So
What Is Hypnopuncture?
So back in
2007, a colleague and I were bouncing off ideas about the possibility of
combining my hypnosis with his acupuncture.
Although I was trained as a
hypnotherapist I worked with a lot of
Chinese Medicine practitioners and had received acupuncture a number of times
myself.
One thing
that had struck me about the experience of acupuncture was how once the needles
were in and you were left in peace and quiet whilst the acupuncture did its magic, one’s mind nearly always drifted off
into a deeply relaxed state, not unlike a hypnotic trance. I had often thought
whether it might be possible or beneficial for a patient to make use of this “acupuncture
trance” by introducing some hypnotherapy techniques whilst the needles were
still in place.
My
colleague Alex, who was an experienced acupuncturist, was curious about hypnosis
and how it worked, and we had a number of interesting conversations comparing
and contrasting how our different treatments would approach the same issue. It became apparent to both of us that although
each treatment had its strengths, both acupuncture and hypnosis also had their
limitations. We began to wonder whether
combining the two treatments would be a way of overcoming some of these
limitations.
Acupuncture,
it seemed, was very effective for the more physical type of issues such as
musculo-skeletal problems and infectious or chronic ailments of the body
systems. Hypnotherapy on the other hand
was especially effective in helping more psychologically based issues such as habits,
stress and anxiety. And although
acupuncture could help with stress and anxiety and hypnotherapy could also have a
beneficial effect on the body such as with pain management, it was also clear
to both of us that if we could combine the strengths of both treatments you would
end up with a therapy that was effective for both mind and body equally.
By the end
of that year Hypnopuncture was born and Alex and I were treating patients with
it. We had a simple protocol to begin
with, the needles went in and I would then hypnotize the patient whilst the
needles were still in. Just before the
end of the hypnosis session Alex would take the needles out. For patients who were a little nervous of
needles, I would take them into hypnosis
first and they would often “wake up” 40 minutes later without realising the
needles had been in.
Move
forward a year and Hypnopuncture was being written about in the national press
as a new effective holistic treatment for weight loss. We were also successfully treating patients
for stopping smoking as well as stress and anxiety. And bringing us up to the present, the
treatment has developed to the point where I now treat a wide
variety of conditions with Hypnopuncture, using a combination of ear
acupuncture, hypnosis and nlp.
Over the
last 5 years the treatment has grown and developed and is quite different from
what it was in the beginning. The aim
has always been to develop a therapy which combined the best of both
acupuncture and hypnosis in an integrated approach, to create a synergistic
effect on both the mind and body. So far
its working well and Hypnopuncture it seems is here to stay.
For more
information on Hypnopuncture visit our website at
