Smoking Cessation

I had my first attempt at helping with smoking cessation yesterday. I thought it went really well, he didn't leave as a non-smoker at the end of the session though - but that was never the plan. It was mostly information gathering (why he wants to stop, why he started, what he gets out of it, etc.). I should hopefully be doing the second session tomorrow, and that's where all that information will be put to good use - so that I'll be able to make sure it's tailored specifically to him. E.g. it would be pointless for me to focus on the health benefits of giving up smoking if he's not particularly concerned about them. So if all goes according to plan, he should leave the next session as a non-smoker. The actual hypnosis part of the first session yesterday was just focusing on becoming a non-smoker at the second session, and to get him familiar with the experience of being hypnotised.

It did feel a bit strange doing an interview with one of my friends, and I maybe should have made some notes as well instead of just relying on my MP3 player to record it all. A few trains went past so it's difficult to hear a couple of parts of it. Maybe I'll know better for next time, but I've never been much of a fan of pen & paper :)

Becoming a hypnotherapist

Now that I've managed to actually find some interesting hypnosis related web sites and a few mailing lists, I've noticed a fairly regular stream of people asking questions like "how do I become a hypnotist?". Well I'm not quite there yet, but I can strongly recommend a good hands on course. It is more expensive than a few books, but you definitely need the practical experience and being able to talk to real people in person helps a hell of a lot. I tried the book-only thing for a while (partly because of the complete lack of anything useful online), and after reading my first ever hypnosis book (which I wouldn't recommend these days, but at least it was easy to read), I managed to induce one of my friends into trance and get him to enjoy drinking coffee (he never used to like the stuff). That was about all I did manage in the few years since, apart from buying more books that is. It wasn't until one of my friends saw a hypnotherapy course being run locally, and I signed up, that my learning went at any kind of pace. I only started the foundation course in the second part of 2004, and I've already helped people for real. The diploma course has just started, and I'm working my way though a list of my friends that want help with various stuff (mostly smoking cessation). The books are still useful though, but I've found them to be much more useful after doing this course than they were before. So all in all, hands on learning with experienced hypnotherapists works really well (for me at least) and I'd definitely recommend NCTH. I'm sure it's not the only good one, it just happened to be the closest to me.

Learning hypnotherapy, weekend 1

Well, the first weekend of the diploma course I mentioned a little while ago has just happened. This one was mostly covering Smoking Cessation and Weight Control, the 'bread and butter' for most hypnotherapy practitioners. Both of those topics were covered pretty well I thought, and I'm confident I'd be able to help people with smoking cessation now. I'm probably going to leave weight control for a while though (we went into eating disorders to a fair depth as well, and I'd like to stay away from those). For the smoking cessation, I've already got a 'waiting list' of friends that want help with it. So I'll get plenty of practice for that one. Given that charging people money to help them give up smoking tends to give them even more motivation to stop, I wonder if the fact that it's going to be free for my friends will have a negative effect. Hopefully, it'll all work perfectly :). James Hamilton has some articles on smoking cessation, and I'll probably recommend everyone that wants my help with smoking cessation to at least read his overview.

We also spent a bit of time on amnesia and memory substitution. I can understand why some hypnotherapist would induce amnesia for the hypnosis session, to avoid the client analysing the suggestions and picking them apart, but I doubt I'm going to touch that one either. As for the memory substitution, I can't see a time when that would ever be the right choice - it just seems way over the top to me, and I can't help but think it would cause more problems that it's supposed to solve. No matter how traumatic an experience has been, blocking it just seems like the wrong answer. There's plenty other of techniques that could be used to disassociate from the experience. Even the course tutors said they wouldn't use this technique, which makes me wonder why it was being covered. Although it's still an interesting area, I just can't see myself ever using it.

The next course weekend covers regression, so that should be interesting as well. It's not until near the end of February though, but I do have some assignments to keep me going until then. Along with plenty of opportunity to practice smoking cessation :)

Confidence boost results

The friend of mine that I was helping out with some confidence boosting seems pretty happy with the results. He's noticed himself having more confidence about lots of things, not just for the specifics that the session focused on. Mostly small things, but still a definite improvement from his point of view. So Yay! again :)

Wakey wakey results

I had a chance for using hypnosis to help with getting up in the morning this week. The person I tried it with has been a guinea pig several times for me already, so I went for a more personalised induction instead of the fairly generic ones I've been using a lot. It worked really well from my point of view (at least for depth of trance) and according to him, it was the deepest into hypnosis he'd been before. So that's pretty good.

For the actual hypnosis, I tried installing an alert-and-awake type feeling in response to his alarm going off in the morning, as well as focusing on his day ahead. That was a few days ago, and so far it hasn't made a massive difference - but does seem to have helped. So I'll probably be doing a couple more next week or so, and hopefully he'll be happy with the results.

Wake up call

In my other life as a Software Developer, the start time for work is going to move to a slightly earlier time next week. Because of this, some of the folks at work have asked if I can help them wake up earlier using hypnosis. Seems like an interesting idea, and the best way for it to work is probably just to get them to change their reaction to the alarm clock in the morning. So instead of hitting snooze for another 5 minutes, they get up. Those kind of triggers are often used in hypnosis (such as a trigger word, e.g. "sleep", to send somebody back into trace) so I don't see any problems with that. As long as it's installed to only work when they're lying in bed in the morning as they hear their alarm clock, it should work fine. I think I'll see if I can come up with something ready for Monday, then I should be able to grab the folks that want it after work to give it a try. I wonder how long something like that would last before it wears off? Hopefully it'll become a habit before it does wear off, so they continue to get out of bed when their alarm clock goes off.

I could also use the same kind of thing for me as well, looks like I'll be getting out a microphone to record some new hypnosis mp3's for myself :)

Unexpected results during arm levitation

My friend with the fear of needles didn't end up going to the dentist as planned - he had to reschedule his appointment. So no results on that one yet, but on the plus side it does mean I should have time for another session to reinforce things a bit.

Speaking of hypnotherapy sessions, I was helping out another of my friends today. This time relating to confidence about stuff coming up in the next few days. Everything looked like it was going fine to me, but during (my favourite) arm levitation deepener he was really surprised that it was working . So surprised in fact, that he opened his eyes and almost started to laugh as he was telling me how bizarre it was. It was quite odd seeing his arm continue to drift upwards while he was talking to me about it :) It was good timing for the use of arm levitation though. Up until that point he didn't believe he was under at all, so was about to give up.

That's the first time I've had anyone open their eyes and start talking like that in the middle of a session, but when he closed them and we continued on with it everything seemed to go perfectly normal - so I'm pretty confident it was successful. I'll find out how things go for him a few days. So, once again - fingers crossed.

Fear of needles update

I did the hypnotherapy session today for the fear of needles that I mentioned yesterday. I was pretty happy with my plan for that session, it was one of the best ones I've planned. I tried to make some use of dissociation (which I hadn't done in the past) and took a lot more care with my choice of words. Unfortunately, I wasn't very happy with the way it went. I felt like I was fumbling my way through it quite a lot. I doubt my friend noticed though - he wouldn't have known the way I had things planned in the first place, but I still wasn't very happy with how I performed.

However, he did seem to think it went pretty well. So it's not all bad. I'll find out how things were for him at the dentist next time I speak to him. Fingers crossed.

More dental related hypnotherapy

Another bit of dental related hypnotherapy lined up for one of my friends, this time it's for a fear of needles. After a quick search around online, it didn't look very promising that hypnotherapy would be able to help with this. Several pages like this:

"Overcoming needle phobia does present special difficulties, and it does not usually respond well to traditional techniques for overcoming phobias"

Thankfully after asking about it on the Hypnosis.com forums, it seems hypnotherapy works just as well for needle phobia as any other kind of phobia (which is what I'd suspected in the first place, but the info I was finding with Google seemed to suggest otherwise). Also, after speaking to my friend a bit more about it, I think it's more of a general fear than a phobia, and that it's probably something specific to needles at the dentists (he feels fine with needles for piercing). Unfortunately I don't really have much time to prepare for this one - I'll be seeing him tomorrow pretty much straight before his dental appointment. So I'm probably going to focus on being generally relaxed while he's at the dentists (which is always a good thing), along with trying to boost his trust and confidence in the ability of his dentist. There's a fairly good trust metaphor for relaxing prior to medical work in Hypnotherapy Scripts (Havens & Walters) that will probably come in useful.

Hopefully I'll be able to help in some way, that's what all this is about after all. Also, if I don't it means my success rate will drop from 100% to 50%, which is nowhere near as satisfying :).