The Transparent Hypnotist

Better late than never, I suppose! There has been much to my day already and now I am so ready to curl up in bed and sleep! So, there, that will be the subject of today’s trivial Hypno reference.

Did you know that the British Royalty have put their stamp on a bed company called Hypnos. They say the company is named after the Greek God of sleep, but I think it is fitting for a mention here.

After sleeping on an old mattress set for awhile now, a Hypnos sounds wonderful! And with that, I’m off to dream land. (Yes, I know it is still early…).

Anyone out there have one of these beds?

Have you ever worked with a client in regards to school/educational related anxieties? Recently I had a young lady in for a consultation over her extreme anxiety with test taking. To be specific, the anxiety is over an upcoming verbal French exam and there seem to be several fears rapped around this one area including fear of public speaking, a fear of exposing her ‘lisp,’ a fear of not remembering the pronunciation of words, and a dislike of the teacher. This is her second attempt with French, as she failed it once.

Interestingly enough, this client is actually fluent in French, Cajun French. Her family primarily still communicates using that dialect. Her teacher feels that she needs to know “real” French (though from what I understand this woman has never been to a French speaking area of any sort). So, apparently whenever my client pronounces something with her Cajun ways or even due to a small lisp, her teacher marks her down.

The client is the type who does fairly well in her studies, mostly high marks, except for this.

But here’s what is really bothering me this morning. I started thinking about the idea of grading and how perhaps it really interferes with the learning process, true learning. I suspect grading is supposed to be about letting the student know where one is in the comprehension of a certain subject. But it seems as though it has become something of a monster now. It becomes a self-esteem issue because if one doe not do well, then one may be looked down upon if one does not make the grade. Who cares about the subject as long as it appears that you were on the high end of the grading scale?

I am proud to say that I could not comprehend Calculus when I was 16. Nor do I understand it 20 years later. With a lot of tutelage at the time, I passed it, but with no more comprehension then I had when I began. I was successful because I passed, when in reality the system failed me because it made no sense. At the time all I cared about was getting a passing grade. And now I wonder what I really missed?

So, here is this young woman who is interested in the subject as it is a part of her life, but all she has gained from this class is acute anxiety over passing. Her confidence has been shaken. And for what? A silly mark on a piece of paper that is inaccurate.

There, I’ve said my peace.

In an email yesterday, I was asked very discreetly (and thank you for that) if I was perhaps providing my clients with leading questions that would provoke a “right” answer. This is a really good question and is definitely worth dedicating a few words to it.

During the beginning process of getting to know clients, many hypnotists utilize test before actually doing an induction to get a feel for how clients process information. There are some hypnotist who do not do this, but I am one who does. As a client, one should always give a natural response to these even though it might be possible to intuit a supposed outcome. There are no right and wrong answers and hopefully the hypnotist will explain this. This testing can be anything from suggesting that the one’s clenched hands are “stuck like glue” to seeing the reaction one has to the idea of sucking on a lemon.

During the session, the hypnotist should make it a habit to ask open-ended questions, knowing it is more important for clients to see personal patterns themselves and to also avoid the creation of false memories. Asking the who, how, what, where and when are great questions.

My advice to clients is to be as honest as possible for their own benefit. It does the hypnotist no good nor bad to hear an untruth that may get in the way of what they, the clients are wanting to accomplish.

Good morning (or whatever time of day that you are reading this)!

Yesterday, I posted about a client with a certain itch. I had actually meant to talk about something else, but got sidetracked on the details of setting it up.

The client had mentioned that after several times of being hypnotized, she didn’t feel she could “go deep enough” for suggestions not to itch. She clarified that she felt she was trying too hard or trying to give me the “right” answers. Interesting. She even admitted to remembering my words that the “right” response is her natural response.

Interestingly enough, in my client notes it mentions that she is the type of person that follows instructions to the letter, and that she was/is an overachiever (her words). In giving me the “right” answer, she said she was just following my directions on concepts such as try to open your eyes, but you cannot. So, she didn’t - open her eyes. My response to this was, if she felt like she was following my instructions to the letter, did she really? If so, what happened to the instruction “try”?

She thought for a moment and said, “But I wasn’t supposed to open my eyes.”

No. You were suppose to “try.” But after thinking about this for a few moments, it occurred to me that this was her natural response. She had spent her life working on achieving the “right” response. It was natural for her to not open her eyes, to give a projected outcome. Hence, perhaps why the hypnosis has also worked for her. She knows what the outcome is supposed to be, therefore believes she must achieve it.

It also occurred to me that perhaps she was talking herself out of our past hypnotic work. If she was then thinking she wasn’t deep enough because she was too busy giving me the “right” answers, she could give up the responsibilities of creating her own change. How handy.

So, we had the discussion about the “right” answers and I explained my theory that she did give me the “right” natural response. This seems to be going well, as we continue to work on more self-hypnosis concepts.

But what I learned is that the “right”response is the natural response, even for those who are trying to give you the project outcome they think you want. It doesn’t mean the hypnosis won’t work, it just means that they react to instruction differently than those who follow each step without the projected outcome.

Back with another cup of coffee, but I am being bad. I have left over whipping cream that is adding a lovely enhancement to the oridnary blackness of the beverage. You really should try it. It is especially nice on a muggy Monday morning.

Recently, I worked with a client on a series of different objectives. One day she stopped by the office (she checks in) and was suffering from a bug bite. It was itching her and though she had seen a doctor about it, it was taking some time to get the prescription in for her relief. Apparently, it was a maddening sort of irritation. I offered to do a rapid induction for itch relief until she had the medication in hand.

She surprised me when she said that she felt she does not go deep enough into hypnosis for this sort of thing. So, I did not press it other than just offering it (and doing it as a courtesy for her continued support as a client). She kept itching, yet stayed quite a while longer finishing her cup of tea. Then right before leaving she said the hypnosis for the itching would be worth a try.

I did a rapid, eye fixation induction, gave her a few quick suggestions about her body creating natural itch relief until she was able to get her medicine, at which time the itch would heal quickly. (She insisted on the medicine being incorporated). It took less then five minutes. She stayed a while longer, not itching at all.

It was one of those “gift” moments, not so much for her, but for me. If none of this had come to pass, she might not have ever mentioned “not going deep enough.” There is more to be said on that, but that part will have to wait until tomorrow, as today’s work calls me out of my blogger bliss. However, I will leave you with this. The “gift” moment was that she has no problem with trance depth now.

I’m still fixated on yesterday’s theme. Yep, that’s right, non-verbal inductions.

Paul has a lovely story about how he met his wife that deals with written hypnosis (did I get that right, Paul? ), so this seem like a pretty interesting topic.

For those who are new to hypnosis or are clients, an induction is part of the hypnotic process, where the person being hypnotized either seriously relaxes or is given a task to engage the mind so that suggestions, regressions, parts therapy, etc. can proceed.

The most I can say about non-verbal induction techniques is that I have only ever tried the famous handshake. I am definitely a verbal girl (some would say I never got over the sound of my own voice, lol). Anyway, I had read about this induction and mentioned it to a client. He was curious to try it. Up to that point, I had just said there was a way to hypnotize a person just by shaking their hand. So, I did the induction and was totally surprised to find that he instantly reacted to it in a positive way. He went completely limp and responded to a post hypnotic suggestion afterwards. Pretty amazing.

So, that’s it folks. I would love to hear about your experiences with non-verbal inductions.

Well it is Saturday again. I have noticed in the forums there is always talk of stage hypnotism and such, so I thought I would use that as a basis for this post.

The Illusionist was the main feature on my personal movie screen this week. I am a little late in seeing it, but wanted to hold onto my love of The Prestige for a while (which is definitely a favorite). And was correct to wait, for The Illusionist has won my heart.

But I digress. Without giving anything away, if you have not seen it, there was a brilliant scene that may have involved hypnosis-like staging. Eisenheim, our protagonist, did a stage show, where he brought up a volunteer from the audience. He instructed her to look directly into his eyes, did a very graceful hand wave in front of her, and seemed to entrance her.

Has anyone of you seen this? It was a beautiful bit of grace and technique, but first (and foremost), in this scene, is this a demonstration of the non-speaking direct-eye-contact induction? If so, how does one do this? And probably less important (but I am still curious), what did hypnotizing the volunteer have to do with the illusion (just to make it more intense?)?

He remembered that I went on retreat and asked about it.

This seems some what inane, I am sure, but when you are typically the person who is supposed to remember what is going on in his life (mainly because it is your job, mostly because you do care), when he remembers something about your life, it’s like the odd smile from a stranger that brightens the day.

This relationship we have with clients is an interesting one. They walk in and out of our lives, often without us ever knowing how their story ends. And as I sit across from them, drinking my tea, ever working the rapport, for those hours, I forget they will walk out my door. They lay out their lives, sometimes neatly, sometimes in a heap as if it were dirty laundry. They share their hopes, their dreams, their anxiety, and fears. I forget that I have not been a part of their lives until this moment. Rather I wade in, allowing their scenarios to wrap around me, enveloping me (at least I always hope), until we get to a point where they are comfortable and I am understanding, compassionate, separating myself from any presupposed judgments and selfishness. It is not my place. And one might think it would be easy to get lost in all this, but it is not. Perhaps I do leave a part of me with them, but they to leave part of themselves with me.

This relationship is odd. I forget that I will not hear about the Little League Championship, nor the sister’s thrown-together-wedding in Spain, nor if he got that job at the zoo. For a few moments, I forget that they are not old friends. I forget that I am just providing a professional service.

But this is alright because I am providing a professional service. And some will check in, some will not. Some will come back. Some will refer others. Some will be forever gone.

So, when he asked me about my retreat, it was a sort of startling moment. He remembered! And I thought, how odd, this relationship of ours…

I tried it out yesterday, a deepener without numbers. In fact, I avoided numbers totally, even in the awakener. And really, I cannot thank all of you enough for your advice. My client loved it. He even experienced an amnesic state, which has only happened one or two other times.

Since you shared with me, I will with you. I played off the idea of colors getting deeper and darker, using the theme of the late afternoon sun setting into a comfortable darkness (I gave the option for a light source if it made him feel more relaxed). So as the sun set, I suggested that he become more and more relaxed, etc. When it came time to help him return to normal consciousness, I used the imagery of the sun rising. As the light became brighter in description, he slowly returned to normal consciousness.

This actually seems effective because my office is fairly bright with sunlight. So this really plays to the reality for a while.

This was one of those things that turned out to be a great gift. It pulled me out of a rut, helped me learn more, and it feels really good that my client was able to tell me what he needed (in a way that I could hear and understand) so he could allow himself to go deeper into the hypnotic experience.

Thanks to you who answered my call for non-counting deepeners. If you haven’t read the responses I received from this, you can check them out from my Monday blog entry.

Both deepeners that were mentioned employ the use of color changes (which I really like). My question now is: will these work for people who do not easily visualize?