- Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Adam Up
This is the 633rd edition of my Adam Up weekly ezine, and I have to say it is my favourite yet.
I'm sharing with you the following:
- My Jerry Maguire Moment! Yes, it's 'heart on sleeve' time for me.
- A podcast edition where I got to interview my hero.
- A main article about combining my favourite subjects of proper science,
scientific thinking and hypnosis.
- I announce the start of my Wednesday Webinars - all live, all free to join and I'll be announcing them often from here onwards.
Please note, if you do not wish to receive this weekly hypnosis ezine, then do unsubscribe at the foot of the email and you'll not receive it anymore.
I did not update the running blog this week, because as you'll see, I've been rather consumed with other things, but as I shared on social media, here are two techniques I've been using a great deal this past week:
a) This process is getting a lot of use from me currently too right now. Self-Hypnosis and a Mental
Imagery Technique For Enhanced Running.
Ok, let's get on with it, shall we?
The Hypnosis Geek Manifesto
|
I wrote this last Friday and I was just readying myself for a weekend teaching, it was the end of the week and I’d been working on a big new project that I’m going to be sharing in coming weeks. At the heart of it all was me having one of those Jerry Maguire type of thought processes, where I just kept seeing so much nonsense, myth, misconception within my professional field being shared and written by hypnotherapists and trainers that seemed to not know any better.... and at the same
time a mentor of mine this week reminded me of an old Apple commercial whereby Steve Jobs said the following:
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify them, or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
It really struck a chord with me. Deeply. So I started to lay out my vision and within that vision comes the manifesto that
will fuel much of what you can expect from me and this college very soon. I recorded a clip to add some voice to it too…..
Read this article in full to watch the video: The Hypnosis Geek Manifesto
Last
Friday though, before I signed off for the weekend, I wanted to share with everyone who follows my work, my initial thoughts on the hypnosis geek manifesto…..
The Hypnosis Geek Manifesto:
A hypnosis geek is a new brand of hypnotherapist and hypnosis
professional.
Hypnosis geeks value evidence-base and are familiar with it, they seek to advance their knowledge in a way that will enhance the results that their clients experience.
Hypnosis geeks are critical thinkers, they question what they are told and seek to understand more
deeply. Hypnosis geeks are never shackled to a singular model just because that’s how they were taught. Hypnosis geeks know both sides to any argument, debate, philosophy and understand the critique of their own leanings. Hypnosis geeks refuse to perpetuate myth and misconception and stand tall when challenging “received wisdom” if it is flawed.
Know your own bias.
Know your own process.
Know your subject.
Pursue intellectual excellence.
Be erudite.
Let knowledge inform your practical skills.
Love the field.
Love doing the work.
Love those you work with. Be credible.
Be professional.
Be separate from those who are not so. Hypnosis geeks serve the public.
Hypnosis geeks serve the hypnosis profession and seek to develop it by their very conduct.
Hypnosis geeks put ethics before profits and publicity. Hypnosis geeks are changing the face and the deeper workings of the hypnotherapy field.
Hypnosis geeks are changing the world.
====
I have a number
of upcoming projects that I'll share here with you that I hope you'll get as excited about as I am - they are aimed at changing the face of front-line hypnotherapy, watch this space.
The Hypnosis Geek UK Tour
|
I mentioned it last week, I am going to be on tour a bit this year. I am coming
North to Hull. I am going East to Norwich. I am going west to Cardiff. I am going to the midlands in Birmingham and I'll be in London though the upcoming one day seminars here in Bournemouth in March are now completely full to capacity and sold out. Wherever you are based in the UK though, I hope you'll be able to access my seminars this year.My rapid inductions and hypnotic phenomena for hypnotherapists
seminar is coming to all these venues, and so is my science of self-hypnosis seminar. Many of the dates are at weekends, so there's no excuse. Each is less than £100.00 to attend (plus Vat) and you can read about the course, grab all the dates, details about course content and more by downloading a free prospectus at these two pages on my website, come and join me in your neck of the woods:
Free Hypnotherapy Webinars
|
Wednesdays are about to become webinar days here. I'm going to host some hypnosis geek webinars for those of you with a professional interest in this field, but next week, I'm kicking things off with a webinar aimed at those of
you who are considering training to be a hypnotherapist (or if you know anybody else who is considering it, please let them know of this).
Let me explain my reasons for this webinar. Typically, when people are weighing up hypnotherapy training who have not heard of me or my college, the three things I am asked a great deal:
1. “Do you offer a taster day?”
2. “The hypnotherapy training options are overwhelming. It’s a minefield out there! How do I choose? What do I do?”
3. “Can I really earn a good living as a hypnotherapist?”
I felt that a webinar offering an essential guide to training as a hypnotherapist was a great way to answer these questions and more.
We do not offer a taster
day, so this free webinar is an opportunity for you and I to engage in lots of what happens during a taster day; you’ll get to see me and meet me, you’ll get to ask me any questions you like about me, my college, the field of hypnotherapy and being a hypnotherapist in general.
Additionally, in this webinar I will show you the exact questions you should be asking yourself and your potential
hypnotherapy training provider right now to ensure that you are going to derive the best return on investment.
This webinar is going to offer up the exact steps you need to take in order to get the best quality education, have the best skills and be incredibly effective at setting up and running a successful hypnotherapy professional practice. The aim is that you have no regrets at all when you are
under way with your chosen hypnotherapy training.
We’ll have three main areas of focus. Go and have a good read of this article explaining all the details, with a video clip and details of the event being held next week. Spaces are limited and it is going to be packed full of very useful, credible and stimulating information. I'm going to be provocative, challenge much myth perpetuated by the media
and even by many hypnotherapists, I'm going to present science and evidence base and I'm going to share some very cool resources for everyone who attends to keep.
Go have a read about it here:
Free Webinar: Essential Guide
To Becoming a Hypnotherapist
Onto today's main theme...
We Need More Scientific Thinking In The Hypnotherapy Field!
|
Science and the scientific method in the field of hypnotherapy and hypnosis, this is what we’re talking about today. Throughout the years working in this field, there has been an ongoing and running debate that I am often pulled into whereby “Art vs Science” is hotly debated within the field of hypnotherapy.
As has been stated on my college hypnotherapy facebook forum numerous times before,
the two are not and should not be portrayed as being mutually exclusive.
As someone who champions science and evidence based hypnotherapy and an advocate of healthy scepticism, I promote the notion of critical thinking in this field. Many suggest to me that critical thinking is flawed and we are less creative as a result – I disagree and think it is more creative to consider a wider range of choices
and look at information in more depth, etc.
Those favouring science and evidence base are often portrayed in a very particular way that I think is inaccurate.
So a while back when one of the updates on the brilliant XKCD website, touched upon this in such a funny way, I had to share it, I think it sums
things up perfectly and hilariously (go and read the full article on my website to see the comic strip, you'll love it).
Among the comments, I also wrote the following:
Hull (1933) stated that research on hypnosis is complicated by: “…. the inherent difficulty of the problems involved, the fundamental elusiveness of the phenomena, and the consequent subtlety in the experimental controls. These difficulties are so great that to enter seriously on a program of investigation in this field…. is almost to court disaster.” (p. 403)
He still had a blimmin’ good go though did Clark Hull. And I love and
massively respect those who have attempted to evade scientific disaster, carefully employ adequate controls and study the potential of hypnosis often in the absence of a solid definition.
Without doubt it is no mean feat attempting to apply scientific rigour to the study of hypnosis. The same is true of the field of psychology in general, not just us hypnosis professionals out on the fringes of the
psychology fields.
“Psychology is a trickier field, in which even outstanding authorities have been known to run in circles, ‘describing things which everyone knows in language which no one understands.” — Raymond Cattell
It is important to understand that psychology itself is
(considered by many) a science that studies the human mind and behaviour.
Scientific methods are procedures that involve systematic observations, experiments and testing of hypotheses to understand how the world works. It is a logical approach that scientists use to prove or reject a claim. There have been plenty of debates about whether scientific methods should be conducted in Psychology or not.
Some psychologists create their own theories mostly based on obvious (to them
perhaps) assumptions and observations of reccurring events and even upon their own professional experience. While on the other hand, there are psychologists who believe that type of methodology to be wrong and prefer using scientific methods to seek out the underlying reason for behaviors. It is near impossible for either ways to be 100% correct but you can take measures to draw more accurate conclusions with the use of scientific methods.
Why is the scientific approach so important?
Scientific theories are the basis of science and offer the researchers a direction to work towards when looking for explanations. Most psychologists were guided by scientific methods before conducting their research in order to help them find their answers because psychology is
very complex and requires an extensive knowledge on that topic which is why any study firstly requires a review of the existing literature.
For example, about 3500 self-help books are published every year (Arkowitz & Lilienfeld, 2006). Some of these books are effective for treating depression, anxiety, and other psychological problems, but about 95 percent of all self-help books are untested
(Gould & Clum, 1993; Gregory et al., 2004; Rosen, 1993) and recent evidence suggests that a few may even make people worse (Haeff el, 2010; Rosen, 1993; Salerno, 2005).
Many popular psychology (as in “pop-psychology”) researchers and authors don’t take scientific methods as seriously as they perhaps should and this results in huge flaws in their practices, teachings and methods. In the field of
hypnosis and hypnotherapy, the constant rehashing and revamping of the same materials, lacking in solid evidence is partly what keeps the frontline field so absolutely out on the fringes of credible psychology.
It is said that the scientific method is a very uniform way of collecting data, interpreting outcomes, creating theories, etc. But you have to meet certain standards in order to be able to
say that the research is scientific. I have outlined a number of classic myths still taught by hypnotherapy training schools that are scientifically flawed and written more on the need for science and scientific thinking in our field, it is something I am incredibly passionate about, please do go and have a read of the full article here:
The Hypnosis Weekly Podcast.....
With Professor Irving Kirsch!
|
The Hypnosis Weekly podcast returns this week.
There is a major reason that Professor Irving Kirsch is the guest on my 92nd edition
of the podcast and not the 100th as originally planned, that is that (as you regular readers will know) last week I wascelebrating my 21st anniversary of my hypnotherapy business - I celebrated by having Irving on that week's show and I also offer up some guidance for longevity of career as a hypnotherapist.
Professor Irving Kirsch, one of the most prolific researchers in the field of hypnosis,
talks about the relationship between hypnosis and placebo, what his current thoughts are on what hypnosis is, and more besides – This week’s hypnosis in the news covers a very unusual use of hypnosis by the Amnesty International Organisation and the Factoid of the week has created a LOT of discussion about the most effective number of hypnotherapy sessions is best for smoking cessation. (Do come and join my college's Facebook discussion group to see those discussions for yourselves)
Listen to the latest edition here:
Episode 92 of the Hypnosis Weekly Podcast – Featuring Irving Kirsch This week, my social media output has been filled with memes about hypnosis, photos and loads of articles from our vaults (including some really controversial ones from the past few years!!) and some other bits and
pieces.
You can follow and keep up to date here:
Additionally, if you are a student, graduate or friend of my college, then come & join our
Facebook group for hypnotherapists, it has some other wonderful discussion on there too (in particular, this week's meme stimulated a lot of discussion!):
I'm completely booked up with regards to being able to take on any new clients for hypnotherapy, mentoring or coaching currently, so have removed those links from Adam Up for a few weeks.
For
those of you interested in finding out a bit more about working or studying with me, here are the pages to go and do that:
Would you like a satisfying and meaningful career as a hypnotherapist helping others?
Are you a hypnotherapist looking for stimulating and career enhancing continued professional development and advanced studies?
We have a range of classroom based and home study courses offering the most comprehensive and highest quality education in the hypnotherapy and hypnosis fields:
If you are a hypnotherapist, then I highly recommend the investment of 10 minutes of your time to read these articles, they are ram-packed full of useful
information even if you do not choose to study with me, they’ll benefit you greatly:
Keeping with this week's theme, a couple of science and geek gags for you this week....
Q: Did you hear oxygen went on a date with potassium?
A: It went OK.
If the Silver Surfer and Iron Man team up, they'd be alloys.
The optimist sees the glass half full. The pessimist sees the glass half empty. The chemist sees the glass completely full, half with liquid and half with air.
|
Any Questions Or Help Needed -
Get In
Touch:- Do feel free to contact me if you need help or more information about our courses, seminars, or anything else. I am very accessible and love hearing from you.
Email or Web Contact
You can reply to this email and use that email address, or visit my personal website or college website and use the contact pages there to send a message - I'll always
reply within one working day and if you do not get a reply within that timeframe, I won't have received your message.
Do leave a message if we are not available and we will call you back. Adam: 01202 526977 or 0044 1202 526977 (outside UK)
That's it for this week's edition, how did I do? I geeked out a bit, didn't I?
I shall be back next week; in the meantime, I thank you for being a very valued reader, I appreciate you and hope to reward you greatly going forward with the year, I send you much love and my very best wishes,
Buloo!
Adam Eason. What Does ‘Buloo!’ Mean Adam? |
AE College Of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
|
|
|
