I have been moved to write this post after reading something on the blog of a very good friend and colleague of mine, Adam Eason, this morning.

Adam is a leading hypnotherapist here in the UK and a champion of self-hypnosis. In fact, he is a walking encyclopedia on self-hypnosis. He also has a very successful online business that helps many people every day all around the world to make lasting beneficial changes to their lives through his high quality audio programmes. These self-hypnosis products are well-researched, well-produced and extremely helpful to so many people who would not otherwise get the help they need. Adam is an inspiration to me and to my own work in this area.

When I read on Adam’s blog that he had been targeted by one of those very unprofessional and ill-informed writers who appoint themselves as gate-keepers of what is ‘scientific’ or correct, I felt for him. When I read the blog post in question that targeted his work (and which I am certainly not going to help publicise by linking to here) I felt great sadness and also some annoyance at the sheer nastiness of its tone and content.

The problem is that some people, it seems, are still afraid of the amazing power of their own minds. I love my job and the way that I am able, every day, to help people to make changes. You will notice here that I say that I help people to make changes. I do not claim that I can make people calm or thin or rich or more healthy. Neither does Adam. No, we help people to understand how to make positive, progressive changes in their lives and how to implement those changes and maintain those positive states.

But not everyone understands this. Some people think that hypnosis is weird. (I guess it is weird if you think that closing your eyes or imagining things or having any kind of internal experience is weird.) Some people think that it is some kind of magic, a kind of ‘abracadabra’ that will help them to change without having to take any responsibility for that change process. (Personally, I do think it is a kind of magic, but perhaps not in the way those people think.) Other people, like the blogger who targeted Adam, simply dismiss hypnosis as ‘unscientific.’

Now I could spend time debating here what ‘scientific’ actually means and how difficult it is to get good data on all kinds of drugs and medical interventions. Medical science is fraught with difficulties in this regard. Any GP will tell you that antibiotics and antidepressants and all kinds of other drugs, for example, are not a precise science. There is an element of ‘I do not know if this will work for you, but let’s see what happens…’

In fact, these days we know a lot about the mind and about the states and habits and thought patterns of healthy, calm, productive people. Many of the techniques that we can use to help people to reproduce these states and habits and thought patterns are actually highly replicable and measurable.

But what I want to focus on here today is this. The reason Adam is so successful is because many people now do fully understand the role of the subconscious mind and mind-body medicine in health and well-being. They do value what Adam does with excellence and what very many good and well-qualified hypnotherapists are doing.

There is an entire area of medicine called pyschoneuroimmunology that looks at the role of emotions, imagination and thinking styles in health. There are many GPs and medical professionals who now make regular referrals to good hypnotherapists doing good work. There is a cutting edge that is about helping people to create new neural networks in order to rehabilitate from stroke, for example; an entire area of study in the ‘psychobiology of gene expression;’ and exciting leaps forward in gastroenterology that is about understanding the connections between gut and brain. All these new fields will, I am sure, yield exciting break-throughs in my liftetime. And there is also the essential task in the current climate of helping people to let go of anxiety. I have never been busier in my practice than I am right now.

It is easy to laugh at hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis. After all, hypnosis is beautifully, elegantly and mysteriously simple in so many ways. It doesn’t require complex equipment (unless you consider that your mind is a very complex piece of equipment) and, so far, money for good research has been woefully lacking.

The reason I continue to love what I do and why Adam continues to do what he does with such integrity  and passion is because people want it and need it and benefit from it. It really is all about that.

I was sad to see a friend and colleague written about so unfairly and in this ill-educated manner but I was also irritated to see hypnosis and hypnotherapy poked fun at in this way. After some careful thought, I felt that the best way that I could demonstrate my solidarity to Adam and my loyalty to the field of hypnosis in general was to write this post.

And, in doing so, I’d like to thank Adam for his generosity in supporting me in my own work as a therapist and to thank here all the people who have taken the time to ask me about my work, to find out more, to use my audio programmes and consult with me and get really curious about hypnosis and how it can help them in their lives. I do so appreciate this openness and curiosity. In the end, you are the real test of hypnosis. And that matters.