Metamorphosis - change in a changing world by Penny Ling

METAMORPHOSIS CHANGING IN A CHANGING WORLD - FREE

The art of a world champion mindset What we believe shapes us To sleep perchance to dream Metamorphosis | 1

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JANUARY 2013 | VOL. 1 | NO 1

elcome to the first edition of Metamorphosis, the magazine published by the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy. It’s our pleasure in sharing some of the fine work we do across the UK in helping people change problems into solutions. During the summer Olympics, many of you may have been aware of quite a few athletes listening to their MP3 players. They were probably listening to some form of visualisation of their race, Paul Concannon interviews Glann Catley a former boxing champion to see what it was that gave him the edge. Hope you enjoy the magazine, any questions or quieries please send to me at journal@afsfh.com

Penny Ling - Editor METAMORPHOSIS

Publisher: the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy. 8-10 Whiteladies Road Bristol BS8 1PD Editor: Penny Ling Email: journal@afsfh.com Design & Advertising: Redhed Design UK http://redheddesignuk. wordpress.com 07508 658934 Metamorphosis can be found on-line at issuu.com Distribution is UK wide.

The Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy established 2010 represents the practice of solution focused hypnotherapists as a distinct profession in its own right. Membership is open to those practitioners who have the appropriate qualiﬁcations and experience within the ﬁeld. The contents of this magazine are protected by copyright and nothing may be reprinted without prior permission. The publishers cannot accept liability for content of material in the magazine.

CONTENTS The art of a world champion mindset p4 ................................... Mind over platter - what we believe can shape us more than you think p9 ................................... To sleep perchance to dream p14 ................................... To be or not to be in the here and now p19 ................................... More Playdoh than porcelain p26 ...................................

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Glenn Catley – the Art of a World Championship Mindset By Paul Concannon I have followed boxing for most of my 30 + years, firstly as a fan, and then on a part-time basis as a fight-writer for around ten years. So, when a business client asked me if I fancied meeting former WBC world champion Glenn Catley, I was only too happy. Having followed Glenn’s boxing career diligently back in the 90s, regularly reading about his early exploits in my copy of ‘Boxing News’ every Friday. Glenn was part of Chris Sanigar’s flourishing Bristol Boy’s camp, which back then was churning out an array of talent – several of whom would become champions.

fascinated to hear that since finally retiring in 2007, he has now qualified as a clinical hypnotherapist and psychotherapist. This piece of news had been particularly exciting to me – as I was set to begin my own studies in the field with David Newton at Bristol’s Clifton Practice. As the conversation unravelled, it came to pass that not only had Glenn received his own diploma under David’s tutelage – but it had been the same Mr Newton who had guided the psychological aspect of Glenn’s game back in his title days. It had been a series of happy coincidences.

The journey to using hypnosis as a tool in Against expectations, Glenn’s own achievements in boxing would eventually world title glory for Glenn had begun back in the mid-nineties. outstrip everyone Underpinning all of that He was the chief else in the gym. A sparring partner in combination of success, Glenn says was camp with then WBO talent, fighting those hypnosis sessions. super-middleweight heart, aggression champion Steve and power would take Glenn to British and World title success Collins and his trainer Freddy Roach, – and famously, Glenn attributed much of helping the Irishman prepare for world his spectacular success at that point to title bouts with Nigel Benn and Neville Brown. Back in those days, Catley would hypnotherapy. occasionally notice a different and more When Glenn and I met for the first time focused Collins, and it intrigued him. “He would walk into the gym a right last summer I was struck by his good nature and humility. While proud of miserable bastard –much more focused in his achievements, and happy to discuss training and intense in sparring too,” said them, he was unfettered by ego and a Glenn. thoroughly grounded man. I was also Catley discovered that the laser-focused

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version of Collins would manifest after the then champion had undergone pre-training hypnotherapy sessions. Collins cited much of his title success, including a pair of famous victories over Chris Eubank, to that pre-fight psychological fine-tuning. “When Steve had undergone therapy, I literally felt the difference in our sparring sessions,” said Glenn. It would prove to be an enlightening insight into the power that an additional cerebral edge could bring to an athlete’s performance. Those painful sparring sessions would ultimately be worth their weight in gold. Fast-forwarding to 1997, Glenn found himself at a career crossroads. Next in line for a dream British middleweight title fight with long serving champion Neville Brown, the heavy-handed ‘Bristol Boys’ prospect had suffered a confidencecrushing defeat in a WBC International* title fight by Hungarian Andras Galfi just

one fight previously. Catley had been experimenting with creatine in training – leaving the weight cut a nightmarish experience, and his punch resistance less than stellar come fight time. A devastating loss in the rear view mirror ahead of a title bout against a formidable champion was hardly ideal mental preparation. Compounding his worries further, the Bristol slugger also suffered

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with an inherent fear of running out of steam – perhaps a negative template from his days as young amateur. The resultant impact would cause him to hold back and lose focus in fights. A cut picked up in sparring was the final straw; thinking back to those days in camp with Collins, Catley opened a copy of Yellow Pages. In a nice piece of providence, the ad that stood out most was one detailing the services of renowned Bristol hypnotherapist, the aforementioned David Newton. “It was a real stroke of luck,” said Glenn. Duly an appointment was made – and Catley and an initially dubious Sanigar met with David and began what would prove a milestone relationship for Glenn’s boxing career. The trance sessions would follow a largely similar format – with special attention placed where required on an explicit move, defined mind-set or precise tactic. “When it came to the boxing end, Glenn and Chris told me what they needed,” said

David of the sessions. “The format would generally begin with a tropical island, beach, boxing ring and practice session. “We would replicate training methods through the sessions, or moments with Glenn seeing the opponent’s punch even before it had been thrown, the countering with an uppercut – or it could be a suggestion such as two deep breaths being a trigger for Glenn to leave his corner with enormous ferocity.” The punch in question was Neville Brown’s leading left jab, a rapier blow which had carried Brown through six successful British title bouts – all of which had ended inside the distance in his favour. “Dare I say it, Neville Brown was a much more skilful fighter than me, if I hadn’t been in the right mental place, I would not have been able to contend with his left jab,” said Glenn. “David came up with this idea of a cobra and a mongoose. The mongoose dodges in and out and waits for exactly the right moment to strike; that’s what happened when I went through that uppercut over and over in trance. Come fight time, avoiding the jab and landing my own punches was an automatic subconscious reaction, as natural as catching a glass falling from a kitchen cupboard.” As well as being highly skilful, Brown was also a sharp puncher and vastly more experienced - a veteran of two European and one world title bouts, and while he had

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seen better days, the majority of the press had him an overwhelming favourite. The time invested in those visualisation sessions would translate beautifully into Glenn’s performance against Brown. Catley boxed with a hitherto unseen level of single-mindedness, countering the jab with uppercuts – just as he’d rehearsed in the gym and on the couch. In a terrific fight, Brown was retired and saved from further punishment after eight completed rounds, and Glenn was the new British champion. Catley was quick to acknowledge Mr Newton’s input into his victory and hypnotherapy with David would become an intrinsic part of his training routine. He would take that level of application on display in the Brown fight and carry it into the most memorable phase of his career; an era which would include a fight for WBC super-middleweight world championship against Richie Woodhall (which saw Catley perform out of his skin, only to be robbed on the judge’s cards), a revenge win over Galfi, then a WBC final eliminator conquest over world-class

French Canadian Eric Lucas in Canada, in front of thousands of partisan Quebecois fan, a win that came in the twelfth and final round. The latter triumph earned him a bout with the man who deposed Woodhall, a skilful and undefeated German Marcus Beyer. Again Catley travelled in to his opponent’s backyard for the opportunity. After eleven nip-and-tuck rounds, with the fight still in the balance, Catley repeated the trick he’d pulled in Quebec – nailing Beyer with a massive right and finishing the champion in the fight’s dying moments. After a long, hard road – Glenn Catley, the blue collar Bristol boy, was a World Champion. Underpinning all of that success, Glenn says was those hypnosis sessions. “The hypnosis work was a major, major part of my performances. Simply, it made me totally positive, eliminated negativity, established intrinsic confidence – and that’s something you cannot buy, that has to come from deep inside you. “Meeting David was a turning point for

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me – he’s so educated, a guru on the subject of hypnotherapy – what he doesn’t know probably is not worth knowing. When I was boxing, he travelled all over the world with me – he’s a great, great friend.” Now a member of the National Council of Hypnotherapists, Glenn is regular feature in one of the modules in The Clifton Practice’s Hypnotherapy Practitioner Diploma, eschewing the virtues of trance state visualisation to classes of budding therapists under David Newton’s tutoring. Speaking from personal experience as one of those students – I can only offer my heartfelt endorsement of the process. Glenn’s current goals include passing on the benefits that took him to British and world title glory to an array of clients at The Clifton Practice – dealing with everything from depression to improving sporting performance.

to businesses – working to improve commercial performance by reducing stress and helping staff give up smoking, thus increasing wellbeing, productivity – and ultimately profits. It goes without saying that Glenn Catley believes in hypnotherapy: “The night I fought Brown, I was fast, I was accurate, I was clever, I was strong – the certainty that you feel when you go to bed each night, that you’re going to wake up in the morning – that’s how confident I was that I was going to beat Neville Brown.” Whether it’s more time on the treadmill, or championship aspirations, it’s difficult to conceive of a sports person who could not benefit from some of that mental strength and positivity  *(An international title is not a world title – rather a fringe belt for men on the verge of breaking into top ten rankings).

In addition, Glenn has set up Every Cloud; an organisation he hopes can bring the benefits of hypnotherapy

Paul Concannon is a fully qualified Hypnotherapist, a freelance writer, He is a keen yoga, meditation and qigong practitioner based in Bristol. - www. avongorgehypnotherapy.com

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Glenn Catley can be found at: www.everycloud.org.uk/aboutus.php

Mind over platter - What we believe shapes us in more ways than you think By Pam Madden

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Around 1.6 million people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder, with 14-25 year olds most at risk of developing this type of illness, and girls and women ten times more likely than boys and men to suffer from anorexia or bulimia. Associated illnesses and diseases include high blood pressure, type two diabetes, osteoporosis, blindness, high cholesterol leading to stroke and heart attack, and limited life expectancy. In my experience of working with hundreds of clients with eating disorders including eating too much or too little there are a number of common issues that clients experience including:       

control fear of being hungry or fear of being too full feeling unfulfilled negative self introspection bottling things up low self worth low self-esteem

Common symptoms for dysfunctional eaters include:     

food planning dominating your life denial low energy dreadful dietary habits fear of shopping

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     

comfort/emotional eating and bingeing especially on sugary foods withdrawal from food/meal skipping food anxiety buying the same foods being over or underweight anxiety about carbohydrates

The road to eating disorder recovery starts with admitting you have a problem, putting yourself first and asking for help from a specialist. This can help you to gain an understanding that your beliefs drive your behavioural habits and that these can be changed, so you can focus on building your self-esteem through accepting yourself and achieving your healthy goals which motivate you and give you a life purpose.

Your eating disorder treatment plan may include inpatient treatment, individual therapy, group therapy, nutrition and eating disorder education and medical monitoring. An effective treatment programme for eating disorders should address more than just your symptoms and destructive eating habits. It should also address the root causes of the problemâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the emotional triggers that lead to dysfunctional eating and your difficulty coping with stress, anxiety, anger fear, sadness, guilt and other uncomfortable emotions. Anorexia, bulimia and obesity can cause death and not just if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re drastically under/overweight. Your health may be in danger, even if you only occasionally fast, binge, or purge, so it is important to get a full medical evaluation. If the evaluation reveals health problems, they should take top treatment priority. Nothing is more important than your physical well-being. If you are suffering from any life-threatening problem, you may need to be hospitalised in order to keep you safe. Once your health problems are under control, you, your doctor and therapist can work on a long-term recovery plan. Your team may include a family doctor, a psychologist, a nutritionist, a social worker and a psychiatrist. Then you and your team will develop a treatment plan that is individualised to meet your needs.

Therapy is crucial to treating eating disorders. There are many ways a therapist can work with you, including addressing any feelings of shame or guilt and isolation caused by your eating disorder. Using a combination of cognitivebehavioural therapy and solution focused hypnotherapy I help target the unhealthy eating behaviours driven by the unrealistic, negative thoughts and beliefs that fuel them. My solution focused approach involves, in part, working with you to replace your old beliefs with your new ones that drive the new behaviours which you do want. One of the main goals is for you to become more self-aware of how you use food to deal with emotions, while still

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experiencing emotions as a natural part of being human. You can choose to deal with those by talking them through with someone or just putting a few minutes aside and telling yourself that you will come up with the solutions that will work best for you at a time and pace that is right for you. A good therapist will help you to recognise your emotional triggers and learn how to avoid and combat them. Cognitivebehavioural therapy and solution focused coaching and hypnotherapy for eating disorders also involves education about nutrition, healthy weight management and relaxation techniques.

or purge to punish yourself. You can learn healthier ways to cope with negative emotions. Ask yourself what is really getting to you. Fat is not a feeling, so if you feel overweight and unattractive, stop and ask yourself what is really going on. Are you upset about something or depressed or stressed out or lonely? Once you identify the emotion you are experiencing, you can choose a positive alternative to starving or stuffing yourself.

Distractions and doing something else are your alternatives such as phoning a friend, going for a walk, or doing something nice for someone else. One of my clients started doing Client’s old belief: ‘When I feel bad I eat’ charity work on a regular basis Client’s new belief: ‘When I feel bad I talk to which helped to build her selfsomeone about what I am feeling’ esteem and guard against too Client’s old behaviour: Eating when not physically much introspection. hungry. Client’s new behaviours: I have a list of people to Placing too much call on to speak with about uncomfortable emotions; significance on how you look I write down uncomfortable emotions when I often leads to low self-esteem experience them and speak with my therapist about and insecurity. You can learn to these see yourself in a more positive, balanced way by: Your self-help can be improving your own  Listing your positive qualities: emotional intelligence. Eating disorders brainstorm of all the things you like about such as anorexia and bulimia are about yourself. Are you smart? Kind? Creative? using food to cope with painful emotions Loyal? Funny? What would others say are such as anger, self-loathing, vulnerability your good qualities? Include your talents, and fear. Dysfunctional disordered eating skills, and achievements. Also think about is a coping mechanism whether you refuse bad qualities you do not have and do not food to feel in control, binge for comfort, want.

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Pam Madden runs West of England Coaching and Counselling and may be found at www.westofenglandcoaching andcounselling.co.uk or telephone: 01761 237400  Focus on what you do like about your body: appreciate the things you like about your appearance and remember that supermodels are air brushed for photographs.  Challenge negative self-talk: when you catch yourself being selfcritical or pessimistic, stop and challenge the negative thought. Ask yourself ‘is this helpful thinking; does it make me feel good; what evidence is there for the thought? Then change the thought to something believable and positive e.g. I feel I am gradually learning about talking through how I feel.  Be kind to yourself: e.g. have a massage or a candlelight bath; do exercise you enjoy.  Develop some healthy food beliefs: e.g. ‘I eat whole foods when I am hungry’; ‘I know my ‘food triggers’

and when I get these I go for a walk and challenge and change my thoughts’, ‘if I eat only healthy foods I can keep them down without guilt’.  Keep a gratitude and achievement diary and use it daily to record the things that bring you little bits of happiness each day such as accomplishing something at work, laughing with friends, eating a fresh meal, going for a walk... Finally, If you are suffering from anxiety and this is impacting your eating even though you are not experiencing any psychological emotional difficulties, it is well worth visiting your doctor and asking for a medical including a blood test. You may be suffering from hyperthyroidism which is treatable through drugs and surgery

An initial assessment of a client may involve eliciting and exploring:     

What are your thoughts and beliefs about food? What else? What are your thoughts and beliefs about yourself? What else? What triggers thoughts about food and self? What do you want? (E.g. Lose weight, gain control, get someone’s attention.) How are you currently feeling physically? Emotionally? Do you feel ready and motivated to stop the dysfunctional eating behaviours?  How can the people in your life best support you?  What resources and drivers do you have to change e.g. previous successes; determination to get in control of health so you can care for your children?  What new beliefs would work for you to break the old cycle e.g. press the pause button and think of unwanted consequences before I put something in my mouth; I talk about my problems rather than stuffing them down with food; I have everything to live for so I nourish myself.

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To sleep perchance to dream - if you don’t it can cause all sorts of problems By Penny Ling Margaret Thatcher could do with between 3 – 4, most of us between 7 – 8 and teenagers around 9 or 10 – I’m talking sleep and although some people would like to do away with the process altogether, it is one of the most important states to be in. Here is the journey of sleep... 8pm-11pm The wind down. To encourage the onset of sleep most advice is no caffeine, no alcohol, little stress and reduced activity. TV is OK up to perhaps half an hour before, but nothing wildly exciting; keep computer games to a minimum. This is not just to keep brain activity at a steady rate, but the blue light given off from LED screens especially can interfere with melatonin production. Our brains think it’s morning! Lighting should be low and preferably in the red end of the spectrum. Warm milk and a warm bath can also help. The body cools down faster after a bath and this can help speed up the nodding off process.

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11pm We slip into the first stage of sleep. The Hypnagogic state is similar to the trance state. Reports of body distortion, floating and occasionally the sudden falling sensation that wakes you up with a jump – the myoclonic jerk. This spasm is generated in the primitive part of the brain and is linked to the sudden release of muscle tension. The speed at which the brain processes the situation is a fraction of a second but the whole thing tends to become part of a dream, which includes falling or slipping. Other symptoms are visual imagery, starting with flashing lights, patterns, random faces and objects that appear and blend into one another. Artist Salvador Dali used the hypnagogic state to come up with new ideas for his surrealist paintings. (i) 11.30pm We should be in the early stages of deep sleep, norepinephrine, orexin and acetylcholine stop flowing through the brain. When awake these neurotransmitters help us focus our attention – the neurons in the thalamus and cortex produce delta rhythms. NREM can occur at this stage, dreams tend to be more matter of fact, mundane and non emotional. Robert Stickgold of Harvard medical school believes NREM helps stabilise and strengthen memories.(ii)

Sleep walking is most likely to happen during this first deep cycle. It was always taken as a bit of a joke in my family. My mother on occasions, usually when I’d had a particularly eventful day, would be woken up by the “boomp boomp” of me knocking a tennis ball against the hall wall with a tennis racket. It’s a shame I never grew up to be another Venus Williams! Childhood is the most common time for us to experience sleepwalking, and more work at Harvard concludes that there are a number of factors that lead to it. 1) Genetics – quite often sleepwalking runs in families. 2) Sleep Apnoea – snoring can force the sleeper into getting up without them knowing. 3) Environment – staying in unfamiliar places can trigger bouts of it. 4) Emotional disturbances can move the person to all kinds of acting out the disturbance, including murder. Sleep eating is also common; I had a client who came to see me about weight loss and when asked how her sleep was she confessed she would often come down in the morning to find her fridge had been raided in the night – she lived on her own! Sleep-sex and sleep-driving are also more common than you think. Related to sleep walking are night terrors, again usually connected with children. It happens during the first deep cycle when the Delta waves are high and slow. Rosalind Cartwright’s research (iii) into sleep disorders finds there is a connection

with rapid physical growth and development of the neurological network sustaining new learning. 12.10am - REM At this point we are over 2 thirds through our first cycle, now as we reach REM we stop moving – it’s called REM Atonia. The eye movements associated with REM are generated by the pontine nucleus with projections to the superior colliculus and are associated with PGO waves (Pontogeniculo-occipital waves). It is believed our inability to move is to stop us from acting out our dreams. Experiments carried out on cats by Michel Jouvet in 1959 has shown that cats with lesions around the locus coeruleus have less restricted muscle movement during REM sleep and show a variety of complex behaviours, including motor patterns, suggesting that they are dreaming of attack, defence and exploration. (iv) A number of sleep scientists including Stickgold believe that we’re doing this too. Evidence points to future rehearsal when studying the dreams of hunter gatherer societies dotted around the world. (v)

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Rosalind Cartright found that negative moods are down-regulated overnight. In her sleep clinic she carried out a study on people going through divorce. She found that the dreams helped make connections to older memories and how we organise data about ourselves – what’s good for me and what’s not – helps defuse our emotions and encourages the dreamer to wake feeling more positive and able to make a new start.(vi) REM is also when our short term memory gets shifted to long term memory, so reduction in this kind of sleep can result in memory loss. Interestingly, Alzheimers & dementia sufferers often have years of poor sleep before the disease truly manifests. It’s now 12.30am – we’re out of our first cycle and unless we g e t woken up by our bladders we’ll be back down into deep sleep and NREM. We’ll have a bit more REM this time and are likely to end the cycle around 2am. 2am At this time we may wake up, and many people report wakefulness at this time, that’s because in the pre-industrial age this used to be a natural time for us to be awake. Known as “The Watch”, history shows

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us that before electric light, most people went to bed just after dark. In winter this was most likely around 8pm, so they woke around 2am, some stayed in bed, others got up and went to visit neighbours! Back in bed around 4am, drifting off to about 7.30am when the sun rose. In summer they probably stayed awake. In hunter gatherer societies which share living space, many people sleep when they feel like it with plenty going on around them, chatting, animals, babies – someone is always awake - and they have the capacity to totally ignore the familiar noises around them. (vii) Next cycle for sleep ends around 3.30am, which is when many people wake, then 5am and 6.30am, each REM cycle getting longer and longer. If you’re lucky you might even experience a lucid dream. These fantastic fantasies, which can be manipulated by the sleeper makes them so special. Allan Hobson MD of Harvard (viii) suggests the lucidity comes from the prefrontal cortex being reactivated by a kick of noreadrenaline, which usually is absent in REM. Hobson suggests this is why our attention is more focused and can control them? David Luke of the university of Greenwich suggests our brains contain a highly psycho active molecule N,N-

dimenthyltryptamine (DMT), which is a distant cousin to LSD – this is made in the pineal gland and alongside melatonin, helps activate sleep cycles – especially dreams. DMT also comes from South American plants which Amazonian shamans use for their visionary properties. Luke also connects the vision types to specific forms of hallucinations such as elves and greys – aliens to you – to take DMT you would certainly experience flying, a common theme in lucid dreaming.(ix)

an effect. If you need an alarm clock, sleep researchers reckon you’re not getting enough sleep. The hypnopompic stage comes in at the end of REM, parts of real life melt with our dreams, we may wake up and still be in sleep paralysis, we may get the sensation of someone sitting on us or the bed, we hear voices, dogs barking, see people standing at the bottom of the bed. The confusion comes from the prefrontal cortex taking about 20 minutes to reboot!(x)

6.30am Cortisol levels have been rising for some time now, to get the body prepared for the muscle exertion of getting up, these start around 3am and by now are having

Sleep inertia can last anywhere between 1 minute and two hours depending on amount of sleep. If you are not sleeping well then try hypnotherapy - it really does help 

REFERENCES (i) Head trip, pg 29 Jeff Warren, oneworld publishing ISBN 978-1-85168-561-5 (ii) New Scientist, 12 March 2011, Your dreaming brain (iii) 24 hour mind, p109. Rosalind D Cartwright, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-538683-7 (iv) wikipedia (v) New scientist ibid (vi) 24 hour mind pg 55 (vii) New scientist ibid (viii) Head trip pg102 (ix) SPR journal vol 75 No 902 Jan 2011 pg26 (x) Head trip pg 161 Penny Ling is a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist, supervisor, coach and editor of Hypnotherapy Today and Metamorphosis. She works in Oxfordshire and Reading and can be found at: www.pennyling.co.uk or telephone 07508 658934

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Sleep Disorders By Penny Ling

Sleep Apnoea Sleep Apnoea is snoring, not just ordinary snoring but the sort where the person stops breathing for up to a minute. It’s often caused by the weight of the neck pressing down on the throat so that the air cannot reach the lungs, so is often found in overweight and obese people. The body gets stressed and levels of cortisol rise, the person tosses about and never gets decent sleep. This can mean they fall asleep during the day and especially doing mundane jobs like motorway driving. If you or your partner suffers with Sleep Apnoea do something about it now. It can shorten your life, put extra stress on the heart and often make obesity worse. Your GP can refer you to a sleep clinic where they can make the correct assessment as to what kind of treatment is appropriate. You may be allocated a CPAP machine and you’ll not only sleep better but you’ll be better off emotionally, being able to cope better, and you’ll have enough energy to exercise and reduce the weight that’s making it worse  See: http://www.eu-pap.co.uk or http://www.britishsnoring.co.uk

Bedwetting-Enuresis When living in Somerset, my local GP surgery was stumped when it came to over 12 year olds suffering with bed wetting. One young chap that was brought to me by a very distressed mother, had been admonished by the nurse who told him he was doing it on purpose. When being told it was a sleep problem, not only did it help him understand, but the stigma went too. Working on it from a solution focused perspective made him so much more positive, he had avoided the nurse but when his mother couldn’t make an appointment, he made sure he got to the session. We had to speed things up a bit though because he was going on scout camp so I found a vibrating alarm watch that woke the sleeper gradually and quietly so the message from bladder to brain kicked in quicker and he was able to go to the toilet quite happily. As time went by the lack of bed wetting made him happier, so his general sleep improved and that made it possible for him to wake naturally during the night  See: http://www.eric.org.uk

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Being in the Here and Now or – “To Be or Not to Be” Here and Now! Deborah Pearce, interviews Roger Stennett, Screenwriter, Dramatist, Aikido Instructor and Solution Focused Hypnotherapist You were just about to tell me a little bit about your background … Mine is a strange background, in some ways, and perhaps an odd background for a therapist, although Therapists come from every which direction. My background is in the Theatre. My father is a Comedian and Entertainer, Stan Stennett, who has been in show business for 65 years. I’m 61, and when I was just a week old, I was backstage in theatre. The Gaiety Theatre in Ayr. All my childhood, I moved around with my parents on the Variety circuit. I didn’t go to school until I was seven. Going to school was like being captured. I suddenly thought, “Where are all the chorus girls, sword swallowers and jugglers ? After studying History at Cambridge University, I chose to go into the world of the Arts. I was already writing and publishing poetry at that time. I had a book of poems in print and I was doing readings tours for the Arts Council. My one and only ‘real’ job has been giving away money for the Arts Council. I was an Arts Administrator in the South West of England for ten years. I wrote my first stage play in 1978 and The Half Moon Theatre in London did it within weeks of me completing it. For five years I ran the two ‘jobs’ side by side – writing plays and working as an arts

administrator. I wrote several more plays, and then I wrote a television piece and eventually, on the 1st January 1984, I thought “This is a good ‘Orwellian’ date to become a Freelance Writer”. So I did, and since December 1983 I haven’t had a salary cheque at the end of the month. When people say to me “Are you a successful writer?”, I reply “I’m still alive!”. With no monthly salary guaranteed, that seems a definition of some sort of success. I write for Film, TV, Theatre, Radio and Animation. I summarise my career by saying I’m the only person in the Universe to have written both for Sooty and the Royal Shakespeare Company. And most things in between!

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And that’s what I did, full time, until Solution Focused Hypnotherapy came along. And how did that come about? I was a client of David Newton’s, founder of The Clifton Practice in Bristol. I went to him because – and I’m very open about this - I went through my own dreadful period of depression. Maybe some of the stresses of the long-term freelance lifestyle took their toll. They certainly played a part. My son, Sam, who’s an Acupuncturist, was working at The Clifton Practice. He said “I really think David could help you”. And he did, and I will always be truly grateful to him for that. Some time after, I thought to myself “I wonder, whether there’s something I could do in that field?” The classic ‘wounded healer’ scenario. So now, when I sit with clients, especially those experiencing depression, my response is not all coming from a book, or a course, but from hardwon experience. So I approached the Clifton Practice and enrolled on a course. I valued my time with David Newton, the senior lecturer, whom I greatly admire. I also value the Solution Focused approach to working and ‘talking therapy’ as well as hypnosis.

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When people sa a successful writ still alive!”. With n guaranteed, that s of some sor

You’ve mentioned Solution Focused – what does that mean? Solution Focused, in therapeutic terms, is modern. “Modern” in the therapeutic world means about 40 years old. It’s much more interested in ‘solutions’ than ‘problems’, and aims to look at where we are now, and how we can move forward beyond whatever problem or issue impacts on us. Problems have often occurred in the past, and the past has, by definition, gone. The future isn’t with us, yet. It’s a dream. It’s a hope. But we do have the ‘Now’. We do have the present moment. Solution Focused work looks at how we can encourage people to concentrate on solutions and strengths they already have within them. Healing strengths, that

ay to me “Are you ter?”, I reply “I’m no monthly salary seems a definition rt of success.

depressed 24/7, we try to tease out even nanoseconds of time when the client isn’t so depressed, and learn from that. We encourage the client to try to build on those ‘chinks of light’ in the darkness. As we work with clients we often measure progress by using a technique called “Scaling” which calls upon the client to ‘rate’, on a scale of one to ten, their subjective sense of where they are in dealing with whatever their presenting problem might be. So it wouldn’t be about them finding out why they’re depressed?

they may not be aware of yet. It’s very pragmatic and practical. It tends to be relatively short term. That doesn’t mean to say it’s superficial, it just means it’s very targeted. How does it work in practice? There are various tools that we use in Solution Focused therapy – One of the most powerful is called The Miracle Question where clients are encouraged to describe what would be different if they woke up tomorrow feeling that there problem had been resolved. Then it’s a question of working backwards, to see how we can plot a path from ‘now’ to ‘then’. The other is to look at ‘Exceptions’ to the rule. If the rule is that I believe I’m

You don’t always have to. I know that sounds odd and it seems to go against the orthodoxy of , say, Freudian and psychodynamic therapy, where one is often going back to the childhood of the client and analysing that. Solution Focused therapy is a very powerful thing in its own right, and one of its great concepts is to try look at things that are working. Things that do make you feel good … And do more of them. This may sound terribly obvious, but is often a real revelation to people. As a therapist I don’t have a magic wand. I work on the basis that the client ultimately heals themselves, and my role is to facilitate and encourage, certain changes, as well as

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sharing their journey. But it is their journey, and the answers must come from them, not me. That sounds like a very liberating approach. I’ve found it so. When you match it with the use of Hypnosis , i.e. The Solution Focused Hypnotherapy component of the training, and if you add some of the other things that the Clifton Practice teaches such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and aspects of other ‘talking/ listening’ approaches, it becomes very powerful indeed. I’m also interested in what is called Person Centred Therapy, and as a long student of Buddhism, I’m also drawn to an approach called Mindfulness–based Cognitive Therapy, where you are bringing examples and experiences influenced by an Eastern way of looking at things, to Western practice. So it’s a question of drawing on the best bits of these different types of therapies? I think it is. The danger, of course, is that when you say that it sounds like you’re saying “Oh well, I’ll take a bit of this and a bit of that and a bit of something else”, and people may say “Well that’s being a bit kind of dilettante !”. But I don’t see

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it like that. I suppose if I had to describe myself, I’m really an integrative therapist. I use hypnosis, solution focused work, CBT and NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) on occasion, I might use psycho-drama, role play or even creative writing, because, after 35 years as a dramatist creating fictional lives, I have a lot of experience in dealing with ‘back stories’, motivations and interactions. Do you find that you can draw upon your theatrical background to help with the therapy? All the time. I divide my week between writing scripts and screenplays and doing my therapy work. For half the week I’m in my own psyche, and for half the week I’m in the psyches of other people. If you analyse the way in which a writer creates characters in drama there are lots of paradigms and archetypes and models that you can shift across to personal psychotherapy work. But I’ll do whatever it takes. The bottom line is that we need to help the clients move forward and use whatever tools and experiences we have at our disposal. And how easy is it, to move clients forward? I imagine some ‘move’ faster than others? It’s a bit like saying “How long is a piece

of string ?” . People need to take the time they need on an individual basis to move towards feeling empowered again. But using a solution focused approach or a cognitive behavioural approach, many people can be helped within a three month or four month window . You’re seeing people once a week; it can be as quick as that. There are obvious exceptions to that though. I work a lot with trauma, depression, anxiety, self-harming, addiction – drug and alcohol abuse. These are fairly heavy-duty issues. So you can’t simply predict that it’s going to take ‘x weeks’. I’ve been working this last year with two long-term heroin addicts. Given that they’ve been using drugs for 25 years, you aren’t going to suddenly click your fingers and stop that. I guess for most people there’s this vision of going to see a psychotherapist or hypnotherapist, whose opinion would have been formed by watching dramas on TV and films and so on. And so they’d expect to be on the couch and telling the therapist about how bad things are and so on. Do you find that’s what people expect? One of the great misconceptions about hypnosis is that you simply put somebody into a trance and ‘hey presto’ they come out of the trance and it’s done. “Look

into my eyes, look into my eyes”. If only it was as simple as that. Trance can’t make somebody into somebody they’re not Trance is a very natural state of mind. It isn’t being asleep. It isn’t becoming unconscious. It‘s just a changed focus of attention. When we take people into trance we put them on a couch, we ask them to close their eyes and we often take them gently, gently down into a relaxed state, relaxing their body progressively as a way to relax their mind. Then we will do the work we need to do with their SubConscious mind and then bring them back to a state of full consciousness. Working with the unconscious mind is a little bit like planting seeds in very fertile soil. As long as what you say to a client is in keeping with who they are, they will grow! The wonder of it is that they’ll come in one week and they’ll say “I don’t know what’s happened but something feels different”. It’s that wonderful moment of breakthrough. I sometimes use the analogy of antifreeze in a car. Trance and hypnosis doesn’t just work when they’re sitting in this room – It’s in the system, and stays with people in between sessions. We don’t just put people on the couch and in a Freudian-like way sit behind them and just get them to talk and freeassociate. We are face to face with them.

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They are ‘clients’, not patients, and that’s an important distinction. You mentioned earlier that you are able to draw upon your stage background for the therapy. Is it reciprocal, I mean do you ever draw upon experiences in the therapy room to inform your characters? I don’t, and I deliberately don’t , because ethically I can’t and mustn’t , which is an important one because as you know all the work we do is confidential. Happily I have enough ideas of my own without stealing my clients’ lives. What I will say though is that .. “Truth is stranger than fiction” Have there ever been times when you have been non-plussed by a client? We work in private practice. We are lay people in the main, not doctors, but we have all of us been thoroughly trained. In my case I’ve probably done more than 2,000 hours of one-to-one sitting in this room with people. THAT’S the real learning. Of course the theoretical training and the continual professional development, and all the other courses and the hundreds of books you gradually read are important. But what matters most is what you learn from sitting in this room and being with another human being, often in great pain. On the hopefully rare occasion where we

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can’t find a way forward, we have access to our Supervisor, and that’s very important. Therapists should always have somebody above them in the pecking order. A point of confidential referral for them, as well as access to other therapists. We’re here to deal with whatever walks in through that door. That’s part of the pleasure of it. Even if you work 6, 7, 8 hours back-to-back, and go home fairly whacked , you feel you’ve done something... You feel you’ve earned your corn that day You feel “That was a worthwhile day” You get a sense, Roger, that there’s a huge amount of satisfaction, or even enjoyment from what you do. Would you say that? Absolutely! When I look at my colleagues in the whole world of Solution Focused Therapy I think we all share the same sense of purpose. We now have a new Association which is called the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy. It’s designed to broaden the sense of understanding of how we, as a group of hypnotherapists, work. Not as well known, perhaps, as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, so we really are trying to get people to understand this Solution Focused approach. Most of us use it because we find a value in it, and it’s a value for us as well as a value for our clients.

And this Association that you mentioned, do you see that as providing a mechanism for helping people? Absolutely, because it will unite people who are working in this way. It will help the education of therapists in the solution focused approach. In the world of Therapy there are a million different ways to ‘train’ and claim you are a practitioner. I think it is important, even ahead of evolving government regulation, for professional practitioners to demonstrate that we have been properly, ethically and thoroughly trained. The Association, by good practice, education, being a repository and disseminating information about good practice, will help all of us who become a member of that Association to be educated, grow and feel connected. It can be a lonely old life as a therapist. I’m very fortunate. I work in a lovely centre here in North Bristol, where I’ve got other therapists around. But if you’re working on your own at home, rather than in a

practice, it’s great that you have a sense of connection with some sort of centre. And the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy will do just that. One last question. If there was one piece of advice or gem that you would impart to somebody to improve the quality of their life, what would that be? Stay in the moment. It’s basic Buddhism. Stay in the moment because in the moment you have strength, awareness and the power to change. I sit with people who are so often walking through life looking back over their shoulder into the past, or craning to look into the future. In both of these states they are totally ignoring, and failing to value, the place where they are now. So I would say “Be with what is”. We have to keep bringing ourselves back to that reality. Be compassionate to yourself first of all, and then extend that to other people. And as far as a pithy mantra is concerned, here are the three words.… “Be Here Now.” And try to smile….

Roger Stennett practices at the Chiron Centre in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol. He is a qualified Solution Focused Hypnotherapist and Clinical Supervisor. Contact him via web.mac.com/roger.stennett or roger.stennett@gmail.com Deborah Pearce is a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist based in Axminster & Sidmouth. She is a committee member of the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (AfSFH), visit www.afsfh.com to find out more.

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More Play-Doh than porcelain! By Michael Hughes How can solution-focused language change the brain? This is a question that we know about, but what if we were to explore that question in slightly more detail? What would be different if we knew a little bit more about solution-focused language and how it actually effects the brain? What happens when we ask certain types of questions? We know that the brain is constantly rewiring itself. We also know, through the advancements in brain imagery scanning technology, rather than the brain being thought of as hard wired that we have neural plasticity and this can be modified based on what we experience and practise. This is why solution focused via positive enquiry is as powerful as it is, it can allow variable ‘mental pennies’ to drop and change the way the brain operates, I often say positivity can be saved and accumulated. Every time we communicate we necessitate and construct a reality, so when we think in a solution focused way, we are constructing a positive reality. We know that mirror neurons also play a vital part in a therapists consulting rooms and our clients begin to operate from this aspect too. This is conveyed through our confidence and our respective physiology, which is also mirrored and these both strengthen rapport. Rapport/Empathy has been found to increase Oxytocin levels in

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the brain (increasing trust and reducing anxiety/fear), which facilitate the delivery of serotonin and dopamine. [i]. When we are positive our clients are positive, causing a real-brain state that leads to an activation of considering possibilities in a positive context. We also have the benefit of acting quickly to remedy situations. Recently when I asked a client “What’s been good about your

started to smile and laugh. Upon opening her eyes I said, “So you can see how you can immediately change your state just by thinking about it…that’s pretty powerful stuff”. She smiled in agreement and kept on smiling, so now the negative state has been interrupted and the negative belief successfully collapsed. I restated the original question, smiling back of course, confident in utilising those mirror neurons, ‘What’s been good’… she started to quickly recount all the good things that had happened in her week.

week?”, she said that she had a pretty awful time of it, everything had gone wrong and started crying. Handing her some tissues, to highlight exceptions, I asked her to imagine a time when she recalled she was successful. When she could imagine that image, I asked her to to make it brighter and turn up the colour and make it brighter still; and then to take that feeling and magnify it and expand all those good feelings outwards and she

This illustrates of course, that a movement from the negative and hypervigilant right pre-frontal cortex can be swift. We can facilitate this through our personality and the language we use in the consulting room. This can bring immediate movement into the positive brain region of the left pre-frontal cortex, the brain’s solution generator. Dampening responses to negative events and shutting off negative emotions increases our ability to cope with the events in our lives. In the consideration of possibility, we facilitate new learnings and the neural pathways will become busy; asking on a happiness scale ‘where they are now’ will also further enhance this process. To illustrate this, lets just suppose you were handed a sign that said, ‘Things can only get worse’ this can conjure up all sorts of negative imagery. When we

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are problem focused the amygdala and the right pre-frontal cortex that activates and heightens emotional arousal lights up, this is manipulated within television advertising, films and the news, drama and sensationalism and in some ways has become prevalent in daily life; but it doesn’t have to be that way. ‘Things can only get better’ can immediately settle and satiate the brain and provide hope. Again we return to the land of possibility and the landscape that is lush, green and abundant, this always appeals over that which is dark, barren and foreboding. Of course you don’t have to watch the news or read the bad stuff in the newspapers, choice is still the same now as it was in primitive times, sometimes our surroundings can hinder our thoughts and stifle our creativity. So, a walk in the country and enjoying the bounding excitement that dogs exude in nature, jogging in the park or feeding the ducks by the lake and such like, can allow time for our minds to wander (During waking hours our minds wander about thirty per cent of the time), briefly our smart phones can be silenced and emails can wait, and often when we least expect it, the answer will come flooding into our awareness.[ii] In 2010 Jonah Lehrer, the American neuroscience journalist wrote ‘Researchers have found a surprising link between daydreaming and creativity—people

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who daydream more are also better at generating new ideas.’ So it’s no surprise to us that daydreaming about the past consolidates memories and when we daydream about the future, it helps us to prepare better. [iii] Recent research from Professor Richard

Boyatis in Science Daily shows“By spending 30 minutes talking about a person’s desired, personal vision, we could light up (activate) the parts of the brain 5-7 days later that are associated with cognitive, perceptual and emotional openness and better functioning,”[iv] In an interesting book ‘Your Brain at

Work’ by David Rock, where the author draws the distinction “on one key decision: to focus on the desired outcome rather than on the past. Attention goes to your goal, rather than to your problem”. So, if you choose to focus on solutions, “you scan the environment widely for cues” and you are more likely to deal with the problem effectively; solution focused questions “help people arrive at their own insight” and focus on “the exact change you want“. [v] Perhaps most importantly; by asking solution focused questions the client can generate their own answers and resources without any ‘sense’ of threat, thus, they create their own change at their pace.[vi] So, using solution focused language and the administration of the relaxation CD strengthens the work we do in the consulting room and allows time for the brain to grow and change, normally through a daydreaming state, or the nearest equivalent. This ‘Default’ can allow us to consolidate past, present and future experiences and extrapolate the best aspects, thus improving our brains’ housekeeping functions and introducing new aspects of learning into ones everyday life, enabling us to sort out our jobs, our relationships and the way we feel about ourselves. The Psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwarz wrote in

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response to ‘Do actions speak louder than words?’ “What was unexpected in their studies of the brain was that the exact same pattern and degree of activation was observed when individuals just imagined that they were practising the same task. Put simply, mental force is as powerful as physical action when it comes to brain activity.” [vii] We can create action through words, the language we use is powerful, one of the most powerful ways we can intensify our belief to a reality match is to experience hypnotherapy ourselves and the benefits of solution focused language. In this way we experience the direct benefits of what we practice in vivo.

we focus on the good things then the brain will match to more of the good things in our life. Words, stories and language all focus our attention which is enervating in the way we think, feel and behave; they are omnipresent in the work place, courses, workshops, cafés, bars, streets, homes etc. and this makes sense to us.

Researchers have found a surprising link between daydreaming and creativity - people who daydream more are also better at generating new ideas

It’s powerful stuff that we can utilise and transmit in our consulting rooms and in doing so we are enabling the client to develop self-directing neural connections. When our clients solve problems themselves that ability can develop over time in subsequent sessions. As the brain operates in association and pattern matching, it makes sense to us that when

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How do we know? It is what we tell ourselves and others around us that count. Pa ra d ox i c a l l y, partaking in negativity limits activity in the left prefrontal cortex; it commandeers and over stimulates the amygdala, conversely sharing positivity moulds and shapes real changes in the left pre-frontal cortex. Because the brain can change and grow, we as practitioners can positively reflect in many ways: allow your mind to wander, perhaps thinking how you have grown and changed in so many positive ways yourself and perhaps focusing on what you want from yourself and your practice in the coming months?[viii]

For us to come up with creative solutions we need to ask solution focused questions and then allow our minds to wander and generate positive pictures, and in doing so, you might just be able to catch yourself in that ‘Eureka’ moment to gain valuable insight and come up with even more solutions. Stay focused, coming

the

solutions

Michael Hughes is a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist and supervisor based in Bristol. He can be found at www. michael-hughes.co.uk

are

REFERENCES [i]. New Scientist Vol 209, No 2799 – February 2011 [ii]. Discovering the Virtues of a Wandering MindBy JOHN TIERNEY - http://amira.amplify.com/2010/06/29/discoveringthe-virtues-of-a-wandering-mind-by-john-tierney-nyt/ [iii]. Jonah Lehrer - Frontal Cortex, Science Blog – Article; Against Attention, February 21, 2011 [iv]. – Coaching With Compassion Can ‘Light Up’ Human Thoughts http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/ 101117184501.htm [v]. http://www.briefcoachingsolutions.com/your-brain-at-work/ - book review by Paolo Terni [vi]. http://www.articlesbase.com/coaching-articles/wish-to-solve-a-problem-here-is-why-you-should-focus-onsolutions-2515993.html [vii]. ‘Speaker Transcripts - Dr. Paula Tallal Board of Governors Professor of Neuroscience, R-N [viii]. http://www.loc.gov/loc/brain/emotion/Davidson.html http://www.neurevolution.net/2007/01/19/wandering-minds-and-the-default-brain-network/

If you would like to contribute or advertise in this publication please email Penny at: journal@afsfh.com Next deadline is March 2013 for April Edition. Metamorphosis | 31

Are you looking for a fully qualified Hypnotherapist? Then look no further than the Association for Solution Focused Hypnotherapy All hypnotherapists:  Are qualiﬁed to HPD level or equivalent which is a level IV qualiﬁcation.  Have trained in Solution Focused techniques from an accredited school  Are registered with a recognised professional body, eg NCH, GHR, APHP, The Hypnotherapy Society, CNHC etc  Are fully insured, have regular supervision and undertake regular continued professional development.

To ﬁnd a fully qualiﬁed hypnotherapist close to you go to:

http:// www.afsfh.com

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Company Registration Number: 7412098