Dear members of the world hypnosis community,
I am writing this letter from Singapore, getting ready to board a flight to Bengaluru, India, to meet with valued colleagues Dr. Jini Gopinath, Dr. Prasanta Kumar Roy, and Dr. Dipankar Patra, all of who are leaders in the Indian Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (ISCEH). ISCEH has a long history of providing training and support for clinicians providing clinical hypnosis in India, and is seeking to make its ties with ISH and the international hypnosis community even stronger. I was honored to volunteer my time to facilitate a workshop organized by ISCEH and co-sponsored by ISH in December of last year, have plans to facilitate another workshop in India (in Kolkata) this coming December. I am also working closely with the ISCEH leadership to support future collaborations. It has been very rewarding to be building these bridges.
There are many benefits to ISH for co-sponsoring workshops with national hypnosis societies. First, as alluded to above, co-sponsoring workshops is a concrete one way to build bridges of understanding between ISH and our Constituent Societies. It also facilitates the sharing of experience and knowledge between people from different countries and cultures, which is mutually enriching. Third, workshops always generate new energy and excitement among participants; with more hypnosis workshops, the opportunities for the expansion of hypnosis grow. To the extent that ISH can help to nurture workshops around the world, this contributes to an overall increase in interest in and use of hypnosis. Moreover, through co-sponsored workshops, Constituent Society members can learn more about ISH and the wider global hypnosis community. Some will become individual ISH members for the first time and participate in future ISH events and in ISH leadership. This brings greater diversity and global participation into our ISH community. For these reasons and more, I hope to see increasing numbers of workshops co-sponsored between ISH and our CS’s in the years ahead. If you are a member of a Constituent Society and think that a workshop co-sponsored with ISH would benefit your community, please contact me, the Council of Representatives Chairperson (Dr. Woltemade Hartman), Council of Representatives Vice-Chairperson (Dr. Callie Hattingh), or the Chair of our Education and Training Committee (Dr. Enayat Shahidi) via info@ishhypnosis.org.
Another way that we have sought facilitate connections and bridge building in the international hypnosis community is by meeting virtually every month at the Coffee with the President event. These are mostly held on the first Thursday of each month, at 16:00 Central European Time. However, we have occasionally held this event at other times in the day to make it easier for people living outside of Europe to participate. We have done this, in particular, when the Coffee with the President was co-sponsored by an ISH Constituent Society. If by chance you have not yet had the opportunity to participate in a coffee event, please accept my invitation to do so. Keep your eyes open for the invitation from ISH’s administrative staff, register, and then join us. Also, if you would like your Constituent Society to co-sponsor a coffee event, please get in touch with me so we can arrange this (again, via info@ishhypnosis.org).
And finally, some good news about our 2023 anniversary events. The first of three ISH President Panels where the past, present, and future of ISH was discussed by past, present, and future ISH presidents was successfully held in early July of this year. If you missed the panel discussion, you are welcome to watch it at the following YouTube link: https://youtu.be/vWry_-WVJQk. Similar panels are scheduled for the European Society of Hypnosis conference in Antalya, Türkeye in October and in the Italian Society of Hypnosis Congress in Bologna, Italy in November. You will be able to participate in both of these panel events virtually. Please keep your eyes open for the invitations.
I am looking forward to seeing you soon. Perhaps at one of the monthly coffees, perhaps at the upcoming European Society of Hypnosis conference in Antalya, Türkeye, in October, perhaps at the upcoming Italian Society of Hypnosis in Bologna, Italy, in November, at one of the monthly virtual ISH Masterclass webinars, or at the ISH World Hypnosis Conference in Krakow in June of next year.
Warm regards,
Mark P. Jensen