We welcomed Dr Brian Roet as a speaker at our quarterly hypnotherapist peer support group this week. As I said when I summed up and thanked Brian on behalf of everyone present, he has been working as a teacher, lecturer and therapist in the field of hypnosis for more years than I have been an adult and for someone who has worked with so many people, it was a real delight to watch the presentation of someone who is still utterly thrilled by this field and what can be done within it.
Dr Roet and I spent the afternoon chatting and discussing the field of hypnotherapy, exchanged stories, thoughts and also discussed many facets of life. He very kindly gave me a couple of photographs he had taken and assembled in a card that showed the leaves on the ground and in a tree he liked and thought was beautiful. I did too. Here it is, I love it:
Some facets of our preferred approach to the field of hypnosis and therapy differ, but such was the nature of the man that we were able to discuss, debate and even disagree with a lovely humour and respect that I wished was more prevalent in this professional field.
When Brian then presented, he did so with a gentleness and subtle humour that makes him very likeable and I can see why he has had a lengthy career spanning many years – his clients like him, refer others to him and he gets results.
I have spent the last few years and written extensively on how divorced I now am from the notion of having a conscious/unconscious mind, yet I loved Brian’s use of his wife’s picture that he used to illustrate conscious/unconscious – with such a range of reactions from the group as to what the artist was doing when painting it (I shall not offer up any spoilers on a public blog and ruin it for anyone else who might see him use this in a presentation).
The presentation focused on the discovery of metaphors people use and was the best presentation I have seen on this topic which has been covered in differing ways by other speakers we have had here. Brian gave us his working model for therapy and talked us through some of his training experiences as a younger man with David Groves and Milton Erickson and it all made for a fascinating evening as he also worked with 4 people conducting live demonatrations.
Once agin I was shown how respect, unconditional positive regard for and interest in the client, congruence, belief in oneself and a genuinely pleasant demeanour can help a therapist develop rapport and a working alliance in a short period of time to deliver results and start to explore issues in a short period of time.
He also had a playfulness and talked about how he enjoyed catching leaves as children like to do and punctuated the evening with lots of humour. He also shared with us some case studies and case notes to give us insight into how he works and what he looked to explore when his clients spoke to him.
The content was covering things that are fairly absent in my own therapeutic work, yet I thoroughly enjoyed learning more from a man in his 70s, who is a highly experienced therapist and charges around the country presenting and working like a man 40 years younger.
I have very little time today and am teaching for the next 3 days, so cannot go into much more detail. Though again, it continues to be a pleasure to welcome such speakers to Bournemouth and it was lovely to see so many familiar faces and meet so many new people with a diversity of backgrounds and experiences relating to the world of hypnosis last night – it really does motivate, inspire and drive me. I love the support the group has had again this year and I look forward to welcoming more high calibre speakers to this group next year. Watch this space.
