"Having completed my LCCH diploma and started a limited practice as a hypnotherapist, I find that sound practical advice - that I can apply to clinical situations - is a commodity in short supply. Course notes are useful, but re-reading them from the perspective of being a practitioner, rather than a ‘student’ trying to pass an exam shows their limitations. I was therefore very keen to attend one of Barry’s tutorial sessions after a recommendation from a friend.
"Every therapist has their quirks and takes their own approach to therapy, particularly those not too tightly bound to any association or ‘school’. Although Barry appears to use a mixture of standard hypnotic techniques, the techniques are delivered with a very distinctive style that focuses on use of deep trance and employs a highly directive approach in effecting therapeutic changes. He also works from the premise that the intuition of the therapist plays a key role in the process of therapy, which was particularly refreshing given thenumber of people tightly wedded to scripts.
"Overall, the session made me feel pretty bad about my work. In particular it made me question how good a hypnotist I was and look at how this was affecting the quality of my therapy work. It was great to see a ‘craftsman’ at work, though not nice to realize that my knowledge of trance depth and use was a lot poorer than I had thought. Although I found some of the language a little off-putting i.e. ‘relaxotherapy’ vs. ‘hypnotherapy’, new language seems obligatory for all new turf in the world of hypnosis and therapy. There is no point in missing the wood for the trees in an argument over semantics. Barry clearly was showing me something beyond what I had learnt regarding the manipulation and use of trance.
"In summary, I feel that this kind of interactive learning is invaluable for someone like me starting out in hypnotherapy, I am keen to practise what I learnt and go back for more of these supervision sessions. And by the end of the session I was convinced that this had been the one of the more productive afternoons I had spent training."
Dr Gerald Power
I have been in practice for over 25 years after qualifying in hypnotherapy and psychotherapy. Over the past few years, I had tended to focus more on the psycho-therapeutic and holistic counselling element of my work and this has been extremely successful with practically all of my referrals coming from people seeking counselling. However, in the past year, I have also had increasing requests from new and returning clients asking if I still do hypnotherapy. I realised that I really did need to brush up on my previous skills and also learn some new ones.
I came across Barry's details and was delighted to find that he conducted regular teaching and sharing sessions on a monthly basis. This was of great interest to me and I was surprised at the very reasonable fees he was asking for the sessions. I went along and during that session actually volunteered to be a guinea pig. I told Barry that although I had gone through many sessions of therapy prior to my training and at one time had attended sessions with a hypnotherapist for almost two years plus during my practice had witnessed hundreds of clients going to quite deep levels, I myself had never actually experienced a sufficient level of trance for the therapist to obtain a hand levitation. So I was rather sceptical that he would be successful.
Well Barry likes a challenge!. Within minutes, he had obtained an arm levitation which left me in no doubt that his techniques definitely do work where previous attempts have failed. Since that time I have used that particular method very successfully with several clients and look forward to discovering the many others he has employed in his own practice.
Barry is also not afraid to experiment with new innovative ideas which if proven of value, he passes on to us so that we may benefit from his experience. If you want to gain some new ideas to add to your hypnotic toolbox, then give Barry's classes a try, there is no ongoing commitment and you can drop in when you can, just let him know you are coming.
Kristy Kingdom
Psychotherapist