So, be warned. If you’re looking at books on Amazon.co.uk and you get offered a free trial with Audible.co.uk then you will in-fact be signing up for a monthly subscription service.

Because I’d gone via Amazon.co.uk I didn’t create a username/password account with Audible.co.uk so now I find that I cannot actually log-in to Audible.co.uk to check my account status!

I have sent them an email cancelling my account and asking for a refund.

I would’ve looked at their service again and probably purchased a few audio books had they not been so sneaky. I think they offer a potentially good service but underhandedness like this immediately destroys my trust so I will NOT be using them EVER again.

It looks like I’m not the only person complaining: The Great Audible Scam

I’ll update this post with notes on how they progress with my complaint/subscription cancellation.

UPDATE: 30 Nov 2011: Well, I have to give their Customer Care people some credit – they replied to my email and cancelled my subscription. No acknowledgment of doing anything wrong of course… Being slightly conspiratorially minded their promptness makes me think that they’re used to dealing with such queries… hmmm…

I learnt that this lady would go through this very ignoble and painful recovery process once every five years or so, which is very different from the ‘once in a lifetime’ event of getting GBS. I’ve read on the BBC News site this morning that MS is very underfunded in the UK so I thought I’d try and raise awareness.

You can find out more about MS and test your knowledge here:

Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge Test

And if you feel so inclined you can donate to UK MS Research you can do so here:

www.ms-research.org.uk

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a personal development system developed in the early 1970s by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder, in association with Gregory Bateson. It uses a toolbox of strategies, axioms and beliefs about human communication, perception and subjective experience.

NLP’s core idea is that an individual’s thoughts, gestures and words interact to create one’s perception of the world. By changing one’s outlook, therefore, a person can improve his attitudes and actions. These observations can be changed by applying a variety of techniques.

NLP teaches that a person can develop successful habits by amplifying helpful behaviors and diminishing negative ones. Positive change can come when one carefully reproduces the behaviors and beliefs of successful people (called ‘modeling’). It also states that all human beings have all the resources necessary for success within themselves.

Bandler and Grinder credited three successful therapists — Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson — as NLP’s major inspirations. They ‘modeled’ the therapists and developed special “patterns” for general communication, rapport-building and self-improvement. NLP author Robert Dilts calls the system “the study of the structure of subjective experience”.

What the above means in the realm of therapy is that likes of Milton Erickson and Fritz Perls had effective strategies for brining about positive change within their clients. Richard Bandler et al found a way of formulating these strategies so that they could be expanded upon and used by all of us to affect positive changes in ourselves and those with whom we interact.

Please see the link on the right-hand-side of this page for the NLP entry on Wikipedia.

There’s no such thing as an unresourceful person. Just a person in an unresourceful state.

I like you.

The hypnotherapeutic approach to weight control isn’t another diet program. Through the use of hypnosis you will change how you think about food and what the ‘enablers’ are that cause you to over-eat in the first place.

No diets, no changing foods, no willpower

“Let me explain our weight-reduction program”, the hypnotherapies said to the inquiring prospective client. We don’t, in most cases use diet procedures. We find that a problem with diets is that there is a major change of eating habit patterns and that all the time the client is looking forward to achievement of the weight goal, at which time the client can resume eating “normal” food. Once the weight loss is achieved, the client celebrates by enjoying a reward meal of favourite tastes. Then there often begins an upward weight trend, which can recover all of the lost weight and even add a few pounds more. Therefore our approach is that the client, if this is a personal enjoyment, may eat steaks and potatoes, or perhaps spaghetti and meatballs, whatever is most desired. The only difference is that, through the effects of hypnosis, a much smaller amount of food will be desired and consumed. The advantage is that since no enjoyable foods are denied, nothing is given up; there is no need or desire to return to foods that have been forbidden. The client simply continues to eat what has been enjoyed all along, except that quantities are vastly reduced and through hypnosis the appetite is fully satisfied with modest portions of food. The above scenario and weight-reduction program is just one of the many that utilize the powers and benefits of hypnotherapy to enable a client to take off unwanted pounds and keep them off. In this program, the client need not give up enjoying cocktails or hor d’oeuvres at a party. The client will enjoy one of whatever is served, but on completion of this “taste” will be completely satisfied, neither desiring nor accepting further offerings. The hostess is satisfied that her efforts have been appreciated. Everybody wins! The above procedure is particularly effective with people whose excess weight is from overeating, especially where the habit involves taking of multiple helpings at meals. There are those whose excess weight is due to physiological Causes. Such cases may require medical intervention. However, where undesirable weight is due to overeating, metabolism is likely much less involved than the mind. Changing thoughts and attitudes of the mind can lead to major changes in life. It can be very helpful, therefore, to determine what may be the causes of a tendency to overeat. Sometimes this information is evident or well known. Other times it may be suppressed, buried in some incident or event of the past for which overeating provides a sense of compensation or relief from pressures or anxieties, lacks in life, grief, anger or other emotions, sometimes dating back to childhood. Regression under hypnosis is often effective in ferreting out causes, and sometimes even the simple understanding of causes can result in elimination of the problem.

Why people over eat

Overeating usually fill a need-or at least is viewed as doing so. The possible need, real or imaginary, are many. Some people overeat to compensate for an unpleasant experience. Other eat excessively to reward themselves, or possibly for self-entertainment. Some want to be notice, and may use a large body of offset a small ego. Eating is used to compensate for the lack of love, to offset, to overcome frustration, to deal with boredom, or sometimes even to avoid sex. Helpful to the therapist are lists answering such questions as WHEN overeating usually takes place – what psychological or emotional activity is associated with excess eating, and at what usual time of day or night? WHERE the overeating is done is important – home, at parties, in restaurants, while watching television, etc. And WHY (for what purpose or to satisfy what need) is also a factor in understanding the problem. The consideration of the above – mentioned matters leads to the establishment of three goals; To achieve the desired weight loss; To maintain the desired weigh once it is achieved; To adopt permanently the new habit patterns that make the first two goals possible;
 
Programming for Success

A hypnotherapy program for weight reduction will involve several specific elements which are essential to the achievement of established objectives. The client’s self-esteem and confidence will be evaluated and fortified as necessary to achieve a positive outlook and the ability to visualize mentally the perfect, desired body structure, at the appropriate weight and with the physical modification important to the client. The client’s attitude towards food, overeating and related satisfactions will be altered to reduce the conceived importance of food as it relates to feelings of well – being. The clients food interests and tastes will be modified to increase the desire for healthy foods with appropriate nutrition, and reduce the desire for foods high in fats and other harmful elements. Emphasis will be placed on such matters as quantity consumption, special tastes (sweet – tooth enjoyment) and negative calorie foods (Wherein digestion requires more calorie burn – up than the total calories in the food consumed). Finally, programming will deal with such behavioural matters as establishing times, places and patterns for future eating, elimination of harmful habits, and positive reinforcement for relief of stress or anxiety factors or other causal elements which may require hypnotic desensitisation. It must be kept in mind that very slow reduction in weight is the safest procedure. Weight will and should come off very slowly – perhaps two pounds per week on average. Much reinforcement of the programming can be accomplished by tapes specifically created to save time and money for the client.