Speak Ericksonian: Mastering the Hypnotic Methods of Milton Erickson by Richard Nongard & James Hazlerig

Author:Richard Nongard & James Hazlerig [Nongard, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peachtree Professional Education, Inc.
Published: 2014-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

The Process of Ericksonian Hypnotherapy

I want to start this chapter with an old joke:

“Did you hear about the Ericksonian stage hypnotist?”

“You never know when the show starts or ends!”

It may seem strange to actually wait until this late in the book for a description of the process of Ericksonian hypnotherapy, but in some ways it’s very Ericksonian to do that.

When I first did training with Bob Bollet in Germany, he just began with an arm levitation with zero explanation. The process in Ericksonian hypnotherapy is much less dependent on a specific order or specific tasks being carried through than some other forms of therapy. The idea of Ericksonian hypnotherapy really is predicated on what it is that our client needs at this time.

A Different Time

Erickson worked in a way that is actually different from the way that we work today: his time was different, his role was different, and his clients were different.

To begin with, Erickson worked out of his house. This was in a large part because of his physical limitations, especially in his later life when he was confined to a wheelchair. This was long before the Americans with Disabilities Act existed. As a result, people were brought to his house, and they knew that they were seeing a medical doctor. He wasn’t representing himself as a hypnotist, although he was a hypnotist; he was representing himself as a psychiatrist. This brought about an entirely different relationship between Erickson and his patients than the one we have with our clients.

Even though Erickson had the authority of medicine behind him, patients sent to him or seeking him out knew something of his reputation. They knew he was somebody “special.” They knew that he had often succeeded in bizarre and mysterious ways that other doctors didn’t really understand. Thus, they came to him with the belief that he could help.

During that time in Phoenix, Erickson was above all else a teacher. Frequently, during his sessions, he had observers and medical students present. His home was open not only to those who needed his help, but to those who wanted to learn his methods.

He spoke to his clients at length, something almost no psychiatrist do today, and something that many hypnotists seem reluctant to do. Far too many hypnotists now pride themselves on how short their sessions are, how fast their results, rather than paying careful attention to what their clients truly need.

Erickson wasn’t terribly worried about how to hypnotize people, because he recognized that trance is a naturally occurring state. He believed that really we had multiple trance states that always existed at various times and that the real challenge for him is how to utilize these trance states. As a result, for some clients he had a formal induction (“close your eyes, now you’re going deep in the hypnosis”). Others simply found themselves in deep trance during his conversation with them.

People often wonder how it’s possible that Erickson’s patients went into deep trance without any direction from him.

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