Masterclass

Advertising and the Internet  

By now everyone should be aware that new advertising regulations have come into force here in the UK. Essentially, the disparate strands of previous codes have been pulled together under one body. As we all advertise our practices through a variety of media these regulations are obviously of significant importance. Perhaps the most important change to affect us as hypnotherapists is that the Internet is at last being covered by advertising regulation.

What does this mean for us?

Internet advertising is now subject to the same guidelines that apply to print and broadcast. That means that all advertising should be "legal, decent, honest and truthful."

It is worth focussing for the moment on the word 'truthful'. For example, if you are claiming a 70% success rate for smoking cessation then you must be able to give proof that this is an accurate percentage should you be asked to do so.

'Honest' means that we don't mislead by exaggerating the capabilities or performance of what we offer. For example, if you are stating that you can help someone to stop smoking quickly and you are actually taking 20 sessions to do so, this stretches the definition of "quickly" and could therefore be considered dishonest and be a breech of the code.

The Committee of Advertising Practice has a very useful website where you can check your own advertising: The Copy Advice Service. It is designed to help advertisers avoid breaking the Advertising Standards Authority rules by giving free advice.

So, check your adverts and check your websites to avoid falling foul of the new regulations!

The Use of Music in Your Therapy Room or Consultancy  

Music is a medium that can trigger a wide variety of emotions in people. Often, therapists like to play music or other sound recordings to their patients in their waiting room or during the therapy session itself in order to create a calm and relaxed atmosphere. However, the calm and relaxed atmosphere for the therapist can be shattered if she or he comes under the watchful eye of the Performing Rights Society - especially if they don't have a licence to play such recordings.

The Performing Rights Society exists to protect the rights of composers writers, publishers and musicians where their work is being used in the public arena. They collect and pay royalties to said people whilst protecting their interests.

The Copyright, designs and Patents Act 1988 states that the public use of copyrighted music or recordings can only occur if you have the permission of every writer or composer whose recordings you intend to use. As we are in a profession that is directly in contact with the public we need to be aware that any copyrighted music or sound recordings played to our patients or their escorts will require a licence. Failure to do so could lead to prosecution.

So, how much does a licence cost?

Thankfully the cost of a licence for small businesses is not too onerous. A standard licence for a premises that has seating for no more than 9 people or patients costs £73.27 per year.

Remember, if you work from home and you play music to your patients you will still need a licence. 

Further details on tariffs and licensing can be found by clicking here.

What can I do if I don't want to pay for a licence?

The very simple answer to that is: don't play music or recordings!

However, if you do want to play music there are a number of places where you can purchase royalty-free music or sounds. A simple search on the Internet will reveal hundreds of sources. But ... check out the prices as they don't come cheep and you may find that paying for an annual licence is more cost effective in the long run, giving you a wider source of recordings to choose from.

Using Testimonials in Advertising   

You can't make it up!

There are a multitudinous number of printed advertisements and websites that extol the virtues of the individual practitioner by printing testimonials from patients and other professionals. That is all well and good and a very useful and effective way of promoting your competence as a therapist. However, testimonials come under the watchful eye of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP).

According to Section 3 (Misleading advertising):

• 3.45 Marketers must hold documentary evidence that a testimonial or endorsement used in a marketing communication is genuine, unless it is obviously fictitious, and hold contact details for the person who, or organisation that, gives it.

• 3.46 Testimonials must relate to the advertised product.

• 3.47 Claims that are likely to be interpreted as factual and appear in a testimonial must not mislead or be likely to mislead the consumer.

In other words, don't make up your testimonials as you could be prosecuted! Also, make sure that you keep the details of those giving testimonials as the CAP may want to contact them to verify their authenticity.  

Check your memberships

On the subject of testimonials, many of us rightfully use our membership to the British Society of Clinical Hypnosis or other professional body as a badge of pride that indicates to our prospective patients that we are accountable. However, it is worth ensuring that your memberships are up to date and are valid as the ubiquitous Section 3 states:

• 3.51 Marketing communications must not falsely claim that the marketer, or other entity referred to in the marketing communication, is a signatory to a code of conduct. They must not falsely claim that a code of conduct has an endorsement from a public or other body.

... and that goes for your qualifications too. Make sure they are real.

Approvals and endorsements

Many sites and adverts like to use endorsements, making claim that they are approved etc. by certain organisations. Unfortunately there are those who make such claims without the specific knowledge of such organisations. So, once more unto Section 3:

• 3.50 Marketing communications must not display a trust mark, quality mark or equivalent without the necessary authorisation. Marketing communications must not claim that the marketer (or any other entity referred to), the marketing communication or the advertised product has been approved, endorsed or authorised by any public or other body if it has not or without complying with the terms of the approval, endorsement or authorisation.  

We recommend that you download all the codes (there are quite a few of them) and have a good read. Ignorance of them is no defence if the ASA or CAP do come after you. You can find the up to date codes by clicking here.

For those advertising via broadcast medium there are are different (though similar) codes that can be found by clicking here.

News From Birmingham  

All students from around the country who have passed the PgCert or old Diploma are welcome to attend the forthcoming practitioners course, scheduled to start 25th June. Because of the colleges commitment to all of its students those who sat the Diploma course prior to University of Westminster (what was Thames Valley University or TVU) validation will be allowed to take the exam in its old format if they so wish. Hope to see you there.

Birmingham Centre Manager Matt Krouwel runs Mindfulness for Hypnotherapists workshops. For more details call him on 0121 476 6751

Technology for Therapists 

Scripts Database  

LCCH Lecturer Bill Frost has developed a summary database of approximately 100 core hypnotherapeutic inductions, deepeners and techniques at CPPD/Certificate and PGCert/Diploma levels. The searchable database includes bullet-point top-level summaries of scripts, style / type, suggested usage, contraindications, ethical issues, related cognitive behavioural / psychodynamic principles, hypnotic phenomena involved, associated theories of hypnosis and more. The database also contains a searchable list of several thousand references, a critical overview of the theories of hypnosis and an alphabetical index. The database is available via Neuro Innovations (www.neuroinnovations.com) with discount planned for those that receive the BSCH newsletter.

The Hypnotherapy Knowledgebase is used by Bill Frost when lecturing and is designed for use by students when preparing essays and for use by qualified hypnotherapists when planning sessions. Given that database does not contain full scripts and only contains top level summaries an implicit prerequisite for use is that users must be hypnotherapy students or qualified hypnotherapists.

Hypnotherapy in the Media 

Bill Hulme 

has been on Salford City Radio talking about Virtual Gastric Band hypnotherapy recently where he compared the benefits of it to actual bariatric surgery. He has also been talking about the importance of using properly trained therapists whilst detailing the LCCH training (a big thanks, Bill) and what hypnotherapy and Cognitive Behaviour Hypnotherapy are all about.

Steve Mckeown 

was featured on ITV's This Morning and in a variety of national media publications where he has been featured working with a severely obese teenager.  

Volunteer News 

St Georges Hospital

Support Group for People in Cancer Treatment

With the progress of the work being done at St Georges Hospital in the Oncology Ward, Feisal Umar has been asked to help facilitate the Support Group for People in Cancer Treatment. The group starts meeting in June.

Some of the topics that will be covered are:

• "Living with Cancer"
• "Common side-effects and how to manage them"
• "What you can do to support yourself through treatment"
• "Food: friend or foe"
• "The role of exercise during treatment"
• "Making sense of it all"
• "Practical issues: e.g. finance, work, etc."

Being asked to be part of the coordinating team to run the support group is recognition of the benefits in the use of hypnotherapy when working with cancer patients.

Oncology Nurses start the day with hypnosis

LCCH volunteers, Feisal Umar and Paul Byrne have started helping Oncology Nurses start their shifts with hypnosis.  The increased demands placed on member of the staff can be stressful; starting the day with hypnosis helps them to stay calmer and more focussed.

Royal Brompton Hospital

Testimonials coming in

Both Maggie Elmore and Jana Stanton have been working hard with their pulmonary hypertension patients with excellent results being reported.  

Maggie Elmore says: "Now well into our second year at The Royal Brompton and beginning to feel part of the fabric of the place due in part to the good offices of Dr. Phil Marino who has enormous respect for hypnotherapy and its potential not only in the Pulmonary Hypertension unit but throughout the hospital. He is arranging for us to give talks to the nursing staff and attend the interdisciplinary meetings.   

The number of patients is increasing and the positive feedback is very encouraging. Working with people who have such challenging health problems and helping them re-discover their own healing powers through hypnotherapy is extremely rewarding."

Two of Janas patients have given permission for the following testimonials to be published:

Dear Jana, 

After much thought I have decided it is best if I stop attending hypnotherapy sessions. My workload is very high at work at the moment with a new boss and things are very busy at home. I would like to thank you very much for all you have done, I have found our sessions very beneficial.

I feel the sessions have provided a calming positive outlook in relation to my illness. I do feel that through the self hypnosis and stress relief techniques I have picked up it helps me maintain a healthy day to day experience. On the whole I am feeling positive about the illness and life in general at the moment and I put a lot of that down to the hypnotherapy.
 
Of course I would like to keep the option open of attending more sessions in the future if my circumstances change.
 
Many thanks for all your help.
 
Kind Regards
 
Steve  

Dear Jana,

I was initially very sceptical about the idea of hypnotherapy but decided that I wouldn't have lost anything by meeting Jana.  At that time, I was feeling very angry about my health and the limitations that it put on me, and found it extremely difficult to even walk into the hospital, let alone attend appointments.  

However, I have been pleasantly surprised at how hypnotherapy has helped me see things differently.  I am now much calmer and less 'angry' when it comes to discussing my health and my family have commented on the fact that I appear to be much more accepting of what the doctors say.

I would say that sub-consciously, the hypnotherapy has helped me enormously.  With Jana's support I have been able to open my mind and look at things from lots of different angles, as well as recognising the impact unhelpful negative thoughts can have on the mind.

Nicola

Pain Clinic, University of Malaya

The Hypnotherapy-Pain Clinic in University Malaya was organised by the Tunku Dr Sara Ahmad Yahaya, Head of the Department of Orthopaedics at University Malaya and Sheila Menon, Principal of the London College of Clinical Hypnosis Asia. The clinic launched on 7th April 2009 and continues until today.

The clinic provides hypnotherapy to those patients with brachial plexus injuries who had unsuccessful medical management of their pain. To date, twenty patients receive treatment in this clinic.

Fourteen patients have so far completed their six allocated hypnotherapy sessions, while six patients are still ongoing. Out of the fourteen patients, thirteen reported favourable results as hypnotherapy not only reduced their brachial plexus neuralgia, but also improved their confidence. A majority of them are still practicing self-hypnosis at home even after the sessions finished.

The Key team at this clinic are Dr Alan Soh, Dr Siva, Peter Mabbutt and Sheila Menon and of course Tunku Sara.

Happening at The Harvest Clinic in Glasgow  

Hope you all have a great summer

Anyone looking for a therapy room? We have a room available on a Tuesday 9.30am - 9.30pm and Thursday 9.30 - 2pm.  We will help you build your own client base and of course we will do our best to support you.  We offer Business Consultation and full Reception Management.  The rental fee is very competitive and only monthly in advance, no deposit.  Call Marian or Morag  if interested (0141 333 0878).  If you are seriously interested in upgrading your skills as a therapist of any discipline, or improving your skills as a parent, carer, helper, friend, have you considered Reiki? It challenges the way I viewed the therapeutic, helper relationship for life.  Given the way the world is unfolding in the ego self dynamic and all the relevant damage, it is even more needed as a skill.  The planet has never needed it more! The issue of personal dynamics, grounding and protection, energy fields and their implications and the power of positive energy are all addressed as well as the fundamentals of healing, whether physical, emotional or spiritual.  (It is not whacky new age nonsense, as I originally thought, it is Quantum Physics!) To this end we are offering a £25 gift voucher redeemable against any Reiki training throughout 2011.  It will improve your skills no matter what your discipline and give you the "language" to work on another level without burning out, drying up in the process.  Wish I'd known about it during the first fifteen years!  Again all courses held in the Countryside with fires, wishing tree, the Standing Stone, "home baking" (Ha Ha) and laughing around the table, all taught in Glaswegian, not hippy speak!

If you want to get better at what you do, why not upgrade?  Our hypnotherapy trainings are now taught at Post Graduate Degree Level! Woo! But it's true.  We were the first in Europe to bring the world of Hypnosis into Academia.  We are constantly and never endingly improving and boy does it open doors!  If you trained a year or two ago, you wouldn't recognise the course now!  Why not upgrade and get on board as a Supervisor so you can re-train free of charge on the Certificate or Diploma Course.  It's fresh, new and challenging.  We are looking for people from September to commit to 4 weekends (Certificate CPPPD) or 12 weekends (Diploma PG Cert) 2012 and an 80% commitment is required.  It's a real opportunity.

Dates for your diary

Reiki 2 training   27^th & 28^th August 2011

Residential  at Wiston Lodge on  Friday 29^th October - Sunday 31^st October.

For more information call the Harvest Clinic on 0141 333 0878 

A Students Story From Glasgow 

 My interest in the mind or more precisely the power of the mind began many years ago when visualizing, before going to sleep, how to reverse my car around corners to help me pass my driving test! I just wasn't fully aware of what I was doing.Life was busy at that time, a young mother raising three children, running the marital home, working part-time and without many of todays conveniences.It was at a much later date that the awareness of the positive and negative workings of the mind was to lead me to hypnotherapy as a means of helping people.

On returning to Glasgow after the breakup of my marriage I was realising a disenchantment with my work in interior design, mainly due to the company I was working for, and for the first time in my life I experienced a sense of "not being able to cope". It was my daughter in law who suggested I go back to school, quite a thought having left at fifteen with not a great deal in the way of certificates! Hypnotherapy courses were not however, available in mainstream colleges and frankly I could not afford at that time to pay for one. The result was a year at Stow College doing an access course in social sciences, which I loved, followed by six months at Glasgow University studying psychology. This I found to be too experimental, when I wanted 'hands on' with people and I returned to interior design.

It would be another few years before I found the LCCH through the Harvest Clinic in Glasgow and with the support of Angela Trainer, Marion and at that time Angela Wood, gained my Diploma in Hypnotherapy.

I have now retired from the normal work pattern and am embracing the freedom that allows me. I am now putting into practice the training I have received. I am "on my way".

Working voluntarily with cancer patients, helping them to deal with their fears, treatments and discomforts. Being able to help my young granddaughter with her performance anxiety in the school play and other family members with their feather phobias, fear of flying and smoking, is very satisfying. I am aware of using hypnotherapy techniques on a daily basis in life in general, and give patients who come to me for Reiki, the benefits of relaxation and a bit of ego strengthening,as I would in a hypnotherapeutic situation and have found this to enhance their experience.

I have often thought how fortunate are the people whose job in life is one which they truly enjoy. I am now one of those people. I'm about to start the practitioner course and with self-hypnosis and the further support of Angela, Marian and now Morag at the Harvest, I'm looking forward to the challenge

By Jan Yates 

Hypno Humour

The Major Schools of Psychotherapy  

• Freudian - Sh*t happens but it's your mother and fathers fault. 
• Jungian - Sh*t happens because of your religious views.
• Adlerian - Sh*t happens because you think you're sh*t.
• Pavlovian - Sh*t will stop happening when the bell rings.
• Skinnerian - Let's poke you with a cattle prod until the sh*t stops.
• Client Centred - Sh*t happens but I don't think any less of you for it.
• Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy - Sh*t by any other name smells sweeter.
• Cognitive Therapy - Yes, sh*t happens but it's not as big as you're making it. 
• Ericksonian hypnotherapy - I wonder how long it will be before you notice the sh*t has disappeared?
• Classical Hypnotherapy - 3,2,1 Sh*t's gone...now wake up

News From Singapore 

A few months ago, Darren Roscoe traveled down to Singapore and met our enthusiastic Diploma students. Darren enjoyed himself so much, here's a short description of his classroom experience.

"It was my first visit to the University of Singapore. I found the culture there completely different and yet strangely complimentary to Malaysian culture where we covered the same topics. There were lots of great questions and   students demonstrated deep understanding of the subject.  We focused extensively on the use of "anchoring" as an allied tool to a main therapeutic approach to impart a feeling of control in a given situation and also to centralise a patient's locus of control.

We discussed the importance of understanding the underlying principles of a given technique such as anchoring as this can allow one to creatively invent one's own version to suit particular style of therapy and particular patient. We ended the day in high spirits with an interesting demonstration of a pattern braking induction.

I am looking forward to visiting the Diploma students again to see how they are developing their technical skills. It will be a fun weekend and I have some great exploring of dissociative techniques planned for them."

LCCH Penang Finds New Friends

LCCH Penang has just entered into an exciting new partnership with Prima-link. This organisation provides corporate training in the North of Malaysia and has agreed to host the Certificate and Diploma courses in Penang making the training increasingly available to students in Perak, Kedah, Perlis and Penang.    

We had a preliminary trail with Prima-Link when Terence Jiam and Jyothi Chelamcherla provided a preview of Goal Directed Hypnotherapy to Penang business clients. This year Sheila Menon will present another tempting titbit for the North Malaysia companies. This initiative is designed to increase awareness of the benefits of clinical hypnosis to North Malaysia. A number of LCCH graduates are already active in Penang including Dr Ong Beng Keat a clinical hypnotherapist and psychiatrist with his own practice in Penang, Dr Lee Dan Huey who has been making a name for herself with clinical hypnosis, and Dr Gayathri Kumarasuriar who was also the Mahadevan Fellow for 2011.

Non-medical practitioners include, Tan Seow Ean, Jyothi Chelamcharla, Synthia Surin and Seong Leong Lim!

In surrounding areas Dr Azman, Dr Ong, Dr Kok and Dr Ambikadevi and Dr Supramaniam are also working with patients in Ipoh and the Northern states of Malaysia.

A new initiative will also introduce corporate training offering either hypnotherapy or goal setting and motivation training. The idea behind this is to increase the awareness of clinical hypnosis and to increase the number of clients and patients seeking hypnotherapy. 

Prima-Link and LCCH Penang will also explore the option for increased clinical placements and creating greater awareness of clinical hypnosis through a series of public workshops. This win-win situation will offer cost effective hypnotherapy to low income groups whilst giving students the opportunity to benefit from a clinical placement gaining increased experience.

Lecturers and senior hypnotherapists in Penang will also benefit from the corporate training programme. Practitioner graduates will be eligible to train and provide corporate training along with the usual lecture and tutor options available at the LCCH.

Professional Mentoring Programme for Hypnotherapists 

News From Exeter 

Good Luck

We wish all our CPPD students well in their coming exams and hope to see them all back on the next  PG Cert course in 2012.

Cognitive Behaviour Hypnotherapy (CBH) Course

The dates are set for the next CBH course in Exeter. Click here to check out the dates and download a booking form with further information.

if you would like to chat about the course then please feel free to give me a call on 01297 201 44  

In the meantime there is a lot going on in Exeter.

June 4^th at the Cathedral School we have a support and supervision (general get together) day. We haven't done one for a while, so it's high time we did.

All members of the BSCH are all welcome, if you can get to us, from 10 - 3pm bring your lunch and a mug! (I only have a few.) This will be a time to meet up with old friends, make some new friends, catch up on books papers research share tales of experience and laugh at our own fallibility as the wonderful human beings we are.

There is a serious side to this as well, we forget sometimes how solitary the nature of our work can be, and having a good support system around you of peers and more experienced practitioners can really help.

If you require formal supervision let us know and that can be facilitated too.

What else?

On June 18^th LCCH Exeter is at Embercombe Mid Summer Fair  - come and see us.

http://www.embercombe.co.uk 

On July 7^th until 10^th LCCH Exeter will be at Quest the Natural Health Show at Newton Abbot. Short talk and workshop, but there is so much going on, it really is a great place to be and if you look closely you may see others you know there too.

http://www.questuk.co.uk 

A great big thank you to all who attended the London, Birmingham and Glasgow Master Class in Virtual Gastric Band Surgery.

Michelle Hague & Lorraine Rowlands would both like to thank all those who have attended their masterclasses. It has been a wonderful experience and we have enjoyed sharing with you all. Thank you for your part, you have all given us some great memories.  We hope that we will have the pleasure of meeting with you all again in the future.

LIMITED INTRODUCTORY OFFER EXTENDED FOR ANOTHER MONTH

My name is Marcus Saban. From 1978 to 2010 I was in Trading Standards. Being a contractor, I was one of the first casualties of the government's economies. Before 1978 I was at school with the editor of this newsletter. I also have an MA in Creative Writing.

So, having both a facility for language and an understanding of the importance of accurate descriptions, I'd like to offer my services as a writer. Perhaps you would like something good and crisp for your website, or maybe you just want a few pages proof-reading to make sure their message is as concise and direct as possible. I make no promises about prospective patients queuing at the door, but anything that helps me build a portfolio would receive my most dedicated attention.

You can find out more about me on my (brand new) blog: http://instead-of-writing.blogspot.com/.

It will be free until such time as I've got enough business to start charging for it. Thank you very much to those who responded to last month's ad!

Something for nothing - email me at marcus.saban@googlemail.com.

Thank you.

Marcus Saban MA DCA MTSI ACQI

New Exeter Cognitive Behaviour Hypnotherapy  Dates 

Mike Bryant and Peter Mabbutt

Self-hypnosis for Dummies 

Hypnotherapy for Dummies 

Personal Development All-In-One for Dummies 

Lynda Hudson

More Scripts and Strategies in Hypnotherapy

Scripts and Strategies in Hypnotherapy with Children 

Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer

The Fertile Body: a Practitioners Manual 

Lisa Jackson

Adore Yourself Slim 

Zest: Running Made Easy 

Anne Marshall

The Health Factor - Coach Yourself to Better Health 

Steve Miller

From Fat to Fit 

Get off Your Arse and Lose Weight: Straight-Talking Advice on How to Get Thin From the Life Bitch