Forget embarrassing impersonations and swinging fob watches, hypnotherapy is changing lives with its approach to mindset, and it is now recognised by the medical profession as a powerful alternative therapy.

Clinical hypnotherapist Maggie Wilde reveals the potential of the mind and its role in weight loss in her new book Unzip the Fat Suit Using Your Mind.

Wilde discovered hypnotherapy by accident trying to heal the symptoms of her debilitating auto-immune disorder. She now treats patients from around the world, either in person or via Skype.

Hypnotherapy works by tapping into the way the brain learns. By slowing brain waves down to the natural state, the brain can learn and receive new suggestions, eliminating toxic thoughts and unhelpful behaviour patterns and replacing them with healthy ones.

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Hundreds of clinical trials have been performed on hypnotherapy's effect on stress, pain management, stopping smoking, anxiety, addiction and many more issues.

The principal of the book, and hypnotherapy in general, is that to make a permanent physical change, you must also change your mind.

“With hypnosis we can disconnect the link a person may have learned earlier in life between emotions and food, or stress and food," says Wilde. "Hypnosis can also help to stabilise and de-stress the body so that digestion functions more effectively.”

She believes that mindset is the missing ingredient in most weight-loss programs and helps to prevent the yo-yo syndrome common to many.

“There are no forbidden foods or strict routines here," she says. "Through hypnotic suggestion you begin to naturally feel more motivated to move your body, choose smaller portions and healthier options. Your mind is ultimately rewired so you naturally want what's best for your body anyway.”

Jo first saw Wilde for hypnotherapy in 2012, with the goal of losing about 10 kilograms. She was an emotional eater and would eat a whole packet of biscuits or a whole jar of olives in one sitting.

“I lacked motivation and felt depleted from working in a job I didn't enjoy," Jo says. "Hypnotherapy gave me the confidence and tools I needed to make changes in my life. I'm almost at my goal weight and have started working in a new industry that I'm much happier in.”

Wilde says a change can be noticed within a few days. The combination of the book and accompanying audio program reinforce the new commitment, and weight loss has been reported at one to three kilograms within the first week.

“Self-hypnosis forces you to take time out and relax," says Wilde. "Aside from weight loss, other benefits of self-hypnosis include a reduction in cholesterol, blood pressure, stress and it can aid digestion."

A typical course of treatment for weight loss would consist of about five weekly visits followed by optional monthly mentoring sessions.

“The book and audio program take what my patients would normally receive in the clinic into their home,” says Wilde. “This is more than a weight-loss program and has the power to change lives on multiple levels.”

Here, Wilde shares three self-hypnosis techniques that can help you unzip the fat suit at home:

• Close your eyes and silently count backwards from five in a drowsy daydream voice to relax into the light state. Imagine wearing an outfit in your goal clothing size. Imagine that it is already too big for you. The mind doesn't know the difference between real and imagined. This technique begins to program the body to feel slimmer and expect it already.

• In the light state, repeat three times: "I am the kind of person who enjoys moving my body more.” If you don't believe it yet, it doesn't matter. The mind is being rewired to think that way.

• In the light state, imagine standing on the scales at your ideal weight. Do a victory dance in your mind. The more you let yourself experience the joy, pride and elation, the more powerful it will be in the rewiring process.

Hsiao Yu-ho, a Taiwanese hypnotherapist who went to Guangzhou in 2007 to expand her business, said that hypnotherapy is a form of psychological counseling and there is nothing mysterious about it. Hypnotherapy has gradually come to be accepted by Chinese consumers after the release of Inception, the 2010 Hollywood blockbuster that dealt with both hypnotism and dreams.

Hsiao's clients typically range between the ages of 20 and 40. Most of them are seeking psychological help for problems with work or with their love life.

"Most people have the misconception that hypnotherapy is a cure for insomnia, which is totally incorrect. Hypnotherapy can help a person relax, but it is different from sleeping. People also believe that it can erase memories, but this would be a serious violation of the ethics prescribed by the job. Every master of hypnotism warns their students never to erase people's memories," said Hsiao.

"Many female clients ask to erase their memories of their former boyfriends, which is very dangerous," Hsiao said.

When a hypnotherapist meets with a client, the first thing they have to do is to win their trust. Then they will attempt to discover the easiest way to hypnotize the client. When the client is in a state of hypnosis, the therapist will guide them in certain ways, including telling them to imagine a staircase with 10 steps, then telling them to walk down the steps one by one as the hypnotherapist counts from one to 10. Then when the client gets to the bottom, they are asked to open the door they see before them, open it and look into their subconscious. When the client wakes up, the hypnotherapist will analyze and "restructure" the mind of the clients, making them feel better.

A 20-something sought help from Hsiao because she was afraid of the dark and was too scared to do overtime in her office at night. Hsiao uncovered the memory that she had been locked in a dark room at the age of four. Another woman in her mid-thirties would shake with fear when she laid eyes on her female superiors. Hsiao found out that she had been frequently scolded by her mother from a very young age and associated her female supervisors with the image of her mother.



If you would like to find more about how Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic can help you for problems such as anxiety, confidence, low self esteem, hypnobirth, gastric band hypnosis, sports performance hypnosis, weight loss hypnosis, sexual problems contact Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic.

Pop star Ke$Ha loves to go back in time under hypnosis and check out her past lives.

The Die Young singer has been trying out past-life regressions in a bid to get to grips with her "issues" and she admits she looks forward to each session.

During an appearance on U.S. show Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday (14Oct13), Ke$ha said, "I actually do it frequently... I've been a warrior princess and I've also been a dude many times... really cool ones.

"I've had a lot of different, weird past life regressions because I have issues and so I try to go back and figure out why I've (got) problems... It's cool. I love it."

If you would like to find more about how Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic can help you for problems such as anxiety, confidence, low self esteem, hypnobirth, gastric band hypnosis, sports performance hypnosis, weight loss hypnosis, sexual problems contact Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic.

(ECNS) – An increasing number of urban white collar workers in Guangzhou are resorting to hypnosis to relieve pressure from work and life, according to xkb.com.cn.

The therapy can run from 600 yuan ($98) to 8,000 yuan ($1,311) per hour.

"As far as I know, the most expensive one in Guangzhou is 6,000 yuan ($983) per hour," said Xiao Yuhe, a hypnotist from Taiwan who runs a business in Guangzhou.

"Hypnosis is a kind of psychological counseling that helps people deal with stress."

On the Chinese mainland, psychological counseling and hypnotherapy have attracted attention in recent years, and most visitors are white collar workers aged between 20 to 40.

Xiao said the movie "Inception" has contributed to the trend: "Many people came to me after that movie was released."

Xiao added that many people have mistaken hypnosis for the treatment of insomnia, but "hypnosis is far different from normal sleep. Even though Hypnosis can help people relax and fall asleep, it can't be a special treatment for sleep problems."

Many girls have also come to Xiao, hoping to delete memories of their ex-boyfriends.

The original intention of hypnosis is to release a subject's subconscious, rather than hide rational awareness, Xiao explained.

If you would like to find more about how Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic can help you for problems such as anxiety, confidence, low self esteem, hypnobirth, gastric band hypnosis, sports performance hypnosis, weight loss hypnosis, sexual problems contact Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Although some health care providers may overlook alternative therapies when treating functional bowel disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome, University of Florida faculty members have found evidence that hypnosis and cognitive behavioral therapy may benefit patients suffering from these diseases.

Led by researchers Oliver Grundmann of the UF College of Pharmacy and Saunjoo “Sunny” Yoon of the UF College of Nursing, the study was published in the European Journal of Integrative Medicine, which highlighted it as the “Editors Choice” in its August issue.

“Our work being highlighted in this way indicates that we are able to raise awareness for the issue of a more integrative and holistic approach to medical care in the area of functional bowel disorders in the scientific community — a goal that both Dr. Yoon and I have been striving for in our professional endeavors for many years,” said Grundmann, a clinical assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy.

The researchers reviewed 19 recent clinical trials to examine the potential benefits of using four common mind-body therapies — yoga, hypnotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and biofeedback — in the treatment of functional bowel disorders. In particular, the researchers found indications there were some benefits to hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.

“It is still very hard to replicate some of the studies or generalize the findings,” said Yoon, an associate professor in the College of Nursing, adding there is a need for more studies. “Some of the research methodologies are not consistent from one study to another and some of the studies have a small sample size or the designs do not provide the rigor or obvious protocol.”

Functional bowel disorders occur when the stomach and bowels aren’t working properly and are typically accompanied by stomach pain, bloating and other intestinal symptoms. Treatments typically target these symptoms.

For about five years, Yoon and Grundmann have been studying and publishing material on complementary and alternative medicine, which includes treatments with dietary supplements, acupuncture and yoga.

Because functional bowel disorders are chronic conditions that come and go over time, patients sometimes develop negative attitudes that can affect treatments. Cognitive behavioral therapy is used in an attempt to help patients feel more positive. In one study the researchers examined, cognitive behavioral therapy worked as well as antidepressant medications.

Hypnosis, on the other hand, is used in an attempt to reduce pain. Some of the studies the researchers reviewed showed that hypnotherapy worked as well as medication to reduce pain in patients.

But although the results were promising, they were not conclusive, Yoon said.

“A lot of times we get contradictory results from the clinical trials, so it can be confusing for the readers or the clinicians when they read it,” Yoon said. “Our article can give them a better picture or better view about currently available clinical trials and the results of the trials.”

Yoon said doctors should not exclude complementary therapies when treating functional bowel disorders.

“We just need to have an open mind to the therapies that are not familiar in Western countries,” Yoon said.

The open-access version of the article can be found athttp://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S1876382013000590.

If you would like to find more about how Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic can help you for problems such as anxiety, confidence, low self esteem, hypnobirth, gastric band hypnosis, sports performance hypnosis, weight loss hypnosis, sexual problems contact Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic.

Eve Bogert, longtime hypnosis enthusiast, once participated in a stage hypnosis show and was hypnotized into believing there was a little man trapped inside of her wristwatch.

“I’m a compassionate person. I thought ‘We really needed to get that guy out right now, this is not funny, people. He’s stuck in there,’” Bogert says, laughing. She enjoys being put into a trance for laughs, but she also appreciates hypnosis as a form of alternative medicine that has been effective in treating her chronic migraine attacks.

“I’ve used it on myself for pain management. It’s incredibly successful as a technique for pain management. It’s also helped friends with things like stopping smoking,” Bogert says. “Basically, achieving the hypnotic or meditative state and eliminating those symptoms so I can be more functional and get things done when I need to, because migraines can be ridiculously terrible.”

Bogert is among the growing number of hypnosis enthusiasts in Grand Forks, as Skylar Williams, chief hypnotherapist at Midwest Hypnosis, can attest. Out of the estimated 500 patients Williams treats per year, he treats 10 patients from Grand Forks each month. According to Williams, most of his patients from Grand Forks want to quit smoking, change bad habits and lose weight.

“People have problems. You get a higher population and you have more,” Williams says.

Working around skepticism

Despite Hollywood myths surrounding the process of hypnosis, Williams describes the practice as simply being in an “altered or relaxed state where someone is more suggestible.” As such, Williams’ techniques for inducing a hypnotic state vary depending on the patient and his or her needs.

“Some might use music with their inductions, some might not ... some use imagery,” Williams says. “We customize the approach towards what they need.”

“A lot of people think you need to have the flashing lights, swirling patterns, that kind of thing, but the most common way of doing it is just progressive relaxation or visualization,” Bogert says.

Many of Williams’ patients turned to hypnosis as a source of alternative illness treatment because traditional treatment wasn’t effective for them. Despite the popular belief that hypnosis doesn’t work, Williams has successfully treated the majority of his smoking cessation and weight loss patients.

“Weight loss and smoking are 80 percent [successful],” he says. “Very high, but not perfect.”

Because of her own experiments with hypnosis, Bogert believes a successful hypnotic induction, be it in a clinical or recreational setting, has a lot to do with the willingness of the subject.

“A lot of people expect ‘oh, I’m going to go to a hypnotherapist, I’m going to spend an hour on the couch, and then I’m just never going to smoke again.’ And that’s not actually how it works, because you are dealing with something that is both a physical addiction and a psychological addiction,” Bogert says.

“Usually, you’re going into sessions, they say four to seven is minimum. Usually, you’ll see even more sessions than that, because you’re going in and constantly re-reinforcing that suggestion and whatever mechanism you’re putting in place to get rid of the cravings and to cope with whatever you associate with smoking … it’s not something where you can just quit smoking in two hours, basically. Everybody would do it.”

Common myths about hypnosis that may prevent more people from exploring it as an alternative treatment option might be unwarranted because hypnosis people experience hypnosis on a daily basis.

“There is a big misconception that you have to be weak-minded or suggestible to be hypnotized, and that’s not the case,” Bogert says. “If you’ve had, say, a road trip, that commute you do all the time, or that drive where maybe you’re a little bit tired, and you get somewhere and you realize, ‘Oh, I don’t even remember half of that trip; I don’t remember half of that drive,’ that’s a phenomenon known as road hypnosis, and it’s a natural phenomenon, but it is a form of hypnosis. You see it also in work flow; you’ll see artists, carpenters, people who do work with their hands, will especially say ‘Oh, I started at 9 o’clock this morning, next thing I know, its 3 p.m. and I’m starving.’ You know, you just lose track of time because you’re so in the task.”

Advancing an alternative

Williams has practiced hypnotherapy with Midwest Hypnosis since the clinic’s opening in 1973, and finds modern applications of hypnosis are evolving alongside trance-inducing techniques and changes in modern technology.

Williams also works with patients who want to improve their athletic performance or deal with various phobias. Recent changes in patient needs have been an ongoing challenge for Williams and other hypnotherapists, but they’ve been able to adapt.

“People are a lot smarter than they used to be,” Williams says. “”I think hypnosis has been around since day one. It’s just been streamlined within the past 300 years.”

Bogert has never seen a clinical hypnotherapist, but she has been able to learn about hypnosis and experiment with it on her own, at little financial cost. Hypnosis provides her relief from physical pain and daily stress without expensive medication or the inevitable side effects caused by medication.

“It’s been therapeutic in terms of using it for meditation, stress relief,” Bogert says. “It has a lot of benefits, actually.”

A schoolboy from Somerset who was stranded in Abu Dhabi for 18 months because he had a crippling fear of air travel had to be hypnotised back on a plane in order to return home.

Twelve-year-old Joe Thompson landed at London Heathrow Airport four years after his family moved to the UAE when his father Tony, 62, was offered a managerial role at a private hospital.

They were due to fly back to Weston-Super-Mare in June 2012 when Tony’s contract ended but just four months before they planned to come back, Joe developed an acute fear of flying.

When the youngster boarded a flight to Sri Lanka to attend a rugby tour with his father the fear came to light when he found that he could not face the journey.

‘We got on the plane but Joe became so traumatised, the crew said he had to get off,’ his father said as he explained that Joe was scrambling over the seats to get out.

MORE: Joe Thompson tells ITV’s Daybreak about plans to fly again 

Joe receives treatment from Russell Hemmings to help him make the 4,500-mile journey back to Heathrow Airport (Picture: SWNS)‘It was terrible. I had 40 other children with me who were all taking part in the tournament. I couldn’t leave them so I had to let Joe get off. I called my wife and she came and picked him up.’

The family then repeatedly tried to get Joe on a plane without any success, meaning that the father and son had to stay behind in the country while the boy’s mother went back to the UK to work.

The duo rented apartments and stayed at friends’ houses in order to save money, until a breakthrough occurred a year and a half later.

Joe’s aerophobia – which had baffled doctors because he had flown long-haul many times as a child – was soothed by hypnotist Russell Hemmings.

‘Russell was the best chance I had. He helped me out so much,’ Joe said.

‘He taught me so much and I’m so thankful.’

The family predict that they have spent the best part of £40,000 trying to cure their son’s fear which includes cancelled flight tickets and doctor bills.



If you would like to find more about how Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic can help you for problems such as anxiety, confidence, low self esteem, hypnobirth, gastric band hypnosis, sports performance hypnosis, weight loss hypnosis, sexual problems contact Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic.

ARCATA, Calif., October 14, 2013 — Scientists and those reporting on their work often claim some people are “unhypnotizable” while others are “highly hypnotizable.” It may appear this way when the same approach, called an “induction,” is used for every person participating in a research study. The clinical environment is a different story.

Movies and stage shows have given rise to many myths about hypnosis. The most common ones are that a person in hypnosis can get stuck in hypnosis, unknowingly reveal secrets or be made to do things against their will. Before beginning clinical hypnosis work, it is common to debunk these as false. 

The point about “hypnotizability” is also worth making because people commonly ask whether they can be hypnotized and some express doubt. If you don’t want to go into hypnosis, you won’t. If you do want to, know that you can. And you do. Really, we all go in and out of hypnosis in many ordinary ways each day. Examples include daydreaming, crying during a sad movie, feeling the sting of a cut only after seeing it, and exiting the highway and realizing you don’t remember passing the previous five exits. 

These common experiences are hypnotic because they involve selective focus of attention. Some factors are deleted from awareness and other things happen automatically. In these examples, you can go into the enhanced or altered state of hypnosis without another person guiding you. When researchers study hypnosis it typically involves facilitation from another person - the hypnotist. 

Allowing the hypnotist to use only one induction for everybody is like choosing one song to represent all music. Some people will want to dance to it and others won’t. Nobody would say that means some people are incapable of dancing while others are inherently gifted at it.  

James Hazlerig, a Certified Hypnosis Practitioner in Austin, Texas, likens this to giving 100 people lukewarm Big Macs, finding 10 folks won’t eat them, and declaring 10% of the population is “not susceptible to food.” It’s silly. 

The “scientific method” isolates variables and standardizes how experiments are conducted. This is good and important. It just can’t be applied to the study of absolutely everything. If you put the world’s best poets, painters or songwriters in a lab to study what produces the best art, the creative output will surely be affected by the environment and its uniformity.

Is hypnosis an art? 

We don’t know everything about how the brain changes during hypnosis, but there is a large and growing body of evidence that it does. The experience of hypnosis can be studied as a science while the act of facilitating hypnosis is at least partly an art. Researchers and reporters rarely make this point.

That works to the detriment of both hypnosis and the general welfare of the public. That’s no exaggeration. If doctors and scientists studying hypnosis would be more flexible about how they approach inducing hypnosis in test subjects, few if any would be deemed “unhypnotizable.” With more subjects in hypnosis, there would be even more scientific data about how the brain and other parts of the body can change and benefit.

Various fields recognize the “Law of Requisite Variety.” This says the more flexible you are, the more likely you are to get the outcome you want. It is a foundational premise in the field of clinical and medical hypnosis. In other words, what happens in a hypnosis research lab is not always based on what happens when hypnosis is used to help people in the real world.

We do need scientific studies about hypnosis. They just have to be constructed realistically to have more value. Some of that value is in helping the general public understand that everyone can be hypnotized - if you want to be, expect to be, and cooperate with the hypnotist who is flexible enough to select an approach that works for you.

Meanwhile, whether you seek out a local hypnotist, explore the benefits of self-hypnosis, or just remain curious enough to keep reading this column, challenge yourself to be more flexible in your thoughts and actions this week and notice how many more options you create and successes you experience.

If you would like to find more about how Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic can help you for problems such as anxiety, confidence, low self esteem, hypnobirth, gastric band hypnosis, sports performance hypnosis, weight loss hypnosis, sexual problems contact Birmingham Hypnotherapy Clinic.