More Nonsense Headlines About Hypnosis
Whilst deciding what to write about today, I have come across an article, from the same source as yesterday’s which claims that a woman lost three stone by having her mind tricked with hypnosis that she had a gastric band put on her. Now please be aware I am not criticising the woman in this story, indeed if she lost the weight, she should be congratulated for having the motivation to do so. However, my issue is again with the trivialising of what we do in hypnotherapy.
The use of the words “pretend” and “tricked” are unhelpful as it again shows hypnosis as some sort of a con rather than a valid therapeutic modality which in the right hands can be a very effective way for clients to transform to being the people that they want to be.
Having looked at the hypnotist who is being quoted in the article, it has all the hallmarks of things that I have written about before. No mention of qualifications, “celebrity” name dropping and of course saying he is the “the nation’s #1 unconscious mind therapist”. I have no problem with people building themselves up, but making comments like this are actually unprovable and therefore unhelpful to the profession to say the least.
I wish the media would look at hypnosis from a pragmatic perspective rather than building it and the people practising it into quasi magicians. Too much P.T. Barnum and not enough B.F. Skinner.
