become an intuitive healer

7/30/2019 Become an Intuitive Healer

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Becoming

An

Intuitive Healer

By

Daniel Jones


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Contact the author:

www.discoverdanjones.co.uk

First Edition 2008

Copyright Daniel Jones 2008

Daniel Jones asserts the moral right to be identified as the

author of this work

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or

otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers or

author.

1 First Edition 1


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Acknowledgements

A huge thanks to Abbie Piper for supporting me and

putting up with me while I worked on this book day and night.

Graham LeVell for his input and for letting me try things out on

him, both with and without his knowledge. Mark Tyrrell, Roger

Elliot and Jill Wooton for imparting their invaluable knowledge. I

would also like to thank Paul Murphy and Tony Higgins and Terry

Stewart for their interest and support. And finally I would like to

thank anyone reading this that I should have thanked but didnt

mention here. You are not all forgotten I know who you are, I just

saved you from having to see you name in print!

Thank you to Stephen Brooks the founder of British

Hypnosis Research; for his encouragement and training in Indirect

Hypnosis, Ericksonian Psychotherapy and the use of Neuro-

Linguistic Programming with deep trance.


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Contents

Introduction 6

Pattern matching, problem structure and effective therapy 9

Pattern Matching 28

Problems & how they are structured 34

Utilisation 51

Re-framing 55

Hypnotic language patterns 98

Psychotherapy 133

Basic Emotional Needs 158

Essential Skills 160

The Importance of Keeping the Problem in Mind 163

Hypnosis & Trance 166

Psychoneuroimmunology & the work of Dr Ernest Rossi 170

Understanding Energy Therapies 177

Energy Therapies and Guided Imagery 179

Working with Ideo-Dynamics 182

Therapeutic Dowsing 186

Learning to Notice Minimal Cues 189

Observation Skills 192

Bibliography 196

Index 202


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Introduction

For many years psychologists have wondered about the

mind. They have wondered about how problems are caused and

maintained, wondered about how different people can respond

to the same situation in different ways.

Over the last few decades psychologists have been able to

take a closer look than ever before into how the mind works. With

the latest brain scanning technology scientists have been able to

watch thought processes in action.

As well as having new and improved technology there was

some people that began to look at problems and treatment in a

different way. In the 1970s John Grinder and Richard Bandler (the

co-creators of Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP)) set out to

discover what many top therapists had in common. What they had

noticed was that regardless of the therapy certain therapists

achieved very high levels of results. In the same way that thousands


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of people can play golf but certain people can play golf

exceptionally well.

Not only did Bandler and Grinder see what made some

therapists highly effective, they also decided to find out what it was

that people who used to have problems did to overcome those

problems. At the time most researchers would focus on those that

couldnt get over their problems. For example at the time most

researchers would gather together groups of people with phobias to

try to work out what is going on and how to treat them.

What Bandler and Grinder did was to create techniques and

structures for treating people based on how those that used to have

problems but overcame them managed to get better. This way of

looking at problems was a new approach. For years it had been

used in sports, for example where you would learn how a top golfer

plays, you would learn how they stand, how they hold the club,

where they look as they swing the club, etc. But it had not really

been used in therapy to see what made some therapists more

effective than others, or what people did to get over problems they

once had.


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Since the 1970s many psychologists have studied how

problems are formed, maintained and why different people

respond differently to the same situation.

This book is designed to be useful as a practitioners guide

to effective therapy.

Often having an understanding of a problem, knowing

what is wrong and how it should be treated can give piece of mind.

With so many types of treatments available for psychological

problems it can be difficult to know what treatment is effective and

what treatment could be harmful. Currently there are over 400

different types of psychotherapy and counselling.

This book is aimed at increasing the knowledge of

practitioners. The next chapter will cover pattern matching,

problem structure and effective therapy. This chapter is an

overview giving a foundation on which the rest of the series of

book is built on. The series is structured to increase your

knowledge in stages. Each chapter and book builds on what you

have learnt previously.

Throughout this book there are exercises to help you to

integrate and practice what you have learnt.


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Pattern matching, problem structure and effectivetherapy

How the latest findings in psychology unite Dreaming,

Trance States and Problem Formation, helping

psychotherapist and counsellors treat clients more effectively

The latest research findings on psychology and human

nature help to explain why we dream, what we are likely to

dream about, what hypnosis and trance states are, and the

structure of problems and solutions.

These findings allow psychological problems to be resolved

quicker than previously thought. Dramatic changes can be made in

a single session for problems like depression, anxiety, phobias or

post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and many others.

These findings explain how NLP (Neuro-Linguistic

Programming) techniques work, why we dream and what hypnosis

is. They also give a structure on how to do effective therapy by

explaining how problems are caused and how to set up lasting

solutions.


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In the 1990s Irish Psychologist Joseph Griffin

researched dreaming and why we evolved to dream. He carried

out this research firstly on himself. He would wake himself

regularly throughout the night for many nights to record his

dreams. Over time he started to build up a picture of what he

dreamt about and what it could mean.

One morning a thought crossed his mind. He didnt have

to be up yet so he decided he would go back to sleep. He expected

to dream about this thought when he fell asleep. When he didnt he

wondered why not.

As Joe continued his research he continually found

situations that he felt he would dream about yet didnt. What Joe

eventually found out led to his creating of a new theory of why we

dream. Joe found that we dream to close off patterns that have

been started during the day but not completed and to integrate new

parts of patterns. Joe found that if you have an argument and it

gets resolved then it wont crop up at night, but if you start an

argument and walk away without resolving it then that night it will

crop up in your dreams.


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He discovered that dreams are ALWAYS metaphorical. So

if you see your wife in the dream she doesnt represent your wife

(If the feeling you get is that it definitely WAS your wife then if it

was something WILL be different to what the real person is like. It

could be that they are fatter or slimmer, or different to normal in

some other way). She could represent an aspect of you or another

person etc. The dream will ALWAYS pattern match to an event

from the previous day. NOT TO LONG FORGOTTEN

EVENTS like many people previously thought (It used to be

thought that dreams were manifestations of deep-rooted hidden

desires). The event could be an unresolved thought or a real

incident.

Pattern-matching

The brain is essentially a pattern-matching machine. When

you learn something new it pattern matches to what you already

know and builds on this. When you think of something (like

wanting to hit your boss) and dont act on it, your brain keeps the

pattern open waiting for the expected outcome or a metaphor of it.


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(Instead of kicking your boss when you dream it maybe of kicking

a soccer ball as a metaphor to close the pattern)

This research can be tested by anybody. It also explains

why babies spend so much time dreaming in the last three months

before birth, as this is a vital time for laying down new patterns

(like suckling). The patterns are all metaphorical in themselves

because they need to be for survival (for example a language

pattern that allows the capacity to learn language but is flexible

enough for that language to be any one of the languages we learn).

If they were too specific then we would have died out long ago.

For example the pattern for suckling can be met by the use of a

dummy or a thumb, not just a nipple. The patterns also need to be

adjustable so that any changes (to the environment) can be learnt

and added to that pattern.

Sometimes in therapy you can get clients that have

presenting problems that are metaphorical. For example;

someone could come in with a pain in the neck and talk about a

difficult relationship they have that needs sorting out but they

dont know how to approach the situation.


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Dream Interpretation

The important part of the dream that leads to interpretation

is the feelings. When we dream all the feelings in the dream are

exaggerated. To interpret the dream think about the previous day

and when you felt those feelings but perhaps didnt act on them.

What happens is that each time you dont fulfil a pattern it

needs closing off so that you are ready for the next day. It is a bit

like opening lots of files on a computer. If you dont close files

down the computer gets slower and slower until it crashes.

A new understanding of depression

This research led to a new outlook on why depressed

people dream more than non-depressed people do, and why they

always wake up tired. Which led to quicker treatment of people

with depression. When someone is depressed they worry regularly

throughout the day. Each time they worry they set off a pattern

that often doesnt get closed.


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For example: worrying what people think or what if this

happens etc. All these open patterns need closing that night which

causes over dreaming due to the increased number of patterns that

have been opened. Because so much of the night is spent dreaming

which is as exhausting as being fully awake, and missing out on

deep recuperative sleep the brain wakes the depressed person early

to stop them dreaming. They feel exhausted due to the lack of deep

sleep.

Excessive dreaming also stops serotonin production, which

leads to feeling low and unmotivated. It also continually fires off

the reorientation response which adds to the low motivation as the

response stops working effectively at focusing attention and

motivating the depressed person. Once the depressed person

spends one day not worrying they sleep properly that night and feel

immediately much better and more able to cope the next day.

As I have shown the reason why we dream is to close

patterns that have been fired off throughout the day which allows

the mind to be clear to work fully and effectively the next day.

What you will dream about therefore will be a metaphor of these

patterns.


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What hypnosis really is

The idea of pattern matching solves what hypnosis is. The

pattern-matching model is called the APET model. This stands for

Activating agent, Pattern matching, Emotion, Thought. This is how

we experience the world. Something (Activating agent) sets off a

pattern (Pattern matching) which leads to an emotional reaction

(Emotion) which in turn causes a thought.

The reason for the emotion coming before the thought is

that it allows for you to respond to a stimulus if necessary without

conscious thought involved if it will help with survival.

For example a phobia unconsciously you see movement

in the bushes. Previously a tiger jumped out of bushes and attacked

you so you panicked and ran before you knew why you were

running. If you had to think about what that rustling was before

you decided to respond and it was another tiger you could be killed

while you decide what you were going to do.

Hypnosis and trances are just the dream-state being

accessed. People go into trances all the time. People sitting in


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cinemas watching films go into trance states at exciting parts to

which they respond by showing phenomena like catalepsy. They

could be about to put popcorn into their mouth when they go into

the trance then sit there for the next five minutes without moving

their hand, at the end of the exciting bit of film they finish putting

the popcorn in their mouth without realising what they did.

To induce hypnosis all a hypnotist does is helps the client

access the dream-state by firing off the pattern for sleep or for the

reorientation response which is the same state of mind. The

reorientation response fires when something happens causing your

mind to search for how it should respond and to find out what is

happening. It then locks on to the first concrete idea.

For example you hear a loud bang, you get startled

(reorientation response); you then see a car and think it must have

backfired. Stage hypnotists often set off the reorientation response

whereas therapeutic hypnotists often gently take the person into

the dream-state.

How to induce a trance


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Hypnosis can be induced by focusing your attention (could

be on a spot on the wall, or on a thought, or on a rhythm, or on

almost anything else) which is what happens when the reorientation

response is fired.

Hypnosis or trance states can be induced in many different

ways:

By confusion followed by a solid suggestion. Pattern interruption, (like handshake inductions)

these fire the reorientation response as the correct pattern isnt

happening so they take their cue on what to do next from the

hypnotist.

Shock inductions (like most stage hypnotists do,these set off the reorientation response).

Relaxing the muscles (which are part of the processfor falling asleep).

Deepening rhythmic breathing (part of the processfor sleep).

Visualisation (part of falling asleep and dreaming).


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Everyone uses hypnosis all of the time. People think about

winning the lottery and what they would do with the money, they

are visualising which induces a light trance. Smokers may go into a

trance when they focus on the cigarette they are having and they

take deep breaths as they allow their muscles to relax. When people

have cravings they enter a trance as they as so intensely focused on

what they crave. When people get angry they focus on what is

causing the anger. When people get depressed they focus on

worrying and negative thoughts.

Doctors, counsellors and other psychological therapists all

use hypnosis all of the time, often without realising it. It is when

they dont realise that they can cause more harm than good.

For example: when a doctor is seeing a patient, that patient

is in a mild trance state, usually a slight anxiety trance. Their whole

focus is on the doctor and on what the doctor has to say. If the

doctor gives any suggestions they will be acting like a

Hypnotherapist so it is important that they give good suggestions.

If they say this is going to hurt it increases the chances of causing


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pain. If they say 80% of people die from the cancer they are

suggesting the patient is unlikely to live.

Many counsellors and psychotherapists that dont realise

they do hypnosis can give equally harmful suggestions that make

clients leave sessions feeling awful. Whenever a client leaves a

session they should feel empowered, they should feel like they have

achieved something in the session. They shouldnt leave feeling

worse than they came in. It is the therapist that has the power to

make the client feel better or worse.

Each time a doctor, counsellor or other psychological

therapist asks a patient to think about something they are making

the patient visualise which is causing them to enter a light trance.

Depending on what they are being asked to think about each thing

they think of will have the effect of updating current patterns in the

brain. This is why it is important to have patients think of things

that desirably adjust patterns rather than getting people to keep

thinking about their problems.

Hypnosis CAN be induced in anyone


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It used to be thought that not everyone could be

hypnotised but this was because in the past hypnotists would use a

script that was the same for each person. This didnt work on

everyone because people are all different. For example, some

people might feel uncomfortable with an induction that guides

them down in an elevator so they wont respond by going into a

trance. Now well-trained Hypnotherapists will tailor the induction

to the specific client and let clients go into trance in their own way.

How we now know dreaming and trance states are the same

There are many similarities between dreaming and

hypnosis. In both there is catalepsy, amnesia to varying degrees

depending on the depth of the state you are in and how soon after

coming out of the state you try to recall that period of time.

Anaesthesia/analgesia, hallucination, and suspended belief also

occur in both dreaming and hypnosis.

As you now know the dream-state is also the state of mind

that allows you to integrate new learnings onto old patterns, which

is what happens under hypnosis. As you do this integrating you are


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in a trance or the dream-state which is one reason people regularly

drift into daydreams every 90 minutes or so throughout the whole

day and more so when they are learning. This is called the Ultradian

Rhythm.

Therapeutically inducing a trance state and its uses

To therapeutically induce hypnosis can be as simple as

saying:

Imagine what it would be like when you discover now that

you feel calm and confident giving that presentation. What is that

like? How do other people notice that you are calm and confident?

Who comments on how well you do first? What do you notice

about the audience that lets you know you are doing well? How do

you know that you are calm and confident?

This causes the mind to build a new pattern that has a

stronger positive emotional feel than the old negative one. This


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causes you go into a trance state and adjust the pattern so that the

activating agent (presentation) leads to this pattern match which

leads to a calm and confident emotion leading to positive thoughts.

The lower the emotion the more repetitions need to be

done to make the new pattern strong. For example for a phobia or

PTSD only one repetition needs to happen for the pattern to stick

(although the pattern can very easily be changed) whereas like

Pavlovs dogs the repetition is higher for a lower emotional

anchor. After many rings of a bell with food it only took the ring

of a bell to make the dogs salivate.

Using the APET model therapy is made easier. NLP

techniques are explained as they are changing a part of APET

whether it is giving a different emotional tag to a pattern or a

different interpretation (thought) to the emotion. Hypnosis gets

explained and can clearly be seen as the dream-state. And using this

new understanding of dreams everyone can interpret their own

dreams and the dreams of others, many psychological problems

can be resolved quicker than previously thought and there is no

longer any mystery as to why we dream. It also finally demystifies

hypnosis.


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How these understandings have lead to a new breed of more

effective therapists

All effective psychotherapy changes part of the problem

pattern. This means that as the pattern only changes during trance

states or dreaming, a knowledge and full understanding of hypnosis

is useful for any therapist. Even getting a client to view a situation

differently causes a trance.

The mind cant tell the difference between real and vividly

imagined so if something is imagined to go a certain way it builds

on the pattern for that outcome. This is why NLP techniques can

be useful. Gone are the days when people had a nave approach to

therapy that if you found out the root cause the problem will get

cured.

Now we know that the past has happened and cant be

changed. Your perception and understanding of past events can be

changed if necessary. Change is now known to occur quickly and

just because it is quick doesnt make it superficial or only getting

rid of the symptoms but not dealing with the cause.


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A long drawn out therapy only gets results once the client

enters a trance and views the problem differently, learning

something new. When you know this all you have to do is find out

what the person wants and you will know the solution regardless of

the problem. This has led to a more effective breed of therapist.

For example;

Shyness could be caused by not being allowed to speak out

as a child or else you get hit or abused so you become too scared to

speak out. Or you could not know the reason for the shyness.

Either way if when asked what they want and how they will know

when they are no longer shy the person says I want to feel

confident when talking to people at a party. You dont have to find

out why they cant do that. You just alter the pattern to lead to the

appropriate emotions and thoughts to quickly allow them to do

that. Some people may need past memories de-traumatising, which

would usually only take one session.


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Therapists should be aware of dreams that clients say that

they have had, especially if the dreams are recurring dreams as this

is often a sign of an ongoing issue that is playing on the clients

mind. Dreams or metaphors that the client uses can be used to help

to treat them by altering them slightly to include a useful solution.

They can also let the therapist know about issues that the client

doesnt readily talk about.

An example dream I recently interpreted

Dream

I am in my flat with a friend. She comments on how my

fish in the fish tank look like they are dying. The water in the fish

tank looks horrible. One of my fish is still alive and jumps out on

to the floor. It flaps its self along the floor and out of my living

room. Outside the living room is not the corridor that should be

there but the outside of the house. It didnt seem odd at the time,

in the dream. The fish continued to flap across the ground away

from the house. I was sad that it would die; I was still trying to


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catch the fish to get it back in the fish tank. Just then a fat cat

suddenly pounced on the fish and ripped its head off. I got to the

fish and picked it up. It was dead, had turned orange and was

hollow inside. This upset me. I wanted to cry.

Reality

The person above had found out at short notice that over

half the staff team where she works was going to be made

redundant. This did upset her as she got on with those that were

leaving (friend leaving, fish dying, fish flapping out of the building).

She had concerns over whether the company would keep going

(the references to dying, the dirty fish tank). She felt that it was the

employers fault that the staff were being made redundant (fat cat

killing the fish and making it hollow). She had been worrying a lot

at this time about the situation. She felt that work was going to

seem empty. She didnt really get on so well with the staff member

left working with her (hollow fish, fish turning all orange with no

head and dead staff member left working with her had ginger hair

and she wished he was one of the staff going instead - dead fish).


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Conclusion

The authoritarian hypnosis approach that many hypnotists

still use is out of date. The scales used to study hypnotisability are

inaccurate, as using an authoritarian, scripted approach doesnt

hypnotise everyone, as people are all individual. Everyone can be

hypnotised and can show all the phenomena they just need to be

hypnotised in the way that suits them.

NLP is highly effective if done to suit the client due to

individuality. And dreams are now understood so hopefully people

will interpret their own dreams rather than buy cheap dream books

that dont give the individual their own personal interpretation. I

would love to hear that many readers decide to experiment with

interpreting their own dreams and the dreams of others.


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Pattern Matching

Previously we touched on pattern matching. Now I will

go into a little more detail. Pattern matching is how the brain

works. It is always happening from moment to moment with

everything that you do.

There have been many models of how the mind works.

Some of these have been more accurate than others.

With the latest understandings from psychology,

neurology and brain scanning we now know that emotions

happen before thoughts. Many schools of therapy used to think

that thoughts caused emotions and some thought that emotions

werent important at all.


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The new model of how the mind works is called the APET

model.

As we have covered earlier APET stands for:

Activating agent Pattern matching Emotion Thought

It is important to understand that most psychological

problems arise from faulty pattern matching.

For example:

Someone walking out onto a stage to give a talk,then blushing and feeling embarrassed, and thinking Im

stupid, I cant do this

Or

A smoker answering the telephone, then feeling theneed for a cigarette, and so thinking Ive got to have a

cigarette


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Pattern matching is involved in everything that we do.

Whether it is the routine we go through when we get up in the

morning or instinctively knowing to stop the car when you see a

red traffic light. The important thing to remember is that patterns

can be changed. Patterns arent stuck in place. They are adaptable.

Your brain is always updating its patterns. In everyday life this

happens automatically with each new piece of learning.

Unfortunately this can lead to patterns being reinforced causing

problems to last. Like believing that smoking is the only way you

can relax, then each time you get stressed or bored and need to

relax you smoke. As this does temporarily relax you, you assume it

was because of the cigarettes so this reinforces the pattern. In

reality it is the way that a smoker breathes while they smoke that

relaxes them, not the cigarettes.

In therapy sessions or taking some time to help yourself it

is possible to alter these patterns by choice. For example the

smoker can practice breathing in to the count of 3 and out to the

count of 5. This longer out-breath triggers the relaxation response

and if done for a minute or so can give a light sense of euphoria

with a sense of relaxation. As this is practised it offers the smoker a


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new choice. They can use this breathing technique instead of

cigarettes as they have added this to their pattern for relaxing.

As a practitioner you should learn to notice processes or

patterns. This is where the problem formation lies. The content is

useful for rapport, or for finding resources or highlighting the

problem areas you need to extract the pattern from. But it is the

structure of the problem that is important to finding a fast way to

help the client not the content. Many therapists get bogged down

in content. They get drawn in by all of the talk of the problem.

Often therapists begin to feel emotional about the content,

especially if the content is sad or disturbing.

Obviously it is important to let the client talk and get the

problem off of their chest. But as a therapist you want to be able to

listen and notice patterns. For example it could be that when the

client is talking about mundane things they go in to detail saying

that that is what is important, yet when they come to talk about

what seems to be an underlying issue they skirt over it. Or a client

could do a specific gesture like rubbing the neck when talking

about a partner. If they repeatedly did this each time they talked

about that person you could notice the pattern and assume that


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maybe the partner is a pain in the neck, even if it hasnt been

verbally stated.

STEP BACK AND SEE THE PATTERN OF THE

PROBLEM

Look out for how you can change patterns easiest. It could

be that you change the frequency of the pattern, or the duration, or

the times that the pattern takes place. It could be that you add an

extra stage to the pattern or change a stage in the pattern. Most of

what will be covered throughout this book aims to make alterations

to patterns. Teaching how best to do this with different problems.

As well as the more common changes to patterns it is useful to

learn how to notice patterns for yourself. Not everyone is the same,

so what works well for one person may not work so well for

somebody else. For example, to cure phobias there is a really useful

technique that involves visualising. What you may find is that not

everyone is able to follow the instructions well, or they believe they

cant visualise well so you would have to do something different

with them. Often the language that they use will give away what


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they need. They may say I need to be able to step back and see

what is happening or I just wish that the problem would

disappear.


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Problems & how they are structured

Over thousands of years humans have evolved as problem

solving creatures. They have needed to do so to find solutions to

help them survive harsh and threatening environments.

Often problems that people present with can be seen as

sloppy or attempted solutions. Perhaps once the solution was

useful but has now remained as a habit. This happens because

we once something we do works we often stick with what we

know rather than trying something different.

For example:

A person with a bad back due to an injury may walk with a

specific posture for the few weeks that their back is injured as this

new posture brings relief. This person may then get stuck always

walking with this new posture as it has been learnt as something

that once made the person feel better. Years later it may turn out


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that this posture has caused damage elsewhere in the back leading

to a problem.

This example shows how the problem was originally an

attempted solution.

The same can happen with psychological problems. It

could be a smoker that smokes to relax or to fit in with a social

group but then gets stuck with a habit. Or a person that once had a

high powered job and used to only sleep a few hours a night gets

stuck with not being able to stay asleep so find they are now

lethargic and tired all of the time. Or a mother that had to sleep

light and wake regularly to care for a child that years later after she

no longer needs to do this now finds she cant stay asleep.

Problems can sometimes meet otherwise unmet needs. Like

smoking meeting a need to relax, getting a headache before a

presentation saving you from the embarrassment of having to stand

up and talk in front of a group of people etc. Sometimes all that is

needed is to help the person to have choice by helping them to find

a healthy alternative to meet the same needs. Other times the need

is now being met in a more beneficial way but a habit has formed

from when the problem started.


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Before clients come to therapy they have almost always

tried to solve their own problems and failed. They very rarely

choose therapy as the first option as this costs money and some

people feel embarrassed to ask for help or to attend therapy so they

dont until they reach a point where they dont know what else to

do. They will come in saying they have tried everything and yet still

are stuck with their problem.

Contrary to popular belief most people know why they

have a problem but still cant get rid of it. It used to always be

suggested that people should find the root cause of their problem

which would have originated in childhood and by finding this root

cause they will gain an insight and understanding that helps them to

move on and be problem free. Searching for the root of the

problem may be interesting for the client but the question is do

they want to know why they have the problem or not have the

problem at all?

There is nothing wrong will people wanting to have an

insight into why they are the person that they are and where

problems have stemmed from. It is just not something that is

usually necessary for helping them to get better. If once they are

problem free they would still like to analyse how events and


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reactions to events throughout their lives had shaped them and

helped caused the problem then that is fine.

It is rare for someone to have a problem and not know

when it started. With some things they may not know the exact

first incident if they were too young to remember but often they

will know what it was yet still have the presenting problem.

For example if someone was stung by a bee as a three year

old that caused a phobia of bees they may not remember the exact

incident and they dont need to remember it to be helped. Even if

they do remember it they will still have the phobia. They will know

that it is irrational but that wont stop them having it. The reason is

because phobias are emotional responses to a stimulus. The person

responds emotionally before they consciously think about what is

scaring them. It is the unconscious process that maintains the

phobia that needs to be changed not an understanding of the initial

incident.

Often problems are maintained by the clients reaction to

it.


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For example:

Trying to fall asleep makes it harder to do so. Trying not to blush makes you blush more.

Telling someone to laugh and them trying to laugh is not

the same as saying something that makes them laugh. This is how

indirect therapy works Stephen Brooks

When problems seem too difficult to deal with then solving

them can seem impossible. This is often what happens to clients by

the time they come to therapy. Sometime they can come in

believing that as it is impossible not even you will be able to help

them. You will then need to demonstrate success to them. Just

telling them you can help them wont work, they may

unconsciously sabotage the therapy to prove that they you cant.

Sometimes just helping them to learn to relax can be enough for

them to gain confidence in you and then accept treatment.

If a problem seems too large then the client can become

overwhelmed, depressed or more anxious. So it is useful to help

them to relax first. When someone is relaxed they see their problem


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more clearly. This will help them to discuss how and when the

problem occurs which will give you the structure to work with to

help them.

When you work with the client you need to frame the

problem so that the client feels they are overcoming the problem

using their own resources and that you are just a guide helping

them along. If they leave therapy believing they can help

themselves then they will be more able to cope in the future as they

are less likely to become reliant on a therapist. This also makes the

therapy work faster and more effective.

Help clients to access their resources like times when they

expected to have the problem but didnt or times when they felt

motivated. People often have abilities that can help to get through

their problems that they already use or have used in the past in

different contexts. Sometimes it may be necessary to break the

problem down in to smaller chunks. For example if someone wants

to lose weight but feels it is an insurmountable task then you could

create stages to this outcome. As each stage gets met the client

would know they are getting closer to achieving what they want. If

you didnt break it down they may decide they are no closer to

what they want because they have no markers along the way.


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Always remember; start where you can make a difference

quickest. This way you gain their confidence in your abilities to

help them. It could be that you immediately help them to relax or

get rid of a phobia or de-traumatise memories in the first session.

Therapy becomes so much easier and quicker once the client feels

confident in your abilities. By noticing the structures of their

problems you to see where you can make the fastest difference.

All psychological difficulties are trance states.

A trance state involves a narrowing focus of attention.

When a client comes to you with a problem they dont see multiple

perspectives. All problem structures involve some level of trance.

In a trance you get a bias of perception. A depressed

person looks at reality negatively and past oriented etc

Most of the techniques and skills are designed to break

trances and create multiple perspectives.

Sometimes it can be best to encourage the problem rather

than fight it. This can help to maintain and build rapport and can


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also misdirect the client from recognising that what you are

suggesting is actually going to be what creates the solution.

For example you can say you can continue smoking for

now but the but part is the therapeutic part. The great

psychiatrist Milton H. Erickson once told a client they could

continue to suck their thumb but they had to also suck each other

finger individually each time they sucked their thumb. Making the

problem too much of a chore which led to the person becoming

sick of sucking their thumb and each finger and so wanting to stop

the behaviour completely.

The main reasons for problems are:

Emotional needs not being met Damaging or unrealistic expectations Traumatised or faulty pattern matching Feeling overwhelmed or worrying Developing a problem behaviour pattern Being unable to break out of a trance state


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Most problems involve people getting themselves into

double binds (damned if you do, damned if you dont), or lacking

certain abilities or skills (to relax or to build rapport etc)

Problems involve splitting and linking

Splitting is where you have the part of you that doesnt

want to carry out the problem behaviour and the part of you that

carries it out anyway.

For example:

Blushing - dont want to blush but blush anyway Addiction - dont want to smoke but I smoke

anyway

Linking is where you attach a stimulus and a response.

For example:

Doing a presentation and feeling terrified Feeling stressed and wanting a cigarette


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Look for solutions

When you are paying attention to a clients problem

structure; look for solutions that the client overlooks. Things

like, when a client went for a period of time problem free, or

something that once worked for them that they perhaps thought

was a one off. For example many people smoke but make long

plane journeys without having a cigarette.

Notice black and white thinking that may be maintaining a

problem. Break it. Make it grey. Notice people using the word

should and challenge this in a skilful way to see if it really is a

should. Do the same with terms like have to, Ive got to, I

must, I need to. All of these terms can restrict someones views

and help to maintain bad patterns.

Notice when people have an illusion of control, either too

much or too little. Because again these crop up in many problem

structures helping to keep the problem in place. Challenge the


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illusion; ask questions like what would happen if you let someone

else do that instead? or what would happen if you said no?

Use double binds, splitting, linking and evoking abilities and

skills in your solutions when you help the client to create a new

pattern or adjust the old pattern. Not only can double binds,

splitting and linking be involved in the problem formation, later on

you can see how to use these therapeutically.

Some interventions can be:

Making conscious unconscious responses,interrupting the pattern, and getting them to think in detail

about the steps of their problem.

Doing less of whats not working Advertise the problem rather than concealing it.

Or you can create tasks to alter the problem behaviour

and disrupt the pattern:

Alter the pattern of the complaint


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- Change the frequency- Change the timing of performance- Change the location of the performance- Change the duration of the performance- Change the sequence of elements/events in

the complaint

- Break the complaint into smaller chunks- Link the complaint to the performance of a

boring or difficult task

- Add a new element to the pattern

Alter the context surrounding the pattern

Or if working with couples or families set tasks for them to

do that will gather information and teach them something new.

Do a few things that will surprise your parents/child.

Dont tell them what those things are or when you are doing them.

The other persons job is to see if you can tell what it is that the


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other person was doing. Dont compare notes; we will do that next

session

If parent wants something suggest Keep track of what you

are doing this week that gives you/makes you/etc(pleasure,

happy, etc)

As problems often arise to meet unmet emotional needs it

is useful to have awareness of what these needs are and to keep

them in your mind when you are working with clients to notice if

any seem not to be getting met appropriately. It could be that the

presenting problem doesnt seem to be meeting any needs but on

listening to the client you find that a need isnt being met in

everyday life. This could mean that the problem in some way is

meeting that need.

Different parts of the brain function in different ways.

Being aware of which functions are associated with which brain

hemispheres can help to understand what is going on in the clients

mind. You can also then understand how emotions affect the brain

helping to maintain or break problems.


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Generally the left hemisphere is for processing information

in sequential, logical, rational ways and with small, detailed

movements and the right hemisphere is for contextualising

patterns, pattern matching and emotions and with large

movements. In some people (often left-handed) this can be

reversed.

One of the most primitive parts of the brain is the

emotional mind (limbic system). This part of the brain is

responsible for maintaining your survival.

During times of high emotion the limbic system takes

control. This causes an IQ drop as the higher parts of the brain get

shut down and the mind goes into safety mode. At this time all

that is important is survival. The person will be in a highly focused

state of mind where they will want to run, fight or freeze. The run

and freeze responses are the feelings of anxiety and fear, the fight

response is a feeling of anger.

By knowing about how the emotional mind can take over

in times of high emotional arousal it is possible to disrupt this

process by asking the person to challenge their own thoughts or to

grade the intensity of their emotion as the emotion begins to take


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effect. Both these interventions require a person to use their logical,

rational part of the brain, which reduces the intensity of the

emotion.

Another approach can be to chew gum as this causes the

digestive system to be activated. One of the systems that gets shut

down in times of high emotional arousal is the digestive systems, so

if you start chewing you prevent the digestive system from closing

down and the emotional system from being able to take over so

easily. This works because if you are chewing and thinking about

food then the presented threat that caused the emotional arousal

cant be that severe or you would be more concerned with your

own instant survival.

When the emotional part of the brain takes control it shuts

down all systems not essential for short term survival from

digestion to sex drive. These are important for long term survival

but not so important when you need to fight or run away to

maintain your immediate safety. Many problems can arise due to

prolonged emotional arousal to do with these systems being made

to not work correctly like irritable bowel syndrome, impotence, and

ulcers.


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The role of trance in human behaviour and problematic

states.

As I have mentioned previously people go in and out of

trance from moment to moment, gluing new learning in place. This

happens whether it is beneficial learning or a learning that causes a

problem. This is why using trance to help people is so important.

As a therapist you want to be able to help people to spot and

control their own trance states. You can teach a client to step out

of an emotional trance as it begins. This can be practised in therapy

helping the clients to make that psychological shift.

Imagination keeps belief patterns and emotional

patterns in place

Your body cant tell the difference between reality and

imagined


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The observing self is the part of you that observes what is

happening at that moment in the mind or behaviourally. You cant

observe the observing self it is a point that you observe from. It is

emotionless. Most forms of therapies use the observing self

whether it is to see how you are thinking, or to see how you react

with a different emotional reaction etc

This is a place where you get to look at the problem from a

different viewpoint separating the problem from your core identity.

Many of the techniques and skills that you will learn to help people

with problems use the observing self. They have the person view

themselves calmly watching the problem behaviour or a new

improved behaviour or reaction.

Telling stories helps prepare and use the observing self.

When you listen to a story you notice patterns, plots, characters

behaviours etc Stories are laced with patterns. These patterns can

be observed for the first time from a different point of view.


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Utilisation

Remember utilisation! Use what the client gives you. If theclient shows resistance, use it.

Use clients interests and what they say to you

Any of the clients opinions can be used. If the client starts

to tell you about the weather and how nice it is outside you can use

this to elicit pleasant feelings or to encourage them to think about a

holiday that can be used to relax them.

To utilise feelings that the client mentions it is important to

feedback what they say in a way that gets them more absorbed in

those feelings in the present.

For example if a client was talking about a time they felt

good about an achievement, as you talk to them you can begin to

re-evoke those feelings in the present and begin to associate them

with solving the problem.

To do this you need to feedback what they say into present

tense. Use it whether it is anger or resistance or lack of motivation


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or positive things like having a supportive family, being confident

at playing a musical instrument, running a marathon each year, or a

pleasant experience, whatever it happens to be.

For example:

Client: I went out for a walk in the country the other day.

It was so relaxing.

Therapist: What was it that you found so relaxing?

Client: All the different colours, the cool breeze, the feeling

of the warm sun on my face.

Therapist: Seeing all the different colours, feeling that

cool breeze and the warm sun on your face.

Client: Yes.

You can do anchoring to link a resource with solving their

problem, or you can get them to rehearse hypnotically utilising

resources. Rehearsing hypnotically doesnt mean putting the client

into a formal hypnotic trance, it means creating an experience in


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the mind of the client that is focused on what you want them to

focus on.

With practice utilisation becomes easier, and resources

begin to stand out as if they are marked with neon markers.

Use resistance, everything the client says and does is

right for getting them cured. When I am doing therapy I

constantly use all the client does to get them to where they want

to go. I regularly tell them thats right or go mmm or do

something that is acknowledging to them that they are doing the

right thing to go into a trance or to quit smoking or whatever it

happens to be.

For example if someone comes to me for therapy and

says Im too stressed to be able to relax and go into a trance.

Ill tell them Thats excellent. All the best work is done with the

clients that have some tension there. What I need you to do is

just hold on to some of that tension for a while as we do this.

If a client says You wont be able to hypnotise me

because Im too strong willed. Ill tell them Your right I wont

be able to hypnotise you, all I can do is guide you into a state of


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mind that gives you greater control over the inner workings of

your mind and body. A state of mind that allows you to control

your heart rate, your blood pressure, your breathing and many

other processes, but it takes a strong willed person to enter that

state fully and completely.

Utilisation exercise

In pairs have one person (1) being the client while the other

person (2) is the therapist. Person one talks about a pleasurable

experience. Person two listens to what person one says and utilises

all that they can to help person one deepen their experience. Spend

five minutes each way and do this three times each, so that you

have experienced being a client three times and a therapist three

times. Enjoy yourself you do better when you are having fun.


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Re-framing

One of the key skills to effective therapy is the ability to do

skilful re-framing. Think about your clients focus of attention. If

they are being argued with or perceive disagreement then they will

be focused on their point of view and will hold firmly to their views

and beliefs.

Re-framing is where you change the meaning of a situation.

Jokes re-frame situations, which is why they make us laugh, because

they give an unexpected outcome. Therapeutically I find re-framing

with humour useful by pointing out the ridiculous things that

people say to each other.


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For example:

You forget your anniversary so on the way home from

work you buy some flowers and give them to your wife and

apologise, and she responds with:

Youre only doing that to make me feel better

Now obviously you did do it to make her feel better. You

wouldnt do it to make her feel worse? Yet inevitably an argument

is about to occur.

Next will come the stage where you are told that it is too

late now, you forgot the anniversary. As if it is too late to be

allowed to now feel good, now is the time to feel bad and angry!

All this to me I find amusing and ridiculous so I point it out

to clients in a way that makes them see it from my point of view

that the husband was trying to do the right thing, he was showing

his love. The wife was understandably upset but should she decide

that now is the time to be angry or decide to feel good because her

husband loves her.


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Re-framing can happen instantly in situations just because a

new piece of information has appeared that changes the meaning.

For example:

If you were driving along a main road in rush hour traffic

and you have been getting really angry at the slow moving traffic

and people constantly cutting in front of you. You think to yourself

if one more person does that Im going to be livid! Just then

another car cuts in front of you. You begin to get angry when you

see the driver turn and wave at you with a cheeky smile and you

notice it is your best friend. Now you smile also and think the

cheeky sod, hed do anything to get to work on time! Now the

situation has been re-framed and you dont respond with anger,

and in fact you are likely to now remain a little calmer for the rest

of your journey and even call him to joke with him about it when

you get to work.

When I worked in childcare with teenagers with challenging

behaviour there was an incident where a young person became

aggressive towards staff. The young person needed to be held for


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their safety and the safety of others. They still continued to be

aggressive. The incident had been going on for about an hour with

all staff and the young person hot and sweaty and wishing the

situation would just calm down. Just then one of the members of

staff lent over to take over holding the young person when he did a

really loud unexpected fart! The young person immediately started

laughing and so did the staff. The incident remained calm after that

with no recurrence.

Re-framing is necessary to avoid arguing or causing

defensiveness when you are trying to change someones mind or

their point of view.

Its easy to make someone defensive but not necessarily

very productive by saying things like

Yeah but No, you wrong Well in my opinion


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Or giving off disapproving body language like crossing your

arms aggressively when they say something you disagree with or

not paying them attention, appearing like you are not interested.

You need to get them interested in what YOU have to say.

Some ways of doing this are:

So just to check I understand (then feedbackwhat they said but in a more productive way)

Ive got an idea that may help, Im just wonderingwhat you think?

Ask a question Agree with them (then follow with what you want

them to hear)

Disagreeing without seeming to do so (one of my favourite

examples):


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Client: but I enjoy smoking

Therapist: yes! (Agreeing) People can learn to enjoy

anything; people can enjoy the company of a charming but

manipulative psychopath whilst that psychopath works to

undermine them. At least you know what the cigarettes are taking

from you

From Uncommon Knowledge Training Course

Pre-empting beliefs, if the client doesnt hold the belief it

doesnt matter because you are only talking about people.

For example:

I still get some people that come to see me that believed

that they couldnt be hypnotised that they wouldnt let someone

control them. Once they have got an understanding of what

hypnosis really is and they see that it is nothing mysterious and that

they are the ones in full control of how deep they decide to go into

a trance change occurs rapidly.


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Use the resistance when re-framing. This is best done by

agreeing with the resistance then associating it to something else

and giving different meaning to what they are saying, then

following this with a positive new statement or meaning that is

productive.

For example:

If someone says that they wont do as you say because they

dont believe it will work so why bother trying. You can link this

opinion with the many things the person genuinely wouldnt do if

they were asked and then you can start to say things like dont tell

me anything about the problem until you feel comfortable to do

so. This implies that they will tell you. It also implies they will feel

comfortable and if they want to not do as you say then they will

have to tell you now about the problem.


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Re-framing exercises

Exercise one

In pairs, person 1 being a client, person 2 being the

therapist, practice re-framing.

Person 1 You dont want to relax. You wont do as you

are told because you dont want to feel that someone else has

control over you

Person 2 you have to listen to what they say then re-

frame what they say to work towards relaxing person 1. Remember

it is best to agree first and then lead.

After spending about five minutes each way doing this then

move onto the next exercise.

Exercise two


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Now person 1 as the client, your problem is you cant say

no and stand up for yourself. Person two as the therapist, you have

to re-frame this to get person 1 saying no and standing up for

themselves. Do this exercise so that both people have been client

and therapist.

Remember to have fun. You learn better when you enjoyyourself.


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Hypnosis

What is hypnosis?

Hypnosis is a trance state. Trance states involve a

narrowing focus of attention.

This could be:

Outwards like in an emergency.Or

Inwards like when daydreaming or worrying.

A trance state is when you access the Rapid Eye Movement

(R.E.M) State. This state is accessed during dreaming and at times

when the brain doesnt know what is coming next, like in an

emergency or with a loud noise.


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The R.E.M state is the state that you go into to create or

update patterns of behaviour. This is why human babies have the

highest time in an R.E.M state in the three months leading up to

the birth. In this last three months all of the instinctive patterns are

being laid in place for life on the outside. This allows for certain

behaviours to happen without being learnt, like breathing, suckling

and the ability to match facial expressions which allows the baby to

bond by building rapport.

There are a number of behaviours associated with trance

states many of which are useful to be used for rapid healing.


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Trance state behaviours include:

An increase in suggestibility & responsiveness Increased tolerance to pain Hallucinations Immobility Blinking stops Ability to change body temperature Ability to build muscle using the imagination Ability to alter blood pressure

Ability to change mood

Ability to rehearse new behaviours until theybecome instinctive

Altering immune system activity Accelerated healing Amnesia Plus much more


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Before learning how to induce a trance in yourself and

others it is important to know what to look out for. If you dont

know what to look for to tell when someone is in a trance you

wouldnt know when they are hypnotised. The ability to help

people into an optimum learning state, which is the same state as a

hypnotic trance is one of the most important abilities that you can

learn.

When you know what to look out for you can begin to

utilise what you see as being an indicator that the person is entering

(or is in) a trance.

Trance indicators

catalepsy different voice quality

shorter sentences and words

relaxed muscles less body movement economy of body movement


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smoother features lack of startle reflex takes things literally slow or no swallowing reflex slow or no blinking slower pulse slower respiration pupils change head nodding side to side facial symmetry breathing from stomach less facial colour eyes roll back eyes flutter instant hypnotic phenomena

Not all of these indicators happen all of the time.

Sometimes some people may show some indicators but not others

or there may be a delay before some responses. This delay can


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often happen with hypnotic phenomena or tasks that clients are

asked to carry out. This happens because often internal time

distortion occurs sometimes on an unconscious level that can make

the time it takes for a client to carry out a behaviour seem quicker

to the client than it appears to the therapist.

How do you do hypnosis?

To do hypnotic inductions you need to either recreate

stages leading to dreaming sleep or recreate the state of not

knowing what is happening next causing the reorientation

response.

Recreating stages of sleep could be a relaxation induction

getting the client to relax their body perhaps starting with their feet,

then relaxing their mind by getting them to think of something

pleasant. Or it could be getting them to imagine something

relaxing. Or getting more of their attention focused inwardly in

some other way.


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Recreating a state of not knowing what is happening next

could be done by interrupting a pattern of behaviour, or causing

confusion.

Some types of induction are:

Conversational (overt & covert)

Pattern interrupt Embedded-meaning/metaphorical Confusion Directive

Conversational inductions are inductions that initially start

with an ordinary conversation. They involve embedding

suggestions and utilising ongoing experiences or events to induce a

trance.

It could be embedding suggestions in a conversation or

feeding back what a client says to deepen their experience.


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An example of a conversational induction:

As you sit back and begin to feel comfortably

relaxed (Embedded command), I would like you to let

those eyes gently closethats rightrecognising that with

those eyes closed you cango inside very pleasantly, accessing

memories, past experiences or other meaningful events, times gone

by when you felt good Now, Graham, Id like you to take two

deep, refreshing breaths and as you release that second

breath you can drift even more deeply into a satisfying a

pleasant state of relaxationetc

An example of a pattern interrupt induction:

(Interrupting the pattern of a handshake)

Hi, Im Dan (hand goes out; clients hand comes to meet it.

I take it with my opposite hand, raise it with palm facing clients

face then slowly start it moving to their face)and as that hand

continues to move closer to your face all by itself you can begin to

notice the change in your visionand as the vision changes you

can notice how heavy those eyelids are gettingand you wont go


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all the way into a trance until that hand comfortably touches the

faceetc

An example of a metaphorical induction or embedded-

meaning induction would be to tell a story and use embedded

commands and metaphors for going in to tranceetc

An example used in a staff meeting to get the staff working

together again:

One-day snow white decided that she wanted to go on a

walk, she didnt often go out far from her home as she was unsure

what she would find in the deep, dark forest. Snow white left on a

path right outside her front door. The path was covered by trees

arching high over head; either side of her was deep, dark forest.

Snow white stuck to the path walking through the shimmering

beams of light that flickered down through the trees above. As she

continued tofollow this pathshe was aware of the

rhythmic beat of her feet on the ground and the sounds of birds in

the trees and the rustling of leaves as the wind blew a breeze. She


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continued to wander and at times found her mind wonder about

why she set out on this journeyafter walking for a while she

found herself smile as she saw a house in the distance. The house

was in a clearing in the forest that was bright and cheerful. There

were plants of many varieties and many flowers surrounding the

house. As snow white reached the clearing she could feel the calm,

warmth from the sun on her skin. Snow white could hear voices

coming from the house and the closer she got the more she could

tell that the people inside the house were disagreeing with each

other. Snow white approached and asked one of the people what

was wrong. Grumpy explained that they used to all go to work

singing and dancing with enjoyment but now they seem to have

forgotten how towork as a team. Grumpy explained that they

used to push togetherpull togetheraxe togetherall

togetherbut now they found that they couldnt. When one

pushed another pulled and no work got done. Snow white asked

what they do and was told that they are the team that digs and lays

the foundations for new buildings. She asked them why they

decided to do that work. She was told that you see buildings

standing and feel proud because you know that they are standing

because you built the foundations well, it makes you proud of all


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that hard work you didsnow white decided to tell the little

people a story about a centipede that kept falling over its legs. The

centipede asked a friend how he manages to walk without falling

over. He was told to justrelaxand let all the legswork

togethernot keep thinking about which leg should do what and

when. This made no sense to the dwarves so they decided to forget

what snow white said and just enjoy her company. Before snow

white left she asked whomade such a lovely garden. The dwarves

said they all worked at it and that many of the plants have survived

some harsh winters. At the end of the day snow white said good

bye to the dwarves. She got right up and left. As she left she was

amazed by how much happier and healthier they were starting to

become. Something had happened that they were learning from

which looked like it made them healthier and made them work out

their differences, sneezy had stopped sneezing, grumpy was happy,

bashful had clear skin and no hint ofred, and all of the others had

noticed improvements too. This made snow white happy as she

skipped away from the house up the path leaving her adventure

behind like a dream that got more out of reach like a name on the

tip of your tongue as she approached her home pleased with her


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mini adventure, then walked through her gate and, finding it was all

a dream sheopened her eyes

A directive induction is an induction where you tell the

client what to do.

An example of a directive induction:

Im going to shake your hand three timesthe first time

your eyes will get tiredlet themthe second time theyll want to

closelet themthe third time theyll lock and you wont be able

to open themwant that to happen, and watch it

happennow12now close your eyesnow 3and theyre

locked and youll find they just dont work, no matter how hard

you trythe harder you try the less theyll worktest them and

youll find they wont work at all

An example of a confusion induction (used within a story):


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One afternoon a woman set out looking for her friends

house. She was feeling rather tired and sleepy, but perked up

halfway there when she realised shed forgotten the directions. She

decided to check for directions anyway, and holding the wheel with

her right hand she used her left hand to place a can of coke on the

floor right beside her then reaching right across her side with her

left hand to her right coat pocket for the directions she discovered

they werent there so she thought maybe they were left in her left

pocket so she checked right there only to discover they werent

there either. She then checked both pockets again with alternating

hands as she steadied the car steering wheel with her knees she

remembered that her friend had said that it is two rights and one

left. She took a right and was left with one right and a left. She took

a left and was still left with one left and two rights. She tried two

rights and was left with one left, and after trying just one left alone

was left with two rights, and still she had not found her friends

house, which was starting to get a bit confusing. She decided to try

a bit harder which was hard as she fought off fatigue and the

traffic, and the first thing she did was reverse the right-left order,

which she definitely thought was the right thing to do just then.

Leaving from the corner she took a hard left, leaving two rights


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left, and still she was not there. A right and a left, and continuing

with one more right left her not there yet either, and finally in utter

bewilderment and near exasperation, she pulled off the road

deciding the only decision she has left must be right, she sat back

behind the wheel, took one deep breath and said I might as well

just sleep

Naturalistic inductions

Probably the easiest way for a beginner to induce a trance

in someone else is to use a naturalistic approach. A naturalistic

approach involves talking about everyday trance states. As you talk

to a client about everyday trance states they will be familiar so will

rapidly start to enter trance. If you do this utilising hypnotic

language the effects will be even greater.

It can be useful to write out direct scripts then change it to

indirect. Writing what it is that you hope to achieve and how you

will achieve this. Then you can go through the script changing

anything that is too direct and that might not match the clients

reality to something that will. For example, you may say ..as you


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approach that old wooden staircase which is direct and may not

match the clients view of a staircase and change it to ..as you

approach that staircase which is more general and so it allows

the client the freedom to fit this into their model of reality.

To focus attention get the client talking about something

that they are interested in. in the old days hypnotists would tell the

client what to think and what to focus on. To induce a trance you

need to focus attention but it doesnt matter what you focus that

attention on. That is one of the beauties of naturalistic inductions.

Hypnotists used to use swinging watches, stroking, telling the client

to look at a spot or a candle. Modern day hypnotists get clients to

focus on issues, thoughts, comments, or even the process of their

problem. One quick way to hypnotise a smoker is to ask them to

tell you the process they go through when they smoke.

Utilise naturalistic phenomena. Anything can be used to

achieve your goals. If you want to lead to a trance state you can use

naturalistic phenomena leading to trance, like sleep, day-dreaming,

a leisure activity. If you wanted to evoke a hypnotic phenomena

then you can use examples of times that thy have happened

naturally like numbness sleeping on an arm or holding snow, or


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amnesia forgetting someones name or being interrupted mid-

sentence.

Creating responses this way will then come from client so

they will be more powerful. It is completely different telling

someone to laugh uncontrollably than reminding them of times

they found themselves laughing uncontrollably, like in school in a

classroom when you know you shouldnt, and the more you try to

stop the laughter the more the laughter builds up, you know that

feeling?

You can get the client to talk about something they enjoy

doing that makes their mind wander and as they talk about it they

will begin to go back into that same state of mind again. When you

hypnotise someone you want to separate the conscious and

unconscious mind. You can do this by confusing the conscious or

marking out different messages to the conscious and unconscious

mind.

Other useful ways for beginners to induce trance and do

effective therapy are:


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Make someone talk about their problem withoutusing words relating to the problem then use this to help do

treatment

This can allow you to work completely metaphorically. You

can use the metaphor they give for their problem and then just get

them to play out the metaphor to a positive conclusion in the

clients mind. This can be useful when you dont have enough

information or time to work in depth with the client.

Utilise everything dont think of anything as failure

If a client doesnt give the response that you expect then

utilise what they do give you and acknowledge that what they are

doing is what they need to do to achieve the desired goal.

For example:


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If a client says that they cant relax enough to go into a

trance, then say How did you know that you needed to have a little

tension there to be able to do good effective change work?

Time your rhythm to rhythm of clients breathing

This is probably one of the easiest ways to increase your

effectiveness at altering someones state. If you match their

breathing and talk with the clients out breath you can begin to slow

your breathing down and begin to slow down what you say and

they will begin to relax deeper.

This is because breathing is such a fundamental part of life

that if you match it you quickly begin to build rapport with the

client on an unconscious level.

Use fractionation


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Fractionation is a technique developed where you take the

client in and out of trance repeatedly which deepens the trance

each time they go inside.

This can be done simply by asking the client to open their

eyes then close their eyes again and go deeper.

Fractionation was created because hypnotists noticed that

each time clients came into a session and were hypnotised they

went deeper than they had done on previous sessions. It was

realised that they didnt need to have a big gap between sessions,

the same thing occurred if the client was repeatedly hypnotised

during one session.

Feedback what the client says as suggestions

For example:

Client: My left hand feels heavier than my right

Therapist: Your left hand feels heavier than your right!


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By doing this you are telling the client true statements

which helps to deepen their state and you are utilising ongoing

behaviour and comments to lead to the desired outcome.

Take the client to the future to when they no longerhave the problem and ask what did I do that helped you?

The psychiatrist Milton H Erickson MD would often take

clients to the future then ask what he did to help them. After he did

this and they told him how he cured them he would bring them

back to the present and do what they said he did to cure them.

It is a strong belief of all the top therapists in the world that

people have the resources they need to heal themselves they just

need guidance and assistance in accessing that healing power.

Post hypnotic suggestions


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Post hypnotic suggestions are probably what hypnosis is

most famous for and probably what causes the most controversy.

Despite popular beliefs it isnt possible to make someone do

something against their will with hypnosis.

I dont mean that you cant make people do things they are

not prepared to do because you can. For example, it is possible to

indirectly make someone stop smoking but if it went against any of

the clients values or belief then it wouldnt work. The unconscious

mind is normally willing to do anything that will maintain self

preservation so even if consciously the client wasnt willing to stop

smoking, unconsciously they can still accept the suggestions. If the

client is consciously not willing to accept the suggestions and the

client recognises that suggestions are being given then they can

interfere and stop the suggestions from working.

To do post hypnotic suggestions effectively you want to

make sure that you prime them first. By priming the suggestions

with metaphors and explanations about what you are going to do

you prepare the mind for carrying out the behaviour.

After you have primed the suggestions you want to leave it

a little while before you give the actual suggestion. This time is


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given to allow the mind to absorb the priming so that it is waiting

in anticipation for the suggestion. This will increase the

effectiveness when it is given.

As you wait before giving the suggestion it can be useful to

deepen the clients trance and to take them into another level. For

example, you could guide them down a staircase then through a

door, or you could guide them along a country path then to a

clearing, or simply suggest that a part of them can go to a deeper

more responsive state of mind.

When you give the suggestions you want to make sure that

it is worded positively saying what you want not what you dont

want. So often people know what they dont want and then say

that. The problem with this is that the unconscious mind doesnt

understand negatives. It makes images of what is said, so if you say

You wont have that pain when you sleep at night. The

unconscious mind will create an image of you being in pain when

you are trying to sleep at night to know what it is not supposed to

think about. The same thing happens if I ask you dont think of a

pink elephant. You have to think of a pink elephant to know what

not to think about.


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When you give suggestions you want to make sure that they

are easy to follow. The more complicated the post-hypnotic

suggestion the more chance there is that it wont be followed.

When a suggestion is followed the client will go back into

the same state that they were in when the suggestion was given.

That is why Hypnotherapists often give post-hypnotic suggestions

to re-enter trance with a given word or phrase by the therapist

because this is a quick way to re-hypnotise a client.

Say post-hypnotic suggestions three times at least, after you

have done some priming and using metaphors. This helps to make

sure that the suggestion is embedded in the mind.Use words like

when and as to set post hypnotic suggestions and to link them to

ongoing behaviour.

Presuppositions (that will be covered later) work like post-

hypnotic suggestions. As you are repeatedly presupposing specific

outcomes you are setting up future responses. If the responses that

are being set up are associated with a behaviour that will definitely

happen then this also increases the likelihood of the suggestion

being followed.


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Remember to cancel any post-hypnotic suggestions that are

no longer required or to make them very specific so that they will

only happen at required times.

You dont want a post-hypnotic suggestion to close the

eyes and go into a trance each time you hear the word N

become an intuitive healer

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