A letter from Bernhard Trenkle (Immediate Past-President) and Mark Jensen (President)
Dear ISH members :
We are writing this president’s column together as we transition smoothly from one presidency to another, having worked closely together over the last three years (as president and president-elect), and looking forward to continuing to work closely together over the next three year (as president and immediate past-president).
We would first like to express our gratitude to our Board of Directors who accomplished so much over the last three years, including Enayat Shahidi, Claude Virot, Woltemade Harman, Giuseppe De Benedittis, Brian Allen, Cecilia Fabre, Xin Fang, Kris Klajs, and Katalin Varga. We are proud that the BOD members represented all continents, including the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. We enjoyed meeting face-to-face every year in 2018 and 2019 but could not do so in 2020 due to the pandemic. We are looking forward to starting this tradition as soon as possible.
Our successes included:
- The installation of a real virtual office where all BOD members or administrators can run the society from the home office.
- Starting the whoISHwho.com project, with which many of you are already participating (if you have not yet registered, please do so!).
- The collection and making accessible resources for helping people cope with the corona crisis.
We want to express our special thanks for the wonderful work Woltemade Hartman did as chair of the COR. His questionnaire to all societies and the results from this have been outstanding. In addition, Woltemade facilitated the completion of a training standards document that reflects the complex international situation.
As our Treasurer Secretary, Enayat Shahidi helped us maintain our financial strength, providing us with regular updates and giving us important guidance and suggestions for how we can be most efficient in our work.
We also want to thank Kata Varga for a wonderful newsletter published 4 times a year, as well as her work in bringing together our next generation of researchers and leaders in the field.
Ceci Fabre also helped us to reach out to and connect with the younger generation via social media: Facebook, Instagram, ISH Blog.
Xin Fang from Beijing University has worked hard to continue in the development of hypnotherapy in China.
Nicole Ruysschaert, as former ESH President, was not elected BOD member, volunteered to lend her support to ISH by participating in the BOD meetings, providing us with detailed knowledge about hypnosis in Europe, and making significant contributions to every newsletter.
Giuseppe de Benedittis also made an extraordinary contribution. He has invaluable contacts with the world of science and research at the World Health Organization. He is working tirelessly to make hypnosis be recognized as a viable treatment by the WHO and is making great progress in this area. So keep your eyes open for new developments in this in the months ahead!
Kris Klajs and his team have been focusing on organizing the ISH Congress in Krakow. Plans for this meeting continue to move ahead. It was also his idea to organize the first Asian Congress in Hypnosis in 2019, which was a big success.
We also want to express our appreciation to Julie Linden for her continued hard work as the USA Administrator, contributing many hours to help us keep current with the paperwork needed to maintain our non-profit status and registration as an association. She also has an extraordinary long-term memory, which has helped us to maintain our efficiency.
A special thank you also is it legal to buy klonopin online goes to Claude Virot for all the wonderful work he has done on the Board of Directors, first as president-elect, then as presideent, and then, over the past three years, immediate past-president. You will recall that he organized the largest and most successful international hypnosis congress in history.
Brian Allen served ISH and the Board of Directors extremely well as the COR secretary, supporting the COR Chair as needed.
Finally, we want to express our deep appreciation to Shady Tonn, our ISH Administrator, who has effectively supported the society to ensure our goals are achieved.
As we look forward, we are very much looking forward to working closely with the next BOD for the next three years. We are grateful that many of the BOD members from the last three years were elected to serve another term, although some will do so in different roles. These include Kris Klajs (President-Elect), Enayat Shahidi (Treasurer/Secretary), Woltemade Hartman (COR Chair), Brian Allen (COR Secretary), and Ceci Fabre, Kata Varga, and Giuseppe de Benedittis, the latter three as members at large. We also welcome two new members to the BOD, Callie Hattingh (as COR Vice-Chair), Anita Jung, and a member at large. Although Callie and Anita are new to the BOD, they bring with them a depth of experience in working with other hypnosis societies, and are enthusiastic about working with us to further the mission of ISH.
The new BOD will be meeting soon to discuss our most important initiatives for the next three years. But already, there is talk and a committment growing for at least three of these. One is, of course, to organize a successful World Congress in 2024 (or perhaps in 2025). In the meantime, of course, please registor for and plan to participate in the very next World Congress, that will be held in Krakow from June 8 to 11, 2022 (https://www.hypnosis2021.com/en).
We also want to continue to have a positive effect on increasing the effective use of clinical hypnosis by both (1) increasing our reach through an increase in the number of individual members and constituent societies and (2) increasing the number of in-person (once this is possible again) and virtual hypnosis training events. We will be establishing new committees to focus on these initiatives soon – if you are interested in volunteering for either or both of the Education and Training committee or our ISH Membership committee, please contact us via info@ishhypnosis.com.
In the meantime, the virtual COR meeting we held on June 10, and the ISH virtual event we had the next day, were so successful, we are already making plans to continue supporting our connections by hosting a monthly „Coffee, Tea, or other Beverage of your choice with the President.“ During this hour, any ISH member is welcome to meet with Mark Jensen and BOD members who are able to attend to give us ideas and inspiration for ways to support ISH’s mission, even more, socialize, talk about hypnosis, and just support each other. So please keep your eyes out for the days and times for these virtual meetings, and plan to participate!
Building on many of ISH’s past successes, we will be working together to support the acceptance and use of hypnosis worldwide. We are very much looking forward to partnering with you in these efforts in the years ahead.
With warmest regards,
Mark Jensen, ISH President
Bernhard Trenkle, ISH Immediate Past-President