James Braid Society website

Archive report of meeting
Thursday 17th December 2020

Hypnotherapy in a field

... in Somerset, in the mud ... mostly
A talk by Roland Bullivant
What a year 2020 turned out to be! The year of "social distancing", hand sanitizers, masks and lockdowns. The year of disease, distress and sad deaths. The year of not going out and cancelled events ... including one of the greatest music festivals in the world – Glastonbury.
it is at Glastonbury – or rather memories and tales of Glastonbury and hypnotherapy amongst the music – that the James Braid Society ended 2020 on a lighter, more cheerful note. That cheerfulness was provided by Roland Bullivant who, before moving to the West Country, was a regular attendee at the society's monthly meetings.
Therefore we welcomed Roland back with great pleasure to present our Zoom meeting on Thursday 17th December 2020. In his talk Roland how back in 2010 he became the first hypnotherapist to be accepted to work in the Healing Field at Glastonbury. From the calm peace and quiet of his practice rooms to the frenetic pace of the festival was a big change. Accounts of how he coped plus insights into his festival therapeutic experiences spread over several years will be among the topics he covers. Roland will also explain the misunderstandings which led to there never being a hypnotherapist in the Healing Field before ... and how he was finally accepted. The talk catalogued many of the recurring problems festival goers sought he help with, especially anxiety attacks... and how he went about addressing them. He also recalls some of the more unique issues he was asked to deal with.
		Roland Bullivant Roland studied clinical hypnosis at the LCCH and first qualified as a hypnotherapist in 2001. He also has a Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapy qualification from the LCCH. He is a member of the BSCH and registered with CNHC. He is certified as a Best Practices of Dave Elman trainer and has trained with Jonathan Chase and Anthony and Freddie Jacquin. He also has a massage qualification and is a Reiki master. Roland had a thriving practice in Newbury from 2001 to 2014 when he relocated to near Honiton, Devon
During his presentation Roland described which techniques he used most often, and why, and refer to some case studies. Elman Rapid Inductions prove particularly appropriate for festivals. And he explored some of the unusual and unexpected challenges of working under a gazebo, with noise and other distractions going on at the same time. He also recomes some of the more unique issues he was asked to deal with.
" ... and the sound of my voice will go with you ... quietly ... discreetly "	During his presentation Roland described which techniques he used most often, and why, and refer to some case studies. Elman Rapid Inductions prove particularly appropriate for festivals. And he explored some of the unusual and unexpected challenges of working under a gazebo, with noise and other distractions going on at the same time. During a wide-ranging and entertaining talk Roland provided his own personal insight into how working in the heart of a heaving international mustic festival helped to improve the work he did in his 'normal' practice.
For those who have never attended Glastonbury he sought to convey a sense of the size and scale of the event and of course talk a little bit about some of the performances he was lucky enough to attend. This was not a training session in the true sense of the word. However, there were useful lessons to be learned from going out of ones comfort zone and working with hypnosis in different surroundings and environments without the comfortable surroundings of a practice.