urban myth. We used to visit her in the hospital every couple of months as an old family housekeeper was in the same building. It was as a direct result of being in the audience at the hypnotist's entertainment event.

Celeste, if I could persuade her to make the time. There is a good therapist/masseuse less than five minutes away. It is getting people to want to do something enough I suppose. She is probably not ready but her body should be telling her it is soon going to be too late.

"Yep , Glyn -- i know the feeling --- especially when we enjoy something ----- so why would you want to give them up --- don't .---Why put yourself through the hassle"

Because I'm approaching 60 and would like to think I might see 70, or even more! Just because we recognise risk doesn't mean that it is easy to give up something we enjoy, even if we know we should. I gave up motor racing because of a lack of cash, not because I might have a crash...

Two anecdotes from my past:

My father worked for a building company. The transport manager's wife was in the park at a stage hypnotism event - she was in the audience. She ended up in a trance and spent the rest of her life in the local mental hospital as no amount of treatment could get her back in the real world.

In 1970 my then boyfriend went to a hypnotist to stop smoking. He had smoked 40 a day and after just one session he never smoked again. I met him again in 1995 and he still didn't smoke.

Bit off track Annette but interesting. Yes, Celeste you are saying exactly what others have said. But then you have somebody who cannot relax to do yoga or any other relaxation technique. The hypnotherapist she saw a few months back said that it is circular. She needs relaxation to be able to let herself go into a hynotic state, but because she cannot relax almost certainly needs hynotherapy to show her the door to that state of being. Her brother is an ergotherapist who also teaches people relaxation techniques to help them rebuild their bodies. He was taught that the physical therapy he does only works when complemented by a psychological process. People who are not responsive to muscular rehabilitation often go for hynotherapy amongst other treatments to help them work with the ergo. So he has tried helping her with physical relaxation methods to slow her mind down, she usually responds by grabbing a quick smoke.

For other people it works a treat. I've known a few people be helped off alcohol and drugs and other people pulled back after nervous breakdowns. It has many merits but I suspect it works when a person wants it to work enough and when whatever the therapist channels hits a particular spot. In my OH's case I wish there was one who could find that spot before she does irrepairable harm to herself.

Claire....I was looking for the like button :-) Sorry James....this thread went off topic....will "butt" out now!