Do your personal belief systems get challenged?

There are times when working with personal development techniques leads one down a path that challenges one's beliefs.

I did a double take today when I read in the August/November edition of South West Connection (a magazine that dedicates itself to being a guide to personal development and natural therapies), a headline like no other; "Were you traumatized when you were a sperm?".

Just possibly I thought this may be an ironic joke, a gentle micky take on those who take things just a bit too far. It appears I was wrong, apparently Juliet Yelverton of the Healing Waters Sanctuary in Glastonbury really does believe that as a sperm and possibly as an egg you were traumatized and that trauma helps to explain why you might become a drug addict in later life.

Well now, you can we are told, heal the inner egg and calm the traumatized sperm by going to a workshop. Really?

I don't doubt that some people will make changes in their life through others showing them unconditional positive regard (standard Rogerian techniques) in almost any kind of workshop but to ascribe the issues resolved as being associated with the passage of the sperm from ejaculation to egg seems far fetched in the extreme.

It makes me wonder what kind of inner trauma would be associated with the different sexual positions at conception, woman on top...trouble with dealing with female authority, penetration from behind...an inability to look other people in the eye. Please.....

What next? "It's not my fault, my sperm was traumatized."

What does this remind me of? Ah yes the Emperors new clothes.

Inspiring video presentations

Many of you will have discovered this resource already but if you haven't tried it out yet go to www.ted.com.

You will see incredible presentations, lectures and performances by some of the best and brightest minds in the world. It is an amazing resource and it's all for free. (Actually it's sponsored by BMW so there are a few commercials to put up with.)

Try this one by Tony Robbins as a starter.

Former students and their web sites

Whilst working as a tutor for Chrysalis I met many wonderful students from Swindon and the surrounding areas. Some have gone on to work professionally, others use their skills to enrich their life and the lives of others.

I thought it might be nice to list all their web sites in one place, so here they are:

http://positiveresolutions.blogspot.com/ Rachel Arnold

http://www.newwaysnow.com/ Helen Ellis

http://www.swindon-hypnotherapy.com/ Alex Copock-Bunce

http://www.northwiltstherapy.co.uk/ Mark Johnson

http://www.positivepressures.com/index.htm Jane Austin

If you are a former student and would like to be listed here then drop me a line!

Former student now in pracrtice

For several years I was a tutor with the Chrysalis training organisation, teaching students how to use hypnosis in a therapeutic way. It's always good to hear from former students and especially when they have made great progress in their life.

One of my students was Helen Ellis and in the year that we worked together she developed and grew so much as she came to understand not just herself but also those around her.

I am pleased to say that Helen is now well established with her own hypnotherapy practice in Swindon, you can take a look at her web site here www.newwaysnow.com. Helen recently attended the Mela event in Swindon and had a stand their to promote her work.

Since she sent me a picture I thought I'd include it here for former students to comment on. Let's hear from you!

If any former students of mine have recent photo then send it to me so that we can include it here!

CO2 lots of hot air

In a moment of idle curiosity I wondered how much CO2 we breathe out each day, since almost everyone now seems to think that CO2 is poison. (It isn't folks!)

Well the internet provides everything and on a web site somewhere (very scientific) it said the average persons breathes out about 450 litres of CO2 a day or about 900g.

You may wonder if it is worth holding your breath to improve things (hint, it isn't).

For a comparison a 2 litre VW Golf emits 145grams per Km. So if you stop breathing for a whole day you can drive your car 6.2Km or about 3.85 miles. I think I'll keep breathing then.

Is a full night of sleep for everyone?

Over the last 3 years I have worked with a number of insomniacs who had got to the point of desperation about achieving a full nights sleep.

Generally as we have worked together through the emotional baggage and physical habits that have been in the way, meaningful sleep has returned. Sometimes progress with this condition is slower than other issues but that 'seems' to be because the change in sleep patterns has been well established. So after 5-7 sessions of one to one work we have made enough progress to brings our sessions to an end.

But having just read a very interesting blog about polyphasic sleep perhaps there are some insomniacs who would benefit from an alternative approach. Basically Polyphasic sleeping means being awake for 4 hours at a time and then taking a 20-30 minute nap. The schedule is everything with this approach and the pay off for sleeping less is that your day becomes relatively inflexible.

I found a superb blog detailing one man's experiment with this approach and he kept going for over 5 months. It is fascinating stuff and very detailed, it includes for example the impact that these changes had on his family.

Follow the link for more

New Nail Biting hypnosis MP3

I added a new hypnosis MP3 download to the Gift4life web site today. (You can also purchase the recording as a CD.)

It is designed specifically for women who want to grow their own elegant nails instead of having to rely on false acrylic ones.

Follow the link above to listen to a short audio sample of the track.

For the guys out there who might bite their nails we recommend the Great Nails track. Follow this link instead.

Quit tobacco and still smoke cannabis?

I have had quite a few people talk to me over the recent months about wanting to stop tobacco smoking but still retain the ability to keep smoking cannabis.

Is this achievable? Can you both give up tobacco and use cannabis? Keeping watching till the end of the video for an interesting insight into this issue.



Sorry about the still frame above! I am a lot more friendly than that pictures suggests...if I could just find a way to use a different frame.

Any comments on this video are very welcome whether as a therapist or as a user.

Lower prices for download hypnosis MP3s

To celebrate six months of the the Gift4life site being on-line I have reduced our prices by almost 50%!

The hypnosis CDs that were £18.95 are now only £9.95
The MP3 downloads that were £14.94 are now just £7.75

The quality is the same as ever but I wanted to allow more people to take advantage of the products produced so far.

To make things even easier, I have now also put in place a 30 day money back guarantee so that you can purchase with zero-risk.


There has never been a better time to make the changes in your life that you dream of. Remember that you can also download a relaxation audio track for free by registering on the site.

It's quick and easy to do, you can be listening to the audio in just a couple of minutes.

Hypnotherapy on BBC TV

On BBC 2 last night (Monday 17th) there was a program called Alternative Therapies that looked at Hypnotherapy in the first program. The presenter is Kathy Sykes; she is listed as a Professor of Science at Bristol University. (Her role appears to be to communicate science to the masses.)

Kathy starts the program apparently skeptical about what hypnosis and hypnotherapy can achieve (unfortunately there appeared to be very little differentiation between the hypnotic process and the therapy process).

She started with a stage hypnotist show and then moved on into various research areas. Personally I found the program frustrating at times as hypnotherapy was dismissed for not having any clinical trials to back it up and then damned again by unspecified research that showed hypnosis/hypnotherapy was no better than counseling.

What the presenter appeared to miss in her search for the elusive hypnotic state is that it happens so often, that people are looking for the obvious and then missing it or calling it something else.

The program drew to a conclusion as it looked at research done with brain imaging equipment that should (surprise!) that subjects in a hypnotic state use a different part of the brain to this who are merely responding to simple suggestion.

The final scenes had a tooth extraction and replacement done with hypnotic pain control. Even then the presenter appeared to think that simple suggestion could have achieved the same thing (although she was cringing whilst watching the procedure).

The program concluded with Kathy returning to see the stage hypnotist (Gary McCoy I believe) to see if she could now engage with the hypnotic process more fully having finally been convinced by brain scan research being conducted in Montreal.

From a hypnotherapist's or hypnotist's point of view, it is a difficult program that may well have you shouting at the TV screen in disagreement with what is happening (the IBS Doctor who described his hypnotic method as "droning on a bit" for example!). However it did clearly the show the power of hypnotic pain control and will no doubt promote some debate. Click the link at the top of this post to go top the BBC iPlayer to view the program on-line.