Hypnotherapy 101 (Part 2)
© T. Darlene Cheek, CHt.
This article continues from Part I, where we talked about relaxation, induction, trance and technique. We'll finish this week by talking about hypnotic suggestion, awakening techniques, and the many different things that can be accomplished using hypnosis.
An Example of SUGGESTION:
(Start Script) Now, just allow your body to continue to relax as you begin to focus on the number seven. See the number seven with a background behind the number. As you look at the number seven, all the stress, all the tension, all the anxiety, all the strains, and all the bad feelings leave your body, now. As you focus on the number seven, it will begin to slowly fade away. As the number seven fades away, all the stress, all the tension, all the anxiety, all the strains, all the bad feelings, leave your body. As the number seven disappears, you know that all the stress, all the anxiety, all the tension, all the strains, all the bad feelings have left your body, and you feel good. You feel wonderful in every way.
You find that you now have more energy than you have ever had before. You find that by thinking positive thoughts and functioning with positive emotions, things in your life start opening up. Things in your life start becoming very clear, now. Every day, you have more and more confidence in your ability, more and more confidence about who you are. Your self-esteem is now so strong that you find you are now able to focus and accomplish things that you have been meaning to do. Every day, you feel more and more internally balanced, able to experience life directly, fully in touch with your feelings.
I'd also like you to know that any time in the future that you would like to feel as relaxed as you are right at this very moment, only more so, all you have to do is take a deep breath, count one, two, three, and touch your thumb, forefinger, and middle finger together forming a little circle, and you will begin to drift into a wonderful state of relaxation where you are able to give yourself positive suggestions that will improve your life. (End Script)
You will notice in the above script that not only are the suggestions repeated several times, but they are repeated in past, present, and future tense. Your mind takes this as a clue to not only help in the present and future, but also to help the root cause of your problems heal. The suggestions are always positive and said with a voice of authority, whereas the rest of the script is said in a very quiet, dull, monotone voice. A trick of the trade to enforce the suggestion and make it sound like a command without putting yourself or a client in the defense mode is to use the word "now" at the end of a sentence while lowering your voice and deepening your tone. All hypnotists do, however, develop their own style. Some use more inflection than others, while some speak slower or faster depending on their particular dialect.
