Hypnotherapy & CBT

Changing your Thinking,
Changing your Reality

The earliest known healing use of Hypnotherapy was by the Ancient Egyptians, and described in hieroglyphs. Hypnosis has been used since then for healing purposes, and although there have been gaps in its history, it has always resurfaced due to success in helping people find their own inner resources to overcome a variety of personal problems and/or challenges.

Much later, a Frenchman called Charcot who was in charge of so called 'hysterical' patients in a French mental institution, (often epileptic) noticed that he could put them into a form of trance, which appeared to help them relax and even improve. He developed this over some years and Freud came to study with him for a time. Freud however, was not good at hypnotherapy and dropped it in favour of the psychoanalysis he later became famous for.

Around that time Anton Mesmer created 'Mesmerism' which was supposedly a magnetic force, after whom the word mesmerise was named, but this was not true hypnotherapy, though unfortunately often confused with it. He was a stage entertainer not a therapist, just as Derren Brown is today.

In the early 1800's in Britain, a Scottish GP named James Braid based his work on the 'Common Sense Psychology school', which required a scientific, evidence based approach. He had no time for the light entertainment style of Anton Mesmer's stage hypnosis, or any other esoteric notions. Dr. James Braid is now justifiably becoming well known again after many years of being overlooked, as a leader in the field, and is a heavyweight in the study and modern origins of Hypnotherapy, with academic research and serious books to his credit.

An American named Milton Erickson is often described as one of the founders of modern hypnotherapy in the 20th century. He became a professional psychologist as an adult, after becoming fascinated by, and making close observations of his large family's behaviour when bed-bound as a teenager with polio. His empathy with clients was renowned, and he had a gift of seeing where their problems really stemmed from, and finding effective and original solutions.
                                                                                                                                                                                               

Erikson's polio caused more problems in late middle age, after which he was confined to a wheelchair. Even this could not stop him continuing his practice however. He also, fortunately for us, wrote many books, and was only too pleased to share his considerable knowledge and abilities with others, such as Richard Bandler and John Grinder, which assisted them in formalising the language system known as Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Other important influences are Boris Sidis, who was one of the earliest, in the late 1800's, to study, among a variety of original ideas, the differences between waking attention, and those in a state of trance. He is a very underated individual, who engaged in much original thinking regarding the mind. David Elman is famous for his inductions into trance states, and many modern Hypnotherapists study his works. Dr David Hamilton has more recently, made a very important discovery, that by using the one's own mind and imagination, the body can be guided to assist itself to heal. This method may even be used for those suffering from serious strokes and limited physical movement, and other similar debilitating conditions.

I, along with others such as Paul Mckenna, have been inspired by the above people. As was Richard Bandler, who co-founded Neuro-Linguistic Programming with John Grinder. They studied Virginia Satir, who pioneered family therapy work, and Milton Erickson, as they worked with their clients, sometimes for considerable periods of time. As Milton later said, they showed him what he had been doing all along without knowing he was doing it.

Carl Rogers, who instigated Person Centred Counselling, maintained that trust, respect and unconditional acceptance between therapist and client, was the single most important factor in gaining a successful outcome for the client.

Aaron Beck developed what he called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, author of "Mind over Mood, changing the way you think" and many others. He Encouraged clients to change their thoughts in order to allow them to change their behaviour. Many others, including his daughter, have followed his lead. She has also written books on the subject, including the successful "Mind over Matter".

Dr Roger Callahan developed Thought Field Therapy (TFT). This is a Meridian therapy using the same energy principles as Acupunture, Acupressure and Shiatsu. He originally trained as a psychiatrist, but became disillusioned with the 3% recovery rate of his patients, which colleagues told him was acceptable. (Placebo's generally have a better rate than this). He decided to research until he found a more successful system, which he named Thought Field Therapy. He also trained as a hypnotherapist, and maintained an interest in this, however he prefered to use TFT as he found it faster.

All of the above techniques are useful, and I may use them in any combination for your benefit. You will be taught how to continue using them for as long as you wish in order to maintain your progress.