The right story at the right time can facilitate psychological and even physical healing. It’s possible that the ancient traditions of storytelling so rich and rife in all cultures may have been the earliest form of psychotherapy as well as vehicles for passing on patterns of wisdom.

Using stories for therapy isn’t new, but it’s becoming more popular again. Dr Milton Erickson used to tell his patients stories from his own and other people’s lives, as would the late great family therapist Virginia Satir.

Read full article: How to create stories for therapy

The story of depression

Once upon a time… there was a very unhappy wo/man. S/he had become withdrawn and stopped speaking to friends. S/he continued (unwillingly, unhappily, less and less effectively) to work, but colleagues couldn’t help noticing that dark gray cloud, and the absence of any smile. In spite of long hours in bed, s/he always woke up exhausted, thick headed, anxious and miserable. Nothing was any fun anymore. It looked like nothing ever would be fun again…

A tragic story? Not necessarily.

Our lift depression fast online course will teach you everything you need to know to understand – and change – the story of depression. And quickly. Therapeutic stories are a powerful tool to help people who believe they will never recover from depression.

The next course launches on 9 February 2010 and there is still just time to save 25% off the course fee if you book your place before 19 January 2010. (That’s a gift from your fairy godmother.)

Make sure you know how to bring the story of depression to a happy ending.

See you in a fortnight.

Mark Tyrrell
Co-Founder
Uncommon Knowledge
Psychology trainers since 1995

This newsletter can be downloaded as a PDF.

Research has shown that a subtle background aroma of cleaning liquid in the air influences people to be perceptibly cleaner and tidier than they would otherwise be.

Another fascinating piece of research reported in the journal Science in October 2008 involved hot and cold cups of coffee.

Students were asked to hold a cup of coffee in their hands for a few seconds before reading an information pack about a hypothetical person and then assessing this person’s ‘character’. The students who had held a hot cup of coffee were significantly more likely to describe the hypothetical individual as ‘warm and friendly’ than the students who had held an iced coffee. Just the immediate environment of their hands had seeded their unconscious minds, and, although they all read the very same information about the imaginary individual, their responses were largely in accord with the environmental ‘suggestion’.

Read full article: Using the environment to influence people

Unexpected hypnosis – would you expect it?

There is no end to what a therapist can learn and we are always developing new strategies and techniques to enhance the flexibility and creativity of therapy.

We are all being influenced by our environment all the time, and mostly we don’t notice. But few people have as yet realized the potential of directly using environmental factors to bring about positive change.

Our online precision hypnosis course for therapists already trained in hypnosis aims to extend and deepen the skills of those who attend and to ensure that they know how to use very subtle approaches such as environmental influence to the best effect.

The next course launches on 13 April 2010 and you can save 25% off the course fee if you book your place before 23 March 2010.

And in case you hadn’t noticed, that was an environmental suggestion!

See you in a fortnight.

Mark Tyrrell
Co-Founder
Uncommon Knowledge
Psychology trainers since 1995

This newsletter can be downloaded as a PDF.

I once wanted to win a toy on the rifle range at the fair. To win, I had to fire wet sponge pellets at a cuckoo clock bird. If I fired when the doors were shut, the pellet just bounced off. To ‘hit home’ I had to wait until the doors were open, and fire before they closed again.

People’s minds need to be open before new ideas can properly ‘hit home’.

Read full article: How to use surprise in hypnosis inductions

Unexpected hypnosis – would you expect it?

People live their lives, on the whole, according to a set of expectations they construct over time about what life is about, and how life works. These expectations are often unexamined, and quite rigid. This is not anybody’s ‘fault’ – it’s the default state for all of us.

When life fails to conform to your expectations, do you blame ‘life’ and get all worked up about it, or do you change your expectations? This is not a trick question.

Our online hypnosis course aims to teach a deep understanding of the role of expectation in shaping our experiences – good and bad. And of how this can be used to help people overcome all kinds of psychological and emotional difficulties that they struggle with.

The next course launches on 10 February 2010 and you can save 25% off the course fee if you book your place before 20 January 2010. An unexpected benefit? You can always expect the best from us!

See you in a fortnight.

Mark Tyrrell
Co-Founder
Uncommon Knowledge
Psychology trainers since 1995

This newsletter can be downloaded as a PDF.

Have you ever set a therapeutic goal for a client, had them agree to it, and then… find they’ve done nothing at all about it at their next session?

To escape from a problem state (whether a burning building or a state of mind) needs a strategy. Clear goal setting is vital when helping people in therapy. The mind needs a clear orientation (especially when it’s all emotional) and a compelling ‘blueprint’ fixed within consciousness of how things can be better in the future.

Read full article: Setting goals in therapy

Goals and depression – incompatible?

One of the commonest symptoms of depression is chronic loss of motivation. For everything. Everything seems pointless, and even things which you have to do seem to take much more energy than you have available. So it’s a constant downward spiral.

Breaking out of this vicious circle is not easy, and therapists need to know how to motivate their depressed clients into taking those first essential steps to freedom.

Our cutting edge online course on lifting depression will give you all the tools you need to help your clients recover their enthusiasm for life, no matter how long they have been struggling with depression.

The next course launches on 9 February 2010 and you can save 25% off the course fee if you book your place before 19 January 2010 – so there’s a good positive personal goal to go for! There are only 25 places on each course, so book early!

See you in a fortnight.

Mark Tyrrell
Co-Founder
Uncommon Knowledge
Psychology trainers since 1995

This newsletter can be downloaded as a PDF.

Hypnosis can be used to alter perception and therefore belief. When you work with hypnosis you learn something very profound about the nature of belief. Some hypnotized subjects can be hypnotized to see things that are not there or not to see things that are there. And it’s not just about seeing. They may actually eat an onion after being instructed to see it as an apple and respond to it in every way as if it is a perfectly genuine apple.

The point here is that during these hypnotic episodes the subjects believe completely in the reality of what they experience. This illustrates to the hypnotist – and hopefully to the subject – that what you believe can be completely disconnected from actual objective reality. Similarly, when you dream during your sleep…

Read the full article online

Learn Hypnosis for Christmas?

Our ‘workshop in a box’ Hypnosis Unwrapped DVD set teaches you everything you need to know about hypnosis. Is it time to treat yourself, or would someone else like to do it for you?

Hypnosis Unwrapped DVD – perfectly Christmassy

See you in a fortnight.

Mark Tyrrell
Co-Founder
Uncommon Knowledge
Psychology trainers since 1995

This newsletter can be downloaded as a PDF.

We very much hope to be back on track for the next issue in 2 weeks time.

All the best

Mark

A teenage boy finds his burly father desperately failing to push a reluctant cow into a barn. The young lad, weak from a recent bout of polio, comes up behind the recalcitrant cow and firmly tugs on its tail. The cow immediately heads in the opposite direction… into the barn. Problem solved.

That farm boy was Milton Erickson, arguably the greatest psychotherapist in history. He never founded a school of therapy as such, but ‘Ericksonian hypnosis’ is the name commonly give to the particular style of hypnotherapy he espoused. For myself, I like to think of Erickson as more of a discoverer than an inventor.

Read full article: Why Ericksonian hypnosis is the best

Mastering Ericksonian skills

If you are interested to know more about how you can apply Ericksonian principles in therapy, you can learn Ericksonian hypnosis online with us.

And if you are already skilled in Ericksonian techniques, you can take them to a new level with our advanced hypnosis course, Precision Hypnosis. The next course starts on 9 November, so you could get it done in time for Christmas. An excellent present for yourself!

See you in a fortnight.

Mark Tyrrell
Co-Founder
Uncommon Knowledge
Psychology trainers since 1995

This newsletter can be downloaded as a PDF.

Depression is a scary word. The prospect of treating depression without drugs feels daunting to many therapists. But we can really be optimistic when treating depressed people. Why?

Because antidepressant medication

• doesn’t significantly outperform placebos (1); and
• doesn’t work at all for two thirds of people (and has many possible side effects).

If you have the right skills, then any depressed person who finds you will be in luck – although they won’t necessarily see it like that at first!

To treat depression effectively we need to understand that:

• Depression is not ‘genetic’. People are not biologically predestined. It’s not caused by neurobiology (although it has neurobiological effects (2)). Depressive attitudes (such as pessimism, perfectionism, black and white thinking, learned helplessness) are learned rather than ‘passed on through genes’.
• Depression is a state of physical and mental exhaustion produced from too much negative non-solution-focused rumination, leading, in turn, to an excess of REM sleep which further exhausts the depressed person. (3)
• The depressed person has become stuck and needs help to think, feel and act differently and to get the rest they need.

Here are three essential steps to treating depression.

Read full article: How to treat depression the easy way

Hypnosis and the treatment of depression

If you want to learn a really empowering and uplifting process for treating depression, you can do no better than our top notch online depression treatment course. These courses run throughout the year, and the new dates will be announced soon.

Meanwhile, you can find out exactly what you will learn on the course and exactly how it will benefit you (and your clients) by visiting our Lift Depression Fast information page. Keep an eye out – there’ll be early bird discounts for those who register first!

See you next time!

Mark Tyrrell
Co-Founder
Uncommon Knowledge
Psychology trainers since 1995

This newsletter can be downloaded as a PDF.

Have you ever heard someone use hypnotic language so masterfully that part of you just went, “Wow! How on earth do you get to be that good?”?

Perhaps it was just a single phrase uttered by the hypnotist that completely flipped things around for the client, or perhaps it was a longer hypnotic induction which wove together a captivating blend of story, rhythm and tone shift with an artful array of embedded suggestions. But whatever it was, you were in awe.

Read full article: 3 simple secrets of hypnotic language mastery

More ways to develop your hypnotic language skills

The essence of hypnotic language is using highly targeted confusion to elicit specific (and not at all perplexing) results. But how do you ‘target confusion’ without becoming muddled or bewildering yourself? Befuddled?

Take the advanced hypnotic language skills Precision Hypnosis online course with Mark Tyrrell and all will become clear. You will learn to take your hypnotic suggestions to new heights of effectiveness – as well as mastering numerous other advanced hypnotic techniques.

The next course starts on 9 November. You can still benefit from our early bird offer of 25% off if you book before 19 October. (I hope that’s not too confusing…)

Here’s where to sign up for Precision Hypnosis.

See you next time!

Mark Tyrrell
Co-Founder
Uncommon Knowledge
Psychology trainers since 1995

This newsletter can be downloaded as a PDF.