Tag Archives: Trance

Let me tell you a story…

by Kelly

Hypnosis through storiesThis month, I’d like to share a story about my first experience with hypnosis.  Around the turn of the millennium I was a stressed out twenty-something searching for a way to cope with the tension and anxiety that had become a permanent fixture in my life.  I had been referred by my GP to a local hypnotherapist for help in dealing with this problem.  Shortly thereafter I attended the hypnotherapist’s practice in a leafy suburb of Newcastle, Australia, where I would experience the trance state for the first time.

After gathering some information, the hypnotherapist invited me to sit back in the comfortable leather chair, close my eyes and listen to his voice.  He began speaking in a gentle tone, telling stories that seemed to drift and float, weaving in and out of one another like birds flying in formation in the sky.  It was a very pleasant experience and I could sense that I was being told something of great importance, but was unable to fully grasp what it was.

Upon emerging from the session I was struck with the sensation of awakening from a powerful dream that was quickly fading in the light of full consciousness.  I had a sense of having experienced something of profound significance, but not being able to put my finger on what it was.

And so began my love affair with hypnosis.  I would later learn that this form of what appears as vague storytelling was highly influenced by the work of Dr Milton Erickson.  Dr Erickson was the American hypnotherapist responsible for having the American Medical Association recognise hypnosis for medical use in 1958.  Ericksonian hypnosis employs the use of storytelling and metaphor as a means of indirectly inducing change in the client.  Stories are a powerful tool in my toolkit when working with clients.

Stories and metaphor are wonderfully effective ways of inciting an individual to think and behave differently.  Below I share five key reasons why stories and metaphor are such effective catalysts for change:

Stories are non-threatening, respectful and gentle – Rather than being instructed to stop doing something or start doing something else, stories are a gentle way of introducing new concepts and ways of behaving to clients.

Stories are engaging – Stories, by their nature, engage the listener and elicit the state of focused attention that characterises the trance state.  Within that receptive trance-like state the client can take on the message of the story that most benefits them.

Stories foster independence – the client makes sense of the message within the story, draws their own conclusions and then takes appropriate action, creating a sense of independence and self-reliance.

Stories can be used to bypass natural resistance to change – Stories deliver their message in more subtle ways than simply telling a client to change. There is power in metaphor to subvert the vigilant critical factor of the mind and allow new perspectives and ideas to stealthily take root.

Stories tag the memory – stories bundle a message into a package that will be much more memorable and compelling than a list of facts or a string of suggestions.

As I left that first hypnotherapy session, I floated out the door feeling calmer and more relaxed than I’d felt in a long, long time.  The images and words I had experienced were still washing around in my mind.  I was left with a sense that I was holding several pieces to a puzzle, and felt a growing curiosity inside me as I wondered how I would put those pieces together.

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And now, dear reader, I invite you to share your story with me – when has a story affected the way you behave or the choices you made? What was the outcome? Share your story in the comments below.

Reference: Battino & South, Ericksonian Approaches: A Comprehensive Manual, 2nd Edition, (Wales: Crown House Publishing Ltd, 2005). p.310

Image Credit: Lotus Carroll via Flickr

 

 

 

Move forwards by going back: the power of regression to change your present

by Kelly

Childhood regression

Working with memories within hypnosis is a very powerful tool to achieve effective change.  During early childhood, our minds are incredibly open and our neurological patterning is formed at this age.  Key events that occurred in early childhood can influence our behaviour, our emotions and our beliefs in the present without us even being aware of it.

One of my approaches when working with clients is to guide their unconscious mind to find often forgotten but influential memories.  This technique is widely known as regression.  Once the client has located the key memory,  we work quickly and effectively at re-contextualising the events of that moment.  This process allows the client to take more information from the event and make new conclusions.  By revisiting specific childhood events and seeing the bigger picture we create new neural connections which allow new behaviours and responses in the present.

To make the process of re-contextualising memories even faster and more effective I often use the technique called “creative mothering”.  As the client reviews the key event, I invite them to bring their present-day adult-self to be there with their child-self inside the memory they are working with.  The purpose of their adult-self is to serve as the source of support and resources that their child-self needed at the time.

In her recent exhibition, Imagine Finding Me, London-based photographer Chino Otsuka has literally inserted her adult-self into childhood memories using digital software.  The compositions presented in her exhibition could well be little vignettes from many of the client sessions I facilitate.

The results of re-contextualising these key memories are often noteworthy. I recently worked with a client who came to see me to overcome her feelings of failure.  I took her back to the originating memory which involved feeling ignored by a parent.  Once she’d been through the process of having her unconscious mind understand that being ignored was not her fault she was able to know that she was important and loved.  Getting in touch with the knowledge that she did matter allowed her to claim her self-worth in the present.

A week later she made a minor miscalculation while driving.  While everyone remained safe and no property was damaged, she did receive a fine.  She relayed to me that if that miscalculation had happened in the past, she would have fallen into a hole of self-criticism and shame from which she would have taken a long time to recover. After releasing and re-contextualising the key memory she was thrilled that she could easily say to herself, “Damn it, how annoying!” and get on with the rest of her day.

What patterns of thought or behaviour have you feeling stuck?  If enough is enough, then get in contact.  Let’s go meet with your child-self and discover what else there is for you to learn.

Is your language influencing your behaviour?

by Kelly

secrets_of_a_hypnotherapist_

In 2012 in Edinburgh Ph D. Keith Chen shared macro economic analysis of 25 years worth of data that shows that the language we speak affects our ability to save money.  Through extensive analysis Chen drew out an unbreakable relationship between the savings rate of particular groups of language speakers that were significantly different to speakers of other types of language.

Chen focused on the distinction between two groups of people.  One group spoke a language that had a different future and present tense (futured languages); the other group spoke languages that did not differentiate between tenses (futureless languages).

English is a futured language, which differentiates its tenses between the past, the present and the future.  For example: “yesterday it rained”, “today it is raining”, “tomorrow it will rain”.  Mandarin Chinese is a futureless language where these three phrases would translate as “yesterday it rain”, “today it rain”, and “tomorrow it rain”.  Chen’s hypothesis was that by verbally and grammatically distinguishing between the present and the future, us futured language speakers dissociate ourselves from the future, making it less important than the present and that this has an unconscious effect on our behaviour and choices.

From detailed analysis of 25 years worth of OECD data he was able to show that futureless language speakers are 30% more likely to report having saved in the last year than futured language speakers.

This is a tangible illustration of the great influence language has on behaviour.  We may not be able to strip out the future tense of the English language to improve our savings rates, but by modifying our linguistic habits, we can influence our behaviour in other areas.

Let me introduce you to “Modal Operators of Necessity”, the linguist’s term for words of obligation.  Words such as “have-to”, “must”, “should” and “ought-to”.  These words pepper our everyday speech and imply a lack of choice.  Have you ever said “I have to call so-and-so” or “I should do the dishes”? Subtly, these words create feelings of powerlessness and servitude within us, robbing us of our enthusiasm and self-determination.

Modal Operators of Necessity are deliberately used by the hypnotherapist within the trance state, to infer a lack of choice.  For example, “you can’t access that old problem in quite the same way again”.  Within trance, I use these Modal Operators of Necessity for the benefit of my clients.  The intentional use of these words is a powerful tool in my toolbox.

If you would like an alternative to Modal Operators of Necessity in your everyday speech, let’s look at Modal Operators of Possibility.  These are words such as “can”, want to”, “choose to”, “able to”, “get to”.  Notice how it feels to say, “I choose to do the dishes”, “I get to call so-and-so”.  These words create a sense of optimism, choices and alternatives.

I invite you to take this new linguistic pattern for a test-drive.  What changes do you notice in your body, your energy and motivation when you speak in this new way?

You can choose to leave me a comment and share your findings!

You can watch Keith Chen’s fascinating talk in full here.

 

Image Credit:  Trey Ratcliff via Flickr