Category: Talks, business and corporate on hypnotherapy and hypnosis

1. The Tapestry of touch - Pompoms and Sense the deafblind charity

   Posted on 10:28am Monday 31st Mar 2014

   One of the great things about what I do is that I am able to become involved with various charity events and lend a hand to do what I can. (Who can forget how much I went on about winning the Strictly Come Dancing event for the Shakespeare Hospice!?)

   Recently I went to see the Grayson Perry exhibition “The Vanity of Small Differences” at the Birmingham Gallery and Art museum and little did I know that soon afterwards I would be visiting another tapestry...this time one made by thousands of people...

   Sense are a national charity that supports and campaigns for children and adults who are deafblind. As a hypnotherapist who works with people using their senses in a very different way the work they do is of course something that I personally can learn from. How we use our senses is something that I work on every day.

   I was delighted when I was asked by Kate Timperley, the ambassador relationship manager for sense, if I would like to attend and open an amazing tapestry of pompoms. Of course, I jumped at the chance.

   Gillian Morbey and I feeling the tapestry for ourselves
   

    

   The Great Sense Pompom Challenge

   The Great Sense Pompom Challenge took place at the end of 2013. Thousands of artists with and without multi-sensory impairments contributed to the tapestry from all over the UK, and it is travelling the country to raise awareness of multi-sensory impairments and of Sense. Over 6000 pompoms were made and then stitched together to create a huge piece of sensory art “The Tapestry of Touch”.
   

   For people with hearing and sight impairment, touch can be important. It helps with communication – many deafblind people use a form of sign language involving touch called hand-on-hand signing, or they may use their fingers to read Braille. It helps with connecting – feeling the touch of their friends and loved ones becomes significant when you can’t see or hear. It helps with learning – especially important for babies and children with sight and hearing problems.

   The tapestry is now travelling around the country and you can see it for yourself. I was delighted to open the exhibition when it arrived at the Solihull Arts Complex. This is a venue I know well having performed there myself many times, and I even got to meet up with theatre manager Lawrence and reminisce.

   I met with Kate herself and I was also really happy to be able to meet the Chief Executive Gillian Morbey and find out more about the tapestry and what Sense do.

   This is not a piece of art with a barrier around it and “Do not touch!” signs. This is the exact opposite. It is something created by real people and it screams out to be touched, and played with. There are pompoms made out of wool, and many other materials, even plastic! Some are small and some are large. It really is stimulating to be able to close your eyes and touch these for yourself.

   If you would like to see the tapestry for yourself then you can find out all about where it has been, where it is going and where it will end up right here...

   http://www.sense.org.uk/tapestryoftouch

   and here you can read about the Solihull exhibition and my involvement..

   http://www.sense.org.uk/content/tapestry-touch-exhibition-opens-solihull-week

    

   I wonder if you could take a moment out of your day to read more about Sense and what they do.

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

2. Motivational Speaking from IBM to Brum - talking to the students..

   Posted on 1:05pm Thursday 19th Dec 2013

   I love the fact that I get many opportunities to speak to people about the fact that I am a clinical hypnotherapist and what that actually means. I also often get chances to talk all about the other things that I have done during my career. I was recently lucky enough to be invited to Stratford School to speak to the sixth-form all about what they could expect once they finish their education. They were also kind enough to write a little feature all about it...Here is what they said...

    

   

   Motivational Speaking from  IBM to Brum

   Sixth Form students were treated to the motivational speaking prowess of Mark Powlett recently. The talk was arranged by the school’s Careers Advice and Guidance Manager Mr David Wallace and was part of  the year group’s career development education programme which he coordinates within  school.

   The talk was intended to demonstrate the different directions careers can take and that starting out on one path doesn’t exclude other career choices later in life. Mark  Powlett started out his career working for IBM then retrained in Drama and has been an actor (notably the policeman in Brum) radio presenter and a stand-up Comedian. He  is currently working as a qualified hypnotherapist and  motivational speaker. He  certainly had his student audience  gripped with  his enthusiastic description of his life, Mark  even got all the students up and active doing a hand test to see if they would be susceptible to hypnotherapy or not.

   Mark said of working with the students “It was a real pleasure to speak to the Sixth-formers about my own experiences in my career and how just being yourself can work  wonders in the world of work, as well as in your  home life. Every time I visit the school I leave smiling at the experience and feeling very  satisfied at the efforts that both the staff  and pupils  put into  their  education.”

   David Wallace  explained  further “Mark   Powlett has a  tremendously enthusiastic and  positive character and having changed career direction successfully so many times he is a perfect person to talk  to our  students about the nature of  adapting to an ever-changing work  market. It is very unlikely that a young person will stay in a single job  for life and our students need to learn to accept and drive change in their  lives and  career  paths. Learning is not something that should finish at a government decided time in your  life, instead it can become part of your  life and career and enable you  to pursue a successful, enjoyable but varied career path”

   The Sixth Form students have a career education development programme that runs throughout the academic year and introduces them to business professionals and academics as well as preparing them with employability skills like interview techniques and CV writing  skills.