What made you decide that you wanted to become a hypnotherapist?
As a boy I just found the whole concept of it really fascinating – I think it was the whole mystery of it all that gripped me then. I used to watch Paul McKenna seemingly ‘take control’ of his participants on TV, and thought it as quite cool! However later in life I became involved with rehabilitating people suffering from various mental health problems. I became more interested in the therapeutic side of hypnotherapy, and enrolled on a clinical hypnotherapy course at the London College Of Clinical Hypnotherapy. I fell in love with it and have continued to study ever since.
Jon Rhodes
I have a question about if hypnotherapy can help me with severe pain. I have had to take morphine and now I am on Methadone for severe lower back pain that no operation can help. Could hypnotherapy ever help me enough with this pain so that I can stop taking this strong medication?
Hypnotherapy can definitely help reduce pain. After all pain is simply a sensation created by the brain in order to protect us. Without pain we would be more likely to do things which would cause us more damage. There are many stories in the media about people going through operations without anaesthetic due to their use of hypnotherapy. What often happens in cases like yours is that hypnotherapy reduces, but not eliminates the pain, allowing you to reduce your intake of pain killers. This is a good healthy result as far as I’m concerned. I think that without some sort of pain sensations, we could be tempted to push our bodies too much, causing more damage in the long term.
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I am a big fan of athletics and I often notice that just before they begin their discipline (sprinting, long jump, etc) they close their eyes. Are they performing self-hypnosis? If so what exactly are they thinking?
Usually people have difficulty during any type of performance when they consciously think too much. The unconscious mind is far more powerful than the conscious part of the mind. It is likely that most are clearing their mind of all thoughts, which by definition is actually meditation. With their mind free of distracting thoughts, they can “just do it” and perform what they have practised for many years without letting the occasion get to them.
When I help people with sports performance, I often give them a trigger word, a post hypnotic suggestion. When they say this word to themselves, they will return to a relaxed state with a clear mind. I give them suggestions of focussing on what they are doing, and not thinking of themselves or what is going on around them. This is where hypnosis differs from meditation – hypnosis aims to add some sort of suggestion to the mind, whereas meditation generally aims to clear the mind of all conscious thoughts.
If I fall asleep during one of your hypnosis sessions will it still have the required effect on me?
Yes! When you initially fall asleep, you usually start in a light sleep, and it is a very effective state of mind to absorb hypnotic suggestions. I would not, however recommend putting your recordings on a loop whilst you sleep. There is no evidence that hypnotic suggestions are absorbed in a deep sleep state, and the sounds could disrupt you.
Can hypnotherapy work with children around the age of 10?
Hypnotherapy can work with children around the age of 10, however it usually has to be done in a different way. Children have such good imaginations, that it is not always necessary to insist that they close their eyes. They may not be willing or able to do this for long periods of time anyway. You must also talk to them in a way that they understand. It is no use talking to them with words that they do not understand. I find that using metaphors and creating a therapeutic story is a very effective way of working with children.
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