Milton H. Erickson, M.D., is generally acknowledged as the world's leading authority and expert in the therapeutic use of hypnosis. He was both a psychiatrist and a psychologist, and the founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. Dr. Erickson's work forms the basis for what is known today as covert and/or conversational hypnosis.
Erickson tailored every therapeutic interaction to his client's individual needs, believing that "everyone is as individual as their own thumbprint." To Erickson, there was no generic "one-size-fits-all," approach to therapy. Erickson tailored every therapeutic interaction based on the client and their experience of their situation. He did so in a way that fully respected the multidimensional nature of the client and emphasized their resources and how they might be utilized to achieve the goals of therapy.
At the heart of Erickson's approach to therapy was an unwavering belief that people are much more than their problems and that they already had all the resources they need to achieve their outcomes. This belief is highlighted in the following story Erickson once shared:
"I was returning from high school one day and a runaway horse with a bridle sped past a group of us into a farmer's yard, looking for a drink of water. The farmer didn't recognize it so I jumped up to the horse's back, took hold of the reins and said "Giddy-up" and headed for the highway. I knew the horse would take me in the right direction. I didn't know what the right direction was. And the horse trotted and galloped along. Now and then he would forget he was on a highway and would start off into a field. So I would pull on him a bit and call his attention to the fact that the highway was where he was supposed to be. And finally about four miles from where I had boarded him he turned into a farmyard and the farmer said, "So that's how the critter came back. Where did you find him?" I said, "about four miles from here." "How did you know he should come here?" I said, "I didn't know; the horse knew. All I did was keep his attention on the road."
In addition to spotlighting Erickson's belief that people already have all the resources they need to succeed, this story exemplifies how Erickson performed hypnotherapy. Rather than a direct, authoritarian approach to hypnosis, Erickson would usually utilize a story, anecdote or personal experience from his own life, or the life of a client, to guide and direct the unconscious mind of his client to reconnect with the learnings and resources they needed to achieve their outcome.
Dr. Erickson died in March 1980, aged 78, but his legacy continues through those of us who studied his work and enthusiastically share our findings with others. We have the ability to teach how Erickson facilitated such incredible change in his clients and adapt his models, thought processes and exquisite communication style into our work so that we may create positive change in the lives of our own clients and the people we interact with through conversational hypnosis.
Dr. Andrew Horton is a Certified Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP. He is a Certified Master Hypnotherapist and has been a featured speaker at the American Board of Hypnotherapy's annual conference. Dr. Horton's doctoral dissertation project featured extensive research into the application of NLP and hypnotic language patterns in the profession of selling. Though not representative of all participants, some subjects of the project increased their sales by as much as 194% in just nine weeks by incorporating his methods into their sales efforts.
To learn more about the amazing, persuasive power of conversational hypnosis, and receive a free hypnosis course, visit Dr. Horton's website at http://www.free-hypnosis-course.com now.
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