Last weekend I attended the National Guild of Hypnotists annual convention in Marlborough, Massachusetts. What an energizing and inspiring experience! I attended seventeen different seminars and workshops on a range of topics—smoking cessation, weight loss, bruxism, test anxiety, guided imagery, stress, parts therapy, and more. I was so impressed by the professionalism and expertise of my colleagues and am excited to implement new tools into my practice.
I was also impressed by the organization of the convention. There were free teleseminars during the month leading up to the convention, a special online forum, and a daily blog radio hosted by NGH members. When I arrived at the hotel, I was given an NGH tote bag with the convention program and a CD with 500 pages of materials provided by each of the presenters. Each of the 300 workshops was professionally recorded or video taped so that participants could order workshops that they wanted to take home with them or were not able to get to.
The exhibition room was a lot of fun. Imagine a huge banquet room filled with hypnosis books! There were also trinkets and souvenirs. I got the poster below, which is a reproduction of the January 7, 1906 article on hypnosis in the San Francisco Chronicle. (Contact William Smith of the Action Resources Center if you’d like to purchase one. The photo doesn’t do it justice. The colors are much richer, and it looks great framed in my office.)
The hotel lobby had an exhibit of hypnosis memorabilia, including this November 3, 1958 article in Life Magazine:
The title of the article is “Hypnosis: Old ‘Black Art’ Is Now Accepted Medical Tool.”
I can’t wait to go back to the convention next year!
