The Transparent Hypnotist

Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Cyber Locations:
www.DentalHypnosis.Com
www.WhatFear.Com
www.DentalSedation.Info
www.BerkeleyClinic.com

1. Are you a full time hypnotist, part-time or hobbyist?

I’m a full time dentist who uses hypnosis as part of my daily work. I am currently the President of The British Society of Medical & Dental Hypnosis (Scotland).

2. Do you specialize in any type of hypnosis?

Dental Hypnosis.

3. Is there any type of hypnosis you do not do? Why?

Anything unrelated to dental problems. I am a dentist and as such I restrict my hypnosis to dentistry.

4. Do you use self-hypnosis regularly in your life? If so, how?

Yes – to stay relaxed and sometimes to get to sleep. In fact I recently used self hypnosis when staying overnight in hospital with my 18 month old son who has a respiratory virus. I was in a ward with 5 other babies (and parents). So you can imagine – there was a lot of crying and noise during the night. Obviously I needed to be tuned in to my own son so that I could attend to him if he was upset or thirsty etc – so I did some self hypnosis (taking all of 5 minutes!) and told myself to ignore all noises other than any made by my son. I had a great night’s sleep – and was woken by my son on four or five occasions when he wanted a drink. After each time – I was able to fall asleep again within a few minutes. Despite my work with hypnosis – I was still impressed that I was able to to block out the other babies loud cries, yet be able to waken when my son let out a whimper!

5. Describe your hypnosis office or work setting.

A dental surgery!

6. Describe a typical day in your life.

A typical work day involves working from nine-six. My work in dental phobia management involves using hypnosis, sedation, relaxation techniques and a lot of tlc. Many dentists will see 20-30 patients per day – I tend to see a maximum of 10. I do spend some time just doing hypnosis for gagging, bruxism, dental phobia, smoking etc- but the majority of my day is doing standard dental procedures, often with anxious patients.

7. Where did you get your training in hypnosis and are you certified?

I originally trained with the British Society of Medical & Dental Hypnosis. I have a Masters in Hypnosis Applied to Dentistry from University College London. I’m Accredited with BSCAH and BSMDHS and have the European Certificate of Hypnosis. I have attended countless conferences and courses on hypnosis.

8. Most fabulous hypnosis technique you use?

I especially like Dabney Ewin’s ‘COMPISS’ hypnoanalysis technique as it is excellent at identifying the cause of most problems (it is in his book – Ideomotor Signals for Rapid Hypnoanalysis: A How-to Manual ) – if you don’t know this technique yet- it is well worth buying the book for this alone!

I also like Pat McCarthy’s ‘Special Place of Bliss’ found in The Use of Hypnosis in Surgery and Anesthesiology: Psychological Preparation of the Surgical Patient – I use this with most of my hypnosis patients - it is a lovely technique and allows the patient to deal with any problem – you don’t even need to know what it is!

As a dentist- glove anesthesia and transfer is really useful and can be very dramatic. I have even been involved in cases whereby using GA combined with other hypnotic pain control techniques (eg ‘comfort dials’) patients have had teeth removed, internal sinus lifts, cysts removed and implants placed using no other traditional pharmacological pain relief! You can watch a clip of me doing this for a BBC documentary at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgu6vk3_ByE

9. Worse moment ever in a hypnosis setting that ended up being a valuable learning experience.

One of my very first hypnosis patient’s was in her special place (having a lovely picnic with her family) and began to get upset and cry during dental treatment. It turned out that she had an allergy to bees, and the noise of the ultrasonic scaler tip made her think that there were bees swarming around her picnic! Although I found out what was going on really quickly and we managed to create a ‘breeze’ to blow them far away into the distance – it made me more aware about how important it is to be fully aware of the patient history regarding allergies and other phobias. I always ask now that the patient tells me about anything - even if it seems irrelevant.

10. Any words of advice to potential clients or other hypnotists.

To any hypnotists who are members of a European Society of Hypnosis constituent society I’d say – make sure you come to the ESH conference in Glasgow in 2011. I am on the organizing committee and it is going to be a phenomenally good conference!

I would say to potential patients that as a dentist, I consider myself a person of science. I think many patients think that dentists or medics who use hypnosis are unusual in some way or are using strange unorthodox techniques. In actual fact the science is there. There have been many fantastic studies, especially in the last few years which use neuroimaging techniques to show what is happening inside the brain during hypnosis. It is exciting stuff and proves that hypnosis works. Hypnosis is a fantastic tool which can be used alongside traditional medicine. Hypnosis has changed my life and the lives of many of my patients. I use hypnotic techniques every day- especially in a non-formal way – eg in rapport building and increasing confidence etc. I think that hypnosis should be available to every medical and dental patient. It should certainly be taught to every dental and medical student and it should have a firm and well respected place in mainstream medicine. Hypnosis is not an alternative technique, it is very much a mainstream technique. (The theme of the 2011 conference is “Hypnosis in the Mainstream”).

I really believe that in the next couple of decades we will witness a vastly increased understanding and appreciation by the medical professions and the general public as to how important a role hypnosis has in modern medicine, especially as exciting new studies continue to confirm what many of us hypnotists have known for years – hypnosis really works!

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