We’re pleased to announce that there will be a number of free accredited CPD courses for our NBH members. These will be made available during 2024.
We ask our members to engage in regular CPD training events. These are important as they allow us to ‘maintain and enhance’ best practice techniques. They also allow us to stay updated on all of the latest thinking within the world of hypnotherapy.
Hypnotherapy: taming the elephant
I’ve just read the most marvellous article on hypnotherapy. Stay with me on this one. Using the words ‘most marvellous’ might have sent the most discerning among you thinking that I’m heading into ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ territory for this month’s newsletter. Not so.
The article’s writer might not have been P G Wodehouse but she’s certainly worthy of an accolade for a journalistic equivalence in our modern world. Nor is it a recent piece.
Rather it was one written during the height of lockdown (that’s something which seems to be an age ago now, thankfully).
The Guardian’s Deborah Frances-White put pen to paper (or, perhaps, I should say fingers to keyboard) to explain how hypnotherapy worked for her. The article instantly drew me in. The title? ‘I tried hypnotherapy – and it worked almost too well.’
‘Try’ is a bit of a ‘no go’ area of a word for us. ‘Try’ implies failure and so should be used sparingly (if ever). The juxtaposition of the word ‘try’ alongside a title which implied substantial success meant I couldn’t resist the pull of the piece – and I dived straight in.
In precis, the writer decided to kick some bad habits and lockdown seemed a good time to tackle them. She provides us with an brilliant summary of how the brain works. It’s brief. Very brief. And without any technical terminology.
That said, this is a Features’ article and not a training manual. So, I guess, brevity is good. She uses the ‘elephant metaphor’ to explain the difference between the conscious and the subconscious.
For the uninitiated, imagine an elephant with a person sitting on top of it. If the person is in charge then the elephant meanders along a path and all is well in the world. If the elephant is in charge… well, I guess you can imagine the outcome.
Ditto for the intellectual part of the brain and the subconscious. If our pre-frontal cortex is in charge then we should be able to ‘adapt, improvise and overcome.’
If the primitive brain is ‘ruling the roost’ then we can’t readily change things. Instead, we stick with what we know – even it it’s the thing which is causing us an issue. Smoking is the obvious example of primitive brain thinking. Anyway, I digress.
She makes some great observational points about her previous experience with a visit to a hypnotherapist. She describes the premises as being a ‘dirty office above a shop in north London.’
She’s concerned that the negative first impression might be ‘seeping in when I’m in a trance state.’ Not a great start for her – but it is a great reminder for all of us to run that all important duster around our practice rooms to keep things looking neat and tidy.
Next up is the approach of the practitioner. She was keen to avoid a ‘blindly optimistic Californian.’ And then comes my favourite phrase of the whole piece: ‘It’s hard to be hypnotised when you’re rolling your eyes.’ Bingo.
I guess that’s a big part of the therapeutic relationship between us and the client. If their approach is rooted in a primitive brain response then a certain type of cynicism might be their ‘go to’ response. For us, it means the chances of success significantly decrease.
If, on the other hand, we can thoroughly explain how the process works and provide that all importance guidance, and reassurance, we are more likely to see a positive response from them.
Deborah concludes that she finds hypnotherapy to be hugely helpful for her goals to be more organised. She talks about finding herself ‘accidentally squaring things away.’
She adds that, after many years of ‘loathing’ the process of ‘tidying up,’ all she had to do ‘was get my elephant to enjoy putting things away on its own time.’
The result of her hypnotherapy experience? She told her friends who also booked sessions. There was no eye rolling from them either and the piece ends with a light set of remarks about how effective hypnotherapy can be for clients.
Reading about our profession can be a fantastic discussion point in our supervision sessions as we gain insights into what works – and what doesn’t work.
With the guidance of our supervisor, we can adapt our own approach to ensure the client can successfully tame their own ‘inner elephant’ and live their lives with a happy contentment and away from the distractions of the primitive brain.