Some of these ways of helping are clearly no better than the placebo effect, some are very helpful for some people and of little help for others.
Some have, over time proven themselves to be of great use for a great number of people.
It seems that the human mind is quite plastic and will in many ways seem to adapt itself to the theory that it is looked at through, to the theorist or the practitioner this may seem to be proof of his particular persuasion. In reality, no one knows for sure how the mind works, how it develops or how best to help with a particular problem.
What makes things more difficult is that it is very hard to measure success in therapy. If a smoker stops smoking through hypnotherapy you might think we could call that a success for hyponotherapy, but what if they start again a year later and smoke twice as much? What if they stop smoking but start to eat too much? It seems that we really need to take an holistic attitude if we are to measure success.
I do not believe that there is any one panacea for all ills. But I do believe that we can all learn and grow and develop when we find what is right for us. Hypnotherapy can be a very powerful therapy, I think that there are few people who cannot benefit from working with hypnosis, after all hypnosis is just a state of mind and what we do with it that is infinitely variable. The basic principles of hypnosis and suggestion are important ones for us all to be familiar with. As someone once said 'if you don't take the responsibility for what you put into your own mind then someone will take responsibility for you' - this is so very important in this day and age where we are surrounded by corporate advertising, political spin doctoring ever more TV stations and the incredible amount of information that is so readily available via the internet.
CBT is currently being hailed as the wonder cure and again I believe that it can be very helpful in relieving some problems some of the time. I also believe that most people can find it helpful to learn how profoundly negative thoughts can affect us, and how we can learn to not have them as part of our lives. However it surely has its limitations.
Psychoanalysis is much misunderstood and much maligned, often by those who have never undergone an analysis. It is quite out of fashion at the moment and in these times, where a quick fix seems to be what is required, the idea of therapy lasting a few years, often more than once a week, can seem quite out of place. The length of this therapy may indicate to some the subtleties and depths that can be worked with and the potential for growth and maturation that can take place. However, the caveat stands, no one therapy is for everyone and for every ailment.
Whatever approach you choose to undertake, whether it is with me, with someone else or alone, when we heal ourselves we do the whole world a service...
"The fundamental purpose of all leaders, messiahs or
visionaries is to find some means by which the two sides of
the earth can live together in peace and harmony. Time is
very short - it is necessary to achieve this harmony as
soon as possible to avoid complete disaster. Philosophies,
religions and other such movements have all failed to
accomplish this aim, and the only possible way to
accomplish it is through the
individual
development of man. As an individual develops his own,
unknown potentialities, he will become strong and will, in
turn, influence many more people. If enough individuals can
develop themselves -
even partially
- into
genuine, natural men,
able to use the real potentialities that are proper to
mankind, each such individual will then be able to convince
and win over as many as a hundred other men, who will, each
in his turn, upon achieving development, be able to
influence another hundred, and so on…. The separate,
distinct growth of each individual in the world is the only
possible solution." George Gurdjieff.