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.
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May 13th, 2009 at 4:24 am (#)
There’s a real issue with managing expectations, isn’t there? I sometimes wish I could call it something other than hypnotherapy to jettison all the baggage.
I sometimes tell people, “Nothing dramatic will happen during our session, probably, you’ll just be pleasantly relaxed. The dramatic bit comes afterwards when you start behaving differently.”
May 13th, 2009 at 7:01 am (#)
Thanks, Mike. Always good to hear from you.
I am just wondering what we should call it instead of hypnotherapy?
Any ideas? You could be onto something here…
May 14th, 2009 at 12:57 am (#)
Sophie, if I knew that, I’d be calling it something new already. And a lot of my clients wouldn’t be able to find me, because hypnotherapy is what they go looking for (it’s not all negative image).
Actually I find that immigrants from Britain are quite well-informed about hypnotherapy, on the whole, more so than most New Zealanders. We obviously need to find out what you’re doing over there and do the same!
May 14th, 2009 at 6:57 am (#)
That’s interesting, Mike. Joking aside, I think this is a real issue: how to help people find the help they need. Sometimes people may not know that they need a therapist who uses hypnosis or what self-hypnosis can help them to achieve.
May 25th, 2009 at 3:09 am (#)
I try to approach that by also marketing myself as a “health coach”. I think people are familiar enough with life coaches that they get what that means.