Two Hypnotherapists Talking with John Scanlon

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Denise Billen-Mejia MD CH  www.healandberadiant.com      [email protected]

Les Roberts ACH www.lesrobertshypnotherapy.co.uk [email protected]

Welcome to Two Hypnotherapists Talking with me, Denise Billen-Mejia, in Delaware, USA. (0:06) And me, Les Roberts, in St Helens, United Kingdom. (0:10) This weekly podcast is for anyone and everyone who would like to know more about the fascinating (0:14) world of hypnosis and the benefits that it offers.I'm a clinical hypnotherapist and (0:22) specialist in working with children. And I'm a retired medical doctor (0:26) and consultant hypnotist. We are Two Hypnotherapists Talking.(0:33) So let's get on with the episode. (0:36) Hello everybody and welcome. So we're way into season nine now, aren't we, Denise? (0:43) We are indeed.Talking to a lot of our friends (0:45) and a lot of our colleagues. So I want to introduce John Scanlon. He's a hypnotherapist, (0:53) a trainer and creator, organizer of the Irish Hypnotherapy Conference.He practices in Ireland (1:03) and he specializes in working with clients with trauma, adoption related issues, FND, (1:11) functional neurological disorder and identity change. John also trains therapists in both (1:19) working with trauma, FND and adoption. And he's developed wonderful techniques, (1:27) such as the Little Star and Lighthouse, which John's going to talk about today.(1:32) So welcome, John. It's nice to have you on. (1:35) Thank you.Nice to meet you. (1:38) And you, Denise. We haven't met in person.We'll have to fix that. (1:41) Okay. When we figure out whether we're going to be able to fly from the US to anywhere (1:47) very soon.Anyway, so what are you going to talk to us about today? (1:53) I'm going to Hypnothots in what, six weeks time? Be in Las Vegas. (1:57) Vegas. (1:59) Opposite side to you, isn't it? (2:01) Yeah, I'm in Delaware.It's a long way away from Vegas. (2:04) It's a long way away. (2:05) As far away as here.(2:08) It is a very good place to have a function though. So many hotels. (2:14) Yeah, it is.It's a nice place. (2:17) Wow. (2:18) Anyway, sir, so what are you going to talk to us about Lighthouse? The only thing I know about (2:21) Lighthouse is the shipping aspect of them.So what does it mean to you? (2:26) What is it? Okay. Well, I'll tell you what it is and I'll tell you how I got there. So (2:33) Lighthouse is a model for identity change.(2:37) And I suppose how I got there was that from working with people with trauma and working (2:43) with people with FND and being adopted myself, it changes. I won't say even with adoption, (2:50) it doesn't even change who you are. You become somebody at a very early age and it's not (2:55) always who you wanted to be.And particularly, I suppose, when I started to work with functional (3:01) issues and people couldn't drive and there were so many things they couldn't do that they lost (3:06) the ability to believe in themselves. They lost the ability to be able to do things that (3:11) most of us take for granted. (3:13) To project the future.(3:14) Yeah. (3:16) I mean, you think about the loss of freedom of not being able to drive and not being able to walk. (3:21) You know, that loss of freedom, and if you have it for a couple of years, and I've worked with (3:25) people who've had it for 10 and 15 years, and it just literally, it's a gradual thing, but it does (3:32) change them bit by bit by bit.And suddenly what's available to them is no longer available (3:38) in their own mind. So what Lighthouse came from was a process that I developed where we clear the (3:47) past to a large degree, and we help people to clear the nervous systems and start to reset the (3:52) systems and all that. And what I've always used is the process called Little Star, which is a (3:59) connection back to a very simple idea.It's a really simple idea, which is that we're born as (4:08) unlimited potential and resources, pretty much. We're born confident, we're born resilient. (4:14) And I know we're born confident, and I know we're born resilient because we learn to walk, (4:19) and we fall hundreds of times on the journey, but we get back up each and every time.(4:24) And when we're hungry as a child, we don't really care what you're doing. We're going to say, (4:30) feed me. I don't care.Just give me food. Right? So we're born confident, we're born resilient, (4:35) and we're born with curiosity and joy and so much else. Life knocks it out of us.(4:41) So Little Star was a process that would bring people back to that essence of who they were, (4:47) along with every positive thing that ever happened to them, and taking the lessons then from the not (4:53) so positive stuff, if you want. And the real thing was, I suppose, the first thing I would (4:59) tell my clients each and every time is, everything before today is over. And your left hemisphere (5:06) knows that, but your right hemisphere is now going, but what about, because I'm running this (5:10) loop from whenever, and Little Star journey is a process that says, right, everything before (5:17) today is over.We put a marker here to mark it, and then we start to look forward. And then it (5:23) became, well, what are the tools that people need? So if you think about what a lighthouse is, (5:29) it's an initially, I probably would have thought about it as a beacon, something that could, (5:34) you know, light the way for you. But actually, now it's become more that no matter whether it's (5:41) a storm outside, or whether it's raining, or whether the sun is shining, the lighthouse is (5:45) still solid.It doesn't matter what's going on around it. So if you can instill in people, (5:53) the beliefs, and more importantly, the identities that they want, (5:59) then they're solid within that environment, no matter what's going on around them. (6:03) It also becomes a guide for them.Yeah. So it's based on logical levels. And it is based on that (6:11) logic NLP logical level model.And I do it for two reasons. One is that I use it as a way to (6:20) clear out any remaining bits that might be left. And the other is I use it as a way to install.(6:26) So if you think about it, if we try and change a behavior, but there's a value attached to it, (6:31) and once upon a time, people would have called that secondary gaming, they still do. (6:35) I don't, it's the real game. It's the real reason why people do it.(6:40) You know, you can change, it can be hidden from them. That's the problem. (6:44) Most people aren't aware.Most people aren't aware consciously of that hidden game. (6:49) Correct. Yeah, absolutely.But it's the real reason that goes behind it. And if you try and (6:55) change the behavior, and the value doesn't change, or something higher up that chain doesn't change, (7:00) then suddenly, you may get short term gain, but you won't get that long term thing that people (7:05) are looking for. So what Lighthouse became was a way to clear that stuff for once and for all the (7:11) remaining bits that might have been left, but also to give people a semblance of, they might even see (7:17) a picture in their mind and go, it doesn't bother me now, you know, you can still just get rid of (7:21) it once and for all.And then connect them back to the, the work that was done up to that point, (7:28) which was the star journey, basically everything before today is over. But you're bringing with (7:33) you a toolkit now, that includes all the positive things that have ever happened to you, plus all (7:39) the stuff that you were born with, and then start to build the identity from identity down. Define (7:46) who it is that you, we are, I am, and then work down through the values, work down through the (7:52) beliefs, work down through the behaviors, and ultimately, the environment changes itself.(7:57) And that literally is what Lighthouse is. Now, it was originally developed from working with trauma, (8:03) but actually, most of us arrive at who we are by default. And, and if we try and think about (8:11) how we might want to do something, and there's internal resistance for, or, you know, it's kind (8:17) of like, I use this for everybody at this stage, whether they've had trauma or not.(8:21) Mm hmm. And you don't always know what's traumatic to somebody. (8:28) Well, trauma is perceived, perceived meaning.It's there, exactly. Especially if they were little. (8:37) Correct.Absolutely correct. And what Lighthouse allows me to do is help people to create the (8:43) future they want. Very clearly.Yeah. When did you develop it? About 18 months ago, (8:50) about 18 months ago, I'd say. Okay.And because I was getting to that stage where (8:55) people were, they were, they cleared the reasons that came in the first place, but now they were (9:01) going, what goes next? Yeah. So it kind of was demand driven, almost. Okay.Yeah. You know. (9:09) How long have you been inhibitors? How long have you been inhibitors? 10 years.Okay. 10 years. (9:15) There was a real surge of, I trained in 2019.You were a couple of years before me, Les. (9:23) 2015. 2015, yeah.(9:24) We seem to be a lot of people all of a sudden in this. We're a big cohort of recent people. (9:32) Do you think 2015, 2016, there was nothing else to do? (9:39) We all must have known something was coming, that we were going to be sitting on Zoom.(9:45) Helping people all over the world. Yeah, yeah. Can I ask you, John, (9:49) how do you use this model? Because I know you work with people who are adopted and are going (9:57) through that journey.How do you use this model? Is it to help them to find their identity? (10:04) It's to help them create it to a large, sorry, create the one they want. (10:10) Okay. Yeah.(10:11) Not, I mean, they have an identity, right? Yeah, of course, yeah. (10:14) If you think about, say, people with adoption,