(This blog was originally posted on
April 5, 2016)
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| Photo by Rick Hustead |
There is an unwritten guideline in hypnotherapy that the client should
do most (about 80 percent) of the talking and the hypnotherapist will do the
rest (20 percent). And vice versa. During hypnotherapy, it is the client’s
“responsibility” to describe the motivations for seeking this therapy, desires
about changing an unwanted behavior and to express emotions about and during
this therapeutic process. Similarly, it is the hypnotherapist’s
“responsibility” to listen to what the client is saying and use this
information to create an effective hypnotic script that will facilitate the
achievement of the person’s therapeutic goals. This policy is very important
for several reasons.
First, when someone comes in for hypnotherapy, that individual is not
only looking for a possible solution to help change an unwanted belief or
behavior. The person is also subconsciously looking for and needs a space in
which to vent his or her emotions—a sounding board, if you will—to explain how
and why the habit started in the first place. The last thing the client needs
is to wonder if the expert from whom he or she is seeking help is somehow
subtly dismissing those concerns by comparing them to the hypnotherapist’s own
issues. At that point, the client would be justified in wondering whether the
therapist’s problems might be more significant than his or her own. This is
also the point at which rapport and trust are destroyed.
Second, especially during the cognitive (alert and aware) portion of the
hypnotherapy session, the hypnotherapist needs to focus on what the client is
saying to create the hypnotic script. This script is based on the key words,
metaphors and even emotions that the client expresses to describe his or her
self-improvement goals and motivations. During the cognitive portion of the
first session, I reassure my hypnotherapy clients that they will essentially
hypnotize themselves based on the words and motivations to change an unwanted
behavior, which I incorporate into the hypnotic script. As I explain in my
previous blog titled Creating
Your Hypnotic Script, we are all most suggestible to ourselves. Conversely,
if the hypnotherapist does most of the talking, the hypnotic script is less likely
to be effective because the client’s subconscious mind does not recognize these
motivational words, phrases and images as his or her own.
Third, unlike traditional forms of psychotherapy such as licensed
marriage and family therapy, psychology and licensed social work or even
psychiatry, hypnotherapy is not “talk therapy.” According to the Business
and Professions Code 2908, hypnotherapists must provide hypnosis during the therapeutic session. In addition,
they must also seek a referral from these professionals if a client wants to
address an issue outside of the scope of hypnotherapy. Our role as
hypnotherapists is to help our clients find solutions to problems and achieve
vocational and avocational goals by working with the subconscious mind in
hypnosis, not discussing these issues in a cognitive, alert and aware state.
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