I studied at Bristol University and obtained my MBChB in 1972. I have been a General Practitioner in a semi-rural Group Practice in a town called Mossley on the edge of the Pennines for 32 years, and retired from General Practice in 2006 to run more workshops and do more writing. I am married with three children and four grandchildren.
I first started to train in the use of hypnosis in 1989 and gained Accreditation by the British Society of Medical & Dental Hypnosis in 1995. I also trained in Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), becoming a Certified Practitioner in NLP in 1997 and a Master Practitioner in 1998. I have also attended workshops in Brief Therapy run by Bill O’Hanlon, Danie Beaulieu and Steve De Shazer.
I have been involved for over twenty years with running training courses on hypnosis for health professionals for the Lancashire and Cheshire branch of British Society of Medical & Dental Hypnosis and for the British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis, now amalgamated as the British Society for Clinical & Academic Hypnosis (BSCAH) www.bscah.com. I have also run courses on hypnosis and stress management for the Postgraduate Dental Departments of Cardiff, Preston, Liverpool and North Wales. I was the Chairman of the British Society of Medical & Dental Hypnosis and Honorary National Secretary for the British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis for several years and since their merger in 2007 until June 2008 I was the Honorary Secretary of the British Society of Clinical & Academic Hypnosis. I was Chair of the Academic & Accreditation Committee from 2010 until 2013. From autumn 2012 I served as Honorary Treasurer of BSCAH for several years. More recently I serve on the Education Group and organise the online foundation training in hypnosis and the BSCAH monthly webinars.
I have run Stress Management and Personal Development courses on a private basis in Canada and the UK. I have also run workshops for the Oldham PCT mental health training on brief psychological interventions in practice (Giving Patients Tools) and have run half or one day workshops on this in Taunton, Bury and at the European Conferences of Hypnosis in Munich, Rome and Vienna.
For some years I was involved with running Foundation Hypnosis training at Salford University on their CPD Programme and have also lectured at Manchester and Chester Universities.
I have had several cases published in Contemporary Hypnosis and have had several books published; a self-help book for patients with anxiety “Still – in the Storm” that has been reprinted and translated into Chinese, Spanish, Polish and Russian, a book on smoking cessation “Smoke free – and no buts” and “Brief Psychological Interventions in Practice” published by Wiley. I have also been a named contributor in ‘Hypnosis, Dissociation and Survivors of Child Abuse’ (2006) and ‘Hypnosis – A Handbook’ (2012) and a contributor and co-editor of The Handbook of Contemporary Clinical Hypnosis, published by Wiley in 2011.
I use hypnosis, not only to help people manage their anxiety and stress, but also for a wide variety of psychosomatic problems, which include Psoriasis, Eczema, Headaches and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I also see clients for help with unresolved grief, past traumatic experiences, panic disorder, post traumatic stress syndrome, phobias and for pain relief. Although I am retired from my main practice I still see occasional private patients online using zoom, for brief, solution orientated psychotherapy facilitated by hypnosis and charge £50 for an hour session.
I am very much of the opinion that hypnosis can facilitate many types of therapy and is extremely valuable in General Practice in the treatment of many conditions. Learning about hypnosis, even if it is not used formally, leads to improvement in communication skills and an increased ability to build rapport.
I would like to see hypnosis taught to all final year medical students, not just because it would be a valuable therapeutic tool, but because they would then also learn personal skills that would help them to reduce their own stress levels. Self hypnotic techniques are so useful in reducing anxiety and building self confidence that it is a great shame that they are not taught routinely in all schools.
More recently I have become interested in how the creative arts and play can facilitate therapy and wellbeing. I have organised and run various creativity workshops that combine stress management and the expressive arts entitled ‘Creative Wellbeing’.
If you wish to contact me please email ann@annwilliamson.co.uk