There are quite a few misconceptions about Ericksonian hypnosis. It is said to take a long time, not always be very effective, too vague and too difficult to learn. The latter is exactly why many people want to learn direct hypnosis because it seems easier, but is it more effective?
Ericksonian hypnosis
The term Ericksonian hypnosis comes from hypnotherapist Milton Erickson. Because of him I can now write this article, because he has had a very large part in making hypnosis more widely used. After Freud more or less dismissed hypnosis as something that wouldn't work, Erickson (also a psychiatrist) put hypnosis back on the map.
In fact, Freud was not a very good hypnotist and thus could not get the results he wanted. Back then you didn't have the traini
ng that you do now, and you were at the mercy of your own talent often. If you didn't have that, you couldn't do it. Fortunately, things are different now.
Erickson had that talent, however, and has become by far the most well-known hypnotherapist. Anyone who now takes NLP, for example, is exposed to Erickson's thinking, and Obama's speeches are also inspired by Ericksonian hypnosis. Interesting idea when you start thinking about that.
Ericksonian hypnosis is characterized mainly in the fact that you leave everything up to the client. Last hypnosis event there were a number of people who could not go into hypnosis well. My style is characterized mainly in direct hypnosis but with those people I always tackle it with Ericksonian hypnosis, because that is the way to deal with and bypass resistance.
That takes some training and fortunately you don't have to study for years to do that, 7 days is enough. That way you can also give those people an experience and teach them how to go into hypnosis. Partly because of that, the Hypnosis Event in Eindhoven was a success. However, if you don't have those skills, you can make it difficult for yourself by working more directly or by giving up. You know, an Ericksonian never gives up;-)
That I started with hypnosis I worked very indirectly and I have increasingly moved to the direct form of hypnosis, because why waste more time than necessary. However, sometimes it is actually a waste of time if you work very directly, because you are going to disturb the very process then. Then it is better to work with what is there and use that to teach someone to go into hypnosis. That way, at some point, you will reach a 100% score with everyone.
Personally, I am very happy to have mastered both styles and to have a choice. I no longer care who I am facing. Ericksonian hypnosis is a super method to work with and it has so much more than just hypnosis. It takes a lot of skills, but they are trainable and if you want to go for a 100% result then of course you do.
The difference
To clarify the difference for a moment and make things a little simpler, you'll see two suggestions below:
- Relaxing your neck muscles
- It could be that now your neck muscles are starting to relax
The first is direct instruction and the second is Ericksonian instruction. Now imagine that the instruction is not taken there is nothing wrong when you do it the Ericksonian hypnosis way. In fact, it might happen.
In addition, you can say the second part of the phrase "go relax" in such a way that it becomes a command. If you then play a little with the grammar, you can even make it sound like 'go relax.' So much more depth is possible and you see you can be very direct, just not consciously ;-)
Go play with this and let me know your findings!
ANDRE
on 26 Mar 2015