Last night was our final peer support group this year. Such was the positive feedback we have received regarding last September’s peer support group, that I decided to run a similar event again and our solo-speaker styled events will happen half of the time at future peer support group events. We also learned a great deal from our September event and I therefore tweaked the format very slightly.

We had four excellent speakers covering a range of exciting topics who all presented for 20 minutes each.

Our first speaker was Annalise Kirk.

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One of things I loved about Annlise’s presentation was how she was able to draw upon her own extensive experience as a hypnotherapist. Annalise qualified as a clinical hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner with this college back in 2010, having worked for some 18yrs as a cost draftsman providing support to solicitors. She started her full time hypnotherapy business in Basingstoke, Hampshire in January 2013 having worked part time since qualifying.

Throughout her presentation “The Importance of Homework within the Therapeutic Process” she punctuated it with real-life accounts and stories from her therapy rooms which really provided the audience with a wealth of information.

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Annalise’s presentation crammed in loads of quality information that I thoroughly enjoyed and at the end of the evening the entire panel of speakers joined in the discussion with regards to finding the best ways to ensure clients engage and carry out their homework.

Next up was Derek Palmer. I have known Derek for over a decade now and have experienced him presenting with style, verve and credibility before. Derek specialises in Confidence Coaching and one of the things I think important in therapy is the client being able to model certain approaches/strategies/techniques from the therapist. Derek presents with great confidence and I expect his clients derive MUCH from his manner alone when they go to see him.

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Derek’s presentation was entitled Facilitating Changes Within – The Power of the Frame where he shared his experiences in practice since 2009 with an emphasis on empowering clients. It was great stuff. Derek showed how positive expectancy can advance the frame for sessions with clients and gave some fascinating examples of his own personal approach.

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Our third speaker was Catherine Swatridge. If you are going to present on the subject of presenting, there is some pressure on you to do it well, right? Cat delivered beautifully in this regard presenting with class, professionalism and displaying the qualities you’d expect from someone talking on this subject.

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I was particularly impressed with Cat’s analogies, the structure of how hypnotherapists can present information and also how she summed up each segment she had taught, all without any prompts or aids to her presentation. She showed how speaking at events can form part of your marketing strategy too and gave some lovely references from other experts on speaking style and technique.

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Our final speaker was James Brown. For those that do not know him, James is a speaker, performer, author and magic consultant for TV & film. For 20 years he has studies deception techniques and human perception. In recent years he has been called on by Imperial College London, TEDMED, Barts and others to share his insights into the human mind via his practical, hands on viewpoint. Hypnosis is his passion.

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I told James that it was no coincidence that he was the final speaker of the night. I know how he can get involved in his topic and before you know it, hours have passed. However, on this occasion, he kept his presentation in check and of course presented with all the qualities that I have come to expect from him.

James presented about Confidence. He spoke about what it is and how it can improve all aspects of your hypnosis skills. Confidence is the foundation of excellence and at the heart of James award winning magic presentations.

He gave a very useful analogy about how relaxation and calmness contribute to confidence, but I think it was just an excuse to hold hands with other grown men for a while.

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I had several thoughts from members of our group shared with me about how inspiring his presentation was and the feedback regarding all our speakers and the evening as a whole has been wonderful.

We continue to offer these events as non-profit, support events for the hypnosis community that we have developed here over the years. It is an incredibly welcoming and warm group of people who attend, and in my experience it is incredibly motivating to get out of our hypnotherapy rooms and rub shoulders with colleagues who work in the same field on a regular basis. The support is important, the motivation is important, the information learned is important, I think such events serve us hypnotherapists well. I absolutely love them. On a night where lots of our regulars could not make it, we had a great turnout; who’d have thought that so many hypnotherapists would congregate together on the south coast so readily each quarter, eh?

For more information about future events and to get email updates sent through to you about these quarterly peer support events, do visit this page on the college website.

My thanks to all our speakers who were superb and gave so much energy and information. My thanks to all who attended. I look forward to seeing you all again in the new year. If I do not see you before then, have a fabulous festive season.