A bit about me:
- I run The Mind Changers personal development and psychology YouTube channel with Neuroscientist and Clinical Psychologist Dr David Lewis
- I have sold over 150,000 books on hypnosis, meditation, personal development, parenting and autism spectrum disorder
- I have released over 30 albums, and my self-hypnosis and sleep meditation bedtime stories Mp3’s have been downloaded and streamed over 5,000,000 times
- I have over 100,000 YouTube subscribers on my main YouTube channel, and my YouTube videos have been viewed over 13,000,000 times (you can subscribe to my YouTube channel here)
- My eCourses have been taken by almost 100,000 students from 180 countries (check out my courses here)
- My autism autobiography Look Into My Eyes has been number one bestseller in Autism, Living With Disabilities, and Psychology Biographies categories on Amazon UK and number 30 in all biographies on Amazon UK, and Number 2 in Autism books on Amazon US
- My hypnosis book Advanced Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Scripts has been number one bestseller in Hypnosis, and Hypnotherapy categories on Amazon UK and US on many occasions
I am regularly featured in national and international press (see my media page for some examples including BBC Radio, Sky News, The Telegraph and Daily Mail - I was described in At Home With Gok Wan magazine as ‘the UK’s leading personal development coach’
“I am autistic. I was lucky growing up: I discovered meditation and hypnosis, both of these taught me how to engage with others and how to manage the overwhelming amount of information coming into my senses. My aim is to share my experiences with others and help others find their path in life, and spread awareness about what it is like to autistic and what others can do to help autistic people. Autism is often invisible which in my case prior to diagnosis led to judgements and discrimination.”
This website shares my experiences. There is also a dedicated page if you are looking for an autism expert for media hire, and you will find information about what causes autism, about my experiences around flexibility of thought difficulties, around interests and routines from the perspective of someone autistic, around language and communication difficulties faced by autistic people, and around social and emotional difficulties faced by myself and other autistic people, all of this is from my perspective as someone autistic, and as an expert who has over 20 years experience working with autistic people and their parents/carers, and other involved professionals in my various free Neurodiversity Magazines on the Neurodiversity Magazine page.
Learn more about my personal & professional experiences of autism in my book Look Into My Eyes: Asperger’s, Hypnosis, and Me which has reached number one in ‘Autism Spectrum Disorders’, ‘Psychology Biographies’, ‘Living With Disabilities Biographies’, and ‘Developmental Psychology’ The second edition of Look Into My Eyes contains a chapter by my wife about her experiences living with someone autistic, I have also written a book Asperger’s Syndrome: Tips & Strategies covering tips for parents/carers, teachers, friends, employers, and autistic individuals, and An Autistic Perspective: Death, Dying & Loss which shares what the experiences of death, dying and loss is like for someone autistic, differences compared to how others experience these areas, and what you can do to help those on the spectrum cope with these areas and what you can learn from the way autistic people experience death, dying and loss.
I am a #1 best-selling self-published author, I have had over 150,000 books sold, over 13 million YouTube video views, and my self-hypnosis, sleep meditation and self-help mp3’s have been downloaded and streamed over 5,000,000 times. I have created many online hypnosis, hypnotherapy and parenting training courses and have an extensive background working in child and family support.
My main focus nowadays is on sharing my experiences of being autistic to help educate people about what life is like for autistic individuals, and how autism spectrum disorder is often a ‘hidden condition’ especially for those without a diagnosis, how helpful diagnosis can be for those autistic individuals, and what skills those with autism need to learn to improve their social skills. I also share knowledge from my 20+years working as a professional with autistic individuals, their families, employers and involved professionals.
I am available for holding talks, workshops, seminars, YouTube collaborations and media requests. More information can be found on the media/hiring page.
I am from Chichester, West Sussex, I’m a hypnotherapy trainer and author and have authored over 30 books on Hypnosis, Therapy and Self Help including Amazon number one bestsellers ‘Advanced Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Scripts’ and ‘Take Control of Your Life’, and I am registered with ‘The General Hypnotherapy Register’.
I have extensive experience within the caring profession. I began working in the caring profession in 1997 working with adults with mental health, learning and developmental disabilities. I then moved into working with children and young people with challenging behaviour in residential care homes (where I also helped to set up a therapeutic children’s home). Many of the children had oppositional defiance disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and autism/Asperger’s. I then moved into parenting and family work, including managing teams of parenting & family support workers. I supported parents with children and teens who were committing anti-social behaviour and youth crime to help those parents to stop their children continuing to do their negative behaviours, and supported families around family relationships, child/teen to parent violence and abuse, getting parents back into work, helping families stop their anti-social behaviour, getting children back into school, and helping family members with their mental health, and more. I have also spent since 2002 working with clients for personal development, performance enhancement, depression and anxiety disorders, addictions, and more, as well as offering training around hypnosis, therapy, parenting and family support, breakaway and safety awareness, safeguarding, and conflict resolution, and other topics, for private workshops, local authority staff, charities, and care home staff.
Due to my differences I have faced discrimination, I have been threatened with being laid off if I didn’t start saying good morning and goodbye to other staff, I have been accused of having ‘mental problems’ because I have struggled with certain workplace changes like having to move desk and have my work environment changed, I have faced discrimination for thinking differently on work courses and in professional supervisions, and have had people assume I am arrogant and get angry with me for this because I can often be found on courses sitting in a corner on my own not engaging with others.
I struggle with certain situations, but at the same time feel that my way of perceiving the world gives me strengths many others don’t necessarily have.
A BIT OF BACKGROUND
Dan Jones is an autistic hypnotic YouTuber/content creator. In 2011 he was ’33rd most viewed Guru’ on YouTube in the YouTube charts at the time and his hypnosis and personal development YouTube channel was regularly listed in the top 100 charts for Education and How-To channels. Dan has been a YouTuber since January 2007 but as he became popular he started facing increasing levels of abuse and trolling which led him to almost fully close down his channel in late 2011 where he removed about 600 of his videos and remained reasonably inactive until coming back to YouTube again in 2016.
In the early days Dan used to vlog weekly posting random videos of what he was getting up to and random thoughts he would have which he often filmed on his 240×320 pixel phone, he would film some things with a camcorder like himself and his best friend doing drunk karaoke or just sitting getting deep into random conversations or doing experimental hypnosis like exploring past-lives, future progression, astral-traveling, etc. He also used to hold live streaming webinars teaching hypnosis and would upload these videos to YouTube for people who missed them, and would occasionally talk about different products and do product unboxings from buying new Ugg boots through to new books or talking about the equipment he uses, he has also always shared many self hypnosis, self help and relaxation videos, focusing half his videos at educating people how to do effective therapy and half at offering support to viewers around mental health and autism spectrum disorder. Dan also frequently shared out-takes from his recording either of mistakes or unused clips or messing around (like doing ventriloquism) while videos are processing.
As well as being a YouTuber, Dan is an experienced, qualified and insured professionally accredited Clinical Hypnotherapist and Hypnotherapy Trainer with over 20 years experience, he often refers to what he does as Chaos Therapy, and thinks of himself as a TranceFormation Coach, but most others refer to him as a Mind Coach. He has authored over 30 books on Hypnosis, Meditation, Therapy, Self Help, Parenting and Autism Spectrum Disorder including Amazon number one bestsellers ‘Advanced Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Scripts’ and ‘Take Control of Your Life’, and is registered with ‘The General Hypnotherapy Register’. Dan is autistic and has written a best-selling book about his personal and professional experiences and knowledge ‘Look Into My Eyes’ (which reached number 30 in the charts for all biographies and number 1 in the charts for autism, psychological biographies, and living with disabilities) and two other autism books ‘Asperger’s Syndrome: Tips & Strategies’ and ‘An Autistic Perspective: Death, Dying and Loss’.
Dan rarely does therapy now, preferring to focus on writing and creating digital content. He occasionally teaches therapy skills to others from short courses to an advanced and comprehensive GHSC (General Hypnotherapy Standards Council) accredited Hypnotherapy training courses based on his twenty years of learning and experience of therapy with many hundreds of clients presenting with problems from anxiety and depression, to phobias and relationship or family difficulties, from anger and sleep problems, to pain and psychosomatic problems. Dan has also helped people with Cancer (pain management, quality of life, sickness), Essential Tremors, Tourettes, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and common problems presented to Hypnotherapists like smoking and weight loss.
Dan has attended some of the top courses on hypnotherapy including training with Uncommon Knowledge at Brighton University, Brighton and with Stephen Brooks and British Hypnosis Research at Roehampton University, London.
As well as these two courses over twenty years of doing Hypnotherapy Dan has undertaken many courses in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Human Givens Therapy, various forms of Hypnotherapy, Meditation and Mindfulness, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Relaxation Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Motivational Interviewing and various forms of Psychotherapeutic Practice and he continues to attend further training and personal development and has an extensive hypnotherapy, psychology and psychotherapy library. Dan has also trained in Clinical Supervision with an accredited British Psychological Society training and has undertaken psychodynamic training as part of an MA in Psychosocial Care (uncompleted due to injuries from an accident leading to the loss of Dan’s job).
Dan also has extensive experience working with people therapeutically. He began working in the caring profession in 1997. Dan has also developed and taught a ‘Diploma in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, Humanistic Solution Focused Psychotherapy and Ideo-Dynamic ‘Psycho-Cellular’ Healing’ which comprised of 144 hours of classroom tuition and over 450 hours of additional required study. He has taught many therapists and social workers, as well as carrying out research, running therapeutic groups, training courses and holding talks in the UK and abroad around hypnosis, therapy, parenting and autism spectrum disorder, and working on other research projects and media projects and writing articles and books, including a chapter for Professor Ursula James third edition ‘Clinical Hypnosis Textbook, which is the textbook for many hypnotherapy diploma and degree courses.
Dan Jones Hypnosis - Empowering Change 
Dan, you are so interesting and engaging! I am refreshing my knowledge via one of your udemy courses. FAB FAB FAB 🙂
Ceinwen
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Dan, could possibly have a private conversation with you about the differences and similarities between Asperger’s and ADHD?
Also, I would like your input on my seeming lack of hypnotizability. Ive tried your videos, although you’ve since added more im going to try out) but I cant even get close to hypnosis. Would you please send me an email when you have an opportunity.
Thanks,
David Long
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Hypnosis is about narrowed focus and increased responsivity. Hypnosis doesn’t feel like anything. If you watch a film and have a reaction to what is in that film, like jumping or crying etc you have experienced being hypnotised, you have narrowed your attention enough to connect with the stimulus and become responsive, having a response because of that stimulus. Likewise if I spoke in a relaxing way with someone and they allowed themselves to narrow their focus on what I’m saying they are likely to become responsive to what I’m saying and the way I’m saying it and may respond by feeling relaxed. If I was being aggressive and they narrowed attention on me being aggressive then they are likely to become responsive to this and may become scared of aggressive or angry back. This is all hypnosis is. If something doesn’t narrow or hold the individual’s non-conscious attention then it is unlikely to develop responsivity in relation to that thing.
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Here is some information about the differences and similarities between autism and ADHD: https://share.upmc.com/2016/05/autism-adhd-link/
All the best
Dan
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Hi Dan, do you still practice as a therapist ? Is there any Ericksonian hypnotherapist you can recommend who does therapy sessions in London ? Thanks.
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I don’t see clients anymore. The best place to ask to see if there is a London Ericksonian hypnotherapist available is my Dan Jones Hypnotherapy Studies Facebook group. One person in that group who may have availability is Tony White.
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Thanks for your reply Dan.
Best wishes,
Fabian
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My name is Angela and I am pretty sure I am an Aspie adult. However, I am in the USA and the diagnosis criteria has changed and I think I would probably fall through the cracks. My jr professor interest is survival skills/ medicine. Although I can read and understand medical journals I had trouble getting into medical school because I would fubar the interview. Every time I was not told that I was “not professional enough”. I am still not really sure what that means. Any advice on getting s diagnosis so I can be protected from discrimination due to social factors? Thanks for reading .
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Hi Angela, I’ve got a blog post on getting a diagnosis which I posted a couple of months ago which has the up to date criteria wherever you live in as everywhere, at least western countries to my knowledge diagnose with the most recent DSM criteria. In the post is a link to an official test used as part of diagnosis, so if you come out as likely autistic on that test then there is likelihood you may get a diagnosis if you attended formal diagnosis.
All the best
Dan
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Unquestionably believe that which you said. Your favorite reason appeared to be on the net the simplest
thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get irked while people think about worries that they plainly
don’t know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the top as well as defined out
the whole thing without having side effect , people can take a signal.
Will probably be back to get more. Thanks
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Dan, your blog will soon be added to our Actually Autistic Blogs List (anautismobserver.wordpress.com). Please click on the “How do you want your blog listed?” link at the top of that site to customize your blog’s description on the list (or to decline).
Thank you.
Judy (An Autism Observer)
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If you want to customize your blog’s description on the Actually Autistic Blogs List, please click here. Thanks.
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Hy, DAN
I am a 75 year old white male, living near Chicago, Illinois, USA.
3 years ago I had a 10 hour brain surgery to remove a 5cm menegioma. After a couple of awful, sleepless months, my niece, Rachel, who is an MD, told me about your sleep stories, which I have been using ever since. So, I have now listened to your stories at least 1000 (one thousand) times. On only 3 or 4 nites have I heard the end of any story, meaning your stories have put me to sleep virtually EVERY time.
How can I thank you ?
Bob
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Hello Dan-
I’ve just finished one of your courses on self hypnosis. Do you have a course or reading suggestion for weight loss scripts? Or food addiction?
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Hi Dan,
I’ve seen but not tried your Love Removal Process on Youtube. According to the reviews is it highly effective. You write in the introduction that it’s only meant for those who haven’t moved on after 1 year. I’m struggling with a tough and shocking break-up even if that time has not passed. Does in not work for newer break-ups?
Kind Regards,
Stig
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Hello Dan,
I thoroughly appreciate your weight loss YouTube video: Ericksonian Hypnosis: Weight Loss With Self Hypnosis posted on Sep 23, 2016.
You take the perspective of healing the body neurologically. It’s not about convincing the body to eat well, it’s about changing it’s neurological structure so that the body heals from the inside out.
I love this video.
Do you have any other videos or recordings or even books using the same perspective for weight loss.
i’ve been looking, and haven’t find anyone else using this perspective, nor have I found any more on this concept on your website or your YouTube channel.
Would you be able to help me?
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Hi Tina,
The approach taken in that track is just normal evidence-informed ideas being presented like you would find through any weight loss class/group or with any other therapist, focusing on the most basic required principles. People generally don’t need to be told that eating healthy is better for you than eating unhealthy, most people already know that. Most people also already know that generally healthy foods have fewer calories than unhealthy foods, etc., so there isn’t a need for me to let the listener know that. As mentioned in the description, this track was initially made for myself, and I know these things, so I don’t need to tell myself these things on the track.
The important thing for weight loss is to be consuming fewer calories than you are burning in a day. If you go to a personal trainer to lose weight, they will point this out, if you go to a psychological therapist, they would point this out, if you went to a weight loss group, they would point this out.
That is the focus of this track, I focus on the idea of consuming only the required amount of calories for the desired weight. So, for example, when I was using this I was 14 stone and wanted to be 12 stone, so I needed to start consuming the calories (based on my lifestyle etc) required for being 12 stone, so that the whole time I was over 12 stone I wouldn’t be consuming enough calories for the weight I was and so would have to resort to using my stored calories and so would lose weight, but once at 12 stone I am eating the correct calories to then maintain that weight.
I specifically talk about over eating and under eating, but in the suggestions I give I put limits on these, rather than just focusing on ‘you may sometimes over eat’ and this being an uncapped amount, I give some specific and low amounts of calories to over-eat by, suggesting that if the person over eats it will be by one of these amounts, not just a big binge. The same with under-eating. I suggest a low amount of calories someone under-eats by as a suggestion to limit the amount of calories someone under-eats by, so that hopefully they generally remain quite stable in their diet and eating habits.
I also suggest being more physically active. The research around this topic has shown that when you focus someone’s attention on the fact that every day tasks can be burning calories (like walking up stairs, vacuuming etc) they increase how much they do these things and they are more active generally during the day, but they don’t realise that they are being more active, and they then lose more weight, but don’t feel like they have done anything different to achieve that extra weight loss. So I mention about fidgeting more, being more active etc.
I talk about eating enough to make yourself feel full while maintaining the required number of calories per day, and the main way you would do this is to generally start eating healthier because then you are likely to be able to consume more food, feeling fuller, while consuming the required amount of calories. So, if you currently like big meals and to feel full you need to eat meals of that size, but you are now consuming a few hundred calories per day less, then you are likely to need to eat a bit healthier so that you can continue to have meals of the same size, while consuming fewer calories. If you perhaps currently rarely fidget or move around and rarely do physical activity, but you start doing perhaps double the amount of physical activity per hour compared to before, then you may be able to continue to eat the same, but are losing weight because of the increased physical activity. But the exact changes any one person makes, whether it is increased activity, smaller meals, healthier meals, increased activity and a change to eating, etc., is unique to the individual and what suits them.
So, I’m not doing anything different here to what any other therapist would be doing. The one change is in my wording. That here I am actively choosing to talk about gaining your ideal weight, rather than talking about losing weight, because generally people prefer to think about getting something and achieving something than about losing something and getting rid of things or ‘sacrificing’ things. So, this change in focus of my wording is just because people are more likely to respond to the ideas presented in a more positive and empowering way, focusing on what you can get, rather than on what you lose.
I have weight loss self hypnosis scripts in my Hypnotherapy Trance Scripts book (you can find details on the Hypnotherapy Books page), I have other YouTube videos, including a sleep meditation for weight loss and another meditation for weight loss. They are all from the same perspective. I don’t see what I do as a unique perspective or concept, it is literally just using what the evidence says is helpful in losing weight and so is what you would get from most therapists, fitness coaches etc. They may also overtly make sure you know that fruit and vegetables are healthy and should make up most of the food you eat, that you know too much sugar and fat isn’t good for you etc., but this is all taught from primary school age upwards, even in my day and even more so over the last couple of decades with the rise in focus on tackling childhood obesity. There are also now frequent documentaries and programmes about healthy eating, there are cook books about healthy eating, parents are taught about healthy eating and pretty much anyone who has tried to lose weight will likely have looked at what they can do and will have been told that they need to consume fewer calories than they burn and that it is also good to be healthy and to eat healthy, to reduce sugar and fat, etc., they are likely to have researched different diets to find what might work best for them, so they may have looked at diets high in fat and low in sugar, low in fat and high in sugar, intermittent fasting diets, like eating less on certain days and eating normally on the other days, or only eating within a specific range of hours during the day, like eating all of your meals between 12pm and 6pm and not eating between 6pm and 12pm the next day etc… So, I don’t need to say this information in the track, because it would be unlikely that someone doesn’t already know it. All I need to do is focus on the basic idea of eat fewer calories than you burn and move around more, and the person can find their own way, as mentioned above, of how they make this work for them, whether they find that they just don’t seem to start eating now until later in the day, or they find they are walking more, or they find that they don’t snack so much between meals, or they find that they are eating more fruit and veg, or find they are eating smaller portions, etc., this is an individual thing.
Obviously, if this track was specifically about being healthy and not about weight loss and was being listened to by people who don’t eat fruit and veg and are listening to address this issue of not eating fruit and veg, then it would be a very different track (I have created content focused on that in the past, as well as on things like eating less chocolate etc).
Obviously, all changes we make to our lifestyle are made neurologically. If we develop a new habit or routine for meals, for exercise, for what we eat, for how we feel about what we eat, or how we feel about exercise etc., all of these are changes in the brain, you can’t ‘convince the body to eat well’, it is the brain/nervous system you are working with. You don’t convince the body to exercise, or the body to eat well, you have the person change their neurological patterns/associations with foods or exercise so that when they think of those foods or exercise they think of them in the preferred way.
All the best
Dan
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Hey Dan,
I’ll be at Recovery Plus for Women in Madisonville, KY. 1-(502)-947-4850. I won’t have a phone for 3 months, but that’s the number for the place I’ll be, if you’d like to contact me. I might have access to my email, so you could try that as well. I’m absolutely going to miss the sound of your voice & the spaces between your words 😥 I love you, Dan 😘🌈💛
*Julia*
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