Interview
Q: How are you going to use your hypnotherapeutic skills with patients?
A: As I work from two natural health centres and two medical clinics, the range of presenting issues encountered is enormous – from unresolved bereavement to fear of disease, unremitting pain, needle phobia, severe panic attacks, depression, personality disorders, psychosexual and relationship problems to a schizophrenic under medical care who needs cues to remember not to set fire to the kitchen in the group home. From this short list you can see several applications for hypnotherapy, and those where it is less, or not, pertinent. In the hospice there are likely to be issues of unremitting pain due to chronic stress, deep emotional traumas and of course effects of the disease.

In October, after trying for three years along the South Coast to get a foot in the door, I will be doing a half day/week pilot study with the Head & Neck Cancer Unit in Portsmouth with the aim of setting up a full psychosocial service for patients and families. We must look at it over a six month period, gathering data and feedback, so a formal bid can then be submitted to the Trust. Perhaps giving up security for a leap into the dark will finally have its rewards! Interestingly, although it could be a coincidence, talking with a clinician about the potential of hypnotherapy seemed to tip the balance of action for him to get things moving. There are some good published references on the medical/psychological databases. Happily, unlike the hospice, I’ll be paid for this work.

Q: What benefits are you noticing?
A: I’ve been using hypnotherapy since last December. The main benefit is that it speeds up psychotherapy considerably, I would guess that self-knowledge work cuts the time in half. As my main model is cognitive therapy the period is already much briefer than would be the case with psychoanalytic or humanist therapy for example.
I think that it is terrific for ‘stop smoking’. Although I’m deathly bored with the script, there is no doubt that it works if the person is genuinely interested in quitting. I arm myself in the initial interview with direct quotes of his own reasons for quitting and the reasons he started, which they tend to roundly berate themselves for doing.		 Feeding back his own reasons makes a huge difference, there are facial clues to show deep recognition. The mirror and pseudo-orientation round it off nicely pre-CRC. I’m now seeing people referred by others seen months ago – so the proof is there.

Safe places and CRC are hard to over-use. It continues to astonish that a life-hardened mature man will sit with no change of expression while I ladle it on and wake with the dewey-eyes of youth. It is true that only a very small minority are in the privileged position of having this necessary aspect of life filled naturally.

Q: What future plans do you have for hypnotherapy services you offer to your patients?
A: Happily clinicians are becoming more tolerant of, perhaps even appreciative of, some of the complementary therapies and also more aware of the psychosocial care needs of their patients. And, finally, their own pressures and needs as well. The cancer unit in which I will work has arranged a multidisciplinary meeting in November and I’m to be included in the programme to run a workshop on Professional Stress: how to recognise it, how to deal with it. So, as of that announcement, I feel it acutely. Time for a little self-medication.

Q: Any other comments?
A: I feel strongly that proper supervision (what we’ve had are tutorials) is essential to good professional practice and personal stability. Through a four-year period of training, the BPS (Counselling Psychology) requires one hour of supervision per five client hours, the UKCP requires one hour per eight client hours.

Ongoing personal therapy is also required by both to process the deep issues encountered daily. Similar requirements are made by the BAC. It’s highly painful economically unless a barter system can be arranged with an institution but you need work only a brief time to be fully aware of the need for someone to be there fully for you, for a change. And continually reminding yourself what it feels like to be a client is invaluable.
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