Hypnotherapy and NLP

What Do YOU Want?

• Would you like to understand yourself better?
• Would you like to be able to live your life with a greater sense of flow and purpose?
• Do you want to improve your emotional intelligence?

You can get all this and more with NLP.

What is NLP?

NLP is a skill that makes the work of a coach much, much easier. For most practitioners, NLP is about specific techniques and tools for specific jobs. But George from Super BootCamps uses it more as a system for bringing about understanding, a system of discovery. It is more of a mindset than a tool, a mindset of openness, inquisitiveness and desire to understand.

A framework for Change

The process of using this mindset leads to the coach building a picture or a pattern that describes the client and ‘how’ they function. The ‘how’ is about what systems, beliefs, practices and processes the client has created that make them able to ‘do’ their problem . It is an interesting and thought provoking journey, which can be enjoyable and revealing in equal amounts. When the pattern has sufficient detail, it is normally obvious what needs to be done to create change in the pattern, sometimes the initial change is small and has a trickledown effect, sometimes the change is large and is immediate, obvious and powerful.

Many people find NLP processes incredibly useful in dealing with many problems associated with both body and mind. George has worked with people to help them lose weight, deal with fears, phobias and anxieties, stopping smoking, increasing confidence and much more.

Here’s Dr Richard Bandler (the co-creator of NLP) talking about NLP

What is hypnotherapy?

Most people have heard of hypnosis, many have seen Paul Mckenna or Derren Brown on television. This type of stage hypnosis is very different than the use of hypnosis in therapy or coaching.

Hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis (or trance as it is also called) for the purpose of generating change. A client comes in with a problem or issue they would like to resolve, or a skill they would like to improve, the therapist guides them through some therapeutic trancework and (hopefully) the client gets the change they wanted.

The old notion the hypnotist dangling a pendulum and droning on about you going to sleep is a thing of the past, as is the idea of a set script for a problem (the majority of hypnotherapy is still based on scripts, where a therapist reads out the ‘stop smoking’ script for each and every client!)

Who is it for?

Hypnotherapy is useful for all people of all ages. Both adults and children readily and frequently go into trance. The question is then ‘what do we do with that trance?’

Why should you choose it?

The real benefit of hypnotherapy is that we have direct contact with the unconscious.

Why is this useful?

There are many reasons, perhaps most importantly is that all your learning and experiences are stored in your unconscious. Why try to change with the conscious mind when it has precious little say in whether you change or not?

The type of hypnotherapy practised by George ‘Super BootCamps’ Harris is called Ericksonian Hypnotherapy (after Milton H Erickson) and is a long way from the traditional image of the hypnotist swinging their pendulum and ordering the client into trance.

Ericksonian hypnotherapy is permissive and indirect, meaning that quite frequently it will seem like the client and therapist are just having a conversation. This leaves the client free to allow themselves to go into trance any way they feel is best. It also has the added bonus that the client always feels, and indeed is, under control. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis.

Ericksonian hypnotherapy is great for people who like to feel in control of their experiences. Clients who have benefited from this type of hypnotherapy report that they enjoyed being able to explore their issues whilst feeling safe and in control, that they finished sessions feeling relaxed, positive and upbeat. Feedback from clients also tells us that many people are pleasantly surprised to find themselves changing in ways they both expected and in nice ways they didn’t expect.

When should you choose it?

Any time you want to produce a change in your life. Although you should read the next page on choosing a therapist, and the Hypnotherapy FAQ.

Here’s a video featuring Stephen Gilligan (who I’ve trained with) talking about Hypnotherapy: