We get what we focus on…! Take this statement and then add in the ‘state of hypnosis’ and we may just begin appreciating the power our unconscious mind holds in creating our reality.

Looking from the terrace of my home at the snowy peaks of the Bavarian Alps served only to solidify this concept. Fifteen years ago I had moved to Oberstdorf, the most southern village of Germany nestled at the foot of the Alps. My husband was a well-known German ice skater and had been at the Olypmpics with Torvill and Dean. Oberstdorf was a centre for ice skating and also where Torvill and Dean had lived and trained for 10 years. Amongst all the moving paraphanelia of boxes, furniture and necessities to survive in a foreign country, namely Branston pickle and decent tea bags, was also a very carefully packed oil painting which I had personally chosen 3 years before. I had hung it consciously on the wall opposite my bed for a special reason. Although at that time I had lived near the sea in South Wales I had longingly gazed at it each morning on awaking and each night before sleeping pretending it was a window through which I saw a wonderful view.

The painting now held pride of place in my new home mirroring the breathtaking Bavarian scenery. The wooden hut, fir trees and further into the distance the snowy alps. That view was now my reality.

I had always had an interest in hypnosis and when my circumstances completed changed due to my husband leaving my daughter and I, I decided to turn my interest in hypnosis into my career.

I was fortunate to be taken under the wing of a wonderful Austrian hypnotherapist Herr Visaintainer who had a wealth of knowledge and was due to retire. He helped me take the first big step on my new journey.

In these difficult circumstances of being on my own in a foreign country with my then 9 year old daughter, I found that working with self-hypnosis enabled me to find inner resources and the strength to remain focussed. It didn’t mean that I wouldn’t cry or have days that I found difficult to cope with but I was able to reach a special state of mind and calm the worries and feel a certain guidance from my unconscious. Step by step I was getting through the days and my extensive studies became my life line.

Hypnosis is a bridge to the unconscious mind, a special state of relaxation similar to daydreaming. It is not some mystical trance and we all experience hypnosis everyday. It is that state we experience before we go off to sleep and when we awake, when pictures drift into our mind and our unconscious mind comes to the foreground. The trance state enables a person to accept suggestions without the usual defensiveness or resistance which exists in the normal conscious state. Through the techniques of inducing hypnosis we are able to induce this state at will and achieve focussed inner awareness.

In the state of hypnosis the unconscious mind cannot tell the difference between what is imagined and what is real. Therefore in this state of inner awareness clients can experience imagined events with such clarity and relaxed involvement that they under go many of the same positive changes that would actually happen in that situation. Our imagination is the language of the unconscious mind.

Eventually I set up my own practice room in a beautiful ‘wellbeing’ hotel in Oberstdorf and every 10 days I travelled to Munich where I would work for a couple of days as part of a hypnosis practice and also as an assistant trainer in hypnosis for the APHP (The Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy) to which I belong, based in the UK, Germany and various other countries.

This pressured period continued for some years as everything which I could have considered familiar changed. My daughter and I were forced to leave our beautiful family home and I found myself fighting through the German courts desperately trying to keep up with the ‘legal’ German language just to be allowed to keep even some furniture. The power of suggestion was working against me as I experienced the final judges’ attitude towards my husband. Television, the best hypnotist in the world, had the judge won over that my husband was a sunny happy generous chap. I pleaded my case that I would like it all sorted out now, rather than having to rely on my husband for on-going payments and I actually stood up and said what if he went off to South America, where would I be then. The judge replied, “Well Herr Schramm wouldn’t do that now would he”. Of course he knew him so well, he’d seen him on the telly. Six months later my ex left for Ecuador.

In the meantime my eyes had reflected back to me that something wasn’t right and I had been to my local GP. I had various blood tests and it was discovered that I had too much protein in my blood, which could develop into multiple myeloma, cancer of the plasma cells an important part of the immune system that produces immunoglobulins (antibodies) to help fight infection and disease. Multiple myeloma is characterised by excessive numbers of abnormal plasma cells in the bone marrow and an over production of protein. My life now consisted of regular visits to the solicitors, local authorities and hospital and I was informed that I would need a bone marrow test for which a pain killer could not be used.

Throughout this time I had continued to treat clients one of whom was a surgeon in Munich. He wanted to make changes in his life and had been impressed by seeing an anesthetist colleague of his working with hypnosis. ‘On the continent’ as the Brits like to say, hypnosis has a different level of acceptance. It was a blessing for me that my own doctor, Dr Hüttig in Oberstdorf was also a hypnotherapist and we both realised the part that hypnosis would play in getting me back into balance. During the bone marrow test the edge was taken off the pain as I went off to the beach in my mind.

I chose not to go for experimental preventative treatment which would entail monthly infusions. I worked with a colleague with hypno-analysis and most days I faithfully worked with self-hypnosis. I continue to go regularly for blood tests and am pleased to report that the excess protein in my blood remains at a minimum.

In 2006 a big decision was reached after being 4 years with my daughter in Bavaria I felt I wanted to return home to Wales. I went with my intuition as to where I should move to and things slotted into place. The three clinics I called were looking for a hypnotherapist and the school had places in year eight and had recently added German to the syllabus.

Four days before Christmas we moved into a small house in Crickhowell and by 24th ‘Heilige Abend’ we were able to celebrate with our normal tradition of combined British/German Christmas.

We are happy in our life now and enjoy walks in the wonderful Welsh countryside in which we are fortunate enough to live. The hills definitely have a soothing affect for me and in some ways there’s a similar feel in the air as in Oberstdorf. My daughter of course had never lived in the UK and really did leave everything familiar behind but she is now really enjoying school here and has a healthy positive attitude to life. She loves learning Welsh and is one of the best in the class. I would say she’s best summed up by a sign she had artistically designed and stuck on my bedroom door on New Year’s Eve. Happy 2006 for a year of adventures!

Looking back I really didn’t know if we would survive such a blow. Hypnosis was an anchor for me during that storm and through my work I have the opportunity to provide the support that hypnosis can offer to others. I am now based in Monmouth Natural Health Centre, the Holistic Clinic in Abergavenny and Brecon Complementary Medicine Centre. I work with client centred therapy with a combination of suggestion therapy and hypno-analysis and all my clients receive self-hypnosis instruction as a valuable part of guiding them to a new understanding and taking control over their own lives.

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