Last night, Katie and I went to the incredibly picturesque, historic village of Corfe in our fine county of Dorset and attended an open air theatre production at the foot of the stunning castle there.

The production was Romeo and Juliet, the actors were sensational, the production added its own hilarious tone to the tragic play and as the sun set, we sipped out wine, ate our picnic, gasped at the shadows cast by the amazing castle, sniggered as the goats bleated and jogged alongside us from time to time, and laughed and sighed as the play progressed.

We had several of those moments whereupon we commented about how good life was for us right now, and as such, it led us to be reflective upon much of what we have been through in life over recent years.

This weekend I get to be reflective again, as my currently monthly hypnotherapy diploma draws to a conclusion. This is the last month for this diploma group and I cannot believe the last 10 months has gone by so quickly, it seems like yesterday that I was welcoming them all in and setting out our objectives for the diploma.

So naturally, as with every diploma I run, I have learnt an enormous amount from this one. Each issue that has occurred along the way, I have examined my rationale, my position in amongst it, my thinking, my reactions and responses and with this hindsight, things will be done differently, perhaps even better in the future.

Reflective practice is something that needs to be part of any hypnotherapists work…

It’s common in nursing, teaching, and some psychotherapies to use systematic models of reflective learning in more depth than I could relay here in a brief blog entry. It’s useful to consider how problem-solving methods used with clients on their problems could also be applied by the therapist to his own problems with clients, etc., and perhaps integrated with supervision.

As a member of the NCH, we all commit to undertake regular supervision and that gives us some opportunity for being reflective in our practice.

As an evidence-based practitioner, it is essential to get continued feedback from the clients that you are working with during and after the hypnotherapy sessions are underway. When writing up my notes for each client, if I ever encounter a real challenege, I’ll look to dig out a reflective form that I have drawn up, to analyse, question and of course reflect upon what happened, what my role was throughout and how I might consider moving forward or doing things differently in the future.

Yet, if you attempt to google resources for reflective practice in hypnotherapy, there is virtually nothing available, and if you ask the vast majority of hypnotherapists if they engage in reflective practice or even know what it is, very few understand the notion, let alone know of any systematic models they could apply to their own work.

So reflection is the order of the day… However life may be for you, consider it from all angles, if something is drawing to a close in your life, reflect upon it to make the next thing even better with your wisdom and if you are a therapist, especially a hypnotherapist… Then do investigate and incorporate this into your work, it’ll make you a far better hypnotherapist, that’s for sure.

Have a wonderful weekend, I’ll be back on Monday 🙂