The European Journal of Clinical Hypnosis (EJCH) was launched in the Autumn of 1993 with a free mail-out to hypnotherapists throughout the United Kingdom. Its publisher was Michael Joseph, head of the London College of Clinical Hypnosis and its founding editor was political journalist and hypnotherapist Bill Doult. After a somewhat checkered history the Journal's last edition was published in 2012.

Michael Joseph died in 2017 and in March 2018 his widow, Mary Joseph wound-up the publishing company. In the summer of 2018 the first editor, Bill Doult, sought permission from Mrs Joseph to reproduce some of the papers and articles from the early volumes and the result is this archive.

Now the aim is to eventually reproduce most of the first four volumes of the EJCH. It is hoped you find the papers and articles informative, interesting and helpful.

It cannot be denied but that the first edition contained a host of errors – far too many typos –but the reception in late 1993 was overwhelmingly welcoming.

Inevitable there were a few sniffy responses from those who preferred traditional presentation or who were aghast at the "accessible" nature of the pages.

However by its third issue the EJCH a paper from one of hypnotherapy’s most eminent figures, Dr Ernest Rossi, who sometime later told the editor he thought the European Journal had become the best hypnotherapy journal he had seen.

Maybe he was just being polite but it was a nice thing to say.When you download clinical papers you may notice the EJCH's layout was designed to make the presentation easy to follow, sometimes with specific aspects of the research presented in separate boxes or highlighted in toned colours

Not all the papers and articles published in the early volumes have been included on these pages for two quite separate reasons.

For a start the copyright for some of the papers published by the EJCH did not belong to the Journal. For instance Dr Rossi always retained his own copyright. However attempts are being made to contact Dr Rossi to see whether he will permit re-publications on this site.

Secondly the files and software which created the Journal in its first few years are now about a quarter of a century old which has made a few of them inaccessible.

In addition the artwork which accompanied some of those papers and articles is no longer discernable. It has therefore been necessary in some cases to slightly re-do the layout while the photograph for at least one author whose picture from the late 1990s can no longer be seen, has been replaced by a more recent photograph.

From the beginning the EJCH set out to be different from other refereed hypnotherapy journals – because it target readership was different. Previous journals looked very much like most old school refereed academic publications, written by academics or clinicians for other academics and clinicians. Dull grey acres of type stretching column after column. Never easy reading.

The European Journal naturally wanted to attract clinicians, academics, psychologists as readers and contributors. But it also wanted to provide a publication which would be attractive and relevant to lay hypnotherapists; those who took their profession seriously but were not welcomed by the old school, except maybe to pay subscriptions but never to contribute to their pages.

In the months before its launch the EJCH began actively canvassing hypnotherapy-training colleges along with professional societies and associations, inviting the submission of clinical papers and general articles.

A group of referees was established to first assess whether each paper was suitable for publication.

A number of associations and societies also agreed to distribute forms to their members which were sent back to the Journal requesting a free copy of the launch edition. As a result several thousand copies of the EJCH were posted across the country, paid for by the publisher Michael Joseph.

As well as being open to lay hypnotherapists the Journal set out to be more accessible than its rivals in the way it presented both clinical papers and general articles.