So it's almost a year on since graduating my MA in psychotherapy at the University of Roehampton. I'm starting at London's Priory Hospital Roehampton in a week or so. The biggest news is after attending a course in using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in a very specific way, weaving this and hypnosis through an addiction treatment programme seems to be proving very effective.
Since last August Ive worked with 1 gambling addict, 2 alcoholics, 1 cocaine addict and a meth addict. I've just discharged the the X-Gambler and the X- cocaine addict after treatment of about 12 weeks (plus follow ups). Obviously there are further follow up's and this is a tiny sample group, however the others (who begun later than the previously mentioned) all seem to be doing pretty well.
The cognitive-behavioural aspect is well documented, in addition most addictions have an element of emotional regulation dyfunction. I'm finding that structured daily self hypnosis as an audio, later adding mindfulness/and or some positive emotional anchors (pinched from NLP) seems to really nail the emotional regulation issues early on. One client called it his virtual Valium....he could access it when ever he needed, no special enviroment, no complex side effects, no accumulative resistance to the treatment.
Seeing Themselves After They have Recovered
Some of the clients who have really become adept at the self hypnosis have also taken to 'flashing' images, soundbites of themselves at the end of treatment, one clienet said to me ' I'm really starting to believe I can stop, I really thought that was out of my control'. This future orientation is standard practice for the individual work I do in the therapy room, I'm now finding adding this to a clients daily 'practice' begins to create a sense of strength and self control.