Notes from the President
Claude Virot PhD
January 2017
Hello,
Today let’s build bridges to the future!
A few weeks ago, the BOD members met for two days in Paris to lay the foundation for ISH to adapt and prepare for the future.
You will receive information soon about the topics that were discussed including: revision of the eth-ics requirements, updates to the ISH website, teaching, research and the involvement of ISH in the International Journal of Clinical and Experi-mental Hypnosis.
One of the starting points of our reflection is the spread of hypnosis in the world. ISH has CS’s in 27 countries (See below appendix 1 : Map of the ISH and list of countries), including 18 in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ger-many, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Nor-way, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom), 3 in North America (USA, Canada, Mexico), 4 in Asia (China, India, Iran, Japan), Australia for Oceania and South Afri-ca for the African continent. Thanks to each of you for being part of this huge community.
Many countries in the world are working with hypnosis. By observing the countries represented in the World Congress of Paris, in the European Society of Hypnosis, the Milton H. Erickson Foundation and the Pan-American and Caribbean Society of Hypnosis, we discovered that hypnosis is integrated in at least 70 countries. (See below appendix 2 : Map and list by continents of the countries where hypnosis is used as we know today). If your country is not on this map or, if you know a group or an association of hypnosis in another country, we would thank you for sending us this information.
One of the main goals of ISH is to gather together and create links between these countries. Even if it’s a dream, let us remember that the future is built from our dreams!
How will we do this?
Today, I will speak only about two points: the creation of a new committee and the involvement of ISH in the main congresses all over the world.
The Youth Committee
I am very glad to introduce the new « Youth Commit-tee ». This committee was created from the question: How can we know the future? The answer is: Ask the youngest people! I’ll be sixty years old in Sep-tember and I learned hypnosis 32 years ago in 1986 when I was 29 years old. Since that time, I have been working with hypnosis in my office. I have been teaching to thousands of health professions. I have been involved in many associations in Brittany, France, Europe and now for ISH. It’s the same for each member of the board and for many of our ISH members. We have so much experience in knowing about hypnosis, the best ways to help patients, how to train new therapists, and how to conduct re-search. This experience is vital to leading our Inter-national Society of Hypnosis in a complex world in which each country is unique and rich in differences.
So now it is important to think about the next 20, 30 or 40 years. We need to ask those who are just beginning their career the following questions; What do they want and what do they need? How is it simpler or perhaps more difficult to develop hypnosis today?
How do they imagine the role of hypnosis in the future? What should we do to improve hypnosis, to help people to use hypnosis, to make hypnosis safer or perhaps, more efficient? How can ISH im-prove its communication for young people? How can ISH be the light to help each therapist, each society, and each country to offer hypnosis for each patient who needs it?
These questions are important for new medical doc-tors, dentists, surgeons, midwifes, nurses, psycholo-gists, physiotherapists… all over the world.
I am proud to introduce the members of this « Youth Committee ». They have been chosen because of their involvement in the development of hypnosis in their country.
Stephane RADOYKOV is a French student in Psychi-atry, in Paris. Involved in the World Congress of Par-is – 2015.
Gallant Gao is a psychologist, associate professor in the Department of Psychology, Fudan University of Shanghai, China. Involved in the International Congress of Beijing – 2017 .
Daniel BASS, is a psychologist at the Vinzenz von Paul Hospital Rottweil, Germany. Involved in the World Congress of Bremen – 2012.
Sadaf SEDDIGH is a student in dentistry in Masshad, Iran. Involved in the International Con-gress of Mashhad – 2016.
Two women and two men coming from three conti-nents. It has been difficult for the board to choose each of them but this first « think tank » seems to have all the skills, the energy and the motivation that we could hope for. If you are younger than 40 years old, would you like to be part of this commit-tee? Would you know someone who might be interested? Please contact me with any input.
You will find the CV of our Youth Committee representatives on the ISH website.
ISH and the International Congresses
One of the most important missions of the ISH is to organize a world congress every 3 years (Acapulco, Rome, Bremen, Paris are the most recent) and to participate in the main congresses in the world. So, have a look to the future.
Asia – China.
A first International congress will be held in Beijing from 21st to 24th of July 2017. Even if hypnosis is a new branch in the therapeutic tools in China, the development is unbelievable! This first congress will gather more than 1000 attendees. It’s a great surprise for me and also a great surprise for the main organizers Xin Fang, Ting Wang, Gao Gallant and Bernhard Trenkle. Each ISH board member will be very active in Beijing by giving workshops during the pre-congress, the congress and the post-congress. It’s a very interesting collaboration as well for the Chinese association as for ISH.
Europe – England.
The International Congress of the European Society of Hypnosis will be held in Manchester from the 23rd to 26th of August 2017. The links between ISH and ESH have been very strong for a very long time. In each ESH congress, we have an ISH board meeting and this year we will have an ISH COR meeting. (It’s the same in ISH congresses). Most of the ISH board will participate as speakers and it will be a very good opportunity to meet you and your colleagues.
North America – Canada.
Our colleagues of the Quebec Society of Hypnosis, Michel Landry, Gaston Brosseau, Amir Raz and As-sen Alladin, are creating a wonderful World Congress. We regret to report that Claude Verreault will not be with us as he has recently passed away (see below). This congress will be held from 22nd to 25th of August 2018 in Montreal. If you are not al-ready registered, you can receive the best price by going to: http://www.hypnosis2018.com/en/. Register now to support this ISH congress and help our organizers add new ideas and new events to the pro-gram. The World Congress is one of the moments for us to support the research in Hypnosis.
And here is more good news! In Paris the ISH had organized a first scientific congress with 14 re-searchers speaking and discussing about their work. An article has been written by Mark Jensen to present all these projects. Entitled “New Directions in Hypnosis Research: Strategies for Advancing the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience of Hypno-sis,” this article will be published in “Neuroscience of Consciousness”.
Our team, including Mark Jensen, Giuseppe de Benedittis and Franck Garden-Brèche is preparing another meeting for Montreal with both full time and clinician researchers. The goal is to reduce the gap between these two communities and to help them to build bridges to enable the sharing of ideas.
Africa – South Africa.
Woltemade Hartman has just sent us the first infor-mation about a 7th International Congress in Feb-ruary 2019 in South Africa or in Namibia, about Hypnosis and Ego-state Therapy. I participated for the first time in 2016 and what a souvenir, the sci-entific presentations were excellent! And the nature in South Africa is breathtaking, to meet lions, rhi-nos, elephants, giraffes just a few meters from us is unforgettable. You will receive more information very soon.
Asia – Iran.
The first Asian Congress of Hypnosis will be held at Mashhad from 15th to 18th of October 2019. The main organizers, Mehdi Fathi, Enayat Shahidi and Sadaf Seddigh are inviting people from all over the world to this event, first step to the creation of an Asian Society of Hypnosis which is a very important project strongly supported by ISH.
So, as you can see a lot of big events are coming in the future in Asia, Europe, America and Africa.
And where will the World ISH Congress be held after Montreal? Will it be in Europe? Will it be in Asia? It is now time to receive applications from the candidates!
We can just be sure that it will be, once more, the main event in the world of hypnosis in 2021.
We know that several countries are preparing their applications. You will find all necessary information by going to: http://www.ishhypnosis.org/triennial-congress/bidding-procedure/
Just a reminder, the closing date is the 30th of June 2017.
If the purpose of the ISH is to cele-brate life, our pur-pose is also to share our grief about the loss of our members. A few weeks ago, Claude Verreault, a dentist in Montreal and one of the main or-ganizers of the World Congress of Montreal passed away. I remember many moments with Claude. Several times in Mon-treal he was so happy to invite us for a dinner; in France for 2 of the congresses Emergences; in 2014 when he came with Michel Landry to present the project of the congress in Montreal; and the last time in Paris where he came on the scene to let us dream of Montreal, his town, and Quebec his be-loved home province. Claude was a famous « hypno-dentist », he has been working with hypnosis for 40 years, teaching all along his life and a was a very active member of the Quebec Society of Hypnosis. He has been administrator, secretary, treasurer, organizer and responsible for communication with the journalists.
Our thoughts are going to Magda, his wonderful wife, to his family and to all of his colleagues feeling this terrible loss for themselves and for hypnosis.
Warmest regards,
Claude VIROT
President of the
International Society of Hypnosis