I have been having a very in-depth discussion this morning with my online business partner Keith… Over the weekend, one of our online customers asked for a refund… When we asked for the reason behind the refund request, we got told (and I quote):

“I did not realise it was all about hypnosis.”

Keith and I joked about the number of times I must have written the word hypnosis in the last few years, how many times it is on our website, and whether I am just not making it clear enough that I am a hypnotherapist and hypnotist…

Hmmm… I really need to rethink my outgoing message and current presence I think… đŸ˜‰  I mean, the meaning of every communication is supposed to be the response it receives…

Well, there has also been a more serious news item working its way across the media and internet that I am loathed to write about…

Here is what this hypnosis article at the BBC states:

A hypnotherapist has been jailed for sexually abusing his female clients.

Stephen Dyer, 50, of Dover Road Folkstone, was sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court to five years in prison on seven counts of sexual assault.

He was arrested in January 2007 after a woman in her 20s, who was treated at his Hawkes Lane offices in Canterbury, reported a sexual assault to police.

Judge Adele Williams told Dyer, who denied the charges, he had treated his patients with “callous indifference”.

Dyer was found guilty by a jury on Wednesday.

‘Preyed on women’

Dyer was also given an order stopping him working as a hypnotherapist, psychotherapist or counsellor and was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register.

Det Sgt Emma Atkins said: “Stephen Dyer is a calculating man who preyed on women’s vulnerabilities for his own sexual gratification.

“He used his training as a hypnotherapist and psychotherapist to groom his clients, gain their confidence and abuse their trust in the worst possible way.”

She added: “We only hope that those that have suffered at his hands can now find the professional help they deserve, although for some the road to recovery will be difficult as they and their families will have to learn to trust another therapist.

“We would also like to thank the victims and witnesses who came forward and those that gave evidence for the purpose of preventing Stephen Dyer from manipulating and abusing the trust of any other client.”

Therapy of any kind requries an intimate and trusted relationship to be developed and it is incredibly sad to see such relationships be abused and misused.

You’ll notice across the board and with every reference to this story, not once does it say “hypnosis was used…” for him to do these bad things… Despite the media filling their headlines with the word ‘hypnosis’ and ‘hypnotherapist’ because it alludes to the notion that it was somehow used… Not one of the articles I have seen pertaining to this story says “counsellor jailed” or “psychotherapist found guilty” … Hypnosis does make headlines more intriguing… The mere word offers a hypnotic effect, doesn’t it?

That is if you can actually read it — even when it is covering an entire website… “I did not realise it was all about hypnosis.” Indeed…