I can make you Thin' book author and hypnotist Paul McKenna interviewed on ‘The Dr. Oz Show’

(Best Syndication News) - On today’s ‘The Dr. Oz Show,’ Hypnotist and self-help author, Paul McKenna, was interviewed on the TV show. McKenna is from the UK and he has a PhD in human behavior. He wrote a popular book titled, “I Can Make You Thin.” In 2008, he had a five-episode series air on cable networks similarly named, ‘I Can Make You Thin with Paul McKenna.’

McKenna told ‘The Dr. Oz Show’ that he was a geeky kid in school and his teachers did not think he would be successful in life. His first job was working as a radio station host, that was when he interviewed a hypnotist who offered to hypnotize him. McKenna said that he felt much better after hes was hypnotized and knew then that he wanted to learn hypnosis so that he could help other people. He uses his hypnotism skills to help people overcome things such as smoking or weight loss. He admitted that he is rich, but he is also a man on a mission to help people. McKenna thinks that the brain can be reprogrammed to help people eat less food and to feel good about themselves.

He continued to explain that hypnosis is a procedure that allows direct communication with the subconscious mind. The things we do automatically everyday without thinking is controlled by our subconscious. He said our brain is like a computer and we can reprogram it in order to help us overcome obstacles. He uses hypnosis to help people make changes in their lives.

McKenna continued to explain that during hypnosis you are in an altered state of consciousness. He then was able to put some of the studio audience into a trance, and did so very quickly. He said that a person under hypnosis is having something more like a daydream instead of sleeping. He put three different audience members into a trance quickly. Then he had them imagine they were on a beach and then made them laugh. He said that he was able to put them into a trance quickly because he worked with them prior to the taping of the TV show and had them relax several times. That way they were able to enter into a trance quickly during the show.

McKenna said there are two habits that keep us fat. One is emotional eating and the second is eating too fast. By changing these behaviors people can lose weight because they can eat less food.

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On the TV show, one woman admitted that she eats all the time and celebrates with food. She told McKenna that frustration drives her to eat the most. He demonstrated at technique using Acupuncture meridian points. First, he tells her to imagine the feeling of frustration and then to tap the back of her hand continually while counting to five. Continuing tapping on the back of the hand while you now hum a tune. Then tap under the eye, then on the collar bone on the chest, then back to the hand all while humming. This behavior changes the habit of eating from the emotion, because the brain de-links the thought from the feeling he explains. If the feeling and urge to eat returns he said to go back and do the process again several times until the feeling disappears. He said that this technique is not hypnosis.

Another woman is always dieting and is constantly thinking about what she is going to eat. She cannot seem to stick with the diet and by Wednesday, she falls off the diet wagon. She wants to get off the dieting merry go round. She is frustrated and has feelings of anger and guilt when she fails with her diet. McKenna said that people think about food on a diet all the time except when they eat the food itself.

He explains that a research study had people blindfolded and this slowed down how much they ate. The TV show had her try the blindfold trick and she ate half as much pizza when her eyes were blindfolded. McKenna asked her if she felt she was satisfied with half as much pizza. She said that she was not missing anything at all. Slowing down how fast you eat makes a big difference he adds.

McKenna demonstrated to the audience with a fork and spoon in hand how to retrain muscles to slow down during the eating process. He is OK with eating everything, but just do so with thought and slow down. He had everyone in the audience pretend to chew the food slowly. McKenna said to turn off the TV and other distractions when you eat your food. Eat as if you want to savor each bite of food.

In the audience was a woman who lost weight used McKenna’s hypnosis weight-loss program. She was a size 26 and now she has lost a good amount of weight. She said she listens to the hypnosis CDs every day.

To finish his visit on ‘The Dr. Oz Show,’ McKenna hypnotized the audience and the viewers to help them visualize a slimmer figure and being successful with losing weight.

By: N Wilson

Hypnosis and the hospital

Controversial technique claims long list of benefits, for childbirth to anxiety to burns

By Aimee Heckel

Camera Staff Writer

Posted: 06/08/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT

Janet Golden Balzer is about to hypnotize you.

She doesn't have a pendulum, swinging pocket-watch or a black and white spiral. And she promises she's not going to make you quack like a duck.

Hypnotherapists, like Balzer, can't make you do anything that you don't want to do, she says.

In fact, that very idea goes counter to the purpose of hypnosis, which Balzer insists actually helps clients gain more control over their minds and actions -- not lose control.

Even the word "hypnosis" is misleading, hypnotherapists say. The Greek word "hypnos" means sleep. But even though you might look asleep while hypnotized, you're tapping into a deeper, subconscious level of your mind -- in a way, an awakening, they say.

"We have so much power in our minds," Balzer says.

Balzer, a certified medical support clinical hypnotherapist, sits in her home office, on the border of Erie and Broomfield. The room looks like a regular study, with a leather recliner, an organized desk and ambient music streaming, something you might hear in a yoga class. As a medical hypnotherapist, she works in conjunction with doctors (not replacing them), most commonly to help with pain management, pre- and post-surgery, childbirth, chronic pain and fibromyalgia.

She begins.

It's nothing flashy. Close your eyes and relax in the recliner. Relax your face, down through your hands and to your toes. Her voice is calm and continuous, as she talks about imagining a golden disc traveling through your body, cleaning and healing everything it touches. The imagery she suggests and specific strategies vary with each person and their intentions, whether to help quit smoking, have a natural childbirth, work through emotional trauma or -- and she says this like it's commonplace -- undergo surgery without any anesthetic or pain medicine.

If you're starting to hear ducks quacking in the back of your mind, wait.

Despite the controversial entertainment "stage shows," talk shows and movies about brainwashing, hypnosis by trained professionals is approved by the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association as a way to treat a wide range of issues, from physical pain to improving compliance with taking pills or following medical instructions.

Other claims include helping treat anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, menopause, trauma, abuse, burns, tooth grinding, insomnia, memory, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, weight loss, general stress, sexual dysfunction, phobias and fertility. Other hypnotherapists work with patients to try to overcome abuse, betrayal and conflict, or improve performance (in sports, theater, music or speaking), confidence, creativity, procrastination or career success.

"It can be used for anything you want to change," Balzer says.

Hypnosis for pain control is used by the Stanford Cancer Center. The National Cancer Institute reports that women having surgery for breast cancer who received hypnosis before the operation needed less anesthesia and pain medication during surgery and reported less pain, nausea, fatigue and discomfort after surgery.

The Tulane University School of Medicine asserts that hypnosis shortly after the injury can prevent a second-degree burn from becoming third-degree.

Multiple hospitals affiliated with Harvard Medical School use hypnosis to speed recovery after surgery. One Harvard researcher even reported that hypnosis made bone fractures heal several weeks faster than usual.

A study at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel found hypnosis made the embryo transfer of in vitro fertilization twice as successful.

Even NASA has taught its astronauts mind-over-body techniques to slow and speed heart rates and warm and cool hands without moving them.

The list of health pros who back hypnosis is long -- and so is Boulder County's list of practitioners, from hypnotherapists to hypnobirthers.

Still, Boulder Community Hospital does not offer hypnotherapy as part of its services, according to spokesman Richard Sheehan.

"The general response in terms of how we determine what services to offer is to first recognize that every hospital has limited resources," he says. "We can't offer every conceivable treatment. It's economically impossible."

So instead, Sheehan says the hospital focuses on services that require the resources of the hospital, like surgery, and others that there is a demand and need for, but that isn't being met elsewhere in the community, like providing services for people with HIV and AIDS.

He says a handful of women every year who deliver babies at the hospital use hypnobirthing techniques, but they learn them outside of the hospital.

"At this point, I'm not sure if there is a community need for hypnotherapy that is not being met," he says.

So what is hypnosis -- really?

Hypnosis is facilitating an altered state of consciousness to make subconscious suggestions to achieve a specific goal.

It claims to help mute the conscious, thinking part of your brain (the part that is wondering, "How can this be real? It sounds sketchy to me.") to communicate with the subconscious level (the part that makes your heart beat, blood flow and emotions arise). For example, you might think, "I want to have a natural childbirth," but subconsciously, you fear it will hurt and that you're not strong enough. Hypnotism aims to reprogram the latter message to believe, on an almost impulsive, non-negotiable level, that childbirth is natural and easy.

In fact 85 percent of women who prepared for birth using a hypnosis-based system called Blissborn gave birth naturally, advocates say. Blissborn techniques are taught by a medical support hypnotherapist.

"It sort of is positive thinking. But it's not will power," Balzer says. "That comes from the logical mind. You can talk yourself in -- and out of -- things for the moment. It doesn't have a lasting presence. We feed the subconscious a different scenario and transform a thought for life. That's different."

Hypnotism often includes guided physical relaxation, direct or indirect suggestions and visual imagery or metaphors. It is not designed as a cure, but rather a technique to help bring about an outcome.

Modern hypnotism encourages more patient participation ("What do you want to change?"), compared with the old-school authoritarian approach. In that, some advocates say that all hypnotism is self-hypnotism; you only reach that state because you want to.

Brooke Patterson says the closest comparison to describing hypnosis is meditation. Except instead of clearing your thoughts, you zone in on something.

Patterson, of Littleton, has received regular hypnotherapy from Boulder's Lisa Schiavone since 2007, to help her overcome emotional struggles related to her past. Schiavone, a certified clinical hypnotherapist, has been practicing for more than 22 years. She also incorporates astrology into her sessions.

"You're sort of in a dream-like state, so it's maybe easier to delve deeper into difficult issues. I think it's the disconnectedness," Patterson says. "When we're so conscious, that reminds us of the fears and whatever you're dealing with."

She says she was surprised that it worked.

"I expected what you see in movies. Maybe somebody rings a bell, and then you're in this trance state," she says. "It's really not anything like that."

And after several sessions, she says she found a "peaceful detachment" to her past that she had been unable to find through traditional therapy.

The change wasn't instant, she says. But over time, she says she began reacting differently and her relationships began improve.

"I forget that people are skeptical and fear it, because I'm so open to it now," she says.

Contact Staff Writer Aimee Heckel at 303-473-1359

Hypnotherapy: Trick or cheat?

Want thinner thighs, or bigger breasts? Forget cosmetic surgery, hypnotherapy is now promising to do the job, online for your convenience. Are we being taken for a ride, asks Angela Barnett

Lily Allen dropped two dress sizes with it. Orlando Bloom gave up his chocolate obsession, Kevin Costner cured his seasickness and Tiger Woods mastered the right mind-set for the perfect swing.

Hypnotherapy has been around for as long as the sewing machine, but it’s now widely available online, and the new distribution channel means it’s expanding – both in its popularity and in terms of what its sellers say it can do for you. Self-hypnosis scripts are promising to help people re-stitch their minds in all sorts of inconceivable ways, from imagining bigger breasts to curing disease. You no longer need a man with a comb-over, watch chain and a crusty old couch to help you quit smoking, you can download files and do it yourself on your iPhone.

UK website Hypnobusters provides over 100 self-hypnosis scripts in MP3 format that promise to boost my face with some hypnotic botox, augment my breasts, enhance my punch, slow down my eating, cure cancer, improve my hearing and give me “sensational skin”. Wendi Friesen, an American hypnotherapist, offers do- it-yourself scripts that will turn me into a body builder. Frankly, I’m disappointed I can’t be taller. I could even grow a larger penis, but I suspect I’d need a small one to begin with.

Dr James Braid, who coined the term ‘hypnotism’ in 1842, believed hypnotic therapy was an effective tool for treating “functional nervous disorders”. The word ‘hypnosis’ derives from the Greek God of sleep, Hypnos, however it’s not actually sleeping, it’s more of a trance, “Like when you drive somewhere and can’t remember how you gotthere but you know you were awake, just not present,” says John Cerbone, a New York clinical hypnotherapist. When you’re in this trance the therapist introduces new thoughts into your mind: ‘I like juice at 5pm (instead of wine)’; ’ I am a great golfer’; ‘My lungs love fresh air’; ‘Too much pudding makes me sad’.

Cerbone, who touts himself as The Fastest Hypnotist on the Planet, tells me most mentally balanced people are able to be hypnotised – by a trained professional – as long as they’re willing to relax. “The more intelligent, stressed or creative, the more hypnotisable, too.”

There’s stacks of evidence that one-on-one hypnotherapy sessions have helped many with addictions, phobias, stress, mental blocks, concentration issues and nervous disorders. But not with beautifying oneself, although some have found it helpful for things like uncontrollable blushing or the inability to stop absent-mindedly picking that dry skin around their fingers.

A friend of mine had a terrible attitude about his taxes. Most of us suffer from this annoying problem, however he was putting off doing his returns past the due date, the reminder and the penalty for missing the penalty. He went to see a Wellington hypnotherapist and said he was impressed to find the process actually worked.

Wellingtonian clinical hypnotherapist Meredith McCarthy says she has helped a man in the SAS work on his mental focus, a woman get over her fear of swallowing pills, a businessman with irritable bowel syndrome (he had it so bad he could no longer attend meetings) and has treated other common complaints: smoking addiction, weight gain, stress and insomnia.

When I asked Cerbone – who treats clients from South Africa to Iraq over Skype – about self-hypnotic botox or breast augmentation, he said simply, “I’m not a fan of off-the-shelf scripts”. He talked witheringly about a fellow hypnotist in New York who promises to cure baldness and cancer. “I’m not going to name names, but that’s just fringy,” he says.

What a cynic. Surely you can listen and think yourself into radiant skin, thicker hair or supermodel proportions?

My cousin Stacey bought four breast augmentation scripts from a UK self-hypnosis site last August, expecting a larger bikini top by summer. She committed to listening for half an hour a day for 12 weeks (being a student, having a lie down was more interesting than study). “This dreamy Enya-type music played,” she said, “then an English cabbie voice would count down, telling me to close my eyes on zero. Then he would instruct my boobs to grow while I daydreamed.”

I saw her after eight weeks and she was starting to doubt: there had been no change. She contacted the online help desk and they told her to relax more, not want it so badly, yet to still believe it would happen.

Stacey then fretted about wanting it the right amount – was a C cup being too greedy? On she ploughed, and when I saw her last summer, I didn’t need to ask. There was no new bikini.

“These scripts build false expectations,” says McCarthy. “I’m yet to see anyone with results. People download a stupid breast-enlargement script, then they come into my office, despondent, and I have to educate them about how hypnotherapy works; genuine rapport between the client and the hypnotherapist is the most important thing. It makes a mockery of the profession. We often talk about this. Many in our organisation [the New Zealand Association of Professional Hypnotherapists] feel it’s a shame – these self-hypnosis scripts are made by someone wanting to make a quick buck off people’s vulnerabilities.”

My cousin isn’t the only person to have high hopes. Online, Spygal76 asks: “Does anyone know if you can use hypnosis to make your eyes wider apart, or your nose less bumpy, or your lips fuller, or anything like that on the face?”

Ah, that would be the plastic surgeon, honey. There are plenty of young men asking whether hypnosis can make them taller too. Sadly, it’s not like downloading a music track only to discover you don’t like it. People who purchase self-hypnosis scripts can spend up to three months listening, hoping for something that will never happen. If noses could be buttoned that easily we’d all be doing it.

The NZAPH bans New Zealand hypnotherapists from making false promises online or guaranteeing results, but they can’t ban international sites from doing so. No amount of wishful dreaming could help Stacey’s breasts grow, and optimistic listening will never create longer legs for those beleaguered teenagers, or hide bald spots for the middle-aged. But when the downloads don’t work, these hypno-shafters have the perfect excuse: your mind is blocking you! They would have us believe we could all be six-foot supermodels if only our crabby old thoughts would let us.

When people visit Cerbone with complaints that can’t be fixed through hypnotherapy, he says, “I’ve got no problem referring them to that other couch – the psychologist’s one – to [help them] better accept themselves.”

- Sunday Magazine

Fast Track your way to a healthier future!

Written by Alan Gilchrist

Thursday, 23 June 2011

GIVING UP smoking is one of the most important decisions that a smoker has to make and when they commit themselves to staying off they may encounter many difficulties. This is where Fast Track Hypnosis and Laser Therapy can greatly increase the success of the non-smoker to stay away from cigarettes for good.

So why don’t more smokers quit on their own?

Many can quit, but few stay off cigarettes for long. The average smoker has normally tried different approaches but because of the addiction to nicotine and the habitual part of it as well, a person will start to smoke again.

Don’t smokers understand that by smoking they are causing problems to their health?

In actual fact they do, since it is highlighted everywhere in the media about the risks of smoking, but the fear of withdrawal keeps them from stopping and are afraid of failing. It’s well known that smoking causes damage to the body, even light smoking can cause lung problems.

SOCIAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS SMOKING ARE CHANGING

Social attitudes towards smoking have changed quite dramatically in the last few years and smoking is unpopular in today’s society. Even governments and companies are taking an extremely strong stance about smoking and have banned it in work places and even outside municipal premises.

WHICH TREATMENT IS THE RIGHT ONE FOR ME?

There are many ways for a person to stop smoking, ranging from going cold turkey, patches, acupuncture, gum etc. Every person is different and not everyone wants to wait a long time to quit smoking by going for a series of sessions or gradually reducing with the help of gum. With Fast Track Hypnosis and Laser Therapy they will quit without having to go through the long drawn out process of quitting as all this is achieved in ONE 30 minute session.

HAS YOUR FAST TRACK WAY BEEN PROVEN TO WORK?

The Fast Track Hypnosis and Laser Therapy Stop Smoking in under 30 minutes system was created by me in the early 1990,s. I put my reputation on the line and it was put to the test on two consumer programmes and on both occasions it was proven to be successful. In fact on one of the programmes it was tested against acupuncture, and another medical product and the only one to successfully quit was the candidate who came to me.

“Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit. Willpower, it turns out, counts for very little.” (New Scientist, Vol 136 issue 1845 31Oct 92, pg 6)

Results included 48 studies of hypnosis covering 6000 smokers, were published in the Journal of Applied Psychology which clearly showed that hypnosis was three times more effective than nicotine replacement therapy

The beauty of Fast Track Hypnosis and Laser Therapy put together in this unique combination removes this feeling of deprivation. It removes the need and the urge to smoke and increases the success rate even further.

So why opt for one type of therapy to quit smoking when you can now have two highly successful methods in a unique combination at no extra cost!

“Alan, I just wanted to thank you. I am amazed by how easy it has been. I have not had one craving, I feel so much happier and healthier. This has completely changed my life. I am a more positive person and everyone is commenting on how much more relaxed I am. I even had someone tell me my eyes look much brighter! I have recommended you to so many people. My director in work went to you last week to stop smoking too and is also finding it easy and my mum went to see you on Friday for weight loss. My dad, brother and sister in law are all going to make appointments with you to stop smoking so you will be kept busy! Thank you again. I can’t believe how fantastic I feel and am amazed I have not had one single craving even when drinking alcohol. I will be forever grateful to you and will continue my mission on spreading the word on how fantastic you are! ... M”

Alan holds his Fast Track Hypnosis sessions in Cabo Roig, Guardamar and Benidorm. For an appointment, brochure, or free of charge initial consultation, contact Alan Gilchrist on 659 229 408. Or visit his web site www.alangilchrist.com

Mindfulness and Hypnosis: Conversations in Mindfulness and Psychotherapy

Mindfulness and Psychotherapy has been gaining a mounting interest amongthousands of clinicians and clients. The following is one in a series of informal conversations between Trudy Goodman, Ph.D., Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. and Steven Hickman, Psy.D., the teachers for a unique upcoming professional training retreat entitled “Mindfulness in Psychotherapy” to be held October 2-7, 2011 at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center in Southern California. This series is primarily aimed toward clinicians, but I’m hoping if you are not a healthcare professional you can also gain some insight from it. Enjoy! Today Steve, Trudy and I talk about the similarities and differences between Mindfulness and Hypnosis.

Trudy: (I recently had an opportunity to explore the differences and similarities between mindfulness practice and hypnosis with a client. I thought it might be worth exploring here in our ongoing conversation on mindfulness and psychotherapy.)

In mindfulness practice, we give our full attention to one subject at a time as a way of training our minds to be attentive to another dimension of awareness, “beneath” the discursive consciousness & the thinking mind (what your hypnotherapist calls executive functioning), and yes – the protective activity of the amygdala can be activated and trained via conscious, mindful breathing for example. Meditation does mirror the receptivity of hypnosis in this way.

In hypnosis, one is led and taught how to drop down beneath the flow of habitual patterns of thinking and perception to a receptive, open state where the therapist’s suggestions can be embedded and incorporated into conscious living. We are doing something similar but different, too. We may also invoke the relaxed, alert, receptive altered state, but we emphasize investigation, inquiry, and looking deeply at what is arising (with the intention to understand, rather than to judge, and the accepting, non-judgmental approach, is similar in hypnosis).

One difference is that with mindfulness meditation we are learning how to be both receptive – open, relaxed, alert; and active – forming the intention to stay with experience as it arises and passes away. One goal of MBSR training is to establish and cultivate mindfulness — your ability to direct your awareness intentionally towards what is actually happening, in real time, moment by moment, so you can receive more information, understanding, and compassionate insight as your life unfolds.

There’s no conflict between what your hypnotherapist tells you and what we’re doing because we are actually engaging many capacities of consciousness simultaneously when we focus on one thing at a time – many cognitive and emotional qualities come into play, like the intention to aim or direct awareness, to sustain a close connection with the subject of awareness, AND with awareness of the ebb and flow of mindfulness itself – a kind of meta-awareness – with clear comprehension combined with the suffusion of warmth, acceptance, kindness, even affection, into our mindful awareness of ourselves, others and our world.

So yes, your mind can and does operate on more than one level at a time. What we are doing is bringing more and more of this activity into conscious awareness, in service of developing more and more mindfulness and metta – so that we can make more conscious choices about the way we relate to experience. Hopefully choices that result in our living wiser and more compassionate lives, and enjoying more peaceful, harmonious, loving relationships along the way!

Steve: While I am no expert in hypnotherapy, I do have a strong sense that both mindfulness and hypnosis share an interest in helping people “get out of their own way” in regard to longstanding but dysfunctional, limiting or unskillful habits, attitudes and behaviors. The single-pointed, quiet and patient focus of both practices allows us (both client and therapist) to see these habitual patterns against a plain backdrop of awareness, rather than the cluttered one of everyday busy-ness.

I liken our attempts to make sense of our problems with our typically distracted, multi-tasking minds to trying to watch a movie when someone is trying to carry on a conversation with you at the same time. Both the movie and the conversation might make sense in their own rights, but together they become a mass of conflicting and confusing features that seems completely overwhelming and sometimes discouraging. Mindfulness practice (and therapy) allow the client to develop the attitudinal skills to observe this chaos and respond patiently and kindly, and the attentional skills to direct attention (and psychological resources) toward the “real” issues and perhaps away from imagined or feared ones. This shift can allow a person to see things for what they are, and to recognize where the constructions and stories that we all create are just that: creations, and not facts to be dealt with or resolved.

I am told that hypnosis cannot bring about behavior that is not first desired by the patient or client. If someone does not truly want to change a particular behavior, hypnosis has not magical ability to transcend that desire. Similarly, intention is at the heart of mindfulness in psychotherapy. We seek to tap into the natural intention that each of has to move toward ease, kindness, compassion and fulfillment, by reducing the “obscurations” of habit and conditioning, and thereby reduce suffering. Not much difference between hypnosis and mindfulness in that, is there?

Elisha: I want to make sure we’re differentiating here between mindfulness as a way of life and formal meditation practice. We can practice mindfulness in formal and informal ways and I think the guided formal meditation practice is the one that can be confused with hypnosis. Having been the recipient of both, I would say the big difference for me is that mindfulness is couched within a much larger context and can be seen as a way of life. Not in any dogmatic religious way, but as a philosophy and practice that we can bring into all the things we do.

Mindfulness at its core trains the mind to more actively drop into a kind attention, cultivating a natural warm presence to bring with us throughout our days. In my opinion, this is at the core of self-healing.

Mindfulness also brings people together in community who are interested in living a more present and compassionate life. This may be one of the most important pieces. Ultimately it’s my belief that the most helpful way for people to make change is through a community of peers who support them with this.

I see people who engage with mindfulness in psychotherapy and beyond having an inclination toward wanting to be a part of a community that supports a more mindful life.

As always, please share your thoughts, stories and questions below. Your interaction creates a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

We invite you to join in this conversation.  Please share your thoughts, questions and stories below. Your interaction creates a living wisdom from which all of us can benefit. As these conversations accumulate, we are collecting them on a separate page of our blog (see the tab above labeled “Mindfulness and Psychotherapy” for the archive) for review and comment. Visit the UCSD Center for Mindfulness Professional Training site for information on Mindfulness in Psychotherapy retreat training.

RSM Cautions about Choice of Hypnotherapist

Submitted by Ria Patel on Mon, 06/06/2011 - 08:16

Hypnotic treatment may prove out to be an effective tool in the hands of cash trapped NHS, as per a clan of medical experts. Following a deep review underlying the theory of running mainstream treatment and hypnotic treatment simultaneously, team from the Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) had claimed that administrating hypnosis on patients, suffering from depression, pain and irritable bowel syndrome, can effectively cure the patients in addition to saving millions of NHS pounds, provided the hypnotist is trained and well qualified.

Even though a huge consensus is being seen favoring the recommendation made by the RSM, team had cautioned people to be selective about the medical hypnotic. In spite of having tangible benefits of hypnosis, treatment from any amateur or medically untrained might instill "false memories" in the minds of the patients, compounding the primary health problem of host patients.

Referring to a case in 2010, where a middle-aged man charged his neighbor of sexually abusing him at the age of 14, though later investigations proved that the hypnotherapist, who had treated him, had insufficient knowledge about the therapy and to the shock, had evoked this memory in the mind of the man, Jacky Owens, President of the RSM's hypnosis section, had made an appeal to the Government to conduct an independent review into the issue.

National College Response to RSM Statement on Hypnosis

Reply to Royal Society of Medicine Statement on Hypnosis from the National College of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy

6 June 2011

The National College broadly welcomes the statement made on behalf of the Royal Society of Medicine regarding the benefits of making hypnosis a far more common treatment within the National Health Service. Hypno-Psychotherapy as practised by graduates of the National College since 1977 has been used in a number of adjunctive treatments as well as being a standalone modality within psychotherapy. We agree that there needs to be further improvements to training and development within the field, however we do not agree that this is solely in the domain of the medical profession. Indeed, the anecdotal case mentioned in the Independent Newspaper, is not solely a problem brought about by non medical practitioners. Indeed, some of the most high profile instances of False Memory Syndrome (FMS) have been facilitated by the medical fraternity and not the so called “lay therapist”.

We feel that as UKCP registered Hypno-Psychotherapists are eligible for membership of the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis it would have been prudent to mention the contribution to hypnosis that psychotherapist have made and continue to make. Indeed the training of over 1800 hours of Masters Degree level study, the necessity of clinical supervision and personal therapy currently dwarfs the requirements for accreditation for BSCAH and we assume for the proposed RSM training. We of course recognise that physicians, psychologists, dentists and other health professionals have a skills set that they bring to the practice of hypnosis, but it is essential that it is recognised that psychotherapists do as well.

Graduates of the National College and other registrants of the UKCP College of Hypno-Psychotherapists continue to use hypnosis for the ethical treatment of a variety of psychological, emotional and in some cases even physiological conditions, and we are saddened that the RSM has reverted to the “we know better than you” approach to the practise of hypnosis. This argument which has very little validity and as there is only a handful of medical and dental practitioners who use hypnosis they could not service the needs of the NHS adequately to save the sort of monies discussed in their statement and therefore there is a need to act in co-operation with organisations providing ethically trained practitioners to help meet this need.

The National College calls on the RSM to engage with the wider profession in order to meet the needs of the people of the UK who would benefit from hypnosis in the treatment of psychological, emotional and physiological issues.

Shaun Brookhouse, MA(Education), PGCert(Clinical Supervision) Principal, National College of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy

Fiona Biddle, MSc(Medical and Health Studies) Managing Director, National College of Hypnosis and Psychotherapy

• Contact: Shaun Brookhouse Principal National College
• Email: shaun.brookhouse@nchp.org.uk
• Telephone: 0161 881 1677
• Contact Address:Richmael House 25 Edge Lane Chorlton Manchester M21 9JH

'Cowboys' hamper use of hypnotherapy to treat NHS patients

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor

Monday, 6 June 2011

The use of hypnosis as a medical therapy is being undermined by cowboy practitioners with little training who have caused serious harm to patients, specialists say today.

Hypnotherapy is a proven treatment for irritable bowel syndrome, approved by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), and research has shown that it provides effective pain relief to women in labour.

But the extension of the technique to other areas of medicine is being hampered by its misuse by inadequately qualified practitioners.

Specialists from the Royal Society of Medicine's Section of Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine meeting in London tonight are to discuss ways of combating the threat and increasing the medical use of hypnosis which they say could save the NHS millions of pounds. Peter Naish, senior lecturer in psychology at the Open University and president-elect of the hypnosis section of the RSM, said many lay hypnotherapists were using techniques which induced damaging "false memories" in the belief that current traumas stemmed from episodes of abuse in the past which were so terrible the memory of them had been suppressed.

"Thousands of people offer hypnotherapy – you see the advertisements everywhere – even though they may have had scant training in dealing with psychological problems. A high proportion of lay therapists have this belief [that problems are caused by abuse in the past the memory of which has been long suppressed]. They use techniques [to elicit them] that can cause serious harm."

Dr Naish described the case of "Anna", a patient whose hypnotherapist had steered her over a series of sessions to name a relative who had sexually abused her.

He said: "The hypnotherapist said, 'You must tell me the one most terrible thing you've been involved in and are too embarrassed to talk about.' Her reply was, 'Well, I haven't murdered anyone!' His response: 'Oh no, much worse than that'. These so-called therapists induce a completely false memory in a vulnerable patient which is of no therapeutic use whatsoever and can cause very serious harm. I've treated patients whose lives – and those of their families – have been devastated by the induction of a false memory of sexual abuse. They've paid a lot of money and all they get is additional emotional trauma, while still suffering from the condition for which they first sought help."

Jacky Owens, president of the RSM's hypnosis section, said: "If doctors were able to refer patients to properly trained hypnotherapists, it would save a cash-strapped NHS a great deal of money.

"Making hypnosis a standard part of the NHS toolbox would also lead to the public becoming better informed about the procedure and mean that vulnerable patients would be less likely to turn to hypno-cowboys. The Government needs to look at this again."

Sex abuse 'memories' were false

In a court case in Northern Ireland last year, a middle-aged man accused the neighbour who had lived next door to him when he was growing up of sexually abusing him up to the age of 14.

He persisted with the allegations even though he and his family had moved away from the area before he was 14. He claimed he had slipped and cut himself while climbing over a fence to get away from his abuser but declined to let a GP examine him for signs of scarring.

During the case it emerged that the hypnotherapist who had elicited the "memory" of the abuse had done a distance learning course lasting less than a month to obtain his qualification. He had previously been working as a plasterer and had no other qualifications. The judge threw out the case for lack of evidence.

The Royal Society of Medicine's hypnosis section is setting up a training programme for medical students with an interest in hypnotherapy. Peter Naish, president-elect, said someone seeking treatment should choose a hypnotist qualified in medicine or psychology and trained under the auspices of the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis.

Hypnosis 'could save NHS millions'

Hypnosis treatments could be used on a range of medical conditions to save the NHS millions of pounds, according to a group of medical experts.The Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) believe the therapies help relieve pain and stress. But it warned that patients need to be protected from rogue practitioners who cause harm and end up costing the NHS more.

Jacky Owens, the president of the RSM's Hypnosis Section, said: "Conditions such as depression, pain and irritable bowel syndrome affect millions of people in the UK and at great cost to the NHS. But hypnosis can often work where other treatments have been unsuccessful."

Ms Owens, a qualified nurse who uses hypnosis in her work with cancer patients, added: "If doctors were able to refer patients to properly trained hypnotherapists, it would save a cash-strapped NHS a great deal of money."

She said making hypnosis a standard part of the "NHS toolbox" would lead to the public becoming better informed about the procedure and mean that vulnerable patients would be less likely to turn to "hypno-cowboys".

Ms Owens added: "We're confident that with more research, hypnosis will be recognised as an extremely useful tool to be used alongside mainstream medicine. What we need are doctors, dentists, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists, radiotherapists - the whole gamut of people who treat patients - trained in using hypnosis as another tool in their treatment programme."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "We believe in patients being able to make informed choices about their treatment and in clinicians having the freedom to prescribe the treatment they feel most appropriate for that patient after discussing the risks and benefits.

"They should always consider the availability of a suitably qualified practitioner as part of this process.

"Our plans to modernise the NHS will give clinicians more freedom to commission the services that best meet their patients' needs."

Dr. Oz Demonstrates Hypnosis for Weight Loss on the Doctor Oz Show Today

Today’s Dr Oz show is a re-run from February with guest Paul McKenna, who is a world authority on hypnosis for weight loss. Right off the bat he demonstrated several people that he had hypnotized back stage, who were now in the audience. He put them back into a trance and had them feeling good and laughing before he woke them back up. So now that we believe he can hypnotize people, we got to his main area of expertise: using hypnosis for weight loss.

Paul says that there are two main patterns of eating that lead to people be overweight. The first is emotional eating. Paul says that food is the world’s drug of choice now. Paul recommends that if you want to overcome eating due to frustration, use a tapping technique. First you tap on the back of your hand for a while, then under your eye, then your collarbone, then under your eye again. It makes the brain re-process the information and can dramatically lower your frustration or stress level.

The other pattern Paul identifies is obsessive dieting. Paul says that people think about food all day long, except for when they’re eating and then they shovel it in as fast as possible. Paul did an experiment on his volunteer, he blindfolded her while she ate a pizza and she ate about half as much as when she wasn’t blindfolded.

Then Paul showed us how to reprogram ourselves to eat slower and less. You take a knife and fork and imagine a plate of good food in front of you. Cut a bite and put it in your mouth. Put your knife and fork down and chew your food for a while. Imagine eating it slowly and savoring every bite. This will re-program your brain to eat slowly.

Next after the commercial break, Paul took the audience through a guided imagery exercise.

Step 1 is to close your eyes and relax your body

Step 2 is to imagine yourself eating slowly. Paul said to watch a movie of yourself doing this. Then you float into your more in-control self and allow your unconscious mind to find ways to accomplish this.

Step 3 is to imagine yourself thinner. Then float into that thinner self and really feel how good it feels to be thinner.

Step 4 is to imagine someone who loves you and approves of you, and float into them, and view yourself the way that person views you.

Then you can wake up. Dr. Oz sent home Paul’s book “I Can Make You Thin” and his hypnosis CD with the audience members.

5 Things to Lower Cholesterol

1. Trim your belly fat.
2. Exercise every day.
3. Eat 5 – 7 fruits and vegetables a day
4. Eat 1 cup of oatmeal a day
5. Take 3 teaspoons of psyllium fiber every day, such as what is found in Metamucil. Start out slow with it so you don’t have problems.

Tart Cherry Juice, the Ultimate Antioxidant

Tart Cherry Juice has been getting a lot of hype lately for a lot of reasons. Dr. Oz investigated and here are the benefits he espouses:

1. Pain Relief. Tart cherry juice really does help relieve painful joints. Dr. Oz says tart cherry juice turns off the enzyme that causes inflammation.
2. Fight Heart Disease: Tart cherry juice helps regulate cholesterol levels of both the good and bad.
3. Sleep Aid: tart cherry juice contains melatonin, which helps your brain get sleepy. Drink a glass with dinner

Healthiest Mall Food

• A sandwich on wholegrain bread without a lot of dressing on it would be your healthier choice
• For Chinese food options, Broccoli Beef is a good choice because nothing it in it is fried

New book aims to arm readers against unwanted hypnotic influence

"Hypnotic States of Americans: A Spiritual Survival Manual for Every American Family in a Perilous World" by Roy Masters describes the problem and offers techniques for spiritual protectionGRANTS PASS, Ore. (MMD Newswire) June 20, 2011 -- The oft-repeated myth about hypnosis is that one cannot be hypnotized to think what is untrue or to act against one's own free will. But according to Roy Masters, author of "Hypnotic States of Americans" (ISBN 1460939026), that is simply false, and skilled manipulators have known it forever. Masters also believes that the manipulators have guarded this secret carefully, partly by repeating that such influence is impossible.

Based on the author's discoveries about hypnotic influence gathered over more than 60 years, this book seeks to show readers how to become less susceptible to past and present hypnotic influences and thus more able to live in true freedom, drawing energy from what is real and right to be fully alive in a healthy sense.

According to Masters, freedom from hypnotic influence, even from influences seeking to get you to do what is right or think what is true, is essential if one is ever to escape an unhealthy dependence on manipulators, caregivers, experts and leaders - even the well-meaning among them.

The author hopes that reading this book, watching the hypnosis demonstration video and practicing the recommended exercise will awaken a spiritual center from which the reader will be impervious to improper influence and able to influence the world for the better - as effortlessly as the most skilled martial artist can deal with an opponent.

The title initially chosen for the book was "The Hypnotic States of America." Masters chose to rename the book "Hypnotic States of Americans" in an effort to emphasize that vulnerability to improper influence lies within individuals, not a collective or group.

"Hypnotic States of Americans: A Spiritual Survival Manual for Every American Family in a Perilous World" is available for online at Amazon.com, as a Kindle eBook and other sales channels.

About the Author

Host for over 52 years of "Advice Line," the longest running advice program in talk-radio history, Roy Masters is also an author and hypnotherapist turned DEhypnotherapist. As a child in pre-WWII England, Masters saw a hypnotism performance and was inspired to perfect his own hypnosis techniques. He eventually established a hypnotherapy practice and discovered an original meditation method that he has taught ever since. Masters created the Foundation for Human Understanding in 1961 to serve as the institutional home for his counseling work, establishing a successful prison outreach and a private school. Masters and his wife, Ann, have been married since 1952. They have five grown children and 18 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Steve Grow

E-mail: books@fhu.com

Phone: (541) 956-6700

Web: www.fhu.com

REVIEW COPIES AND INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE

###

The views and opinions expressed in this press release do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Create Space or its affiliates.

Anxiety? How to Beat It with Self-Hypnosis

Are you one of those white-knuckled passengers who is not actually afraid of flying, just the take-offs and landings? Perhaps you are an effective employee or a truly diligent manager but then you get "the memo." You have to introduce the next kick-off campaign at the annual company conference and you suddenly feel as if you are under a giant microscope. Maybe your particular trigger for anxiety is the dread of death. Your concern might be centered on your own demise or your loved ones. In nearly 20 years of private practice, I have never been surprised by what terrifies an otherwise rational adult. You are not alone. Anxiety is one of those phenomenons that everyone has to face at some time in life, with sweaty palms, pounding pulse, queasy stomach, ringing or buzzing in the ears, dizziness and even shortness of breath. For many people it has nothing to do with whether they are alone or in a crowd, when the anxiety reaches its zenith. It seems as if the whole world shrinks as you and your greatest fears loom larger than life. It does not seem to matter if the anxiety-producing fear is real or imaginary. The symptoms can be equally debilitating. Loss of sleep, compulsive overeating or loss of appetite are common results of anxious thoughts and can lead to more serious health risks.

Now you can take back control of your life, using the power of your own mind with self-hypnosis. You can rest assured that you have the ability to use self-hypnosis to defeat anxiety. We all tap into a kind of mind-over-matter when we feel a head cold starting up the day before a big deadline or exam. We manage to put those annoying symptoms on hold until we meet the demand, and then we really get sick, taking to our bed.

Here are five steps to use self-hypnosis for anxiety relief:

1. Silence all telephones (land/cell), as well as all media (i.e., music, computers, pagers, etc.)
2. Get your body comfortable in a chair or recliner, using pillows, as needed. You may want to use a small cover, as many people experience a slight cooling in body temperature as they relax deeply.
3. With your eyes closed, use your imagination to pretend you can feel soothing, golden massage oil that flows, with gravity, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Moreover, everywhere this oil flows, it leaves behind either a warm or a cooling sensation (your choice, depending on weather, season or bodily needs for comfort that moment).
4. Next, behind your closed eyes, imagine that you can see a blackboard. Now see yourself picking up a brand new piece of chalk (any color you would like) and a brand new eraser. Begin writing down your numbers on the blackboard, starting with the number 100. Write them very large, and as soon as you have finished each number, erase it completely, relax your mind a little more and go down one more number. Sometimes, depending on your stress level that day, you may need to make the countdown even more distracting to your conscious/waking mind by going down the scale on the even or odd numbers.
5. As you drift into a state of comfortable relaxation, you will see an elegant white door appear in your mind's eye. Go ahead and open the door. On the other side of that threshold is the most beautiful, inviting space you can imagine. It might be an oceanside beach, complete with warm, soft, white sand and a gentle sea breeze. Or perhaps you will see your own secret garden with a shade tree and a hammock or chaise lounge. Just allow yourself to go through that doorway and find your rest in a heightened state of peacefulness. As you let yourself sink into the experience, you are free to make this place precisely the way you want it to be. Are there trees? Can you see boats on the horizon? Would you like to hear songbirds or a bubbling fountain? Be sure to use your own subconscious mind to guide your additions, such as sensory clues or visual stimuli. Do you feel the warmth of the sun or smell the blooming flowers? Can you distinguish the various shades of green in the leaves or the subtle variations between the color of the sea and the sky?

This is your power. You have the capacity to create the most pleasing escape that appeals to your inner self. Now you have subdued that rising sense of panic that surrounds the anxious dread of that certain event. You have also taken back control over the one area where you really are in charge. Your own mind.

Valorie J. Wells, Ph.D. has been in practice as a clinical hypnotherapist for nearly 20 years. Her educational background in industrial psychology, coupled with advanced hypnosis studies, creates an alternative healing environment that appeals to today's informed consumers as clients. Her determination to limit her practice to hypnotherapy has forged a secure bond between area health care providers, hospitals and their referrals. This innovative, cross-discipline approach to patient care serves as a vital link for the integrative chain of careful attention to the individual's needs. Moreover, the rapport between providers and patients encourages participation, dialogue and continuity of care.

Why Hypnotherapy ?

Not many of us would agree immediately if we’re asked to allow ourselves to be hypnotized. We fear giving that much control to someone else, often a total stranger. But if we are beset by problems that are beyond our control, hypnosis is often the best way to solve them. In general, hypnotherapy is beneficial because: It helps modify unacceptable behavior: If you’ve been trying to lose weight, trying to diet, trying to quit smoking, without much success, then perhaps you could give hypnotherapy a go. When your therapist puts you under a trance and talks you into doing what you want to do, you find that you have the will to do as you must. Hypnotherapy also helps remove certain forms of obsessive compulsive disorder and change other forms of behavior that you don’t like in yourself. You will need several sessions before you’re able to completely overcome your problem and modify your unacceptable behavior.

It brings out hidden problems: A good therapist could help you learn through hypnosis the underlying cause for your behavior, often a suppressed memory that is making you act abnormally. Your unconscious state makes you more relaxed and you tend to share aspects of your life that your brain has pushed to the subconscious and is too ashamed to even think of when you’re fully awake and in possession of your senses. When you realize that it is these suppressed emotions that are the cause for your problems, it becomes easier to deal with those issues that are troubling you.

It helps you recover from a trauma: Most traumas stun you into a depression because you don’t face the loss and instead push it to a corner of your mind because it is too painful. Hypnosis helps you recover from the trauma in a healthy way by facing your fears and loss and moving past them to a life of more quality.

It helps boost confidence: Some people turn to hypnosis to inject a dose of self-confidence into their lives. They feel better after their sessions and feel more empowered to take decisions and face the world without feeling unsure about themselves.

It helps manage psychosis: In extreme cases, patients with psychosis and delusions are taken to see a therapist in the hope that they will be cured of their condition. Treatment in such cases involves delving into the patients’ past and trying to find out why they behave the way they do when they’re in a trance.

It helps in childbirth: Some people find that hypnotherapy helps when they’re ready to give birth by preparing them to cope with the fear, pain and the trauma of labor. They’re also less likely to suffer from post-partum depression once their babies are born.

If you agree to hypnosis with a reputable therapist who has proven their expertise, you stand to gain personally and emotionally.

By-line:

This article is contributed by Susan White, She invites your questions, comments at her email address: susan.white33@gmail.com.

Tiger at the Masters: An Ultimate Test of Toughness

From his days as a child golf prodigy, Tiger Woods has thrived in the spotlight. But can any athlete be mentally prepared for the circus that will unfold at this year's Masters? After taking a four-month leave of absence from golf to deal with the fallout from his shocking infidelity scandal, Woods will make his highly anticipated return to the sport this week, at the Masters tournament in Augusta, Ga. In an interview with 

SI.com

last month, Sean McManus, president of both CBS Sports and CBS News, called Woods' return to golf "the biggest media event other than the Obama Inauguration in the past 10 or 15 years." A hyperbolic reach from the leader of the network set to broadcast the final two rounds of the Masters this weekend? Sure. Still, the cameras will be glaring, the tabloids screaming, and one of Woods' alleged mistresses has indicated she plans to dance at a strip club in nearby Atlanta. This will be a Masters unlike any other.

In the midst of such madness, what can Woods do to stay focused on his golf game? Before we give out psychological advice to the embattled golf superstar, let us be the first to admit that he probably doesn't need it. Until he proves otherwise, Woods is still the mentally toughest athlete on the planet. "He wrote the book that we're all using," says Gio Valiante, author of Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game, who is currently acting as golf shrink for Camilo Villegas, one of the best young players on the PGA Tour. "He's got this belief system that is perfectly constructed for adversity."

Valiante has played golf with Woods on about a half-dozen occasions. "More so than any other person I've ever studied, he's the best straight learner I've ever seen," Valiante gushes. "He makes mistakes, but then you watch him go about his business and he doesn't make that mistake twice." (Of course, you could argue that the sheer number of Woods' alleged mistresses, over 15 by some counts, proves that he's quite capable of repeat offending.)

The key, says Valiante, is Woods' constant quest to be better. As TIME wrote in a 2000 cover story about Woods: "What is most remarkable about Woods is his restless drive for what the Japanese call kaizen, or continuous improvement. Toyota engineers will push a perfectly good assembly line until it breaks down. Then they'll find and fix the flaw and push the system again. That's kaizen. That's Tiger." These words were written after Woods' first reconstruction of his golf swing, a revamping he undertook after winning the 1997 Masters by a record 12 strokes. Despite his continued dominance, he has made major changes to his swing at least two more times in the past decade. "He has taken the greatest game in history, broken it and put together something better," says Valiante.

Valiante believes Woods, who has undergone therapy, will reconstruct his life along similar lines. His game will surely follow suit. Valiante points to a relatively overlooked quote from Woods' March 21 interview with ESPN. "The strength that I feel now, I've never felt this type of strength," Woods told the network. To a psychologist like Valiante, those words are particularly telling. "Think about that," he says. "Woods is finding strength through redemption and humility. It's like when A-Rod admitted he used steroids. A massive burden was lifted off his shoulders, and he could go out and play.

Despite Woods' obvious resolve, a little advice from the golf shrinks couldn't hurt, especially since he's entering a pressure cooker with the potential to break even the best athletes. For example, if Woods were on his couch, Bob Rotella, a noted golf psychologist and author of Your 15th Club: The Inner Secret to Great Golf, would encourage the golfer to truly relish this uncomfortable comeback. "Love the challenge," Rotella says. "This is a totally different challenge than you're used to. Go out and test yourself. Go love it." Rotella also recommends that Woods pal around with his fellow players in the clubhouse. "After you've had a problem, you want to see if your buddies still like you," Rotella says.

Patrick Cohn, a sports psychologist based in Orlando, Fla., and author of Peak Performance Golf: How Good Golfers Become Great Ones, says that Woods can block out distractions by not trying to block out distractions. Instead of telling himself to tune out the occasional heckler, he should just visualize placing the ball in the fairway. "Once you focus on the right stuff," Cohn says, "distractions fall by the wayside."

When Woods was a teenager, he worked with a hypnotist to help place his mind in the proverbial zone. And given his recent revelations that he's reconnected with Buddhism, it's fair to assume that Woods is doing a fair amount of quiet introspection. Do more of it, say the psychologists. With practice, you can enter an altered, hypnotic state on the golf course, though not to the point where you're barking like a dog on command. "You are aware of what's going on," says Ken Grossman, a Sacramento, Calif.–based hypnotherapist who has worked with many athletes. "You're not out in left field."

For example, Jennifer Scott, a golf hypnotherapist from Phoenix, suggests staring at some object on the course — perhaps a leaf on a fairway tree — and taking a deep breath while waiting to take a shot. "Your eyes are very powerful," she says. "If you're darting your eyes back and forth, you lose focus." Summon the subconscious and give yourself a mantra. "Think peace, harmony, relax, relax," Scott says. "The golfers I teach love those words." Denise Silbert, a hypnosis expert from La Jolla, Calif., recommends selecting a physical trigger, like holding a golf ball while walking down the fairway, which will signal your brain to slow down. "As I hold the golf ball, I feel a calm energy," Silbert says. "I let go of the conscious riffraff, I'm reprogramming the unconscious mind. The verbiage in my mind is affirming: 'Fairways of power, greens of solace.'" Are you in a trance yet? For Woods, Scott suggests a less hippie-sounding mental chant, perhaps, "I'm the greatest player in the world, see each shot as it lands."

While affirming his greatness, Woods should also visualize his most triumphant moments. "I'd have him channel a mental movie," says Grossman. "While he's in that relaxed state, he should recall his 2008 U.S. Open championship win against Rocco Mediate. He would want to remind himself he won that with a broken leg, and here at the Masters, he's not even feeling any pain."

And despite the pain he may be enduring in his personal life, the shrinks don't recommend betting against him. "His head will be in a good place on the golf course," says Rotella, the golf psychologist. "He's going to put all his energy into playing great, and that crazy mother probably will."

Past Life Regression Therapy and the debate over its authenticity

Past Life Regression Therapy can help people resolve a few things that primarily are rooted much deeper than the body.

(I-Newswire) February 11, 2010 - One can appreciate that the logical and scientific mind wants proof but there are a few things that I feel are lacking in all the arguments happening over television and newspapers about Past Life Regression. This article is an attempt to genuinely establish a base for the logical mind to understand that Past Life Regression Therapy can help people resolve a few things that primarily are rooted much deeper than the body. The first time when I read “Many Lives, Many Masters”, it sort of shook me. I was born in a religion where re-incarnation is accepted and believed in and yet I never took it so seriously until then. I had so many questions about it but the best thing I did at that moment is I gave myself permission to start with a belief and then explore it further. Dr. Brian Weiss accidentally discovered this therapy or atleast voiced in first about 30 years ago when he was treating one of his clients for over 18 months and she didn’t see any signs of improvement. Dr. Brian Weiss is the Chairman Emeritus of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami. During hypnotic treatment, he accidentally told her to go to the “source” of her problems and she went into a past life. Once that happened, in a series of sessions Catherine recalled 16 complete lifetimes of hers and with every lifetime she unveiled, her symptoms of depression, anxiety, fear, relationship issues, insomnia etc started going away. Dr. Brian Weiss was heading the Psychiatry dept then and it was very risky for his career to unveil this information and he took 5 years to decide before writing this book. Ever since he has regressed over 7000 people and is a widely published author. Some other amazing research is by Dr. Michael Newton, where he does something called “spiritual regression” where one can be regressed to when they are “between lives” and they are in soul form. If one reads through his book “Journey of Souls”, it’s another eye opener. As far as proofs are concerned, there are a few things I would like to bring to the notice of all my readers and leave it to them to validate if they find any conviction. A Past Life Regression session is commonly done by taking the subject into a hypnotic trance and guiding them to unveil a past life. I have recently read claims of some stage hypnotists that people can fantasize and imagine things while in a trance but I have something to say here. Stage hypnosis and clinical hypnosis is different. It is true that while in a trance people have the ability to imagine things and that ability is what a stage hypnotist will exploit to make a good stage show. Clinical hypnosis is different. Firstly, in clinical hypnosis, the trance level used for past life regression is as light as the trance one is in while they are watching an interesting movie. It light and the subject is always in control. Secondly, the objective of clinical hypnosis is not to misguide the subject or patient, but is to resolve their issues and hence a good therapist will never ask leading questions, never stress on people telling them their name, place, year etc., if not guided intuitively to do so. Ian Stevenson has written a book called “Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation questions?” where there are case studies of over 2600 children from across the world, who recalled their past lives with most of them under the age of 5, which he has personally verified for all proofs. That is a good one since adults can be claimed of having fantasies but how does a child who just lerant how to talk, tell about names and places, addresses, families, relationships and searches for his hidden toys at the right places. Brian Weiss mentions the case of a client of his where the woman flew from china for a PLR with him and she brought along a translator since she couldn’t understand or speak English. He hypnotized her using the translator and when she entered a past life, she started speaking fluent English. He remembers the translator turning back and translating it in Chinese to him when he said well, that is my language and I can understand it well. While I was on my first day of practical training on Past Life Regression with Andy Tomlinson, who is also a famous author on Past Life Regression, we had an amazing experience where all our doubts were put to rest for starters. A guy whom I will call Jack, went through a past life experience where he was killed by slitting his throat. Andy went ahead and transformed his memory by healing that wound and releasing his emotions from that experience. He was quite deep and was experiencing shivering, pain and a lot of other emotions in the story and I was not sure someone could feel that much through a past life. The next morning, when he came for the class, he has a big red scar on his neck, exactly where the knife had slit his throat and that for the first sign for me to say “there is no harm in starting with a belief”. In my experience, the emotions evoked by a past life memory are more powerful than those evoked by a movie or novel? Some clients even experience PLR emotions as more powerful than any evoked by present life experience. These powerful feelings can be an indication that a past life memory is accurate. One client weeps prolifically over a broken relationship and later he describes the emotions evoked as far more powerful than anything he has ever experienced in present life. While hardly scientific, this evidence can be used as a measure of the validity of the memory. Many times some creative ability emerges from a past life memory for which the client can find no other easy explanation. Musical or artistic abilities, for example, can be brought forward from past lives that might be otherwise hard to explain. For example, one client with no artistic gifts or experience emerges from trance and starts to paint beautifully. I have recently come across one such client. Many times in our lives, the first time we meet people, we carry a familiarity that we don’t understand. Sometimes, we dislike people for no conscious reason and sometimes we meet them for the first time and have a knowing that they will be with us for life. It’s not a coincidence that this happens. We often carry the knowing of the energies of people whom we have shared past lives with, in our energy bodies and the moment they step into our lives, the subconscious mind sends us signals of the knowing, based on our relationship with them from the past. From my little knowledge and experience as a Past Life Regression Therapist, it’s an amazing therapy to resolve a lot of issues that we don’t have a conscious knowing of why they are there or we feel very strongly as if there is something more we don’t know about why a particular life situation occurs with us. If this article of mine, can help even one person’s life and they can look at past life regression therapy as a tool to help them, I would think it was worth the effort. For more information on Past Life Regression, please visit www.pastlifeconnection.com or write to me at minal@pastlifeconnection.com

Hypnosis could help children with emotional breathing problems

February 14, 9:13 AM Charlotte Health and Happiness Examiner Kathleen Blanchard RN

Hypnosis could help children with emotional respiratory symptoms.

www.riversidehealing.com

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In a paper published in Pediatric Asthma, Allergy & Immunology, Ran D. Anbar, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at SUNY Upstate Medical University, in Syracuse, NY suggests that hypnosis should be considered for children whose respiratory symptoms are brought about as the result of a mind-body component. Children with asthma who hyperventilate, breathe noisily, cough disruptively, or otherwise have emotionally triggered respiratory symptoms could be calmed with hypnosis.

Coughing out of habit or vocal cord dysfunction that produces a high pitched noise with breathing but can have psychological roots, found to be absent during sleep might be indicative that hypnosis can relieve symptoms of asthma of breathing difficulty triggered by emotions.

"Dr. Anbar has added hypnosis to our therapeutic toolbox. When breathing problems have a large mind-body component, resolution with hypnosis can dramatically reduce the need for expensive testing and medications," says Harold Farber, MD, MSPH, Editor of Pediatric Asthma, Allergy Immunology, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Section of Pulmonology, at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

Hypnosis for children with asthma or other breathing disorders should always be performed by a medical professional warns Anbar. Only individuals with special training in hypnosis therapy should be considered to help alleviate respiratory symptoms of asthma in children triggered by emotions.

Pediatric Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology DOI: 10.1089/pai.2009.0025

Hypnosis is an Affective Approach For Healing Children

February 17, 6:14 PM Glendale Alternative Medicine Examiner Doreen Cohanim Children tend to be better candidates for hypnosis than adults. The reasons are children tend to respond to suggestions better then adults because children are in touch with their imaginations. Think back to a time when you were a child and how easy it was to imagine or daydream. For a child everything is possible, all he has to do is to pretend that he is a millionaire, a truck driver, a police officer or a doctor. He can even imagine himself flying like Peter Pan.

* Children tend to be better candidates for hypnosis than adults. The reasons are children tend to respond to suggestions better then adults because children are in touch with their imaginations. Think back to a time when you were a child and how easy it was to imagine or daydream. For a child everything is possible, all he has to do is to pretend that he is a millionaire, a truck driver, a police officer or a doctor. He can even imagine himself flying like Peter Pan.

Children can be hypnotized as early age of three, In my practice I have learned that children have no worries like adults do. For example: An adult may feel or think that a hypnotherapist will control them or make them tell their deepest secrets while in hypnosis.

Children do like the idea that they can "Stop the Bad Things Happening to them" such as seeing monsters, wetting their bed, hearing voices, sounds, or being controlled by bullies and the list goes on.

A hypnotherapist can help the child with the process of resolving problems such as pain, anxiety, bed wetting, asthma, cancer, fear, phobia, rape, anger, and much more.

This is how a child can be hypnotized! By having the child focus on one point or a spot until their eyes start blinking and begin to feel heavy to a point when the child eyes become sleepy! This is when the child enters into a trance state, this is when the hypnotherapist begins to tell the child some beautiful story relating to the issues a child is facing.

Hypnotherapy is different from one child to another, and it must be followed with a doctor referral in most cases, with doctor referral at least six sessions will be recommended unless the child is not facing the same issues any longer.

A Child can attend four to eight sessions with a qualified hypnotherapist, and during the session he could learn all about seif hypnosis and how to apply the tools to hypnotize himself. In some cases only one or two sessions are needed to solve the issue the child is facing, but no hypnotherapist can predict or tell the parents how many sessions their child will need.

Part of the therapy is to have the parent work with the hypnotherapist as a team. I also ask the child's parent to be in the same room during the sessions depending on the situation and the child's age. Before any therapy begins, written consent is needed, especially if the parent is facing custody issues or the child is under the age of 18.

This is how hypnosis can help a child with issues such as: Enuresis - Bed-wetting, Attention deficit disorder (ADD), and Nightmares.

Many doctors prescribe medicine for children who have a bed-wetting problem or ADD. But now more physicians are turning to hypnosis, because it has some very effective results without the negative side effects. The reason hypnosis work with children is because they are playful and active during the role playing of feeling better.

Asthma & Allergies: When children feel their throats constricting, they begin feeling anxious by starting to breathe heavily with their biggest fear of "I Cannot Breath" when fighting for Oxygen as a fresh air, In this case with hypnosis I teach the child to relax when the attacks occur and I calm him/her down by taking him/her to a safe place using the children's imagination.

* Each child is different, so it is very important to build a report before the therapist takes the child to a safe place, since what can be a safe place for one child cannot be safe place for another child.

Pain: Hypnosis is bypassing the critical Mind of the conscious mind in order to achieve a selective thinking within the subconscious mind, which it is effective by alleviating the pain for children. Children who are undergoing cancer treatments can use hypnosis to take their mind to a safer place, far a way from the pain and that can be done when the child can only access his subconscious mind. This is where the child creates an image that forces him to concentrate and focus on something else instead of his pain, such as using the children's favorite game to destroy the disease. When a child's is using his imagination for optimal recovery making their white blood cell stronger then the cancer cell, it's all about programming the subconscious mind so it can work together with the conscious mind in order to create the positive changes by planting more and more positive suggestions to achieve hopes, dreams, wishes, goals and desire.

The good news is that hypnosis is getting more and more recognized by doctors and many insurance's that will soon start covering it, because hypnosis is a drug free, risk free and no side effects.

Note: for some children it is harder to let go, so the therapy may take longer, parents aren't involved in the actual hypnotherapy session.

Hypnosis to Overcome Depression Before It Becomes Deadly!

February 26, 3:09 AM

Glendale Alternative Medicine Examiner

Doreen Cohanim

As announced here earlier, Andrew Koenig, the son of Star Trek TOS star Walter Koenig, was found dead Thursday of an apparent suicide.

Andrew Koenig's Body was found in Vancouver Park on Thursday February 25Th, 2010... Why? What happened? before I even talk about this painful subject, I want to share my condolence to the family's who their love ones are trapped in this sad feelings, Andrew Koeings was A Growing Pain Star, and he was fighting depression, and he took his life because coping with depression was a hard work.

Depression is not a joke and not everyone understands depression, not if you haven't been there. It is a very scary place to be at and it is very important not to ignore it, for some people it start with fighting anxiety and before you you know it the symptoms worsen and the person becomes clinically depressed.

Depression is a trigger from bad eventsthat occur to the person, they are usually very painful, it is an emotional pain and for some people even both, emotional and physical pain.

Depression Is an Illness and must be taken care of or it will be too late, and then the pain is even more to the families, especially if the depressed person commits suicide.

Please read this few times, and remember you are not alone and you don't have to think that it is the end of the world, it’s really not, help is around, and all you have to do is ask for help! If you or anyone you know is suffering from depression, there is help. Please call The National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-SUICIDE.

Trust me suicide is not the solution and not everyone who's depressed wants to die, they may say it, but they don't mean it, so when you think of taking your life as a solution, pinch yourself, scream, cry out laud and call someone, there are so many help lines to help you, just google it, or call your family, you don't get along with your family, that's fine, talk to strangers, take a walk and tell yourself, I am not depressed, I am having a hard time, don't own your depression, with your psychologist you do what they advice you to do, but until then tell yourself, their is a higher power and angels and good people who are here in this universe to rescue me, believe it, and still ask for help.

Don't take your depression inward, taking it silently is not going to brighten your life, talking about it will.

Take your issues in hand, "Depression is not a joke" please take it seriously and talk to someone, and the good news is, with hypnosis and your psychologist you can fight depression in a very short time, why hypnosis and Psychologist? Because psychologist helps you to understand the problem, and if needed, your doctor will prescribe you antidepressant until your brain chemicals are in balance. And Hypnosis does the other part of the subconscious work; a good trained hypnotherapist will give you the right suggestions to heal from pain, anger, guilt, resentment and much more.

I can say that my clients all were able to survive depression in a short time combining their healing with their psychologist or psychologist.

Please remember not every hypnotherapist is trained or understands depression, therefore you must make sure that your well being comes first, and when you work with a professional hypnotherapist, a doctor referral is a must for all medical and mental conditions.

I Care, since depression needs much more then just self Hypnosis, It needs close attention from a trained hypnotherapist and a psychologist.

Many Chinese under the spell of hypnotism

Many Chinese under the spell of hypnotism

Source: Global Times Feb 26 2010

• By Yin Hang

Soothing music creates a dreamy atmosphere in the room, while the hypnotist murmurs to his patient, "Calm down, relax and then wake up" in a slow but authoritative tone. The patient has been suffering insomnia. Now, he opens his eyes, seemly relieved of a heavy load in the wake of a hypnotic trance.

This use of hypnosis as a medical cure is being advertised by a growing number of clinics in China, claiming that a deep trance can help people get better sleep, ease stress, relieve pain, induce people to stop smoking or even lose weight.

On the online forum tieba. baidu.com, over 50 Web users posted their contacts saying they can provide hypnosis therapy.

The purported benefits of hypnotism have given birth to a large number of believers who want to become professional hypnotists or simply try their hand at putting people into a deep sleep.

Recently, experts have warned that possible psychological damage could be inflicted by unlicensed clinics, illegal training classes and amateur hypnotists in China's booming market for hypnotic therapy.

"As far as I know, there are only two qualified hypnotists in China," said Wu Rengang, a psychology professor at Peking University and a psychiatrist at the No. 2 Hospital of Beijing.

Wu told the Global Times that it is impossible to master the skills of hypnotism needed to treat patients simply by attending a weeklong training course.

"Maybe you can learn how to hypnotize someone within a week, but to become a professional hypnotist requires the skills needed to provide proper psychological guidance after hypnosis," Wu said.

She warned that those who want to try the effects of hypnosis at a training class should never attempt to hypnotize someone else because it might worsen their mental problems.

In Jilin Province, a 28-year-old cook, Wang Zhilong, saw hypnotic treatment for the first time on a TV talk show program. Since then, he has been deeply attracted to hypnotism, but also worries about professionalism in the market.

"I feel so absorbed by hypnosis. It's amazing," Wang told the Global Times. "I want to master it, but I'm afraid there are too many fraudulent training institutions right now."

A Shanghai-based hypnosis training center that boasts of being a pioneer in the field told a Global Times reporter that even a junior high-school graduate could master the skills of a professional hypnotist by attending the center's eight-day training program.

"The nation's famous hypnotists will lecture at the courses, using hands-on teaching methods. We guarantee that you will master all skills needed to conduct hypnosis, exactly like what our teacher mastered," said an anonymous female assistant at the training center.

She repeatedly suggested that a reporter watch teaching videos on the center's website. One video shows a man under hypnosis, fast asleep but performing acrobatic moves on verbal commands of the hypnotist, who is surrounded by a group of students.

The tuition fee for the weeklong program is 12,800 yuan ($1,875) according to the assistant, a fee equal to the average tuition cost of four semesters at an accredited university offering psychology courses.

Similar training centers and seminars can be found in cities like Beijing, Xi'an, Zhengzhou and Guangzhou, all claiming that their teachers are hypnotists with reputations.

Thus far, there are no existing laws or regulations to guide the establishment of hypnosis training programs.

Hypnosis Helps Children with asthma

SYRACUSE, N.Y., Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Hypnosis mayhelp children with asthma and other respiratory disorders, U.S. researchers said.

Dr. Ran Anbar of the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse suggests proper use of hypnosis as an adjunct to conventional treatment could bring about physiological changes that help ease symptoms

The study, published in Pediatric Asthma, Allergy & Immunology, found habit cough or unexplained sensations of difficulty breathing, as well as discomfort during medical procedures, was helped by hypnosis.

Hypnosis is also recommended, Anbar said, when a child has respiratory symptoms such as difficulty taking a breath, a disruptive cough, hyperventilation, noise on inspiration such as a gasp or squeak, and difficulty swallowing despite normal lung function.

Symptoms absent during sleep can be associated with a particular activity or location, or are linked to or triggered by an emotional response may be particularly responsive to hypnosis, Anbar said.