Paul McKenna

Career

McKenna started off in radio aged 16 at Radio Topshop, and went on to present for stations including Radio Jackie, Radio Caroline, Chiltern Radio, Capital Radio, BBC Radio 1 and TV channel Music Box.

He became interested in hypnotism as a result of a guest who appeared on his show. His interest stemmed initially for reasons of self-development, although entertainment was later to play a big part. Whilst still working at Capital Radio, McKenna began experimenting with small hypnotic shows, first for the amusement of friends, then for audiences in pubs and clubs. From there he starred in a regular Sunday night show at the Duke of York's Theatre, which was owned at the time by Capital Radio. The success of those shows led to his playing other theatres across the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, the US, Australia and Hong Kong.

After a brief spell at Radio 1 in the early 1990s, McKenna decided to quit radio. In 1993, ITV broadcast The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna, which featured audience members volunteering to be hypnotised to act in comedic ways, the show subsequently being broadcast in 42 countries. During this time, he continued to study hypnosis, and neuro-linguistic programming with Richard Bandler, the co-creator of NLP.

Many of McKenna's one-to-one hypnotherapy clients are celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres and David Walliams, who used McKenna to help with his swim across the English Channel.

McKenna hypnotised the Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond on series 4, episode 2 of the motor show in 2004. In October 2009 he was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.

McKenna hypnotised The One Show presenter Matt Baker to believe that he was Pablo Picasso during which time he created several impressionist pieces of art, which were shown on air while the footage was played back during McKenna's appearance on 9 January 2013.

McKenna has also presented several live events including Get The Life You Want with Paul McKenna and Richard Bandler and Get Thin.

From February 2014 to September 2015, McKenna hosted a talk show called 'McKenna' that was broadcast on Hulu featuring "non-journalistic" interviews with Simon Cowell, Ryan Seacrest, Roger Moore, Rachael Ray, Tony Robbins and Richard Dawkins.

In the past few years, McKenna has been involved in the research and development of the Psychosensory therapy of Amygdala Depotentiation Therapy (ADT), otherwise known as Havening with Ronald Ruden and Stephen Ruden, presenting seminars to health care professionals in the UK and USA. He specialises in working with PTSD, severe trauma, pain control and emotional overwhelm.

Recently, McKenna has focused on teaching people how to "deprogramme" their sugar cravings, claiming "sugar is the most dangerous drug in the World".

Education

McKenna attended St Ignatius College in London and East Hertfordshire College and holds two doctorates, the validity of both of which have been called into question.

PhD from LaSalle University

In 1996, McKenna was granted a PhD from LaSalle University. This university was legally licensed by the state, but it falsely claimed to be an accredited university. After the principal of LaSalle pleaded guilty to fraud, thousands of students, including McKenna, were awarded compensation from the U.S. government. LaSalle is now discredited as a diploma mill.

In 2006, McKenna successfully sued and won his case against the Daily Mirror for libel over claims made by Mirror TV critic Victor Lewis-Smith that McKenna's degree from LaSalle was merely a purchased "bogus degree", bought with the intention of deliberately defrauding the public which was found to be totally false. Damages and verdict against The Daily Mirror were the sum of £20,000, but The Mirror's costs possibly totaled over £1 million, which were awarded to him and the judge ordered the Daily Mirror to pay interim costs of £75,000. Justice Eady said (of McKenna's degree) in his summing-up:"Whether it is appropriate to characterise it as scholarship worthy of academic recognition is another matter. No doubt many would think not". McKenna's thesis, which later became the basis of his best selling book 'Change Your Life In 7 Days', was not the focus of the trial.

Accredited DPhil from IMCA

In 2003, McKenna gained an accredited Doctor of Philosophy by Explication (DPhil) from the International Management Centres Association (IMCA). The title of his thesis was "The Effects of Fixed Action Patterns and Neuro-Linguistic Programming in Determining Outcomes in Human Behaviour".

Prior to 2005, IMCA were accredited by the US Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), but this accreditation was later removed by DETC in 2005, after McKenna's doctorate. The degree-awarding body for IMCA is Revans University. Their registered address is in Vanuatu, though it has also been associated with Boulder, Colorado. It has no physical campus, and all its activities take place online, like The Open University. Revans University's UK partner organization IMCA was based in Buckingham but neither Revans University nor IMCA is recognised as a UK degree-awarding body or course provider during McKenna's time according to The Times Educational Supplement. British universities do not accept qualifications accredited by Revans University. This has led to complaints from former students. The material in both McKenna's doctorates has been published.

Tutorship

McKenna learned NLP from Richard Bandler, co-creator of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He uses Thought Field Therapy (TFT) in many of his television demonstrations and studied under Roger Callahan, the creator of TFT.

Publishing career

McKenna has produced self-help books, CDs and DVDs as well as several audio books that provide the information from the books in audible form. His latest book is Hypnotic Gastric Band.

McKenna's full list of published titles include:

McKenna has also released a number of audio recordings.

In October 2016, McKenna read Hans Christian Andersen's "It's Quite True" for the children's fairytales app GivingTales in aid of UNICEF, together with Sir Roger Moore, Stephen Fry, Ewan McGregor, Dame Joan Collins, Joanna Lumley, David Walliams and Charlotte Rampling.