New Consciousness Review You’ve been to therapy. You’ve popped the pills. You’ve challenged your thinking patterns and changed your behaviors. And yet, you’re still anxious. Or depressed. Or phobic, overweight, or drug-addicted. Why is that? Peter Field has an answer for you. In his eye-opening and wide-ranging book, The Chi of Change, Field shows how conventional approaches to treating psychological problems tend to focus on identifying and treating symptoms, but often do little to change the underlying causes of the difficulties. Drawing on over thirty years of experience as a hypnotherapist, Field promotes a program that targets the origins of our dysfunctional behaviors and emotions: the places where our life’s energy, or chi, is blocked by faulty connections. Find those problem areas while in a relaxed, hypnotic state, says Field, and you can rewire those connections and finally transform your life. Field organizes his engaging book into chapters based on difficulties that many readers will recognize from their own struggles. Distinct chapters cover anxiety, depression, PTSD, and addictions. Although each chapter addresses a separate issue, a common thread runs through them all: Seemingly intractable psychological problems may stem from traumas that your conscious mind knows nothing about. Take Harry, for instance, one of the many case studies Field calls on to illustrate his process. Harry’s midlife meltdown—he became uncharacteristically anxious, exhausted and disengaged from life—could easily be explained as a reasonable response to a failed marriage and a lost job. Through hypnotherapy, however, Field was able to help Harry access long-buried memories of a violent bank robbery that Harry had witnessed. Feelings of guilt and helplessness had plagued Harry since the traumatic event and affected the way he handled present-day situations, without him ever connecting the two. By working through the trauma in a hypnotic state, Field writes, “Harry’s subconscious could be realigned to the understanding that the nightmare experience was fully in the past and truly over now; he had survived, so it could let go of its fear.” Field doesn’t claim that hypnotherapy is the only way to treat psychological problems, nor always the best one. He advocates taking care of physical issues first, for instance, and encourages his clients to look for nutritional deficiencies and other underlying physical conditions before even starting therapy. While he’s in favor of vitamin supplementation where warranted, Field is strongly against the use of pharmaceuticals to treat psychological problems. His dismissal of this branch of medicine may leave some readers cold, but will be a refreshing perspective for readers looking for alternatives to these drugs and their side effects. The Chi of Change is clearly written and easy to understand, yet doesn’t skimp on the details that professionals will find useful in their practices. Biology, psychology, and philosophy all play supporting roles in Field’s quest to uncover the connections that make us who we are. Perhaps more importantly, Field’s work strives to help us create the connections that make us who we wish to be. ~ Sheila Trask, http://www.ncreview.com/my-reviews?user=1016

The author is an experienced hypnotherapist with a background in psychology and nutrition. He clearly has a huge knowledge of his subject, drawn from study, self application, and the treatment of clients. Peter Field explains how certain traumas become embedded in our consciousness and how, under hypnotherapy, we can return to and heal that original trauma. We can thereby drop a pattern of feeling or behaviour that has been with us throughout our life. If you are expecting to learn hypnotherapy techniques from this book you will be disappointed. But if you want insights about why you experience fear or numbness in life, and want to raise your hope that progress is possible, you will be delighted with this psychology book. It is full of information, yet presented in a very human way. The case studies are excellent. Most, if not all, readers will receive comfort and validation from identifying with some of the issues Peter's clients have experienced in their lives. Peter’s key tool to help his clients is hypnotherapy, but he also makes sure that people have a good diet and find nourishment elsewhere, for example by spending time outdoors. He talks about the power of human kindness, how each of us matters, and how important it is to find our own unique meaning in life. He counsels us not to become too attached to a label or a diagnosis or a condition, such as depression. I was struck with the author's compassion, born no doubt from the fact that he too has lived with depression. As a psychotherapist he experienced the limitations of talking therapies to help people to change. This observation brought him to study and practise hypnotherapy. I hope the title does not put off people who are not familiar with the term Chi. It is not necessary to have any interested in Chi Gong or martial arts to benefit from this book. Equally, it's not necessary to have engaged in or have any intention to engage in hypnotherapy. The book is quite rightly placed in the psychology category. And whilst the author states that it is not a self-help book, the insights and validation it provides will help many readers on the journey of self development. I will certainly be keeping this book and returning to it at times. As a side note, if you are looking for a healing practitioner, you often have little idea of their approach. It seems an incredible luxury to be able to read this book to decide whether you want to seek help from this UK hypnotherapist. Mind you, I suspect that with such a combination of knowledge and compassion he is already rather busy with clients. ~ Katherine T Owen, http://www.a-spiritual-journey-of-healing.com/

I have read numerous books on the various theories, processes and delivery of hypnotherapy (and been kindly invited to review a number of them) but none has impressed me more deeply than Peter Field’s 'The Chi of Change'. It is a work that masterfully manages to blend Eastern concepts with modern neuro-psychology, yet without imposing either any specific underpinning philosophy upon the reader or resorting to unnecessary technical jargon. It is instead written with complete clarity of thought and remains continuously accessible throughout. Written with compassion and understanding, this remarkable book demonstrates how hypnotherapy can bring about real transformation in the life of even the most troubled individual. It is altogether a work of wisdom and inspiration that explains, with profound insight, how modern hypnotherapy can be used to harness the power of the subconscious mind and bring about real transformation and tangible benefits without recourse to the often ineffective pharmaceutical products that have become the favoured (but frequently flawed) panacea of our age. Using fascinating factual accounts of people he has treated, the author reveals the wonderful transformational potential of therapeutic hypnosis. Full explanations of how our psychological difficulties develop are offered, together with truly insightful strategies on how hypnotherapy can be used to bring relief, healing both mind and spirit. It is a genuinely ground-breaking book that will change forever the way you think about your feelings and emotions whilst simultaneously providing a significant contribution to both our understanding of hypnotherapy and to the elevation of its status as a serious psychological intervention in the process. In short, 'The Chi of Change' is an extraordinary book, by a gifted therapist and one that should be included within the required reading syllabus of every hypnotherapy training course. It is undoubtedly destined to become a classic in the field of hypnotherapy – perhaps even to give to hypnotherapy what 'The Road Less Travelled' has given to conventional psychotherapy. ~ William Broom, Chief Executive & Registrar U.K. General Hypnotherapy Standards Council & Register

Peter Field writes with rare insight into the human condition, yet does so in a way that will resonate with both reader and clinician. The Chi of Change is a major contribution to the field of hypnotherapy and indeed, psychotherapy as a whole. This work deserves a place in every therapist's library. ~ Antoine Matarasso, President, Australian Hypnotherapists Association

“The Chi of Change” is an extremely well-written book that details the underlying basis for a variety of emotional problems including depression, anxiety, bad habits, addictions, and low self-esteem, among others. Peter Field clearly and concisely explains the way damaging programming from our past gets locked into our subconscious mind and generates dysfunctional emotions and behaviors which traditional psychotherapy and psychopharmacology do not effectively address. He demonstrates, through stories about patients he has helped, how hypnotherapy can be used to disrupt the maladaptive subconscious programming once and for all, thereby healing people and freeing them to live emotionally stable and satisfying lives. If anyone is skeptical about the therapeutic power of hypnosis, this book will remove all doubts. It is an impressive piece of work and I highly recommend it. ~ Dr Walter E. Jacobson, M.D., Psychiatrist, and author of the #1 Best-Seller 'Forgive To Win!'

The Chi of Change by Peter Field presents working models of how to help clients resolve problems by helping them release the root causes. While many hypnotists use what a well known psychologist termed “Scriptnosis” (the use of hypnotic suggestion alone, or reading from a script book), the author realizes that many people need to psychologically let go of past events in order to enjoy lasting success. A number of examples are included, including a woman who suffered panic and anxiety while driving, along with claustrophobia. Two years earlier another hypnotherapist used suggestion hypnosis and NLP to reduce the severity of the problem, but regression therapy enabled her to release the causes and overcome the problem. The author also blends counseling as appropriate to his practice of hypnotherapy, as well as some Eastern philosophies--and he gets results. He devotes two chapters to anxiety, threaded with case histories, along with information about panic attacks and PTSD. Depression is explored with explanations of both the medical approach and the hypnotherapy approach. He also covers addictions, often only touched on or skipped entirely in other hypnosis books. No hypnotherapy book would be complete without chapters devoted to the benefits of hypnosis for habit control, and Peter Field goes above many books by including information on the emotional components of overeating rather than overemphasizing diet. He also includes a chapter on the importance of good self-esteem. This book is a valuable source of information for the experienced hypnotherapist, and highly recommended for any practitioner of hypnosis and/or NLP who wants a better success rate for clients. ~ Roy Hunter, Author of 'The Art of Hypnotherapy'

Thoroughly enjoyable, I would recommend this text to anyone who has dismissed hypnotherapy out of hand without ever actually thinking about it and the power behind it. Writing with a sober authority, this book has a focus that should be of interest to any student of counselling, psychology or psychotherapy. The author provides reliable and suitable evidence, both scientific and non-scientific, to support the points made in the book, and this gives the reader a suitable launch point should they wish to travel further into the study of hypnotherapy. This book will leave you asking one question time and time again; Why are we not using hypnotherapy more? ~ Professor Craig Jackson, Head of Psychology Division, School of Social Sciences, Birmingham City University

An important new approach to mental and emotional healing. Should be required reading for every therapist and anyone contemplating therapy. ~ Dr F. S. Starr, MD. FAACAP, BCIA Psychiatrist

Full of insight and inspiration. It's rare for a book to impress me these days, but this one did it! A most extraordinary book. ~ Terrence Watts, Chairman, The Association for Professional Hypnosis & Psychotherapy. Author of 'Warriors, Settlers and Nomads'

This fascinating book fuses the beauty of traditional thought with a modern, profound understanding of the mind and of the human spirit. Written in a style that is both timeless and fresh, The Chi of Change transcends cultures and speaks to the universal human experience. ~ Dr Richard Connolly, Birmingham University

Synthesizes Eastern and Western insights to help people liberate themselves from profound challenges. 'The Chi of Change' combines psychological understandings with compassion and supercharged hypnotherapy. I highly recommend this book! ~ Jack Elias, Director, American Institute for Therapeutic Learning. Author, 'Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis & Hypnotherapy/NLP'

A fresh and provocative look at the difficulties in dealing with change. ~ Dr Richard Harte, Director of Education, National Guild of Hypnotists, USA

A wealth of knowledge that strides seamlessly through the extraordinary. This book is a treasure for anyone interested in the mind. ~ Dr Marie Cheour, Neuropsychologist