Dear ISH members:
I am very happy to report that our new Board of Directors has begun to work on many initiatives for ISH for the next three years. First, have identified the chairs of our numerous committees and groups who will be leading these initiatives. They include both regular standing comittees that are specified in our by laws (i.e., Congress, Nominations and Elections, Ethical Practices, and Publications Committees), as well as our ad hoc committees that the BOD has established to achieve specific additional goals (i.e., Educaiton and Training, Research, Membership, Awards, Social Media, Website, Newsletter, and Youth Committees):
- Bernhard Trenkle: Nominations and Elections Committee
- Krzysztof Klajs: Chair of the 2022 Congress Committee
- Enayat Shahidi: Chair of the Education and Training Committee and the Finance Committee
- Maria Paola Brugnoli: Chair of the Ethical Committee
- Giuseppe de Benedittis: Chair of the Research and Publications Committee, and WHO Task Force
- Bernhard Trenkle: Chair of the Membership Committee and the Credentials Committee
- Camillo Loriedo: Chair of the Awards Committee
- Cecilia Fabre: Chair of the Social Media Committee
- Woltemade Hartman: Chair of the Standards Committee
- Julie Linden: Chair of the Website Committee
- Katalin Varga: Chair of the Newsletter Committee
- Shady Tonn: Chair of the Youth Committee
In addition, many of the chairs of these committees are active members of other committees, and all of the board members who are not committee chairs are also serving as members of multiple committees, including Brian Allen (serving on the Finance, Credentials, Education, and Training, Membership, and Social Medica Committees), Anita Jung (serving on the Education and Training, Standards, and Newsletter Committees) and Callie Hattingh (serving on the Education and Training and Standards Committees).
We are also fortunate to have several ISH members who have agreed to volunteer to serve on these ISH committees for the next three years, including Consuelo Casula on the Ethical Practices Committee, Nicole Rusysschaert on the Publications and Research, Awards, Education and Training, Website, and Newsletter Committees and the WHO Task Force, Susanna Carolusson on the Credentials Committee, Teresa Robles on the Education and Training Committee, and Dan Short on the Education and Training Committee. Please give a HUGE round of applause to all of these individuals who donate their time, knowledge, and expertise to advance hypnosis worldwide. And when you run into them, please feel free to express your gratitude for their contributions.
So, what are these committees up to? I have asked the committee chairs to provide me with a summary of their shorter and longer-term goals for the next three years. Their responses were both exciting and inspiring! Here is a brief summary of some of the highlights.
Education and Training
The Education and Training Committee, under the leadership of Enayat Shahidi, has big plans. They recently met to develop strategies for developing more hypnosis training opportunities organized or co-sponsored by ISH, including virtual and in-person training opportunities. For example, there are discussions now to co-sponsor a 1-day workshop on the use of hypnosis for pain management with the Oregon Society of Clinical Hypnosis in Portland, Oregon, USA, as well as a 2-day basic hypnosis workshop with the Icelandic Hypnosis Society. The committee is collecting a team of highly qualified, well-known international lecturers to implement low-cost and high-quality online workshops/events to serve the valued ISH members as a membership benefit.
The Education and Training Committee will contribute questions to a survey going out to all of our constituent soceities, asking them about their interest in collaborating with ISH to provide training opportunities for their members and identify the specific training needs and preferences of their members. They also plan to develop short videos on a broad range of topics which can be made available to our members on ISH’s website. Please feel free to let Enayat Shahidi know about any ideas you have regarding how ISH might be able to serve current and future ISH members in the training and education of hypnosis (dr.enayat.shadini@gmail.com).
Membership
Bernhard Trenkle, the chair of the Membership Committee, notes that one of the most important tasks of the Membership Committee is to motivate the leading hypnosis experts in the world (which would include you, dear reader) to connect via their ISH membership. All of the Membership Committee members, including the chair, Brian Allen, and Woltemade Hartman, have many international contacts. The committee also plans to develop initiatives to motivate our younger colleagues to connect with each other and our more experienced members. They will do this not only by developing additional benefits of ISH membership but also by developing ways that our members can be more involved in contributing to the society. Stay tuned!
Ethical Practices
Under the leadership of Paola Brugnoli, she and the Ethical Practices committee will work to support ISH by providing guidance to ISH members who have questions regarding ethical issues in the practice of hypnosis. They will also review and provide advice and guidance, as needed, specific cases where there are potential ethical buy ambien online overnight conflicts, including help in clarifying issues and coming up with alternatives and compromises, when appropriate. All of this will be in the service of promoting the human rights of all individuals involved and ensuring ethical and fair policies and practices.
Research and Publications Committees and WHO Task Force
Under the leadership of Giuseppe de Benedittis, the Research and Publications Committees are currently working to organize a scientific panel for the 2022 World Congress in Krakow. The ISH WHO Task Force has also been invited to participate with ESH in a virtual Integrated Medicine Congress under the sponsorship of WHO. As Dr. De Benedittis notes, this congress – and ISH’s participation in it – will be a major step towards the recognition of hypnosis by WHO.
Newsletter Committee
Under the leadership of Katalin Varga, the Newsletter will continue to produce a wonderful ISH Newsletter four times a year that will be full of rich content useful to all of our members. Dr. Varga has made a special request to everyone reading this right now: Please provide her (varga.katalin@ppk.elte.hu) with news about your work in hypnosis – including photos! – to help our readers understand all of the wonderful work being done around the world in the field.
Website Committee
Under Julie Linden’s leadership, the website committee plans to not only keep the website updated with fresh information (including adding monthly updates from yours truly and a notice about the link to each month’s „Coffee or Beverage of Your Choice with the President“) about ISH’s initiatives as well as news about hypnosis worldwide. Of particular importance is to keep information about hypnosis training opportunities worldwide current. As soon as you or your home society has made plans for a training opportunity, such as a webinar, virtual workshop, or in-person workshop, please send that information to Julie Linden (julie@drjjulielinden.com) or Shady Tonn (info@ishhypnosis.org) right away, so other ISH members can be made aware of the workshop. Also, if you have an interest in serving on the Website Committee, the committee is still open to ISH members who are tech-savvy and artistic. In this case, please contact Dr. Linden to let her know of your interest!
Standards Committee
You are probably aware that the Standards Committee, under Woltemade Hartman’s leadership, recently completed a set of standards for who should be trained in clinical hypnosis. Next, they plan to put together recommended guidelines for non-clinical professionals who use hypnosis to enhance the quality of life (as opposed to, for example, treating clinical conditions). They also plan to take on the challenge of considering whether (and how) such non-professionals should be included under the auspicious of ISH. They understand that this latter task will be daunting and will require very careful consideration. As a next step, the Standards Committee plans to survey our Constituent Societies to learn about each one’s current membership and training practices; specifically, who they train and for what purpose. If you are a Constituent Society representative, please keep your eyes open for the survey and respond soon after you receive it. Your input will be critical as the Standards Committee considers these important issues.
Social Media Committee
Under Cecilia Fabre’s leadership, the Social Media Comitee is working to „spread the word“ about ISH and the importance of belonging to ISH as a member among both professionals and students. They will do this by posting regularly to ISH’s website videos and articles in different langauges. They will also seek to promote all of ISH’s events via socail media platforms. Please send any and all ideas that you have for promoting ISH and the benefits of being an ISH member to Cecilia (ceci@grupocem.edu.mx).
Coffee (or Beverage of Your Choice!) with President
We had an incredibly successful first Coffee with the President on August 5. This was, in fact, Coffee with the PresidentS, as it was co-sponsored with the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, and the event was co-hosted by ASCH’s president, Bridget Bongaard. Over 40 ISH members met via Zoom to socialize and share information about the history of ISH and also share ideas about how they use hypnosis to cope with the stress of COVID. By the time you are reading this note, we will have had an equally successful third Coffee
with the President on October 7th. Please plan on continuing to participate in these events, which are designed to help us keep in contact with each other all over the world. Although we currently plan for days to be the same (first Thursday of every month), the time of day will vary to make it easy for everyone in the world to participate at least once every three months, if not more often.
Finally, if you have not already registered for the Hypnosis World Congress, to be held in Krakow next year, June 8-11, 2022, please do so right now. Here is the link to the registration for this event: https://www.hypnosis2021.com/en.
With warmest regards,
Mark Jensen, ISH President