Cognitive Hypnotherapy, Counselling & Life Coaching

In her new monthly column in the Mail on Sunday, Star of BBC's "What Not To Wear", Lisa Butcher reveals she visited a Quest-trained Cognitive Hypnotherapist to boost her confidence in front of camera. In her words,

"When I started work on What Not To Wear at the BBC, the clothes I wore were important, but that was not enough to give me the confidence I needed. I discovered a solution in cognitive hypnotherapy/ neuro-linguistic programming with the Quest Institute. I went to two sessions and that was enough to build up my strengths and deal with my anxieties."

As Quest trained Cognitive Hypnotherapists ourselves, it is great to see the approach we use reaching the stars...

If you would like to boost your confidence or self esteem, why not contact us and see how we can help.

(And if you are not in our area, why not find a Quest trained Cognitive Hypnotherapist near you...)

"At a hospital in Peterborough, Bernadine Coady, has been having routine knee surgery.

But unlike most patients, she was not given any anaesthetic - instead, the 67-year-old claimed she used self-hypnosis to control the pain.

She told surgeon Ahmed Shair of the private Orthopaedics and Spine Specialist Hospital in Cambridgeshire that she could feel only tugging and pulling.

Despite much research, nobody knows exactly how the technique works but Mrs Coady says anyone is capable of using self-hypnosis to control pain if they train their mind."

(BBC News - Monday, 7 July 2008 (Video available))

What a shining example of the power of self-hypnosis, and hats off to Bernadine, not only for doing it all on her own - but also having a film crew in the operating theatre with her every step of the way.

Hypnosis has been used as a form of pain control for centuries, but fell out of popular use when modern anaesthetics were developed. However, some progressive modern surgeons (notably Irish surgeon, Dr Jack Gibson) have continued to use it in their work. Dr Jack, now 92 (and still working!), has performed over 4000 procedures using hypnosis instead of anaesthetic.

Modern neuroscience suggests that hypnosis works the same way as an anaesthetic - by blocking or altering the way the mind processes the pain signals coming from the body. MRI scans show the physical brain activity actually changes as a person goes into self hypnosis. Unlike anaesthetic, however, Hypnosis has no side effects, and studies show that patients actually recover much faster.

From our perspective, it is great to see yet more unquestionable proof that hypnosis works - helping to dispel further the hollywood myths and stage show shenanigans that have dogged its past. The mind is a powerful thing, and hypnosis allows each one of us to tap into its full power to make change in our lives - if we will allow ourselves to do so.

The Guardian and Observer are running a two part feature on massage and relaxation this weekend, and we are listed in the section on Cognitive Hypnotherapy.

Here are some extracts from the article on Cognitive Hypnotherapy.

"Cognitive hypnotherapy provides overworked minds with the toolkit they need to fix their own stresses and strains. It is based on modern psychology and neuroscience and, don't worry, there's not a pendulum in sight ...

... In 2001, Trevor Silvester set up the Quest Institute (questinstitute.co.uk) and introduced the idea of combining hypnosis with cognitive behavioural therapy, tools from positive psychology, cognitive theory and neuro-linguistic programming...

...There's no one way to treat stress or to encourage relaxation, it all depends on the way you see things - your model of the world. As part of a session, the client is supplied with a toolkit for the mind. This enables them to use different tools to fix different mental states...

...everyone has the capacity to adopt new mental tools, and anyone can be hypnotised. The only prerequisite is to be open to the process."

As specialists in Stress, Anxiety and Panic, we can help you to deal more effectively with the strain of modern living. Whether you want to learn to relax more, break an unhelpful pattern of behaviour or find more balance and happiness in your life, we are ready to help you.