V&A posts deadline

THE initial team at the V&A will start to take shape soon as the deadline for applying for several jobs looms this week.

Posts that will close this week i nclude t ourism officer, retail team leader and head chef.

More deadlines are approaching l ater t his month.

A spokeswoman for the V&A said: “As we get closer to the opening date, our team continues to grow and we are currently recruiting staff for several different posts.

“We would encourage anyone who is interested in a career with V&A Dundee to check out the website and follow us on social media to see the positions currently available and advertised in the future.”

Graeme McDiarmid of Discover Hypnotherapy in the city centre is a clinical hypnotherapist — and one of his specialities is helping people kick the habit.

Although there’s been a drop in the percentage of Dundonians classed as smokers, statistics show more people in the city smoke compared with the national average.

When I first went into Graeme’s office we had a discussion about my own smoking habits — which I am ashamed to say started around the age of 12 — and apart from a couple of years where vaping replaced smoking — has continued ever since. I’m now 26.

He told me my own willpower was going to be the key and then broke down the chemicals I put into my body every day and gave me some information about t he health impacts.

He then familiarised himself with my attitudes towards smoking, how much I smoke and how it makes me feel.

Just before we started the actual session, he told me “you are a nonsmoker, you are already a non-smoker”.

It was a message he would keep reinforcing throughout the session.

It was when the relaxing music started playing that things began to really get interesting.

From a relaxed position, Graeme slowly lifted my arm up, with my hand in front of my face and my fingers pressed together.

He told me that my fingers would start to slowly separate and kept repeating the phrase.

My initial reaction was a typical “aye so they will” – but then, to my shock, each finger began to twitch, before breaking free from the others.

Graeme later explained the exercise was a passageway into my subconscious.

After that, Graeme said my hand would slowly feel like it was coming closer to my head.

As it neared my face, my eyes began to feel heavy.

When my hand touched my face I fell into a semisleep — I can only

TO say I was sceptical when I was asked to head along to see a hypnotherapist to help me stop smoking would be an understatement.