Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Research Articles

Message Structure and Mechanism in Hypnotherapy Communication

The purpose of this study is to describe, analyze, structure and mechanism of messages as well as models of interpersonal communication carried out in hypnotherapy as a method to overcome the problems felt by clients who experience psychosomatic health disorders including stress, mental disorders, emotions and subconscious mind control so that appropriate treatment is needed. The theory used in this research is Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) to analyze the communication interaction between the hypnotherapist and the client. There are three concepts in CMM, namely management, coordination, and meaning. The research method used is descriptive qualitative method with a case study approach and constructivist paradigm. The results showed that the structure and mechanism of messages in hypnotherapy communication were carried out is the messages produced were carried out in an implicit way, making arguments at the beginning of handling cases the hypnotherapist puts himself in a position to accept whatever is conveyed or claimed and the persuasive message conveyed by the therapist is a one-sided message. In the process of compiling and delivering messages: the message is based on Milton Erickson's principles and philosophy, use indirect style and using Metaphors. While the Communication Model used in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Communication consists of message design models and interpersonal models. Message design is based on three basic logics of communication message design expressive, conventional, and rhetorical. The interpersonal model consists of social exchange, role, and interactional. Model of CMM theory produces the concept of BIER (Believe, Impressif, Entertaint, Repeatation) and sense making

Hypnotherapy for persons with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A three-arm randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT The current study sought to (1) compare the efficacies of Ericksonian hypnotherapy, traditional hypnotherapy, and educational talk in treating irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and to (2) evaluate the impacts of hypnotic susceptibility on participants’ responses to hypnotherapy. The study adopted a three-arm randomized controlled trial design and achieved an effective sample size of 144. Self-reported psychological questionnaires were used to assess participants’ IBS symptom severity, health-related quality of life, and coping patterns at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 3 months after intervention. The evaluation focused primarily on IBS symptom severity and health-related quality of life, as well as on the illness coping patterns of symptom catastrophizing and symptoms-related social hypervigilance. The findings showed that significant improvements in IBS symptom severity occurred in all three types of study groups immediately after completion of the intervention (p < .05, ηρ 2 = .20). However, only the traditional hypnotherapy groups and the Ericksonian hypnotherapy groups still had a notably significant decrease in symptoms 3 months after the intervention, whereas the educational talk groups had dropped back to pre-treatment symptom levels at the 3-month follow-up. The amplitude of change of symptom catastrophizing in the traditional hypnotherapy groups was stronger than that in the Ericksonian hypnotherapy groups after completion of the intervention, and the two types of hypnotherapy groups were significantly lower in symptom catastrophizing both immediately after the intervention and also 3 months post-intervention (p < .001, ηρ 2 = .17). The other coping mechanism studied, symptoms-related social hypervigilance, showed a significant decline only in the Ericksonian hypnotherapy groups (ps < .001, ηρ 2 = .45). Interestingly, in the traditional hypnotherapy groups, persons with higher hypnotic susceptibility showed significant improvement in symptom severity, health-related quality of life, and coping patterns following treatment. Notably, the effects from Ericksonian hypnotherapy for IBS diverged from the effects from traditional hypnotherapy. Finally, both Ericksonian hypnotherapy and traditional hypnotherapy appeared to have greater positive effects than educational talk did, but at different levels.

Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Resemblances in Solution Focused Brief Therapy

Solution focused brief therapy (SFBT) facilitates movement of problems toward solutions, requiring a delicate process of attentive observational skills and use of language; qualities that may be similar to Ericksonian hypnotherapy. In this deep examination, we utilized discourse analysis (Gee in How to do discourse analysis toolkit, Routledge, New York, 2011) to explore the influences of Ericksonian hypnotherapy in two commercially available videos of SFBT sessions facilitated by Insoo Kim Berg. We noted both SFBT features and Ericksonian features in these sessions, commonalities between the approaches were identified, and Ericksonian resemblances in SFBT were distinguished. Our deep examination suggests that Berg worked in recursive clusters with a figured world that attends to strength and resilience; Berg was fully attentive and observational throughout, intentional in her use of language, utilized bridging and building, and attended to exceptions. These features are common in Ericksonian hypnotherapy and appear significant in a relational style of training beginning therapists to effectively utilize the SFBT approach.

Using “Informal” Hypnotherapy in Career Counselling: Blending Savickas and Erickson to “Free the Angel”

This article describes the concept “informal hypnotherapy” and the overlap between aspects of Ericksonian hypnotherapy and facets of the career construction interview. The participant was a purposefully selected white Afrikaans-speaking woman who had an Honours degree in Educational Psychology. A case study is discussed in which the three anecdotes technique was used to augment the career construction interviewing process during career construction counselling. The intervention incorporated postmodern career facilitation techniques to enhance the involvement of the participant in her career construction process and to facilitate co-constructive conversation. Following the intervention, the client revealed heightened self-awareness, was empowered to use her story to negotiate transitions and to serve as a holding environment whenever life imposed changes on her, and appeared ready to engage with the world more adaptively. The use of the career construction interview (in combination with the three anecdotes technique) together with the use of basic Ericksonian strategies presents psychologists with an innovative, exciting and non-intrusive way of administering informal hypnotherapy.

Hipnoterapia Ericksoniana

The author does a presentation of the main characteristics of the Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, created by Milton Hyland Erickson. She begins her article with a biographical note about M. Erickson, pointing out the interpersonal tactics for approaching a patient, the ones that have as a goal to liberate the potentialities for self-helpness, both in hypnotic state as in wakefulness state.Erickson Hypnotherapy does not only work with specific techniques for treating the symptoms, but it works and uses the attitudes, self-image, behavioral and emotional flexibility and family structure, important factors for a wider changing process.

Ericksonian Hypnosis and Approaches with Pediatric Hematology Oncology Patients

This paper describes the applicability of Ericksonian hypnosis and hypnotherapy approaches with Pediatric Hematology/Oncology patients. Ericksonian hypnotherapy enable the clinician to intervene creatively and informally with the utilization approach. Interspersed suggestions in daily conversations weave in hypnotherapeutic strategies of pacing, leading, reframing, relaxation, imagery, storytelling and hypnoanalgesic techniques. These approaches are highly effective with children and easily adapted to the child's developmental needs while preserving their defenses to psychologically negotiate the various stressors of illness, including: Loss of control, fear of death, bodily changes and hair loss, intrusive and painful procedures and side effects of treatments. The child's perception of illness can be transformed into a world where they can receive comfort, gain mastery and continue to grow healthily within the medical milieu. This dynamic approach taps into the imagination of the clinician as well as the patient. Case vignettes will illustrate the benefits of these principles in easing the experience of cancer for children.

Book Reviews : Healing the Divided Self: Clinical and Ericksonian Hypnotherapy for Post- traumatic and Dissociative Conditions. By Maggie Phillips and Claire Frederick. New York: W. W. Norton, 371 pp., $40.00 (hardbound

Book Reviews : Healing the Divided Self: Clinical and Ericksonian Hypnotherapy for Post- traumatic and Dissociative Conditions. By Maggie Phillips and Claire Frederick. New York: W. W. Norton, 371 pp., $40.00 (hardbound

Ericksonian Approaches to Psychotherapy: From Objective to Constructed Reality

Psychotherapy historically has operated within an expert model context. Within this frame, patients present their symptomatology to the therapist expert for diagnosis and intervention. The work of Milton Erickson has offered an alternative perspective in which the idea of the problem is shifted from one of pathology to one in which the individual’s strengths and resources are utilized. This paper discusses the Ericksonian approaches from a postmodernist narrative perspective. Ericksonian hypnotherapy is considered from this epistemological frame, particularly the role and value of expectancy in creating a new therapeutic narrative.

Hypnosis, Ericksonian hypnotherapy, and Aikido.

Several key Ericksonian concepts find cross-cultural validation and practical application in the Japanese martial art of Aikido. The Aikido psychophysiological state of centering shares several important attributes with the trance state, particularly in the relational aspects of shared trance. In Aikido methodology for dealing with others, blending is an almost exact parallel to Ericksonian utilization. The Aikido view of resistance offers an increased understanding of strategic/Ericksonian approaches. Therapist training may be enhanced by combining Aikido principles with traditional methods.

Guest Editorial Some General Comments about Ericksonian Hypnotherapy

Guest Editorial Some General Comments about Ericksonian Hypnotherapy

Family hypnotherapy: Erickson or systems?

This paper argues that Ericksonian hypnotherapy is epistemologically at variance with the systems theory underlying most forms of family therapy. This incompatibility is not often realized, because of other shared assumptions such as focusing on positives, and the utilization of presenting behaviour. The paper highlights the epistemological differences between Systems and Ericksonian thinking and presents the concept of attribution of meaning as a possible way out of the difficulties which arise when these two opposing modes of thought are mixed in therapy.

Art Therapy and Writing with Deaf Children

Several art and writing techniques are described which have special therapeutic advantage for a nonsigning therapist working with deaf children. .The art therapy procedures which are elaborated include warm-up exercises, storytelling, draw-a-story, . and joint drawing. A comparison is drawn to Ericksonian hypnotherapy. Various writing exercises are discussed, both as separate techniques and in combination with art. Examples of applying these methods and case illustrations are provided, along with general considerations regarding the special needs of deaf children. We conclude that art and writing constitute effective therapeutic interventions that should become increasingly prominent for deaf children experiencing serious problems.

Solutions and Resolutions: Ericksonian Hypnotherapy With Incest Survivor Groups

Our Ericksonian approach features a group format, hypnotic techniques, mixed genders, an orientation to solutions and the future, and a therapy principle of context connectedness (i.e., reconnecting symptomatic expressions with larger social, psychological, and organismic contexts). Weekly meetings are organized around mastery themes (e.g., developing security, envisioning a future, boundaries), with participants learning hypnotically-based skills to achieve competencies in these areas. Outcomes include normalization of the incest experience, enhanced sexual identity, development of inner resources, increased intimacy, social competency, self pacing, decreased substance abuse, changes in familial relationships, and premature leaving of the group.

TRAINING WITH O (OBSERVING) AND T (TREATMENT) TEAMS IN LIVE SUPERVISION: REFLECTIONS IN THE LOOKING GLASS*

Working with a treatment and observing team at the same time, behind the oneway mirror, offers a variety of ways to: (a) generate multiple realities; (b) work with two different models of family therapy simultaneously; and (c) provide feedback on the teams' own roles, rules and group process. The process that 6 trainees and two supervisors used with T and O teams to examine their own coevolution as a therapeutic system using the Milan model of family therapy and Ericksonian hypnotherapy is described. The article concludes with a discussion of the advantages and pitfalls of this type of dual supervision.

Review of Therapeutic Trances: The Cooperation Principle in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy.

Review of Therapeutic Trances: The Cooperation Principle in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy.

Book Reviews : The Answer Within: a Clinical Framework of Ericksonian Hypnotherapy

Book Reviews : The Answer Within: a Clinical Framework of Ericksonian Hypnotherapy

Taproots: Underlying Principles of Milton Erickson's Therapy and Hypnosis

This is an essential primer of Ericksonian hypnotherapy and strategic psychotherapy. [...] O'Hanlon provides threads that crystallize practical patterns useful to clinicians at all levels of expertise. - Jeffrey K. Zeig, Ph.D., Director, The Milton H. Erickson Foundation

Look into My Eyes

Look into My Eyes Case Studies in Hypnotherapy. £. T. Dowd and ]. M. Healy (Eds.). New York: Guilford Press, 1986. (318 pp.) Case Studies in Hypnotherapy is an excellent and timely book that neatly illustrates the various techniques and applications of hypnosis currently in use. The level of professional skill of the contributors to this volume is remarkably high, and although the quality of writing varies, it is generally good. The format of each chapter, having been stipulated by the editors, consists of an introduction, a case presentation, and further references. The majority of the introductions present a neat theoretical rationale, which allows one to comprehend aspects of the subsequent presentation from the author's viewpoint and also to understand the author's personal philosophy and way of conceptualizing the encounter. On the basis of the editors' introduction, it also appears that a verbatim transcript was required as part of the case presentation, and, as in the majority of the chapters, when this is provided, there is a richness that is often missing in scientific papers. Indeed, Stone & Lundy (1985) have demonstrated that the exact form of words used in a hypnotic session can be critical to the quality of the response. The editors are to be complimented on using this approach. In regard to the individual chapters, as usual with a collection of papers, the clarity of theoretical justification and explanation of what occurred and why is variable, although it is generally high here. This should come as no surprise, as the contributors are nearly all well-known academics or practicing (often training) therapists in the areas in which they write. Some may not be quite so familiar to readers in Europe because they are all American; however, names such as Ellis, Araoz, and Barber, to name but three, are surely known to many. Many of the contributors explicitly acknowledge their debt to what may be termed the "Ericksonian School" (for example, there is a fascinating chapter by William Golden, "An Integration of Ericksonian and Cognitive-Behavioral Hypnotherapy in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders"), and many more could be seen as allying themselves with what some refer to as "the new hypnosis" (Araoz, 1985). Why this approach is potentially very useful to cognitive psychotherapists can be seen in Araoz's chapter. In his introduction to a sex hypnotherapy case, Araoz states, "The new hypnosis, on the other hand, prefers indirect methods and is very concerned with the hidden symptom . . . namely the person's reaction to and cognitive operations resulting from the problem. . . . [It explores] . . . the thoughts, images, self-talk and so on that the person is using, often without realising it" (p. 61). None of this sounds unfamiliar, and it goes some way to dispel the myths that still abound regarding hypnosis. The willingness to use hypnosis as an adjunct to usual techniques has grown in recent years, as has the revival of hypnosis. It is therefore most instructive to read Ellis's chapter on the use of hypnosis and rational-emotive therapy and to be reminded that that he was marrying these techniques almost 30 years ago! It is also interesting to note that he, in common with many modern practitioners, is not that much concerned with depth of trance (very much a preoccupation of the 1950s and 1960s), but rather with what use the client can make of it. Again in accord with modern practice, Ellis tapes the encounter and encourages the patient to reexperience the beneficial effects of therapy in a trance state by relistening to the tape. For a book of 24 chapters, it would take a long time to mention the strengths and weaknesses of each. Instead, the following is a list of the sections and some comments on the general thrust of the book. Section 1: Emotional Problems-this section contains such chapters as the one by Ellis and also the one by Golden. …

Ericksonian hypnosis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy: The anatomy of an effective partnership

This article presents a detailed case report of the utilization of Ericksonian hypnotherapy and psychoanalytic psychotherapy in treating a young woman who had been positively diagnosed as suffering from lupus, an auto-immune disorder. The hypnosis relationship is presented as the safe and secure “holding environment” which short-circuits the reactive-independent defensive stance that the auto-immune patient erects to remain invulnerable, out-of-touch with the oral level of his psyche. As the analytically focused indirect suggestions make the oral level more accessible, the healing process is facilitated. The author holds that this patient could not have been reached without an approach that integrated the holding environment of the hypnosis relationship with the analytic topography aimed at the oral level.

Ericksonian and Milan Therapy: An Intersection Between Circular Questioning and Therapeutic Metaphor

Working systemically with a single client poses particular problems for the systemic therapist. The therapist needs to join with the individual client while remaining neutral to the family system which may be unavailable for direct observation. An integration, through a case example, of systemic family therapy and Ericksonian hypnotherapy is presented. The use of circular questioning in the absence of the family is discussed, as well as the relationship between circular questioning, diagnosis, treatment goals and therapeutic metaphor.