Ericksonian Hypnosis

1. Ericksonian Hypnosis Bill O'Hanlon, M.S., LMFT Possibilities 223 N. Guadalupe #278 Santa Fe, NM 87501 USA 01+505.983.2843 PossiBill@aol.com BillOHanlon.com

2. Ericksonian Hypnosis • For a free copy of these PowerPoint slides, you may visit • BillOHanlon.com • Click Free Stuff, then click SLIDES

3. Differences between Ericksonian and traditional hypnosis • Permissive vs. authoritarian • Choices rather than direction • Permission not prediction • Possibilities rather than mind-reading • Evocation vs. suggestion • Answers evoked from within rather than ideas and solutions given from outside • No need for "positive thinking" or affirmations

4. Suggestion vs. evocation • Suggestion (authority/mind-reading) • Are: • You are feeling more and more relaxed. • Your eyes are getting heavy. • You are enjoying more and more being a non-smoker. • Will/won't: • You will go deeply into a trance. • You won't hear anything around you. • Can't: • You can't open your eyes. • Your hand is stuck to your face.

5. Suggestion vs. evocation • Evocation (permission/inviting) • Can: • You can feel more and more relaxed. • Your eyes can begin getting heavy. • You can enjoying more and more being a non-smoker. • Might/may be/could: • You may go deeply into a trance. • You could hear anything around you. • Multiple choice • You may not be able open your eyes or they may open automatically.

6. Traditional vs. Ericksonian

7. Elements of Ericksonian Induction • Give permission and include and validate multiple possibilities for response • It's okay to and you don't have to • You could (or not) • That's right • Include the person's response or experience, including "resistance" or doubts

8. Elements of Ericksonian Induction • Presuppose trance and responses • Speak and act as if trance will occur and the person will experience results • Use presuppositional forms • How quickly? Rate • Before/during/after • I wonder if you have noticed?; Awareness • Use contextual cues in the environment and in your behavior

9. Elements of Ericksonian Induction • Matching [Note: This is about tuning in to the person rather than manipulating] • Match the person's breathing rhythm with your speaking and any other part of your behavior • Match the person's language style and words • Mirror and cross-mirror the person's body behavior

10. Exercise #1 • Matching and permission/validation • Ask the person what their concerns or doubts are about going into trance, if any • Speak only when the person exhales • (This means you have to take a few moments and watch them before you speak) • Include permission for previously voiced doubts and for no response, and take the pressure off by giving lots of validation for whatever the person is doing or what you imagine they may be feeling/ or experiencing

11. Exercise #1 [Feedback] • Matching and permission/validation • The listener should give the speaker feedback on the exercise, telling him or her which parts were effective and helpful and which parts were not or could be improved

12. Milton Erickson Video Example of Induction 1975 Monde induction with seeding of Nick induction

13. Exercise #2 • Add presupposition • Use previous elements • Presuppose going into trance

14. Elements of Ericksonian Induction • Description • Speak about only what you can observe about the person and his or her behavior • Beware of assuming internal experience from external signs • Mention things that are changing if appropriate and facilitative of trance or validation • This requires close observation

15. Elements of Ericksonian Induction • Splitting • Distinguish between two states by separating them non-verbally and verbally • Use different voice tones, voice locations, volumes • Make verbal distinctions (like "unconscious" and "conscious"; the front of your mind/the back of your mind; mind/body)

16. Splitting between conscious and unconscious • Conscious • Lean and speak on the right side • Increase voice volume, speak more quickly • Attribute doubt, resistance and observation • Unconscious • Lean and speak on the left side • Decrease voice volume, speak more slowly • Attribute cooperation, automatic experience and absorption

17. Exercise #3 • Add splitting • Use previous elements • Nonverbally and verbally split between conscious and unconscious

18. Elements of Ericksonian Induction • Linking • Join together two previously separate things non-verbally and verbally • Use similar voice tones, voice locations, volumes • Use connectors ("and", the more this, the less this; the more this, the more this; and so on) • Bridge from one thing to others ("as you listen to the sound of my voice, you can begin to notice some change, which can lead to deeper trance")

19. Interspersal I AM GOING to a place where there are no bad MAD people.

20. Elements of Ericksonian Induction • Directing Attention • Whatever you mention may begin to enter the person’s awareness or guide their attention

21. Elements of Ericksonian Induction • Interspersal • Nonverbally connect and distinguish certain messages within a larger context • Use sound, touch, or sight to emphasize or mark the special embedded message

22. Exercise #4 • Add interspersal • Use previous elements • Use interspersal (nonverbal emphasis) to mark out certain messages

23. 7 Elements of Ericksonian Induction • Permission/inclusion/validation • Presupposing • Matching • Describing • Splitting • Linking • Interspersal

24. Permission/possibility words • Can, may, might, could, okay • Inclusion • And • Presupposing • Before, while, after • Yet, so far • How quickly? How deeply? • Awareness: I wonder if you have noticed • Empty words • Unspecific as to person, place, time, thing or action The Language of Trance

25. The Language of Trance • Passive voice • Allow, notice, it, distinction between the person's willful actions and intentions and what happens Example: You can be interested in watching how your unconscious does something to delight you. • Nominalization (verbs into nouns) Example: There are many learnings deep inside, experiences you can draw upon to make the changes you want. You can have wonderment about the interest of the filing cabinet in the room and the wandering of the mind from one perception to another.

26. The Confusion Technique • Take two concepts and their polar opposites • Combine them in the various ways they can be combined until the listener's conscious mind is overwhelmed and gives up

27. The Confusion Technique

28. The Confusion Technique

29. Four Doorways Into Altered States • Rhythm • Rocking • Breathing • Defocusing attention • Daydreaming • Defocusing eyes • Focusing attention • Focusing eyes on one spot • Directing attention • Dissociation • Splitting between conscious/unconscious; mind/body; past/present/future/parts of body, etc.

30. Common Trance Indicators • Flattening of facial muscles • Change in skin color • Immobility • Decrease in orienting movements • Catalepsy in a limb • Changes in blinking and swallowing • Altered breathing and pulse • Automatic motor behavior (jerkiness) • Faraway look • Fixed gaze • Changed voice quality • Time lag in response • Perseveration of response • Literalism • Dissociation • Relaxed muscles

31. Trance Phenomena

32. Trance Phenomena

33. Trance Phenomena

34. Trance Phenomena

35. Methods for Evoking Trance Phenomena • General permissive suggestions • "Your hand can lift up automatically." • "You may start to notice little movements in your fingers." • Presupposing responses • "I wonder how quickly your unconscious will start lifting that hand?" • "I don't know which hand will lift first."

36. Methods for Evoking Trance Phenomena • Use analogies or access everyday experiences • "Many people doodle while on the phone and later are often surprised to see what their hand has drawn." • "Have you ever put your foot on the brakes when you are in the back seat or the driver's side?" • Intersperse phrases or words • "In England, they call the elevator the lift." • "You want to move to a new place in your life and your unconscious can give you a hand with that."

37. Methods for Evoking Trance Phenomena • Encouraging and furthering the response • "That's right. That hand can continue to move in those small ways and that can lead to bigger movements that can lead to the lifting of the hand all the way to the face." • "As you feel that warmth, it can begin to turn into a numbness that can go right to area where you need relief."

38. Milton Erickson Video Example of Hand Levitation 1958 double hand levitation induction

39. Exercise #5 • Evoking trance phenomena • Include the methods you've learned so far to invite trance • Invite the person to experience two trance phenomena • Give permission • Presuppose they will experience them • Use analogies and everyday experiences that are like the phenomena you are inviting • Intersperse certain key words and phrases that can invite the experience

40. Class of Problems/Class of Solutions Specific-----------Specific Intervention---------------- Transfer to Presenting Analogy Problem Problem Anecdote Context Trance phenomenon Task Interpersonal move (DERIVE) (EVOKE) Class of Problems------------------------Class of Solutions (Pattern of experience/ resource/skill)

41. Class of Problems/Class of SolutionsErickson Case Example #1 Enuresis------------------------Specific Intervention (Bedwetting) Baseball (DERIVE) (EVOKE) Lack of Muscle------------------------Automatic Muscle Control Control

42. Class of Problems/Class of SolutionsErickson Case Example #2 Enuresis----------------------------Specific Intervention HandwritingPractice (DERIVE) (EVOKE) Lack of Muscle------------------------Automatic Muscle Control Control

43. Class of Problems/Class of SolutionsErickson Case Example #3 Enuresis Specific Intervention Surprising to evokemuscle freezing (DERIVE) (EVOKE by interaction) Lack of Muscle Automatic Muscle Control Control

44. Example of Class of Problems/Class of Solutions Phantom Limb Pain/Tinnitus

45. Class of Problems/Class of Solutions • Turn problem into processes • Focus/presenting problem • How does the person do the problem? • What class of problems could it belong to? • What is the opposite class of experience (ability) that would solve this type of problem?

46. Class of Problems/Class of Solutions • Design an intervention • Use an analogy • Tell a story • Agree on a task or action • Evoke a hypnotic shift in automatic experience • Evoke some experience interpersonally

47. Class of Problems/Class of Solutions • Link the evoked ability to problem context • Post-hypnotic suggestion • Task triggered by problem

48. Exercise #6 • Mutual trance experience • Include the methods you've learned so far to invite trance • Keep your eyes open during this experience • Switch back and forth after a few minutes by passing the baton, saying, "And you're fantastic." • This is designed to help you learn to induce trance while you are in trance, to learn to speak and be in trance, and to learn to keep your eyes open while in trance

49. Exercise #7 • Determining class of problems • Get a clear definition of the presenting problem or concern • Think especially of how one would create or "do" such a problem • Derive from that one or more general classes of experience, feeling, sensation, thinking that this problem could be a part of

50. Exercise #8 • Determining class of solutions • Think of what might be a class of the opposite of the problem. This is a class of resources, solutions, skills or abilities, usually ones that the person has already used many times in his or her life • Imagine how one would "do" such a skill • Think of everyday examples that represent this class, or previous experiences the person has had, some trance phenomena or an analogy or metaphor that could evoke it