Training to Treat Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or ME could be just the thing you need

Did you know:

·         CFS/ME affects more than 1 million (www.cdc.gov/cfs) people in the US and over 300,000 in the UK.  Some estimates take the figure even higher to 4 million in the US (www.fm-cfs.ca)

·         A study in Wichita, Kansas showed on average the illness lasts 7 years.

·         CFS is 5 times more common than AIDS, twice as common as MS (www.fm-cfs.ca) and more common than lung cancer

·         White Caucasian women are 4 times more likely than men to develop CFS/ME.

In fact, the occurrence of CFS/ME is so prevalent that the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) has declared that “CFS is a serious women’s public health concern”.

And in my opinion, since there “are no diagnostic lab tests for CFS and no known cure” (CDC) then it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.  Fast living, stress, social pressure, the media, nutritionally poor diet, alcohol and pollution will all take their toll on those particularly susceptible to CFS.

I have identified the underlying psychology that often causes and then maintains the disease once it has set in

Another unpopular claim that sends most sufferers running in indignant outrage!  But acknowledging the role of each of the 3 cornerstones of health: the Mind, Body and Spirit, is the way to wholeness and health.  Hiving off matters of the mind in this condition is a sure-fire way to prolong suffering and, paradoxically, stigmatise the person with the condition.

So I have another question for you.

Couldn’t you make better use of your marketing spend on a Niche market where you become an authority in the field of CFS treatment?

That’s precisely what I’ve been doing for the last 6 or 7 years. 

·         My local Medical practice knows me and I frequently receive referrals from ME/CFS patients who they simply don’t know how to help.  I’ve even had hospitals call me for my opinion on their cases.

·         I’ve set up a self help group called The Open Mind Group, precisely because we want to invite people to talk positively, with Open Mind, about something everyone else talks about in dismal despair. Here's what one of our members writes:

"I found the group to be very different from other support groups I have encountered and I mean that in a good way! It was nice to be able to interact with others who were experiencing similar issues to myself, but for the focus to be on self improvement and enlightenment, as this gave the group a positive energy. In contrast, all the other groups I had been to before had always focused on symptoms, which after a while became draining and depressing. It was also helpful to have someone who was not 'suffering' to mentor the group, as this helped to create balance and to keep the focus fresh, instead of ending up with one person talking all the time or us not gaining any insight into our thoughts and behaviour. As I am very interested in The Law of Attraction, I felt able to go this group without worrying that I was attracting further negativity into my life and I was able to look forward to the sessions." Vicky

·         I’ve trained dozens of therapists to treat CFS in an integrative way incorporating hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, counselling skills as well as nutritional advice and guidance.  And the learning curve is so steep, that many come out of my 3 day intensive training program with a completely new perspective on the way they do therapy and how to treat from the inside out.  Some have even radically changed the way they work, and with my ongoing support have found that they can work smarter, not harder to get better and longer lasting results.

·         And I now have a website with all my qualified therapists listed from all over the UK so that the general public can find them easily.

So if, as a hypnotherapist, you believe in the power of the mind then you’ll understand me when I say, you have to have a healthy sense of disbelief about what is put out there by the media and the powers that be in the scientific community about the nature of CFS/ME.

For example the CDC puts out these so called facts from their observations:

How do you tailor a treatment plan for the CFS/ME sufferer?

That is the million dollar question.  Since all people are unique, can there really ever be one technique or one treatment protocol that you can roll out to everyone you meet with the same diagnostic label?  The answer to that has to be ‘No’.  Arguably perhaps, this is where conventional scientific enquiry goes wrong: no two people are identical so medical science can actually be as hit and miss as any other less conventional way of treating people.  There goes another claim that will send medical professionals clamouring to defend themselves, and to discredit anyone who doesn’t work by their own ‘professional’ guidelines. Oh dear, did I shove my stick in the hornets nest?

Look, I’m not doing this work to be popular.  I’m doing this work to get people well.  And curiously, when people get well, you become popular.  So let the numbers beating a path to your door, be the judge of how effective your treatment plan is.

Tailoring your plan, if I haven’t already made my point, must be as unique as the person sat in your therapy room.  So you cannot use the same scripts and 6 or 12 weekly session models and expect everyone you meet to recover.  That’s simply not going to happen.  Tailoring your plan to your CFS client means you’ll get more consistent results and more referrals.  More referrals means more financial success as well as happy clients.

So if you want to be truly flexible, you’re going to have to learn, not just more techniques, but a deeper understanding from which to assess where your CFS clients are on their journey in order to be able to take them forward.

Here’s what one of my clients said about her recovery:

“I am on a Learning Mentor training course in Harlow which I am loving. I am mentoring a young girl who is a school refuser at the moment and my job after half term is to get her back into school.  I have to pinch myself sometimes because this is exactly what I have dreamed of being able to do. I have so many people to thank, the first person in the chain though is Jenny. You have made me believe in myself and the support of you & the group has been so important to me over the past few years. Meeting Jenny was a real turning point in my life. For the first time in years I am looking to the future instead of existing day to day.” Kim, former CFS/ME sufferer (Kim had had ME/CFS for 11 years when we met and was so hopeless about her case she hadn’t even consulted me about that. It was for something, she thought, was completely unrelated).

So let me detail what kind of blocks you need to remove from your idea of what successful therapy is so allowing the flexibility needed for each individual:

·         Free up your solution focussed mentality and learn to ‘hold’ your client while they develop at their pace

·         Learn that going past 6 or 12 sessions isn’t a crime or a failure

·         That scripts are not the way forward with ME/CFS

·         That certain strategies are right at different times

·         That there is no one size fits all treatment plan

In fact, there is one almost unavoidable outcome that you will receive from studying with me if you are ready to absorb everything I have to teach you:

That you can have more inner confidence than you’ve ever had with all your clients as a result of training with me on my intensive 3 day training programme, “Unlocking the Mysteries of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”

Here’s what some of my past students have said:

“ Having seen your presentation at the APHP Conference (Oct 2006) you had alot to live up to, and there was a part of me that wondered whether it could get any better than that.  Well, it did, and I would absolutely recommend this course to anyone wanting not only to work with ME/CFS, but also anyone wanting to round off their learning and gain more insight into working with clients generally!” JH, Hypnotherapist, Surrey.

“I am just dropping a line to say what a great training weekend that was.  I have to say that your knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject was infectious and along with your excellent engaging teaching style, it made for an outstanding event!” AW, Clinical Psychologist, Cardiff.

“Fun, thought-provoking, sometimes intense, wide ranging.  I enjoyed Jenny’s wide experience of client work, her gentle and lively style, the practical exercises and the detailed information.  I would definitely recommend this course.” MS, Mediator and Therapist, London.

“If you are interested in working with CFS/ME – go on this course.  If you are not interested in working with CFS/ME – go on this course.  I experienced a large stepping stone to greater self confidence, belief and greater success” MR, Hypnotherapist, Crawley.

“I gained a wealth of new information and met a lot of lovely people who all made me feel welcome and part of a team.  The teaching style was interesting and practical and nice to be spoken to on my level. I enjoyed the matter of fact manner of Jenny and took  alot away with me because of that. Thoroughly enjoyable worthwhile weekend.” NS, Hypnotherapist,  Northern Ireland.

“I was able to work through some of my own stuff and enjoyed the great interaction with other therapists in a non-competitive environment.  This course will give you a deeper insight into ME/CFS and work on developing more skills that are useful with treating a wide range of clients’ presenting problems” JB, Hypnotherapist, Lincoln.

“ Go on this course! Learn from someone who has pulled several strands together to present the cause and resolution to those willing to listen.  Prepare for new skills to assist in other areas...expect the unexpected!” RT, Integrative Therapist, Birmingham.

“The course actually exceeded my expectations as I was only expecting to learn things that would apply directly to clients with ME etc.  However, most of what we learnt ie: the counselling skills and the interventions can be used for all our clients, and indeed just learning more about what makes people tick and how anxiety and stress can become part of us from our childhoods will prove to be an invaluable tool in all my work from now on.  I have taken away from this course an even deeper understanding of why I had Fibromyalgia and what is needed in the form of acceptance and understanding to get well again.  I feel that this understanding will now enable me to achieve my goal of really being able to successfully work with clients with ME and to help them be free of their illness.” LA, Hypnotherapist, Southend.

“My belief in you as a committed therapist to working effectively with ME was confirmed by everything you did this weekend.  I am unable to find the exact words to say thanks for the whole experience”. AA, Hypnotherapist, Germany.

“I’d like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the five day course on CFS/ME. It was highly informative, wonderfully practical and fun, too.  It was all three because you are an excellent teacher – expert in your field, generous with your time, gentle with your students, yet firm enough to ensure that everyone gets maximum benefit from the teaching they receive.  What was just as remarkable was the fact that every student was encouraged to attain some personal growth  I had not expected it and I resisted it with as much cunning as I could muster.  I’m pleased to say that my reluctance was overcome – eventually!  Nothing had prepared me for what I experienced.  The benefits are still with me – and still growing”  MM, Hypnotherapist, Birmingham.

“I noticed I was fully engaged throughout the weekend, something that has not always been the case on other workshops attended” KT, Hypnotherapist, Cardiff.

How many courses have you been on since you qualified?

You may only be into your practice a couple of years but already you’re realising that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be by your original school of Hypnotherapy.  Your clients aren’t following the kind of expected recovery path you had been taught was likely and you don’t know why not. 

I’m going to take a guess.  You’ve enrolled yourself in various CPD courses looking for extra techniques and strategies only to realise that you’ve spent a lot of money and still things aren’t quite as you’d been promised.  Many courses have been average, delivered by average trainers, detailing techniques that at least half of which, you’d probably never use confidently.  So now you’re probably quite disillusioned.

Maybe you’re asking the questions: “What else can I learn that I haven’t already been on a course for?”  “What can be so special about this CFS course?”

And why wouldn’t you ask those questions?  It’s important that you have an idea of what you stand to gain from making an investment in your continued education.

So what am I going to teach you on this 3 day intensive – Unlocking the Mysteries of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

Firstly, if you’ve only been trained in hypnotherapy and you’re a couple of years into your practice and either you’re working flat out or you’re still waiting for your first referral from a client to come through, then I suggest you need to assess how to work smarter. 

So if you can treat CFS/ME then you can treat pretty much anything.  And here’s what you’ll learn:

·         Counselling skills

·         An understanding of transference issues: ie: how our stuff interferes with the therapeutic relationship and how we can get caught up in clients’ stuff and what to do about it.

·         A range of hypnotherapy skills: Psycho Imaginative, Guided Affective, Conference Room, Future Progressive.

·         The principle of Gestalt therapy

·         How to deal with secondary gains in CFS

·         How to use transference therapeutically

·         How to work with a client’s difficult personality

·         How to develop your intuition

·         How the mind is affected by food

·         How to assess dietary issues in those with CFS

.     What we have learned through Psycho Neuro Immunology, science's poor cousin, about the Mind Body connection.

Now this is what I teach, but the kind of learning I foster in my groups means that you leave with far more personal insight than you came in with.  One of my recent students said:

"Insight is something that cannot be taught - or so I thought! - You make the impossible possible... This is a tool beyond tools to inspire every therapist to trust their inner knowing in their connection with every other human being." Lisa

What are you likely to go away with?

This is the question that depends on how much you allow yourself to query what you already know.  Because I can show you how to do lots of things, but unless your mind is open to learning, you could waste your time and money. 

What I know others have come out with is some of the following:

·         A much deeper inner confidence with your CFS clients and with all your clients

·         To be able to close the door after your last client and not have to think about them again till next time.

·         To understand how to step back from clients and stop rescuing them

·         To be compassionately strict with your clients when they are wasting your time

·         Turn their resistance into cooperation

·         To reduce the pressure you feel under to ‘perform’ by being more human with your clients: paradoxically, the human connection creates as much healing as any technique you can offer

·         Show your CFS clients how they can take responsibility for their recovery

·         And a much deeper understanding of what illness is telling us and why we need it.

·         And a far reaching understanding of the Mind Body link through evidence from PNI – Psycho-Neuro-Immunology which I present on the course

·         To understand how food can sabotage all your therapeutic good intentions with your clients.

You see, I want to get you thinking.  I’m not here to just regurgitate more techniques I’ve learned to pass on to you.  I want you to ask and answer your own questions about your clients and start trusting your inherent wisdom.  I don’t want to be another dispenser of techniques that you’ll forget how to use after the course.  I want you to stay with me and learn from all the different ways you can engage with me after the course too. And I want you to think through your own rules, and your own ideas and operate in your own orbit: not in your original trainer’s and not in mine.

However, if by now you are certain you want to train to treat CFS/ME and you’ve read all the above and you’re ready to say yes, then you can do that by making your £100 deposit payment now. 

Within a few moments of making your first payment, I’ll send you an application pack by email including an instalment plan that you can set up with your own bank to pay for the rest of the course.  As long as you’re paid up by the week of the course, then it’s yours at £590.

This is an investment in your Continuing Professional Development which will bring you benefits for years to come.  And since I don’t like to let go of my students, you can have continued access to me through the forum, teleseminars and other ways in which you can engage at a very small cost.  Don’t miss the deadline!  If you’re thinking about it, put it in your phone well in advance of the deadline so you can rethink it.  Look up on the browser bar to add the URL to your phone. 

Each year that passes, I get excited about who I’m going to meet on my courses and who is going to experience an amazing breakthrough in their therapy practice.  It really is a privilege to be able to meet and share my knowledge with you.

Therefore,  if you’re serious about it and you want to be able to afford it, I’d make your first payment as soon as possible if I were you so you can spread the rest of your payments affordably.

Looking forward to meeting you in October.

Best wishes

PSS:  Watch your practice change as you grow in insight and confidence! See what other people said above if you have any doubts.

Terms and Conditions: The £100 deposit is non refundable. This is a CPD opportunity and students must be in practice seeing at least 5 clients per week.  I reserve the right to decline an application if students do not meet those criteria.