Monthly Webinar -'Aphantasia'

Members have free access to this event and will be sent the zoom link via the mailing list.
This monthly webinar takes place between 6 and 7.30pm.
We have two presenters: Dr Paulina Trevina and Dr D R E (Dot) MacKinlay

Aim: The aim of this webinar is to explore aphantasia and how it affects hypnotherapeutic intervention
Learning outcomes:
1. Understand how having aphantasia impacts on people’s experiences of hypnosis
2. Know how to adapt hypnosis techniques for non-visualisers

About this webinar:
Aphantasia is the lack of a mind’s eye (inability to visualise voluntarily) but can affect all senses. With visualisation and sensory techniques commonly used in hypnotherapy, aphantasia can be an issue for both the client and the hypnotist. Based on experimental research with a group of people with aphantasia

Paulina will explore two key questions:
How does having aphantasia impact on people’s experiences of hypnosis?
How can we best adapt hypnosis techniques for non-visualisers?

Dot will talk about ‘Aphantasia, Psychology and me.’ Whilst using hypnosis in her work with patients Dot was struck by how often she encountered individuals who were extremely good at producing vivid visual imagery. This seemed to her to be statistically above chance before she applied the Interoccular Trauma Test to the data and realised that she was the outlier and that she belonged to a different population. That was her introduction to Aphantasia.

Dr Paulina Trevena is a researcher, social scientist, and hypnotherapist. After 18 years in social science research, Paulina discovered hypnosis and was hooked! She now runs a hypnotherapy and personal development business called No Woo Woo! Paulina’s ambition is to strengthen the evidence-base on hypnosis and develop best practice through her research on hypnotising people who have aphantasia and other neurodivergences.  

Dr D R E (Dot) MacKinlay worked as a Clinical Psychologist in the NHS for 40 years and was fortunate to spend many of them as head of the Paediatric Psychology service in Nottingham at a time when this specialism was in its early development. While this presented many challenges, it also provided many opportunities for creativity. She worked across many physical health departments with children, young people, adults, staff – individually and in groups. At particularly fortunate times, she was able to participate in research (mainly research into practice projects) which aimed to improve the patient experience. In the final decade of her career, she completed a hypnotherapy course and EFT training, and where possible, introduced aspects of this into her clinical practice – particularly with procedural anxiety.