Mel Gibson is reportedly the subject of a police investigation as he has allegedly attacked Oksana Grigorieva, his ex-girlfriend and Russian singer, during a row in January of this year. Grigorieva claims Gibson hit her and broke her teeth, and threatened to kill her. Gibson has denied this. The cople have a nine month old daughter together, called Lucia.

Hypnotherapist Rick Collingwood, the founder of The Australian Academy of Hypnosis, is reportedly helping 54 year old Gibson to deal with this stressful situation. From Perth, Australia, Collingwood flew to the star’s Los Angeles home for the 10 day course and is said to have been very impressed with Gibson’s behaviour, although he refused to reveal precisely what the treatment was for.

According to RadarOnline.com, Collingwood commented:

“I gave him a few sessions to help him with the stress he is obviously experiencing at the moment. “I must say that he is a far nicer person that what is being portrayed presently in the media. It will be interesting to see the results when all of the truths are revealed during the ongoing legal saga.”

He added:

“The nature of the therapy is of course confidential, but it does show that they were both reaching out for help.

“Hypnosis can be used very effectively as a therapy for anything that is the human condition, to change behaviour and habits – and also for self improvement.”

As with any treatment, hypnotherapy should be confidential between client and hypnotherapist.

After all, we have trained as hypnotherapists, and that doesn’t make us experts in the field of marketing, advertising, accounting and everything else we need to run a successful business

The first thing I personally would recommend that you do is get a small website, just a few pages will do to start with and it doesn’t have to be much.  This website is easier for people to remember than a phone number seen quickly on a poster or car.   If you want your website to be found in search engines such as Google then you need to talk to somebody about search engine optimisation.  This doesn’t have to cost the earth but the return on investment could be huge.

Another thing to do is get some posters printed, including the name of your website, and perhaps some car magnets so as you drive round town it is generating awareness.  The beauty of these advertising methods is that you pay once and then you don’t have to keep paying.  The car magnets, for example, could cost you £100 but you’ll only need one or two clients to pay for that and then any others will be a bonus.

Bernadine Coady insisted she wanted nothing other than hypnosis for the pain control. The operation involved drilling a hole into her knee and inserting a camera – otherwise known as keyhole surgery.

It’s not the first time Mrs Coady has done this. Ten years ago, she hypnotised herself before an operation on her foot where the surgeon had to saw into the bone. She said:

“I always thought that it was possible and I am proof that it is. I think it could be used for any operation – even heart surgery. If I ever need another operation, I won’t be using anaesthetics.”

Mrs Coady trained as a hypnotherapist with the British School of Hypnosis in 1994.

A spokesman for the hospital, where her surgeon was Ahmed Shair, said: “It’s the third time she has been operated on by Mr Shair in this way – the first two were for foot problems. She has known Mr Shair for a long time and she came with the express wishthat she wanted to be operated using self hypnosis. She has gone home looking very happy so I presume it was a success. Ms Coady is the only patient we’ve operated on in this way. If anyone else wanted to come along and have the procedure we would look at it on an individual basis.”

A representative from the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) said:

“It is used often other countries, for example Belgium, as an alternative to anaesthetics and patients report that it is very successful, that they feel no pain during their operations.”

Although well known for his hypnosis and magic, his performance promises to be a mix of psychological illusion, mystery and comedy.  Some say his kind of hypnosis, using it for entertainment purpses, trivialises the work of hypnotherapists but I quite like it.  He doesn’t go for the whole ‘dance like a chicken’ daft stage hypnotism, it’s genuinely entertaining rather than just stupid and in a lot of ways, it raises the awareness of hypnosis.

The shows start on the 2nd May and continue to the 7th June.

People can get stuck in a trance and never wake up (when did you last hear of someone dying ‘frozen in a trance’)

Hypnotherapists can turn you into a killing machine (yeah, that old chestnut)

They can make you do anything (if that were true, I’d be rich – see our article on this one)

When you’re in a trance, the hypnotherapist will make you dance like a chicken for their own amusement (firstly, they can’t and secondly, I have far better things to do) See the same article as above

These myths are so ridiculous and stupid, I’m getting bored of writing them.

The martial arts teacher broke 55 concrete blocks with his bare hands (!) in under 5 seconds.  Yes, that is not a mistype.

The previous record was 17.49 seconds.

He said: “I used to break things when I was a kid for fun with my friends and I would break things easily whereas my friends wouldn’t.

“People think it’s a lot easier to break blocks than it actually is – I make it look easy. I have hypnotherapy and picture breaking the slabs. I also feed off the energy of the crowd.”

His next target is to break the world record for the most concrete blocks broken in one stack – the current record is 31.

Many sports people use hypnotherapy and visualisation techniques to improve their performance.  Using hypnosis, visualisation can become much stronger and have a greater impact

Dr Kathy Sykes investigated hypnosis from a personal viewpoint.  She wondered whether she was hypnotisable, how effective this hypnosis really was and whether there was any scientific proof to its methods.  Self-admittedly, she is a bit of a control freak.

To begin with, the observation.  Sykes watched a comedy stage hypnotist at work first of all, which she found entertaining but wasn’t convinced it was a real experience.  She then saw a policeman hypnotised to quit smoking (a free service from the police service now) and a lady in a weight loss class be hypnotised to think of corned beef rather than chocolate.

Wondering whether this was purely suggestive power at work, she then decided to seek some more scientific evidence.  Meeting a gentleman from the University of Hull, he showed her the research we discussed last week, proving that different parts of the brain can be activated under hypnosis in different types of suggestion.

A more cynical viewpoint, a scientist in America, who was also a magician, showed Sykes a few magic tricks that seemed to prove that it was all about what the mind focuses on suggesting that hypnosis and hypnotherapy is therefore about focusing the mind.

This same gentleman then proceeded to place Sykes into a hypnotic state and tried various suggestion techniques on her.  She was disappointed to find it didn’t work and wondered if she was merely not suggestible enough, although she did enjoy the experience and the feeling of hypnosis.

Continuing the observation but from a more thereapeutic point of view, Sykes then visited Scotland to watch a lady have her two front teeth, removed, drilled and replacements fitted, all without the use of anaesthetic.  It made gruesome viewing but the lady didn’t feel a thing.

Further experiments involving pain and hypnosis ensued to discover how important the placebo effect was in all of this.

Bearing in mind this was a one hour opening episode of a series that aims to test alternative therapies using both experiments and science, it was a long ride.  They fit a lot into that hour and sometimes it did drag a little.  There wasn’t too much science, but then it was meant to Sykes experiencing these things for herself and observing how others reacted.

As is normal with any examination of hypnotherapy, Sykes didn’t come up with any conclusive thoughts or proof, probably because hypnotherapy works differently with different kinds of people.  As she said, Sykes thought there was definitely something there and some usful therapeutic benefits, but as we thought, nothing conclusive.

However, as we’ve said many times on this site, you do need to want to stop smoking for it to work.  According to several interviews, Kerry admits that she ‘will miss her little friend’ and insisted on having a last ciggie before her session.  As far as we’re aware, Kerry has said she isn’t sure if the hypnotist thing has worked and although she still wants one, she knows she doesn’t need one any more.  Time will tell if the new conscious change is sufficient to keep her away from the cigarettes.

Marisa gave Kerry a hypnosis tape to continue to listen to at home but Kerry has apparently said that she couldn’t take it in when she tried to listen to it at home.  A self-hypnosis tape isn’t strictly necessary following a smoking cessation hypnotherapy session but some people find it comforting and a help as they struggle to believe that they can stop smoking after just one session.

27 year old Kerry has said she smokes anything from 5 cigarettes to 20 per day.   She and her husband Mark Croft are hoping that by having this hypnotherapy session, it will help stop the bad press.  We hope that’s not the only reason she’s done it and hope it works for her!

Some people feel afraid of what their future might hold, the medication they might need and the loss of the self-image they had.

There are dietary changes that can help as well, such as avoiding dairy, fat, some proteins and foods like corn or tomatoes.  By minimizing arthritis inflammation, pain can be reduced significantly.  It is possible to live a pain free life whilst living with rheumatoid arthritis.

Hypnosis can help you to minimise pain and to regain your self-image, through visualisation and positive affirmations.  As arthritis is an ongoing condition, it is often recommended to have two or three sessions with a hypnotherapist to start you off and then ask your hypnotherapist to teach you self hypnosis techniques so you can continue the hard work for yourself.

Self hypnosis can be used to focus your thoughts on your body and to redirect your immune system.  On one level, it helps to control your stress and emotions, both of which have a direct impact on your symptoms.  On another level, it can directly reduce the level of pain you feel.

Hypnotherapist Debbie Taylor-Payne, owner of Hypnotherapy Rooms in Huddersfield, made a special effort to help smokers.  The Huddersfield Daily Examiner published a list of top tips from Debbie on Thursday to help get smokers off to a strong start, including:

• using positive affirmations on a regular basis
• using visualisation to help see yourself as a non-smoker
• using water and low calorie drinks to satisfy your oral need
• breaking old habits, patterns and association by becoming aware of their existence and cues and replacing them with new ones
• using quick relaxation techniques to relieve tension and stress

You can read the full tips online here.

Debbie worked in the healthcare sector for more than 12 years before qualifying as a hypnotherapist and is registered with the National Council for Hypnotherapy.  She works out of three clinics with Hypnotherapy Rooms in Meltham, Marsden and Huddersfields and sees a lot of corporate, sports and business clients.  In the last year, she says she has seen a huge increase in the number of clients coming to her for smoking cessation.