A BRIEF NOTE:

It can be argued that this therapy or that approach is superior. In fact, you can spend more time on scoring points than on people who need our skills. We maintain that the only goal of therapy is to help people.

All approaches, even Freud, have some merits, and if something works well, why not use it?

As a result, in both "therapy" and in teaching, we combine elements from a multitude of sources around a core of Hypnosis and NLP. Why use these two as the core? because both of them are faster, more powerful and more effective than anything else i have ever come across.

In many ways, hypnosis and NLP are opposite sides of the same coin and when they are combined they become arguably the most powerful tool for human evolution that has ever been developed.

But every human being is different, so having a large number of different tools that can work with Hypnosis and NLP just makes more possible, and that is why therapy is the wrong word for what we do.

Therapy implies fixing something that's broken. Why fix a ford cortina when you can turn it into a Porsche or a Lamborghini ? We do not simply "fix" people - we help people to evolve, to develop, to go beyond their expectations, their dreams and their limitations.

Yes, there is some therapy, but there is also self development, personal evolution, and getting what you really want from life.

You only get one life, why not live it 110% - fill it from end to end with good stuff until there's no room for anything else.

On this page are very brief simplified explanations; If you want to know more about the how and why of hypnosis and of NLP, browse this site; you should find what you need but you are welcome to email any questions you have to us.

WHAT IS IT?

There are lots of definitions of NLP, some more accurate some less, here's mine: NLP was mostly developed by Richard Bandler . He used the tools of Cybernetics and later with the help of John Grinder Transformational Linguistics, to study some people, mostly a number of therapists working at that time who seemed to be able to work miracles - no one could understand how they achieved what they did, and then went a lot further.

This is how he defines it to students:

NLP is an attitude....Characterised by the sense of curiosity and adventure and a desire to learn skills to be able to find out what kinds of communication influences somebody and the kinds of things worth knowing; to look at life as a rare and unprecedented opportunity to learn.

NLP Is a methodology.....based the on overall operational presupposition that all behaviour has a structure.....and that structure can be modelled, learned, taught, and changed (re programmed). The way to know what will be useful and effective are the perceptual skills.

NLP has evolved into an INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY...enabling the practitioner to organise information and perceptions in ways that allow them to achieve results that were once inconceivable."

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Cybernetics is about teaching computers to think like humans; to do this you break everything down into really tiny steps.

By using this combination, Richard developed his process of modelling and managed to unlock the secret that even the miracle workers themselves could not explain, and created a new field.

By studying the structure of subjective experience with these tools, he found that there are distinct processes - like computer programs that the brain uses to process information both consciously and unconsciously.

Using these with a very specific language from transformational linguistics and mathematics (e.g.. "Patterns of Plausible Inference", by Polya), Two models of language as it applies to the processes of the human mind were developed.

The specific language allowed the development of the Metta Model, and Hypnotic Language patterns he learned from Milton H Erickson allowed the development of the Milton Model.

Using these together, Richard and John were able to observe a human being, identify the PROCESSES their mind was using and if they were useful, install them in others and if they were not, change them.

Its a lot like a computer in some ways - You can put all kinds of information in, but its the PROGRAM that tells the computer what to do with it. In a human, we all have lots of different feelings, experience etc. but its the PROCESS the mind uses that tells us what to do with them and how to react to them.

Richard studied a handful of people who had phobias and got over them on their own; based on that, he was able to identify a series of processes that allowed the development of several ways of completely curing a phobia in MINUTES, and that was just the start.

Its a new science and still developing.

Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy

Hypnosis is by far the oldest form of therapy on earth. most explanations will tell you everything except what it is, because until mankind really understand human consciousness, that is a bit hard to answer.

The easiest answer is that hypnosis is a process that allows you to focus your attention - to really focus it, so that your whole awareness is brought to one single point, like the sun through a magnifying glass, and then that incredibly focussed attention is turned inwards.

This allows you or the person working with you, to bring all the power of your mind to bear in some very unusual ways-you could say that in a very short time hypnosis can achieve what 50 years sitting on a mountain meditating can achieve.

Very crudely, this focus of attention can be used in two ways - for some things, like cosmetic work, certain illnesses etc, we use that focussed attention to help you tell your body what to do.

In other cases, we use it so that we can work with your unconscious mind. If you think about it, you will realise that when you have a cavity in a tooth, it is your conscious mind that cant resist probing it with your tongue, even though its a painful thing to do; it is your conscious mind that makes you look when something is flying towards your face,. or your eye; it's your conscious mind that reminds you of the chocolate in the next room, when you are trying to cut down.

Because of this, sometimes it is useful to work directly with the unconscious part of the mind, because it doesn't behave like that.

So, hypnosis is the use of the art and science of communication to focus the mind in an incredibly powerful way. If you think about that, it becomes obvious that all this stuff you see in the films is a load of rhubarb. No one can make you kill the president of the U.S.A., however tempting it may be.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Hypnosis works in a number of ways.

Firstly, because your entire mind is focussed in this way, Hypnosis acts as a very powerful amplifier, so you can take other therapeutic tools, from the various forms of psychology and psychotherapy and use them much more effectively.

That same amplifying effect means that if you are willing to go along with what the therapist suggests, the therapist can guide you to be aware of the feelings in any part of your body far more than you would normally, and by carefully using the right approach, enable you to change them.

For example, you can increase or decrease the activity of a thyroid gland, or you can get the stomach to repair its lining such as in the case of IBS. A similar process can be used to do all sorts of things, even breast enlargement.

It sounds strange, but think of this for a moment - IMAGINE it's a a dark, stormy night, you are out walking and are cold and hungry. You buy a huge bag of chips covered in salt and vinegar, stick you nose in the bag and take a deep sniff. make it as real as you can - really Smell those chips and the vinegar.

 

Most people find that their mouths begin to water, but there are no chips!

What would it be like to jump into a bath full of iced water on a hot day? to be chased through a dark unfamiliar wood, by a large wild animal you can neither see nor identify?

If you imagine any of the above, most people find that their bodies will react to some extent, even though it is just imagination. those examples were chosen because they involve reactions from your endocrine system, your adrenal gland, your liver, Pancreas, voluntary and involuntary nervous systems and muscles, including your heart.

Just by reading them, you have altered much of your body chemistry. We can do that in a useful way and make it permanent.

Another way that hypnosis works is by helping you to uncover resources you didn know you had and apply them where you need to; also, where necessary which is not often, by uncovering repressed memories in a very gentle way and freeing people from the problems they cause.

Hypnosis also allows you to learn a great deal very quickly, at both conscious and unconscious level - this can be academic stuff, or it can be new behaviours, attitudes, more useful beliefs about yourself.

It is a great tool for breaking free of your limitations.

Sadly, hypnosis has had a hard time over the years and many many people have missed out as a result. One can but speculate on the reasons for this. In the "collected Papers "section, you will find a brief history of hypnosis as a therapy in the western world which mentions in passing some of the problems encountered. It may well be that, since Freud first legitimised the sciences of the mind through the application of the scientific principle of utter objectivity, these professions have had problems because hypnosis is an entirely subjective phenomena, and therefore almost impossible to quantify in their terms [although the results are indeed tangible]

The problem here lies in the fact that every human being is unique; when we work, we re write the book for every individual we see.

If you set up a hypnotherapeutic scenario as a scientific experiment, the results are nonsensical, because everyone is different and the same approach will have differing effects on different people. You cant apply hypnotherapy by standardised formula, in the same way that you cant talk to everyone on the planet in the same language if you want them to understand you.

Unfortunately, this means that since none of us is perfect, there are occasions when one therapist will be unable to help a particular person, but that doesn't mean anything except that particular therapist cant speak that particular client's "language".

Remember - if a hypnotherapist of NLP practitioner fails to help you, it is their failing not yours; find another one who speaks your language better !