Paul Mckenna appeared ont Talk radio with Mathew Wright this afternoon and as part of the interview Mathew asked him some interesting questions about how the difference types of therapy he uses fit together.

You can see the clip here:

Eighteen months ago Jenni Trent Hughes narrowly avoided being gang-raped in India. She tells Matthew and Paul McKenna she thinks she may now be experiencing PTSD.@Matthew_Wright | @ImPaulMcKenna | @AXAUK | #BetterFutureNow | #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek | https://t.co/sv3MZUm41c pic.twitter.com/BFGHaxd2Ss

— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) May 16, 2019

Here's how the conversation went..

Mathew Wright: What is the relationship if there is one between, what you are talking about, the Havening Process, and what you are best known for, whether it be hypnotism or CBT or NLP or the various acryomns therafter?

Paul McKenna: Well, it's a great question because if I find something works, I don't mind if it fits in the family of what I already do. I learn it because, I suppose my job is to help people to heal people and also to be like an ambassador for the modern psychological approaches, Hypnosis, NLP etc. So, I see this as just another application of what it is I do, so I looked at all the different psychosensory techniques, in fact I was a big fan...

Mathew Wright: I'm sorry is there a relationship between the process and say Hypnotism.

Paul McKenna: Yes, there is. In fact what I tend to do now is, i've got if you like a toolbox. With somebody I will use a bit more hyposis than havening or a bit more NLP and I put them all together as I work with somebody. I am making it up as I go along.

This is actually one of the best ways of describing what I good therepist will do as I have heard in a long while. I always talk about that toolbox of techniques and how it's not possible to know what you will do and how you will do it until you have started to work with someone. The important thing is to find the right way to help whoever is in front of you at the time.

People often see Paul McKenna as the TV hypnotist of the past, but actually one thing he does is find the latest new techniques and then champions them and spreads the knowledge about them.

David Mitchell talks to Adam Buxton about why Teenagers smoke and hits the nail on the head.

How can you stop a teenager from smoking when they think it is cool?

I stopped listening to much talk radio a while back. I think it was possibly because it seems to be just a roundabout of Brexit, Trump and local council bin collection problems. I needed to listen to something a little more positive and entertaining.

So, I started listening to podcasts. At first it seemed strange that people would listen to these when they could listen to strangers moaning but after a while you start to realise that they are much more entertaining, informative and also perfect when walking the dog.

Adam Buxton has been one of the most well known podcasters for quite a while and when a new podcast of his drops (I think that’s how the hip kids term it), it is always worth a listen. This morning whilst walking the dog I started to play his latest podcast with comedian David Mitchell, and heard him talking about why young people smoke. As well as both being funny David made some great points about smoking that I think are well worth listening to and sharing. If you have a teenager and are unhappy they are smoking, it may have some ideas that you can use to help deal with the problem.

He was talking about why young people start smoking and why they want to do it even though it can kill you.

“I always think that the genius of smoking is that it is dangerous, there is a cool element to it. It’s to do with death, and therefore you can seem like a rebel. At the same time the danger is on a time scale that can’t possible impact on the teenagers who are thinking of taking it up. This could take years of the end of your life. Well, I’ll stop at some point. That warning I think actually adds to the cachet of the product.

If they said..well it doesn’t do you any harm, but it’s smelly..you would go oh yeh, it is smelly, maybe I should stop..but no, it’s dangerous!”

There’s lots more about this and of course many other topics that make the whole podcast a great listen. If you have teenagers who are starting smoking and you want to help, maybe you should not lecture them on the health issues, but just tell them they are smelly instead. Of course, some teenagers are not known for their hygiene standards but, hey you can try something different.

You can listen to the whole podcast with Adam Buxton and comedian David Mitchell here: http://adam-buxton.co.uk/podcasts/ep89-david-mitchell