A GROUND-breaking venture using hypnotherapy to tackle alcohol addiction in York has attracted the attention of drink and drug agencies around the UK.

Word has spread about how the hypnosis treatment at the York Alcohol Advice Service (YAAS) is helping problem drinkers beat the battle with the bottle.

Other organisations are now planning to visit and see how the unusual intervention works first-hand with a view to setting up their own project.

YAAS, a voluntary sector alcohol counselling organisation in Bootham, does not receive permanent funding for the hypnotherapy project despite its resounding success.
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It started as a trial in April 2004 when advanced hypnotherapist Robert Williams offered YAAS a free three-month trial.

The results were so positive the Truemark Trust - which supports small organisations, particularly with innovatory work - provided funding.

more - All Eyes On Hypnosis Treatment (from York Press)

On stage and screen, hypnotists make their subjects cluck like chickens, fall in love, rob banks and commit murder — activities the subjects supposedly can’t recall once the trance is broken. But stage acts and creative license aside, hypnosis is simply a state of heightened attention in which suggestions appear to powerfully affect a person’s subsequent behavior. Since the early 1800s, practitioners of hypnosis have attempted to harness that power in efforts to help patients manage pain, overcome phobias and change unwanted behavior, such as smoking and overeating.

In 1841, a respected Scottish-born surgeon living in Manchester, England, watched a public demonstration by traveling Swiss “magnetizer” Charles Lafontaine.

Like other magnetizers of the time, Lafontaine posited that an abundance of magnetic fluid in his body enabled him to put subjects into a trance by merely passing his hands before their faces and over their bodies. Once subjects were so entranced, magnetizers demonstrated apparent control of their behavior.

more - Under its spell - Los Angeles Times