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Valerie Austin | |
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| Born | 10 August 1946 Blackpool, Lancashire, England |
| Known for | Originated first Stop Smoking in One Hour programme |
Valerie Austin (born in Blackpool, Lancashire) is an English hypnotherapist, trainer, lecturer, author and journalist. [1] [ dead link ]
A near-fatal accident on a motorway left Austin with hysterical amnesia (severe memory loss). [2]
While in Los Angeles she was invited to join a course on hypnosis by Hollywood hypnotist Gil Boyne. He was hypnotising her in front of the class when his secretary dashed in and said President Ronald Reagan had been shot. At this point Valerie had just regained her memory.
However, during one of her trips back to the UK a number of family deaths, including her mother's accidents and trauma triggered her memory loss again. She forgot she was married, did not return to the US or her husband and spent the next four years with a return of her memory problems. Some years later she regained her memory for the second time with hypnosis and then started to take a greater interest in the subject. [1]
She took a course in hypnotherapy, and built a career of over 30 years. [1]
Austin opened her Harley Street practice in 1989. She was the UK's first celebrity hypnotherapist [1] [3] overcome many different addictions, phobias, obsessions and bad habits. [4]
Austin was the first hypnotherapist to coin the term Stop Smoking in One Hour with the programme she developed in 1989. [4] She claims a 95% success rate for her programme. [5] [6]
Austin developed her own technique, The Austin Technique, to treat conditions including weight loss, [7] relationship issues [8] and stress. [9]
Austin and her husband, James Pool practise and teach medical hypnosis. Austin and Pool, trained with surgeon Dr Jack Stanley Gibson, who used hypnosis in over 3,000 operations. Austin also practices Nth Phase, a very deep trance akin to hibernation, in which the body needs two breaths a minute. [10]
Austin has used her previous experience as a successful salesperson with hypnosis to establish herself as a motivational psychologist to promote productivity in sales forces and reduce stress. [9] [11]
Austin has trained hypnotherapists in her techniques since 1990. [12]
She taught a seven-day course at the University Kebangsaan, Malaysia. The Health Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Lee Kim Sai, presented graduates with their certificates. [13]
Since 1990 Austin has appeared regularly in both the tabloid and broadsheet British national press and lifestyle magazines including The Mirror, [8] Daily Express, [3] The Evening Standard, [2] The Guardian., [6] [14] The Telegraph, [5] CityAm, [4] New Woman, [15] Cheshire Life [12] and CityWealth Magazine. [1] Her work has also gained international press coverage. [9] [11] [13] [16]
Austin has written eight self hypnosis books:
She is married to James Pool. [17]
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.
Hypnotherapy, also known as hypnotic medicine, is the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy. The efficacy of hypnotherapy is not well supported by scientific evidence, and, due to the lack of evidence indicating any level of efficacy, it is regarded as a type of alternative medicine by reputable medical organisations such as the National Health Service.
Suggestibility is the quality of being inclined to accept and act on the suggestions of others. One may fill in gaps in certain memories with false information given by another when recalling a scenario or moment. Suggestibility uses cues to distort recollection: when the subject has been persistently told something about a past event, his or her memory of the event conforms to the repeated message.
Self-hypnosis or auto-hypnosis is a form, a process, or the result of a self-induced hypnotic state.
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The development of concepts, beliefs and practices related to hypnosis and hypnotherapy have been documented since prehistoric to modern times.
Recovered-memory therapy (RMT) is a catch-all term for a controversial and scientifically discredited form of psychotherapy that critics say utilizes one or more unproven therapeutic techniques to purportedly help patients recall previously forgotten memories. Proponents of recovered memory therapy claim, contrary to evidence, that traumatic memories can be buried in the subconscious and thereby affect current behavior, and that these memories can be recovered through the use of RMT techniques. RMT is not recommended by professional mental health associations. RMT can result in patients developing false memories of sexual abuse from their childhood and events such as alien abduction which had not actually occurred.
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Herbert Spiegel was an American psychiatrist who popularized therapeutic hypnosis as a mainstream medical treatment for patients experiencing pain, anxiety, and addictions. He also is known for his treatment of the woman known as Sybil, whose case became the subject of a book, 1976 television miniseries and 2007 television movie.
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Dolores Eilene Cannon was an American author, self-trained hypnotherapist, and publisher. She was a leader of the New Age movement and a promoter of fringe theories relating to aliens and alternative realities.
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