I recently attended a course run by Donald Robertson of the UK College of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy, on Hypno-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy®.
It was I subject that I had little knowledge, having not worked to much degree in CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), (more to follow), it was a chance for me to educate myself, and learn from Donald Robertson, a person I have great respect, with his expert knowledge of hypnosis.
Donald did not fail me with his knowledge. He has research the field of hypnosis and it’s therapeutic powers for many years, and he can back-up his teaching with references to the greats of the hypnotic world, and even those before the name hypnosis was coined by James Braid around 1850. Names such as Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis, Hippolyte Bernheim and Ambroise Auguste Liébault of the Nacy School, Éva I. Bányai, Iving Kirsh, Dr Arnold Lazarus, Joseph Wolpe and Émile Coué, all slipped from his tongue.
CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), (more to follow), is said to be a “talking” treatment that helps many people with mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, and was developed out of Joseph Wolpe’s behaviour therapy in the 1950’s, combining Cognitive Therapy (CT) of Aaron Beck and Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) of Albert Ellis, and other psychotherapies treatments of that time.
As a treatment, CBT is being adopted into mainline medical interventions as it is reported to give good lasting results.
What Donald Robertson has achieved is to combine CBT with hypnotherapy creating the propriety model Hypno-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (HCBT)®, as he says the same way as hypno-analysis combines elements of psychoanalysis and hypnosis. But, HCBT is not just hypnotherapy plus CBT, it combines the proven, evidence based principles and methods into one model, as published by Iving Kirsh and others in 1996, which stated that between 70% – 90% increase in effectiveness could be achieved by integrating hypnosis with CBT.
The HCBT (Hypno-CBT)® model can be seen to be based on an ABC model.
The ABC model can be seen as A – Affect, B – Behaviour, and C – Cognition, where affect equals feelings, behaviour equals actions, movement, physical behaviours, and cognition equals how we talk to ourselves or inner dialog.
It is in the set-up or the initial interview between client and practitioner, that the ABC’s or in NLP terms modalities of both the “problem” and the “required solution” are sought.
Through the help of hypnosis and the use of relaxation, the ABC’s of the “problem” can be reduced and measured on a self-efficacy scale, – “on a scale 0-10 how do you feel about the situation now?” – using the positive ABC’s of the “required solution”.
Throughout the course, the similarities between CBT, HCBT (Hypno-CBT) and NLP were striking, although, NLP is often dismissed as a non accepted treatment, a quick fix, but when broken down into the basic elements, the structure were very similar, just different words and delivery methods.
A very worthwhile course to attend. Donald is a master. Contact him on