Hypnotherapy for Erectile Dysfunction

October 23, 2009

Sexual problems, both male and female, are becoming more and more common for me, as a hypnotherapist, to treat. Therefore, I felt it was time to post up one of my case studies. I tend to keep my case studies fairly brief for a couple of reasons, one is that I don’t want to go into great detail about techniques used in case someone with a limited knowledge of hypnotherapy tries to use the information to treat clients in an area they are neither qualified, nor experienced in. Secondly, they make easier reading!

The erectile dysfunction case that I’m going to describe here is a fairly typical one. The client had three sessions, which is about average for me. He also had no physical reasons for the dysfunction.

This particular client found that he could gain an erection during foreplay but would be unable to maintain it long enough for intercourse. The problem started in his early 20′s, he was 30 years old when I treated him.

As with most people in this situation (including women with vaginismus), the problem had become progressively worse with time. As well as the embarrassment that most non-sufferers would imagine, he also felt that he let his partners down, wasted their time, worried they might think he didn’t find them attractive, worried about living up to their expectations.

He had some success using Viagra and often found that once he had intercourse successfully in a relationship, the problem would lessen but the anxiety and worries of it happening again would always be there. When he booked in at my Manchester hypnotherapy clinic, he had recently started a new relationship and was concerned this would become physical soon.

The first hypnotherapy session was aimed at combatting the problem from two angles. First of all, leaving the client with a post-hypnotic anchor that could be triggered consciously to reduce the anxiety. Secondly, to start work on the subconscious part of the problem, again predominantly regarding the anxiety.

At the second session, the client reported improvements in the anxiety and that he had oral sex with his partner but then the old nagging feeling kicked in but by then it was so late at night they were both tired anyway so she was not aware of the problem. The client also opened up more about the earliest instances of the problem. The hypnotherapy techniques used in this session were a combination of self-esteem techniques, along with age regression back to the earliest negative sexual experiences. His girlfriend was due to stay with him the following weekend and we agreed that he would contact me on the Monday.

This time the client reported that the old anxiety had disappeared completely. Without Viagra, he had intercourse twice per night over the weekend and said that it felt “completely natural” and that it no longer felt like a hurdle that he had to overcome in the realationship.

My client, did however, decide to have a third session “just to make sure the changes remain permanent”. This hypnosis session was designed not only to do this but also to boost his confidence that the change had been made and was permanent.

As with most of my case studies, I don’t post them up until at least twelve months after the client was treated. I don’t class the treatment of any problem or condition as having been successful until the client has been free of the problem for at least a year.

If you are reading this and have the same, or a similar, sexual problem then please be aware that drugs are not always necessary to solve it. Any suitably qualified, experienced and reputable hypnotherapist should be capable of achieving these results. There are also other complementary therapies that can help and of course, the information doesn’t end up on your medical record.

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Gastric Band Weight Loss Hypnosis

October 19, 2009

Gastric Band Hypnosis is probably one of the most talked about procedures in hypnotherapy at the moment. Elite Clinics in Spain have had a lot of press coverage here and abroad which is part of the reason for this but there are many hypnotherapists offering this type of treatment, myself included.

So, why do people use this treatment? First of all, unless you are able to get a NHS referral, the cost of the surgery is in the region of £7000 to £10,000. Second, why have surgery when there is another option?

The subconscious mind learns from imagined experiences in the same way that it learns from real events. Under hypnosis, and as long as the sessions are carried out properly, the subconscious mind believes the surgery has been carried out, and therefore the client/patient’s stomach capacity has been reduced. Consciously, the client knows that he or she has been sitting in a hypnotherapists consulting room during each session.

There are drawbacks with this type of treatment, usually when the therapist relies solely on this procedure. First of all, it isn’t suitable for everyone. If someone is eating small quantities of junkfood regularly throughout the day, then having a smaller appetite “per sitting” isn’t going to make much difference. Also, if the person is eating the wrong foods and not exercising, then just lowering the total volume of food may or may not make much difference to their weight and certainly won’t make a great deal of difference to their health.

Therefore, it’s important that the Gastric Band Hypnosis techniques are combined with other weight loss hypnotherapy techniques to ensure the whole of the problem is addressed. These techniques cover areas such as making healthy eating choices naturally, avoiding junk food, not eating for the wrong reasons such as comfort eating, boredom etc. In some cases it is necessary to address things the client was told about food and eating when they were a child, “you must clear your plate” being the most obvious of these.

When carried out in this way, the results of this process are often staggering. Imagine how easy it would be to lose weight if you no longer ate junk food, fatty foods etc but also didn’t miss them. Combine this with a smaller appetite and no longer feeling a need to eat large portions, or clear your plate, and you’re well on your way to losing weight. With added motivation for a reasonable level of exercise, the weight should not only be lost fairly easily and quickly but the body will be healthier and more toned.

Weight Loss Hypnotherapy in any form is a long-term solution. For some people, the weight really does just drop off. For others, the weight loss is more gradual but the important thing is that it is also permanent. By changing your perception of food, the cycle of punishment and reward that is often associated with weight loss diets shouldn’t happen and because you have changed the way you eat, rather than temporarily eaten low calorie foods, the weight shouldn’t come back either.

Oke Hypnotherapy offers Gastric Band Hypnosis and Weight Loss Hypnotherapy on a session by session basis as well as on a scheme basis. Although the clinics are in Manchester, Glossop and Sheffield, Oke Hypnotherapy has clients who travel from as far away as London, Brighton, Bristol, Birmingham, Stafford, Glasgow and Liverpool.

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Case Studies

March 2, 2009

I will be adding case studies to this section as often as possible, using the studies to build up a greater awareness of the range of conditions that can be treated with hypnotherapy. Initially I will be focussing on the more interesting or exceptional cases. I will keep these as brief and to the point as possible for ease of reading. Obviously, personal information is removed or changed to protect client privacy.

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Smoking Cessation

February 15, 2009

I’ve been asked a few times why, in the various mediums I have published case studies, I have never posted or published smoking cessation or weight loss case studies. The short answer is that these two treatments are extremely common and are usually among the easiest sessions a hypnotherapist is likely to come across. However, a few people have asked so I’ve selected case studies in these areas that might be more interesting or more difficult than average and will be among the case studies that I am adding over the coming week.

I selected this case for the smoking cessation study as it was a group session consisting of an age range from 24-74. Within this range are different habit patterns, different reasons to quit etc, making the session far more difficult than treating each case individually.

A basic profile of the five clients (a family) and their tobacco habit:

The two youngest in the group were a young couple aged 24 and 27, the next two were the lady’s parents and then 5th was her 74 year old grandmother. As with the majority of smokers, all five reported that stress was the major trigger for smoking and the most difficult time to go without.

Male aged 24: Smoked 20 per day and started at age 11. Didn’t smoke in his home, had to have a cigarette first thing in the morning or he would be grumpy. Longest previous quit time was three days and described it as “hell” and felt a constant tension in his jaw.

Female aged 27: Smoked 10-15 menthol cigarettes per day, started at age 17. Didn’t smoke in her home, would go without a cigarette often until mid morning. Smokes more when overweight and said that she smoked partially to keep her weight down. Disliked the taste of cigarettes and as well as smoking menthol, always had to have some kind of drink with a cigarette. Longest previous quit time was two days, started again as she found that she had replaced smoking with alcohol.

Female aged 44: Smoked 20 “Superkings” per day, started at age 11. Very grumpy until she had her first cigarette in the morning and would smoke in her kitchen at home and found that driving was a time when she would smoke a lot. Longest previous quit time was 10 years with hypnotherapy, unfortunately the other hypnotherapist obviously hadn’t done his job properly as she reported being “angry for the whole ten years” until starting again.

Male aged 57: Originally smoked 80 per day but after having a stroke, had reduced it to 20-30 per day as a mixture of cigarettes and rolling tobacco. He started at age 10 and when he was growing up, everyone he knew smoked. He would smoke four cigarettes in the first hour of waking up and had previously smoked up to 40 cigarettes in a single three hour car journey. Longest previous quit time was 3 years but started again through stress.

Female aged 74: Smoked 10 low tar cigarettes per day having gradually cut down over the previous six months (from 20 per day). Started at age 11/12. 1st cigarette of the day was not until after she had walked her dogs, she only smoked indoors. Smoked heavily while watching TV in the evening and always with a cup of tea or coffee. Longest previous quit time was a few months but started again after witnessing an air accident.

So, as you can see, a mixture of ages as well as a mixture of success with previous quit attempts. The father (male 57) was quite difficult to work with due to his previous stroke and I felt that he was likely to need a further session on his own. I heard from the family several months later. The young couple had given up easily, the mother had given up but this time without the anger, the grandmother had also given up easily. The father was the only one who did not give up, I offered the further session (free of charge, see my website for details) but his wife informed me that they didn’t really expect him to in the first place and that he had cut down considerably and not to worry.

The session, including consultation, lasted just two hours the same as an individual session. As well as the obvious health benefits, the four who gave up completely have so far saved over £9,000 between them and to my knowledge have remained quit (I have treated other family members since then who confirmed this).

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Compulsive Spending

February 15, 2009

Although I have titled this case study “compulsive spending”, a further part of the problem was a compulsion to apply for more credit cards.

When I was first approached regarding this case, it was the client’s wife who contacted me, completely at the end of her tether with her husband’s spending problem. At this point in time, the client was renting a flat and living separately from his wife and children as a result of the problems. Their marriage was hanging by a thread and it was basically the last attempt at fixing this problem.

A brief summary of the first appointment/initial consultation:

The client had existing credit card debts of a little over £1800. This may not sound like much but as far as he and his wife were concerned, it was the start of the next wave. The previous wave of credit card debt had reached nearly £30,000 until family members bailed him out. In total, he had been bailed out to a total of over £50,000. Much of this was card interest and there was very little to show for any of the money. The only large purchases were holidays, the rest of the spending was a total of multiple small amounts and cash withdrawals. The problems could be broken down into a few parts.

1) Impulse purchases when bored. By this I mean buying unrequired items of clothing because he was in town and bored, buying gifts such as expensive perfume for his wife, for the sake of spending rather than for any romantic reason (and to help his conscience).

2) Withdrawing cash by credit or debit card for no other reason than an impulse to do so if he wasn’t carrying much cash. In this instance, he would withdraw £50  or so and then because he has cash, spend some or all of it. It was as though he had a compulsion to spend cash if he had it as well as the compulsion to be carrying cash!

3) The old trap that so many people fall into – yes, those lovely 0% balance transfer offers that drop through the letterbox! Using a card to pay off a card balance and then continuing to use the old one whilst only making minimum payments on the other cards. Of course making minimum payments on time on multiple debts actually enhances your credit rating and brings the offer of more cards, loans etc.

Points 1) and 2) were always worse when stressed or anxious.

During this first session, I treated the problem as a compulsive habit using a combination of hypnotherapy and NLP techniques. Although I was concerned about the stress/anxiety factors, with a problem like this I felt the first thing to do was to put the brakes on the spending and then deal with the underlying problem. By treating in this order, it would save the client money and probably his marriage as it would leave a noticeable change in his behaviour.

Session 2:

On his return (two weeks later), the client reported that he had been more relaxed in general and had only been buying items that were genuinely needed. His wife was impressed with the change and they had put their house on the market to move closer to family members. However, he was still living in the rented flat and his wife still had trust issues. After years of his compulsive spending, the trust wasn’t going to be coming back after just one session and understandably so.

During this session, we worked on removing/controlling the underlying stress and anxiety factors as well as focussing on the long term future.

Session 3:

There was a one month gap between sessions two and three. The client reported that his spending was now down to “the bare minimum” and that he had actually been putting money away towards the new house. He was also spending more time with his wife and children and had transferred to a different job within his company. To quote some of the content of this update “everything is going the way it should have been ten years ago” and instead of thinking “I can afford it” the inner voice had changed to “I don’t need that right now”. He needed new shirts for his job and instead of going round the town and coming back with a dozen designer shirts as he would have done previously, he bought half a dozen from Asda for a fraction of the price.

It was obvious from here this should be the last session. The session focussed on keeping the changes permanently and upon the client becoming more and more enthused by his successes. In addition to this, the new “inner voice” that had changed to question whether an item was needed rather than affordable was further reinforced.

The result………… this is the email received four months later (edited to remove personal details):

Just a quick email to say “thanks very much for your with with your therapy”, it has helped me no end. My wife and I have just come back from a holiday in Gran Canaria. We are moving home shortly after the New Year as we have bought a new property in our home town, needs a lot of work doing to it but we can’t wait to get stuck in.

Thanks again.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Fun filled Prosperous New Year.

Total cost of hypnotherapy £180.00, total financial saving £????? – another £50,000? A saved marriage…….. PRICELESS!

Oke Hypnotherapy – Manchester, Glossop & Sheffield

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Borderline Personality Disorder and Hypnotherapy

January 23, 2009

Borderline Personality Disorder is a mental illness that affects a person’s behaviour. BPD is considered by medical practitioners to be a severe psychiatric disorder. It is recognised as such by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV).

The term “Borderline” was first coined by Adolph Stern in 1938. This name was used to describe patients who were on a ‘borderline’ between neurosis and psychosis. However, the symptoms of BPD are not so simplistic as to be defined in terms of neurotic and psychotic. The diagnosis of BPD is based upon signs of emotional instability, feelings of depression and emptiness, identity and behavioural issues rather than signs of neurosis and psychosis.

The latest version of the DSM defines Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) as: “a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self image and affects, as well as marked impulsivity, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts.” According to the DSM, diagnosis of BPD requires five or more out of nine criteria to be present.

The criteria are

  1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment
  2. A pattern of unstable and intense intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealisation and devaluation.
  3. Identity Disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image.
  4. Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g substance abuse, sexual promiscuity, reckless driving, binge eating).
  5. Recurrent suicidal behaviour, gestures, threats, or self-mutilating behaviour such as cutting, interfering with the healing of scars (excoriation) or picking at oneself.
  6. Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood.
  7. Chronic feelings of emptiness, worthlessness.
  8. Inappropriate anger or difficulty controlling anger.
  9. Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation, delusions or severe dissociative symptoms.

If you search the internet for Borderline Personality Disorder websites, you will find that most sites focus on describing the kind of support one should offer a friend or relative with this disorder, how the world around a person feels to someone with BPD etc. There is very little information on treatments, most sites suggesting Cognitive Behaviour Therapy or Counselling.

In 2007, I was presented (as a hypnotherapist) with a client who had been diagnosed with BPD at the age of fourteen years, some twenty years earlier. Prior to this, I had never come across this disorder either personally or professionally so when asked “can hypnotherapy help with BPD”, I had to admit to needing to carry out some research into the disorder and then get back to her.

On reading up on the disorder and in particular seeing the criterion (above) used to diagnose it, I was amazed that as far as I could find, there is nothing published on the use of hypnosis with BPD sufferers. The reason for this amazement was quite simply that each criterion, individually, can be treated with hypnotherapy.

The assumption from this being that by starting with a “tick list” of each criterion present and working through each of them, one by one, would surely yield positive results?

The lady in question lived a fairly long way from my hypnotherapy practice so I actually treated her in two hour sessions to help keep down her travelling time and costs. She ticked seven of the nine criterion and we graded them from “present” to “overwhelming” and embarked upon treating each of them.

Now, this all sounds so incredibly simple, and I’m sure that any hypnotherapist reading this and looking at the above list is probably thinking “this is pretty easy, surely a disorder that has been identified for so long and has so little known about it can’t be this simple to treat”. It is also worth mentioning at this point that the lady in question had seen psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors, attended group therapy programmes, you name it, she had tried it – for twenty years with little or no success!

The sad thing is that, in this instance at least, it really was this simple. I spent a total of fourteen hours with the lady in question, seeing positive change after every session (double session). At the end of the seven weeks, this is what she had to say:

“I’d lived with an illness for over twenty years when I went to see Gary. After some tailored sessions, and a different CD to take home each time, I now experience life in a way neither I, nor the doctors thought was possible. I can only compare the result of what he did to being like stepping out of a cage for the first time in twenty years”.

Since then, she has moved home, found work and the last time I spoke to her (a few months ago) had become involved in a new relationship and was considering living overseas.

I refer to this as a sad thing because, if indeed the treatment can be this simple (unfortunately without treating another ninety nine or so BPD patients or at least tracking down this number of case studies, it is, as yet, far from proven), then it really is an outrage that so few medical professionals in the UK refer patients for hypnotherapy. The journalist and author Robert Temple felt the same indignation at the mainstream medical profession’s closed-mindedness towards hypnosis when he wrote (on the subject of hypnosis for pain relief):

“Hypnosis has the wonderful advantage that when it can be used against pain, it carries no side effects. Unlike morphine, it does not cloud the mind. Terminal cancer patients are amongst the most urgent cases needing hypnosis. There is no need for the hypnotizable terminal cancer patient to be doped up and die in a haze of confusion……. With hypnosis, he or she can die in dignity with a clear head up to the last moments of life, free from agony and enjoying the company of loved ones. It is an outrage that this possibility has been denied to all but a fraction of those terminal cancer patients who have died in the past century or so”.

If you are reading this and have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, then please seek help from a hypnotherapist. If you are a hypnotherapist who has further case studies on the treatment of BPD with hypnosis then please contact me. Hopefully with enough case studies, the hypnotherapy profession can set foot along the road to being seen as a serious alternative to the inadequate treatments that are currently available for this disorder.

© Gary Oke, January 2009

Gary Oke is a hypnotherapist and life coach based in Manchester, Glossop and Sheffield (UK). He is a member of the British Institute of Hypnotherapy and the General Hypnotherapy Register. For further information, please visit http://www.okehypnotherapy.co.uk

Update: Due to the huge amount of interest my articles and case studies on Hypnotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder have created, I have now designed a cost effective alternative for treating Borderline Personality Disorder with Hypnotherapy. Please click here for more information.

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