Your Back in the Room is No More
As readers of this blog will know, there has been a programme on ITV which offended not only me but other professionals who use hypnosis therapeutically. This programme “You are back in the room” was a programme hosted by Philip Schofield, with hypnotist Keith Barry. The premise of the show was that people were hypnotised to perform simple tasks in order to win £25000. The “hook” was that they were all “hypnotised” while undertaking this task.
I wrote a very critical article about this when the first series was announced, and I admit I took some heat from practitioners who simply did not understand the concept that “All publicity is NOT good publicity”. For more than 2 decades I have worked here and in the wider world to help hypnosis achieve the recognition of the legitimate therapeutic modality that it deserves. The one thing that consistently frustrated these efforts are the links (though fewer and fewer over the years) with stage hypnosis.
It is my most profound hope that a tv network will do a programme about the therapeutic effectiveness of hypnosis rather than harping on about people being made fools of at the hands of the stage hypnotist. Yes, at the turn of the last century we needed stage hypnosis to keep the modality alive after Freud dismissed it. But holding on to this out dated form of entertainment, would be like a person today going to the barber to have his tooth pulled or the butcher to consult on his surgical procedure.
