clinical hypnosis

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The Ericksonian approach is based, in part, on the belief that the unconscious is childlike in its ability to observe, respond and learn without the superimposed structure of formal adult thinking. Most professionals believe that people are much more suggestible in a trance state. Milton H. Erickson himself sometimes supported this view of suggestibility and sometimes disputed it. Certainly, people become in many ways more vulnerable when hypnotized. The therapist must always be worthy of and respectful of that vulnerability and trust. 

Hypnosis and eliciting trance can be a cooperative experience between the client and the clinician or it can be authoritarian and directive. Ericksonian hypnosis includes both styles and is most often seen as a cooperative venture. The specific situation and the needs of the individual determine the appropriate style.

Erickson had the crucial insight that hypnosis is not something the hypnotist “does to” the other person, rather it is a kind of relationship – a way of creating a learning rapport between two people who are both active in the process. Over and over, Erickson defined hypnosis as a form of communication – a way to exchange ideas effectively. 

Above all, this way of communication gives hope:  

change is possible.

The idea that the hypnotic state is something active, dynamic and shared was a radical viewpoint that set Erickson apart from traditional Western practitioners of hypnosis. In this regard he has more in common with cultures such as the Balinese, who use sophisticated trancework in group settings that involve and integrate the community at large. Traditional Western hypnosis was a passive process that happened to “the subject” by “the operator.”  Even though fine suggestions may have been presented, it was still the hypnotist who had “the power.” By actively involving the client in the trance process, Erickson gave both himself and the client greater access to the client’s abilities and resources. Change (also known as “therapy”) emerged from their combined efforts. The client held much greater responsibility and ownership with all the positive results of that responsibility and ownership.

Prior to Erickson, with few exceptions, psychotherapies were pathology-based, viewing human troubles in terms of what was wrong or sick or broken. These pathology-based therapies begin with an idealized notion of perfect mental health. Real people depart from this ideal by having various kinds of damage or illness. The fundamental question was – and often remains – “What’s wrong with this person?” Psychological symptoms were seen to develop out of these defects in the same way that abdominal pain might develop from a liver tumor. These symptoms could supposedly be relieved through a conscious understanding of what was wrong. Once the symptom was gone, mental health was produced, since health was defined merely as the 

absence of illness. Nearly every client who walks through my doors has absorbed this pathology-based view of his or her difficulties. Taking a cue from medical treatment, the client describes himself through his or her symptoms and expects to be “treated” accordingly. 

Erickson saw things differently. To him, the entire organism is constantly striving toward health and development. He viewed many human troubles as outmoded solutions to problems. Sometimes the problems were in fact insoluble, but required some kind of response; other times the solutions worked fine for a while, but the person failed to discard them after they stopped being useful. Whichever, the old solutions wore out – becoming vastly more troublesome than any benefit they might continue to provide. 

Erickson consistently used “That’s right” in eliciting trance, for praise, validation and to encourage the direction of the trance. For the Ericksonian therapist, the essential question is, “What is right with this client?  What is s/he striving to accomplish with this behavior that looks so nutty?”  We are called upon to find the ways in which we can say, “That’s right.”

And by the way, as skilled as I am  - I CANNOT make you quit smoking, make you lose weight, make you forget or remember anything or everything, or cluck like a chicken. 

What I CAN do is help you discover your own trance 

and abilities.