How Much Time Between Each Hypnosis Session

(Video transcribed)

Let’s talk about how many sessions between sessions for a client. So if your hypnotherapist may be seeing a client two or three times, you might want to know, “Scott, how many days or how much time in between each session should I have to get a client in for their second, third, or fourth session?” And there’s no real golden rule here, but you have to remember this. There is a lot of processing, and that’s the really most… That’s the only important part really when it comes to therapy is the processing. This is when the unconscious mind takes on all the new suggestions, the new ideas, the new conclusions, whatever it is, whatever you want to say it is. It has to have time to filter those things through, to try those things on.

I talk to my students in my ACH program about imagine the unconscious mind trying on a new suit. It’s going to try on a jacket. It’s going to try on pants. Maybe the pants don’t match the jacket, the jacket doesn’t match the shoes. So the unconscious mind will go through almost like an emotional rollercoaster of trying on all these new ideas to see what works best. The worst thing you can do is have a client come in, do great therapy, allow the processing to start, then interrupt that session you’ve just done by doing another session. Or on top of that, homework, audios, I don’t recommend any of that stuff. There is nothing more important than processing. An audio or an extra session at the wrong time will stop all these things.

The unconscious mind says, “Well, you didn’t leave me alone long enough. You didn’t allow me to try on all the suits. Here we go again. Let’s start from scratch. Let’s start from day one all over again.” Allow the processing to take place. Allow the processing to finish, you might even not need to, before you go into a second session or a third. So you might think, “Well, Scott, when is the processing finished?” One thing you can look for is when your client returns back to normal. When the fuzziness, the highs, the brain fog, the confusion, the sadness, the emotion, the happiness, all of these things that happen as a part of processing, once that all settles down and a client’s at more like a homeostasis point, then you can think about doing another session.

If a client asks you, “How many sessions it’s going to take? Or when can I see you next?” I know a lot of hypnotherapists will say, “I’ll see you in 5 days, 3 days, 30 days. Listen to audio,” all that stuff. Don’t do that. The only thing you can really say to a client to make sure they get the most out of working with you is say, “Let’s get the first session done, see how we go from then.” At the end of the session, do not say, “I’ll see you on Thursday.” Tell them, “Let me know when you start feeling good again, when you start getting over the confusion.” This is what we call a processing chat. I’m not going to talk about what that is. But you want to let your client know that as a result of today’s session, this is probably what you experienced.

Might be a bit of insomnia, some emotions. You might be angry at one point, happy at the next. Weird hunger, weird cravings. All of these things are associated with processing. Once that all settles down and you feel back to normal, then we can chat. And that’s essentially what I would say to the lawyers. And pretty much 10 times out of 10, the second session wasn’t needed. If I would’ve interrupted the processing, of course, I need a second session, a third or fourth or fifth, because I’m not allowing the most important part of the processing to heal the client. It’s like going to the gym every day, not allowing for recovery. What do you think is going to happen? Body’s going to break down. It’s not going to recover. You’re not going to feel good. You’re not going to get the results. Processing is the equivalent of rest and recovery for your gym goers out there. So allow your clients to go through that processing. Don’t interrupt it.