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FREE Members Training Day Intensive One Day Virtual Gastric Band Training - When: Sunday, February 12th Where: Bewleys Hotel Leopardstown Time: 9am - 6pm Cost: FREE to members All members are invited to attend a FREE intensive one day certified training in the Virtual Gastric Band. You are invited to a free one day training with one of the U.K.’s most prolific trainers of this technique - Sheila Grainger. You will receive a training manual, all scripts, MP3 recordings and certificate of training and a bonus ‘Build a successful practice’ manual, so you have everything you need to get going immediately. Details are below. THERE ARE LIMITED PLACES AVAILABLE. Can I attend if i’m not a member? Of course, the cost for the day is €150 for non members. If you have renewed your membership for 2012 you are invited to attend for FREE, and if you have not signed up...

Jessica Alba has some unique advice for other expectant moms. The 30-year-old actress recommends "hypnobirthing classes" -- which are increasingly popular among pregnant women. Hypnobirthing involves the use of hypnosis during childbirth. "It's different for everyone, although I do recommend the hypnobirthing classes," Alba told Us Weekly on Monday at the RIMOWA store opening in Beverly Hills. "I highly recommend it. It just makes you chill." The actress wasn't quite so "chill" before the birth of daughter Honor Marie, 2: "I was freaked out going into it my first time going into labor. Like what if I panic? What if I just freak out and I don't know what to do?" So is the second pregnancy easier for Alba? "Oh yeah! But a little bit harder on the body because my daughter still wants to be picked up. Ever since my belly popped, she really is on me!"...

Expectant mothers at a hospital in Greater Manchester will be able to try hypnobirthing, as part of an NHS trial. Tameside General Hospital is introducing the technique to women who want to take part. Studies have found self-hypnosis, which started in the United States, allows many women to give birth without pain, and without gas and air, it said. Women are not distracted from the pain but learn how to stay calm so their muscles relax. Full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-13451637...

Amir Raz gets some funny looks when he talks about using hypnosis and meditation techniques to build attention spans in a hyperactive MTV world. "Mention contemplation to a lot of people, and all they think of is some kind of (wacky) spiritualism, people sitting around a darkened room with candles, chanting," says Raz, a McGill University professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention. "Our ideas are shaped by Hollywood movies. So you talk about hypnosis, and people see something out of a Woody Allen movie, a guy in a turban with bushy eyebrows who wants to put you to sleep." But "trim away the folkloric fat," and Raz, a cognitive psychologist who worked his way through graduate school doing magic tricks, sees mindfulness training as a valuable, drug-free tool in the struggle to foster attention skills, with positive spinoffs for controlling our emotions and even...

Original article is here by Adam Eason. (these are his opinions, but i enjoyed it very much) So earlier this week was national No Smoking Day here. The BBC re-ran a TV show that I starred in a couple of years back entitled “The Smokehouse” which coincided with National No Smoking Day and as a result, I got lots and lots of enquiries from people wishing to stop smoking. One person enquired rather forcibly “Valerie Austin used to offer up a 95% success rate for stopping smoking in one hour, what is your success rate Adam?” Then another enquirer asked me if I offered a money-back guarantee to support my seeming confidence in my work, as displayed on the television. Yet another asked me for a success rate and two more asked about guarantees, and I ended up repeating myself in writing and over the telephone on several occasions. In times...

Interesting article from the NCH website : People often ask “Why isn’t there more research on hypnosis?”  In fact, the people who ask this, in my experience, never seem to have read (or even heard of) the main research journals in the field of hypnosis (IJCEH, AJCH, and Contemporary Hypnosis) and are unaware that there’s actually an awful lot of research on hypnosis, arguably more than on any other psychological therapy, apart from cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).  However, one of the problems facing hypnosis researchers is that methods of hypnotherapy are too messy, eclectic and complex to be well-suited to good research design.  It helps build an evidence base if a treatment is “manualised” and can be described in a guide so that other researchers can replicate it in independent studies.  Hypnotherapists tend to do lots of strange things with clients, making it difficult to isolate which “bits” are effective and which...

Published on Thursday 3 March 2011 07:00 Isle of Man Newspapers   PEEL based hypnotherapists Xavier and Mary Nathan of Setanta Hypnotherapy Clinic have become among the first in the UK to achieve a new national standard of excellence for clinical hypnotherapy and psychotherapy.   And they have been registered by the Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC), the UK regulator for complementary healthcare. This recognition has placed them at the forefront of a national drive to provide a benchmark for standards and safety for the public. Practitioners registered with the CNHC must meet national occupational standards and abide by a rigorous code of conduct, performance and ethics. Xavier and Mary are both members of the Institute of Clinical Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy (ICHP) in Ireland and the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) in the UK. As well as their university degrees they both hold diplomas and advanced diplomas in Clinical Hypnotherapy...

We spend most of our lives see-sawing between our feelings. Sometimes it might feel as if you are on a boat on the ocean at the mercy of the weather not realising that not only does the boat you are in have oars but it also has an engine. We wake up every morning not knowing what to expect and if we take the time to think about it most of us would probably imagine that life happens to us and how we feel depends on external circumstances quite out of our control. In this article I would like to explain how not only are you in control of how you feel but you are also the creator of everything that happens to you as a result.   Happiness like sadness is a feeling. You can't explain a feeling all you can do is feel it. You can explain a...

Breathe easy: Soprano Camilla Kerslake, pictured with Gary Barlow, used deep breathing techniques and hypnosis to overcome her stage fright The cameras were ready to whirr into action and pop star Gary Barlow was waiting expectantly in the corner of the Dublin studio. My daughter Camilla, 21, was about to shoot her first music video, singing the Take That hit Rule The World. Camilla looked the picture of calm, clearly enjoying her first taste of stardom. Yet, 24 hours earlier, suffering from a severe attack of stage fright, she had begged me to fly over and help her combat her nerves using hypnosis  -  one of the skills I use in my job as a personal development coach. In 2009, after Camilla handed Gary her CD in a recording studio, he gave her a record deal. Almost overnight she went from being a student at the Academy of Contemporary Music in...

Pain is one of the few areas where hypnosis can be applied clinically in the absence of a broader treatment framework - although hypnosis allied to cognitive behavioural techniques may well be an extremely effective intervention. A number of studies have examined the effectiveness of hypnosis in treating pain, either when used alone or alongside cognitive behavioural therapy. Pain is one of the best-researched areas - there have been a number of meta-analyses (literally a study of studies - one of the most a reliable ways to find out if there is an effect) of hypnosis for pain control. Methods of pain control Hypnotic approaches to pain relief take three forms: Direct suggestion for symptom change Dissociative approaches - encourages clients to mentally 'go elsewhere' and leave the pain behind Resource utilisation - a more Ericksonian approach Meta-Analyses Meta-analyses are essentially studies of studies. Where individual studies can sometimes show contradictory results,...

HOW can a hypnotist paralyze your hand just with words? By making a part of your brain butt in on the process that normally makes your hand move, a study says. So the brain region that's ready to move your hand ignores its usual inputs and listens to this interloper, which says, "Don't even bother," the research concluded. It's "a kind of reconnection between different brain regions", said Yann Cojan, a researcher at the University of Geneva. Cojan is an author of the study in Thursday's issue of the journal Neuron. It used brain scans to show what happened when 12 volunteers tried to move a hand that had been paralysed by hypnosis. Results showed the right motor cortex prepared itself as usual to tell the left hand to move. But the cortex appeared to be ignoring the parts of the brain it normally communicates with in controlling movement. Instead, it...

Investigators from Marquette University’s Nurse-Midwifery Program in Milwaukee examined the physiological and psychological effects of hypnosis on healthy women. A sample of 30 healthy, female volunteers, not pregnant, predominantly White and college students listened to a 30-minute recording of relaxing, affirming hypnotic suggestions while sitting comfortably in a recliner. Hypnotizability and trait anxiety were measured at baseline. Tension-anxiety was measured at baseline and following the hypnotic induction. Heart rate, respiratory rate, and heart rate variability were collected before, during, and following the hypnosis. Paired t tests revealed significantly reduced heart rate (p<.001), respiratory rate (p<.001), low-to-high frequency heart rate variability ratio (p<.001), and tension-anxiety (p<.001), whereas high frequency heart rate variability was increased (p<.001) after the 30-minute hypnotic session. The researchers conclude that hypnosis is an innovative, low-technology, self-modulating approach that may well contribute to stress reduction and health promotion. Parameters demonstrated increased parasympathetic nervous system activity associated with relaxation...

Hypnotherapy significantly improves quality of life in irritable bowel syndrome patients, both in the short- and long-term, claim British researchers reporting to the BSG conference.Two research teams investigated the impact of hypnotherapy on quality of life in patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).They presented their findings at the British Society of Gastroenterology Annual Meeting in Birmingham, England. Click here for the full story...

A recent article from John Hopkins states "The most promising alternative therapy for irritable bowel syndrome is gut-directed hypnosis (also called hypnotherapy). Click here for the FULL STORY...

Yes, research demonstrates a significant effect when using hypnosis for weight loss.

In a 9-week study of two weight management groups (one using hypnosis and one not using hypnosis), the hypnosis group continued to get results in the two-year follow-up, while the non-hypnosis group showed no further results (Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1985).

 

An article well worth checking out. http://www.psychotherapy.net/article/Psychotherapists_Guide_Social_Media...

By Author Cathal O'Briain (MICHP) Hypnotherapist, Psychotherapist & Hypnoanalyst You have a powerful mind. But you may only be using a fraction of its potential. "Powerful Mind through Self-Hypnosis" is a practical, easy to follow guide to harnessing the power of your subconscious mind for better health. "This book will literally change the way you think, feel, act and behave...forever." "Powerful Mind through Self-Hypnosis" is heavily endorsed by alternative and complementory practicers throughout the world. It is an excellent contribution to the historical development of hypnosis and promises to enlighten, enrichen and empower its reader by getting them back to basics again. Laid out in simple, positive language, this book is accessible to the beginner, while also offering powerful tools to the seasoned professional.Available in Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, Hodges & Figgis, Eason, WHSmith, Amazon, and in all good English language bookstores worldwide. PUBLISHED BY O BOOKS UK - WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION If you are a member and would like your...

Researchers from University Hospital Basel in Switzerland compared the immediate effects of brief guided imagery and relaxation exercises - two active and one passive 10-min relaxation technique - on prenatal stress in a randomized, controlled trial with 39 healthy pregnant women.

Mary-Joan Gerson, Ph.D. and Charles D. Gerson, M.D. of the Mind-Body Digestive Center have presented at Digestive Disease Week 2010.

North Shore-Long Island Jewish Hospital evaluated the effectiveness of teaching guided imagery to acutely injured pediatric patients in the PICU, as compared to a one-on-one inquiry about pain-related experiences.