The analytical hypnotherapist will often observe the seamy side of life when helping the client. The fayre of the client’s troubles may frequently include rape, childhood abuse and domestic violence – so much so that the practitioner may even feel that he/she is receiving a blinkered perspective on life.
When recently reading Helena Kennedy’s book, entitled Misjustice: How British Law is Failing Women, published by Vintage 2019, I realised that what the professional practitioner regards as commonplace in the consulting room is not that rare or isolated from reality in society at large.
Helena Kennedy quotes some startling statistics which back up the experience of the average analytical hypnotherapy practitioner and it is a damning indictment of the current situation in the world which provides much food for thought:
“While women are increasingly vocal and are refusing to be muzzled about the violence and abuse they experience, the extent of such crimes is not in decline. Two women a week are killed by a spouse or partner. The police receive one phone call per minute concerning domestic violence. Every seven minutes a woman is raped. New technology has brought the proliferation of pornography on a scale that is alarming and contagious. Boys and men are watching and sharing imagery on their phones in which intimacy is wholly debased and women are treated as objects. They then act out what they see in their contact with women, thinking this is what good sex is like. The trafficking of women and children is being carried out on an industrial scale across the world and barely a town or city in the United Kingdom has escaped its reach. The truth is that a lot has happened but not enough has changed.”
This is obviously a humungous worldwide problem but Helena Kennedy also indicates in her book that other legal systems are slightly ahead of British justice which ironically, no doubt, prides itself in being beyond reproach.
These issues are detailed succinctly and unflinchingly by Helena Kennedy who was awarded a life peerage in 1997 for her work in the legal profession as a barrister, broadcaster, journalist, lecturer and reformer-campaigner. And I salute Helena Kennedy for having the courage to tirelessly bang this drum and to tell it like it is.
Many women – and men too – who are subject to abuse and violence will often suffer in silence not only because of issues of personal shame but also because of the inadequacy, prejudices and entrenchment of the British legal system.
If you yourself have experienced any form of abuse or violence in your life, then please visit the JMHT “Find a Practitioner” page on the JMHT website (www.jmhypnotraining.co.uk) in order to discover the key to unlocking and resolving your traumatic distress.
Jacquelyne Morison