When I was given a kindle earlier this year as a mother’s day gift, I was honestly not quite sure if I would get used to it.   I have loved books all my life, not just the words but also the feel of them and, not being particularly technical, I thought that using an electronic book may not be for me.  I was wrong.  Initially I have to admit that it did feel a bit strange not having that very safe, comforting, feeling of curling up with a book but I have adapted to it now, and I particularly love ‘browsing’ in the kindle shop – it means that my previous hobby of spending hours in bookshops can now be done whilst in bed/curled up on the sofa/on holiday etc.  However, as it is so easy to click on the ‘buy’ button I do have to be aware of the fact that my budget does have certain limits.

The kindle book that I am reading at the moment is ‘Cognitive Hypnotherapy – what is that all about?’ by Trevor Sylvester.   Trevor is a highly respected hypnotherapist who runs the Quest Institute in London, a hypnotherapy training organisation, and he has pioneered many cutting edge techniques, in particular ‘word weaving’, which is a way that the therapist can use the clients own view of the world (their words, their patterns of thinking, their own unique reality) to construct hypnosis scripts that really get to the heart of that particular client’s problem.    Some hypnotherapists tend to use the same scripts on all the clients (a sort of ‘one size fits all’) and whilst this can have a positive effect, it is miles better to make the treatment adapt to the client, rather than the other way around.

Cognitive hypnotherapy is a unique combination of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) which the NHS now  uses widely with its patients, and hypnotherapy.   CBT works by getting you to be aware of your thought patterns and emotions, and how they can sometimes run in a loop, which sometimes then becomes a vicious self-fulfilling cycle.   The therapist shows you that your thoughts are not facts, and you can challenge them – it is almost by standing back and looking at this pattern from a different perspective, you can be aware that it is possible to think and feel differently.

Where I believe CBT falls short is that the therapy still uses the conscious, analytical part of your brain to assess how you feel, and this is only ever going to give limited success.   Much more powerful, I believe, is a combination of CBT and hypnotherapy, where the negative thought patterns can still be assessed, but this time by the sub-conscious mind in hypnosis, and as this part of the mind is much more creative, imaginative an open to suggestion, deep longer-lasting changes can be made.   It is also possible to go back, in hypnosis, to particular events in the clients life, which are still causing significant problems, and the negative effect of these traumatic events can be ‘dissolved’ by hypnotic intervention.

Therapy has to be ‘client centered’ to be effective, and it is my believe that the best therapists around at the moment are using combinations of CBT, hypnotherapy and NLP in their practice in order to make sure that their treatment is tailored to the client.

In my practice, I draw on many different disciplines, as well as hypnotherapy.   No two patients are alike, and we need to be acutely aware of their ‘world’ before even attempting to help them.  By using elements of CBT, NLP, as well as hypnotherapy, I believe that I offer an effective method of achieving long-lasting positive change.

Call me on 01449 780352 or 0781 7158429, or email me at wendy@wendychalk.co.uk,  to find out how I can help you.

Best wishes,
Wendy