Paul McKenna started in radio aged 16 at in-store Radio Topshop, and went on to present for stations including Radio Jackie, Radio Caroline, Chiltern Radio, Capital Radio and BBC Radio One.

A hypnotist who guested on his show led to a developing interest in the subject, initially for reasons of self-development, although entertainment was later to play a big part. Whilst still working at Capital, he began experimenting with small hypnotic shows, first for the amusement of friends, then for audiences in pubs and clubs. McKenna then started doing regular Sunday night shows at the Duke of York’s Theatre, which was owned at the time by Capital. The success of those shows led to his playing other theatres across the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, the US, Australia and Hong Kong.

After a brief spell at Radio 1 in the early 1990s, McKenna decided to quit radio. In 1993, ITV broadcast ”The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna”, which featured audience members volunteering to be hypnotised to act in comedic ways, the show subsequently being aired in 42 countries. During this time, McKenna continued to study hypnosis, and neuro-linguistic programming with Richard Bandler, the co-creator of NLP.

Many of McKenna’s one-to-one hypnotherapy clients are celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres and David Walliams, who used McKenna to help with his swim across the English Channel.

In the 1990s, McKenna presented a number of TV programmes including ”The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna” (1993-1995), ”Paul McKenna’s Paranormal World” (1997) and ”Hyp the Streets” (1999). In January 2008, the Discovery Channel signed a £23 million deal with McKenna to make a series of self-help programmes. To date, the deal is the largest ever for a British TV personality. The first of his ”I Can Make You Thin” programmes aired on TLC, The Learning Channel on 16 March 2008.

In October 2009 he was a guest on ”Private Passions”, the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Paul McKenna, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Precursors of hypnotherapy have been seen in the sleep temples and mystery religions of ancient Graeco-Roman society, though analogies are often tenuous. Some parallels can be drawn between hypnotism and the trance-inducing rituals common to most pre-literate societies.

In the mid-18th century when Franz Anton Mesmer introduced the concepts and techniques of “animal magnetism”, Mesmerism became an influential school of esoteric therapy and important Mesmerists like James Esdaile and John Elliotson helped maintain its popularity in medicine until the end of the 19th century when it experienced a kind of resurgence in the work of Jean-Martin Charcot, the father of modern neurology.

In the 1840s, Scottish surgeon James Braid, pioneered the concept of hypnotism as an opposing tradition to Mesmerism, based upon basic psychological and physiological mechanisms rather than the occult theories of animal magnetism. Braid’s work was of limited influence in the UK but in France his ideas were developed into a more sophisticated psychological treatment. Hippolyte Bernheim began as a sceptic but became converted to the importance of hypnotism by observing the work of the celebrated country doctor Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault who rejected the theory of Mesmer and followed Abbé Faria. Emile Coué, a former clinical assistant to Liébeault, proposed a more collaborative and educational alternative to hypnosis called “conscious autosuggestion” which became very popular as a form of self-help in the 1920s.

In the mid to late 1880s American medical Surgeon-Physician, Rufus Osgood Mason supported the idea of the use of hypnosis for “Therapeutic Applications”, and wrote articles and authored a book on this as a concept. He was also a supporter of early parapsychology and psychical research.

An important rivalry and debate developed between the Salpêtrière school of Charcot, which focused on physiological phenomena induced by Mesmeric practices, and the Nancy school of Bernheim which placed more emphasis upon psychology and verbal suggestion, following the later writings of Braid. However, Charcot’s ideas on hypnosis were almost entirely discredited and Bernheim’s school effectively won the debate, becoming the most significant precursor of modern psychological hypnotism.

Sigmund Freud was originally a proponent of hypnotherapy. He traveled to France to study hypnosis with the two great teachers of his day, Charcot at the Salpêtrière and Bernheim’s Nancy School. Freud wrote several articles on hypnotherapy and translated two of Bernheim’s books on the subject from French into German. He originally employed hypnotherapy with a small number of clients in the 1890s. By about 1905, he had largely abandoned the procedure in favor of his newly-developed free association or “talking” technique. However, Freud’s description of the basic rule of free association still bears a striking resemblance to certain modern methods of hypnotic induction. Struggling with the great expense of time required for psychoanalysis to be successful, Freud later suggested that it might be combined with hypnotic suggestion once more in an attempt to hasten the outcome of treatment,

It is very probable, too, that the application of our therapy to numbers will compel us to alloy the pure gold of analysis plentifully with the copper of direct suggestion. (S. Freud, ”Lines of Advance in Psychoanalytic Therapy”, 1919)

However, only a handful of Freud’s followers were sufficiently qualified in hypnosis to attempt the synthesis, which resulted in a gradual resurgence in popularity of “hypno-analysis” or “hypnotic regression” methods of hypnotherapy.

Milton H. Erickson, M.D. is considered one of the most influential modern hypnotherapists. He has written many books, journals and articles on the subject, and his accomplishments are well-documented.

During the 1960s, Erickson was responsible for popularizing an entirely new branch of hypnotherapy, which we now call Ericksonian hypnotherapy, characterized by, amongst other things, indirect suggestion, confusion techniques, and double binds.

The popularity of Erickson’s techniques has since led to the development of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), which has in turn found use in modern-day sales, advertising, and corporate training. However, NLP has been criticized by many eminent hypnotists as a distortion of Erickson’s work. For example, Andre Weitzenhoffer, a leading Stanford researcher and former colleague of Erickson, stated,

[...] Richard Bandler and John Grinder [the founders of NLP] have on the other hand, offered a much adulterated, and at times fanciful, version of what they perceived Erickson as saying or doing guided by their own personal theorising. (Weitzenhoffer, ”The Practice of Hypnotism”, 2000: 592-593)

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Hypnotherapy, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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The extent to which a subject may or may not be “suggestible” has significant ramifications in the scientific research of hypnosis and its associated phenomena. Most hypnotherapists and academics in this field of research work from the premise that hypnotisability (or suggestibility) is a factor in inducing useful hypnosis states. That is, the depth of hypnosis a given individual can achieve in a given context with a particular hypnotherapist and particular set of beliefs, expectations and instructions.

Dr John Kappas (1925-2002) identified three different types of suggestibility in his lifetime that have improved hypnosis:

Emotional Suggestibility

A suggestible behavior characterized by a high degree of responsiveness to inferred suggestions that affect emotions and restrict physical body responses; usually associated with hypnoidal depth. Thus the emotional suggestible learns more by inference than by direct, literal suggestions.

Physical Suggestibility

A suggestible behavior characterized by a high degree of responsiveness to literal suggestions affecting the body, and restriction of emotional responses; usually associated with cataleptic stages or deeper.

Intellectual Suggestibility

The type of hypnotic suggestibility in which a subject fears being controlled by the operator and is constantly trying to analyze, reject or rationalize everything the operator says. With this type of subject the operator must give logical explanations for every suggestion and must allow the subject to feel that he is doing the hypnotizing himself.

However, it is not clear or agreed what suggestibility (ie, the factor on hypnosis) actually is. It is both the indisputable variable and the factor most difficult to measure or control.

What has not been agreed on is whether suggestibility is

* a permanent fixed detail of character or personality:

* a genetic or chemical psychiatric tendency:

* a precursor to or symptom of an activation of such a tendency:

* a learned skill or acquired habit:

* synonymous with the function of learning:

* a neutral, unavoidable consequence of language acquisition and empathy:

* a biased terminology provoking one to resist new externally introduced ideas or perspectives:

* a mutual symbiotic relation to the Other, such as the African conception of uBunthu or Ubuntu:

* related to the capacity of empathy and communication:

* female brain / left-brain characteristics of language-interpretation and garnering negative connotations due to (disputable) gender bias from a male-dominated scientific community:

* a matter of concordant personal taste between speaker / hypnotist and listener and listener’s like of / use for speaker’s ideas:

* a skill or a flaw or something neutral and universal.

Existing research into the phenomena of hypnosis is extensive and randomised controlled trials predominantly support the efficacy and legitimacy of hypnotherapy, but without a clearly defined concept of the entity or aspect being studied, the level an individual is objectively “suggestible” cannot be measured empirically. It makes exact therapeutic outcomes impossible to forecast.

Moreover, it logically hinders the development of non-bespoke hypnotherapy protocol. On this latter point, it must be pointed out that while some persuasion methods are more universally effective than others, the most reliably effective method with individuals is to personalise the approach by first examining their motivational, learning, behavioural and emotional styles (et al.). Few hypnotherapists do not take a case history, or story so far, from the clients they will be working with.

Hypnosis is rarely a ‘battle of wills’. Predominantly, people instinctively feel more subjectively comfortable when receiving positive suggestions in the understanding-framework we understand most easily. In practise, most people are less likely to resist the ideas for optimism or fresh perspectives if they:

a) Concur with other ideas already held

b) Are consistent with favourite decision-making patterns

c) Flatter our self-identity to a level we accept

d) Contain positive rather than negative enforcement – toward something good rather than away from something bad

e) Are suggested in terms that mirror sensory combinations that person experiences the world through…making it easier for the suggestion to “make sense” – as in Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)

Autonomy and suggestibility

The intrigue of differences in individual suggestibility even crops up in the early Greek philosophers. Aristotle had an unconcerned approach…

“The most intelligent minds are those that can entertain an idea without necessarily believing it.”

This perhaps is a more accurate echo of the experience of practising hypnotherapists and hypnotists. When anyone is absorbed in rapt attention in someone else’s inspiring words as they outline an idea or way of thinking, the subjective attention is held because of the logic, the aesthetic, and the relevance of the words to one’s own personal experience and motivations. In these natural trance states, just like those orchestrated purposefully by a hypnotherapist, your ‘critical faculties’ are naturally less active when there is less you would naturally be critical of.

It is perhaps the “necessarily believing it” that is problematic, as this conception of suggestibility raises issues of the autonomy of attributing belief to an introduced idea, and how this happens.

Suggestibility vs. susceptibility

Popular media and layman’s articles occasionally use the terms “suggestible” and “susceptible” interchangeably, with reference to the extent to which a given individual responds to incoming suggestions from another. The two terms are not synonymous however, as the latter term carries inherent negative bias absent from the neutral psychological factor described by “suggestibility.”

In scientific research and academic literature on hypnosis and hypnotherapy, the term describes a neutral psychological and possibly physiological state or phenomena. This is distinct from the culturally biased common parlance of the term “suggestible.” Both terms are often bound with undeserved negative social connotations not inherent in the word meanings themselves.

To be suggestible is not to be gullible. The latter pertains to an empirical objective fact that can be shown accurate or inaccurate to any observer. The former term does not. To be open to suggestion, has no bearing on the accuracy of any incoming suggestions: nor whether such an objective accuracy is possible. (As with metaphysical belief.)

Some therapists may examine worries or objections to suggestibility before proceeding with therapy: this is because some believe there is a rational or learned deliberate will to hold a belief, even in the case of more convincing new ideas, when there is a compelling cognitive reason not to ‘allow oneself’ to be persuaded. Perhaps this can be seen in historical cases of mass hypnosis where also there has been media suppression. In the individual, unexamined actions are sometimes described by hypno- and psycho-therapists based on outgrown belief systems.

The term “susceptible” implies weakness or some increased danger that one is more likely to become victim to and must guard against. This is supported when it is reduced to its Latin etymological origins.

It therefore has a negative effect on expectation and itself is a hypnotic suggestion that suggestions must be noticed and guarded against. Hypnotic suggestions include terms, phrases, or whole concepts where to understand the concept includes making sense of a subjective sensation, or a framework for the appropriate response…. simple one-word forms of this include the word terrorism where to understand the concept, one must understand the notion of terror and then understand in the sentence that it is meant to refer to “that” given object.

Suggestibility and language acquisition

Much of the contention and concern about suggestibility as an Achilles heel in the armour of human autonomy is unfounded. Cognition of a phrase must occur before the decision how to act next can occur: because the concepts must exist before the mind. Either they are suggested from the mind itself, or in response to introduced suggestions of concepts from outside – the world and its scenarios and facts, or suggestions from other people.

A suggestion may direct the thoughts to notice a new concept, focus on a specific area within the world, offer new perspectives that later may influence action-choices, offer triggers for automatic behaviour (such as returning a smile), or indicate specific action types. In hypnotherapy the portrayed realistic experience of the client’s requested outcome is suggested with flattery or urgency, as well as personalised to the client’s own motivations drives and taste.

Common experience of suggestions

Suggestions are not necessarily verbal, spoken, or read. A smile, a glare, a wink, a three-piece suit, a scientist’s white coat, are all suggestive devices that imply more than the immediate action. A hypnotist uses techniques that use these instinctive “fillings-in of gaps” and changes to how we respond to a scenario or moment. In the therapy setting, a hypnotist or hypnotherapist will likely evaluate these automatic cognitive leaps, or dogma, or any self-limiting or self-sabotaging beliefs.

Being under the influence of suggestion can be characterised as exhibiting behavioral compliance without private acceptance or belief.

That is, actions being inconsistent with one’s own volition and belief system and natural unhindered action-motivations. This could hinder the autonomy, expression or self-determination of an individual. It could equally supersede emotions with rationally chosen, deliberate long-term results.

Experimental suggestion vs. clinical suggestion=

The applications of hypnosis vary widely and investigation of responses to suggestion can be usefully separated into two non-exclusive broad divisions:

* Experimental hypnosis: the study of “experimental suggestion”, of the form:

::”What is it that my group of test subjects actually do when I deliver the precise standard suggestion ABC to each of them in the same experimental context?”

:: (i.e., given a fixed suggestion, what is the outcome?)

* Clinical hypnosis: the study of clinical suggestion directed at the question:

::”What is it that I can possibly say to this particular subject, in this specific context, to generate my goal of having them do XYZ?” (I.e., given a fixed outcome, what is the suggestion?)

Many scholars and practitioners use the wider term clinical hypnosis to distinguish clinical hypnosis in as rigorously controlled a trial setting as possible, from clinical hypnotherapy (i.e., a clinical intervention in which therapy is conducted upon a hypnotized subject).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Suggestibility, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Hypnotherapy takes many different forms, and has integrated elements from, and in turn influenced, other psychotherapeutic traditions throughout its history.

Traditional hypnotherapy

The form of hypnotherapy practiced by most Victorian hypnotists, including James Braid and Hippolyte Bernheim, mainly employed direct suggestion of symptom removal, with some use of therapeutic relaxation and occasionally aversion to alcohol, drugs, etc. This simple form of treatment employed relatively direct methods and few theoretical constructs, but has continued to influence most subsequent forms of hypnotherapy.

Hypnoanalysis

In 1895 Sigmund Freud and Joseph Breuer published a seminal clinical text entitled Studies in Hysteria (1895) which promoted a new approach to psychotherapy. Freud and Breuer used hypnosis to regress clients to an earlier age in order to help them remember and abreact supposedly repressed traumatic memories. Although Freud gradually abandoned hypnotherapy in favour of his developing method of psychoanalysis, his early work continued to influence many subsequent hypnotherapists. However, as Freud later conceded, his French rival Pierre Janet had already published a case study describing the use of age regression in hypnotic psychotherapy, a few years earlier.

Subsequent regression hypnotherapy was sometimes known as “hypnoanalysis”, “analytic hypnotherapy”, or “psychodynamic hypnotherapy.” Many practitioners worked in ways that bore only faint resemblance to Freud’s original approach, although others continued to be influenced by later psychoanalytic theory and practice.

Hypnoanalysis found support in both world wars where it was used by military psychiatrists as a rapid alternative to psychoanalysis in the treatment of shellshock, now known as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Considerable controversy developed regarding the use of regression to uncover allegedly repressed memories in the 1990s as the result of several high-profile legal cases, where clients sued their therapists over claims of false memory syndrome.

Ericksonian hypnotherapy

Milton H. Erickson was one of the most influential hypnotists of the 20th century. From around the 1950s onward, Erickson developed a radically different approach to hypnotism, which has subsequently become known as “Ericksonian hypnotherapy” or “Neo-Ericksonian hypnotherapy.” Erickson made use of a more informal conversational approach with many clients and complex language patterns, and therapeutic strategies. However, this very divergence from tradition led some of his colleagues, most notably Andre Weitzenhoffer, to dispute whether Erickson was right to label his approach “hypnosis” at all. Nevertheless, Erickson’s work continues to be one of the most influential forces in modern hypnotherapy.

The founders of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), a methodology similar in some regards to hypnotism, claimed that they had modelled the work of Erickson extensively and assimilated it into their approach called the Milton Model. Weitzenhoffer disputed whether NLP bears any genuine resemblance to Erickson’s work.

Cognitive/behavioral hypnotherapy

Cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy (CBH) is an integrated psychological therapy employing clinical hypnosis and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

In 1974, Theodore Barber and his colleagues published an influential review of the research which argued, following the earlier social psychology of Theodore R. Sarbin, that hypnotism was better understood not as a “special state” but as the result of normal psychological variables, such as active imagination, expectation, appropriate attitudes, and motivation. Barber introduced the term “cognitive-behavioral” to describe the nonstate theory of hypnotism, and discussed its application to behavior therapy.

The growing application of cognitive and behavioral psychological theories and concepts to the explanation of hypnosis paved the way for a closer integration of hypnotherapy with various cognitive and behavioral therapies. However, many cognitive and behavioral therapies were themselves originally influenced by older hypnotherapy techniques, e.g., the systematic desensitisation of Joseph Wolpe, the cardinal technique of early behavior therapy, was originally called “hypnotic desensitisation” and derived from the ”Medical Hypnotism” (1948) of Lewis Wolberg. The traditional style of hypnotherapy can be seen as a precursor of cognitive-behavioral therapy insofar as both place emphasis upon “common sense” theoretical explanations and the use of relaxation, and rehearsal of positive ideas and imagery in therapy. Modern cognitive therapy primarily differs from previous hypnotherapy approaches by placing much greater emphasis upon the direct Socratic disputation of negative beliefs. However, cognitive-behavioral hypnotherapists have assimilated this technique alongside their use of hypnosis.

From the 1980s onward various clinical textbooks about CBH were written by researchers such as Steven Jay Lynn, Irving Kirsch, E. Thomas Dowd, William Golden, and Assen Alladin.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Hypnotherapy, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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See Hypnotherapy in the United Kingdom for information on the profession in the UK.

Training requirements vary greatly worldwide with the key determining factor being whether the use of hypnotherapy is State-recognized in a given area. In the UK St Mary’s University College is the only academic institution to offer a training programme in Clinical Hypnosis see www.smuc.ac.uk/hypnosis.

When it comes to becoming a hypnotherapist, training requirements and state registration requirements vary greatly around the world. Those interested in becoming a hypnotherapist should first research the laws in their state and then consider joining a professional organization that can guide them in proper training and offer a central code of ethics and disciplinary procedure to which they can commit. This provides assurance to clients and a good ethical framework for the therapist in question.

A BBC investigation found that the conditions for becoming registered aren’t always sufficient to prevent fraud: “The regulation of hypnotherapists in the UK is so lax that even a cat can become accredited, the BBC has found. George the cat was registered with three hypnotherapy organisations.” Similar results were found in the United States.

State-licensed hypnotherapy schools do exist in the U.S., and increase in number each year. Several accrediting professional bodies that require minimum standards in specialized hypnotherapy education to become certified as a hypnotherapist (C.Ht.) are also available to professional hypnotherapists and as a resource for individuals to find a qualified professional. The International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association (IMDHA), International Association of Counselors and Therapists (IACT), and the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH) are just a few.

The certified hypnotherapist that has gained certification as a C.Ht. through a professional organization such as IMDHA, or IACT has at the minimum level, training in basic and advanced hypnosis with a minimum of 140 hour specialized hypnosis instruction. Professional organisations usually have their own set of guidelines and code of ethics to abide by, and require a number of hours of professional development every year to ensure the highest quality in treatment ranging from 16-30 CEU’s per year. Many hypnotherapists undertake this kind of professional development and training and will continue to do it until they stop practicing. Regardless of specialized training, a hypnotherapist does not diagnose or treat any individual without the proper credentials to do so, and many times will request referrals and records to be released from a client’s physician for medical and/or certain psychiatric conditions.

The definition of Hypnotherapist was provided for the U.S. Department of Labor by Dr. John Kappas of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 1973. A Hypnotherapist practicing in accordance with the definition uses techniques taught by Dr. Kappas and the Hypnosis Motivation Institute located in Tarzana, California. The Hypnosis Motivation Institute is the first nationally accredited college of hypnotherapy with a rigorous curriculum of 720 hours of training including clinical internship. The title of Clinical Hypnotherapist (C.Ht.) is earned upon completion of the program. Certification is available by the Hypnotherapists Union Local 472 to achieve the title of Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist.

Professional membership boards=

USA

*[http://www.imdha.com/ International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association]: Founded in 1986, a referral service of Certified Hypnotherapists dedicated to providing the community with excellently trained Certified Hypnotherapists. These Certified Hypnotherapists will work harmoniously with allied healthcare professionals to aid individuals in dealing with specific challenges and procedures.

*[http://www.iact.org/ International Association of Counselors and Therapists]: Founded in 1990, IACT is a multidisciplined association, which specializes in holistic techniques. IACT’s membership includes medical practitioners, psychologists, clinical social workers, stress consultants, [http://www.naturaltherapyforall.com/find-a-nlp-practitioner NLP practitioners], clergy, licensed massage therapists, hypnotherapists, biofeedback specialists, nutritionists, educators, mental health therapists, substance abuse counselors and others in the helping, healing arts.

*[http://www.asch.net/|The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH)] was founded in 1957 by Milton Erickson, MD. It is an interdisciplinary organization of medical, dental and mental health professionals interested in the clinical use of hypnosis. ASCH promotes understanding and use of hypnosis as a clinical tool with broad applications in medicine, dentistry and mental health. ASCH offers training and certification programs and provides practitioners with ethical and treatment guidelines for the clinical use of hypnosis by trained, licensed professionals. Currently, ASCH has nearly 2,000 members in the U.S., Canada and other countries.

*[http://www.ngh.net/ National Guild of Hypnotists]: Established in 1951, it is the oldest professional hypnotist organization in North America.

*[http://americanboardofclinicalhypnotherapy.com/ American Board of Clinical Hypnotherapy]: Founded in 1996 as a membership organization committed to maintaining professional standards in the field of Clinical Hypnotherapy and to creating a forum for professional practitioners in the field.

*[http://www.natboard.com/ National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotheraphists]: Organized in 1991, the NBCCH certifies mental health professionals in the field of hypnotheraphy and provides referral services for persons seeking hypnotherapy throughout U.S.A and western Europe.

*[http://www.hypnotistexaminers.org/ American Council of Hypnotist Examiners]: Organized in 1980, ACHE certifies examiners worldwide

These licensing boards are specifically for professionals in the medical and/or psychiatric field and generally do not encompass the certified hypnotherapist who explicitly specializes in hypnotherapy.

US Definition of Hypnotherapist

The U.S. (Department of Labor) ”Directory of Occupational Titles” (D.O.T. 079.157.010) supplies the following definition:

:”Hypnotherapist – Induces hypnotic state in client to increase motivation or alter behavior pattern through hypnosis. Consults with client to determine the nature of problem. Prepares client to enter hypnotic states by explaining how hypnosis works and what client will experience. Tests subject to determine degrees of physical and emotional suggestibility. Induces hypnotic state in client using individualized methods and techniques of hypnosis based on interpretation of test results and analysis of client’s problem. May train client in self-hypnosis conditioning.

The [http://www.doh.wa.gov/licensing.htm#H Department of Health] in the state of Washington regulates hypnotherapists.

United Kingdom==

UK National Occupational Standards

In 2002, the Department for Education and Skills developed National Occupational Standards for hypnotherapy linked to National Vocational Qualification based on National Qualifications Framework under The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. And thus hypnotherapy was approved as a stand-alone therapy in UK. NCFE a national awarding body issues level four national vocational qualification diploma in hypnotherapy. (http://website.ncfe.org.uk/)

UK Confederation of Hypnotherapy Organisations (UKCHO)

The REGULATION of the Hypnotherapy Profession in the UK is at present the main focus of [http://www.ukcho.co.uk UKCHO], a non-profit making umbrella body for hypnotherapy organisations, recognised as such by the [http://fih.org.uk Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health] which is the body tasked by the Government to oversee the regulation of the Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM’s) in the UK. Founded in 1998 to provide a non-political arena to discuss and implement changes to the profession of Hypnotherapy, UKCHO currently represents 9 of the UK’s professional hypnotherapy organisations and has developed standards of training for hypnotherapists, along with codes of conduct and practice that all UKCHO registered hypnotherapists are governed by. As a step towards the regulation of the hypnotherapy profession UKCHO’s website now includes a National Public Register of Hypnotherapists who have been registered by UKCHO’s Member Organisations and are therefore subject to UKCHO’s professional standards. Further steps to full regulation of the hypnotherapy profession will be taken in consultation with the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health.

Working Group for Hypnotherapy Regulation

Moves toward Voluntary Self Regulation in the UK hypnotherapy field have led to the formation of a unitary National Register which is a one-stop resource for members of the public and the National Health Service. The Register currently holds approximately 5,200 entries and is known as the National Regulatory Register for Hypnotherapy. The Working Group for Hypnotherapy Regulation is formed of more than 20 professional organisations that have chosen to work together to progress Voluntary Self Regulation in hypnotherapy and to create agreed standards in all aspects of the profession.

In the US there are currently no recognized doctorates in hypnotherapy. State licensed schools offer credentialing after the basic educational standards and examinations have been successfully passed as a C.Ht. (Certified Hypnotherapist) or a C.M.Ht. (Certified Medical Hypnotherapist), depending on the school and it’s approved curriculum. Instructor status is given through professional accrediting organizations based on completed training requirements and examination.

Hypnotherapy Organisations in the UK

UKCHO and the Working Group for Hypnotherapy Regulation (WGHR) are “umbrella” bodies and their membership comprises many different hypnotherapy registers, societies, associations and councils within the United Kingdom. There are at least 29 such membership organisations represented by UKCHO and WGHR – and several others not covered by those umbrella bodies including LCCH Limited (BSCH) and IAPH. These are the professional membership organisations bodies which have direct contact with and register/accredit hypnotherapy practitioners by applying their various codes of ethics, training standards and supervision and CPD requirements.

See Hypnotherapy in the United Kingdom for details on some of the major registers and associations.

Indian Restriction

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, vide its letter no. R.14015/25/96-U&H(R) (Pt.) dated 25 November 2003, has very categorically stated that hypnotherapy is a recommended mode of therapy in India to be practiced by only appropriately trained personnel.

Maharaja Sayajirao University (M.S.University 4 star) at Vadodara is conducting one-year Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Applied Hypnosis (P.G.D.C.A.H.) from 2000.

Clinical hypnosis is included in the syllabus of Master of Philosophy (Clinical Psychology), a pre-doctorate course conducted by The Rehabilitation Council of India which is followed by all universities in India.

Hypnotherapy is the part of syllabus in M. Sc./ M.A. Psychology degree course,University of Rajastan, Jaipur; Banaras Hindu University; M. Sc. Yoga degree course of Bharathidassan University,B.A./B.Sc.Degree(Psychology), B.A. Journalism in Bangalore University; and B. Sc. Nursing course syllabus of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik

The code for commercial advertising on Doordarshan and All India Radio states that “No advertisement should contain any offer to diagnose or treat complaints or conditions by hypnosis”

Australia

Professional hypnotherapy and use of the occupational titles ”hypnotherapist” or ”clinical hypnotherapist” is not government-regulated in Australia.

In 1996, as a result of a three-year research project led by Lindsay B. Yeates, the Australian Hypnotherapists’ Association[http://www.ahahypnotherapy.org.au] (founded in 1949), the oldest hypnotism-oriented professional organization in Australia, instituted a peer-group accreditation system for full-time Australian professional hypnotherapists, the first of its kind in the world. The system was further revised in 1999. The Australian Hypnotherapists Association is a member of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia which represents many counselling and psychotherapy associations in Australia as well as many other professions.

However, many clinical hypnotherapists and Hypnotherapy Associations do not wish to be represented by PACFA simply because the organization is obviously not specifically devoted to representing the interests of hypnotherapy and hypnotherapists.

Australian hypnotism/hypnotherapy organizations (including the Australian Hypnotherapists Association) are seeking government regulation similar to other mental health professions. However, the various tiers of Australian government have shown consistently over they last two decades that they are opposed to government legislation and in favour of self regulation by industry groups.

With this in mind in 2007 a majority of professional hypnosis groups — including professional organizations, private teaching organizations, and other hypnotism-associated professional bodies — have agreed to work toward creating a new national body to be known as Hypnotherapy Council of Australia. The [http://hypnosis.org.au Council of Clinical Hypnotherapists (CCH)] will represent the Hypnosis Associations from the Southern Region of Australia, i.e. the States of Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Hypnotherapy, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Hassan became a member of the Unification Church in the 1970s, at the age of 19, while studying at Queens College. He describes what he terms as his “recruitment” in his first book, ”Combatting Cult Mind Control”, asserting that this recruitment was the result of the unethical use of powerful psychological influence techniques by members of the Church. He subsequently spent over two years recruiting and indoctrinating new members, as well as performing fundraising and campaigning duties, and ultimately rose to the rank of Assistant Director of the Unification Church at its National Headquarters. In that capacity he met personally with Sun Myung Moon.

Hassan has given an account of his leaving the Unification Church in his 1998 book ”Combatting Cult Mind Control” and on his personal website: After having been awake for two days as the head of a fundraising team, he caused a traffic accident when he fell asleep at the wheel of the Church’s van and drove into the back of a truck. He ended up with a broken leg, surgery and a full-leg cast. During his recuperation he was given permission by his superiors in the Church to visit his parents. His parents contacted former members of the Unification Church who engaged in a deprogramming session with Hassan. Because of his cast he was not able to run or drive away, but he resisted to the point that he states that he had an impulse to “escape by reaching over and snapping my father’s neck”, rather than to potentially succumb to the deprogramming and betray “The Messiah”. His fat

In 1979, following the Jonestown tragedy, Hassan founded a non-profit organization called “Ex-Moon Inc.”, whose membership consisted of over four hundred former members of the Unification Church.

According to his biography, “During the 1977-78 Congressional Subcommittee Investigation into South Korean CIA activities in the United States, he consulted as an expert on the Moon organization and provided information and internal documents regarding Moon’s desire to influence politics in his bid to ‘take over the world.’”

Around 1980, Hassan began investigating methods of persuasion, mind control and indoctrination. He first studied the thought reform theories of Robert Lifton, and was “able to see clearly that the Moon organization uses all eight” of the thought reform methods described by Lifton.

He later attended a seminar on hypnosis with Richard Bandler, which was based on the work that he and transformational grammarian John Grinder had done in developing Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Hassan felt that this seminar gave him “a handle on techniques of mind control, and how to combat them.” He spent “nearly two years studying NLP with everyone involved in its formulation and presentation.” During this period, Hassan moved to Santa Cruz, California for an apprenticeship with Grinder. He became concerned about the marketing of NLP as a tool for “power enhancement”, left his association with Grinder, and “began to study the works of Milton Erickson M.D., Virginia Satir, and Gregory Bateson, on which NLP is based.” His studies gave him the basis for the development of his theories on mind control.

Hassan continued to study hypnosis and is a member of The American Society for Clinical Hypnosis and The International Society of Hypnosis.

In 1999, Hassan founded the [http://www.freedomofmind.com/ Freedom of Mind Resource Center]. It is registered as a domestic profit corporation in the state of Massachusetts. He is president and treasurer.

In ”Combatting Cult Mind Control” Hassan describes his personal experiences with the Unification Church, as well as his theory of the four components of mind control. The sociologist Eileen Barker, who has studied the Unification Church, has commented on the book. She expressed several concerns but nevertheless recommended the book. The book has been reviewed in the ”American Journal of Psychiatry”, and in the ”The Lancet”, and has been praised by many scholars and cult experts, like Philip Zimbardo and Margaret Singer.

In his second book, ”Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves” (2000), Hassan presents what he terms “a much more refined method to help family and friends, called the Strategic Interaction Approach. This non-coercive, completely legal approach is far better than deprogramming, and even exit counseling.”

Hassan, who is Jewish and belongs to a Temple that teaches Kabbalah warns us that the actions of the Kabbalah Centre have little in common with traditional or even responsible Jewish renewal Kabbalah teachers.

He describes himself as an “activist who fights to protect people’s right to believe whatever they want to believe”, and states that his work has the broad support of religious leaders from a variety of spiritual orientations. He further states that “many unorthodox religions have expressed their gratitude to me for my books because it clearly shows them NOT to be a destructive cult.”

His wife Aureet Bar-Yam died in 1991 after falling through ice while trying to save their dog.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Steven Hassan, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Erickson’s friend, and sometime collaborator, Andre Weitzenhoffer, a well-known hypnosis researcher himself, has repeatedly raised concerns over the nature of Erickson’s legacy.

The majority of today’s Ericksonians consist of individuals who have never known Erickson, even less been directly trained by him. Today, and for some time now, much of the teaching of the Ericksonian approach is and has been done by individuals who have acquired their knowledge second and third hand. [...] Some of those who did spend time with Erickson, like Jeffrey Zeig, Ernest Rossi, and William O’Hanlon have tried, I believe, to present and preserve as much as they could what they believed and have understood Erickson’s thought and methods to be. They have succeeded to do so to a fair degree. Others, like Richard Bandler and John Grinder have on the other hand, offered a much adulterated, and at times fanciful, version of what they perceived Erickson as saying and doing guided by their personal theorizing. [...] Further distortions have resulted outside of the United States due to translation problems as well as for other reasons. More and more the Ericksonians have become a heterogeneous group of practitioners.

One of his first students and developers of his work was Jay Haley. Other important followers include Stephen Gilligan, Jeffrey K. Zeig, Stephen R. Lankton and Stephen Brooks.

It has been claimed that Erickson was modeled (see Milton model) by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, the co-founders of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

In the sphere of bus

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Milton H. Erickson, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Erickson is noted for his often unconventional approach to psychotherapy, such as described in the book ”Uncommon Therapy,” by Jay Haley, and the book ”Hypnotherapy: An Exploratory Casebook,” by Milton H. Erickson and Ernest L. Rossi (1979, New York: Irvington Publishers, Inc.). He developed an extensive use of therapeutic metaphor and story as well as hypnosis and coined the term ”brief therapy” for his approach of addressing therapeutic changes in relatively few sessions.

Erickson’s use of interventions influenced the strategic therapy and family systems therapy practitioners beginning in the 1950s among them, Virginia Satir and Jay Haley. He was noted for his ability to “utilize” anything about a patient to help them change, including their beliefs, favorite words, cultural background, personal history, or even their neurotic habits.

Through conceptualizing the unconscious as highly separate from the conscious mind, with its own awareness, interests, responses, and learnings, he taught that the unconscious mind was creative, solution-generating, and often positive.

He was an important influence on neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), which was in part based upon his working methods .

Trance and the unconscious mind

Erickson believed that the unconscious mind was always listening, and that, whether or not the patient was in trance, suggestions could be made which would have a hypnotic influence, as long as those suggestions found some resonance at the unconscious level. The patient can be aware of this,

Erickson was an irrepressible practical joker, and it was not uncommon for him to slip indirect suggestions into all kinds of situations, including in his own books, papers, lectures and seminars.

Erickson also believed that it was even appropriate for the therapist to go into trance.

I go into trances so that I will be more sensitive to the intonations and inflections of my patients’ speech. And to enable me to hear better, see better.

Erickson maintained that trance is a common, everyday occurrence. For example, when waiting for buses and trains, reading or listening, or even being involved in strenuous physical exercise, it’s quite normal to become immersed in the activity and go into a trance state, removed from any other irrelevant stimuli. These states are so common and familiar that most people do not consciously recognise them as hypnotic phenomena.

The same situation is in evidence in everyday life, however, whenever attention is fixated with a question or an experience of the amazing, the unusual, or anything that holds a person’s interest. At such moments people experience the common everyday trance; they tend to gaze off to the right or left, depending upon which cerebral hemisphere is most dominant (Baleen, 1969) and get that faraway or blank look. Their eyes may actually close, their bodies tend to become immobile (a form of catalepsy), certain reflexes (e.g., swallowing, respiration, etc.) may be suppressed, and they seem momentarily oblivious to their surroundings until they have completed their inner search on the unconscious level for the new idea, response, or frames of reference that will restabilize their general reality orientation. We hypothesize that in everyday life consciousness is in a continual state of flux between the general reality orientation and the momentary microdynamics of trance…

Because Erickson expected trance states to occur naturally and frequently, he was prepared to exploit them therapeutically, even when the patient was not present with him in the consulting room. He also discovered many techniques for how to increase the likelihood that a trance state would occur. He developed both verbal and non-verbal techniques, and pioneered the idea that the common experiences of wonderment, engrossment and confusion are, in reality, just kinds of trance. (These phenomena are of course central to many spiritual and religious disciplines, and are regularly employed by evangelists, cult leaders and holy men of all kinds).

Clearly there are a great many kinds of trance. Many people are familiar with the idea of a “deep” trance, and earlier in his career Erickson was a pioneer in researching the unique and remarkable phenomena that are associated with that state, spending many hours at a time with individual test subjects, deepening the trance.

That a trance may be “light” or “deep” suggest a one dimensional continuum of trance depth, but Erickson would often work with multiple trances in the same patient, for example suggesting that the hypnotised patient behave “as if awake”, blurring the line between the hypnotic and awake state.

Erickson believed there are multiple states that may be utilized. This resonates with Charles Tart’s idea (put forward in the book ”Waking Up”) that all states of consciousness are trances, and that what we call “normal” waking consciousness is just a “consensus trance”. NLP also makes central use of the idea of changing state, without it explicitly being a hypnotic phenomenon.

Indirect techniques

Where classical hypnosis is authoritative and direct, and often encounters resistance in the subject, Erickson’s approach is permissive, accommodating and indirect. For example, where a classical hypnotist might say “You are going into a trance”, an Ericksonian hypnotist would be more likely to say “you can ”comfortably learn” how to go into a trance”. In this way, he provides an opportunity for the subject to accept the suggestions they are most comfortable with, at their own pace, and with an awareness of the benefits. The subject knows they are not being hustled, and takes full ownership of, and participation in their transformation. Because the induction takes place during the course of a normal conversation, Ericksonian hypnosis is often known as Covert or Conversational Hypnosis.

Erickson maintained that it was not possible consciously to instruct the unconscious mind, and that authoritarian suggestions were likely to be met with resistance. The unconscious mind responds to openings, opportunities, metaphors, symbols, and contradictions. Effective hypnotic suggestion, then, should be “artfully vague”, leaving space for the subject to fill in the gaps with their own unconscious understandings – even if they do not consciously grasp what is happening. The skilled hypnotherapist constructs these gaps of meaning in a way most suited to the individual subject – in a way which is most likely to produce the desired change.

For example the authoritative “you will stop smoking” is likely to find less leverage on the unconscious level than “you can become a non-smoker”. The first is a direct command, to be obeyed or ignored (and notice that it draws attention to the act of smoking), the second is an opening, an invitation to possible lasting change, without pressure, and which is less likely to raise resistance.

Richard Bandler and John Grinder identified this kind of “artful vagueness” as a central characteristic of their ‘Milton Model’, a systematic attempt to codify Erickson’s hypnotic language patterns.

Confusion technique

In all my techniques, almost all, there is a confusion.

A confused person has their conscious mind busy and occupied, and is very much inclined to draw upon unconscious learnings to make sense of things. A confused person is in a trance of their own making – and therefore goes readily into that trance without resistance. Confusion might be created by ambiguous words, complex or endless sentences, pattern interruption or a myriad of other techniques to incite transderivational searches.

Scottish surgeon James Braid, who coined the term “hypnotism”, claimed that focused attention was essential for creating hypnotic trances; indeed, his thesis was that hypnosis was in essence a state of extreme focus. But it can be difficult for people racked by pain, angst or suspicion to focus on anything at all. Thus other techniques for inducing trance become important, or as Erickson explained:

… long and frequent use of the confusion technique has many times effected exceedingly rapid hypnotic inductions under unfavourable conditions such as acute pain of terminal malignant disease and in persons interested but hostile, aggressive, and resistant…

Handshake induction

Among Erickson’s best-known innovations is the hypnotic handshake induction, which is a type of confusion technique. The induction is done by the hypnotist going to shake hands with the subject, then interrupting the flow of the handshake in some way, such as by grabbing the subject’s wrist instead. If the handshake continues to develop in a way which is out-of-keeping with expectations, a simple, non-verbal trance is created, which may then be reinforced or utilized by the hypnotist. All these responses happen naturally and automatically without telling the subject to consciously focus on an idea.

This induction works because shaking hands is one of the actions learned and operate as a single “chunk” of behavior; tying shoelaces is another classic example. If the behavior is diverted or frozen midway, the person literally has no mental space for this – he is stopped in the middle of unconsciously executing a behavior that hasn’t got a “middle”. The mind responds by suspending itself in trance until either something happens to give a new direction, or it “snaps out”. A skilled hypnotist can often use that momentary confusion and suspension of normal processes to induce trance quickly and easily.

The various descriptions of Erickson’s hypnotic handshake, including his own very detailed accounts, indicate that a certain amount of improvisation is involved, and that watching and acting upon the subject’s responses is key to a successful outcome.

Erickson described the routine as follows:

:*Initiation: When I begin by shaking hands, I do so normally. The “hypnotic touch” then begins when I let loose. The letting loose becomes transformed from a firm grip into a gentle touch by the thumb, a lingering drawing away of the little finger, a faint brushing of the subject’s hand with the middle finger – just enough vague sensation to attract the attention. As the subject gives attention to the touch of your thumb, you shift to a touch with your little finger. As your subject’s attention follows that, you shift to a touch with your middle finger and then again to the thumb.

:*This arousal of attention is merely an arousal without constituting a stimulus for a response.

:*The subject’s withdrawal from the handshake is arrested by this attention arousal, which establishes a waiting set, and expectancy.

:*Then almost, but not quite simultaneously (to ensure separate neural recognition), you touch the undersurface of the hand (wrist) so gently that it barely suggests an upward push. This is followed by a similar utterly slight downward touch, and then I sever contact so gently that the subject does not know exactly when – and the subject’s hand is left going neither up nor down, but cataleptic.

:*Termination: If you don’t want your subject to know what you are doing, you simply distract their attention, usually by some appropriate remark, and casually terminate. Sometimes they remark, “What did you say? I got absentminded there for a moment and wasn’t paying attention to anything.” This is slightly distressing to the subjects and indicative of the fact that their attention was so focused and fixated on the peculiar hand stimuli that they were momentarily entranced so they did not hear what was said.

:*Utilisation: Any utilisation leads to increasing trance depth. All utilisation should proceed as a continuation of extension of the initial procedure. Much can be done nonverbally; for example, if any subjects are just looking blankly at me, I may slowly shift my gaze downward, causing them to look at their hand, which I touch and say “look at this spot.”. This intensifies the trance state. Then, whether the subjects are looking at you or at their hand or just staring blankly, you can use your left hand to touch their elevated right hand from above or the side – so long as you merely give the suggestion of downward movement. Occasionally a downward nudge or push is required. If a strong push or nudge is required, check for anaesthesia.

Richard Bandler was a keen proponent of the handshake induction, and developed his own variant, which is commonly taught in NLP workshops.

Any habitual pattern which is interrupted unexpectedly will cause sudden and light trance. The handshake is a particularly good pattern to interrupt because the formality of a handshake is a widely understood set of social rules. Since everyone knows that it would be impolite to comment on the quality of a handshake, regardless of how strange it may be, the subject is obliged to embark on an inner search (known as a transderivational search, a universal and compelling type of trance) to identify the meaning or purpose of the subverted pattern.

Resistance

Erickson recognised that many people were intimidated by hypnosis and the therapeutic process, and took care to respect the special resistances of the individual patient. In the therapeutic process he said that “you always give the patient every opportunity to resist”. Here are some more relevant quotes pertaining to resistance:

:Whatever the behaviour offered by the subjects, it should be accepted and utilized to develop further responsive behaviour. Any attempt to “correct” or alter the subjects’ behaviour, or to force them to do things they are not interested in, militates against trance induction and certainly deep trance experience.

If the patient can be led to accept one suggestion, they will more readily accept others. With resistant patients, it becomes necessary to find a suggestion that they can accept. Resistance is always important, and should always be respected, so if the resistance itself is encouraged, the patient is made to feel more comfortable, because they know that they are allowed to respond however they wish.

:Many times, the apparently active resistance encountered in subjects is no more than an unconscious measure of testing the hypnotist’s willingness to meet them halfway instead of trying to force them to act entirely in accord with his ideas.

Although the idea of working with resistance is essentially a hypnotic one, it goes beyond hypnosis and trance. In a typical example, a girl that bit her nails was told that she was cheating herself of really enjoying the nail biting. He encouraged her to let ”some” of her nails grow a little longer before biting them, so that she really could derive the fullest pleasure from the activity. She decided to grow ”all” of her nails long enough that she might really enjoy biting them, and then, after some days, she realised that she didn’t want to bite them anyway.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Milton H. Erickson, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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This concept has grown popular due to Rhonda Byrne’s ”The Secret” (also a 2006 film) and The Law of Attraction series by Esther Hicks and Jerry Hicks. These books and teachers express similar ideas to Napoleon Hill’s classic book ”Think and Grow Rich”. Byrne was inspired in particular by New Thought pioneer Wallace D. Wattles’ 1910 book ”The Science of Getting Rich”. Affirmations are also referred to in Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), Neuro Associative Conditioning “NAC” as popularized by Anthony Robbins, and hypnosis.

A related belief is that a certain critical mass of people with a highly spiritual consciousness will bring about a sudden change in the whole population. And that humans have a responsibility to take part in positive creative activity and to work to heal ourselves, each other and the Earth.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Affirmations (New Age), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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McKenna learned hypnosis and NLP from Richard Bandler, co-creator of Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

McKenna uses Thought Field Therapy in many of his television demonstrations and studied under Roger Callahan, the creator of TFT. Roger Callahan, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Roger received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Syracuse University.

McKenna also teaches the Zen meditation ‘Big Mind’. He presents the process with its creator, American Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi, abbot and founder of Kanzeon Zen Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received transmission in both Soto Zen and Rinzai Zen. Merzel was the second Dharma Successor of Taizan Maezumi roshi, with whom he began his Zen practice in the 1970s.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Paul McKenna, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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