AHA Hall of Fame

Harry Berger

My full name is Harry Receveur-Berger  I was born in the Netherlands but grew up in the UK. Then in 1945 I, along with a number of other soldiers, were sent to Scotland for Commando training. This successfully made men out of boys in just six months. At this point I was recalled to the Netherlands. Then later returned to the UK where in 1946, at the tender age of 24, I was stationed as a Platoon Commander and acting  Company Commander in an Asian country Our task was to control the many extremists in that country. One of my duties was to sit in during interrogations.

One day I noticed that one of the prisoners appeared to me as NOT your run of the mill terrorist, so I invited him to sit down and have dinner with me.  We ended up having a number of such dinners where he told me he was a psychiatrist and we spent many a happy hour discussing his various patients. It was then that I decided that after the war I would like to do something similar, maybe become a psychologist. 

So when I got back to the UK I contacted the appropriate people, only to be told that at the ripe old age of 25 I was considered too old to study psychology, as that was reserved for younger students straight out of high school.

It was then suggested by a friend that I should contact the Australian Embassy, which I did ....They were very helpful and said  “Yeah Mate, of course you can study psychology in Australia."   So I came out to Australia where I also became interested in hypnotherapy. I heard about the  A.H.A, applied and sat for my exams...passed and started practising at Springvale in Victoria and over the last 50 years, have had the privilege of helping a great number of people .

After my wife died in 1986. I departed to Port Macquarie and started a practice over there.  However after spending 5 nice years there, I decided to return to Melbourne and at the age of 64 start up another practice. Now at the healthy age of  77, I still have my practice and still enjoy my work, but I suppose  I just may have to retire some day …?
 

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