The earliest known healing use of
Hypnotherapy was by the Ancient Egyptians, and described in hieroglyphs.
Hypnosis has been used since then for healing purposes,
and although there have been gaps in its history, it has always resurfaced due
to success in helping people find their own inner resources to overcome a
variety of personal problems and/or challenges.
Much later, a Frenchman called Charcot who was in charge of so called
'hysterical' patients in a French mental institution, (often epileptic) noticed
that he could put them into a form of trance, which appeared to help them relax
and even improve. He developed this over some years and Freud came to study
with him for a time. Freud however, was not good at hypnotherapy and dropped it
in favour of the psychoanalysis he later became famous for.
Around that time Anton Mesmer created 'Mesmerism' which was
supposedly a magnetic force, after whom the word mesmerise was named, but this was not true hypnotherapy, though unfortunately often confused with it. He was a stage entertainer not a therapist, just as
Derren Brown is today.
In the early 1800's in Britain, a Scottish GP named James Braid based his work
on the 'Common Sense Psychology school', which required a scientific, evidence
based approach. He had no time for the light entertainment style of Anton
Mesmer's stage hypnosis, or any
other esoteric notions. Dr. James Braid is now justifiably becoming well known
again after many years of being overlooked, as a leader in the field, and is a
heavyweight in the study and modern origins of Hypnotherapy, with academic research and serious books to his credit.
An American named Milton Erickson is often described as one of the founders of
modern hypnotherapy in the 20th century. He became a professional psychologist
as an adult, after becoming fascinated by, and making close observations of his
large family's behaviour when bed-bound as a teenager with polio. His empathy
with clients was renowned, and he had a gift of seeing where their problems
really stemmed from, often not from where they thought, and then finding effective and original solutions.
Do feel welcome to contact me for any queries about your particular issue, or for an appointment, on 01502-715945 or 07900.933585 and I trust you will allow me to enable you to change your life for the better.
Jessica Hothersall BSc Pyschology, HPD, CBT & NLP certificates, Meridian Therapies
© Copywright Jessica Hothersall 2023