SILENT VOICES

First of all I’d like to say that I’m honoured to be able to write about myself for Silent Voices, and to give the readers an insight into Hypnotherapy and how it all started for me.

My name is Paul Alland, I’m 39 years old and live in Portsmouth, For as far back as I can remember I’ve always had an interest in the paranormal and spirituality. I’ve attended several development groups and have also studied Reiki. I like to speak to like minded people and feel relaxed in this environment.

In 2008 I decided to go back to college and study Psychology, I’ve always had a massive interest in how people interact and body language, I guess you could label me as a people watcher ( not in a stalker kind of way.) I like to watch interaction and I always try to sum up how someone’s mood is or their feelings towards the person their talking too, I believe you can learn a lot from people watching. Next time your out, sit and watch how humans interact, especially those that haven’t seen each other for a while. Were like a colony of ants going about our business.

During my Psychology course we covered a little bit on Hypnosis and how our brain slows down and how the power of suggestion works, I was hooked it was like being 9 year old kid and left in the sweet shop by myself. I had to discover more about Hypnosis, I’ve always liked seeing it on TV but never thought I’d become fascinated by it. I decided to look into training for Hypnotherapy, as you can imagine lots of companies came up on my Google search. I had to make the rite decision as this was going to be my step into a new career. I wanted to ensure that I chose the rite company that had a good reputation proper support and enabled me to get insurance within my work.

I found The British Academy of Hypnosis, I contacted the owner and spoke to him in great length I had so many questions I wanted to ask to make sure I made the rite choice. After my interrogation and speaking to other companies I decided that this was going to be the rite one for me.

I received all the relevant information and documents and started my home study part of the course; this was very interesting and went into a lot of detail. I continued this for a few months and then had to go for hands on training; this involved a very long drive to Northallerton in North Yorkshire. Before undertaking the practical weekend I was sent a test and had to answer questions about what I had learnt throughout my theory training this was very interesting and made me think about my training over the previous months and why I chose this new path. I booked myself into the hotel and wondered what laid ahead over the coming weekend. I was led to believe it would be very intense but also quite informal. I’d only had dealings with David Knight over the phone, so to meet face to face was not only exciting but kept me wondering about how much this guy had seen and done within the Hypnosis work that he had carried out. That Friday night I had my head in my books going through everything I knew and reading it again and again to myself. The Saturday morning arrived and after a wonderful nights sleep and a filling cooked breakfast I went to the training room of the hotel, outside I met some other nervous but interesting and nice people.

A member of staff came and let us all in, hurriedly we all went into the room and looked and found a seat suitable for ourselves, in that kind of way where people walk into a room and instantly know where they want to sit and neither hell nor high water will stop them from having that one seat they so desire. I guess as creatures of habit humans tend to do this for self preservation or some sort of control on a deeper level.

I tend to be someone that doesn’t mind where I sit but I do like to have a good view of the person taking the class so I can see how they interact with others within the group, I guess it’s that people watcher within me and that desire to try and suss out someone’s body language.

After being seated for about 10 minutes or so David Knight appears and walks in the room with such a pleasant aura and positivity about him, this immediately puts everyone at ease as he walks in with a huge smile on his face says hello to everyone and just bursts out laughing, straight away I thought to myself “ I like this guy, he comes across friendly welcoming and professional” so with an internal nod of satisfaction and smugness to myself I thought I have defiantly chosen the rite company to get qualified with.

David looked like a Hypnotist he had a nice suit on and a waist coat with these gleaming cuff links and made you feel like he was a Hypnotist, I like this and have taken this on board. The weekend was fun and I learnt so much from it, and as it came to an end we all swapped numbers and E-mail address as you do at these type of things, and parted to all go and start our individual career paths. I’ve been back to David for so much more training since and have increased my portfolio to cover Quantum Pain Therapy, Gastric Mind Band Hypnotherapy and Stage Hypnosis.

To this day I still love what I do and get so much satisfaction when a client phones me up at a later date and says “Paul, I’ve stopped smoking for good” or “I’ve lost so much weight.” This is my favourite part of my job and gives me such a big smile to know I’ve helped guide that person to change their life pattern within their life.

Hypnotherapy has not only changed my life, but it has given me the tools to help others change their life too. If I only helped one person achieve something in their life I’d be grateful but to help a number of people is a privilege and something that I love to do from week to week.

If you would like to find out more about Hypnotherapy and whether or not it can help you, please feel free to go to my website www.hypnotherapy4life.co.uk