Can You Really Make Me Cluck Like a Chicken?

That phrase, along with “Can you really make me stop smoking?” and “I bet you can’t hypnotise me!” are probably the three most common phrases Garry Coles, hypnotherapy specialist at The Odiham Clinic hears when he meets someone socially who doesn’t know what he does for a living. His responses start to dispel the many myths surrounding hypnotherapy.

Stage hypnosis (which works with only a very small percentage of the population, who usually have been carefully tested and selected for TV and shows) is very different to clinical hypnotherapy, which is considered to be a valid branch of psychology which works safely, naturally and effectively with virtually everyone.

A clinical hypnotherapist cannot make you do anything you wouldn’t want to do, (including stopping smoking if you don’t really want to), but they can help YOU to quit, with hypnotherapy probably being the most effective method for helping you to quit.

The comment about “not being able to hypnotise” is also a myth. With clinical hypnosis, the ‘hypnosis’ part is really ‘self-hypnosis’, a natural state like daydreaming, or driving on ‘auto-pilot’ on a car journey. Virtually everyone can do it if they want to; they just need guidance and tuition from a good hypnotherapist.

The Royal Society of Medicine has recently called for hypnotherapy to be made available on the NHS believing that millions of pounds could be saved by making more use of this often misunderstood approach.

Hypnotherapy is already widely known for its effectiveness in helping people lose weight, quit smoking or overcome a phobia, but some NHS trusts are already using it in areas such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), birthing and pain control. It is fast gaining acceptance in other areas including fertility issues, OCD, sleep disorders, addictions, stress, anxiety, and confidence. Hypnosis and related techniques are already widely used successfully in fields such as business and sports performance. Surprisingly, to many people, hypnosis has also been used instead of anaesthetic in a number of operations.

Being one of the few hypnotherapists within the NHS system Garry use hypnosis extensively in hospital working with cancer patients. He is also in private partnership with a local NHS GP practice where the doctors refer a variety of cases to him. The boundaries of hypnotherapy are constantly being pushed back, again, Garry is involved at the forefront of continuing research being the only full time, NHS contracted, MSc qualified practitioner in the area.