Notes from the President
Claude Virot PhD
June 2018
Hello to all,
I have had the honor of presiding over The International Society of Hypnosis since August 2015. Still, as I write this last edition in June 2018, I feel as if I have just begun. Time passes very quickly while holding this position. Soon it will be Bernhard Trenkle who will be your President. The ISH will be in good hands! As for me, I will have the privilege of remaining as a member of the BOD but taking a step back to have more of an advisory role to the President and the BOD in more delicate or complex situations. I will also support the evolution of the project of earning recognition by the WHO and to work more directly with the Youth Committee.
The future board will be very strong and active. ISH has two newly elected board members who will accompany Bernard; Mark Jensen (USA) as President-Elect will hold the position of President in 3 years while Enayat Shahidi (Iran) will take the fundamental function of Secretary – Treasurer. The other officers will be elected at our general meeting in Montreal, but we are already seeing a nice structure emerging.
The primary vocation of the ISH is to create links between cultures, countries, and practitioners. This is the first objective of this quarterly newsletter. The ISH newsletter transmits to each member and each society the essential life of the world of hypnosis. You are surely impressed – as I am – by the richness and quality of each of these newsletters. Kata Varga is to be congratulated for her considerable work over the years and we hope, she will continue this vital contibution.
All these forces must also be able to meet and communicate. The Paris Congress, the Montreal Congress and all those organized by the members of the BOD in Iran, Germany, Hungary, China or France… are very powerful moments of exchange and sharing.
This is also true for the video project we will be experimenting with in Montreal. This project was particularly close to my heart. During the congress in Paris, even if we were 2500 in attendance, I thought about all those who do not have the possibility to participate in our congresses for financial reasons. Today, we have all the technologies that allow us – at a lower cost – to share these essential moments remotely. We decided to do an experiment in Montreal. The main room will be filmed and the screening will be possible in 6 countries selected for their low incomes: Mexico and Brazil, China and Iran, Hungary and Poland. We have a member company in each of this countries that will handle live or deferred broadcasting with the support of the Youth Committee. That will allow hundreds or thousands of practitioners to see and listen to all the lectures and presentations given in this room and to be – at a distance – participating with those on site in Montreal. This experiment will give us many indications to improve the 2021 congress.
To respect our global reach, we must also make further efforts in the field of languages. This objective is partly achieved in the congresses and in this newsletter. The BOD has also recently decided to translate as many pages of the website as possible into many languages using automatic translation systems. Even if these translations will sometimes remain imperfect, it is a big step to know that in China, Iran, Sweden or Russia…, everyone can connect to the International Society of Hypnosis and through this intermediary be connected to practitioners around the world. Everything we do today is oriented towards the future, so that our hypnotic knowledge and techniques will relieve more and more suffering, and so that the future will be better for the generations that follow us.
This is why I wanted to create a “Youth Committee” within the ISH of young health professionals. Today they are 5 members and they come from China (Gallant Gao), Iran (Saddaf Seddhig), Morocco (Noufissa Ouazzani), Germany (Daniel Bass) and France (Stéphane Radoykov, Chairman). Their active role in 2018 is to participate in the success of the video experiment. But the most important thing is that they learn quickly about the evolution of hypnosis how to buy real xanax online throughout the world, that they identify its strengths and weaknesses and prepare the necessary orientations for the next 30 or 50 years. I would particularly like to thank them for their human and professional commitment.
In many countries, there are also high-quality national journals. We are starting to create an international network to better disseminate knowledge and information from all these countries. The first issues bearing the ISH logo should be published before the end of 2018. This network will ideally complement our newsletter and allow us to make ISH better known in each country while strengthening the legitimacy of each of these journals. In a second phase, these journals could have greater influence by publishing scientific articles selected by a reading committee from their own country. The aim is to stimulate research in each country by expanding publication opportunities.
Each of these actions contributes in its own way to the major objective of recognition of hypnosis by the World Health Organisation (WHO). It will certainly take a few more years, beyond Bernhard’s presidency. It will be essential that the new office continue this work supporting Giuseppe de Benedittis and Nicole Ruysschaert currently the main leaders of this working group. One of the next objectives is to bring the ideas and resources of the ISH closer to those of the European Society of Hypnosis which is also engaged in this process of recognition. It is very important and very stimulating to allow our two companies to work on a common project. Working together will also promote achievements more effectively and quickly.
In a few weeks we will meet in Montreal, a city that perfectly illustrates the mix of cultures and traditions. We already know that there will be nearly 60 nations represented, 5 or 6 more than in Paris. The arrival of colleagues from new nations is very important. Every practitioner in his country is like a seed with the potential to see a beautiful flowering plant, a tree or a forest emerge. And allowing each participant to go back in his country with seeds coming from elsewhere through conferences, workshops, debates, is one of the great joys of each of our world congresses.
Thanks to Mark Jensen and Giuseppe de Bendittis, ISH has been actively involved in scientific research processes since the Paris Congress. We are once again organizing a day completely oriented towards the future of hypnosis research. A group of experimental researchers and a group of clinical researchers from different nations will work throughout the day with toward identifying common directions in future work. The idea is that the impact of this work will be greater if there are synergies between them.
The Montreal congress will also see the birth of the first official ISH training. We owe the success of this objective to the years of commitment by Enayat Shahidi. Here too, it is an experiment to determine the directions for the future.
In a way, all of this is only possible thanks to a dynamic and involved BOD. We have been able to create an organisation in which everyone has their share of responsibility and their specific skills. An administrative organization that also owes a lot to Julie Linden and Brian Allen whenever necessary. This makes it possible to develop several projects at the same time, projects that can continue to grow even if people change. Thanks again to all those who participated in the Paris Congress which gave great financial security to the ISH and the possibility of financing these experiments and developments.
The congress funds also make it possible to finance a part of the large meetings of the bureau where we can work serenely to reflect and make decisions. Thus we spent two very beautiful stays in Paris (2017) and Milan (2018) (thanks to the invitation of Consuelo Casula and Giuseppe de Benedittis). However my strongest memory is our trip to China in July 2017. First Beijing, a magnificent congress, the discovery of our colleagues and their enthusiasm for hypnosis, the two workshops I led. Then these few days with the ISH office and this unforgettable cruise on the Yangtze River to the Three Gorges Dam. A wonderful setting for intense meetings then to enjoy a slower rhythm to admire the scenery and visit.