Instant and Rapid Inductions in a Professional Practice
As hypnotists our jobs are to help people with everyday problems they are having within their life. This could be anything from Smoking Cessations, Weight Loss, Sports Improvement, etc. Usually we are the last ones our clients visit as they haven’t been able to be helped by their doctors or other licensed professions. So when a client comes to us they are hoping we can help them when no one else can. They have come to us as a final solution for their problems. So when they book an appointment with us and pay the price we are asking they have now committed to the process. So when they come to our office we talk to them a little, give them a good pre-talk and begin our progressive relaxation inductions.
The client has paid us to work on their situation and they are expecting to get their money worth for each session. Yet, some hypnotists waste a good potion of time that could be committed to helping the client on the Progressive Relaxation Induction. We as hypnotists should know that hypnosis isn’t relaxation. The induction doesn’t do anything, but help a person to get to hypnosis. Technically the moment the person enters our office they are in hypnosis. So in reality, the only real important parts of the process are the intake, pre-talk and the actual work. So why are we as hypnotists wasting the client’s money and time with these long inductions?
We have the ability to get people into hypnosis within 4 seconds to 4 minutes and I’m talking about a deep level of hypnosis where the work we do becomes much more powerful. Now don’t get me wrong Progressive Relaxation Inductions work well for stuff such as relaxation, stress management and a few other items and they can serve a purpose. Yet, when it comes to dealing with the issues that require deep work and time why are we not using instant and rapid inductions. Why are we not spending more time on the parts that actual help the client. I believe in giving the client’s what they paid for and for that to happen we must have the time needed to deal with the situation.
Some of you may respond that they can come back for multiple sessions. I stick to a goal of one to two sessions at the most. These people have already spent everything they have in their prior attempts for help. So what is better for profession? Getting paid more money or affecting serious change within the person in the least amount of time? Imagine the word of mouth referrals from people who have stopped smoking in one session or whatever the situation may be. When dealing with issues that require basic direct suggestion remember the law of compounding. Imagine if your induction was only 10 seconds long. Imagine how many more positive suggestions you could give your client within that extra time. Understand that if you use Progressive Relaxation Inductions and they work for you that’s fine, but I’m just trying to give you something to think about here.
So my question I pose to you is the following: What is your view on using instant and rapid inductions in a professional practice?
Joshua Houghton
www.whatsonmybrain.com
March 30th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Hey, Josh!
Speaking only for myself, I don’t use instant inductions with clients. For one thing most of them aren’t suited to the way my office is set up — two nice, comfy recliners means most of the common loss-of-equilibrium instant inductions won’t work well anyway. For another, using a more formal induction helps me to put myself in the mode of watching and monitoring and gives me a chance to go into trance a little myself so my subconscious can play its part in formulating suggestions.
I like the Dave Elman, which is technically a rapid induction but certainly one of the lengthier of that group. My Elman takes about three minutes. So far I haven’t needed those three minutes for anything else, so there’s been no need to look seriously at instants.
Where I will do instant inductions is in non-office settings, either demonstrations or just casually playing with fellow hypnotists. They’re very impressive in that kind of atmosphere and fun to do.
<MR>
March 31st, 2008 at 6:30 am
It totally depends upon the client. I use intuition a lot with such inductions. If the time i have to work with a person is not very long, I may use a quick induction just to spend more time on the actual work that needs to be done. I also use it on clients who seem impatient during a longer induction. I usually use an eye lock method.
Ellie