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hypnotherapy
trance
psychospiritual approaches
definition
first see hypnotherapy: overview
An awareness of some of the major techniques of indirect hypnosis is useful. These terms were created by Bandler and Grinder in their system of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) to describe Milton Erickson's work:
pacing:
Pacing refers to leading the client at the proper speed toward some future goal. Pacing can be physiological, using the words 'breathing in' and 'breathing out' to verbally match the client's actual breathing rate: slowly increasing the verbal length of 'breathing in' and 'breathing out', noticing the client's breathing rate adjusting to match the therapist's verbal rate. Pacing involves watching the client closely and describing observed changes, reinforcing these changes by therapist feedback, and recreating these changes by presupposing verbally that they have already occurred.
engaging the client's attention:
Describing what he already knew to be true about the client, Erickson would get the client's full attention by picking a subject of interest to the client. A farmer would naturally be interested in plants, a physiologist might respond better to a discussion of change in oxygen-carbon dioxide tension during the relaxation process. The subject matter of indirect hypnosis should fit within the client's interests.
implied causatives:
Obviously true statements ('standing up causes gravity to press the baby's head harder against the cervix') are linked to statements the therapist wishes the client to accept and believe (So, walking will use that force to push the baby's head down through the cervix'). 'So' is often used at the linkage conjunction, the word liking truism to the phrase to be accepted. Series of factual statements which the client immediately accepts as correct are linked by words such as 'so' to a behavior the therapist hopes to elicit from the client.
metacommunication:
The message to the client is implied 'between the lines' of ongoing verbal communication. Erickson might have told the client in therapy for pain that he wouldn't be talking about flowers and then proceed to discuss flowers. He has warned the client that he will be saying something more important than the content of his discussion of flowers. The client should listen closely for what his message will be. Erickson believed that people have the ability to learn the things they need to know given the opportunity.
conversational postulates:
Erickson often began a trance induction with a sentence such as, "I'm wondering if you will uncross your legs and lie down?" On the surface this is not a command. Nevertheless the client may receive this as a request for the client to uncross the legs and lie down. Part of the success of this technique is found in the use of the interspersal technique. When many conversational postulates follow one introduction ("I'm wondering") ambiguity arises and the client needs to decide whether the conversational postulates continue or whether the succeeding linked messages are actually commands. Conversational postulates disguise forcible commands.
lesser included structures:
This includes examples such as 'hear me,' in phrases as "Your unconscious mind will hear me." Such a phrase presupposes that the client's unconscious mind exists and can hear the therapist. A conversational postulate can include a lesser structure with the opposite intent of the content of the conversational postulate.
interspersal technique:
Through a subtle increase in loudness, enunciation, and emphasis, or through spacing and verbal pauses, certain words in a sentence are demarcated from others. In the previous example, the therapist merely says 'uncross,' 'legs,' 'lie,' and 'down' more forcibly; the word 'and' does not even have to be emphasized for the mind to include it. The beauty of this technique of word emphasis lies in its power.
compressing several requests into one:
When separate activities are described so as to seem to need to be done together, the probability increases that all will be done.
guided fantasy:
One of the most effective techniques for assisting a client to change his or her world view is by a guided fantasy technique. The client is typically asked to close the eyes and visualize a particular experience that will assist change. One of the most immediate and effective ways to assist a client to fully express and integrate seemingly opposite polarities is to ensure that one of the polarities is using a visual representational system and the other either a kinesthetic or auditory representational system; so that it is acted upon in another sensory modality. Erickson typically arranged signals or cues for post-hypnotic behavior in modalities other than the client's most often used representational system.
(Mehl, p. 298-304)
see:
bodymind psychobiology
converting a symptom to a signal
holographic consciousness
human energy fields: overview
hypnotherapy: overview
hypnotherapy: guidelines and precautions
hypnotherapy techniques: basic accessing; problem solving; incubating healing; symptom scaling; trance
process paradigm
reframing
relaxation techniques
self-hypnosis
shifting cerebral hemispheric dominance
state-dependent learning
the shadow and physical symptoms
transference and countertransference
ultradian rhythms
imagery: birth
footnotes