Methods of hypnotic psychotherapy

Charles Holton, LCSW

Decision on formal or informal, therapist or client leading depends on client preference about degree of collaboration they desire and amount of leading by therapist they need.

Conversational direct suggestion for symptom relief (therapist hopefulness, confidence)

Hypnotic direct suggestion for symptom relief (“And your unconscious mind can relieve the symptom, gradually or suddenly, starting in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, now . . .”)

Hypnotic direct suggestion for symptom transformation, with suggestions (“That nerve signal that has been interpreted as pain can be experienced by your brain in so many other ways: warmth, coolness, numbness, itching, stiffness, looseness, tingling, heaviness, lightness … what your unconscious doesn’t already know how to do it can learn and discover …”)

Guided imagery with therapist providing details (Countless examples: relaxation imagery, safe place imagery, healing white light imagery, chalkboard imagery, stone dropping through lake imagery. The danger of therapist’s detail inadvertenly being incongruent or traumatic can be dealt with by checking it out with client before beginning, closely observing client reaction, and asking for feedback during the process: “ … and even the sound of your own voice telling me how it’s going can be a pleasant, comfortable experience that helps deepen the trance experience … ”)

Guided imagery with client providing details (e.g., Chuck’s “two-way five-sense induction”)

Direct suggestion eliciting hypnotic phenomena (hand levitation, time distortion, amnesia: “I’m asking my unconscious mind to lift my arm without me consciously doing it.”)

Indirect or permissive suggestion eliciting hypnotic phenomena (“ … and when you come out of trance you can remember everything it would be helpful to remember, and forget anything it would be useful to forget … would you be interested in discovering your capacity to develop hypnotic amnesia?” “ And just try and keep that arm right there, no matter how heavy it seems to get …” “And in just a minute or two of clock time, you can experience all the time in the world … on the inside … so take all the time you need to fully explore and enjoy that experience before you come back and we’ll talk about what you liked about it.”)