Five new apps will be available soon. They are:

• Acceptance — if there is nothing you can do to change a situation how easy is it for you to accept it?
• Bad dreams — this is for children, encouraging them to look at their dreams and see them differently.
• Blood cells — cancer, particularly leukaemia, can lead to depleted blood cells. This app uses the mind/body link to encourage the production of new ones.
• Loving kindness meditation — a very calming meditation, helpful for everybody but particularly for those suffering in some way.
• Lucid dreaming — finding ways to recognise that you are dreaming and allowing you to take control of your dream.

When these five in-app sessions are launched they will bring the total to 42, so something for everybody! And there will be more issued in the future.

The Migraine News, an e-letter put out by the National Migraine Centre, had this piece in its November 2013 edition:

Research Update

Hypnotherapy trial

Some of you participated last year in a trial using hypnotherapy to help with migraine. In total there were 26 participants, three on a one-to-one basis and 23 in groups of seven or eight. We asked for detailed feedback from the participants at the end of the five sessions and then three months and six months later, so we have only recently received the final outcome measures, and would like to thank all those who responded.

The final outcome was very encouraging. Using HIT-6 (a Headache Impact Test score) there was an average improvement of 3.7, 5.2 and 3.7 points at the end of treatment, three months and six months later respectively, a statistically significant result. There was also positive feedback on the use of a group for treatment as participants gained support from sharing their situation with others.

During the five sessions participants learned a number of different self-help techniques, the most fundamental being self-hypnosis. Participants were asked to rate how useful the different techniques were and the majority found self-hypnosis to be the most helpful. However, each person is different and we were expecting that any one technique would appeal to some participants but not all. This proved to be the case. Hypnotic self-help techniques included dissociation, master control room imagery and symptom imagery. There were also some techniques for reducing stress, a common contributory factor for migraine, and for avoiding triggers.

Although there was a considerable variation in the effect on participants only one person would not recommend hypnotherapy to another migraineur, so we are continuing to look for sources of funding to carry out a larger trial. In the meantime, anybody who wants to experience self-hypnosis can do so if they have an iPhone or iPad. Patrick Browning, the clinical hypnotherapist who conducted the trial, has created an app, which you can download for free. Go to the Apple App Store and search on Patrick Browning. Within the app there is a further session (short title “migraine”) offering dissociation imagery, and in future there will be other sessions of interest to people with migraine. See also www.Browning-hypnosis.co.uk for more information.

Ten new in-app sessions have now been added, so I look forward to seeing the response from users. Please contact me with any queries or comments and do put a review on Apple if you think it would encourage other users. A recent exchange with a user who has benefited from using self-hypnosis has been added to the Apps page on this website so do have a look if you have not already seen it.

In addition to those listed in a previous post the next launch will include:

• Tamoxifen and hot flushes. Very topical with the recent news that some women with breast cancer are stopping taking their Tamoxifen due to adverse side effects.
• IBS daily practice. People with IBS often find that spending a few minutes each day in self-hypnosis and giving themselves positive suggestions can be very helpful. My other apps for IBS are rather long for daily use so this app is shorter and so more likely to be used on a daily basis.

The next Foundation Course at the ICH is starting on 28 September. This course is run at weekends. It is great fun, very interesting, changes your perspective, and can lead on to the Professional Course which would qualify you to practise. To find out more go to www.ichypnosis.com.

11,000 people have now downloaded the “Learn self-hypnosis” app and there have been some very positive reviews, so thank you to my reviewers. I am now working on the third series of apps and this is likely to include:

• Bulimia nervosa, for those who want to stop bingeing and purging
• Glove anaesthesia, for pain management
• IBS, a diarrhoea version
• Panic attacks, a coping strategy
• Relaxation imagery
• Self-soothing training, for bulimia and other conditions
• Skills of good weight managers
• Worry time, for those who feel controlled by worries

and there will be two more, possibly Coping with pregnancy and Tamoxifen side effects.

The latest series of apps includes one for those who want to stop biting their nails. I was amused to see a comment about nailbiting recently in the obituary column of The Times. Brigadier Malcolm Cubiss had lost a hand in battle and wore a steel hook. Brigadier John King added this memory:

“As a regimental colleague, Malcolm Cubiss once had occasion to stay with me in my married quarters. On exiting the bathroom after his morning ablutions — and dressed only in vest, underpants and minus his prosthetic arm — he came across my 7-year-old son on the landing. Noting the look of mild alarm and curiosity on my son’s face, Cubiss pointed to his stump and said: “See, boy, this is what happens when you bite your fingernails.” My son, now 32, has had pristine fingernails ever since.”

The second series of apps has now been available for a couple of weeks and the launch coincided with the following recommendation from Sally Brampton, writing in the Sunday Times:

“Sally’s rescue remedies

And relax… Many people find hypnotherapy a powerful tool, not simply for cracking  addictions, but as a way to calm a racing mind. Let’s face it, though, it is  expensive. Self-hypnosis is equally powerful, but best learnt from an  expert. Patrick Browning, a member of the faculty of the Institute for  Clinical Hypnosis and a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, has  produced an app. His voice is so soothing, and I was so relaxed, I was  almost comatose.

Learn Self-Hypnosis with Patrick Browning for iPhone, free; itunes.com”

App downloads have increased considerably. So  far the popular topics

from the second series appear to be anxiety, confidence and alcohol. There are also some very positive reviews and I hope users will send reviews to Apple or, indeed, email me if they have anything they want to discuss.

A further 10 “in-app sessions” should become available within a matter of days. The topics covered are:

• Alcohol
• Anxiety
• Chocolate
• Confidence
• Exercise
• Hypertension
• IBS
• Migraine
• Nailbiting
• and, finally, Hypnotic Poetry! This last topic is experimental. I hope that you enjoy it and please let me have your comments.

Also, if you have found any of my apps to be useful please submit a review to Apple. This will encourage other potential users. Incidentally, Apple’s system only allows any one user to submit one review because Apple have required us to have a single app containing a number of sessions. So, if you have submitted a review on a session, and then want to comment on another session please submit a cumulative review that covers both, otherwise your first review gets deleted.

It has taken a lot longer than expected but now those of you who have iPhones can listen to my apps, just launched. Once you have downloaded the app you can buy individual “sessions” (which you probably think of as apps but Apple thinks of them as “in-app sessions”). I would really appreciate your feedback, either via the app or my Facebook page, both on what the app has done for you and on what issues you would welcome apps for in the future. Likely topics for the next release include:

• Confidence
• Exercise
• Chocolate
• Alcohol
• Anxiety
• Migraine
• Hypertension
• Nailbiting
• and Hypnotic Poetry!