The following interview, is excerpted from a forthcoming book, Masters of Hypnotherapy.
Norbert: Today, we have a very famous guest with us; Gil Boyne.
Gil and his approach to Hypnotherapy have become legendary in the profession. He has been practicing Hypnotherapy for more than 54 years (as of 2009) and has become a legend as one of the true pioneers of Contemporary Clinical Hypnotherapy.
He is essentially self-taught, for when he began his career in 1954, there were no hypnotherapy organizations or training programs available.
Boyne opened the first Hypnotherapy Training Institute in America in 1969, created the first registration and certification program for hypnotherapists, in 1980 he founded the first hypnotherapist organization with serious standards for training, the “American Council of Hypnotist Examiners” and in 1984 he created the first International Annual Hypnotherapy Conference for hypnotherapists. In 1967, he founded the first publishing company devoted exclusively to hypnotism/hypnotherapy books, Westwood Publishing Company. He was the first hypnotherapist/Instructor to create a series of hypnotherapy training videos and videotaped live therapy sessions.
Gil Boyne has written a major textbook, “Transforming Therapy” and several training manuals and has trained over 12,000 hypnotherapists worldwide. He has become a living legend in the hypnotherapy world and in April 2000 Gil Boyne was inducted into the International Hypnosis Hall of Fame. He received the special award, “Man of the Century.” For his contribution to the Humanistic Sciences, Gil has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees from four American Universities.
Norbert: Gil, I have attended your Master Class, and I was deeply impressed by the way you work with your clients. After almost forty years of training hypnotherapists, what is it that still motivates you to continue teaching trainings and seminars?
GB: I feel that I have a special passion for the work.
My uncle was a famous stage hypnotist and magician. When I was twelve years old, he came to my home and hypnotized both my mother and father, which made a vivid impression on my imagination. I began to search for literary references to hypnotherapy but there was very little to be found.
Hypnosis had been neglected because of Sigmund Freud’s failure to understand or utilize it properly. When he dismissed hypnosis and developed “free association”, it became a model for the psychoanalytic world and the belief developed that hypnosis was not a useful tool in therapy. It took the best part of the next century for hypnosis to be resurrected again. I believe that I played a significant role in that resurrection.
Norbert: What do you think is missing in Sigmund Freud’s theories?
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Gil Boyne, Hollywood’s favorite hypnotherapist, set Sylvester Stallone on the road to stardom. He has motivated sports stars, made stutterers into orators, cured amnesiacs and massaged egos; he has also made several million dollars. Rupert Morris went to see him about his asthma.
