Hypnotherapy & Hypno-psychotherapy
Hypnosis and the idea of mystical trance dates back thousands of years and was developed and refined in modern times through the work of Anton Mesmer and James Braid. Sigmund Freud experimented with it but concluded psychoanlysis was more effective and quicker (really?) and yet the general public and even some practitioners remain unclear on exactly what it is.
The old idea of being controlled by unseen forces and commanded by the Mesmerist ( queue "Phantom of the Opera" music) have been replaced with modern cognitive models of perception, beliefs, meanings and suggestions with even the word Trance being rejected by some leading experts (see recent works by M. Yapko)
Current thinking has it that the brain partitions it's capacity between things that require conscious attention (a new sodoku puzzle) and things which can be still be performed with a high level of skill and attention (such as driving all the motorway to work for the 1000th time) largely unconsciously. We learn new tasks/skills consciously and then "run them" unconsciously for the sake of efficiency and capacity.
Our conscious mind analyses and filters preparing new learning to be stored for later re-use whilst the unconscious generalises the material (so we can drive any car not just our own blue nissan), unpacks this learning and delivers the skills with less conscious effort required.
When we arrive at Junction X of the motorway and ask ourselves "How did we get here so quickly..?" there is a level of partitioned focus going on. If anything unusual had happened we would immediately have been aware of it and would have reacted but since nothing unusual happend the brain has "zoned" this task into a process which (it beleives) you don't need to consciously remember.
As Neuroscience continues to reveal that much less of our mind and behaviour is conscious than we would like to believe, it seems that understanding how/where decisions are made - often by unconscious processs in our minds - is a key revelation in understanding why "will power" and "determination" may be fairly ineffective weapons in changing behaviour.
Hypnosis takes advantage of this zoning by creating states of focus/attention in which images, ideas and suggestions can be directly made to unconscious processes which results in behaviours changing in a less conflicted and stressful way.
If you decide consciously that you should/must stop eating chocolate so often but you unconsciously perceive the chocolate as being "good", "pleasurable", "desirable" or "a reward for hard day's work etc" then the chances are your behaviour will follow what you believe rather than what your mind's pilot says you ought to do.
Hypnotherapy is the process of inducing these focus states and using them to relax and make helpful suggestions. Hypnotherapy requires the practitioner to understand the various methods of hypnosis and a range of techniques confined to hypnosis. Hypnotherapy courses range from distance learning courses to one-day seminars up to Master's level courses in Clincal Hypnotherapy offered by UK universities. You should check on the level of training/experience a therapist has and whether their work id formally supervised for your safety.
This is distinct from Hypno-psychotherapy in which Hypnosis is used to reinforce/complement another psychotherapeutic model such as CBT, Psychoanalysis, Gestalt Therapy, Transactional Analysis etc. This requires the pratitioner/therapist to understand both the hypnosis aspects and have knowledge of the appropriate application of psychotherapy as well as the approach to combine to two.
BlackApple uses qualified Hypno-psychotherapists to deliver highly effective treatments for a range of clients issues. We are formally supervised (as are all ethical therapists) by external professionals to ensure your treatment is of the highest quality.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming
NLP grew from work done by Richard Bandler and John Grinder and their conclusions published in "The Structure of Magic". They were attempting to understand how three particularly high-achieving individuals (in this case therapists) were apparently able to outperform others in their field and whether it would be possible to model these skills in a form that could be taught to others.
This attempt to "bottle" peak performance became rooted in a study of how these experts saw the world (the words and images they used internally and with others), how they reacted to what happened to them based on the meanings they gave to their experiences.
The approach (or technology as Bandler calls it) that resulted is NLP - neuro-linguistic programming and deals with the models (programs) that we all run in our heads (neuro) and how these are encoded/run by the language patterns (linguistics) and other modes (modalities) that we use to perceive and interact with the world.
By analysing how we model our experiences (through Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell and Taste) we may be able to access the nature of these models and re-code them to improve outcomes. This might allow us to reduce fear/anxiety, increase enthusiasm, concentration etc as each of these is a model in NLP (perhaps we might think of this as default mindset).
If we come to do our tax return with the mind set that it is painful, boring and we risk a fine if we are late then our behaviour towards this task is defined and limited by this mind set. Understanding how to modify our perception of even difficult or unpleasant tasks can be an extremely useful and effective technique.
There are strong elements of Eriksonian Hypnosis in NLP (Milton Erikson was one of the subjects modelled in the original NLP research) as well as recognisable elements from the cognitive sciences which concentrates on the perception and meaning attributed to our experiences. Although sharing elements of several other therapies NLP is not a (psycho) therapy and does not offer a comprehensive theories about personality, or mental illness.
Whilst the debate around NLP has continued for decades with academics arguing that NLP has no underpinning psychological model NLP continues to attract thousands of converts and supports each year who learn the techniques, apply them and get powerful results. Indeed we increasingly see NLP techniques widely used in mainstream psychotherapy in the treatment of anxiety, phobia and PTSD.
I have personally studied more than once with Richard Bandler and John LaValle and whilst it is clear that NLP focuses on techniques rather than psychological models we are amongst those convinced by its results.
BlackApple uses NLP Master Practitioners to offer NLP change services for those looking for brief intervention changes in perception/focus/feelings rather than those looking for counselling and therapy to understand/address the issues they are experiencing.
