I am working with a client currently who has a great deal of problems with pain.

People often do not realise that hypnosis can help to ease and relieve pain.

Because all of my work with clients is confidential I won't go into too many details other than to say that it is a lady who has had a great deal of constant pain for many years. She had to give up work because of her health issues and lives her days feeling in almost constant pain.

Her doctor has tried to help and she is on medication to help ease the discomfort but she finds that she is almost always uncomfortable and however she sits she is always aware of how her health affects her.

The doctor had recommended that she seek another form of help such as reflexology or hypnosis. 

She has been having reflexology sessions and finds that they really help her to relax and switch off the pain. However when she is not in the middle of a session she finds that the pain comes back to her.

She has now started to see me and we are working to help her manage her pain further when she is on her own. Of course the pain is there for a reason and so we can never turn it off completely but we can work so that it can be "turned down" just as if there is a control for it.

When she first came to see me she had an open mind but was not sure if it would work. I can understand this completely.

We worked to help relax her and show her that she can drift off and just forget about the pain. Whilst we talked about the problems and got to know each other she was constantly shifting in the chair trying to get comfortable and struggling. However, even with her first session of hypnosis with me she suddenly found herself sitting back and not moving. She suddenly didn't notice any discomfort and was so pleased and delighted.

Now that we are working together I can teach her to be able to use techniques herself so that she does not need to rely on me to be there.

Soon, she will be able to turn down the controls herself and start to take some of her life back.

It's working with clients like this that gives me so much satisfaction.

If you suffer from pain why not consider how hypnosis could help you to control it?

I have written a couple of blogs recently about Derren Brown and his latest TV specials. As a hypnotherapist people often ask me "what is Derren Brown's secret" or "how does he do it?" Feel free to check out the other entries all about how he uses his techniques. This final show Fear and Faith has even tackled the tricky subject of religion.This post does contain spoilers...so be warned "Spolier Alert" before you read on to find out the secrets of Derren Brown.

I thought it might be an idea to write a few more words just to sum up what he has achieved in this series. Derren is moving away from his showman persona and really showing us how he can change people's lives. Its not just about entertainment any more. It's about leaving people with a new positive future....or is it?

You mustn't lose sight of the fact that in each of these shows Derren Brown is making television and it must be entertaining. Never forget that for all the things that we see an awful lot remains on the cutting room floor..either because it would not help the story...or because we are not supposed to see it.

In his first special about Zombies we saw him put the man to sleep on the bus instantly..how did he do that? I have already covered this in a previous blog so feel free to check it out. Suffice to say there is a lot more than meets the eye to his work.

Think back to last week and the story of the actress afraid of singing. Being scared to sing in public was causing her a good deal of grief. At the end of the show she suddenly could sing and did so in front of an audience with a full band and wowed the crowd. He was using a drug called Rumyodin which of course turned out to be not only a placebo, but an anagram of "your mind". I wonder if it occurred to you how strange that after weeks of taking it and even meeting Derren Brown only a couple of people worked out what was going on? But, back to the singer.. It's a lovely story. I know that if I was making a TV show about helping someone to sing in public I would make sure that the person I chose was a really good singer. Then perhaps I would do something to take away their confidence for a short time so that if they went for an audition they appeared nervous. Then I would remove these barriers and lo and behold she would be back to being a great singer again and off she would go.

If you think about it how would he know that at the end she could sing well, if she had never done it because she was nervous? She could have lost her nerves and then sung off key. I wouldn't take the risk unless I know she could sing. So the chances are the story we were shown may well have been the opposite of what we were being told. Another point to make is to ask yourself if perhaps there were other failed stories that we didn't see. Could that be the case? Hmm I wonder.

Never forget that Derren Brown is a great showman. I am a huge fan and the fact that he gets people talking about what he does is a good thing. He may give an unrealistic idea of how he achieves things but as a clinical hypnotherapist I achieve similar things in a different way. For instance I have only just finished working with an actress who was nervous singing at auditions. I worked with her using something called Emotional Freedom Therapy and in one session it was gone. I wonder what she is up to now?

Of course I do know that Derren is great at keeping in touch with people he works with and he does help them so I applaud him for that.

I work with people who want to lose weight, quit smoking, end fears and phobias and manage their stress and of course I don't need to have a TV show to achieve results. There is lots more information on my website if you want to read more about hypnosis and hypnotherapy and what can be done using the techniques I have mentioned...and if you want to experience a wonderful trance like state of relaxation and don't want to have to come and visit me or perhaps are not local then you may be interested in this just click on.....Refresh Relaxation

If you would like to see the Derren's series..The experiments...