More happy customers

It's Friday afteroon and I have just opened my emails to find the following: "Dear Helen, I just wanted to say thank you. I am 39 and had been trying to conceive a second child for 2.5 years, including 1 failed iui and 1 failed ivf and was at the point of throwing in the towel when I read about your ivf belief cd. Over the years I have tried everything (reflexology, acupuncture, yoga) but nothing seemed to help. I bought your cd and decided to give it one last chance and I can honestly say that it transformed my ivf experience. This time I remained calm, kept occupied with other things and stayed off the fertility forums which I found hugely stressful yet addictive. It has been a much more successful cycle resulting in 5 5-day blastocysts and I am delighted to say that I finally tested positive. I cannot recommend the ivf belief cd enough. Thank you." How lovely to have "transformed" someone's experience into something positive. I feel really humble.

All Change - and a big change!

So much to update you on. So first, the CD referred to in the last post is now recorded and I am very proud of it too. It is about to go into production and is an absolute stormer, not only for the quality but the content is knockout and will be outstandingly good value too. It's working title is "Happy Birth Day" so far. Biggest news is that I have now finished at my school in Warwickshire and also stopped giving one to one hypnotherapy sessions in Northants and Warwickshire. I am moving house to the other end of the country and embarking on another chapter of life. I will continue to produce my CDs though and the range will slowly expand. I'll keep the blog updated :0)

Work work work

I am being a "self-starter" today, as on many other days. I am busy creating another CD for publication. Originally I thought I'd just rattle it off and get myself into the studio but it's proving more complex than I thought. Much thinking time required as the languauge has to be spot on let alone deciding exactly what content to use, in what order, how to structure it AND what to leave out.

This one is all about hypnosis for childbirth. It is incredibly powerful, helpful, useful and something that most mothers would benefit from. I have GOT to get it right!

Hypnobirthing - Hypnosis for Birth

I recently took a couple through the whole hypnosis training for childbirth. They were a delightful couple and the baby should be making an appearance in the world very soon.

What shocked me was that they had to travel from London to Northamptonshire to find a class! The birth classes in London were booked up for 4 months ahead.

There is an easy solution to that! Either get on an intercity and come to the peaceful Northamptonshire countryside, or if your feet are stuck in the city - many Londoners' are! - then I will come to north London to run a class for you. I have a room in West Hampstead which is perfect for the job. Just 3 Saturday mornings is all we need for me to teach you how to use your own abilities to manage pain, manage labour, birth your baby calmly and comfortably and really have a great birth experience.

Sounds simple? It IS!!!

Hypnosis Lowers Blood Pressure and Assists Surgery Success

Yet another reminder of how hypnosis helps with surgery AND with lowering blood pressure, but very close to home this time.

My husband had major abdominal surgery in November last year and unfortunately had to have the same operation again a week ago. Knowing how poorly he had been and how hard the recovery was, this time he decided to invest some time in preparing himself for the surgery, something he had not done last time.

The first challenge was to get through the pre-op assessment. He was sent home from it after his blood pressure was found to be too high, rendering him unsuitable for surgery! He spent the weekend trying to lower it to no avail. Admitting defeat, he lay back in my chair as I spoke to him for 14 minutes. His blood pressure reduced by 20 points systolic and over 20 points diastolic. This reading prevailed, meaning that he WAS able to go for his operation.

We also did some pre-op hypnosis, getting his body and mind into the right shape for recovery, no bleeding, increased comfort post-op etc. He came out of the surgery in far better shape than the previous operation, with considerably reduced pain. Everything has been far easier for him than the last time and he was able to return home quickly. One major improvement has been his ability to eat, which has also progressed a lot quicker than last time. He is up and about, feeling a lot better than he was expecting and able to eat more solid food, which is aiding his recovery.

I have the same hypnotherapy sessions on CD that I used for my husband - lowering blood pressure and pre- and post- op. Contact me if you'd like them via my website http://www.northamptonhypnosis.co.uk

Hypnosis helps surgery

One of the oldest uses of hypnosis is for the preparation of patients prior to and during surgery. James Esdaille, working in Calcutta in the mid 19th century used hypnosis where he had no anaesthetics to remarkable good effect. Patients had less bleeding, less post-surgery complications, better managed blood pressure and recovered more quickly.

This is from an email I received this week:

"The hypnotherapy sessions I had with you really helped me to deal with the whole process of being in hospital and having the operation. I saved the recordings on to my MP3 player and listened to them a couple of times in the week before being admitted and played them in hospital too. I found them deeply relaxing and comforting. Apart from being nervous on the morning of the op I was generally quite calm and accepting that I was in good hands. After the operation I had no further bleeding, the swelling and bruising have largely gone and I have been able to manage any pain with normal pain killers."

This lady received just 2 sessions with me and we recorded both sessions to CD for her to take away. The operation went even better than was expected and she is making a fabulous recovery.

Things you didn't know!

IVF CD is available on Amazon

It is now there on Amazon, available for free delivery too. If you are going through IVF treatment, this CD is really going to make a difference, helping to keep you grounded and sane throughout what is often called a roller-coaster of a ride.

Here's a link to the product info:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004LYN2VU

Well worth an very small investment given the thousands that IVF treatment costs, not to mention the emotional cost of going through it. Why not give yourselves the absolute best chance of success.

"Police hire Hypnotist"

As reported yesterday in the Evening Standard, the Metropolitan Police is in talks with a "hypnotist" that they hope to hire to tackle obesity levels amongst police officers. It is reported that 5% of Scotland Yard police officers are overweight, which equates to nearly 2000 individuals.

The "hypnotist" in question is a man called Trevor Silvester who is a retired police officer himself. It is reported that he charges £200 per hour.

Well its worthwhile feeling thankful today then if you live in the Midlands - Northamptonshire, Warwickshire,Leicestershire, North Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire - because you can find hypnotherapy to lose weight at a quarter of the price of a London hypnotist! Thank heaven. My prices are nowhere near that sort of level and you don't have to go to London either. I have offices in Northampton, Daventry and Rugby, where you can come and see me to lose weight with hypnosis, EFT and any other therapies that I feel will benefit you, and all at a fraction of the cost of a trip to London.

I don't take pop star wages, so I won't charge you celebrity prices either!

Lose weight in Northampton

One of my weight loss clients in Northampton once grumbled to me at her first appointment that her weight problem was hopeless and that she needed Paul McKenna. Well, I took this as a bit of an insult if truth be told! I did however calmly tell her that she certainly did not need Paul McKenna as she had me sitting right with her and charging her far less than a celebrity hypnotist!

If you want to ditch the excess pounds and you live near Northampton, Daventry or Rugby, then you can use hypnotherapy to lose weight. It's far easier, simpler and more effective than you ever knew. Phone me at my practice at any time - Helen McPherson Hypnotherapy 07771 822602

Hypnotherapy in Rugby is where it's at

And finally I am about to start working in Rugby. It's been a while in coming but had been on the cards for some time. I will be working with therapist George Houguez at Trance4mation http://www.trance4mation.co.uk

George is an experienced hypnotherapist and instructor at the London College of Clinical Hypnosis. He has been in Rugby for some years and has an abundance of experience. Between the two of us, you'd be unlucky to find an issue that we haven't come across and treated successfully. There will also be a greater range of appointment times because if one of us is not available at times to suit you, then it's likely that the other one will be. So if you're needing or wanting hypnotherapy in Rugby, call us.

There is also a super group room that will be perfect for birth hypnosis group sessions. Hypnobirthing coming to Rugby too!

Hypnosis is better pain relief for birth than pethidine

I always felt this instinctively but now there is some research to back it up

If you click on "research to back it up" above, you will open the web article about the research. Here is the link in full: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20101010/Bathing-better-than-pethidine-as-pain-relief-during-labor-Survey.aspx

Hypnosis for birth, or "hypnobirth" classes are run at my clinic in Northampton. Click on my website for full details and look on the blog for the next course dates

Hypnosis CDs

My range of hypnosis CDs is coming along very nicely. The first one, The Bump CD, is available on Amazon and on my own website. That one is used to aid relaxation in pregnancy, bonding with your baby, helping you to have a confident pregnancy and start to promote feelings of confidence for the birth. It is selling really well on Amazon already. So well in fact that I may have to do another production run soon.

I was in the studio last week, recording the next in the Belief Bump Baby series. This next one is all about support to IVF treatment. I was really pleased with the way that recording session went. The tracks are perfect and the sound quality is fantastic. When you add Nick Willis's beautiful music to the background, you end up with a very high quality product indeed.

It won't be available until after Christmas but watch this space - Helen McPherson Hypnotherapy CDs are going to be very popular!

New openings

Yes, HQ has a lot going on. I heard this week that I have been accepted as a Faculty member of the Institute of Clinical Hypnosis (ICH). I will be running a course next year instructing other therapists in hypnotherapy for fertility.

It's a huge and growing market, rater sadly. 1 in 6 couples in UK has trouble conceiving and 1 in 10 couples has fertility treatment. There are thousands of IVF treatments carried out in UK every year and 1.5% of babies are born as a result of IVF conceptions.

Hypnotherapy has a huge part to play in helping people overcome psychological barriers to conception and also to provide positive emotional support whilst a couple is goingthrough IVF. Even if the therapy does not result in a pregnancy, the benefit of hypnotherapy during the treatment is to help a couple cope far more easily with its stresses and strains.

So, not only am I going through surgery myself, developing courses and marketing material for hypnotherapists, I am also putting the final touches to my next commercial CD. The one for pregnancy relaxation is already available on Amazon and should be joined by the IVF Companion prior to Christmas. How can I ever fit my clients in?!

Busy time but resting!

All sorts going on at HQ HMcH. That's Headquarters Helen McPherson Hypnotherapy if you need it in full :-)

I am half enjoying an enforced rest period as I recover from a little operation on my knee. The anaesthetist was very interested in how hypnosis can be used for pain relief and for anaesthetics. I will admit that I went for the chemical versions this time! Actually I almost always do; it is hard to provide the necessary pain relief on your own, you normally need a therapist with you and have had plenty of practise.

Self-hypnosis does come into its own during dental work and other minor medical procedures. I usually drop myself into a trance and float off for a while. I believe I have fallen asleep during a root canal treatment. I should have warned the dentist on that occasion however - he suddenly got all worried about me.

Radio Gaga

Well my heavens, what a busy week I am having. Not only have I finished my tax return report for my accountant way ahead of Christmas, let alone ahead of January, AND achieved one of my stated goals for the year... Phew! Sorry I am going to have to draw breath here.....

I was so proud of the tax return. It hangs over me from before its even the beginning of the new tax year! During my goal setting exercise in January, I stated that I wanted to submit my information by the end of May. Well I did in fact achieve most of it by then but then I left the remainder, and left it and left it. Until Now! What a massive relief.

And what else? Well... this afternoon I have had my Pregnancy CD accepted by a local retailer, which I am totally chuffed about. If you are in the know, it is Pink & Blue Baby World online and in Daventry, Northants.

And... I was on local radio today, talking about hypnosis for fertility. It started with an interview with the Chair of the Gamete Donation Trust as she has come out today saying that sperm donors should be paid more than women who donate their eggs. I was then asked to comment on her position. I did of course remain neutral but was able to plug my business a little. Thinking about it now in the cold light of day I don't think men should be paid more. It is less risky to them and despite the fact that this LauraVitjens thinks it takes 30 visits to a fertility clinic to donate sperm, actually it doesn't take anywhere near that many visits. And there are no risks to a man's health from doing it either.

So there you go, I am "off the fence"

And don't think that feritility issues affect "other people" either. It is a growing and silent epidemic. 1 in 6 couples has difficulty in conceiving and 1 in 10 couples has treatment for it. Everyone knows someone that has had IVF treatment or other fertility treatments, even if you think you don't.

Hypnotherapy or not?

Prospective clients who are enquiring about hypnotherapy sometimes need to be educated. Followeres and readers of this blog and my Facebook page may sometimes be amazed at what we can achieve to help our clients live happier lives. And it feels great for me too, let's be honest!

But we are not ubiquitous miracle workers and it is good to remember this sometimes. I had an enquiry this week from a lady looking for help for her daughter who was in a hospital psychiatric ward, possibly suffering from borderline personality disorder and was apparently "emotionally unstable" as described by mental health nurses. Hypnotherapists are not often trained to deal with psychiatric diseases/pathology and I gently explained this to the enquirer.

I don't like turning people away but occasionally I have to. Possibly I could have helped the young lady in question but there is a big risk involved. We have to remember our code of ethics and not take on cases that we are not qualified to deal with.

What upset me about the incident was that the lady was desperately disappointed. That was to be expected but I was shocked that she said I was the first person she had contacted who said they couldn't help. She had spoken to some NLP practitioners who had told her that her daughter needed NLP. This course of action is dangerous. NLP and hypnotherapy are not cure-alls and practitioners must remember this. Yes we are all in business to make a buck but not at the expense of vulnerable clients and their parents.

I am an empathetic and understanding person. I really hope this lady can find some appropriate help for her daughter. I also hope it is not with unscrupulous and unethical practitioners.

Belief, Bump, Baby - More tiny feet!

No, not for me!

Another client is pregnant! I sent her a pre-conception hypnosis CD to use prior to starting her IVF treatment cycle and wouldn't you know it, 5 weeks later she is pregnant.

I am finding it hard to keep my feet on the ground - jumping in the air with joy for these couples is the best! I feel so happy it's like I am celebrating my own good news. (Quite apart from the fact that these couples have saved thousands of pounds that would have been spent on IVF treatments)

"Belief Bump Baby" is how I describe my services for fertility, pregnancy and birth - and beyond. Not only hypnosis, I start at the very beginning with fertility counselling. If you don't know whether to see a doctor, if you think you might be too old, if you don't know how to access fertility treatment, how to pay for it, where to go, I can help.

If you don't know how to interpret test results, can't decide which treatments to have, I can help. Do you need lifstyle and nutrition advice? Just ask.

If you are grieving over past losses, if you are holding onto fear of pregnancy or birth there are a myriad of techniques I can use to help you overcome the past and reach the state of parenthood that you want.

No one can promise you a pregnancy but we can help to make it a reality for you.

And then I am uniquely able to help through pregnancy and birth, teaching you techniques to enhance confidence, baby-bonding and have a happy and comfortable birth experience.

It is probably the best part of my job. Helping somene to quit smoking feels good but the work I do with fertility and pregnancy clients has to top it for feel-good factor.

The Patter of Tiny Feet

I have been so excited and busy with moving to Willow Tree that I have forgotten to post some very exciting news.

Not for me, but a client with "unexplained infertility" is now pregnant! After just 5 sessions, she conceived around the time of the 6th session, with no extra help from the fertility clinic. And this from a standing start of her and her husband being extremely depressed and upset and grieving when they first came to see me.

I feel so proud and privileged to have helped this fantastic couple. A very happy 9 months is what I now wish for them

*Beaming* :O)

Surfing the wave

I have written this on my Facebook page but my head is BUZZING with ideas since my detox. I feel I'm on fire with things to do. Completely enthused about what I do and how to reach out to more people.

My re-branding has started, which is very exciting. My wonderful marketing helpers Archie, Louise and Simon at create-a-brand have done some amazing design for me. You can see it on my Facebook page, it hasn't migrated to the blog or the website yet.

I have also launched "Belief. Bump. Baby" which is a totally new service dedicated to family creation from pre-conception through to parenthood. "Belief.Bump.Baby" is going to take off and it's almost a case of reining it in! There is so much to be achieved in this area - pre-conception counselling, fertility counselling and advice, support to IVF and assisted conception treatment, emotional support through pregnancy and pregnancy loss, and the courses in "hypnobirthing", a practice that is gathering pace thank heaven.

I am so excited by what I am doing right now. Charles gave me a fantastic phrase - "Surfing the wave." I love it and I'm surfing!

What a lovely job

I have had such a good day today. So good that I feel the need to tell everyone about it.

My first client today has made huge leaps and bounds in an incredibly short time. I just loved seeing her so happy and positive again.

My next client was someone who had booked in late for a single issue in a single session. What a wonderfully lovely man! One of the perks of my job is meeting so many interesting and truly "nice" people. This man however was truly something special. He works at a job at the moment but is looking to find a different path in life that reflects his true personaility. He is NLP and EFT trained and I feel sure that he would make a sensitive, nurturing and successful therapist. The work we carried out, although brief was good and effective and my client phoned me later to tell me all about his successful afternoon.

There's a lesson to us all here - sometimes we have to make a leap of faith. And sometimes we have to be employed to fund what we really enjoy in life whatever it is. And if we remain open to opportunity and instinct then we can also sometimes be fortunate enough to do what we love in return for money.

My last client of the day is proper special. He is autistic and I have blogged about him before. He has also made such enormous strides and I felt so proud of him today for the progress he had made.

And, and, and... one of my clients phoned me this weekend and everything in her life is sounding VERY promising too.

I fitted in more today, but I just had to write these parts of it down. It has been an extra special day in many ways. What's that word? Ah yes - gratitude.