Hypnofacts 9

This book contains various articles for hypnotherapists covering practical issues such as working with clients with needle phobia, insomnia, and loneliness. There’s a section that looks at how successful online therapy can be. There are some thoughts about diet and depression, the positive and negative side of boredom, and the effects of kindness. And there are more theoretical issues around genetics, positive psychology, and ideomotor responses. Again, the articles assume a model of the brain in which core activities (such as telling the heart to beat) are handled by the brain stem; more protective functions (such as fighting, fleeing, feeding, and reproductive behaviour) are handled by the primitive emotional brain; and higher functions (such as problem solving, maintaining attention, and controlling emotional impulses from the primitive brain) are handled by the intellectual brain. In terms of physical parts of the brain, these three areas more-or-less match up to the brain stem and cerebellum, the limbic system, and the cerebral cortex. It also assumes that the primitive emotional brain is very fast and the intellectual brain is much slower and tends to be used less. In addition, the book assumes that the mind and body make up a single functioning system that is affected by each component and the environment they are in. And it assumes a solution-focused model for hypnotherapy – moving clients towards their desired goals rather than worrying about the problem itself and its origin.