Shall I tell you a secret?  You know the diploma I’m doing?  I didn’t really think it through.

You want to know how I ended up studying psychotherapy and hypnosis really, truly and honestly?  I was reading a book.  Not even an informative one – I was reading a crappy summer read type book about a hypnotherapist and thought ‘That’s such a cool job.  I wonder what training you need to do that?’  So I did a quick Google and found an introduction course (and we all know I like a course), but I’d missed by a couple of months.  So I gave them a quick call to see when the next one was and somehow went from agreeing that yes, I’d love to do the course via DVD instead of waiting for the next in person one and, yes, a diploma did sound interesting as a possible next step.  And that was it.  About 20 minutes from putting down my book I’d gone to almost signing up for a diploma.

I did the DVD course the following week.  It was fascinating.  Two weeks later I was at the first weekend session of the diploma.

But here’s the thing:  Honestly, I didn’t think hypnosis worked.  I’d been hypnotised a couple of times to try to give up smoking and spent the time wondering when I could have a cigarette.  On the course the psychotherapy part was really interesting, the way a brain works is amazing, but in real life the hypnosis part… would it, could it….?

YES.  It works.  I am now a believer.  And do you know why?  Because this biscuit monster has not eaten a biscuit in ONE WHOLE MONTH (and there are other success stories I could tell you, but this is the one that really got me).  Last month we had to practice a technique on each other that you can use to stop unwanted habits and addictions. Our course is quite unique because we don’t use scripts.  We’re taught how to make the hypnosis something the person we’re working with can relate to at an individual level which has a much higher success rate, but also makes it harder for us to learn.  So, on this practice session my partner and I got in a bit of a muddle.  We were told to keep it light hearted so we decided to use the technique to stop my habit of cracking open the biscuits as soon as I finished breakfast and continuously eating them until lunch time but it all went a bit wrong – I got the giggles, he got confused, the lecturer interrupted us….there was no chance it would work so I just chalked it up to a practice session.

But Monday came around and I sat at the table to eat my breakfast at a sensible time (rather than waiting til as late as possible as that way there was less biscuit eating time and gulping it at my laptop as I worked) and…no urge for a biscuit.  None in the afternoon either.  Or the evening.  In fact, the three packs of biscuits I bought for that week last month are still sitting in the cupboard.  As a committed biscuit devourer, I can only assume that even with flaws, the hypnosis worked.  I did the same for my hypnosis partners tendency to turn into a cookie monster on the sofa after work each evening.  He’s stopped too.

So maybe it’s best not to over think things.  Or maybe it’s best just to commit to stuff even if it then takes over every spare minute you had.  Or maybe you sometimes need to risk making a fool of yourself (nobody likes the practice sessions at the moment) because it could lead to all sorts of good things for all sorts of people.  And maybe, just maybe I’ll not go back to eating three packets of biscuits a week.  :o)