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| Photo by Rick Hustead |
When I work with my hypnotherapy clients, I give a lot of suggestions
during the session. Some of those suggestions happen at the very beginning of
hypnosis. For example, I will tell a Physical
suggestible client: “You are allowing your eyes to close.” Or I might say
to the Emotional
Suggestible person, “Right about now you are noticing that your eyelids are
feeling verrrrrrrry heavy.” The content
of the suggestions I use to facilitate the client’s desired behavioral changes
will depend on the person’s therapeutic/self-improvement goal and his or her
suggestibility. I also include two specific post-hypnotic suggestions during
the session.
The first is the post-suggestion to re-hypnosis. This is what
enables the client to easily, comfortably re-enter the hypnotic state in future
hypnotherapy sessions whenever a specific word/phrase or physical trigger occurs:
the words “deep sleep” and me snapping my fingers or touching the client’s
forehead. I include the phrase, “Each time deep
sleep is suggested to you for the purposes of hypnosis, with
your permission and only your permission” to ensure that this state will be
induced only in the context of hypnotherapy. When I work with children/teens
I make it clear during the cognitive (alert) and hypnosis portions of the session
that only the hypnotherapist can induce the hypnotic sleep, not a parent or
sibling, etc. Similarly, when I use hypnosis to help a pregnant woman and her
birthing partner prepare for childbirth, I include a similar caveat. For
example, the client will not be suggestible to doing anything that is not
relevant to relaxation and aspects of the birth process.
The second post-hypnotic suggestion I use is called the post-suggestion to
reaction. This is a specific suggestion that activates a desired behavior
change when the client is no longer in hypnosis and has returned to an alert
and aware state. For example, I might suggest to a client to wants to feel more
relaxed and confident when speaking in public begins to notice a specific color
that represents relaxation and calm everywhere around him, all over the
environment. Furthermore, every time the person sees this color, he immediately
feels completely confident, relaxed and in control of his response to every
situation and can express himself and his ideas easily, comfortably and
confidently.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based
in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the
Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about
Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2016
