Monday, October 9, 2017

Getting to the Cause Through Corrective Therapy



(This blog was originally posted on September 14, 2016)


Photo by Rick Hustead





Earlier this year, I posted an essay about one of my favorite cognitive, non-hypnosis techniques, the Paris Window, which helps get to the cause or foundation of a client’s therapeutic issue. Here, the individual is asked to describe his or her feelings about this goal or issue in the context of personal feelings and beliefs about how other people feel about it. Corrective Therapy is a second cognitive technique that helps to identify the subconscious cause or root of the therapeutic goal by having the client write five or six sentences about what he or she wants to accomplish through hypnotherapy and replace each word (or group of words) with a relevant synonym (subconscious symbolism).
The intention of this technique is to get to and identify the true goal of the therapy as it exists in the client’s subconscious mind. The process or format of each of these sentences will depend on his or her suggestibility (Emotional versus Physical). To start, the person writes the sentence with each word the head of its own “column.” As the client writes each new sentence, the Physical Suggestible client will provide synonyms to replace each word in the original sentence; the Emotional Suggestible client will provide a synonym or metaphor/association for the each word in the previous sentence.
Consider the following example for a client who comes in for hypnotherapy with the following stated goal: I want to lose weight. A Physical Suggestible client might choose the following synonyms to replace the original word or phrase for this goal in follow-up sentences:
I
Want
to lose
weight
Me (I)
desire (want)
to drop (to lose)
pounds (weight)
(client’s) name (I)
need (want)     
to take off (to lose)
inches (weight)
Man/Woman (I)
have to (want)
release (to lose)
body mass (weight)
Person (I)
must  (want)
let go of (to lose)
size (weight)

When an Emotional Suggestible client chooses replacement words to express the goal, this individual will be replacing the word from the previous sentence with a new synonym/association. The word or phrase in parentheses indicates the term that has been replaced.
I
Want
to lose
weight
Woman/man (I)
need (want)     
relinquish (to lose)
pounds (weight)
Sister/Brother (woman/man)
want (need)
missing (to lose)
obesity (pounds)
Daughter/son (sister/brother)
rejection (want)
lacking  (missing)
ugly (obesity)
Husband/Wife (daughter/son)
isolation (rejection)
deficit (lacking)
lonely (ugly)
                                               
                                                                                       
I employ Corrective Therapy during the cognitive (alert) portion of the hypnotherapy to discover any underlying, subconscious motivation(s) behind the person’s unwanted behaviors that may be preventing the desired behavior change. One benefit of this technique is that it is very visceral: the person can literally read the story about how the origins or basis of this subconscious resistance evolve while writing the responses to each question (ideomotor response). Once the issue is revealed, I will discuss it with the client in terms of his or her beliefs and feelings about the problem/conflict and create strategies to change unwanted behaviors and accomplish this goal. When the person is in hypnosis, I incorporate specific suggestions in his or her hypnotic script to help the person implement these new beliefs or behaviors to help actualize this self-improvement goal.


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/.
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