I believe that unconditional positive
regard is one of the most important aspects to what I do as a therapist. It is
difficult as a therapist. We see lots of clients, and we don’t know whether
they are telling the truth or not, or whether they do what they say they are
going to do. And this is more difficult when we see clients on a long term
basis. And what do we do when someone is going to act in a certain way and we
don’t approve of this. Obviously, if it is an ethical concern one has to deal
with this appropriately with regard to UKCP regulations. But what if it is
something that we just feel is over the top or not right. We should delve into
our own consciousness to see whether we are showing signs of prejudice. If we
challenge our client we might break rapport.

This sounds a bit abstract, so I am going to give some example. What would you
do if you found out that your client was intending writing a long e-mail to
everyone in a Scout Group—all the organizers, the treasurer, chairman, all the
parents, the cleaners, secretary and so forth. Your client is upset that no one
was there to help him when he arrived last Thursday. He reads out a three page
e-mail with a reply from an irate lady. He now says that he is going to write
to the local MP, the houses of commons, the pope, Tony Blair and so forth.

You mention to him that this might be over the top, but you can do little more
than this. You can’t him not to do this. It will be difficult o show
unconditional positive regard after this. And, even if, through the words you
say, you are keeping to this principle, your body language may not be.
However, as far as possible, and there are no absolutes, one should have an
unconditional positive regard for one’s clients, even if it is difficult.
Another example is this.
What might you do after your client has had a huge transference and has
directed all his or her aggression towards you. This involved swearing,
accusations that you are useless and threatening language. One has to
understand why this transference has taken place. Even so, it might be very
difficult to show UPR after this experience.

Some initial thoughts…

With many of my clients, I feel that they
are constantly being challenged and not believed. They are being told off or
put in a compromising position. However, when speaking to me, this is often the
first time that they are not challenged. This is often the first time that they
feel supported unconditionally. And, whatever they say—within reason—they know
that they will have my support.

This enables them to say whatever they need to get better, or to work things
through. Because of my non-judgemental approach (Rogers, 1968)—which is
inextricably linked with UPR—they might be able to tell me about things they
haven’t told anyone else about. They can go into free association without fear
that they might be judged. This enables my clients to be ‘authentic’ (Rogers,
1971). UPR builds trust.

I have been meaning to say this for a while. The word subconscious has been used so frequently that people are regarding it as a synonym for the word ‘unconscious’ But the word is ‘unconscious’. I hope you don’t mind me saying this. I have heard it in seminars and have kept silent. I have heard lecturers (not at this college) use the term. It is true that it has now started to be used by lecturers and in academic journals. However, I feel, if you want to be taken seriously, use the term ‘unconscious’. Just a tip really… As soon as I hear someone talking about the ’subconscious’ I ask myself, does this person know what they are talking about?

Freud did refer to the ‘preconscious’ which includes material just coming to the surface but this, whether it exists or not, is quite different from the unconscious.

What I like about psychosynthesis is the fact that, certainly with the practitioners I have met, they help their client look at the future. Many psychoanalysts focus on the fact that if you have experienced a difficult childhood—suffered abuse, emotional neglect or other forms of conflict—this will affect functioning in later life. Psychosynthesis psychologists (or psychotherapists) believe that repressing one’s ability to adapt and harness one’s healing potential, this will do still more damage and will be as debilitating as child trauma.
I have a client who has been sold the idea that he has no sense of self because he was cared for by his parents. He tells me, week after week, that he has had psychoanalysis for years and that his analyst told him that he was suffering from the fact that his parents didn’t give him the emotional support that he needed. But the analyst did not offer solutions. I feel that, one of the main premises of the training at the National College is that we offer solutions. We move into the future. Assagioli claimed that there was a higher level of consciousness in which individuals can experience a peak of potential. Later transpersonal therapists took on board some of these ideas.

Now there are lots of different types of therapists. There is now a huge organization of transpersonal psychotherapists and psychosynthesis therapists. I don’t think that Assagioli himself wanted to set up a huge organization like this, following his thoughts and evidence. But people often like to follow a leader. They did it with Milton Erickson with his form of hypnosis in psychotherapy, Francine Shapiro with EMDR, national socialism with Adolf Hitler, and so forth. But what I think Assagioli did want to do was to move people forward in their therapy. And, even though the bulk of psychosynthesis work involves an exploration of the past—particularly, childhood experiences—therapist trained in this form of therapy help their clients to resolve childhood trauma. There are countless examples in the literature of helping patients to re-frame past traumas to help them with phobic anxiety, other anxiety disorders and psychosomatic manifestations. We are, quite rightly, told at the National College to be careful when using regression, and that we should use some form of protective or dissociative mechanism in place—for instance, a bubble (Alden, 1995; Biddle, 2012), a magic carpet (Williamson, 2003) or film screen (Yapko, 2003). Sometimes going back to the past has its uses. What psychosynthesis practitioners do is o help their clients to discover rich inner resources of the self. I call this the ‘best self’ and find that this is a very good way of discovering inner potential (Callow, 1998).

The website for the Institute of Psychosynthesis talks about the importance of the self. It states the following:
‘Assagioli recognised a powerful integrative principle acting within the human psyche – the Self. While in transpersonal psychology there is a well-defined personal and collective unconscious, psychosynthesis as a psychospiritual psychology, adds the distinction of a ‘spiritual consciousness’ - that of the Self. This psychology regards the Self as a reality, a living entity, direct and certain knowledge or awareness of which can be had. It recognises that the Self is a Spiritual Being imbued with Love which can be present to us both in its immanent and in its transcendent state. The Self is seen to form ego structures within which the ‘I’ – personal identity – becomes conscious. The Self also continually invites and guides that ‘I’ to levels of healing and wholeness in the process of becoming conscious.
Psychosynthesis points to a Self which is distinct, but not separate from, any contents of the psyche. Thus the Self is a profound source of being which can be present to us in our brokenness as well as in our wholeness. This Self also stands on the boundary between the personal and the universal’.

As a psychotherapist I can understand the importance of this. I have a client who has a very difficult, over-controlling set of parents who try to anticipate and direct his movements, thoughts and words. Consequentially, he feels out of control at their home. He loves walking very much. When he is walking, he told me, he feels like himself. I suggested to him that he could take the countryside with him wherever he goes, and that this is himself—the ‘I’—which is a core which will be with him in all different situations. A psychosynthesis practitioner might call this an ‘inner spirit’. I am not so keen on this term, but I can see the importance of this for some people in therapy. This is, of course, closely related to one’s belief system, which may include one’s philosophy or religion.

There are many aspects of this theory, but here is a start at it.

David Kraft is a psychotherapist in central London. The following is a list of his publications. He has written articles in both national and international journals.

(1) Kraft T & Kraft D (2004). Creating a virtual reality in hypnosis: a case of driving phobia. Contemporary Hypnosis, 21 (2): 79-85.

(2) Kraft T & Kraft D (2005). Covert sensitization revisited: six case studies. Contemporary Hypnosis, 22 (4): 202-209.

(3) Kraft T & Kraft D (2006). The place of hypnosis in psychiatry: its applications in treating anxiety disorders and sleep disturbances. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 34 (2): 187-203.

(4) Kraft T & Kraft D (2007). An integrative approach to the treatment of hyperhidrosis: review and case study. Contemporary Hypnosis, 24 (1): 38-45.

(5) Kraft T & Kraft D (2007). The place of hypnosis in psychiatry, part 2: its application to the treatment of sexual disorders. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 35 (1): 1-18.

(6) Kraft T & Kraft D (2007). Irritable Bowel Syndrome: symptomatic treatment approaches versus integrative psychotherapy. Contemporary Hypnosis, 24 (4): 161-177.

(7) Kraft D (2009). Tribute to Dr Thomas Kraft for BSCAH’ British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis Newsletter,3 (1): 11-12.    

(8) Kraft D (2009) Obituary: Thomas Kraft’ British Medical Journal, 338: b265.    

(9) Kraft T & Kraft D (2009). The place of hypnosis in psychiatry, part 3: the application to the treatment of eating disorders. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 37 (1): 1–20.

(10) Kraft D & Kraft T (2010). Use of in vivo and in vitro desensitization in the treatment of mouse phobia: review and case study. Contemporary Hypnosis, 27 (3): 184-194.   

(11) Kraft D (2010). A tribute to Tom Kraft (1932-2008): psychiatrist, integrative psychotherapist, and teacher. Contemporary Hypnosis, 27 (3): 221-224.   

(12) Kraft D (2011). The place of hypnosis in psychiatry, part 4: its application to the treatment of agoraphobia and social phobia. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vols 38 (2) & 39 (1): 91-110.

(13) Kraft D (2011). Sharing experience: the waiting room. British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis Newsletter, 5 (2): 22-24.

(14) Kraft D & Hawkins PJ (2011). Eating disorders. In Les Brann, Jacky Owens, Ann Williamson (eds.) The Handbook of Contemporary Clinical Hypnosis: Theory & Practice (pp425-440). Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester.

(15) Kraft D (2011). Counteracting resistance in agoraphobia using hypnosis. Contemporary Hypnosis & Integrative Therapy, 28 (3):235-248.   

(16) Kraft D (2012). Panic disorder without agoraphobia. A multi-modal approach: solution-focused therapy, hypnosis and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Journal of Integrative Research, Counselling and Psychotherapy, 1 (1): 4-15.

(17) Kraft D (2012). Successful treatment of heavy smoker in one hour using split screen imagery, aversion, and suggestions to eliminate cravings. Contemporary Hypnosis & Integrative Therapy, 29 (2): 175-188.

(18) Kraft D (2012). Comment on Zimmerman’s use of the river metaphor in irritable bowel syndrome treatment. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 55 (2): 160-167.

David has recently written and published a paper in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis.

There are different different types of phobia listed in DSM IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994): agoraphobia, social phobia and specific phobia. Within the specific phobia category there are five subtypes of phobic anxiety: animal phobias, situational phobias, blood injection injury types, natural environment type and other type. Animal phobia usually has a childhood onset. Individuals who suffer from animal phobia can normally lead a normal life, but in some instances, a person might develop extreme avoidance and safety behaviours, and in these cases, it is helpful to seek psychotherapeutic support.

These are some examples of safety/avoidance behaviours:

1 Not being able to read a newspaper because of an uncontrollable fear that you might come across a cat on one of the pages.

2 Not being able to go on holiday abroad because of fear of seeing a large spider in the wild.

3 Screaming out loud and asking your boyfriend to check every room of the hotel for ants before you can go in.

If these scenarios sound familiar, it might be helpful for you o seek help now. The approach that David Kraft uses combines behaviour techniques with hypnosis. He will use systematic desensitization in order gradually and efficiently to reduce anticipatory anxiety to your feared object. The hypnosis will intensify you feelings of well being and control throughout the process.

David Kraft is a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a full member of BSCAH. He runs a successful practice in Harley Street, London. To book a session, please ring 0207 467 8564.

London Hypnotherapy UK is the specialist partner of London Psychotherapy.

Offices and consulting rooms ar based at 10 Harley Street, London, W1G 9PF

The psychotherapist David Kraft has written 17 papers in the academic literature. They are as follows:

(1) Kraft T & Kraft D (2004). Creating a virtual reality in hypnosis: a case of driving phobia. Contemporary Hypnosis, 21 (2): 79-85.

(2) Kraft T & Kraft D (2005). Covert sensitization revisited: six case studies. Contemporary Hypnosis, 22 (4): 202-209.

(3) Kraft T & Kraft D (2006). The place of hypnosis in psychiatry: its applications in treating anxiety disorders and sleep disturbances. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 34 (2): 187-203.

(4) Kraft T & Kraft D (2007). An integrative approach to the treatment of hyperhidrosis: review and case study. Contemporary Hypnosis, 24 (1): 38-45.

(5) Kraft T & Kraft D (2007). The place of hypnosis in psychiatry, part 2: its application to the treatment of sexual disorders. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 35 (1): 1-18.

(6) Kraft T & Kraft D (2007). Irritable Bowel Syndrome: symptomatic treatment approaches versus integrative psychotherapy. Contemporary Hypnosis, 24 (4): 161-177.

(7) Kraft D (2009). Tribute to Dr Thomas Kraft for BSCAH’ British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis Newsletter,3 (1): 11-12.    

(8) Kraft D (2009) Obituary: Thomas Kraft’ British Medical Journal, 338: b265.    

(9) Kraft T & Kraft D (2009). The place of hypnosis in psychiatry, part 3: the application to the treatment of eating disorders. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 37 (1): 1–20.

(10) Kraft D & Kraft T (2010). Use of in vivo and in vitro desensitization in the treatment of mouse phobia: review and case study. Contemporary Hypnosis, 27 (3): 184-194.   

(11) Kraft D (2010). A tribute to Tom Kraft (1932-2008): psychiatrist, integrative psychotherapist, and teacher. Contemporary Hypnosis, 27 (3): 221-224.   

(12) Kraft D (2011). The place of hypnosis in psychiatry, part 4: its application to the treatment of agoraphobia and social phobia. Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vols 38 (2) & 39 (1): 91-110.

(13) Kraft D (2011). Sharing experience: the waiting room. British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis Newsletter, 5 (2): 22-24.

(14) Kraft D & Hawkins PJ (2011). Eating disorders. In Les Brann, Jacky Owens, Ann Williamson (eds.) The Handbook of Contemporary Clinical Hypnosis: Theory & Practice (pp425-440). Wiley-Blackwell: Chichester.

(15) Kraft D (2011). Counteracting resistance in agoraphobia using hypnosis. Contemporary Hypnosis & Integrative Therapy, 28 (3):235-248.   

(16) Kraft D (2012). Panic disorder without agoraphobia. A multi-modal approach: solution-focused therapy, hypnosis and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Journal of Integrative Research, Counselling and Psychotherapy, 1 (1): 4-15.

(17) Kraft D (2012). Successful treatment of heavy smoker in one hour using split screen imagery, aversion, and suggestions to eliminate cravings. Contemporary Hypnosis & Integrative Therapy, 29 (2): 175-188.

These are the articles written by David Kraft to date. There is one in press which should come out in November.

David Kraft is a fellow of the RSM and a member of BSCAH.

Panic disorder is a chronic condition and an ongoing health problem (Milrod et al., 2007; Kraft 2012), and affects approximately 5% of the world’s population (Bienvenu, 2006). Individuals suffering from panic often go to accident and emergency departments in hospitals with a variety of unexplained symptoms including migraine, stabbing chest pains, heart fluttering, irritable bowel syndrome, dyspnea difficulty breathing, hyperhidrosis and insomnia.

David Kraft, a specialist Harley Street psychotherapist, uses a multi-modal approach to treatment. And, unlike many psychotherapists, who often take a great length of time to treat this condition, his solution-focussed approach helps a number of clients to take control of their life and to recover quickly from this problem.

If you would like an appointment, please ring 0207 467 8564 today.

David Kraft has publsihed many papers in the academic literature–in the UK and in Australia–and is a member of BSCAH.  

“The depressed need the support of society to enable them to overcome their problems.”

Leslie Lim, Depression, the misunderstood illness (2008)

I believe that Michael Yapko is one of the leading researchers in depression in the world. And what he has said is that there has been a huge amount of research into the biological reasons for depression and how antidepressants can be used in treatment, but not so much on the social aspects and this impact on well being. He, therefore, spent a huge amount of time looking at how these aspects affected well being and how we can change our lives, within our support network, to reduce or eliminate depression.

At London Hypnotherapy UK, David Kraft believes strongly that individuals suffering from depression need supprt from their therapist not only to deal with their problems–negative ruminations, sleep dysfunction, eating disorders or other associated conditions–but also helping them to adapt to and control their social environment. This can be done in the psychodynamic psychotherapy as well as in the hypnosis.

David Kraft is a fellow of the RSM and a member of BSCAH.

Covert sensitization is a reliable and effective form of treatment. It has been used very successfully in the treatment of alcoholism, cigarette addiction, cannabis addiction, compulsive gambling, exhibitionism, obesity and juvenile delinquency. (Cautela, 1967). This treatment approach may also be applied to cigarette smokers. David Kraft, a member of BSCAH, and fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, has used this approach successfully over the last few years. He pairs the unwanted behaviour with a feelings nauseous: before the client picks up the cigarette. He combines the aversion with other techniques, including ‘the non smoker walk’ and split screen imagery. He also gives suggestions that cravings will be non-existent or hardly present. The result being that many clients have few cravings. In the paper that Dr Kraft recently published, the client had no cravings whatsoever, and he said that this was significant in helping him to stop smoking once and for all.

Smoking has a deleterious effect on every organ in the body.

London Hypnotherapy UK is dedicated to helping people give up smoking once and for all. The treatment is a complete abstinence programme, but is long lasting.

David Kraft is an experienced psychotherapist who is based in Harley Street London. He has published 17 papers in academic journals and continues to research. He is a fellow of the RSM and a member of BSCAH. 

David Kraft does not recommend individuals going to lay hypnotherapist. He suggests that individuals requiring treatment should go to an accredited health professional, psychologist or registered psychotherapist. David Kraft, of London Hypnotherapy UK and London Psychotherapy, recommends BSCAH and the UKCP.