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Jul 12 2008 by Abbie Wightwick, Western Mail
From past life regression and faith healing to stopping smoking and learning to eat more slowly, hypnotherapy is fast becoming the buzzword in alternative therapy – you can even do a degree in it in Wales now. Abbie Wightwick looks into the eyes (not around the eyes) of the believers
IMAGINE you have half a fresh, juicy lemon in your hand. Squeeze it and breathe in the tangy, citrus smell. Bring it up to your mouth and bite into the crunchy, cool flesh. Feel the fresh, sour juice hit your tongue. By now your mouth may be watering.
The lemon test, an example favoured by Cardiff-based hypnotherapist Richard Haggerty, is recognisable to anyone who has experienced the drooling sensation sparked by picturing favourite or sour foods.
It is one example of how the mind can affect the body, he says.
If eating isn’t your thing then invoking a beautiful place may do the trick in transporting you elsewhere.
It is this ability to put the mind in a more relaxed state to aid physical health that is at the heart of the booming industry in healing and complementary therapy.
A survey last year showed that more than half of people asked in Wales would turn to alternative therapists rather than endure long NHS waiting lists. Research has been carried out into complementary treatments for cancer patients at Velindre Hospital, Cardiff and many people book visits to therapists as regularly as the hairdresser.
Every year Britons spend £130m on alternative treatments, from hypnotherapy to reflexology, and predictions are that this will swell to £200m in the next few years.
The NHS spends around £50m a year on alternative treatments working from a recommended list of practitioners offering everything from acupuncture to yoga.
Christian churches also report an increase in religious healing, if not the numbers of people worshipping.
The Reverend Beatrice Brandon, the Adviser for the Healing Ministry to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York whose mother was Welsh, believes Wales is “a healing place” and that pilgrimages to a holy well here helped cure her crippling rheumatoid arthritis.
“I was in an awful lot of pain at the time. I came across the holy wells in Wales and found them peaceful places,” she says.
“I went to St Cybi’s Well on the Llyn Peninsula. The time in Wales visiting these places sustained me. That had a strong healing dimension and helped the healing process.
“It was not a case of going into the water and being healed. The whole culture and spirit of Wales is one of healing and peace. There are parts of Wales where I feel very close to God.
“My mother left Wales as a child but she talked to us about it and I feel Welsh. My aunt had a farm near Lampeter and we spent a lot of time there.”
As an elected lay member of the General Synod of the Church of England, Rev Brandon was instrumental in reviving the healing ministry in the Church of England.
Her groundbreaking report to the House of Bishops, A Time to Heal, was published in 2000 and the associated handbook was sent to clergy in the Church in Wales.
She has since been ordained and trains lay people, priests and ministers in the Church’s healing ministry.
“We don’t call ourselves healers. That’s one of the factors which distinguishes us from faith healers,” she explains.
“The healing comes from God. We intercede and ask God for help.”
She says people don’t have to believe in God to be healed by him but it “helps to have a good relationship with him”.
Her own experience baffled her doctors.
“After the report on healing was published, I had to think about whether I would ever be well enough to function as a priest if I was ordained. I had had rheumatoid arthritis for seven years,
“I prayed to God that if it was his will for me to be ordained, he would have to heal me, for his sake, not mine.
“Within three weeks I had recovered. It has been eight years and it’s not come back.
“I think the significant increase in awareness and in the availability of the healing ministry is partly because mainstream medicine can be very effective but it does not have all the answers and is limited.”
Reverend Mike Endicott from the Church in Wales healing centre in Cwmbran agrees.
The Well Centre is run by the Order of Jacob’s Well which was set up by the then Bishop Rowan Williams, who also ordained Rev Endicott.
The centre has 120 lay and religious healers from a range of denominations. Rev Endicott is a vibrant figure not shy to declare that it is only God who heals.
“It’s to do with God, not us,” he says with unflinching conviction.
“There is a growing interest in healing because there are a lot more sick people. People live longer and doctors are making symptoms easier, but not stopping illness.
“I can heal anybody but they don’t all get healed. If you proclaim the good news but people don’t want to receive anything from God and pull up the portcullis, he can’t get in.
“If you are ill and you come to me I would pray with you. A lot of people are very sceptical. I preach the Bible – nothing else.
“People are becoming more open though. There’s a general increase in interest in things spiritual, but not religious.
“I don’t believe in Wales’ healing wells but it may be some people feel nearer to God in these places.”
Rev Endicott, 63, who went blind through inherited illness as a teenager, does not want his sight restored.
“Being blind is part of me,” he declares.
“ It would be too scary. Sight brings with it things like responsibilities.”
He has a zeal which is tricky to argue with. It is this unshakeable belief that links both church and faith healers.
The National Federation of Spiritual Healers charity is the only body that most doctors will use when seeking faith healers.
Members are listed on the NHS Trust Associations list of approved healers and therapists.
NFSH chief executive Tereena Davies, who was born and grew up in Swansea, cuts an establishment figure in many ways.
A former city high flier, she is a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman. Duties include voting in the Lord Mayor of London.
But Tereena says people are increasingly open to the benefits of healing.
“In my 30s I trained as a healer with the NFSH whilst still being involved in my career. I became chief executive last November.
“Most people know I’m also a healer and it’s respected and accepted. A lot of people are hungry for an understanding of spirituality. You would be surprised at the people who ask questions or come for healing or train with the NFSH.
“The range of people who are healing include everything from doctors, solicitors, osteopaths, managers mothers and retired people.”
Her interest in healing grew during her career as head of a medical department for a pharmaceutical company and a City consultancy firm.
She is keen that healing is not seen as something weird or fraudulent and believes that’s why the NFSH two-year training programme is important.
“My concern is that there are a lot of vulnerable people who have cancer or other illnesses who go to people and pay a lot of money and get unrealistic expectations.
“As NFSH healers we never say we can cure. We leave it to the patient to gauge benefit. Whilst there are no guarantees many of our patients report positive results. We are the largest healers’ member organisation and the main one used in the NHS.”
She is passionate about the benefits healing can bring to both patient and practitioner.
“We have 14 regions around the UK where healers represent us at voluntary centres where people can get healing. If they are able to give a donation they do, but that is not required.”
But many people are more than willing to pay for the chance of healing.
Hypnotherapists in Wales, who charge from around £45 to £90 a session, report an almost doubling in trade in the past few years, partly sparked by the new anti-smoking law.
Richard Haggerty says hypnotherapy can complement mainstream medicine by tackling everything from irritable bowel syndrome to phobia and anxiety.
Some dentists also use it for pain relief. Although research is not conclusive, hypnotherapy has been shown to be so effective for some patients that they have had teeth removed with no other painkiller.
The British Medical Association acknowledges there is “immense interest” in alternative medicine among doctors in Wales and elsewhere.
Some regularly suggest patients try complementary therapy. The NHS Trusts Association includes a database of alternative practitioners that doctors can use, although patients must usually pay themselves.
A new regulatory body called The Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council is also due to launch later this year. The organisation is aimed at protecting the public by vetting complementary health practitioners, and only giving their seal of approval to well-qualified, responsible professionals.
But BMA Wales spokesman John Jenkins says more research and safeguards are needed.
“With up to five million people a year consulting a therapist in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and many more asking their doctor for advice, the BMA wants to see stricter regulation of the CAM therapies.
“Patients and doctors show an immense interest in CAM therapies but there is a great need for adequate regulation. Only osteopathy and chiropractic are currently regulated by law and we want to see this extended. Acupuncture and herbal medicine are obvious candidates and we would want other areas to follow.
“The BMA has called for more and better scientific research into the efficacy of CAM therapies. People want to know what works and what doesn’t. It is sensible if the NHS is going to share treatment and management of patients with CAM that there should be good information about therapies available for health care workers and patients.
“The BMA believes only those therapies that are adequately regulated should be available on the NHS.”
The Hypnotherapists’ professional body, the National Council for Hypnotherapists, hopes its register will be officially recognised by Parliament within the next 18 months giving it more credence in mainstream healthcare and assuring people prices are fair.
Spokesman Paul Howard fears stage hypnotists have led people to believe their minds will be controlled by someone waving a watch in front of them.
“It has nothing to do with ‘looking into your eyes’ and more to do with looking into your behaviour,” he insists.
“Hypnotherapy is commonly used to help with weight loss and stress, and it has also been proven to be beneficial in smoking cessation and irritable bowel syndrome, but surprisingly it is probably most often used for psychological problems like anxiety and low self esteem.
“With smoking cessation, hypnotherapy in general has shown to be two and a half times more effective than nicotine replacement like nicotine gum or patches, and is five times more likely to succeed than will power alone.
“Hypnotherapy, rather than submerging the mind, is a way of helping people access it for themselves, according to those who use it.”
Aleks Fowler, 32, a natural bodybuilder from Nantgarw, has regular hypnotherapy to boost her confidence before the World Championships in Belfast in August.
“I’ve been going for two months to get focused to win,” she says.
“I’ve been competing for years and always get into the first three, but I want to win. The hypnotherapy makes me happy and confident. If you are stressed you can calm yourself down in just a few minutes. It’s a whole approach to life.
“When I am in a trance I am aware what’s happening but am so relaxed. It’s like sleeping while you’re awake.
“I’m a personal trainer as well and this has a great place in sport. Your brain is like a computer. If you put in only positive messages your life can change.”
Kerry Macdonald, 28, from Cardiff finally kicked her 12-year smoking habit after one one-hour session with hypnotherapist Richard Haggerty.
“I gave up exactly a year ago,” she says with a smile, as if she cannot quite believe it herself.
“He put the idea into my mind that the smell would make me feel sick.
“When I finished I got into my car and drove off. At the traffic lights a man in a car beside me was smoking and the smell made me feel sick.
“I’m so glad I went for hypnotherapy. It’s been the best thing. I had good reason to give up because I’m trying for a baby.
“I was told to picture myself at home with my new baby and people visiting. Then I had to picture myself coughing and going to the doctor and then having tests and being told I had three months to live and wouldn’t see my baby grow up.
“It put things in perspective. I don’t think I would have been able to stop smoking without hypnosis, even though I wanted to. I had tried before and had lasted three months but always went back to it. I really just don’t want to smoke now.”
After years of dieting Helen Caudle who lives near Llantrisant finally tried hypnotherapy which she credits with helping her lose several stone.
Helen, 52, a customer services manager for Barratt Homes, says: “I’d never done anything like this before. The first time I felt self conscious. You see these stupid television programmes where people run around and do things under hypnosis.
“At the end of the first session I came out feeling totally relaxed. You are conscious throughout and totally aware of everything that’s going on. You aren’t totally out of it.
“I was told to put my fork down between each mouthful. I’m a fast eater but in the third week of hypnotherapy I realised I had started putting my knife and fork down and going slower, but not deliberately.
“I’m not a gullible person. Normally my will power would have gone by now but I’m in my fourth week, I don’t feel like I’m on a diet and I’ve lost 10lb without any effort.
“He suggested I’d refuse junk food and eat healthier. My weakness is cakes but I found I didn’t want them.
“You need motivation but the hypnotherapy helps you keep it.”
Her hypnotherapist, Richard Haggerty, believes the treatment has an important role in healthcare.
“Many studies have consistently shown a subject will not do anything against their core values when in trance. Since you are aware at all times, it is your choice to follow the suggestions,” he says.
“We can reach parts of the subconscious under trance.”
Andy Garland, who practises at You Be The Best You Can in Penarth, does past life regression and hypnotherapy and is on the NHS Trusts Association list.
He says: “It’s becoming more and more accepted by the general medical profession. People on the data base are insured and it is a list that’s accredited by the NHS to give security to GPs and the medical profession.
“In past life regression we use clinical hypnosis techniques to access past life.
“Sometimes people are curious and want to find out who they were in lives before. Others believe problems they have stem from events in a past life.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not. If they believe their issues stem from another life then we can work with that and bring that into the present and bring a positive outcome.
“I believe in what my clients believe in.
“You put them into a trance where they are in a state of deep relaxation and within that we are able to access thoughts and memories.
“I have never taken someone back and found they were someone famous. Most people were farmers or in a war.
“People may come to you stating they have a lot of anxiety but can’t think of anything in their current life causing it. They think maybe it’s something from a previous life.
“You can go back and bring the issue forward and deal with it in the present time.”
Psychic Diane Lazarus from Crosshands, Carmarthenshire, stresses that she is not a healer but says many who come to see her report “feeling better” afterwards.
The 42-year-old mother of two, winner of Channel Five’s Psychic Challenge in 2006, is on a database of approved psychics police can contact. She has helped in a number of cases including the murders of television presenter Jill Dando and West Midlands college lecturer Mark Green.
Those who have come to her for readings include nurses, a Nasa scientist, a Catholic priest and singer Bonnie Tyler.
Police, like doctors, are not often keen to publicise their belief in systems beyond the mainstream, but the National Crime and Operations Centre Faculty in Hampshire holds the database of officially approved mediums and Diane believes society is becoming more open to the paranormal.
“There are parts of the brain people don’t understand. I believe everyone has the ability I do, but not everyone can use it,” she says.
“It was not accepted a few years ago but I feel it’s more accepted now.”
Diane, who is married to solicitor Peter Lazarus, warns “there are charlatans” and supports new consumer laws protecting people from those deliberately aiming to dupe them.
One of her clients is Newmarket racehorse trainer Steve James who visits for business forecasts.
“People can believe what they want. I’ve been going for 18 months and it worked for me,” he announces confidently.
“I’m analytical in life and wouldn’t consider myself ‘away with the fairies’. I’ve got both feet on the ground.”
Steve says he “didn’t want saving” but Diane’s forecast helped give him the determination and confidence that he was heading in the right direction.
Some psychologists believe it is this reassurance that many are searching for in complementary treatments.
Whatever it is the growing acceptance and demand for alternative and complementary therapies and healing means there is an urgent need for more research.
Uwic, which runs the only complementary therapy degree course in Wales, has seen demand for places on its Cardiff-based course double.
Principal lecturer Philip Harris, who runs the course, explains: “Our BSc (Hons) Complementary Therapies programme had its first intake of 12 part-time students in September 2003.
“In the following year the programme ran full-time as well as part-time with an intake of 24 students.
“Subsequently we have taken about 24 new students per year. It is the only undergraduate programme of this type in Wales.
“It was started because of a need for professionally qualified complementary therapy practitioners who are able to understand the research process. Most of our graduates will go on to be full time practitioners in complementary therapies. Some, we hope, will undertake further training and become researchers themselves.
“There is currently a shortage of researchers who both provide complementary therapy and research skills.
“Last year we had our first graduation, one of our graduates won an award for the best undergraduate dissertation on the programme with a cash prize of £500, sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government.”
The course covers aromatherapy, reflexology, massage, physiology and anatomy and, crucially, business skills.
Alternative therapies, like much medicine, make money. Practitioners have to make a living.
Tereena Davies of the NFSH is keen to point out that many healers offer their skills free and the churches do not charge for healing services or visits to the sick.
But money does not seem to be an obstacle for the growing numbers of people trusting their health to alternative practitioners.
If the drugs don’t work Link
Hypnosis Basics (video above)
Jul 12 2008 by Abbie Wightwick, Western Mail
From past life regression and faith healing to stopping smoking and learning to eat more slowly, hypnotherapy is fast becoming the buzzword in alternative therapy – you can even do a degree in it in Wales now. Abbie Wightwick looks into the eyes (not around the eyes) of the believers
IMAGINE you have half a fresh, juicy lemon in your hand. Squeeze it and breathe in the tangy, citrus smell. Bring it up to your mouth and bite into the crunchy, cool flesh. Feel the fresh, sour juice hit your tongue. By now your mouth may be watering.
The lemon test, an example favoured by Cardiff-based hypnotherapist Richard Haggerty, is recognisable to anyone who has experienced the drooling sensation sparked by picturing favourite or sour foods.
It is one example of how the mind can affect the body, he says.
If eating isn’t your thing then invoking a beautiful place may do the trick in transporting you elsewhere.
It is this ability to put the mind in a more relaxed state to aid physical health that is at the heart of the booming industry in healing and complementary therapy.
A survey last year showed that more than half of people asked in Wales would turn to alternative therapists rather than endure long NHS waiting lists. Research has been carried out into complementary treatments for cancer patients at Velindre Hospital, Cardiff and many people book visits to therapists as regularly as the hairdresser.
Every year Britons spend £130m on alternative treatments, from hypnotherapy to reflexology, and predictions are that this will swell to £200m in the next few years.
The NHS spends around £50m a year on alternative treatments working from a recommended list of practitioners offering everything from acupuncture to yoga.
Christian churches also report an increase in religious healing, if not the numbers of people worshipping.
The Reverend Beatrice Brandon, the Adviser for the Healing Ministry to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York whose mother was Welsh, believes Wales is “a healing place” and that pilgrimages to a holy well here helped cure her crippling rheumatoid arthritis.
“I was in an awful lot of pain at the time. I came across the holy wells in Wales and found them peaceful places,” she says.
“I went to St Cybi’s Well on the Llyn Peninsula. The time in Wales visiting these places sustained me. That had a strong healing dimension and helped the healing process.
“It was not a case of going into the water and being healed. The whole culture and spirit of Wales is one of healing and peace. There are parts of Wales where I feel very close to God.
“My mother left Wales as a child but she talked to us about it and I feel Welsh. My aunt had a farm near Lampeter and we spent a lot of time there.”
As an elected lay member of the General Synod of the Church of England, Rev Brandon was instrumental in reviving the healing ministry in the Church of England.
Her groundbreaking report to the House of Bishops, A Time to Heal, was published in 2000 and the associated handbook was sent to clergy in the Church in Wales.
She has since been ordained and trains lay people, priests and ministers in the Church’s healing ministry.
“We don’t call ourselves healers. That’s one of the factors which distinguishes us from faith healers,” she explains.
“The healing comes from God. We intercede and ask God for help.”
She says people don’t have to believe in God to be healed by him but it “helps to have a good relationship with him”.
Her own experience baffled her doctors.
“After the report on healing was published, I had to think about whether I would ever be well enough to function as a priest if I was ordained. I had had rheumatoid arthritis for seven years,
“I prayed to God that if it was his will for me to be ordained, he would have to heal me, for his sake, not mine.
“Within three weeks I had recovered. It has been eight years and it’s not come back.
“I think the significant increase in awareness and in the availability of the healing ministry is partly because mainstream medicine can be very effective but it does not have all the answers and is limited.”
Reverend Mike Endicott from the Church in Wales healing centre in Cwmbran agrees.
The Well Centre is run by the Order of Jacob’s Well which was set up by the then Bishop Rowan Williams, who also ordained Rev Endicott.
The centre has 120 lay and religious healers from a range of denominations. Rev Endicott is a vibrant figure not shy to declare that it is only God who heals.
“It’s to do with God, not us,” he says with unflinching conviction.
“There is a growing interest in healing because there are a lot more sick people. People live longer and doctors are making symptoms easier, but not stopping illness.
“I can heal anybody but they don’t all get healed. If you proclaim the good news but people don’t want to receive anything from God and pull up the portcullis, he can’t get in.
“If you are ill and you come to me I would pray with you. A lot of people are very sceptical. I preach the Bible – nothing else.
“People are becoming more open though. There’s a general increase in interest in things spiritual, but not religious.
“I don’t believe in Wales’ healing wells but it may be some people feel nearer to God in these places.”
Rev Endicott, 63, who went blind through inherited illness as a teenager, does not want his sight restored.
“Being blind is part of me,” he declares.
“ It would be too scary. Sight brings with it things like responsibilities.”
He has a zeal which is tricky to argue with. It is this unshakeable belief that links both church and faith healers.
The National Federation of Spiritual Healers charity is the only body that most doctors will use when seeking faith healers.
Members are listed on the NHS Trust Associations list of approved healers and therapists.
NFSH chief executive Tereena Davies, who was born and grew up in Swansea, cuts an establishment figure in many ways.
A former city high flier, she is a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman. Duties include voting in the Lord Mayor of London.
But Tereena says people are increasingly open to the benefits of healing.
“In my 30s I trained as a healer with the NFSH whilst still being involved in my career. I became chief executive last November.
“Most people know I’m also a healer and it’s respected and accepted. A lot of people are hungry for an understanding of spirituality. You would be surprised at the people who ask questions or come for healing or train with the NFSH.
“The range of people who are healing include everything from doctors, solicitors, osteopaths, managers mothers and retired people.”
Her interest in healing grew during her career as head of a medical department for a pharmaceutical company and a City consultancy firm.
She is keen that healing is not seen as something weird or fraudulent and believes that’s why the NFSH two-year training programme is important.
“My concern is that there are a lot of vulnerable people who have cancer or other illnesses who go to people and pay a lot of money and get unrealistic expectations.
“As NFSH healers we never say we can cure. We leave it to the patient to gauge benefit. Whilst there are no guarantees many of our patients report positive results. We are the largest healers’ member organisation and the main one used in the NHS.”
She is passionate about the benefits healing can bring to both patient and practitioner.
“We have 14 regions around the UK where healers represent us at voluntary centres where people can get healing. If they are able to give a donation they do, but that is not required.”
But many people are more than willing to pay for the chance of healing.
Hypnotherapists in Wales, who charge from around £45 to £90 a session, report an almost doubling in trade in the past few years, partly sparked by the new anti-smoking law.
Richard Haggerty says hypnotherapy can complement mainstream medicine by tackling everything from irritable bowel syndrome to phobia and anxiety.
Some dentists also use it for pain relief. Although research is not conclusive, hypnotherapy has been shown to be so effective for some patients that they have had teeth removed with no other painkiller.
The British Medical Association acknowledges there is “immense interest” in alternative medicine among doctors in Wales and elsewhere.
Some regularly suggest patients try complementary therapy. The NHS Trusts Association includes a database of alternative practitioners that doctors can use, although patients must usually pay themselves.
A new regulatory body called The Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council is also due to launch later this year. The organisation is aimed at protecting the public by vetting complementary health practitioners, and only giving their seal of approval to well-qualified, responsible professionals.
But BMA Wales spokesman John Jenkins says more research and safeguards are needed.
“With up to five million people a year consulting a therapist in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and many more asking their doctor for advice, the BMA wants to see stricter regulation of the CAM therapies.
“Patients and doctors show an immense interest in CAM therapies but there is a great need for adequate regulation. Only osteopathy and chiropractic are currently regulated by law and we want to see this extended. Acupuncture and herbal medicine are obvious candidates and we would want other areas to follow.
“The BMA has called for more and better scientific research into the efficacy of CAM therapies. People want to know what works and what doesn’t. It is sensible if the NHS is going to share treatment and management of patients with CAM that there should be good information about therapies available for health care workers and patients.
“The BMA believes only those therapies that are adequately regulated should be available on the NHS.”
The Hypnotherapists’ professional body, the National Council for Hypnotherapists, hopes its register will be officially recognised by Parliament within the next 18 months giving it more credence in mainstream healthcare and assuring people prices are fair.
Spokesman Paul Howard fears stage hypnotists have led people to believe their minds will be controlled by someone waving a watch in front of them.
“It has nothing to do with ‘looking into your eyes’ and more to do with looking into your behaviour,” he insists.
“Hypnotherapy is commonly used to help with weight loss and stress, and it has also been proven to be beneficial in smoking cessation and irritable bowel syndrome, but surprisingly it is probably most often used for psychological problems like anxiety and low self esteem.
“With smoking cessation, hypnotherapy in general has shown to be two and a half times more effective than nicotine replacement like nicotine gum or patches, and is five times more likely to succeed than will power alone.
“Hypnotherapy, rather than submerging the mind, is a way of helping people access it for themselves, according to those who use it.”
Aleks Fowler, 32, a natural bodybuilder from Nantgarw, has regular hypnotherapy to boost her confidence before the World Championships in Belfast in August.
“I’ve been going for two months to get focused to win,” she says.
“I’ve been competing for years and always get into the first three, but I want to win. The hypnotherapy makes me happy and confident. If you are stressed you can calm yourself down in just a few minutes. It’s a whole approach to life.
“When I am in a trance I am aware what’s happening but am so relaxed. It’s like sleeping while you’re awake.
“I’m a personal trainer as well and this has a great place in sport. Your brain is like a computer. If you put in only positive messages your life can change.”
Kerry Macdonald, 28, from Cardiff finally kicked her 12-year smoking habit after one one-hour session with hypnotherapist Richard Haggerty.
“I gave up exactly a year ago,” she says with a smile, as if she cannot quite believe it herself.
“He put the idea into my mind that the smell would make me feel sick.
“When I finished I got into my car and drove off. At the traffic lights a man in a car beside me was smoking and the smell made me feel sick.
“I’m so glad I went for hypnotherapy. It’s been the best thing. I had good reason to give up because I’m trying for a baby.
“I was told to picture myself at home with my new baby and people visiting. Then I had to picture myself coughing and going to the doctor and then having tests and being told I had three months to live and wouldn’t see my baby grow up.
“It put things in perspective. I don’t think I would have been able to stop smoking without hypnosis, even though I wanted to. I had tried before and had lasted three months but always went back to it. I really just don’t want to smoke now.”
After years of dieting Helen Caudle who lives near Llantrisant finally tried hypnotherapy which she credits with helping her lose several stone.
Helen, 52, a customer services manager for Barratt Homes, says: “I’d never done anything like this before. The first time I felt self conscious. You see these stupid television programmes where people run around and do things under hypnosis.
“At the end of the first session I came out feeling totally relaxed. You are conscious throughout and totally aware of everything that’s going on. You aren’t totally out of it.
“I was told to put my fork down between each mouthful. I’m a fast eater but in the third week of hypnotherapy I realised I had started putting my knife and fork down and going slower, but not deliberately.
“I’m not a gullible person. Normally my will power would have gone by now but I’m in my fourth week, I don’t feel like I’m on a diet and I’ve lost 10lb without any effort.
“He suggested I’d refuse junk food and eat healthier. My weakness is cakes but I found I didn’t want them.
“You need motivation but the hypnotherapy helps you keep it.”
Her hypnotherapist, Richard Haggerty, believes the treatment has an important role in healthcare.
“Many studies have consistently shown a subject will not do anything against their core values when in trance. Since you are aware at all times, it is your choice to follow the suggestions,” he says.
“We can reach parts of the subconscious under trance.”
Andy Garland, who practises at You Be The Best You Can in Penarth, does past life regression and hypnotherapy and is on the NHS Trusts Association list.
He says: “It’s becoming more and more accepted by the general medical profession. People on the data base are insured and it is a list that’s accredited by the NHS to give security to GPs and the medical profession.
“In past life regression we use clinical hypnosis techniques to access past life.
“Sometimes people are curious and want to find out who they were in lives before. Others believe problems they have stem from events in a past life.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s true or not. If they believe their issues stem from another life then we can work with that and bring that into the present and bring a positive outcome.
“I believe in what my clients believe in.
“You put them into a trance where they are in a state of deep relaxation and within that we are able to access thoughts and memories.
“I have never taken someone back and found they were someone famous. Most people were farmers or in a war.
“People may come to you stating they have a lot of anxiety but can’t think of anything in their current life causing it. They think maybe it’s something from a previous life.
“You can go back and bring the issue forward and deal with it in the present time.”
Psychic Diane Lazarus from Crosshands, Carmarthenshire, stresses that she is not a healer but says many who come to see her report “feeling better” afterwards.
The 42-year-old mother of two, winner of Channel Five’s Psychic Challenge in 2006, is on a database of approved psychics police can contact. She has helped in a number of cases including the murders of television presenter Jill Dando and West Midlands college lecturer Mark Green.
Those who have come to her for readings include nurses, a Nasa scientist, a Catholic priest and singer Bonnie Tyler.
Police, like doctors, are not often keen to publicise their belief in systems beyond the mainstream, but the National Crime and Operations Centre Faculty in Hampshire holds the database of officially approved mediums and Diane believes society is becoming more open to the paranormal.
“There are parts of the brain people don’t understand. I believe everyone has the ability I do, but not everyone can use it,” she says.
“It was not accepted a few years ago but I feel it’s more accepted now.”
Diane, who is married to solicitor Peter Lazarus, warns “there are charlatans” and supports new consumer laws protecting people from those deliberately aiming to dupe them.
One of her clients is Newmarket racehorse trainer Steve James who visits for business forecasts.
“People can believe what they want. I’ve been going for 18 months and it worked for me,” he announces confidently.
“I’m analytical in life and wouldn’t consider myself ‘away with the fairies’. I’ve got both feet on the ground.”
Steve says he “didn’t want saving” but Diane’s forecast helped give him the determination and confidence that he was heading in the right direction.
Some psychologists believe it is this reassurance that many are searching for in complementary treatments.
Whatever it is the growing acceptance and demand for alternative and complementary therapies and healing means there is an urgent need for more research.
Uwic, which runs the only complementary therapy degree course in Wales, has seen demand for places on its Cardiff-based course double.
Principal lecturer Philip Harris, who runs the course, explains: “Our BSc (Hons) Complementary Therapies programme had its first intake of 12 part-time students in September 2003.
“In the following year the programme ran full-time as well as part-time with an intake of 24 students.
“Subsequently we have taken about 24 new students per year. It is the only undergraduate programme of this type in Wales.
“It was started because of a need for professionally qualified complementary therapy practitioners who are able to understand the research process. Most of our graduates will go on to be full time practitioners in complementary therapies. Some, we hope, will undertake further training and become researchers themselves.
“There is currently a shortage of researchers who both provide complementary therapy and research skills.
“Last year we had our first graduation, one of our graduates won an award for the best undergraduate dissertation on the programme with a cash prize of £500, sponsored by the Welsh Assembly Government.”
The course covers aromatherapy, reflexology, massage, physiology and anatomy and, crucially, business skills.
Alternative therapies, like much medicine, make money. Practitioners have to make a living.
Tereena Davies of the NFSH is keen to point out that many healers offer their skills free and the churches do not charge for healing services or visits to the sick.
But money does not seem to be an obstacle for the growing numbers of people trusting their health to alternative practitioners.
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