Certified Hypnotherapists

The spring 2010 Hypnosummit was this past weekend, and once again, it was another very worthwhile event. I'll highlight some of the sessions I enjoyed the most. Those of you who attended with a Gold pass, you can go to the Library Archives area and view recordings of any of the sessions for the next three weeks.

I mostly concentrated on the live sessions this year, so I could interact with the speakers and ask questions. The technology is slowly improving, and in his Key Note, Scott Sandland, founder and key organizer of the Hypnosummit, promised many more improvements before the fall summit. I was a bit disappointed that the software hadn't evolved more, and there were some annoying audio-dropout problems. Such is the lot with new technology, however.

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Most professional hypnotherapists are small business people, and small business skills are just as important to a successful hypnotherapy business as trance skills and people skills.

However, while we've trained in the trance skills at school with teachers, the classes probably didn't include many hours of business skills. Business skills are simultaneously simple ("just do it") and complex (do what, when and why, and how much?)

There is a fabulous web site now available that will help any small business person figure out the big-picture plan with powerful strength of direction and specificity. It's called "Good Little Biz", at http://goodlittlebiz.com.

There you will find videos of Marsha Shenk, the site's creator and owner, explaining how to work though seven worksheets of questions to answer for yourself.

I've always found one of the most amazing uses of hypnosis to be in the area of pain control. The idea that full surgery can be done without any anesthesia has always been, in my opinion, one of the most impressive applications of hypnosis.

I've often mentioned to clients or audiences that hypnosis was used in many surgeries in the 1800's, especially noted in the Civil War for amputations. Not only would the operation be pain-free, but the survival rate was much higher and healing much faster with patients that had hypnoanesthesia.

That's why I was so pleased to find the article, "Hypnosis as Sole Anesthesia for Major Surgeries: Historical & Contemporary Perspectives," which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Oct 2008. It is not only an excellent reference on the history of hypnoanesthesia, focusing on the two most noted surgeons that used it in the Victorian age, but the author also covers modern cases, applications and results of hypnoanesthesia from his personal experience.

I find that at parties, dinners, meetings and whenever I meet new people, people are interested in hypnosis and love to ask questions and talk about it.

One of the most fun areas of making conversation can be around all the strange names for phobias. Remember when Lucy asks Charlie Brown if he has panophobia?

"What's that?" Charlie Brown asks.

"Fear of everything," Lucy replies.

"THAT'S IT!!" yells Charlie Brown.

As a hypnotherapist you know that hypnotherapy can be very effective for reducing and eliminating phobias. In my experience, a little entertaining conversation about phobias has always done a great job of putting people at ease and creating a few laughs. It makes it very easy to say something like, "Oh yes, hypnosis works well on phobias, smoking, weight control, stress management... plus all the cool exploration like past life regression." That almost always resulted in them asking me for my card.

RE: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hypnosis/SA00084

Every professional hypnotherapist should know what the Mayo Clinic is telling consumers about hypnosis. Chances are that savvy consumers that are researching hypnosis will have read it. You might even link to it from your web site or profile as a resource for your potential clients to learn about the myths and truths about hypnosis.

Covered in the article are these topics:

• What is hypnosis?
• Who is hypnosis for?
• Types of hypnosis
• Myths about hypnosis
• How to choose a qualified professional
• Risks of hypnosis

It is, overall, a good article. The weakest section by far is the last section, "Risks of hypnosis," where it states that hypnosis can cause "headache, dizziness and nausea", though such side effects "are uncommon". We all know those aren't risks of hypnosis, in fact, those are often the symptoms hypnosis is used to reduce and eliminate, especially in conjunction with medications and medical procedures.

Hypnotherapists everywhere are discovering the extra business income available from selling MP3 hypnosis (recorded audio sessions) online. A few hypnotherapists are really making a lot of money this way.

I certainly recommend getting as many of your own MP3 audio sessions as possible up on the Internet for sale, and there dozens of ways to do that. You have all kinds of options, from services like Amazon that will take care of everything for you (and take 60% of the sale) to operating your own shopping cart (where you keep 100% of the revenue) and every combination in between.

Be sure to mention at the beginning of each session that the suggestions and imagery included in the MP3 sessions are generic, and that the advantages of seeing a hypnotherapist in person include personalized suggestions and world-model as well as customized imagery of your preference, and that these things do make a significant difference. This helps potential clients understand why they would want to call you and book an appointment.

I have found a method quite by accident that works with the special needs child to promote independence and increased ability to achieve self control. This method utilizes stories with both familiar and unfamiliar characters. These stories promote independent play by providing coaching by cd. The cd’s help the child to play more independently and also to learn new coping strategies. Relaxing music with familiar nature sounds seems to help the children to learn better. It also increases creativity in the children by helping them to compose their own fantasy people to introduce to the therapist. Children both benefit and enjoy it because they are in trance easily and naturally and they enjoy cds with their name and familiar people in the stories. The children that I have helped by this method have gotten increased self esteem and self efficacy.
One child could not be alone and play for more than two minutes. Now, he comfortably plays for fifteen minutes. Both the coached play and the blend of both the familiar and the unfamiliar seem to help.

One common call for the hypnotherapist is to help with insomnia. The tricky thing about insomnia is that it is many times connected to stress from huge problems. Sometimes simple relaxation inductions and suggestions for good sleep work, and sometimes there is much more to be shifted before results come.

As hypnotherapists, it is part of our job and commitment to our clients to be healthy, mentally fit and well-rested so that we can provide the best possible service. And yet, when we are well-rested and ready for the day, it can be easy to forget the ravages that lack of sleep can wreak upon us and our clients.

Here's an article I saw that talk specifically about the subtle and not-so-subtle effects of poor sleep, especially over the long term. Keep this in your bookmarks, and review it before seeing any clients with insomnia.

Nathan Thomas is an impressive young man. A young New Zealand hypnotist, he is also a co-founder of the International Association for Teenage Hypnotists. Using the Internet to connect with other hypnosis fans and experts around the world is natural for Nathan, and he has a blog called "Key's to the Mind" where he has videos, articles and interviews about hypnosis and NLP - as well as several other web sites.

I've been watching Nathan's web sites and progress for a few months now, and I must say that he is one of the new hypnosis whiz kids. Not only is he smart, determined, and excited, but he is learning and improving an all fronts quickly. His interviewing skills, for example, have improved dramatically in the last few months. We could all learn something from Nathan's openess and excitement around learning and "going for it."

He's posted two new interviews this weekend, both are well worth the listen.

You probably already know about the Global Hypnosis eSummit happening this weekend (Mar 13-15), an online conference with over 100 hours of sessions (wow).

This is the direction that many conferences are taking this year, with the travel and fuel expenses and economy the way they are. And technology is here just in time: online conference technology before last year was still a little clunky. We now have companies that are specializing in online conferences - expansive, organized web seminars, really - and have brought developed Flash technology to bear. Thanks to the now widespread availability of broadband Internet service, this is probably really the first year that offering large online virtual conferences is really a viable option.

This will be my first time attending an online conference using this company, exPos2. I'm excited to see how it all works.

And as much as I'm glad to be missing all of the travel hassles and expense (and parking!), an online mix of folks just isn't the same as live, face-to-face time, and I don't think it ever will be.

However, I'm always looking to get closer to that face-to-face level of experience. To support getting as close as we can this year, AAPH is sponsoring and operating the eSummit Virtual Lounge in Second Life, a 3D world with Avatars that move, talk and interact.