Hypnosis Mentor

Writers work with mentors.

Why wouldn’t someone who is working to use hypnosis to access their most powerful strengths look for a mentor?

In a post on another of my blogs (Star Stuff Writer – “Writing Mentor“), I explored the idea of someone who is trying to make themselves into a writer working with a mentor – to help them see where their strengths are – so they can work with those strengths – and to help them see where they would best benefit from an improvement effort.

But why would I want a hypnosis mentor?

Hypnosis and Dr. Milton H. Erickson

Hypnosis has a long, evolving history, all the way back to ancient Egypt and Greece. Dr. Mesmer, whose name contributed mesmerism to our language, lived in the late 17- and 18-hundreds.

Up to the mid 16th century, practitioners thought hypnosis was a form of sleep – or was produced by magnets.

From that point on, understanding and effective use of hypnosis grew gradually. It also experienced some setbacks.

It had to be just before the middle of the 20th century that Dr. Milton H. Erickson worked out an understanding of how hypnosis really worked. He is considered by some to be the father of modern hypnotherapy.

Before Erickson, a hypnotist was authoritative and direct. Erickson’s approach to hypnosis is permissive, accommodating, and indirect. That was an enormous change in thinking and practice.

One huge difference in Erickson’s approach to hypnosis – and to his non-hypnotic therapy – is paying close attention to nonverbal feedback from his client. When Erickson was surviving and recovering from polio, when he was 17, he had endless periods of inactivity, when all he could do was observe the people around him in the Wisconsin farm house. In these times, he learned to see that what was said was often not the truth. He learned to see that non-verbal communication often told a different story, and the non-verbal thread carried the truth.

When Erickson was studying hypnosis, his experience – paying attention to non-verbal feedback and behavior – enabled him to see what drew a client deeper into trance – and what drove a client further out of trance. He paid attention to things like respiration, eye movement, muscle tone and movement. Erickson also explained that he would sometimes put himself into a trance, when he was working with a client, to heighten his awareness of the client’s non-verbal communication.

Erickson learned to find out what a client responded to, and non-verbal feedback told him whether he was on the right track – or whether he needed to take a different tack – for that client.

Before Erickson, less than half the population was judged to be hypnotizable. But Erickson could hypnotize anybody – even someone who had been conditioned to not respond to hypnosis.

From some of the things I’ve read about Erickson, if you walked across his office to shake his hand, you’d be well on your way into a deep trance state before you got half way across the room.

That prospect could be threatening, in the wrong circumstances. But if you assume that Dr. Erickson is going to help you, and from what I’ve read, that would very much be the case, and if you’re looking to change in a positive direction, then the possibilities are stunning.

Students of Dr. Erickson

Erickson was studied and modeled extensively by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. Erickson had a profound influence on their work. Among their several books, they wrote a two volume work on Erickson’s approach to hypnosis – Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson.

Another book, titled TRANCE-formations, was written from several series of Bandler and Grinder’s seminars. Reading their talks makes it clear that they are very nearly as skilled and powerful at inducing trance – and trance assisted personal change – as Dr. Erickson was.

John Overdurf and Julie Silverthorn, also students of Dr. Erickson, wrote a book titled Training Trances. Dr. Tad James wrote, in the foreword to the book, “Training Trances is an excellent example of what is possible when communication with the Unconscious Mind goes deeply . . .”

An elementary student

I am a student of hypnosis – or of self-hypnosis – in somewhat the same way that I am a student of writing. But it seems, for me, that writing is easier to learn.

I’m also a computer person who likes to understand how things work. I build highly structured tools for journaling and project notes. I’ve read that people, who are organized, logical, and like to understand how things work, tend to have more difficulty with hypnosis. That’s not to say it can’t work for them. But it can be an enormously greater challenge.

I’ve also been assured, more than once, that this “less difficulty/more difficulty” distinction is false. Whether or not it makes a difference, it seems that the hypnosis folk I have a chance to talk with are from a New Age thread of hypnosis.

I find myself wondering whether I need an approach to hypnosis that’s a little more assertive – like Erickson, Bandler & Grinder, Overdurf. I don’t know.

I’ve worked to use self-hypnosis to improve my sleep patterns – and to improve my eating patterns – and to improve a teeth grinding pattern – with mixed results.

I’ve had enough success to convince me that hypnosis has enormous potential for personal change – even for me. My success, together with my reading, tells me that the possibilities are wonderfully powerful. When I think about the potential, in these and other areas, I have this embarrassing B. F. Skinner sort of problem. Maybe hypnosis could help me with that, as well.

But I’ve had little enough success to sew a seed of suspicion that I need something I don’t have – or perhaps, something I have but am unable to find.

And so . . .

All of this leaves me wondering: if an aspiring writer can work with a mentor, why can’t a hopeful artist of broad, deep, and powerful hypnotic personal change work with a mentor?