How it all started

Welcome to my Blog.
For quite along time I have been thinking about writing my own blog and wondered what it was I would talk about. Yet anyone who knows me will be aware that I am rarely short of a word or several hundred, especially in the clinical environment.

I thought I would start this blog, by answering a question that is asked me many times, and that is, how did I get into hypnotherapy?

In the early 1980’s I was made redundant from my office job, and I already knew that I preferred working with people rather than shuffling paper. I wanted to do something productive, something really worth while, and I had inherited my mothers’ calmness and I hope some of her kindness and caring.

All around me I saw the devastation that redundancy was bringing to people, strong people reduced to tears and frightened. I had a baby son a few months old at this time, and a new mortgage so things were pretty tense. Somehow I had a calmness in me, I saw it as an opportunity to move on, to get into the caring profession, but which one and how?

One day I opened a broadsheet and saw an advert to become a clinical hypnotherapist, it struck me as different; in fact I had no idea what it was about. I sent off for some information and in due course it arrived back, I was bitten by the healing bug, just reading about it, how it could help people, how it could remove fears and dread, how hypnosis could enhance an individuals self esteem and confidence, remove physical and emotional problems, simply by talking, and as previously mentioned I could do that alright!

So to cut a long story sort, I went and took my entrance exams and passed those and then had to wait for the new course to begin. In the meantime I got a job in the computer industry, at that time I knew nothing about them, PC’s were brand new. I remember the first computer I saw, it was a single floppy machine ~ you may be to young to know what that means, but it was, as they say nowadays ‘mega’

This big box, with a big deep monitor, was attracting interest from many quarters. It was a mono screen and in those days this simple machine by today’s standards cost thousands of pounds, the software for it was limited and expensive too, yet it seemed the way things were set to go.

Soon afterwards, although now I can’t really recall exactly how soon afterwards, the duel floppy machine came in, and then wow!! a hard disk machine. A 10Mb hard disk arrived. That really got people excited.

I was pretty sure I wanted to stick with my pending training in hypnotherapy, the temptation to stay in the industry was quite high, and there were promises of lots of money if I worked hard. As it happened during some of my training and then licentiate membership I returned to the industry to earn more money.

The hypnotherapy course was looming and in a relatively short time, I had established a presence in the computer company, and the progression allowed me to ask my boss for a golden handshake, though it wasn’t called that in those days, I was leaving and wanted some money to help me though my training, I still had to live and had a family to keep and mortgage to pay. Through sheer cheek I got what I needed, the computer industry was awash with money in those days, and I had done a good job, and was recognised for it. Three cheers to my boss!

Then I started my hypnotherapy training, I loved every minute of it, I worked hard to understand and learn, I kept up, I worked harder, I wanted to be the best in the group. I was certain it was what I wanted to do, and eventually after training and in service training I got my grade and was let loose. And what a scary time that was! Now I had to apply what I had learnt, and it is fair to say, no matter how good the training was, and how structured it was, the real learning began as soon as I began seeing clients, and after my first client things could only get better!

Tomorrow ~ my first client!