Low calorie drinks and soups just don't work long term

Birds of a feather is back, and sadly some of the pounds Pauline Quirke lost have returned. She is no longer paid by Lighter Life because she has returned to normal eating and the weight piles back on. Even more sadly, according to a news report, many of the consultants who work for these companies have also regained their weight. It's okay to use short term, maybe for a flat bikini tummy, but long term you damage your metabolism. It's a fact that we keep searching for quick miracle cures and there are none, other than changing lifestyle, lose weight gradually and take exercise

Smoking damages your brain

New research suggests that smoking does harm to your brain. Not surprising really as nicotine stops pure oxygen reaching the brain. That's why smokers who stop the habit realise they are thinking more clearly. Strange how smokers think smoking helps with clarity when in reality less clarity happens. Same with drugs and alcohol of course.

Now is the time to stop for good. Wake up to the real truth that smoking does no good whatsoever, and you get short term gain from it. I can't imagine now what it was like when I did smoke, but know I would never be tempted again for any reason.

Happy families?

It's probably a well known fact that many rows are caused within families at Christmas. Sometimes family feuds cannot be reconciled. It's no point trying to patch things up if you hold such different beliefs and values with each other. Many families do argue over such petty things, and then don't talk to each other for years. Maybe even forgetting what the row was about in the first place.

Communication is always the key to working things out. Doing your best not to try to prove you are right and they are wrong. Just accepting that you have different beliefs and values, and you or they not always agree with each other.

Some people are willing to do their best to work things out. Others are stubborn and refuse to work it out, so they go on being angry and bitter.

I wonder how many parents always hope that their children will come to their senses one day and get in touch, if only to communicate. It may be too late one day to do so. Have courage to get in touch

Acupuncture in the ear helps with weight loss??

According the Daily Mail online, acupuncture helps with weight loss. This idea has been doing the rounds for at least 35 years! I had a go at this in 1976 and believe me, it simply had no effect on me. Maybe the reason was that I had little faith it would help, did not believe it could. I still think the same way, although I do know acupuncture helps with many other health issues.

People become desperate for help with weight loss, but the only thing that really works is eating less. Even gastric bands and gastric bypasses don't always work and there are many failures with this procedure.

The reason people struggle so much with weight loss is because they make food more important than health. We know this to be true because those people who have serious health problems still cannot reduce the amounts they eat. It is because we tend to eat emotionally, and eat inappropriately. Sound familiar to you?

Today I saw people queuing up to have their nails done in a salon. I wondered if having false gel nails made you feel more confident. If it does that is great. If it makes no difference to how you feel about yourself, maybe it is time sort out your emotions and get more out of life.

Freudian slip

A client asked me if I was Freudian. I said, no, I am completely genuine!!

Do Christmas songs give us false hope?

I was running the Christmas song 'Have yourself a merry little Christmas' in my mind and changed some of the words to fit in with NLP beliefs.

The song goes 'From now on your troubles will be out of sight'. Well, tell that to someone who has loads of debts! The debts will still be there when Christmas is over, and do you want them to forget they have bills to pay, which in effect would make the troubles a whole lot worse?

The songwriter would have made it more realistic if she/he had written:

'Just today your troubles can be a little far from sight'

Just a bit more realistic, don't you think?

Success rates using hypnosis to stop smoking

If it was 50/50 would you think it was worth exploring hypnosis to help you to stop smoking? E cigarettes replace the nicotine you are missing, and so do patches. Medication helps to take away the desire to smoke, but none of these things have 100

Do therapists 'cure"you ?

The simple answer is we are never 'cured' whatever that is supposed to mean. In the same context of what is 'normal' are we ever normal and what normal is to one person is not normal for another. Maybe it means conforming. Fitting in with what society tells us we should be doing.

Therapists, and certain,y in the case of hypnotherapists, plant suggestions and ideas into your unconscious mind, the part of your memory store. If those ideas fit in with how you want to be, or the goals you have set for yourself, most probably you will find yourself heading towards those goals easily.

When you don't think hypnosis has worked for you is when you are still doing the behaviours you were doing before, or not doing some things you expected to do as a result of hypnosis.

What it really means is that either you did not respond well enough to the therapist, or did not feel comfortable wi them. It also means you quite like the behaviours too well and part of you does not want to give them up. This could be out of your conscious awareness, hence you find yourself saying things like, 'but I don't want to be this way'.

You have to it some effort in and go with the suggestions and seeds that are planted in your unconscious.

If you want to stop smoking, you have to tell yourself that smoking will kill you, or at least do enough harm to your body and immune system, and then really believe that. In the same way you believe that entering a lions den will more than likely kill you. See the cigarette as an enemy. Eating less will result n gradual weight loss. Believe it, and believe that eating too much will harm you emotionally as well as physically.

Go to therapy wi the idea that you will do as much work as the therapist, and not expect them to cure you. They are there to plant the seeds. Your are there to nurture the and make sure they blossom.

NLP still a mystery to some?

Even after 30 or more years, NLP can be a mystery, and can often sound scary. Re- programming the mind can even sound like brain washing, but it is nothing simpler than changing the way you think. We go through life wishing we thought differently about certain aspects of our lives, but then take on a belief that we can do nothing about the way we think. That's where NLP comes on because it shows you, ( in the hands of a qualified practitioner of course) how to easily change your thought processes.Once you have found the key to changing your thought patterns, you are beginning to master your life.

Quick weight loss, quick gain

No everyone regains the weight they have lost, but many do. Mostly it is because we want results, we expect them quickly and don't stop to think about the bigger picture mof weight loss, if you can excuse the pun!

Your body and mind needs to be re-trained into thinking and acting. Differently. Just by depriving yourself of the foods you like is not going to work long term because you will perhaps go back to those foods on e the weight is off and therefore continue the cycle of weight gain and loss.

Education takes time, and that's what people don't like. They don't want it to be a slow process, but when they put the pounds on, it would have taken time, perhaps one or two pounds per week.

Re-educating your mind does not take months or years, but a bit of time to understand your body and how to work with it to reduce the pounds

Being self aware

How aware are you of what you do and how you do it? For instance, do you have a conversation with yourself about things you do and the way you react to certain situations?

The process of change begins with being more aware of what and how you do things. Being less self aware for example is someone reacting with anxiety to certain situations. They may started being anxious, and then continued with that strategy because 'that's what they do'. Once they know they could react differently, and have a different result ie, calmly without anxiety, they become aware of how much better they feel. Completely different emotions and new strategy. When we really do know what we do and how we do it in our brain, we naturally become self aware.

Are you going mad if you visit a therapist? Mental health awareness week

You are definitely not going mad, moreover you are intelligent enough to recognise that it may well be a good thing that you do speak to someone who is a professional and not out to judge you in any way. Speaking to a stranger is often much easier than speaking to friends or family. Why? Because sometimes friends or family make judgements, or tell you what they think you should do. That's because they are speaking from their values and beliefs,and whatever advice they give you is from their perspective. Of course they may give you exactly the right advice at times, but a therapist helps you to find your own way through problems and gives you ideas and suggestions that help you to change some negative perspectives you have.

Some of the most intelligent and wisest people I know have consulted me, which has resulted in them becoming even more resourceful in life, and as they often phrase it, 'put them back on track'.

All good therapists have therapy too.It is vital for them to get rid of negatives in their lives, so they feel 'grounded' again.

In hypnotherapy, we deal with neuroses, and that's how hypnosis works so well because it really does help to change the way we think, feel and behave. What it helps less with and what Hypnotherapists are not trained in is psychotic behaviours. These kind of behaviours need more specialised practitioners.

If you are considering therapy, speak to a few therapists first, find the right one for you

How to get over traumatic events

How do we get over, or overcome traumatic events? How do we define trauma? For some it may Amman illness or accidents. For others it could mean significant events and experiences which has caused them great anxiety. Time is a healer, and we do have to give ourselves time to come to terms with whatever the event has been. Whether it is a breakdown in a relationship, and the feelings of hurt and betrayal, or whether it is illness or loss of job and money, they all have significant emotional impacts on our mind. We can try to be brave and do all the practical things, but it is the emotional aspect that takes its toll. Talking to someone who is not involved helps as they help you to take a more objective view and change your perspectives too

Are E cigarettes really helpful??

E cigarettes are potentially more helpful than patches because they are addressing the psychological addiction of putting something into your mouth. You are still getting the nicotine too. So why don't they work for some people? If you are getting the nicotine and going through the action, what makes it difficult to stop smoking eventually?

The answer is you are still hooked on to nicotine and it is the drug. Gong cold turkey sends you nuts, cutting down for a while only leads you back into it again too.

Most of our cravings are psychological and this is what needs to be addressed as with any addiction.You simply believe that you need it and can@t do without it. You know there was a time when you did not smoke, but you can only think of now and how you feel without it.

It makes no sense to you at all because unless you have landed from another planet, you know what it does and can do to you. Pure and simple poison and you go ahead and poison yourself day in and day out. You know it causes anxiety and depression, but you go into denial about that.

Your head is cluttered with thoughts that you hate it and yet you need it. Bit like loving, or thinking you love someone who treats you really badly, but you go back for more.

You will know when the time is right to de-clutter your head and use very powerful techniques to enable you to stop smoking for good.

Is overeating self harm?

Can overeating be described as self harm? Mostly we think of self harm as cutting or physically harming ourselves, but in actual fact, any compulsive behaviour is harming ourselves. Why? because when we have these behaviours we are not comfortable with them, we feel a certain amount of anxiety, and that is what harms us. Many of us live with anxiety almost as if it is a part of our identity, but it is not, we have acquired those behaviours. I am not talking about the occasional blowout of food, when we know we have eaten too much. I am talking about eating too much because we have emotional problems. We turn to food as though we might turn to smoking or drugs and alcohol. How does it harm us?

We first get the enjoyment of eating the food, and usually it will be high fat foods we crave. Then we feel guilty afterwards and wish we had not done that. Then we might feel sick or even make ourselves sick and feel worse than ever. And then, the next time we feel bad we do the same thing over and over again. Emotionally it harms us, and physically it harms us as too much high fat food is damaging to long term health. Our internal organs have to work even harder to digest and eliminate the food, and if we make ourselves sick our stomach, esophagus, throat and teeth are being harmed.

So we are self harming ourselves. There are ways to stop doing this and lead an easier peaceful life

Don't stop the bad habits until you really know you want to

Many of us want to stop bad habits and even know why we started them in the first place. Some people say you have to set your mind in the right direction, or wait until something 'clicks' in your mind. These are metaphors for how we want to be because your brain does not make clicking noises, nor does it follow any direction, unless it is programmed to go that way. Programming our mind is yet another metaphor, because although we refer to our mind like a computer, it is not a computer. We do feed in information of course, but what the mind works on is what results we get and what we get from whatever it is that we are doing.

Take overeating for example. There is an epidemic of people who are overweight, sometimes just a stone or so,others who are vastly overweight. These people know they are carrying too much fat, they don't want to be like that, but they don't cut their food intake. In many cases, particularly with emotional eating, there is some anxiety going on, maybe even past events that have not been resolved, and food is a good substitute for easing anxiety. Then there is the vicious circle of being depressed because they are fat, but then eating more because they are depressed.

We get something from doing these habits. If you smoke, you know you poison your body each time you light up. You don't need anyone to tell you that, but you continue to do it. Why? Because what you get from smoking the cigarette is more important that stopping. It gives you pleasure, and you would rather continue doing it because you think or feel that stopping would cause you pain, like withdrawal symptoms. You simply can't get your mind around the fact that it does not take that long to get over an addiction.

BUT, you have to want to do it, you have to want to see an alternative direction as pleasurable instead of painful.

If you are scared to stop smoking, eating too much, drinking too much, taking drugs, or any other compulsive habit, then therapy helps you to find out what scares you about stopping

If you would prefer to overeat because you get a payoff from it, then you could explore what keeps in you in this conflict all the time.

We all know the benefits from stopping compulsions, you have them in your head all the time. Your brain needs to know that being slimmer has many rewards, and it needs a picture to go with it to make it happen. It needs to hear your voice sounding confident and sure that this is what you want. You need to feel the emotions of being free from addictions and what that would mean to you.

When you do this, it means you are beginning to programme your mind more effectively.

5 Tips for successful presentations

1 Always be prepared and know your stuff

2 Stop telling yourself internally that it won't go well. If you continue to do this you will always get the same result

3 Create positive internal dialogue. Example: This will be good, I will really enjoy presenting something I know about


4 Practice in your mind as if you were really doing the presentation. That way your unconscious mind thinks you really are doing it


5 Just before the presentation, or maybe even the day before, think of a time when things went well for you. Besides thinking of it, make a bright picture of that time and make sure you are not just looking at it, but actually in the picture. Now hear your voice sounding confident. Add a positive word to this picture, and imagine you are shouting it out loud. Then when you come to present, think of the word and let the picture and the feeling flood back into your awareness

Watch this when you have some spare time. Shocking but not surprising

Look on Utube 'Thrive'. It lasts for two hours but might change the way you think about the world

Family feuds and how to survive them

Most of us have some kind of disagreements with our families from time to time, but what happens when it turns into a feud, and there seems to be no way of resolving it?

We know about the phrase, "You can pick your friends but you can't pick your family", and it's true. We don't like to admit that we just don't like the behaviours of some family members, and they seem to rub us up the wrong way, and we do the same with them. If it were a friend they would soon become an ex friend, but we tend to use another phrase such as, "Blood is thicker than water". Maybe that is just a belief we have been brought up with, and we believe we have to continue putting up with what we perceive as bad behaviour. Most families do forgive and just get on with life, but some keep the feud going forever. Mostly it is about wanting, or the need to want to be in control, and wanting to be right.

"Why can't they see things my way?" is another phrase we often use. They don't see it your way because they have a different map of the world, and perceive things in a different way.

It all comes down to energy in the end, and how much energy you have for someone. If you feel that life is better without that person or persons, then use your energy elsewhere with people who do truly care about you; those who are more understanding and tolerant, those who don't always want to control or to be right, or even expect you to constantly be saying sorry.

The saddest people I have met are those who are determined to be right and even when someone asks them for forgiveness, they dig their heels in and refuse an apology. Of course there are some things that seem unforgivable, but I am talking about those feuds that started out as nothing really and have been made to look as though it was the worst thing the other person could ever have done.

When you let go of that old energy, you feel a million times better. Maybe you still don't want much to do with that person or people, but you feel better. Those who don't end up with that bitter twisted feeling inside, and that harms your health and your psyche.

NLP courses

I read a great reply to Eric Robbie. It was from Jonathan Aitfeld who was commenting that anyone joining a practitioner course with more than 20 people, and less than 50% of the time with experiential learning is only attending a presentation. A trainer has to demonstrate, and watch the learners going through the processess to see if they are truly learning.

No end of time I have met people who believe they are NLP practitioners, only to find they have attended courses with hundreds of other people, and no very little if anything about NLP. They know all about the trainer, and lots of stories, but don't know how to carry our the techniques, let alone tell stories or metaphors.

The people who attend these course believe they are following a guru, and some even attend because they just want to see the trainer and not really learn anything.

It is better to watch, learn and then do and then you can begin to call yourself an NLP.

Good trainers never call themselves gurus, they would not want it. They don't want you to follow them, and but to create your own pathway, and learn as you go along

No smoking day

Whether it it is no smoking day or any ordinary day, if you really want to stop smoking, you can. It is all down to whether you feel brave enough to do what you have to do to stop. If you respond to some kind of treatment, then go for it. You know it makes no sense to smoke, but you feel compelled to do so. You might get something from smoking, but the effects of smoking are far greater than the rewards you think you get.

BUT, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

If you really are fed up with smoking, then think of the financial benefits and the health benefits you will get. Make that picture in your mind far greater than the need to smoke.

Being generous helps you live longer

Does being generous help you live longer? I am sure we have known people who are not generous live to a ripe old age, but have they been happy? Scrooge certainly became happier when he had more generous thoughts.

Being generous does not just mean giving money to people or buying things. It means being kind hearted, giving a cheery smile to someone who looks miserable, or doing some good deeds.

Random acts of kindness work both ways. You do something nice for someone, and you feel good about it.

Generosity means thinking well about as many people as you can rather than think badly about them. Not always the easiest thing to do, but just see how much better you feel when you think generously about someone that you don't get on well with.

Of course generosity can also mean respecting others, which sadly is often lacking within families. I have old fashioned traditional family values which meant you respected your parents. I know some parents don't deserve the respect sometimes, but sometimes children feel as though they can say what they like to parents and maybe even think it is acceptable to do so.

I hear about so many rifts amongst families and the saddest thing to hear is how some parents use their children as weapons, keeping them away from grandparents, just because they have a grudge with their parents, or because their parents refuse to be treated badly and stand up for themselves.

It happens so often these days and I do wonder if respect and generosity has diminished.

Try being generous today whether it is a thought about someone or whether you physically do something to brighten someones day, and see what happens!

Exactly how does hypnotherapy work?

Exactly how hypnotherapy works is a question I have been asking myself for years. All I know is that it really does work. No, that's not strictly true, I do know that hypnosis in itself quietens the conscious mind. That all thinking part of us that is analysing all the time stops doing just that and allows the unconscious memory part of our mind to take over. But it is not just that alone that makes hypnotherapy work so well.

If it was, then anyone could use some suggestions to a hypnotised person and they would carry out the suggestions. Hypnotherapy is about the therapist using all their language skills and helping the client to understand the reason why they do what they do. Just the fact of talking to someone who is not related or connected with you in any way helps, as that person becomes impartial and only has your interests at heart. They want you to succeed in life. Your success is also their success in the fact that they have been instrumental in helping you to change your ways of thinking.

A client reminded me once again that we are born with just two fears. Loud noises and falling. The rest of the fears we have have been developed along our life journey. We have acquired them for one reason or another.

People have a fear of even talking about their problems and believe that they have to put up with them. 'That's how life is' is a script they repeat often. 'Story of my life these problems' is another.

You really don't have to do what you have always done or be what you have always been.

First stage of courage is to have therapy. Once you start, you realise quickly how fast and effective it can be. Brain training and re-programming sound like jargon, but the truth is that we can train our brain so effectively. All we need is the courage to begin.

The truth about slimming

It's not what you want to hear. You would prefer to hear that a new diet, new drug, new anything will aid in your desire to be slim.

The awful truth that is unpalatable is that the only way of becoming slimmer is to eat less. ARRRRGGGGGGHHH, you don't want to hear that. It's not as if you don't already know that. There surely must be another way!

Well no there is not. No diet, no drug, no gastric band or bypass works 100%. If there was anything that was 100% we would quit everything else and follow that way.

Of course some diets work for some people, and that is why the Big Slimming companies make billions. Actually, don't tell anyone, but they don't really want you to be too successful. Well they want some people to be successful so that they can promote their success, but if you were all successful, they would go out of business fast. Their success is based on the life of a dieter, which statistically used to be six weeks. After that time most dieters give up as the weight is not coming off quickly enough, or they feel deprived of certain foods. Fast forward six months or a year, let's say January, and the slimming company sees you again in the queue. In fact the vast majority in the queue are like you, and have been once, twice, three times more than you perhaps. And they have that expression that says, 'Here we go again'.

That's why the slimming clubs invent new ideas and new ways to try to motivate you yet again, and we say, 'Oh that sounds different, let's have a go at that'.

Gastric bands are usually the last resort, and they stop you from eating too much. But why are they not 100% successful. Why? Because the person is not 100% committed to this new way of life and eating more healthily.

Sorry, but thousands of pounds later and you still have the weight problem.

Gastric hypnoband is the same folks. You have to be committed yourself in wanting to eat less. If you are, it will work. If you don't get your thinking straight and just want to be slimmer without any effort, it just won't work.

Relationship therapy

Relationship therapy can be rather complex, mainly because the therapist is required to be completely impartial. I have often heard someone say that that the therapist appeared to be siding with the one person. That must be awful because there may be a feeling of being got at, or two against one.

But does relationship therapy work? Do you need to air your dirty laundry in front of someone else? Well yes and no, really. If you can't find solutions yourselves and you want someone to act as a kind of mediator, then therapy might work well.

What does not work well is seeing therapy as a way to accuse or blame the other person and hope the therapist will take sides. The session should be set up beforehand with agreements from both parties. Usually when in a argument, you are talking over each other trying to score points or get your own point of view across. How many times, when doing that, has your partner stopped and said, 'Oh yes, you are perfectly right, I totally agree with you'? It usually does not happen that way.

Arguments cause defensiveness and we don't like to think we are at fault in any way. Relationship therapy is about saying, 'Well it has not worked the way we have been, let's try another way'.

Next time you are in an argument, have a go at being totally quiet whilst the other person is speaking, and really listen to what they are saying no matter how hurtful it is. You may be trying to have an internal conversation with yourself about how you will react or what your response will be. Just listen and then ask the other person if they will be willing to listen to what you are going to say. This won't solve the problems you have, but it will cause you to react and respond in a different way.

Surviving marriage

Are there any secrets to surviving a marriage? It may sound like you are in war, but sometimes for some people it can feel like that. There are no secrets, no one can tell you how a marriage really works because everyone is different.

Many marriages fail because there is less communication and therefore partners never really know what the other person is thinking about. Some people have to be right and will never back down. They become defensive and constantly have to prove themselves right, even if it means losing the relationship.

Actually, marriage or any kind of partnership is damned hard work, and often just when you feel like you have all the plates spinning to use a metaphor, one falls down and you end up back to square one. Once you become complacent, once you take the other person for granted, then you are on a road to problems.

So, if there was a check list that you consulted from time to time you would:

Often step into your partners map of the world, see things from their point of view rather than seeing things always from your point of view. You don't need to do this all the time. If you did you would always be seeing things from others view and suppressing your views.

Ask yourself if you always have to be right, and wonder what it may feel like to say you may be wrong.

Remember that you have faults and that is normal, and so do others.

Look at the big picture of the relationship. Imagine it as a jigsaw puzzle and that there are many parts to it. How many are good compared to the bad bits? Too many bad bits means the relationship has nowhere to go and it is time to move on from it.

Keep remembering all the good times, even when things are not so good. Are you taking the good with the bad and with what life throws at you?

Remember above all what made you fall in love to begin with. Are you trying to change the person you are with so that it suits you better?

Imagine what it might be like without the person. If it feels right to be with them, you get a nice comfortable feeling inside. If you get the comfy feeling imagining you on your own, take your instincts and feelings seriously.

Any relationship with anyone can be problematic at times. Stop thinking about the small things that bug you, they don't really matter.

Does hypnosis really work?

This question has been asked many times, and it is a reasonable enough question. The answer is yes, it does work, and works even better if you really want it to.

No one can be hypnotised against their will. You have to want to be hypnotised and know what it feels like for it to work. Its okay if you are unsure, or feel a bit apprehensive or anxious. As long as you really do want to be hypnotised it will work.

Of course the therapist plays a huge role in helping you to understand what hypnosis is, and having had it explained correctly, you should easily be able to go into a trance.

If a therapist has not been trained well, they may not explain about it enough, and just go ahead to try to hypnotise you, but more often it will fail, because maybe you were not ready to relax. It might be that you don't feel as though you trust the therapist, or another way of describing it is, you are not in rapport with them.

This is not your fault, but the fault of the therapist, because it is their job to relax you and make you feel safe.

Occasionally the therapist will become complacent, and think that all his or her clients should go into trance. Big mistake! All clients are individual, and the therapist needs to treat them as the unique person they are.

Hypnosis works because when you are in a relaxed state, you are way more open to suggestions and new ideas. Your unconscious mind takes in the new ideas and suggestions and you find yourself easily carrying out all the new suggestions or ideas. Of course they are ideas that are for your benefit and fit in with your belief systems and not the therapist's.

Do anti smoking adverts encourage you to stop smoking?

Do you think you have to want to stop smoking before you really do stop? The best advert that motivated people was the one where the children were seen having smoke coming out of their mouth and nostrils. That was an advert that worked on guilt.

The problem with smoking, over eating, taking drugs or too much alcohol is that it is the game of Russian roulette. You never know when it is going to affect you and not everyone is affected.Most of us know someone who has smoked all their life, or drank alcohol to excess and yet lived to a ripe old age.

That's the chance we take in life whether or not to play the game or play safe.

I believe that most smokers are afraid that they may get illnesses and diseases, because they are not stupid. They know that they are inhaling poisonous toxins. They just don't want to be reminded of it constantly because it makes them feel guilty and afraid.

Stopping smoking or giving up drugs or over eating is not as hard as you think it might be. As long as you get rid of doubt, and don't meet trouble half way!

Don't diet this month

It is not a good idea to go on a diet in January. Why? Because it is more than likely you will get bored or fed up if you are depriving yourself of foods you like.

Earlier in a blog I mentioned that it is better to plan when you are going to change your lifestyle and work towards that. Starving does not work, going mad at the gym does not work. What works is slowly coming round to the idea that you are going to make some significant changes in your attitudes towards food, and then make the plans

Regulation long overdue

Regulation of hypnosis is long overdue, but even then it would not stop people from abusing their clients. In today's Daily Mail, they highlight a case of a hypnotherapist abusing his client. Fortunately he is now on a sex offenders register and his computer monitored. It is not just hypnotherapists that abuse clients. No matter what training or qualifications you have, abusers will abuse.

That is why it is even more important for clients to find someone with recognised qualifications and ask the therapist questions before embarking on therapy. The therapist Phillip Sherwin from Leicester has been jailed thankfully, and looking at his qualifications, if you can call it that, amounted to a short training session with a dubious 'training school'. The courses I run last for ten months, but that is really only the start of the therapist's training. I am still in training myself even after 12 years in practice.

Training that lasts for less than a year, and has less than twenty full days training is not worth the paper the qualification it is written on. Most therapists work towards the Hypnotherapy Practitioner Diploma which is a recognised qualification awarded by the NCFE (awarding body). Anyone with anything less than this has had doubtful training. All training schools need to be monitored too.

I know I cannot be held responsible for how therapists conduct themselves after I have trained them, but I do emphasise with students that they must do no harm and act with integrity.

This dreadful therapist has ruined his life now, and it serves him right if he has abused a client who was seeking his help.

For people wishing to train in this field of therapy, make sure you look for a training school offering the Hypnotherapy Practitioner Diploma. Anything less is not the best.

For clients, ask many questions, find out what qualifications the therapist has and you can even ask for recommendations, as some clients are only too happy to talk about how you have helped them.

Dieting causes people to put weight on

It's true that strict diets cause more problems in the long run. Dieting simply doesn't work. What does work is simply reducing the amount of food to begin with, just a little, and then making choices in everything we eat. 'Do I want it'? Yes or no?

If the answer is yes, eat it, if it is no, forget it and get on with what you were doing. Spending too much time thinking about food causes us to become anxious, 'should I shouldn't I?

Eat moderately to begin with, have a plan on how you would like to look eventually and do some activity.

A ten minute walk each day to begin with could lead to a thirty minute walk eventually. A slow walk can lead to a brisk walk that gets your heart racing eventually.

Once you have made up your mind to get some weight off, stop thinking you can do it very quickly. You know full well that you will only put it back on if you starve or go on very low calorie diets.

Make a long term plan of say a year, and imagine how you would like to be thinking and feeling, both on the inside and outside too, so mentally and physically in fact.

Does hypnosis help to stop smoking?

Often it is a mystery how hypnosis does work so well with people who want to stop smoking. It even helps people who don't really want to stop but must. How does it work? I have no idea really, except to say that it seems to work on an unconscious level which somehow re-programmes the mind into thinking another way.

An example of what people have said about hypnosis regarding smoking:

'I thought I would come out of the session and smoke, but strangely enough I had no desire to want to'

'I went into the session craving for a cigarette and then came out not even wanting one'

'After the session I lit a cigarette and it tasted truly disgusting. I felt sick'

'My care really smelt horrible and I had a compulsion to go home and clean it out'

'I washed my body, hair and clothes to get rid of the horrible smell of smoke'


How does all these experiences happen? Change of thought process? Change of mind? Or maybe it is just that it feels right to be a non smoker and easier to stop without the cravings.

Hypnosis is successful with many people with a very high success rate. Never 100% because everyone is different, but for many people, it is the ultimate way to stop and stay stopped