I got a call from someone who wanted to know if hypnosis could be used to help them learn English. The caller said he was French. I said his English sounded fine to me. He agreed but thought it could be better and that, in any case, there were others studying with him who were not as good and were interested in hypnosis themselves.

And I really didn't know what the answer was.

In the past I have enabled people to recover languages they had spoken as children but had lost having emigrated at a young age and spent most of their lives speaking a different language. But I've never used hypnosis to help someone speak a new language, and that's what I told the enquirer. Thinking on my feet I said that hypnosis could certainly help someone to study better, and to retain what they learned better and so to that extent it might be helpful. Thus, I thought I could help a history student be a better history student but I didn't think I could use hypnosis to teach them history. I said that if I spoke French and could teach English, then I might be able to use hypnosis as a teaching aid, but that as I didn't speak good enough French and am not a teacher that wasn't an option and, unfortunately, I didn't know any French speaking, English teaching hypnotherapists.

All of which was clearly just waffle because I really didn't know what the answer was.

I concluded that I didn't think I could help. He thanked me for my time and that was that.

Thinking about it further, if his mates' English was very poor then they'd need a French speaking hypnotherapist anyway, wouldn't they?

The next enquiry was "Can you help my psychotic son who has just puched me in the head and perforated my eardrum?" That was much easier to handle.

Best wishes

barry

My first visitor this morning was an alcoholic who has not abused alcohol since January 2007. I see her every few months.

This time she told me she'd had a wobble in November that had led to her having a couple of cans of beer, going to bed and getting straight again.

Her subc (subconscious mind) told me it was about not deserving to be happy, so I dealt with that. When I woke her up she was a little bit emotional, but enough to suggest there was something unresolved going on. I re-induced and asked the subc what was up.

"We're saying goodbye."

"Goodbye to whom?"

"To the child all the bad things happened to."

"Is it right for you to do that now?"

"Yes."

"Would you like me to take her and find her another host?"

"Yes, please."

"Where is she?"

The patient pointed to her liver. I helped the 'child' out and promised her a happy Christmas with a new family.

Now before you run off thinking I'm nuts, there was, for me, no child in need of another host/home/family. But there was for my patient. The next time I woke her she was right as rain, and happy.

Best wishes

barry

I'm a full time clinical hypnotist. My practice is mostly provate but I also work with the Occupational Health Department of Kingston Hospital, with several local Primary Care Trusts and am a registered practitioner with a private health insurer. Yesterday I got a call from a GP asking if he could have more leaflets, and a request form a Director of Public Health to attend a group hypnotherapy session I do every month at the hospital.

I am a clinical hypnotist rather than a hypnotherapist - a distinction which often causes controversy. Briefly, in my practice the hypnotism is the sine non qua of what I do. Without hypnotism I think I'm just chatting to the patient. I believe hypnotism is an act of communication between one subconscious mind and another - not a state of relaxation.  

I don't expect anyone else to agree with me and I don't demand I'm right; I'm just right for me and my patients.

I have a DVD, "Hypnotism for Hypnotherapists" available from my site at http://www.mindsci-clinic.com and once I figure out how to do it I'll post a couple of clips to the video section here.

Best wishes

Barry Thain PDCHyp MBSCH NRH