-IBIS-1.5.0-
rx
hypnotherapy
problem solving
psychospiritual approaches
definition
first see hypnotherapy: overview
Accessing state-bound resources for problem-solving:
Stage 1: Readiness Signal for Inner Work
The therapist asks the patient to review the history and nature of the problem. This review begins the activity of accessing and spontaneous reframing that is characteristic of all memory processes. This review actually initiates the process of therapy, even though the person may believe the problem is 'only being talked about'. The first stage of this approach reaches its climax when a positive therapeutic framework has been established and the person looks expectantly to the therapist for an 'answer.' The answer is supplied by introducing the person to an internal problem-solving process, somewhat as follows:
"Now that you are ready to continue therapy on an even deeper level, you can begin by simply becoming more sensitive to yourself.
(pause)
When a deep part of your inner mind knows it can resolve that problem,
(pause)
you will feel yourself getting more and more comfortable, and your eyes will close".
This tends to shift attention away from irrelevant external stimuli toward the internal state-dependent memory, learning, and behavioral systems that need to be engaged for problem-solving.
Instead of relaxing and turning inward, however, the person may become more restless, or distressed and alert. This indicates the therapeutic conditions for the first stage have not been met, and suggests that there may be another issue the person needs to deal with before the creative process of problem resolution can begin. The therapist needs to reengage the person with exploratory questions, somewhat as follows:
"I wonder if there are any other questions or problems you need to deal with first, before you do the inner work?"
This carefully worded exploratory question contains the implication that the person will do the inner work after first dealing with whatever other issue remains. Once this has been accomplished, the therapist can again offer the readiness signal for inner work:
" When a deep part of your inner mind knows . . ."
Stage 2: Accessing State-bound Resources
After the person's eyes close, the therapist can allow a brief quiet period of inner work to proceed entirely on its own, while carefully observing the patterns of responsiveness. The therapist may occasionally question the person about their inner experience when different patterns of behavior are observed. When the person has been engaged in an inner process of self-involvement for a few minutes, the second stage of accessing and transducing state-bound resources is supported somewhat as follows:
"Now your inner mind can continue working all by itself to solve that problem in a manner that fully meets all of your needs.
(pause)
There are memories, life experiences, and abilities that your inner mind can use in many ways you may not have realized before."
These statements contain implications that facilitate the problem-solving process in subtle ways. There is a subtle depotentiation of the conscious mind's typical frame of reference and habitual patterns of activity (that may be reinforcing the problem), and a reinforcement of the more autonomous primary processing that holds the promise of creative problem-solving.
Stage 3: Ratifying Problem-Solving
This stage is also made dependent upon the person's inner responsiveness to the therapist's implied directives. It is initiated when the therapist senses that a satisfactory amount of therapeutic work has been accomplished, somewhat as follows:
"When your inner mind knows that you have resolved that problem to the fullest extent at this time, and that you can deal effectively with it, you will find yourself wanting to move a bit.
(pause)
You will open your eyes and come fully alert."
The person usually makes some spontaneous remarks about the inner experience and the constructive symptom/problem changes that have taken place, thus affirming the accessing of state-dependent phenomena that may be reframed for therapeutic change.
(Rossi, 1986, p. 66-95)
see also:
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
transference and countertransference
footnotes