I was pleased to find that Steve’s methods are very similar to the way that I work with weight loss clients, in particular his 80/20 plan, and we hit it off straight away as our opinions and techniques overlap greatly. Having stayed in touch, often discussing coaching and hypnotherapy techniques, particularly for weight loss and confidence clients, we decided it would be great to work together, combining our skills and experience as hypnotherapists and life coaches.

It’s my great pleasure to announce that Steve and I will be presenting “The Steve Miller Plan” at Oke Hypnotherapy Manchester on 8th October, 2011.

The day will run from 9:30am to 4:30 pm and will include:

The “80/20 Plan” of food control.
Learn self-hypnosis for weight loss.
How to stop comfort eating.
Exercising for pleasure, not pain!
How to keep the weight off!

Delegates will also receive a copy of the Steve Miller Weight Loss Manual – this is not available in the shops!

To book, please visit the Events page of my Manchester Hypnotherapy website.

The plan is to update the Facebook page daily (or as close as I can get to that). No, it won’t just be a pile of adverts! I intend posting up useful tips on weight loss, self-confidence, overcoming addictions and lots more. It will also be a faster way to keep people updated on seminars and workshops, although the full versions of such posts will appear on this blog and on my website.

The Oke Hypnotherapy and Life Coaching Facebook Page

With this in mind, I have now started up an “Open Clinic” on the last Friday of each month in Manchester city centre. This will give the public the opportunity to hear more about hypnotherapy, have questions answered, and experience a short relaxation session. The Open Clinic groups are limited to a maximum of five people at a time but if you are uncomfortable with group environments or wish to discuss a personal problem, then individual sessions can be accommodated.

If the Manchester Open Clinic proves popular then this service will also be offered in Sheffield in the near future.

For further information on the open clinics, or on hypnotherapy in Manchester, Glossop and Sheffield, please click here.

Chris Boyce of the University of Warwick and Alex Wood of the University of Manchester compared large data sets where 1000s of people had reported on their well-being. They then looked at how well-being changed due to therapy compared to getting sudden increases in income, such as through lottery wins or pay rises. They found that a 4 month course of psychological therapy had a large effect on well-being. They then showed that the increase in well-being from an £800 course of therapy was so large that it would take a pay rise of over £25,000 to achieve an equivalent increase in well-being. The research therefore demonstrates that psychological therapy could be 32 times more cost effective at making you happy than simply obtaining more money.

Governments pursue economic growth in the belief that it will raise the well-being of its citizens. However, the research suggests that more money only leads to tiny increases in happiness and is an inefficient way to increase the happiness of a population. This research suggests that if policy makers were concerned about improving well-being they would be better off increasing the access and availability of mental health care as opposed to increasing economic growth.

The new research paper, entitled “Money or Mental Health: The Cost of Alleviating Psychological Distress with Monetary Compensation versus Psychological Therapy” is published online this week at: Health Economics, Policy and Law

This research helps to highlight how relatively ineffective extra income is at raising well-being. The researchers further draw on two striking pieces of independent evidence to illustrate their point – over the last 50 years developed countries have not seen any increases to national happiness in spite of huge economic gains. Mental health on the other hand appears to be deteriorating worldwide. The researchers argue that resources should be directed towards the things that have the best chance of improving the health and happiness of our nations – investment in mental health care by increasing the access and availability of psychological therapy could be a more effective way of improving national well-being than the pursuit of income growth.

The research also has important implications for the way in which “pain and suffering” is compensated in courts of law. Currently the default way in which individuals are compensated is with financial compensation. The research suggests that this is an inefficient way at repairing psychological harm following traumatic life events and that a more effective remedy would be to offer psychological therapy.

University of Warwick researcher Chris Boyce said:

“We have shown that psychological therapy could be much more cost effective than financial compensation at alleviating psychological distress. This is not only important in courts of law, where huge financial awards are the default way in which pain and suffering are compensated, but has wider implications for public health and well-being.”

“Often the importance of money for improving our well-being and bringing greater happiness is vastly over-valued in our societies. The benefits of having good mental health, on the other hand, are often not fully appreciated and people do not realise the powerful effect that psychological therapy, such as non-directive counselling, can have on improving our well-being.”

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/therapy_32_times

Just a quick post to wish clients past and present a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oke Hypnotherapy is only closed over the statutory holidays this year due to an unusually busy Christmas period. However, reception cover on the main Oke Hypnotherapy and Life Coaching telephone number is closed from 2pm on 24th December until 4th January. I will be picking up messages remotely though and can be contacted on 07736 413174 as well.

The New Year is already shaping up to be a busy 2010, in particular with those wishing to join the Gastric Band Weight Loss scheme.

The bad news, is that due to increased overheads, hypnotherapy treatment and life coaching prices will be increasing in the New Year. However, for those who book January sessions before the end of December, 2009 prices will be guaranteed for the full course of sessions.

There are a few 2010 events and workshops already organised, in particular the New Year Resolutions workshop on 9th January will help people gain results at no cost! For further details on hypnotherapy and self-improvement workshops and events, please see the events category of this blog.

Also launching in 2010 is my new weight loss programme “Healthy Mind – Healthy Body” which makes hypnotherapy and NLP for weight loss fun and affordable.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Oke Hypnotherapy Manchester practice is moving!

If all goes to plan, then from 30th November Oke Hypnotherapy will be moving from Oldham Street in the Northern Quarter of Manchester to one of the city’s landmark buildings, The Triangle on Exchange Square.

I’m really excited about this move, it means that I have more flexibility especially for hypnotherapy training in Manchester and the regular seminars and workshops that I run, due to having fantastic meeting and training rooms on site, as well as being in a more prestigious part of the city.

The way the move has been planned, this should not affect my availability as the management at The Triangle have been very flexible. The transport links to the new location are fantastic, the metrolink and main bus station are only a few minutes away, Victoria train station is practically across the street and there are three car parks close by (two of which are only £3 to park all day!).

Having been based in the same building for several years, in fact since it was first redeveloped, this feels like a really big move but I’m looking forward to a new era in the Oke Hypnotherapy and Life Coaching practice and am confident that clients will prefer the new location.

New Oke Hypnotherapy Location