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.

NLP
MeSH D020557
Topics Methods Rep. systems Covert hypnosis
Developers Richard Bandler John Grinder Steve Andreas Stephen Gilligan
Notable practitioners Paul McKenna Fazal Inayat-Khan Tony Robbins Martin Weaver
Organisations Association for Neuro Linguistic Programming

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 aired 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 is a non-fiction author, with self-help titles including 'I Can Make You Thin', 'Stop Smoking Without Gaining Weight', 'I Can Make You Happy' and 'Hypnotic Gastric Band'.

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.

In Feb 2014 he hosted a talk show produced by Steve King. It aired on Hulu in the US until September 2015.

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

Controversy with former manager

Paul fired his former manager and once fiancee Claire Staples in 2013.

Staples subsequently initiated a legal action to sue McKenna for a chunk of his £65 million fortune. She claimed McKenna had severe hallucinations in which he believed he heard Jesus Christ and other imaginary voices and was addicted to drugs, alcohol, porn, prostitutes and prescription pills.

Paul vehemently denied the allegations, dismissed Staples as 'a greedy woman', and filed a counter-claim in London.

A spokesman for Mr McKenna said the allegations were absurd, stating "Staples threatened to make these spurious claims against McKenna if he did not give her half of everything he has ever earned or will earn" adding "If Mr McKenna is unable to function because he is an alcoholic, drug addict and has psychotic episodes, he would hardly have been able to, in the last decade, to treat many war veterans for PTSD, write 16 bestselling books, do hundreds of seminars, appear on radio and TV all over the world, run a global company and speak at the United Nations.’

Education

McKenna attended St Ignatius College in London and East Hertfordshire College and holds two doctorates; the first from LaSalle University (Louisiana) and the second from the International Management Centres Association (IMCA). 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.

In 2003, McKenna gained a degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Explication (DPhil) from the International Management Centres Association (IMCA) whilst it was still accredited by the US Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). The title of his thesis was "The Effects of Fixed Action Patterns and Neuro-Linguistic Programming in Determining Outcomes in Human Behaviour".

In 2006, McKenna successfully sued and won his case against the Daily Mirror for libel over claims made by Mirror TV columnist Victor Lewis-Smith that McKenna's degree from LaSalle was merely a purchased "bogus degree", bought with the intention of deliberately defrauding the public. Although damages were a mere £20,000, McKenna's costs totalled £1.5 million, which were awarded to him and the judge ordered the Daily Mirror to pay interim costs of £75,000.

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 guides and manuals have been worth just shy of £17m to UK book retailers in the 21st century, according to Nielsen BookScan data. McKenna's book I Can Make You Thin as "the best-selling weight loss book ever". His latest book is Hypnotic Gastric Band.

McKenna's full list of published titles include:

• Hypnotic Gastric Band Bantam Press 2013 ISBN 978-0-593-07074-1
• I Can Make You Smarter Bantam Press 2012 ISBN 978-0-593-06405-4
• I Can Make You Happy Bantam Press: 2011 ISBN 978-0-593-06404-7
• Change Your Life in Seven Days - Updated version Bantam Press: 2010 ISBN 978-0-593-06661-4
• I Can Make You Confident, Sterling Publishing: 2010. ISBN 1-4027-6922-9
• I Can Make You Sleep, Bantam Press: 2009. ISBN 1-4027-6574-6
• I Can Make You Rich, Bantam Press: 2007. ISBN 0-593-05537-3
• Quit Smoking Today Without Gaining Weight, Bantam Press: 2007. ISBN 0-593-05536-5
• Instant Confidence, Bantam Press: 2006. ISBN 0-593-05535-7
• I Can Make You Thin, Bantam Press: 2005. ISBN 0-593-05054-1
• Change Your Life in Seven Days, 2005.ISBN 0-593-05053-3
• How to Mend Your Broken Heart, (with Hugh Willbourn) Bantam Press: 2003. ISBN 0-593-05055-X
• The Power to Influence, Nightingale-Conant: 1998. ISBN 1-905453-56-6 (audiobook with Michael Breen)
• The Paranormal World of Paul McKenna, Faber and Faber: 1997. ISBN 0-571-19245-9
• Paul McKenna's Hypnotic Secrets, Boxtree: 1995. ISBN 0-7522-0192-1 (with Peter Willis and Clare Staples)
• The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna, Faber and Faber: 1994. ISBN 0-571-16802-7

McKenna has also released a number of audio recordings including Sleep Like a Log, Eliminate Stress, Positive Self-Image, Attracting Wealth, Inner Happiness, Supreme Self-Confidence, Stop Smoking for Good. He also wrote the foreword to Nikolic, Seka and Sarah Tay, You Can Heal Yourself: Bio-energy and the Power of Self-healing.

In 2016, McKenna backs children's fairytales app GivingTales in aid of Unicef together with Sir Roger Moore, Stephen Fry, Ewan McGregor, Dame Joan Collins, Joanna Lumley, Sir Michael Caine, David Walliams and Charlotte Rampling.

Professional influences

McKenna learned NLP from Richard Bandler, co-creator of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He uses Thought Field Therapy in many of his television demonstrations and studied under Roger Callahan, the creator of TFT. He also teaches the Zen meditation 'Big Mind'. He presents the process with its creator, American Zen Master Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi, abbot and founder of Kanzeon Zen Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]