As I read this on the train from Gravesend to Durham the other day, I had to   re-read this sentence several times. Was it saying that the character was beset by dust and as a result considered it his enemy or was it that his enemy had been destroyed and was now dust and that he didn’t need to worry about them any more?

Putting aside the fact that there could well be some poor punctuation in the sentence, much like the classic description of a Panda “Panda: Eats, shoots and leaves”, it got me thinking about the importance of emphasis on our words and how that emphasis can   completely change the meaning of what we’re communicating.

In hypnosis and NLP, this is called “marking” where we deliberately embed suggestions in what we say and write by using things like pauses, punctuation and putting emphasis on specific words of phrases within an otherwise normal piece of speach or text.

In IEMT (see the glossary), one of the sentences I use regularly to help a client elicit a certain feeling is “When is the first time you can remember that feeling?” What I do is “mark” some of the words with emphasis in order to embed a command and what I actually end up saying looks more like “When is the first time you can remember that feeling?”.

Can you   see the difference? In asking a question, I am actually delivering a suggestion or embedded command that the client’s unconscious mind will pick up and act on (in order to make it truly effective I combine this with other subtle communications but that’s the art and science of psychology and one of the reasons I love it).

Returning to my example at the start of the post: “his enemy was dust.”

Now say the sentence out loud with the emphasis on each word in turn:
- HIS enemy was dust
- His ENEMY was dust
- His enemy WAS dust
- His enemy was DUST

Doesn’t the emphasis on the different words completely change the meaning of the sentence!

How much does the emphasis, be it pronunciation, punctuation, tempo, pitch, spelling, font etc. make on the interpretation of YOUR communication? Next time you’re in a public place and you can overhear people talking, why not listen out for those markers and see how you could have changed the meaning of the communication simply by stressing the same words in a different way or in a different place.

Hypnotist Ben White demonstrating the power of imagination

With a background in business analysis and customer relationship management, one could say I’ve been helping businesses get to grips and install better ways of thinking for a long time. Throw into the mix hypnosis, NLP, IEMT and Provocative Change Works and you find yourself reading about someone who achieves change with people individually and as an organisation. On this site, you’ll discover the personal side of Ben and if you continue reading, you see he’s pretty dedicated to finding the best way to enable you to tap into the inherent ability to change within all of us.

After my first hypnosis course I headed straight for my local post office and posted a note in the window: “Trainee hypnotist requires volunteers...” Needless to say I was literally inundated with three requests to help all of whom I worked with successfully. What a great start!

Hypnotically, I have trained with Freddy and Anthony Jacquin of the UK Hypnotherapy Training Collage on rapid hypnosis techniques as well as using hypnotic and NLP techniques with your children. This excellent series of techniques that will work with any aged child (really! I’ve used this stuff on my daughter since she was 1) to gently help in many areas from Attention Deficit Disorder to exam nerves and even simply family relations (Freddy’s branded the techniques: Potensharu).

I have studied body language and the now extremely popular Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and in 2009, I certified as a practitioner for an amazing technique called Integral Eye Movement Therapy created by Andrew T Austin. IEMT combines various NLP techniques with a structured interview approach to achieve some of the most incredible change work that simple counselling would take many many sessions to achieve.

I have trained with Norman D Vaughton (who studied with Ernest Rossi for many years) in Ideodynamic hypnosis. Norman’s approach also utilises one of my favourite techniques: Clean Language and is used to avoid polluting or influencing your processes with the my own expectations or presuppositions. The technique is therefore extremely respectful and gentle and yet very powerful in gaining you both conscious and unconscious insight and in generating lasting and sometimes dramatic change!

As you can see I’ve done quite a lot of learning!

What I am passionate about is that the power to change is within all of us and if you want to change: you can

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Simples.

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Look me up using the Find Me Online section on the right, or simply drop me an email direct.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Ben

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So I was thinking about how mirrors and photos may perhaps impact how we feel and it occurred to me that where they are positioned may also influence our feelings as well.

Sticking with the eye accessing cues theme that I started in the last blog, I reasoned that most of the photos that I have of my and my family’s past are on dressers, side tables and generally below eye level.

Perhaps the physical height of my photos has some influence on how I remember them…

As discussed previously, looking down and to the left is the typical accessing cue for most (but by no means all) right handed people for internal discussion and down to the right is where we (typically) access “feelings”.

So when looking at photos that are resting below eye level, are we accidentally influencing the way we access the memories associated with the photo?

I do have a handful of photos on walls at or above eye level (in fact I have one hanging over the computer as I type this) and I’ve always thought that they looked more sunny and happy than the ones that are on the side board and dresser.

Could it be coincidence that the photos that I have to look up at (entering the visual accessing area) always look more happy and sunny? Having realised this I’m not sure I can be objective enough to say, but I’d be very grateful if you wanted to have a think about where your photos are and how they make you feel or how they look and tell me what you think.

Its not just about eye accessing cues though: what about the concept and symbolism of something being higher or above us? or the reverse: lower than or below us? Might the symbolism of this have an impact on how we perceive or remember our history or present self?

We often find that people who find stuff daunting or scary often describe them as “big” and “close”. Using NLP techniques, we encourage the client to make them “smaller” and “further away”. Could this same ability of our minds to represent these things, actually play against us when we’re so carefully choosing the right photo to fit the space on the wall above the bed? What about the ones next to the plant by the tv?

This is where I started thinking about the mirrors again: what would the impact of seeing yourself slightly higher than you on a regular basis? I guess it would probably depend on how you see things that are higher than you. Would you see yourself taller and higher (better) than you are now, or would you see yourself looking down at yourself? What about all those cheap mirrors that we buy which ever-so-slightly distort our image: sometimes thinner, sometimes fatter, sometimes shorter, sometimes taller…

Back to the photos again, wondering whether having photos of your past “staring down at you” is going to have a positive or negative or indeed any kind of effect on you. Or do you see them as sentinels of excellence showing you how wonderful you are and how exciting you can be?

Feng Shui and mirrors

Distoriting Mirrors can distort your self image

As JP pointed out on my last post: Feng Shui practitioners have great faith in mirrors and they hold the kind of “cure all” power that diamond does for crystal healers. I found an interesting article on the use of mirrors in Feng Shui and I’ve extracted some of the suggestions for you here:

• Keep your mirrors clean (could a dusty mirror have any effect on how you see yourself?)
• Make sure that they don’t distort your image (I mentioned this one above and I agree whole heartedly)
• Use plain mirrors not crazy mirror tiles (Could they produce a distorted image of yourself?)

It could be a case of glass half full or half empty… Or I could be talking utter codswallop… Who knows, but whatever it does, I hope that next time you catch yourself idly looking at one of you photos or in a mirror, you consider what might happen if you changed its position or angle. Just to see what changes, and if you feel any different.

“STOP LISTENING TO THIS CON-MAN AND OPEN YOUR EYES OR I’LL F@#&ING HIT YOU!”

This (along with several other choice sentiments) were aimed, not at me, but at my excellent subject and his friends by another friend of theirs while he was thoroughly enjoying a great hypnosis experience that I’ve already written about (here). I should point out that this person was not hypnotised at any point during the evening.

This is an abreaction.

Many in the hypnosis community won’t agree with this statement believing that, as is taught by most hypnotherapy courses and books, an abreaction has to happen while IN a state of hypnosis.

“A physical movement or an emotional outburst as a reaction to a suggestion while in the state of hypnosis.” www.hypnosis.edu

During my hypnosis training I was taught all about hypnotic abreactions – occasions where the hypnotised client spontaneously experiences an incredibly intense negative emotional state. This might be caused by a sudden regression to a past event or simply an overwhelming negative emotion. Either is easily dispelled by following carefully practiced and delivered suggestions easing the client away from or out of the horror they are experiencing/re-living.

Since my IEMT training with Andrew T Austin (the technique’s creator) I have had to revise both my definition and my approach to abreactions. Andrew taught all of us on the course about the three stage abreaction which is detailed below and since I also practice IEMT as a treatment it became important that I learned how to deal with kind of non-hypnosis abreaction.

3 Stage abreaction

In a therapy setting (not necessarily using hypnosis) the three stage abreaction is generally experienced as an escalation of emotion by the client following (roughly) the stages below:

1. Verbal warning – “I don’t like what you’re doing“
2. Emotional threat – “You’re making me upset!“
3. Physical escalation – [pokes you in the face] “OI! I SAID F@*&ING STOP IT!”

These abreactions can and should be used and those who support the provocative therapy approach actively seek to create these situations. From my IEMT point of view, I love this as you can immediately launch in to a “so on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being really bad, just how strong is this feeling you are experiencing now?” and then quickly help them overcome it and expose whatever it is that is causing the problem underneath. Dealing with it when you’re in the middle of a bar with loads of people watching on and enjoying seeing someone being (and also enjoying) hypnotised is quite a different matter and I have to say that in the end, closing time and generally leaving the bar was the only way to sort out the situation.

It was certainly very interesting to experience an abreaction (albeit unpleasant and slightly embarassing) so strong in a public place, and I hope that the person involved felt better about it the next day. For those hypnotists who read my blog, I hope that you will realise that abreactions do not just happen when your subject is directly in hypnosis in front of you and that it can take many forms and manifest in many different ways. The rote 9 word abreaction fix is not going to cut the mustard in all cases and indeed in some, it is to be actively managed in order to HELP the therapy!

There are a lot of terms used throughout the hypnosis and the therapy world that may or may not make sense to you. On this page, I have listed a few of the most common with descriptions.

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General terms

Below are some general terms that I’ve not been able to group.

IEMT

Integral Eye Movement Therapy is a brief change work process that generates rapid change in the area of undesired emotional and identity imprints. The process and algorithms of the technique answers the question, “How did the client learn to feel this way, about that thing?” and applies specific change at the right place within the client’s model of the world. Andrew Austin, Creator of IEMT. I am a licensed practitioner of IEMT.

NLP

Neuro-linguistic programming is a controversial approach to psychotherapy and organisational change based on “a model of interpersonal communication chiefly concerned with the relationship between successful patterns of behaviour and the subjective experiences (esp. patterns of thought) underlying them” and “a system of alternative therapy based on this which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective communication, and to change their patterns of mental and emotional behaviour”. OED

Abreaction

An emotional (and possibly physical) response experienced as a result of some subconscious trigger. Abreactions take many forms from spontaneous regression to a past event to apparently fighting the therapy being given.

Induction

The process by which a state of hypnosis is formally achieved with the subject.

Re-Induction

Once hypnotised, it is easy to re-orient a subject and then re-induce hypnosis for further work.

Deepening

The process by which a hypnotist will intensify a state of hypnosis

Fractionation

A process of intensifying a state of hypnosis by repeatedly waking and then re-inducing hypnosis in a subject.

Somnambulism

A state of hypnosis where suggestions given by the hypnotist are freely and clearly acted upon. Additionally, approximately 20% of people are able to achieve a somnambulistic state quickly and easily. These people are often described as “somnambulists”. It is also a term used to describe someone who suffers from “sleep walking”.

Revivification

The process of re-building and intensifying a past memory. This flexible tool can be used to induce, deepen or even as part of a treatment.

Ideodynamic (and ideomotor) Therapy

A method of working originally created as a result of the indirect and subtle approaches of the legendary Milton Erickson. Milton’s student Ernest Rossi developed the therapeutic use of ideomotor and non-conscious movements in new and powerful ways. Having studied with Norman D. Vaughton (one of Rossi’s own students), I use the techniques of dissociating the client from the physical movements caused by conscious processes. This then facilitates access directly to the unconscious mind leading to profound and often dramatic (seen to be believed) change.

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Phenomena

A term used to describe specific observable occurrences as a direct result of hypnosis either suggested or self-evident.

Post Hypnotic Suggestion (PHS)

An automatic response that a hypnosis subject will have no conscious control over carried out at some point after a hypnosis session while they are not formally hypnotised.

Catalepsy

Complete rigidity of one or more sets of muscles in the hypnotic subject’s body.

Ideomotor

The process by an idea “Ideo” causes muscular movement “motor” without consciously creating the movement.

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Treatments

There are many different forms of hypnotic therapy available, so I have listed a couple of terms that are fairly common throughout.

Regression

The process of allowing a hypnosis subject to re-experience a past event.

Aversion

Artificial creation of an intense dislike of something in order to affect a change in behaviour. Often used in therapy for things like gambling, nail biting and occasionally smoking.

Parts Therapy

A therapy that involves identifying the conflicting elements of a subjects personality and aligning them in order to affect change. This is a personal favourite of mine.

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The Mind

For a thorough description of the mind model that I use for hypnosis, please see http://practitioneroftrance.com/Hypnosis_Mind_Model.php

The conscious mind

The element of the human mind that deals with short term memory, rationalisation and will power. This is often considered the “analytical mind”.

The subconscious mind

The element of the human mind that deals with long term memory, emotions, habits and addictions and self-preservation. It is these functions and area that we aim to deal with for most hypnotic interventions.

The unconscious mind

The element of all animals minds that deals with the automatic processes of living. This includes the immune system and other essential functions.

The critical faculty

The analytical element of a human brain that sits on the border between conscious and unconscious and normally acts to prevent us accepting and reacting to every suggestion given to us on a day-to-day basis. This faculty needs to be by-passed or otherwise appeased in order to effect hypnosis.

IEMT: A structured approach to change

IEMT or Integral Eye Movement Therapy is the brain child of Andrew T Austin (author of The Rainbow Machine) and earlier this year I had to privilege to attend his London course and become certified as an IEMT practitioner.

The course was organised by my friend Alan Whitton of www.WestEssexHypnotherapy.com and run out of Regent’s Park collage in central London and taught by its creator: Andrew (and I will admit to getting my copy of the Rainbow Machine signed at the start of the course).

The course was awesome and Andrew really knows how to deliver training and keep control of the class – NLP practitioners, of which there were lots, have a tendency to start “helping” each other on courses like this: Andrew told us we’d be poked in the face if we started doing this He also said that we could poke our partner in the face if they went beyond the elements of the practical exercises that he was giving us. It was a fun way of making sure we got the point: Stick to the course!

One of the things that really struck me about the course was that Andrew’s years of experience in neurosurgery and clinical neurology means that he really knows what he’s talking about and when he pulled out a model brain and started pointing at parts of the brain and explaining physically what they did and how they worked, I was very impressed. Why don’t more therapy courses include understanding the parts of the brain as a minimum? I had no idea that our olfactory bulbs have such a large and important part to play in memory.

What is Integral Eye Movement Therapy?

Essentially, it a structured interview approach to a complete therapy session (or sessions) involving several techniques, so I will discuss the main technique used here:

When we remember something, whether it be a visual memory, a sound or feeling or even when we have an inner conversation with ourselves, we tend to move our eyes off centre in one of 6 major directions. These are called eye accessing queues and the diagram below (and I apologise for this) shows the typical association for each of these for a typical right handed person (there are exceptions of course and as a general rule, left handed people should switch the sides).

Look up the the left and you're probably remembering something visual. And: Yes that is my mug shot

What you probably aren’t aware of is that the eye accessing stuff isn’t as straight forward as looking diagonally up and to the left when you remember the colour of your front door. How far left do you look? How far “upwards” do you look? How about your focus: is it close or far away? Have a go at it now and choose a couple of different things to recall: If you’ve been to the bottom of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, can you remember what it looked like when you stood at its base? Can you remember what your parents look like? Do you remember your desk at school? Have a go at these and notice how you will probably look up to the left (or right if left handed), but now are you aware of just how differently located these visual memories are in that “up” and “left” quadrant of your vision?

What IEMT is really powerful at is changing the way we feel about something (or in fact many things) and one element of the technique is to re-program the way in which you access a state of mind. For example, when you feel guilty or distressed about something, it is probably associated to a particular memory or series of memories. When you recall the memory, you recall the state and therefore feel bad.

I find this fascinating and by using IEMT, we can change the way in which you access the memories and feelings by changing the locations of your accessing cues.

IEMT is a therapy system

IEMT isn’t all about eye accessing cues – its much much more than that, but I hope it gives you something to think about. As Andrew T Austin says: “This is not the grand unified theory of therapy.” It is however one tool in my toolbox of therapy techniques and it is a very impressive technique for fast and thorough change. I’ve helped alcoholism, depression and even agoraphobia with this technique just to give you a sample of what I can use it with.

Ben White is a certified and insured practitioner of Integral Eye Movement Therapy

You can find me and other practitioners listed on the official IEMT web site, so if you’re not nearby London or Kent and think that it might help you, check out the site and see if one of the other practitioners lives anywhere near you. If you’re thinking of seeing me about some IEMT, you’ll be glad to know that my liability insurance specifically includes IEMT along with Hypnotherapy and NLP.

If you would like to read some more about IEMT, please checkout the page on my website dedicated to it: http://practitioneroftrance.com/Integral_Eye_Movement_Therapy.php

Besides, I wanted a BenWhite.xxx domain and what with all the usual ones taken, I was delighted to discover the .me was available!

I promise to blog more from now on, so check back soon or subscribe and get automatic updates.

I will be blogging again soon on the fantastic IEMT course that I took the other week and I will be reviewing Reg Blackwood’s “Hypnosis Happens” lecture and accompanying “Not Another Street Hypnotist” DVDs.