Ericksonian Hypnosis Utilisation Hypnotic Induction

(Video transcribed)

The next question is, “Scott, I’m finding my clients are always really nervous when they come in to see me. Is this something I’m doing? Should I build more rapport? Do you have any advice?” So, “I’m seeing my clients are really, really nervous.” Yeah, so this is actually a good thing. This is a good question. So I’m assuming you’re asking, are you doing anything wrong? What would I advise you to do differently? I would advise you not to do anything different because here’s the thing. We know that a client’s problem is unconscious, and we should be looking for things that are called unconscious moments. This is where the unconscious mind expresses itself through it could be fear or anxiety. It could be a metaphor or a story. It could be some twitching, whatever it is. So, here’s the thing. If your client is coming in expressing some sort of emotion, whether it’s anxiety, it’s fear, they’re a little bit nervous, whatever it is, what is this telling you?

It means they’re already in trance. It means they’re already presenting to you trance elements. Where does fear, anxiety, nervousness, where does that exist? Well, we know it’s an unconscious thing. It’s uncontrollable. Very hard to make yourself scared about something. You can’t do that consciously or manually. You have to experience something that the unconscious mind, let’s say, looks at as a threat or something like that, and then gives you that burst of energy or those hormones or those emotions that we categorize anxiety or fear or something like that. So, if a client came into my office already fearful, a little bit nervous, and said, “Scott, I’m really nervous about today’s session.” I’m not going to dismiss that. That’s like their unconscious mind saying to me, “Hey, I’m ready to go. Here’s a great way for us to do the therapy session today.”

And I teach this to all my students as well. What I would do with this is I’d actually utilize this. I’d actually utilize the very fact that they’re nervous or got some sort of fear or a little bit anxious about the session, and I’d use that as the gateway into trance. So, how would I utilize that? If a client said, “Oh, Scott, I’m feeling really, really nervous about today’s session.” I’d stop the routine I thought I was going to do and say, “Okay, so you’re feeling nervous. Is that what you’re telling me?” I’m going to use that nervousness back at them. They’re going to say, “Yeah.” And then I might say something like, “Well, where do you feel it?” So already, what am I doing? I’m getting their attention, and I’m asking them to focus their attention on the nervousness because the nervousness is an unconscious moment. And we all know the very first start of any sort of trance is to gather attention. We want to bypass the conscious mind with a certain type of attention.

By putting their attention on the unconscious moment that has already been presented to you by way of nerves or fear or anxieties about the session, whatever it is, you’re actually going to start the trance very, very quickly. So, I wouldn’t do anything different. I definitely wouldn’t start rapport because that’s all conscious stuff. There’s no need for that anyway. I wouldn’t ask them to relax for a little bit, then we’ll start later. I would jump on that, start asking them about the nerves or the fear of the session, put them into trance that way because I guarantee once they pop out of whatever that is, the reason they came in to see you will probably already start to be resolved.

It’s like the unconscious mind has a head start. It’s already starting to do the therapy. It’s already starting to release that emotion. So, don’t ignore it. That’s like saying to the unconscious mind, “Hey, I’ve got a better routine than you. I don’t want to use what you give me. I want to try and apply this timeline or this technique or language patterns.” Use what your clients are giving you. And I have this a lot. Even though my lawyers were very logical, a lot of them came in and saying, “I’m really, really nervous about today.” And I’d go “Great.” In my mind, I’m thinking, “Great, we can start here. I don’t have to do anything else. You’re already presenting to me an unconscious moment. I don’t have to do anything fancy because you’ve already given me the trance anyway. I’m just going to utilize that.”

And this became such a quick and fascinating way to do trance in therapy. So I’d utilize this, play around with this, have some fun with this. They usually go into a very deep trance, come out of it, and then go, “Wow, my problem’s gone too. How did you do that so quickly?” It’s not that I did anything special. It’s because my client or you, the client, came in, presenting this unconscious moment for me. It was like the unconscious moment was primed and ready to go to let go of this fear or this phobia or this smoking, whatever it is. I just happened to utilize it and use it sort of against you. And this was an old Ericksonian trick. There’s a lot of stories about Erickson doing this, and I can see why. It’s absolute genius.

Where most traditional therapies would tell your client… We’re told to tell our client, “Hey, just relax for a while. Have a cup of tea. Just sit down. Take a load off. We’ll just wait until this passes, then we’ll start from scratch.” You don’t want to do that. Jump straight on that unconscious moment. Ask your client about it, put their attention on it, see where it takes you. And I guarantee it will be a very, very powerful way for your clients to have a breakthrough and experience hypnosis. And like I said, it’s an old Ericksonian trick. He was really big on utilizing anything his clients gave him. So if they started to explain their problem through ways of a metaphor, he would use metaphors as the therapy. If they explained their problem through emotions or feelings like I just mentioned before, he would use that sort of against them.

So instead of trying to create or prepare something, which is just a guess, he would wait for his clients to present something to him. He would utilize it, give it back to them in a very tranced out way, and they would fall into trance, come out, and their whole life would change in just a matter of minutes. So, you’re actually doing a great thing. Let your clients come in nervous, fearful, a little bit scared, use it against them as a metaphor, but use it against them in a very positive way, and I guarantee the breakthrough they’ll have will be super, super quick, and they’ll thank you for it as well. So, hopefully, that helps.