Sophie's Blog

Today I wanted to bring to your attention  this recent article (or should I say, argument?) running in The Guardian around the word “bogus” and what it means or implies when it is used to describe a form
of complementary health care.

The article discusses science writer Simon Singh’s use of the word “bogus” in a previous article published in The Guardian.

In this article, according to The Guardian:

‘Singh criticised the BCA for claiming that its members could use spinal manipulation to treat children with colic, ear infections, asthma, sleeping and feeding conditions, and prolonged crying. Singh described
the treatments as “bogus” and based on insuffcient evidence, and criticised the BCA for “happily promoting” them.’

The BCA (British Chiropractic Association) is now suing Singh for libel. It denies his criticisms and maintains that the efficacy of chiropractic treatments is well documented.

Singh is co-author with Professor Edzard Ernst of a recent book about alternative medicine called Trick or Treatment and maintains that, whilst chiropractic might be an effective treatment for back pain, its claims to be able to cure other medical problems are “bogus,” since Ernst examined 70 trials for the book and found no evidence to support this claim.

The current libel case between Singh and the BCA appears to hinge on Singh’s use of the word “bogus” to describe chiropractic treatment.That one little word is crucial. The judge ruling in the case, Mr Justice Eady, has said that because Singh used the word “bogus”, he now has to prove that chiropractors knew
these claims were worthless but “dishonestly presented them to a trusting and, in some respects
perhaps, vulnerable public.”

As a hypnotherapist that word “bogus” is very interesting to me. There are other words often bandied around to describe hypnotherapy - such as ‘unscientific’ or ‘voodoo.’ They are guaranteed to raise the heckles of the many professional and well-trained practitioners who, like me, continue to invest their own time and money (not public time and money, I might add, but their own) in ensuing that their practice is as informed, up-to-date and evidence-based as it is possible to be.

After all, can you say that for the GP you last visited? Can we say that the practices of many big pharmaceutical companies are not purposely misleading to the public? Recent examples I have blogged
about are the misinformation put out by manufacturers of nicotine patches, gum and spray and the prmoters of weight loss pills, all of which are regularly presecribed or available over the counter and which are understood by the public to be completely genuine and reliable forms of help. But are they?

OK, I am getting on a personal hobby horse now. The truth is that I do not know about chiropractic and, to be honest, if I had an ear infection, I would not choose to see a chiropractor or a hypnotherapist. I would go
to my GP. I might have to go back several times until I received the help I needed - but there are excellent GPs and not so good GPs, just as there are good hypnotherapists and some pretty poor ones too.

If I had a headache, I probably would not spend twenty minutes on letting go of it using self-hypnosis. I would be more likely to pop a couple of paracetamol. (Several of my colleagues would not agree with me here.) However, if that headache came back frequently and, let’s say, I noticed that I had a lot of tension in my body, I would acknowledge that I might need to do some work in self-hypnosis… or see my GP for further tests.

My point is that this is about appropriate behavior and good old common sense. I regularly insist that clients contacting me with headaches, tinnitus, stomach problems, and so on all ensure that they have
the appropriate tests done through their GPs before I agree to work with them. I see this as a matter of professional ethics and responsibility.

However, the problem with the word “bogus” is that it tends to feed this tendency among many elements of the mainstream media to lump all “alternative” medicine together as at best a load of hippy nonsense and
at worst something that is purposefully exploitative or misleading.

In my opinion, it is definitely not OK to spray words such as “bogus” or “nonsense” around so freely. That
in itself is misleading to the public and may prevent someone from getting the help they need.

When the book hypnotically titled ‘Trick or Treatment: Alterantive Medicine on Trial’ (and how’s that for a subtle implication?) by Ernst and Singh came out last year, I blogged about my disappointment
that, although hypnotherapy was recognised as useful by the authors in the treatment of tinnitus and fibromyalgia, their coverage of it was lumped in with complementary supplents - psyllium husks, St John’s
Wort, and the like -  which seemed a little odd. The book also completely ignored the growing evidence base for hypnotherapy’s use in mainstream medicine, incuding in IBS.

I don’t want to get embroiled in the debate about chiropractic, but what concerns me is the use of imprecise language in the media reporting of such important topics as health care. If we cannot question a writer’s
use of the word “bogus” in the Comments section of a national newspaper, where does that leave us? Surely writers on such issues need to be clear about whether they are reporting personal opinion and interpetation or hard fact? And hard facts, in the imprecise science of people’s minds and bodies, are often difficult to come by.

Add in the concept of the ‘expert’ who appoints himself or herself as gate-keeper to a body of knowledge/interpretation and you have a potentially dangerous situation.

Now Singh’s use of “bogus” is itself ‘on trial’ and you only have to look at the comments
in the The Guardian’s article online, again somewhat perjoratively titled Why are they trying to gag a top British science writer?‘ (who is ‘they’ and is ‘gagging’ or censorship actually what is going on
here?), to realise the extent of the support for Singh’s right to express his opinion in the word “bogus” and the utter contempt of many people for the judge in upholding the BCA’s rights in this case.

I find it worrying.

I would like to see more awareness of the language we use when we talk about health care of any kind. It really does matter.

Tags: bogus, Ernst, Singh
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Here’s a great way to begin the week, with news that a leading researcher in psychiatry and behavioral sciences is calling upon NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence) here in the UK to:

‘add hypnotherapy to its list of approved therapeutic techniques for the treatment of conditions ranging from allergies and high blood pressure to the pain associated with cancer
treatment and bone marrow transplantation.’

This article in The Telegraph today reports that Professor David Spiegel, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University, wants (NICE) to ’sanction sweeping changes.’

The article reports Professor Spiegel as saying:

“It is time for hypnosis to work its way into the mainstream of British medicine.”

“There is solid science behind what sounds like mysticism and we need to get that message across to the bodies that influence this area.

“Hypnosis has no negative side-effects. It makes operations quicker, as the
patient is able to talk to the surgeon as the operation proceeds, and it is cheaper than conventional pain relief. Since it does not interfere with the workings of the body, the patient recovers faster,
too.

“It is also extremely powerful as a means of pain relief. Hypnosis has been accepted and rejected because people are nervous of it. They think it’s either too powerful or not powerful enough, but,
although the public are sceptical, the hardest part of the procedure is getting other doctors to accept it.”

It is certainly wonderful for well-trained and experienced hypnotherapists everywhere to have this kind of support. In fact, as the article points out, NICE has already sanctioned the use of hypnotherapy in the treatment of IBS, an issue that I work on with many clients each year.

As regular readers of my blog will know, my mother recently used hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis to overcome the fear and anxiety surrounding her recent hip peration. She also used a self-hypnosis audio programme before, during and after the procedure (undergone with a local spinal injection) and has, I am delighted to report, made an unusually speedy and excellent recovery.

She spent only 15 minutes in the recovery room, was in hospital for just two nights after the major operation and is now at almost full mobility after only eight weeks. Her progress is something that everyone involved in her care has remarked upon, from the surgeon and anaesthetist to the nursing staff and her GP. She is a brilliant example of how hypnosis represents opportunities for genuine cost-savings to the NHS, reducing time in hospital and aiding post-operative recovery time and healing.

It’s disappointing, therefore, to read in the same article that Professor Steve
Field, who chairs the Royal College of General Practitioners, has described hypnosis in the following way:

“It is a useful tool used by some GPs and patients for relaxation, but I don’t think it is something that we should support being rolled out to all medical students and all doctors,” he said.

“We can’t call on the NHS to support it without there being a firm medical and economic
basis, and I’m not convinced those have been proved to exist.”

Tags: anaesthesia, Benson, Field, medicine, NICE, Spiegel
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Yesterday evening, we walked up the road to our local infant school to vote.

Every time I do this, I find myself incredibly moved because I remember just how lucky I am to live in a democracy and have a right to exercise my vote and make my voice heard.

Why do I get all overwhelmed when I vote?

Well, firstly, it is not so long ago that, as a woman in the UK, I would not have been allowed to do this.

The right to vote in the UK was only extended to single women over the age of 30 after the First World War, in 1918. (It was hoped that women’s votes would not outnumber men and that they would vote as their husbands instructed them.) And it was only in 1928 that women in the UK received the vote on equal terms with men (over the age of 21.)

For me, living here now in 2009, that is a pretty incredible concept: that my grandmothers and great-grandmothers would not have had the same right to vote as the men they went to school with. I feel incredibly moved to think that other people fought hard for my right to put my cross on that ballot paper. The last suffragettes were only released from UK prisons in 1917!

And the other reason that I always feel a big surge of emotion as I go to cast my vote is because, over the years, I have worked with many refugees and asylum seekers from countries where very few people have a vote or a voice. I have worked with women and men who have had their spirits crushed by oppressive regimes. There are many, many places in the world today where, when government ministers indulge in scams, expense claims and other shady stuff, noone hears about it or it cannot be discussed in the media and by the people. The penalty for this kind of discussion, or for challenging the people who govern you, is that you simply disappear off the face of the earth.

When I cast my vote, I think of all the men and women in the world who do not have this same right.

Isn’t it important to remember that, although there may be many problems in the UK right now, at least we can discuss them openly, challenge our leaders, and find solutions? If we want to get involved and make our voices heard, we have a right to do so and to be listened to.

This is why I have been getting just a little tired of hearing from those who moan and complain: about democracy, about the corruption of MPs, about how there’s just no point in voting because who will we vote for, etc, etc.

I know that we don’t live in a country where opportunities are equal for everyone. I know that there are many things that need to change. And there are so many things that work well and are going so well for us too!

If we’re feeling let down, we can do something to change things. Whatever our politics, we have choices and possibilities, access to education and personal development and the chance to challenge, to create something new.

After I cast my vote last night, I felt a little high on life. I looked around me at all the other people coming in and out of the polling station and I felt good. I felt good that these people could walk down the street to vote without fear; that they could stop for a moment and enjoy the sunshine in the school grounds. In this country, most of us (not all of us, no, but most) have  food on the table and a roof over our heads and so we are free to indulge in the luxury of thinking about what else to do with our lives, how to develop ourselves and educate ourselves and entertain ourselves. We even have some time left for moaning about our politicians, shouting at them on our nice shiny TV sets and generally grumbling and getting angry, or even writing blog posts about how we feel. 

Wow! That is a pretty amazing situation to be in, don’t you think?

I don’t particularly like the ‘there are always people worse off than you are’ brand of pop psychology. That is not always much help when you’ve been feeling really low and mired in your own problems.

But today, please do exercise your human and democratic right to look out of the window from time to time, take a walk on your lunch break, breathe in the fresh air and sunshine and feel free to make the choices you want to make, to love your life and change your life in any way you choose. Because you can.

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As you’re reading this, what else are you doing?

Maybe you’re drinking a cup of coffee, talking on the phone, thinking about what you really ought to be doing instead of reading this, flicking between windows or tabs on your internet browser?

On Monday evening, Tom and I were driving behind a car that seemed a little lost. At least, I found myself trying to guess what was happening to the driver inside the car, because he kept slowing down, speeding up and meandering all over the road in front of us.

Hopefully, the driver wasn’t drunk. Perhaps he was making a call on his mobile. Probaby, he was lost and trying to process information about his location and where he needed to be at the same time as driving.

If you drive, I’m sure you’ve probably seen similar examples. You may even have found yourself getting, well… let’s just say, ahem, a little annoyed at such displays. It’s an interesting reminder of just how much cognitive effort it can require to bring our attention to two - or perhaps many - things at once: choosing a driving direction and having a conversation with the other person in the car, for example.

Maybe you know someone who has the rather annoying habit of tuning out of the conversation that you are having right here with them in order to listen to someone else’s conversation over there?

Psyblog had an interesting article the other day on this phenomenon of attention, which it calls ‘The cocktail party effect.’ We are extremely good at tuning in to one voice out of a crowded room full of voices. There is even evidence to suggest that we might do this by rejecting what we are hearing with one ear and focusing on what we are hearing in the other ear. You may like to read the original article for references on this.

The embarrassment comes because, as researchers found, we very often do not hear a single word of the voices that we have tuned out. So if you are tuning out your friend who is standing next to you in order to eavesdrop on another conversation across the room, the chances are that you will not remember anything that your friend has said to you about ther difficult day or their painful divorce.

Of course, this experiment looked at our ability to consciously process and recall the tuned-out voices. It tells us nothing about what might be happening subconsciously.

But it is certainly the case, isn’t it, that people distracted by trying to focus on too many things at once can create danger on the roads and extreme irritation at cocktail parties.

I was pondering on all this and it occurred to me that many people consult me and work with me therapeutically because they need to let go of stuff that has been hanging around for them in order to free up their attention to move forwards with their lives. And many people choose to work with a therapist because they know that, in the therapy session, they will have a safe space where they can be fully seen and heard. The therapist will not, let’s hope, be day-dreaming off into the corner, or talking to someone else on the phone.

As people, we really need to be heard and seen, fully and supportively. Listening, really listening to someone with your full attention, is a wonderful skill to develop.

Driving with your full attention on the road ahead is also quite useful.

And what if we were all to slow down for a few minutes each day, perhaps close our eyes or focus on one still point in the room, just notice our breathing and allow our attention to rest, perhaps imagine breathing in calm on the in-breath and breathing away anything unhelpful on the out-breath.. breathing away our restlessness, frustration, anger, distractedness, whatever it is that is unhelpfully occupying our attention right now… what then?

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Well, as I write this morning the sun is shining down in my garden, the first rose is in bloom and there is a definite air of the South of France in Yorkshire.

What a weekend it has been. I hope you had a good one.

This weekend I have been working in the garden. I must have shifted around three times my body weight in weeds - well, it felt like that, anyway - and then we rolled out the barbecue. On Saturday night, of course, like many others in the UK, we watched the final of the hugely popular Britain’s Got Talent talent contest.

Something I have noticed whilst watching snippets from this show is that, this year, people seem to be very openly discussing the role of psychological well-being and its influence on the contestants’ performances.

Earlier in the week, this story in The Mirror broke the news that pizza delivery man, Jamie Boyle, a talented singer, says that he will now consult a hypnotherapist to help him to let go of ‘the jitters’ that, he feels, prevented the judges from seeing him at his best.

We saw ten-year-old Holly Steel, pleading with the judges through her tears to be given a second chance to sing when nerves overwhelmed her, earning her the title from the judges of ‘the bravest girl in Britain.’

Then there was the big build-up to Saturday’s final with all kinds of rumours flying around about the well-being of Susan Boyle and whether she is ‘equipped’ to participate in the show. These sorts of stories concern me greatly. I really do wonder whether the contestants of such shows can ever be prepared for the way that they are catapulted from anonymity to international stardom and the sometimes very unkind attentions of the media in just one evening.

And then, if these people show the slightest signs of being human - feeling a bit pressured or worried, as most of us would in such a situation - well, that must mean that they are just not ‘up to it,’ are they? Hmmm….

I aways find myself hoping that there are people in the background who are able to advise the contestants on these shows and support them on their journey.

So this morning I am saddened to read that Susan Boyle has checked in to a clinic for some rest now that the media circus of the last few weeks has subsided a little. I do hope she gets the help that she needs to move forwards into the future in whatever way makes her most happy. It must have been extremely hard for her to have all the public support of the last few weeks together with the repeated picking-over of her history, circumstances and aspirations. All she wants to do is sing, for goodness’s sake!

It also makes me wonder again about the nature of happiness. We can think we want fame, recognition, money and all the rest… but then, what happens when we get it?

We see it over and over again, don’t we, in this Age of the Celebrity? Happiness isn’t about winning a medal or a contest or having people tell you how talented you are or circulating your video on YouTube. Happiness is something inside us. It is that base level of well-being that enables us to appreciate this beautiful sunshine right now.

For me, it is about being able to pause and notice the first rose blooming in our garden and take pleasure from it; or the birdsong; or the taste of sausages on the barbecue. I don’t know how you experience happiness but I would take a bet that it isn’t really something that other people tell you that you are or something that you buy in a shop.

And if we don’t have this real core sense or base level of well-being, it can be hard to know who we are and what is important to us, to cultivate a sense of meaning in our lives, meaning from the work that we do and the contribution we can make and the support of people around us. If we don’t take time to learn the skills of happiness - and I do think that they are skills that most of us have to learn and practise - then we may not be free to fully enjoy our success and achievements. Maybe we tell ourselves we’ll be so much happier when we get ‘there’, wherever ‘there’ might be. And then we get there and… well… it feels a litte empty, a little overwhelming or a little, well, like it always did.

I am not saying that this is what is happening to Susan Boyle. But I did notice that there was a lot of talk about how a few weeks ago this lady was just an ordinary spinster, living with her cat: the implication being how much better it would be to have world fame, lots of money and attention, the media knocking on your door? Hmmmm…

I do wish Susan Boyle much happiness. She seems like a lovely lady and I hope that she will have the space over the next few weeks to discover what makes her happy… on her terms, in her way, which I think is the only way it is possible for any of us to be truly happy.

Tags: Britain's Got Talent, Susan Boyle
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Do you fancy being a hermit? If so, you may have been tempted to answer the job advert for the UK’s Manchester Museum Hermit.

The museum has just announced that it will employ 43 year-old Ansuman Biswas for 40 days and 40 nights to contemplate a series of objects from the museum’s collection. He will be writing about an object per day and engaging the public in dialogue about it on his blog.

What a fascinating project. Now, if I had seen the job advertised, I would have been very tempted to apply. After all, I am experienced in self-hypnosis, writing and blogging. I have been talking for years about writing as self-hypnosis. I could have written poems about the objects in question and it would have been fascinating research into the object-based model of creativity with which I work.

However, it seems that hermits these days have specific experience and Mr Biswas comes with much previous professional hermitage experience. He has lived in a cave as a hermit for the National Trust and once spent ten days and nights in London living in a cardboard box for an exhibition. With this kind of pedigree, he was selected from over three hundred applicants for the post. He told The Guardian:

“I will be developing a dialogue with the public, drawing attention to certain objects and asking why we care about them - and if we care about them,” he said. “As Joni Mitchell said, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

He will ascend to the Gothic Tower in Manchester Museum on 27 June. I really look forward to reading his blog.

So, if you were to spend 40 days and 40 nights in contemplation, where would you choose to be? What objects might you take with you to contemplate? (Keep your answers clean, please.) Seriously, it is an interesting question, isn’t it?

I would certainly take plenty of notebooks and pens. I think I would be tempted to leave my laptop at home, since I spend so much time on it anyway and I’d like to experience how the internet silence changes things for me. I would choose an inspiring view, if at all possible.

Would I take my usual stock of very dark chocolate? Would I listen to music or simply lose myself in the sounds around me? I think I could be quite content as long as I had pens and paper. How about you?

Tags: herit, Manchester Museum
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Well, I hope that you had a lovely weekend.

Here in the UK, we had a special Bank Holiday weekend and I took the opportunity to catch up with family and friends at various gatherings and reunions. I saw people that I had not seen in years.

One of the things that struck me - shocked me, actually, - was the extent to which our bodies so often becaame the subject of conversation at these gatherings. To give you an example, the husband of an old friend of mine said to me at one of the gatherings, ‘And you’ve put loads of weight on and got even uglier since I last saw you, haven’t you?’ whilst gesturing at some of the other women in the room who had, yes, I agree, put weight on since I last saw them. I am sure he intended his remark as a compliment, even as a kind of affection. But it made me a little bit cross.

Why do we do this to one other? Why, so often, does weight so quickly become a topic of conversation among people who haven’t seen one another for a while? Most of us wouldn’t dream of saying, ‘Gosh, I earn loads more than when I last saw you!’ but we often draw attention to our shape and size, perhaps hoping that, if we do, we’ll deflect any unkind comments or that people might even reassure us that, in fact, we don’t look too bad.

Most of us would not say ‘You are so much nicer than when I last saw you,’ but we might easily say, ‘You have lost so much weight!’

And why is there so often such a double-standard here for men and women? The gentleman in my example above had himself piled on the pounds in recent years - but he wasn’t the slightest bit concerned about his weight and shape. He was talking about his wife and, embarrassingly, comparing her to me. Well, that is behaviour designed to build someone’s confidence and help them to feel good about themselves, isn’t it?

I have just been reading the blog of Susie Orbach, psychotherapist and author of ‘Fat is a Feminist Issue’ and what she says about the recent responses to the angel-voiced Susan Boyle:

‘Is Susan Boyle ugly? Or are we? On Saturday night she stood on the
stage in Britain’s Got Talent; small and rather chubby, with a squashed
face, unruly teeth and unkempt hair. She wore a gold lace dress, which
made her look like a piece of pork sitting on a doily. Interviewed by
Ant and Dec beforehand, she told them that she is unemployed, single,
lives with a cat called Pebbles and has never been kissed. Susan then
walked out to chatter, giggling, and a long and unpleasant wolf whistle.

Why are we so shocked when “ugly” women can do things, rather than
sitting at home weeping and wishing they were somebody else? Men are
allowed to be ugly and talented. Alan Sugar looks like a burst bag of
flour. Gordon Ramsay has a dried-up riverbed for a face. Justin Lee
Collins looks like Cousin It from The Addams Family. Graham Norton is a
baboon in mascara. I could go on. But a woman has to have the bright,
empty beauty of a toy - or get off the screen. We don’t want to look at
you. Except on the news, where you can weep because some awful personal
tragedy has befallen you.

Simon Cowell, now buffed to the sheen of an ornamental pebble, asked
this strange creature, this alien, how old she was. “I’m nearly 47,”
she said. Simon rolled his eyes until they threatened to roll out of
his head, down the aisle and out into street. “But that’s only one side
of me,” Susan added, and wiggled her hips. The camera cut to the other
male judge, Piers Morgan, who winced. Didn’t Susan know she was not
supposed to be sexual? The audience’s reaction was equally disgusting.
They giggled with embarrassment, and when Susan said she wanted to be a
professional singer, the camera spun to a young girl, who seemed to be
at least half mascara.’

Ha, ha! I do think there is a lot of truth in what Susie Orbach says.

As a therapist working with both women and men who want to change their weight and shape, I feel very strongly about these sorts of issues. In my teens, I trained professionally as a ballerina, an area where there is enormous pressure to have the ‘right’ body and obsessive dieting and exercise is very common. I have had my own struggles with eating and weight in the past. And quite frankly, I know what a living hell it can be.

Since my early twenties, I have been getting increasingly comfortable with my changing body. I know that it is possible to let go of years of subconscious programming, let go of unhelpful emotions and thoughts and associations and learn to love your own skin. I say to anyone who wants to make these kinds of changes,  do it from a place of compassion, from a place of love for yourself.

Learn to love your body right here and now and you will begin to be able to tune in much more successfully to your body’s own needs, rhythms and hungers and meet those needs in healthful ways.

We are coming up to the time of year when I get inundated with calls for help from women who want to drop a dress size or are so fed up with feeling like ‘failures’ because they do not look and feel as they want to look and feel. Yes, I can help people to make these kinds of changes. And my primary concern is to help you to make the changes you want to make from the inside out. Because I know that, even when you are three stone lighter, you won’t feel much happier if you’re still unhappy with yourself.

OK, now I have got that off my chest, I can start the week with a lighter step. Have a fabulous one, wherever you are.

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Yes, that’s right. A little something for your weekend, sirs and madams.

I’m introducing something diffirent for Fridays, both here on my regular blog about hypnosis and hypnotherapy and over at my Wordsauce blog at http://wordsauce.com/blog

Each week, I’ll post up a special helping of Wordsauce: a photo of something I’ve found interesting over the last few days along with lines from a poem or a song or a piece of prose.

Those of you who’ve been following me on my blog and also on my free weekly ezine, Sophie’s Secret Sauce, will know that words and metaphors are an important part of the work that I do and the way that I choose to live my life.

What do I mean by that? Well, I believe that we are all creative beings of one kind or another. We need room to play, to explore and express our creativity, to make things, whether that’s a cake or a piece of research, a garden or a new bio-fuel, a journey in our mind’s eye or a marathon.

I also believe that words are a kind of magic and that we all structure our experience of the world through metaphors of one kind or another. Being able to recognise any unhelpful words or metaphors that we might be using to ourselves inside our own minds and bodies is an important part of any kind of personal development process.

The magic of words and images is not just for writers and artists. It’s something that can enrich anyone’s life. Learning to look at the world in a certain way, taking some time to slow down and really look at the world, is a kind of self-hypnosis or meditation.

Inspiration to make meaning out of our lives and to experience a deep sense of well-being is all around us all of the time. I don’t know about you but I love to feed myself with other people’s words and images and thoughts and ideas. It makes me happy. I also like making things and sharing what I make.

I love teaching my Wordsauce Online Programme because it creates this wonderful interconnected community of people who write and inspire one another and make things and share them with one another.

So, it’s in this spirit that I’m going to be serving up a regular Friday helping of Wordsauce for your weekly delectation.

Please do digest slowly. Let the flavours mingle on your tongue. And, should you feel moved to respond in any way, please feel free to do so in a Comment. I would love to read you.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Friday Wordsauce

‘I ate the day

Deliberately, that its tang

Might quicken me all into verb, pure verb.’

 from ‘Oysters’ by Seamus Heaney.

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It’s a while since I wrote about stopping smoking on this blog and I thought it might be interesting to write about a phemomenon that I continue to notice when I am working with people on my Become a Non-Smoker Programme.

It is a funny thing but I realise, over and over again, that many of us have a book of rules inside our heads. There are things that we think we should do and things that we think we should not do; things we have been told that we should not do by other people in authority (parents, teachers, your boss, etc) and things that violate our own ethical or moral code. Most of us have a whole lot of rules that we carry around with us in our little rule book. And we don’t even know half of what is written in that book until something happens that challenges the rules in some way.

When I am working with someone to help them to acquire the skills and habits to become happy, relaxed non-smokers, permanently, I encourage them to bring some of the clauses and sub-clauses of their personal subconscious rule book into conscious awareness.

It is fascinating for people to discover that, in fact, they may have been smoking all these years as a result of obeying a subconscious rule that says ‘You must do what your friends do’; or ‘You must not express your emotions;’ or even, ‘You must stop smoking.’ It may seem counter-intuitive but if you have a subconscious rule that says ‘You must not smoke,’ then each time you find youself having a sneaky cigarette, you’re going to feel really rubbish about yourself. You are going to feel a total failure. You are going to be getting angry with yourself or perhaps looking for someone else to blame for your smoking. You are so disgusted with yourself that you spend the day feeling irritable and angry and… guess what? You are not allowed to be angry and irritable and so, before you realise it, you’re having another cigarette because you’re telling yourself that it will help you to feel calmer… And so on.. and so on…

And then a rule that I come across lots of the time is the rule of ‘Noone tells me what to do.’ It’s the No Rules For Me Rule. Lots of people out there are smoking (or drinking or overeating) because of their subconscious rule that says: “Noone, not anyone, nowhere, no way, tells me what to do.”

When they discover that, in fact, they really want to stop smoking, for themselves and so this Breaking All the Rules Rule is not really working for them, that’s incredibly liberating.

The essential point about all of this is that I am utterly convinced that the best way to make a positive change in your life is from a place of feeling completely good about yourself. When you like yourself and think that, actually, you are a pretty OK person, it’s very easy to choose positive healthy changes. When you are torturing yourself with old, outdated, possibly unrealistic rules from your rule book, you are probably being very, very hard on yourself.

Now I am not saying that it’s time to chuck out all the unhelpful rules from your rule book. But next time you catch yourself telling yourself that you can’t do something, you may want to ask yourself the following question: ‘Says who?’

I can’t stop smoking. Says who?

I can’t stop eating junk food. Says who?

I won’t be able to get that new job. Says who?

I can only look and feel good when I have lost three stone. Says who?

If it is just you in that rule book inside your mind that is saying that, is it time to throw out that particular page right now? If it was your Auntie Mavis when you were seven or your mum or your teacher at school who made up that rule for you and you have dutifully transcribed that helpful little gem into your subconscious rule book of what you are or are not allowed to expect, deserve, achieve then isn’t it time to recognise that particular little pearl of wisdom for exactly what it is: a lot of useless nonsense.

I can still remember thet ‘lightbulb’ moment in my very early 20s when I realised that I did not have to look like Cindy Crawford on the cover of Marie Claire magazine in order to feel good about myself.

Ha, ha. If you have met me you will realise what a very good thing it is that I discovered that. Because I could not look any less like Cindy Crawford if I tried.

So I threw out that particular rule and I can tell you that it has helped me to avoid years of dissatisfaction and disappointment at myself. 

So what rule will you throw out today?

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I was driving the sweeping curves of a long dark road last night, on the way back from my parents’ house where I and my family had been celebrating my mum’s birthday.

I love driving this empty road late at night. Sometimes, an owl swoops across the road in front of me. Sometimes there is one of those swirling mists that are typical of the Vale of York where I live.

Last night, there was simply a wet shining road and the trees breathing.

I turned up the music on my car radio. It was a really cheesy Joe Cocker song:

Love lifts us up where we belong,
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high.
Love lifts us up where we belong,
Far from the world below,
Up where the clear winds blow.

Some hang on to “used to be,”
Live their lives looking behind.
All we have is here and now,
All our life, out there to find.
The road is long, there are mountains in our way,
But we climb a step every day

Love lifts us up where we belong,
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high.
Love lift us up where we belong,
Far from the world we know,
Where the clear winds blow.

My goodness, it was fantastic! I felt a huge surge of happiness and well being as I drove that road, singing at the top of my lungs.

You know that feeling?

They are such cheesy lyrics but, in that moment, they just felt so, so true. I felt them resonating through my entire body.

‘All we have is here and now..’

Oh, YES!

‘The road is long, there are mountains in our way,
But we climb a step every day..‘

Yes! I was up there at the very top of those mountains in my mind.

As I kept driving, Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ and Tina Turner’s ‘I Don’t Want To Fight No More’ just enhanced the feelings in various ways.

I read a great book about this very phenomenon recently: ‘This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession’ by Daniel Levitin, Director of the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University.

You may like to check out the book’s website here. There are lots of fun interactive tools to play with, including music of course.

You can also download a copy of Levitin’s Life Soundtracks Study, which concludes:

‘Music has been shown to have specific effects on the  body’s physiology, including heart rate, respiration, sweating, and mental activity.  Music  is effective at moderating arousal levels, concentration, and helping to regulate mood through its action on the brain’s natural chemistry.  People who can have music follow them around during their daily lives can use these properties of music effectively – to form a soundtrack for their day and their lives, one that effectively provides comfort, arousal, and both mental and physical fitness.’

David Lawrie and I put lots of thought and care into the originally composed music we use on my audio programmes for this very reason.

I’m wishing you a fabulous weekend with an even more fabulous soundtrack! Mine’s right here.

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This morning, I came across this beautiful quote in a mailing list to which I subscribe.

The words seem so valuable, so relevant that I really wanted to share then with you right away.

“We spend so much of our time doing things automatically that it is important to assess whether our habits bring us real joy. Whenever we think that how we spend a given day or even a given hour is unimportant, and whenever we think we need to rush through what we’re doing so that later we can get to something more relaxing, meaningful, or important, we are cheating ourselves. In fact, we never know for certain that we’ll be around for the future that we imagine. What is certain is that any of us can pause in this moment to consider what’s most essential and then live this moment in a deliberate, meaningful, beautiful way.

Lorne Ladner, from ‘The Lost Art of Compassion’. Harper SanFrancisco.

I think that one of the most valuable things that hypnosis can do for us is to help us to connect with an inner awareness, to become more and more present to what we feel as we move through the day.

When we become more conscious of unhelpful habits and feelings, we can let go of them.

I wish you a wonderful day full of these moments of awareness.

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One of the single most influential hypno-stories to have gripped the pubic imagination in recent months, is Lily Allen’s transformation, dropping two dress sizes from a very pretty size 12 to a toned size 8, which she attributes to hypnotherapy sessions.

It’s interesting to see media all over the world picking up on this story. Here’s a link to the Ahlan! Live in the United Arab Emirates version of the story. They also mention other recent celeb stories:

Mel B, last week revealed she sought hypnotherapy in a bid to boost her body-confidence, Fergie to quit biting her nails, and nicotine addicts Charlize Theron and Drew Barrymore to kick the habit by being “put under.”

And there’s the annoying thing. It seems that hypno-lingo is pretty universal too. Phrases such as being “put under” - even with the inverted commas - or the headline of this article ‘Look into our eyes..’ seem to be getting far too ubiquitous for my liking.

Maybe I should announce a campaign, right here and now on this blog, for better and more accurate reporting of hypnosis and hypnotherapy stories.

I mean, harrumph! Using words like ‘going under’ or ‘look into my eyes’ is not only tired and unimaginative but also very misleading. Hypnosis is not like being ‘under’ as in anaesthetised; and we hypnoptherapists do not ask people to look into our eyes or at our swinging pendulums and watches.

I had a client a while ago who opened his eyes and said ‘But I was aware of everything you said to me…’ He felt cheated and a little disappointed about his first experience of hypnosis, even though we did some great work together, got a great result and I had explained to him at length beforehand that hypnosis would not feel like being asleep. 

Now, I happen to think that the natural trance state is pretty magical and powerful in and of itself. Being able to access your subconscious and allow it to find solutions to your problems is rather awe-inspiring when you think about it. I don’t know about you but, when I’m entering hypnosis, I like to know that I am fully focused and in control while this amazing process is happening. I don’t want anyone putting me ‘under.’

One popular application of hypnosis that I have, however, been enjoying recently is the TV show, ‘The Mentalist’. If you haven’t yet seen it, the show stars Simon Baker as Patrick Jane, an independent consultant with the
California Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Jane (and I must admit that it is a little disconcerting when his colleagues call him that) has a remarkable track
record for solving serious crimes by using his razor sharp skills of
observation. Within the Bureau, Jane is notorious for his dapper dressing and his blatant lack
of boundaries and protocol. His semi-celebrity past as a psychic medium also adds a whiff of scandal because he now admots that he feigned his
paranormal abilities. I just love spotting his use of hypnotic language patterns and they way that he ‘enables’ suspects, crime victims or witnesses to recall or reveal things about themselves.

I think that, most of all, I like his wearing of waistcoats on California beaches. I think you can catch it in the UK at 9pm on Thursdays.

So less tired old miselading hypnosis lingo and more hypno substnce, please. Or at the very least, can we have more amusing hypno crime-solving programmes? If anyone is asking, I wouldn’t mind playing a crime-solving hypno-cop… and I wouldn’t even need a waistcoat.

Tags: hypno, hypnosis, hypnotherapy, Mentalist
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You know, it sometimes feels to me as if there is a strange tension between what I do as a therapist working with hypnosis and the creative subconscious and what I do to tell people about what I am doing.

These days, running my own busy practice, I need to keep people informed about my work, my latest books and audio porgrammes, workshops and my Online Programme in Creative Writing for Personal Development, all of which you can find links to from this very web page.

However, more and more, I believe that the real value of what I do lies in helping people to cultivate stillness, to rest their minds and bodies, to restore their vital energies, to develop calm where that is required and resilience and courage where that is required, to be able to flow easily between the two and to develop their own innate qualities and abilities. All of which involves letting go of a lot of unhelpful ‘noise’ and tuning into the part of you that just knows.

Sometimes, I find myself thinking that I don’t really want to be browsing lots of blogs and news pages to find the latest stories about hypnosis in the media. I just want to be calm and quiet and listen to what my own mind and body have to say to me.

Sometimes, I think that the best way that I could share with you what I have found to be most helpful and beautiful and nourishing is to simply…. be…. very… very…quiet.

But then you wouldn’t really know that I was doing that, would you?

So here it is… What I’d most like to share with you on this Friday afternoon at the beginning of May…

Shhhhh... If you listen very carefully, you will hear it. Perhaps inside you and outside you at the same time…

… … …
… … …
… … …
… … …

Did you hear that? Did you feel it?

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

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I say it to my clients. I say it to myself. I just didn’t walk my own talk last night.

Last night, I watched ‘In Bruges’ before winding down for the evening. It’s a beautifully shot film, directed by Martin McDonagh with Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fienne. I thought it was rather good. The problem was all the blood.

The film follows two hit men, holed up in Bruges after a job gets complicated. I won’t give the plot away in case, after reading this, you may still want to watch it for yourself. The problem was not the film or all the gorey shooting scenes which, as in all the best films, left the worst to the viewer’s imagination.

The problem was that I watched it just before heading off to bed. All night, my subconscious was desperately trying to process the anxiety-producing images. I had a bad night of broken sleep filled with not very nice dreams. Well, of course I did. I had practially programmed my subconscious to do that for me.

Let that be a lesson to you, Sophie Nicholls. Use some self-hypnosis to calm your mind and body down before bed - and don’t watch those kinds of films too late at night. At least when I watch ‘Sex and the City’ re-runs, I wake up thinking I’m SJP - an infinitely more pleasant prospect.

Tags: In Bruges, Sex and the City, sleep
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I’ve been changing things around a little, sprinkling some extra sauce here, adding a little seasoning there, giving some of my pots a special stir.

And now I’d like to let you know that, from today, I’ll be blogging in two places: here at my blog all abut all things hypnotherapy, hypnosis and personal development and also over at my new Word Sauce creative writing blog here.

Over there, I’ll be talking mainly about creative writing for personal development, health and well-being, how to develop a regular creative practice and the people out there making and sharing wonderful things with words every day. I’m looking forward to sharing this new stage in my own journey so, if it sounds like something you’re interested in, please do bookmark this page now or subscribe through your regular blog reader.

Tags: creative writing
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Well, today I am feeling enormously happy and excited because the first particpants on my Online Programme in Creative Writing for Personal Development, Health and Well-Being have come to the end of the course and have been sharing some of their thoughrs and reflections about their process of writing, exploration and discovery.

There is always a sadness for me too when I come ot the end of working with a lovely group of people. But most of all I feel happy to share in their pride at their achievements, the things that they have discovered along the way and, of course, their writing.

This year, I’ve had the privilege of working with a particularly amazing group of people. It has been so good to see how they have supported and encouraged one another in the writing process, with such generosity.  I know that they will all go on to use their regular creative practice in many exciting and nourishing ways.

I have also just discovered that one of the course participants, Mary Potter, has won a short story competition. Many congratulations, Mary!

And then today I was delighted to read Eric Carr’s blog, in which he shares ‘A Midnight Poem about Making,’ one of the beautiful poems that he wrote on the course, and his thoughts about writing it. Eric is a hypnotherapist in Tucson, Arizona. I am so happy that he has chosen to share his work and process with a wider audience.

The wonderful people I work with using writing are a constant inspiration to me. Today, I am particularly thankful and grateful for this work that I am so privileged to do.

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Another beautiful morning here in North Yorkshire. However, I just can’t help letting out a little sigh as I contemplate the round-up of news articles from yesterday about the first over-the-counter slimming pill.

The pill, which is a half-strength version of the prescription drug, Orlistat, works by blocking the body’s ability to absorb fat.

However, the possible side-effects sound extremely unpleasant. If dieters do not stick to very low fat meals, any undigested fat passes through the body, causing diarrhoea and wind. Euuuwww….

Those taking Alli — priced at £49.95 for a four-week supply — are also advised to take a
daily multivitamin as the three-a-day pills can disrupt absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K.

The Sun asks does it really work?

Sun GP Dr Carol Cooper says: “It is definitely not a miracle pill. You are not going to see results unless you take it regularly, three times a day, and the side-effects mean that in the real world people will skip
tablets.”

Sun nutritionist Amanda Ursell adds: “If you want to lose weight and keep it off, the most important tool you have at your disposal is your brain.

“Change the way you eat and build exercise into your life.”

Hear, hear, Amanda Ursell!

It is so tempting, this idea that there is a magic pill that can somehow zap something in your body and make you thin and happy.

But, in fact, when you stop to think about it, that just doesn’t quite add up, does it?

If you are overweight and struggling to make the changes you want to make to your eating and exercise programme, popping pills is not going to be the answer, any more than all those diets and diet foods have been the answer for you either. You need to retrain your brain and build a powerful mindset for slim, healthy eating.

This is where hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis are such powerful tools.

It may not be the ‘miracle’ or ‘quick fix’ offered by a pill - but it can be much easier than you think when you understand how to really use your mind in the right way. And it is a resource that you will have for the rest of your life.

Unlike those pills that just get flushed down the toilet.

Messing with your body’s delicately balanced digestive system does not sound like a very viable option to me. It makes me feel a little queasy just thinking about it.

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You know when you are reading something that makes you wince, cringe, chuckle and then stop with your mouth hanging open in a mixture of astonishment and disbelief?

I was browsing through the excellent psychology blog, The Phrenologist’s Notebook, recently and came across a link to this article on PsychCentral entitled ‘The 12 Most Annoying Bad Habits of Therapists.’

This list makes for shocking reading. It is introduced with the words: ‘Here are twelve things you wish your therapist didn’t do — some of which may actually harm the psychotherapeutic relationship.’

Some of which? Excuse me, some of which?

[Pauses again and rolls eyes in melodramatic gesture.]

Because, let me tell you, the list includes such gems as: eating in front of the client; yawning or sleeping during the therapy session; answering calls during the session; bringing a pet to the session; expressing racial, sexual or religious preferences; inappropriate personal disclosures by the therapist; physical contact such as hugging (without client’s prior permission); clock-watching; excessive note-taking.

Go and have a read. It is incredible.

I was wondering how the author of the article compiled this list. Are there therapists who actually do this stuff? Do they have any clients?

Then I read some of the comments on the article made by readers who had experienced some of these annoying habits in their therapists.

I am just imagining how I would feel if my therapist was listening to me speak, whilst eating a sandwich, yawning between mouthfuls and checking his phone. That really would help me to feel supported and listened to. Blimey.

Actually, hearing this kind of stuff makes me feel rather cross, to put it mildly. However, we can all take heart that therapists who behave like this will generally not last very long as therapists. People will simply stop consulting them. Word will get around.

It goes without saying that, as a client, you should never be putting up with such ridiculous and rude behavior from your therapist.

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So I was at my parents’ house on Easter Sunday, keeping my mum company, and my mum pointed out a double-page article on hypnotherapy in her Sunday paper, The Sunday Times.

The article, very imaginatively entitled ‘Look into my eyes,’ (ha, ha, ha….we haven’t heard that one before, have we?) highlights that, despite the many jokes and quips about hypnosis, there is also:

‘a body of scientific evidence to back up the effectiveness of hypnosis for weight loss  and a range of other issues, from anxiety and sleep disorders to infertility and compulsive shopping.’

You can read the online version of the article here.

The article goes on to say:

‘Let’s face it, hypnosis does not exactly have the best reputation, what with the ritual humiliations employed by stage hypnotists. “The stage scenario has given the process a bad name,” concedes Georgia Foster, a hypnotherapist who has treated a string of high-profile clients. “People think it’s all about mind control, but nobody can really control someone else’s mind. It will only absorb what it knows is appropriate. Hypnotherapy is like Google. It puts helpful information into the subconscious mind so the brain can find it next time it’s doing a search.” ‘

That’s an interesting metaphor. You know, I tend to dislike metaphors that compare the brain to a computer and our thoughts to software that can be ‘re-programmed.’ I think that way of thinking is a little reductionist. It doesn’t really work for me. Metaphors are, after all, highly personal.

However, I can see what Georgia Foster is saying here. It is a neat way of conveying that you, the browser of your brain, are in control. I could extend the metaphor by saying that your thoughts and emotions are only a result of the particular search terms that you enter. Hmmmm… I need to think that through a little…

The article is a useful round-up of some popular applications of hypnotherapy: to change your weight and shape, to let go of anything that may be holding you back from optimum fertility, to enjoy a better sex life and now, of course, the subject that everyone is talking about, hypnotherapy for ‘credit crunch anxiety.’

I went into a gift shop the other day and got talking to the owners about hypnotherapy and we got onto the subject of hypnosis ‘for a better sex life.’  I am constantly amazed at the conversations that my job opens up for me.

Tags: Google, hypnosis, hypnotherapy, sex
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I have had a couple of days break from blogging because I’ve been busy supporting my mum, who continues to make a wonderful recovery from her hip replacement op, which was just one week ago today. In fact, the main challenge has been persuading her to pace her recovery gently and gradually as she is so ready to zip around the house now and advise my dad about cooking the dinner and hanging out the washing. Haha!

Thank you so much for all your good wishes over on Facebook. They have been enormously appreciated and it has all helped her to continue to feel positive and strong. That kind of support makes such a difference, doesn’t it?

So, returning to work, I have noticed that lots of my colleagues’ blogs have been buzzing about the glowing endorsement of hypnosis over on Oprah.com. In an article entitled ‘5 Ways to Cope with Money Stress,’ the Number One method is ‘Get hypnotised.’

Hmmmm… Although I do not entirely like the passive way that sounds - as if you can ‘get’ hypnosis in the same way that you ‘get’ a facial or a massage - it is really good to see my field being recommended in this way.

I am currently working with lots of people, helping them to let go of stress and anxiety. I think I have mentioned on this blog before - you may have missed it, I don’t talk about it very often, ha ha! - that one of the very positive things in my opinion about the current global econmony is that people are realising that they can take their happiness into their own hands. They are taking responsibility for their own well-being rather than hoping to ‘get it’ - whatever that ‘it’ may be - through other people, stuff, the illusion of job security, etc. After all, you probably know people who seemingly ‘have it all’ but are miserable; or who have very challenging circumstances but are very happy.

So, this article on Oprah.com reads:

‘For years people have turned to hypnosis for help quitting smoking and
losing weight, but the technique is also becoming popular among
business types desperate to overcome financial stress, according to a
November report in The Wall Street Journal. Generally, in
hypnosis, a therapist uses verbal cues to put clients into a deeply
relaxed state, where they become absorbed in their inner thoughts, then
offers suggestions to shift an attitude so they can better tackle a
problem. In this case, the suggestions might be “Money is energy that
comes and goes” or “Your net worth doesn’t equal your personal worth,”
to deflect the paralysis and insecurity that financial panic can cause.
Ideally, clients learn the process on their own.

“Hypnosis is very similar to meditation,” explains Dwight Damon, president of the
National Guild of Hypnotists, who recommends trying a professional
session before using the method on yourself. “While it won’t make you
richer, it will help you handle, and feel better about, the money you
do have.”
Now, I am smiling to myself imagining a session where I am intoning ‘Money is energy that comes and goes…’ Haha! I am imagining the look of confusion on my client’s face.

Joking aside, there are so many wonderful things we can do with hypnosis in this area - including audio programmes such as my Let Go Of Stress audio -  and one-to-one work in which we can also help people to let go of unhelpful associations and emotions around money.

A great start to my day of working with lovely clients in hypnosis: people who are making progressive and permanent changes in their lives.

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