Expectations

In doing hypnotherapy it's always important to manage expectations. This was brought home to me this week when I had an ideal candidate for a stopping smoking. I had a great session with him, and then the very next week an e-mail to say that he had returned to smoking the day after the session. I was baffled. Normally people who go back to smoking after hypnotherapy didn't really want to stop smoking (often persuaded by someone else to try it), were in an unusual situation (like in a nightclub when they almost never go clubbing and the scenario wasn't covered in the session), or in the event of a major stress (like bereavement).

On questioning my patient he had expected to go to sleep in the session for an hour, and wake up to find he had no thoughts of cigarettes. I had given him the usual explanation that: 'hypnotherapy isn't sleep,' 'it isn't magic,' and 'you'll hear every word I say.' However, his prior beliefs were so strong he hadn't really heard all that.

After a further discussion of how hypnosis can be experienced and further discussion of what cigarettes mean in his life; we had another really good session where the patient really engaged with the subject of the role of cigarettes in his life. It's always really useful when things don't really go to plan. As a therapist you learn a lot.

Whilst managing expectations is always necessary; most patient know it's not some sort of magic sleep, it's good to be reminded from time to time that most people are not informed about the subject.

www.apexpractice.co.uk

Depression and Religion

Dorothy Rowe was an interesting speaker. A lecturer in psychology and psychotherapist she had some very interesting things to say about depression. For instance, depression is a noun, a thing; but actually depression is not something you have, it's something you do. Depression is a set of behaviour traits.
According to Rowe a contributor to depression is the teachings of the great world religions. They all teach, in their own different ways that good behaviour is rewarded and bad behaviour is punished by God. This of course is a belief that people have in the teeth of the evidence. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. She explained that Protestants and Catholics do depression differently. I found this fascinating. She didn't elucidate how, i shall have to read her book.

Last weekend I attended the First European Conference on Happiness and it's Causes. It was very interesting, a series of lectures and discussion panels from psychologists, psychotherapists and so on. These included Richard Layard: 'the happiness tsar', Dorothy Rowe: celebrated psychotherapist and a representative from The New Economic Foundation a left wing think tank who are involved with the Kingdom of Bhutan's project to measure 'gross national happiness'.

A fantastic weekend, stimulating and informative. One thing really struck me: it was a very intense weekend, the speakers and audience alike were passionately compassionate. so much so that it was almost exhausting. The buddhist monks in the saffron robes on the other had carried their world view so very lightly. Whilst being down to earth, charming and also passionate, they lacked the draining intensity of many of the speakers. I considered this an interesting paradox. The delegates desired to be heard; whereas the monks, even though they were the ones who did not need to be told 'what it happiness' they had a clear point of view, had no such need. I found this at odds with a life of rigorous asceticism. There is no reason for this other than my very own prejudice.

www.apexpractice.co.uk

QWERTY

Ever wondered why the QWERTY keyboard is like it is? If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm referring to your computer keyboard, which, instead of having the letters lined up alphabetically, ABCDE they are random, starting with QWERTY. The reason for this is that when typewriters were invented, it quickly became so fast to write, the arms of the typewriters got jammed. The QWERTY arrangement was developed to slow down the typists and prevent this. However, this is no longer necessary as one can type on a computer as fast as is humanly possible and the keys don't jam. We still have the QWERTY because we are used to it. Getting used to a more efficient keyboard isn't worth the effort.

Habits and behavioural quirks are a bit like this. Perhaps during angsty teenage years eating biscuits to distract yourself from the agonies of puberty doesn't do too much harm. After all, you still are forced to do sports at school and a high metabolic rate means that the extra calories are dissipated quickly. But then, you might find that twenty years later, the habit remains but the results of those extra calories are really showing. For these people hypnosis is a great way to rearrange their emotional keyboard into something a little more efficient. Helping people to face, accept and deal with life's daily anxieties rather than distracting themselves with food can be a much healthier way forward.

The biscuit analogy is a very easy one to understand, but everybody carries habits and quirks over from their early years. There are people who fly into a rage when they talk to a sibling, for no reason at all. Possibly sibling rivalry from a very early age makes them react in this way. It is a simple matter under hypnosis to coax people into reacting calmly to hitherto highly charged emotional triggers. Maybe there is no reason to find. There are people who, for instance, are scared of talking to people at a social gathering. They have always been this way; again under hypnosis this can simply be changed.

The QWERTY keyboard is here to stay, we are so used to it now, even though it is deliberately inefficient, it is part of the culture and too entrenched to change. Human habits are a different matter, they are malleable. People grow and change all their lives and hypnotherapy is one of the tools that can make this easy for them.

Breech Presentation

I recently attended a HypnoBirthing study day. For those of you unfamiliar with HypnoBirthing it is antenatal teaching deep relaxation, visualisation and breathing exercises which allow mothers to birth their babies calmly and comfortably. For more information please see my website. www.apexpractice.co.uk

One of the lectures was from a wonderful midwife called Mary, she must have been in her sixties and her midwifery stories dated back over the last thirty-five years. Mary works as an independent midwife caring for mothers in their homes and will confidently deliver babies known to be in a breech position. That is head up rather than head down. Her approach is rather unusual these days, many health trusts will do an elective caesarian section of a breech presentation and will discourage mothers from a normal vaginal delivery of a breeched baby. Please note though, that if a woman wishes to have her breeched baby delivered vaginally the hospitals have a duty of care to provide a midwife who will deliver her. Though in practice, pregnant women are vulnerable and are easily swayed towards a caesarian section.

The reason for preferring a caesarian section is that it is deemed safer because the umbilical cord never gets squashed. Let me explain, when a baby descends head first through the pelvis and vagina, the cord which is attached to the placenta in the top of the womb, is trailing behind. The cord, supplying oxygen to the baby only emerges with the baby's body which is very much smaller than the head and at no time is the cord squashed. If the baby descends body first, the cord is up past the head and if is it squashed by the head the oxygen supply to the baby is cut off. Usually, the time without oxygen is short and the baby is fine. There are rare occasions that the cord can be squashed long enough to harm the baby. To avoid this rare occurrence hospitals do caesarian sections, which unfortunately are much more harmful to the mother than a normal vaginal delivery.

So, a midwife undertaking to deliver a breeched baby at home is unusual these days. However, Mary's attitude is that, if the baby is descending nicely then there is nothing to worry about; the baby can be delivered safely at home. And, if the baby is not descending nicely there is no rush, the mother needs to be taken to hospital for a caesarian section; in neither case is the baby endangered. The preference for elective caesarean section has meant that now few midwives are confident and skilled in delivering breeched babies. This is something that Mary is trying to redress with her training day on breech presentations entitled 'A Day at the Breech'.

The Triune Brain

I spent the weekend reading ‘A General Theory of Love’ by Tomas Lewis, a psychiatrist. He writes beautifully; it’s the sort of engaging, readable popular science book that I just find irresistible. Fortunately there seems to be a never ending stream of these books; enough to keep me satisfied for a long time.

Lewis describes the brain as ‘triune’. That is to say, split into three parts, the reptilian, the mammalian and the human brains.

The reptilian brain is the brain stem: this part of us has existed, in evolutionary terms, before we even became mammals. It is responsible for the regulation of our bodily systems, heart rate, breathing rate, hormone levels and so on.

The next part is the mammalian brain. This is the limbic system wrapped around the top of the brainstem and tucked underneath the big outer part. The limbic system is the bit that is difficult to make sense of in diagrams of the brain and is responsible for our emotions. This part allowed emerging mammals to care for offspring and form communities.

The final part is the human brain which is the largest part. The big outer layer of grey cells with its delicate convolutions and complex white matter is the image that people think of when they think ‘brain’. This is the thinking part, the part that gives us language, maths and abstract thought.

Ever wondered why one can think one thing and feel another? Why they seem so separate? The answer is because they are. They are entirely different sections of the brain. It is the emotional, mammalian brain that gives rise to our emotions. ‘Emotion’ is derived from the Latin word to move. It is our emotions, not our thoughts, which generate our actions on the whole. This is why self-help books rarely work (reading is a human brain activity) and strategies like hypnosis really do. By appealing directly to the emotional brain under hypnosis it is possible to bring about change in behaviour quickly.

Amnesia

Following my interview in a lovely glossy accounting magazine I was contacted by a gentleman who wanted my help. The magazine featured different businesses every quarter, all business related; as I treat people for a variety of things related to business, aversion to cold calling, performance anxiety, procrastination, decision making and so on; I was featured. This was a real boon, most of the other articles are about employment law and accounting and other very dry stuff; I was in there to leaven the mix. It was a really great article form my point of view, really reflected what I do very well.

Anyway, someone who saw this article contacted me for help. He was a businessman who was approaching retirement age though had no intention of retiring at all. He had handed over the reins of his business to more junior staff and really enjoyed being the company’s ambassador. Everyone kept asking him when he was going to retire; it was really getting him down. I have to confess it was one of the first things that crossed my mind when I met him.

Not only was his problem unusual, I don’t expect to encounter this one ever again; the treatment I chose was unusual as well. I installed amnesia. This is something I never do. I don’t see the point of it, as a rule. This time however it just seemed sensible to add to the ‘It doesn’t matter to you one bit that people ask you when you are going to retire’ a suggestion of ‘and as soon as they have asked about your retirement you forget instantly that they have’. And then ‘It seems that people seemed to have stopped asking you when you are going to retire’.

So, there you are, all techniques have their place sooner or later. Unfortunately, this is just the sort of patient who when you ask whether their treatment worked they say, ‘no’; because they have amnesia.

Having abandoned my house refurbishment some little while ago due to lack of funds and enthusiasm I decided to get a Feng Shui expert to start me off again. So I’m hoping that the plants, stones and bed rearrangement will give me the necessary to get on with finishing off the rest of the house.

Apparently so far this year according to the Chinese calendar it has not been good astrologically to succeed in business. The 'palaces of the year' have been weak. Supposedly this explains why I didn't attract as many patients as i would have liked in the past few months. Having a new hypnotherapy business and not being well know yet can't help either.

Sarah McAllister of the Feng Shui agency and I were laughing about the fact that both being in the field of positive change – bad luck is embarrassing. We put ourselves under great pressure to succeed because it is our job to help others succeed; therefore we have no reason not to be wildly successful. The trick of course is to recognise the truth of one’s situation and then start tweaking things until improvements are observed. For some people that means rearranging the pot plants and using the front door instead of the back door. For others its meditation and affirmations or visiting a hypnotherapist to help you to foster a positive mental attitude. But for sure, taking action will cause a change of some kind.

www.apexpractice.co.uk
www.fengshuiagency.com

Procrastination

Procrastination is a big area of work for me. My preferred strategy for this is to suggest to patients under hypnosis that they spend seventeen minutes everyday tidying their desk, making cold calls or whatever it is they have been procrastinating about. The rationale is that seventeen minutes is short enough to be tackleable but long enough to achieve something. It works very well, with or without hypnosis. I told a networking associate about this and he used it on his in-tray. He was very satisfied that by the end of the week his previously overflowing in tray was now empty; and also found that one of his suppliers had been overcharging him and he managed to recoup some money.

Alternative therapies and IVF

A recent study in Cardiff University found that women using complementary and alternative treatments (CATs) were less likely to conceive with IVF. The alternative therapies listed were things like herbal remedies, reflexology and acupuncture, hypnotherapy was not among the alternative treatments used.

The study found that women who used CAT had a 20% lower pregnancy success rate over the 12-month treatment period. Our findings do not allow us to make a direct causal link between CAT use and pregnancy rate", says Dr. Boivin. "It may be that complementary therapies diminish the effectiveness of medical interventions, as has been shown in previous research. Or it may simply be that persistent treatment failure encourages women to seek out CATs because they are more willing to try anything to get pregnant."

In my opinion, the term ‘persistent treatment failure’ says it all. And, for ‘more willing to try anything’; read 'desperate'. Desperation is a negative mental attitude that focuses on failure. While a woman may be doing everything she believes right to help her conceive she might be undermining her efforts with the negative self belief of desperation.

The research goes onto say that formal psychological support is more useful to relieve stress than alternative therapies, but women don't seek it out because of the stigma. Perhaps the women seeking help need to know this.

To read the whole article see: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/75984.php

Stress, infertility and naked molerats.

Some interesting research has recently revealed that the naked molerat, a tiny primate living in harsh desert conditions deliberately causes infertility in the females by harassing them. The stress stops them ovulating and prevents pregnancy. There is one queen who produces young and the rest of the colony are free to protect the tribe rather than engage in energy consuming reproduction. This allows the species to carve out a niche in a very hostile environment.

The females are deliberately bullied; literally pushed around to prevent them being fertile. As the molerats are also primates, the scientists have concluded that, there may be implications for humans, stress and fertility. To read the whole article; paste the URL below into your browser.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070702145639.htm

Being suggestive

The most basic variety of hypnotherapy treatment is called ‘direct suggestion’.
This is the starting point of all treatment by hypnotherapy. It simply entails hypnotizing the patient – coaxing them into a state of relaxation – and then bombarding them with suggestions for the desired behaviour. Recently I had a patient who needed to do her relaxation excercises at home. I simply hypnotized her; then suggested over and over again, for half an hour or so, that she did relaxation at home and enjoyed it too. It worked very well; It usually does. It is only when the patient has some inner conflict that they need more complicated treatment. For simple habit changing direct suggestion is the simplest and most effective form of hypnotherapy.

Kidney stones or childbirth?

There was a big debate in TimeOut magazine last week about kidney stones. The debate, specifically gauges the pain of this complaint – discussing whether or not the pain of kidney stone is comparable that of childbirth. Childbirth is held up as the gold standard of agony. This view is firmly entrenched in our culture despite the many stories that contradict the assertion that labour is necessarily painful. The girls who give birth in the loo and tell no-one, the ‘she popped it like a pea’ and the ‘gave birth in the car’ stories. These stories are of course the anomalous ones; most women find childbirth painful. So, is it possible to learn how to experience easy, comfortable childbirth? The answer is yes; it is fear that causes pain. HypnoBirthing teaches women how to release the fear, and learn how to birth their babies peacefully and comfortably.

How I got into hypnotherapy

When I announce myself as a hypnotherapist, often, the first thing people then ask is: ‘How did you get into that?’ So I tell them my ‘becoming a hypnotherapist’ story and this is it.

I used to be a nurse; I worked as Intensive Care Sister at a large London teaching hospital. At that time I suffered from chronic neck and back problems. One day, I was describing the attendant tingling in my hands to the physiotherapist; she said, ‘You shouldn’t be here.’ She had a point, I took her seriously and decided to take time off so that my back could heal – it wasn’t going to get any better otherwise.

Using my time off work wisely I went to Alexander Technique classes; a system of relaxing and aligning all the muscles of the body. As I did this I had something of an epiphany. I realised that I was meditating doing my Alexander Technique exercises. I had done yoga but hadn’t been able to understand what was meant by meditation – I had decided that meditation was something I couldn’t do.

So then, I embarked on a journey of learning different meditation techniques; eventually alighting on transcendental meditation which I do to this day. In tie my back improved and I returned to Intensive Care. I found though, that despite the fact that my colleagues being vigilant about not letting me lift my back pain returned. I noticed that simply being at work made my back hurt; I realised that something else was going on. This is how I got interested in psycho-somatic disease and the mind-body link. And somehow in my travels I got chatting to a hypnotherapist who explained hypnotherapy to me, I enrolled on the course and now am a fully-fledged hypnotherapist with my own practice and patients.