I ran another online workshop today for the wonderful Multiverse community. Multiverse is a great model for the modern world of learning from experience. I'm delighted to be supported them. ​www.multiverse.io/en-GB  

Today's workshop was all about Managing Stress in the Worksplace.

I also run sessions for them on Sleep and how to manage that and get the full benefits. Great stuff. I love talking with enthusiastic professional learners about these important topics. Thanks Multiverse for the opportunities.

Dear clients and friends of Newquay Hypnotherapy, 

Thank you for an awesome year. With client sessions, talks, networking events and workshops I’ve been lucky enough to work directly with about 1000 people in 2023. Every connection and every meeting is a privilege, so thank you.




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Positive connections
Many people have been making personal referrals to me this year. Thank you - this is massively appreciated. I don’t always know who you are, and confidentiality means I don’t talk about it much, but I’m really grateful. It is really noticeable what a positive head start it is for people to arrive knowing that the process and my style is going to suit them. If you have referred people to me (in some cases, it’s quite a few!) and you haven’t heard from me, or if there’s anything I can do for you, please do get in touch and let me know, and I can thank you personally.

Positive connection is a great thing about this time of year. At Christmas I’ll be spending time with family and catching up with other friends. I always feel more grounded, relaxed and “me” after this. I also realised in the Autumn that I haven’t actually had a whole week off all year so I’m taking a dose of my own medicine and am currently relaxing in a very nice place and am away for 2 weeks, catching up with a very good old friend of mine.  I’ll be back for a week or so before taking a few more days off for Christmas.

Tapping into deep wisdom
I know it’s quite an intense and busy time of year for many people. If any small part of you is wondering how you’re going to get through it all, please remember that you are deeply resourceful. Your brain has a boss (aka the ‘executive function’ or pre-frontal cortex) but it also has an incredibly resilient, really skillful and well-resourced team that can do amazing things (the rest of your neocortex, the outside shell of the brain). As in any business, the boss is really important for giving direction and guidance, but they can’t do everything. So if you can, give the boss a break here and there, set some intentions and trust your team to deliver them.

One example of this occurred on a recent visit to the beautiful new bookshop that has just opened in Newquay. Jaimie at Clemo Books is “curating books and creating community” and it is a really special place to “stumble across new titles” and ideas (and people). I love walking in and just seeing which covers and artwork catch my eye, and then delving a bit deeper into the ideas represented and seeing what happens. 

I am not a big reader myself so giving books to others is a way I can enjoy them. On this occasion I went in and asked Jaimie if she could recommend anything for a friend of mine - a really wonderful person, highly qualified, extremely capable, with a huge brain, a huge heart and a successful career. This friend has also been recovering from a significant period of chronic fatigue. After a chat with Jaimie we found some options that seemed like they might relate, but in the end I followed my intuition and bought her the first two books I’d seen on my first browse. This was an anthology of Cornish verse and short stories, and a copy of Kris Hallenga’s brilliant book “Glittering a Turd.” My friend was really delighted, and it turns out she connected with both books in ways that were way beyond what I could have known. Many good conversations have ensued, and she nearly finished Kris’ book on first sitting, so now she can tell me all about it!

It’s not the events in life that cause the perception of stress
As far as a third part of the brain is concerned (the fight/flight system) it might be helpful to remember too that it’s not the events in life, or world events, or other people, or politicians, bad drivers, or even severe illness or loss that cause the perception of threat or stress. It is only our response to them. This is something we can choose, and perhaps change, and this can make a really significant difference. If you feel anxious, or triggered by something or someone, you might remember that it’s only a small part of your brain that is doing this. It is trying to help, but it doesn’t always get it right. There may be other options.
If you’d like any further inspiration about the factors which can help you to achieve Calm, Confidence and Control in your life, here is a  QUIZ that might help.

And you can always give me a call or book in for a free chat. The brilliant Ella Croft VA  is looking after my diary and the business while I’m away. And if you or anyone you know would like to lock in some sessions at 2023 prices please contact me now for December / January bookings. I can provide Xmas gift vouchers and even gift-wrapping if required!

Best wishes and a very happy festive season to you all.

Adam

Keeping in touch

Hello! Until recently I’ve been hesitant to send out much in the way of news and information. There’s an idea in solution focused therapy that we should trust each client to know what is best for their future, and respect that this is solely their business. I totally agree. At the same time more and more people have been asking me - can we stay in touch? They say they would like to be reminded of their experiences, their progress and the ideas we have shared and talked about together.

So here it is! A monthly chance for us to keep in touch, share ideas, and remember how awesome we all are, and some free resources to help you.
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News from Newquay Hypnotherapy and .. the TEAM!

The hypnotherapy practice is going really well. I’ve been busy and we’ve had lots of really positive results. The ideas and practices of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy are providing lots of people with a lovely, enjoyable process and really positive changes in their lives. Here’s an improvement curve for someone who had been experiencing a mixture of anxiety and quite sustained feelings of sadness and depression, until recently:


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We were both delighted at the changes. And while it’s delightful and truly amazing, this is not unusual or surprising (to me at least!) and thanks to modern understanding of some ancient, natural processes (eg consciousness, relaxation) we can be very clear how it happens.

And speaking of relaxation, I’ve been able to free up a little more time for surfing, Wave Project volunteering, and trumpetting, by making an addition to the Newquay Hypnotherapy team. I’m delighted that Ella Croft (Virtual Assistant) is now helping me run a really clear, efficient, modern business by helping me get done lots of things that aren’t my core strengths, freeing me up to do what I do best! Ella has expertise in customer relationship management and events, and these are two areas we’re now growing in. Welcome Ella, and thanks for everything you’ve done so far (including sending out this newsletter!).

Sleep Workshops

In June we ran a very enjoyable and successful Sleep workshop. So many people arrive at the practice with interrupted sleep, and so many people see it improve, often very dramatically, that I wanted to single Sleep out as an area to explore, and to share the benefits more widely. People attending gave the event an overall rating of 9.3 out of 10. Here are some of the things they liked about it:
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• Great venue, engaging and interactive, space held beautifully. 
• Hearing other experiences especially on things they do to help sleep. 
• Loved the idea of getting calm and grateful before sleep.
• No need to get hung up on specific sleep aid or preparation. 
• Understanding of the sleep process.

It also raised some interesting questions like “Why do we sleep deeper than other animals?” which in some cases we do, although armadillos sleep up to 18 hours a day and many similar-sized mammals to us sleep more than we do.

There are a range of factors, including body size, safety (Armadillos sleep underground), meat (carnivores sleep more), immune system demands and cognitive processing powers. Dolphins sleep a lot, but half a brain at a time. Fascinating! We’ll be running more events, next one in August, so please get in touch if you’d like to attend, or if you have other ideas for other workshops. It’s a really nice way to get together, connect and share ideas.

Calm, confidence and control

With Ella’s help I’m also getting a lot of positive evaluation data from past clients. Thank you to everyone who’s filled in our evaluation form. Here’s the sort of comment I’m enjoying reading:
"I’ve learned a lot of new things about myself, managed to become a better version of myself & I do a lot of things now that make me happy. I have a lot more confidence."
Thank you too for everyone who has referred friends and family members. A personal recommendation really helps to get the process off to a really strong start, and is very much appreciated.

What more can we do for you?

We’d love to hear from you what else you’d like from us. What can we do to help you, or anyone else? I have put some INTERACTIVE RESOURCES on the website.

For those on facebook I have also developed an INTERACTIVE CHATBOT - a prototype attempt to harness the powers of AI for the good of all! Let me know what you think.
And any other ideas or requests please let us know. My vision is to provide a WOW! experience to everyone involved with Newquay Hypnotherapy, at every stage of the journey.

And if you haven’t already filled in an evaluation of your experiences, or haven’t done it for a while, here is our EVALUATION FORM.
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That’s it for now. I look forward to keeping in touch. Best wishes!

Adam Pearson
Newquay Hypnotherapy
Calm, confidence, control
www.newquayhypnotherapy.com 

Today a huge crowd of Chamber of Commerce members arrived at the beautiful Cornwall Hotel and Spa to see if there is such a thing as a free lunch. After two courses I gave a talk to the assembled crowd, while three chefs and an array of mouth-watering puddings waited patiently.

For the talk I used a twist on my usual theme of "USE your Brain". The title was "USE your Self" and I explored the notion that much of what we need, we already have within us, although we don't always use it. I offered three things we can do to help:

1. UNDERSTAND your Self
2. SEE your Self doing the things you want
3. ENJOY your Self

1. UNDERSTAND your Self
One helpful thing to understand about ourselves is that there are at least 3 parts to our personalities, with distinct corresponding areas in our brains:

• The Boss - great at giving direction and support, but can't do everything. Also known as the executive function. The frontal lobes of the brain are more active when the boss is in. The boss also makes us consciously aware of ourselves, so we often think that this is who we are. But it's only one part...
• The Compliance Function - likes to stick to rules, even if they no longer make sense. It is only ever trying to help but can also manifest as stubbornness, resistance, hesitation, procrastination, risk-avoidance, overthinking, overzealousness... It's also known as the monkey mind, lizard brain, amygdala, fight or flight system ... it's interesting that it has so many names and gets so much attention. It's in the lower, middle part of the brain.
• The Team - the third part gets the least attention or appreciation I think, but it's the biggest, and most powerful part, all around the outside of the brain - the neocortex. It's what we often think of as the clever but mysterious part of the subconscious. This is the bit that, given clear direction, says "leave it to us Boss, we'll get it sorted" and the next thing we know - it has! It works like a great team, a team with great experience, skills and qualifications. It exercises autonomy, initiative and boundless creativity.

All areas are very valuable, but it's important to remember: the Boss has limited capacity, the Monkey has limited creativity, but given the right conditions the team can do pretty much anything. Working together the whole person i.e. You can achieve amazing things - with the resources you already have.

What makes it so much easier for this to happen is when we are calm. The best way to achieve this is to go to sleep. When we are asleep our brains are four times more active when we are awake, in very helpful ways that are very interactive between the various parts, particularly when we dream. However a similar thing happens when we are awake and in a state of calm, focused attention. An easy and powerful way to achieve this is to use your imagination and memory to think about things we like. Which brings us to point 2:

2. SEE yourself doing good things.
A client who came to me this week with a fear of driving told me she has a very vivid imagination. From what she'd told me about the "literally 100 million things that could go wrong" - I could see she was right, about her imagination! And we agreed - that's how she could get so scared so quickly, easily and effectively and why she hasn't driven on a motorway for 20 years - it was quite a skill! I asked her what it might be like to apply her amazing imagination to something good instead, like how amazing it's going to be to have her freedom back.

As she sat opposite me and started to imagine delighting her family up-country with a surprise lunch visit, her brow softened, her eyes moistened, colour came to her cheeks and she began to smile. It's quite something to witness someone letting go of something that's held them back for so long. Imagination is incredibly powerful. (See Émile Coué for more on this).

3. ENJOY your Self
And my final tip was: Enjoy yourself. Because enjoyment is like an evolutionary encouragement to do things that are good for us. A happy boss is a good boss and a happy team is a productive team and even monkeys can be good company when they're relaxed. Every time we do something positive, or interact in a positive way, or even just think about positive things, we get a reward. We feel pleasure, satisfaction, courage and motivation. It's a chemical reward designed over our entire human history to encourage us to do more of the stuff that's good for us - like being active, interactive and focusing on good things.

And if we really enjoy ourselves - and I mean REALLY enjoy ourselves, other potential distractions like puddings can be enjoyed too, on our terms, with us in control, rather than the other way round. Like Donut Lady, but that's another story.

The whole event was kindly sponsored by the social enterprise Real Ideas, whose name is either an oxymoron or a tautology (or both perhaps?) depending on your views on 18th Century philosophy or the power of your imagination. It turns out you can have your pudding and eat it. There is a free three-course resource which is already yours. Enjoy it!

Happy New Year folks! I always love January as I feel refreshed and reconnected from the Christmas break, but also excited and - more importantly - there's actually some time in my calendar for planning and reflecting, working on my business and my own life as well as working and living in it!

I've been focusing on what really makes a difference for my clients, what makes it such an enjoyable and beneficial experience, and how I can do even more of that. I want to make it even more "Wow!" and make it more accessible to more people. I'm totally sold on the whole idea - obviously! - but knowing what actually works for my clients, especially what they do in their own time, on their terms, is not always easy! I've decided that for this, I need to learn by doing, and then listening and learning.

So I've restructured my website and launched a section of resources starting with some space for REFLECTION. There's an area on THEORY which if people like it, I'll add more. I've also made more AUDIOS available because people love them and I love doing them. I love the way the audio realm is becoming more popular, through podcasts as well as apps like Insight Timer and a wider appreciation of meditation. There's so much value in this And I've included a page for EVALUATION so that people can learn, and hopefully so can I!

Please feel free to enjoy these, and let me know what you think!

I've also added a whole new selection of pages which are specific to certain conditions such as

• Anxiety
• Confidence
• Sleep
• OCD
• Anger
• Depression
• Fears and Phobias
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Habits & Choices
• Relationships
• Public Speaking
• Sports performance and more

I'm hoping these will make help more accessible to anyone that needs it. Please have a look and share the pages with anyone you think might like to read more, or get in touch and let me know any thoughts - they are very much valued and appreciated.

Thank you! I wish you all a happy and healthy 2023.

We're really pleased and proud to announce that our new book, "The Art of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy - A Collection of Case Studies" is available to buy NOW on Amazon (a day earlier than planned) and we have a SPECIAL OFFER for you.

The paperback is available at the discounted price of £16.99 till Wednesday 17th February ONLY. After that it will increase to £19.99. Delivery is free for Prime members. The eBook will be available at the low price of £9.99 for the foreseeable future.

There are twelve case studies, which have been written by 10 experienced hypnotherapists, and we are also honoured to have a foreword by David Newton, founder of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy and a master of clear insight. Please feel free to tell others so that others can take advantage of the special offer. If you do decide to buy a copy, it would be fabulous if you could leave us a review on Amazon. Thank you! 

While the world around us continues to change we are trying to stay nimble. From 5th November we'll be conducting all sessions online. We will be setting up some support groups again. Last lockdown we ran these for furloughed workers and anxious people referred to us by GPs and Social Prescribing link workers. We're looking at how we can support people over the next couple of months.

Meanwhile, there's so much going on in the world of wellbeing - from the grass roots to the very highest levels. I was on a webinar recently with two members of the House of Lords and an OBE, all talking about wellbeing in Cornwall. Very exciting stuff. A strong emerging theme is "health creation", and putting power back where it belongs - with people, in the community.

Wellbeing is complex. So is life. That's why we need to talk. Share. Work together. Here are some of the meetings and events coming up in November.

1. The Cornwall Festival of Business (2-6 Nov) including the Cornwall Business Fair on Weds 4th November. Free, and even easier than last year - you don't have to travel anywhere and you can meet hundreds of interesting people doing amazing things. I will be running a session called "USE your Brain" in the auditorium at 2pm - register at the Fair to attend. Some of you might recognise the content :) 

2. CornWELL Festivals will be hosting the second of a 3-part series on The Future of Wellbeing. Thursday 5th Nov, 10-1130am. The aims of the meetings are to share knowledge, stories, ideas, hopes and inspiration about how well-being is working, and can work in the future. Anyone with an interest in wellbeing will gain something. The assumption is that by improving the wellbeing network, and the conversations in it, we can improve wellbeing.

3. Healthy Minds Newquay will be holding their usual monthly meeting on Monday 9th November, 10-1130am. It's also called "Who's who and what can we do" and the aims are very similar to CornWELL Festivals - just more local. All welcome - even if you're not in Newquay!

And that's it for now. I would highly recommend this series of webinars if you want to see the future I'm seeing for "health creation". I particularly recommend the webinar called "Community voices, barriers and enablers" which features some incredible people and success stories from Cornwall and Devon - really inspiring. I particularly enjoyed these moments (they're even more powerful if you've already heard the first hour and a half - it flies by, honestly!): 47:47 Hazel Stuteley, 1:27:54 Alisa Kefford-Parker - YES!!!, 1:28:42 Dawn Shepherd - "Listen to communities. The answers are already here." Together I'd really like to see this happening more in Cornwall.

Very best wishes to you all,

Adam