Pere pr

oes;
MEWS photo Tom Burtey
NORTH VANCOUVER hypnotherapist Uaniel Rutley has a meeting of
minds with client Irene Majendie. Rutiey is helping Majendie in her quest
to quit smoking. He's been a practising hypnotherapist since {979 and is
one of approximately 20 active in the Lower Mainland.

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PAGE 49

45 — Wednesday, June 14, 1989 .

You are getting sleepy...

HYPNOTHERAPIST DISPELS MYTHS
OF MODERN COUNSELLING TOOL

LOCAL HYPNOTHERAPIST Daniel Rutley has heard it
all before: hypnosis is a black art; hypnosis is an exercise in
mind control and will domination; hypnosis is 5 the work of

the Devil.

The concept conjures an image
of a wizened Germanic type dangl-
ing a shiny pocket watch in the
face of his subject and putting the
serious whammy on said subject
with a hackneyed line like, ‘You
are getting very sleepy.’

Rutley does have an intense and
direct look about the eyes, but that
comes from years of one-on-one
counselling sessions with his clients
who mostly come to him desperate
to lose weight or quit smoking.

Rutley says he incorporates
hypnosis as a tool to help people
feel better about being themselves.

Said Rutley: ‘Hypnosis to the
counsellor is like the paint brush to
the artist. The paint brush doesn’t
paint the picture, the artist does.
The paint brush is a tool. The
main portion of my work is getting
people to think more clearly. To
view their options differently and
to help them to minimize stress.
Usually there’s a stress element
which causes some kind of
dysfunctional behavior.”*

How did a nice guy like Rutley
get into the business of implanting
feel-good thoughts into the minds
of others? He’s been a practising
hypnotherapist since 1979. Rutley
is one of approximately 20 active
in the Lower Mainland.

HAEL BECKER
News Reporier

ByM

Said Rutley: ‘‘! started my train-
ing in sort of an odd way. I started
working as a motivational
counsellor up at Cold Lake, Alber-
ta, with the armed forces. I was
teaching a motivational counselling
course there. It was a leadership
course and a part of it was
teaching people how to motivate
others.

“The problem I ran into was
that you ran into blocks with peo-
ple. And if they got themselves
depressed or upset about work or
their home life you couldn’t
motivate them. So a greater under-
standing of psychology was sure
helpful. And then I started getting
into hypnosis.’’

He took a medical hypnosis
course, designed for doctors and
dentists, and eventually applied the
hypnosis concepts learned to what
he already knew about counselling.
“Pm a counsellor that uses hyp-

nosis,’” he maintains.

About 60 per’ cent of his North
Shore clients are people who come
in to quit smoking, to lose weight
or stress. A variety of maladies,
including insomnia, depression,
anxiety and anger, account for the
other 40 per cent.

Rutley implants positive at-
titudes by getting people to visual-
ize ideal circumstances. ‘‘I get
people to create an image of
themselves in normal situations as
their ideal person. The human be-
ing thinks in pictures to some
degree. I give verbal suggestions to
back up this image.

“I think most people don’t un-
derstand what hypnosis really is. If
I say ‘hypnosis’, people say, ‘Ch
no, I’m not going to do that.’ But
if I say ‘meditation,’ they’ll say,
‘Oh, I’ve heard that’s wonderful.’

“Meditation is a peaceful state
of mind where you basically try to
blank out your mind and remain
relaxed for a period of time. Hyp-
nosis is identical, with one excep-
tion. While you're sitting there
with a blank mind, instead of just
leaving it blank, we have you focus
on one thought — sleepiag better,
not smoking, losing weight,’’ he
said.