Bent Hamilton lawyer working as hypnotherapist

Jan 24 2013 by John Rowbotham, Hamilton Advertiser

A bent lawyer is behind the firm offering hypnotherapy sessions to pupils at a Hamilton secondary school.

Tony Murphy, who was struck off for taking from clients’ accounts money to which he was not entitled, is running the Lanarkshire Hypnotherapy Clinic from a building in Barncluith.

Earlier this month, the Advertiser told how signs were posted outside Hamilton Grammar and in the vicinity of the University of the West of Scotland offering hypnotherapy as a cure for exam stress.

Parents were told that the sessions would give their children “an extra edge”.

However, South Lanarkshire Council said there were other established ways to deal with exam stress.

The Advertiser phoned the number on the sign but there was no reply.

However, parents of children at the Grammar say the advertiser was Mr Murphy who previously had a legal business in Hamilton and in November 2011 was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Scottish Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal.

He took deposits from property buyers then acted in the sale of the development to another company.

Only part of the deposits were returned.

He was also found to have failed to account to the liquidators of two companies and to have falsely represented to Law Society officials that his accounts had been destroyed in a flood.

Now, after watching clients’ cash disappear he is now offering to make people’s anxieties vanish by offering hypnotherapy services and neuro-linguistic programming.

Neurolinguistic programming is a controversial therapy with little scientific evidence to back its effectiveness.

He works from a `clinic’ in a former utilities building at the corner of Carlisle Road and Old Avon Road.

The clinic’s website states that it is run by “Tony Murphy `D.Hyp (MIAPH), LLB, Dip LP’, a professional hypnotherapist registered with the International Association of Pure Hypnoanalysts.

He claims to practise `pure hypnoanalysis - the single most effective form of hypnotherapy available’ – and `suggestion therapy’

According to the site, Mr Murphy can help with problems such as smoking, fears and phobias.

He charges £65 for `children’s problems’ and £199 for a full course of weight loss sessions.

There was this week no sign of Mr Murphy at his luxury home in Barncluith nor at the clinic. He also failed to return telephone calls requesting information about the signs and his new career as a hypnotherapist.

A parent of a pupil at Hamilton Grammar said: “I was glad, following the Advertiser story, when the sign outside the Grammar was taken down - particularly when I discovered who was promoting it.

“There’s one of his signs still up in Muir Street, Hamilton, and that should be taken down as well.”

Another parent added: “There is something not quite right offering to hypnotise kids to get them through exams.”

South Lanarkshire Council say hypnotherapy was not something they would actively promote for use to relieve exam stress.