Handbook of Ericksonian Hypnosis

8/13/2019 Handbook of Ericksonian Hypnosis

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/handbook-of-ericksonian-hypnosis 1/82

1

Edgar A. Etkin

HANDBOOK

OF

ERICKSONIAN HYPNOTHERAPY

Published by Milton H. Erickson Institute of Buenos Aires, 2011



2

INDEX

Introduction 4

Chapter I: Clinical Rapport 8

Rapport structure 10

Practices for rapport construction 18

Microdynamics of trance and suggestion 26

First interview 27

Interview (reduced questionnaire) 32

Chapter II: Hypnotic Language and Indirect Suggestion 35

Zeigarnik effect 44

Characteristics of the Unconscious 45

Defense mechanisms 46

Oxymoron 47

Non sequitur 47Chapter III: Consultancy interview with a patient 47

Synthesis of the analysis for the understanding of the case 53

Note for the induction 55

Constants 55

Strategies for this case 57

Metaphors 59

Words or phrases utilized by the patient for its utilization

in the induction

60

Autohypnosis 60

Multifunctional induction 61

Multifunctional induction in the practice with the patient 72



3

Application of Ericksonian hypnotherapy (or subliminal

communication) in groups, couples, families and children

80

Bibliography 81

Contacts 82



4

Introduction

This introduction is based on the presentation of some concepts that have a primary

function in the hypnotherapeutical approach developed by Erickson and Rossi, lightly

modified so as not to contradict the authors at all. In 1948 Erickson stated that most of the

people, professionals or not, were convinced that if a state of hypnotic trance is induced by

suggestions, everything that might happen after the hypnosis should logically be the result

and the first expression of the suggestions. In fact, the hypnotized person goes on being the

same person with his/her altered mind, which is a repetition of similar or equal states to the

ones that occur in everyday life, in meditation situations, yoga moments, reflections,

silences, recalls, etc. This alteration in the patient’s behavior comes from his/her life

experience. The induction and trance maintenance helps the therapist facilitate a special

psychological and sustainable state for the patient to have the opportunity of re-associate

and reorganize his/her psychological unconscious complexity and utilize his/her own

abilities according to his/her personal life experience. Hypnosis neither changes the person

nor solves none of his/her present or past problems; indeed, it is one of the means that

allows the patient to learn something more about himself/herself and to express in a more

adequate way. If somebody thinks that what is developed in hypnosis is due to the

suggestions exclusively, this would imply that the therapist has the miraculous power of

producing therapeutical changes in the patient. Thus, the fact that therapy is the result of an

unconscious re-synthesis of the patient’s behavior is what concludes in a cure, and the

patient himself/herself does it. The cures, generally temporary, achieved through classical

hypnosis with suggestions are, in fact, an answer to suggestions and they do not mean re-

association of ideas, awareness, and recalls, so essential for a real cure. What concludes in



5

a cure – or in the overcoming of the learnt limitations - is that experience of re-associating

and reorganizing his/her own life of experiences and not the behavior manifestation as an

answer to direct and authoritarian suggestions, which at best would only satisfy the

therapist.

One of the most effective ways of helping patients is by means of words, which

organized by the patients themselves according to their own psychological and experience

conditions, will produce feasible transformations in their everyday life. For all this, we

resort to linguistics utilizing Noam Chomsky’s studies related to generative and

transderivational grammar. In 1996 (November 7th

, 8th

and, 9th

) I attended a seminar in

charge of this author in Buenos Aires, University of Buenos Aires, called “Linguistics,

Philosophy and Psychology”. The author changed some of his initial concepts such as deep

and surface structure in the language, which were replaced by the concept of interphase. It

is easier and more operative for us to use the former concepts. Bandler and Grinder

connected Chomsky’s studies with the use of therapeutic language and Erickson’s sensory

representation channels, achieving an Ericksonian transaction systematization applied to

communication in general, which can be taught and learnt with the contribution of the

concepts developed by Erickson-Rossi in the book they wrote together: Hypnotherapy-An

Exploratory casebook.

This handbook has the basic learning objective of the following “instruments”:

1 – Rapport : how it is built up and utilized; and the several techniques that can be used to

acquire abilities and some other alternatives regarding communication as a psychotherapist.



6

2 – The first interview: decoding (comprehension of the consultancy motive) and possible

therapeutical strategies and metaphors.

3 – Some linguistic elements of constant use in hypnotherapeutical work:

A) Causative Nexuses: “and”, “while”, “will do”, “will produce”. E.g.: “and, you are

reading the beginning of this Handbook , and while you have the expectation of learning,

this will produce a stronger interest to learn Ericksonian therapy”.

B) Sensory Representation Channel Utilization (Bandler y Grinder) E.g.:“You see

(visual channel) and listen (auditory channel) and also can feel (cenesthesic

channel) a smell (olfactory channel) or a taste (gustatory channel) and ask yourself

(internal dialogue) where you will go tonight”. It has to do with using sensory channels in

communication to full extent.

C) “What is there”, component which is referred to what is observable in an objective

way. E.g.: “I don’t know if you have realized that you have one hand upon the

other”.

D) Indirect Speech Acts. E.g.: “It is getting very hot in this room”, instead of saying

“Could you open that door?” or similar phrases.

4 - Indirect language learning which Doctor Erikson used, as it was systematized by

Richard Bandler y John Grinder.

5 – Indirect suggestions learning, the ones produced by Erickson and Ernest L. Rossi.

6 – Learning of metaphors and personalized strategies building-up for each patient.



7

7 – Inclusion, in a systematized way for its comprehension and utilization, of the hypnotic

language, indirect suggestions and metaphors (anecdotes, etc.) in the five moments of

trance dynamic and therapeutic suggestion , according to Ericsson and Rossi’s design.

8 – Multifunctional case presentation, utilizing all the elements mentioned in its analysis.

Once the process structure is available, you can change the contents to obtain inductions

and use them for different communicative purposes. This is wonderful news and only

achieved after years of hard work, which is introduced here for the first time!

9 – We add (in the self-training kit offer ) two books written by Milton H. Erickson and

Ernest L. Rossi together, called Hypnotherapy- an Exploratory Casebook and Hypnotic

Realities: clinical hypnosis induction and forms of indirect induction to deepen the

techniques taught in this Handbook, a DVD of two sessions of hypnotherapy performed

with Dr. Erickson’s intervention and two of his patients, called: “The Artistry of Milton H.

Erick son”, with a step-by-step analysis of all the procedure in charge of Bandler and

Grinder and Models of Milton Ericsson, book written by Richard Bandler and John Grinder

and The Microdynamics of Trance and Suggestion, Erickson and Rossi’s hypnotherapy

systematization, which is, in my opinion, a dynamic innovation, very important for the

understanding and practice of Dr. Erickson’s work, never before being entirely utilized, as

far as I know.

10 – No other material is necessary for an effective training in the truly Ericksonian

techniques. The self-training kit or the material can be acquired separately, one at a time.



8

Edgar Etkin

B.A. in Psychology MP 599

City of Buenos Aires

Argentina, 2011



9

CHAPTER I

CLINICAL RAPPORT

“This rapport, which constitutes a fixed phenomenon of hypnotic

trances, may be defined as a state of harmony between the

subject and hypnotist, with a dependence of the former upon the

latter for motivating and guiding stimuli, and is somewhat similar to the “transference” of the psychoanalytic situation”.

(Erickson, 1934)

Bandler and Grinder, based on M. H. Erickson’s techniques, defined his main procedure

as “step making”, imitating, mirroring, or a patient’s verbal and non-verbal pacing,

regarding his/her individual psychotherapy. When there are more than two persons, it

should be applied to each participant’s expressions, which implies more flexibility on the

part of the therapist.

The rapport objective is to achieve more collaboration from the patient for whatever

task proposed for his/her benefit. To equal what the patient does is a way of entering his/her

pattern of world, without making subjective mistakes. The person will be more eager to

collaborate if he/she feels accepted or understood by the therapist.



10

RAPPORT STRUCTURE

A) Vocal Behavior

1-Linguistic: verbs, adverbs and adjectives (verbal predicates) – Digital –

2-Paralinguistic: tone-tempo and voice volume; noises and typical sounds -Analogical –

B) Kinetic behavior.

1- Body movements: facial expressions, brows, blinking, neck, shoulders, arms, hands,

legs, feet, ocular globe directions.

2 - Neuro-vegetative system elements: skin tone, pupil dilatation, visceral activity, heart

beats, pulse, blood pressure and, breathing.

3- The posture.

C) Tactile behavior.

D) Proxemic or Territorial behavior.

E) Other Communicative behaviors (not so much studied, for example: noise, perfume or

smell emission, etc.)

F) Behavior with respect to clothes, cosmetics, ornamentation, environment, etc.



11

A- VOCAL BEHAVIOR

1. - LINGUISTIC

Language is one of the models best studied to represent the external world and its

repercussions on the subjective world. In spite of its neurological, cultural and individual

limitations it is the most complete means we count on to communicate. To utilize the words

the patient use is very important for the therapeutical communication to incorporate

naturally to his/her world. In this way a possible resistance gets null, due to the fact that

there is nothing to be against.

2. - PARALINGUISTIC

The voice

Tone: The therapist “imitates” the tones the patient uses in the communication from a high

to a lower pitch.

Tempo: it is in reference to fastness in speaking.

Volume: high or low voice volume. This item is very important because the content has a

relation, congruent or not, with what it is wished to be signified through vocal associations.

Noises: they can emanate from the patient (cough, sniffing, breathing, etc.), from the

therapist, or from the environment (all what is heard in the consulting-room). They are



12

utilized by the therapist to be integrated to the session and/or the subject-matter that is

being dealt with.

B- KINETIC BEHAVIOR

1-BODY MOVEMENTS

Facial expression: it is sometimes the first personal contact between the therapist and the

patient and, therefore, it is very important for the start of the relationship. The therapist

should pay attention to facial expression all the time to mirror it correctly.

He will do the same with the movements of the brows, blinking, neck, arms, hands, legs

and feet. Glance or gaze direction, in most cases, points out a neurological process, isolated

by the Neuro-Linguistic Programming (Bandler and Grinder, inspired by M. H. Erickson).

According to these authors, ocular globe movements are not hazardous but they point at the

sensory representation channels at the cerebral cortex level while information contents are

processed. The following classical scheme can be considered:



13

The therapist can accompany mirroring the patient’s look. Other alternatives to detect

these sensory representation channels functioning can be through the hand movement

observation when pointing at dots in the space, when touching the chin (internal dialogue),

hands in the body mid-line (cenesthesia, olfactory, taste); a hand upon an ear (auditory).

The stare signals visual images (recalled or constructed). When talking or writing these

representations of sensory channels turn up, which should be isomorphic with what the

therapist says when he/she needs to communicate in this way. Examples of sensory

representation channels when speaking or writing:

VISUAL AUDITORY CENESTHESIA INDETERMINATE

it is seen it is heard it is felt perceive

it is looked at it is listened to it is touched experiment

observe sound grasp understand

Visual l constructedVisual projected

Visual RecalledEidetic Visual

Auditory Recalled Auditory Projected

CenesthesiaKinesthesiaOlfactoryTasteSensationsFeelings

Internal Dialogue



14

show harmonize attract think

demonstrate dissonant repel learn

reveal babble captivate process

appear to be all ears slip decision

aim alarm ring contact motivate

vision silence reject considerate

clear up whispering hard change

elucidate murmuring soft observe

blinking stentorian cold insensitive

clear tune warm differentunclear fall on deaf ears sour conceive

shiny good tone sweet to be conscious

transparent musicality acid know

twinkle stridence bitter get to know

image screech to find support simplicity

picture silence rigid project

overview noise heavy examine

perspective auscultate light meditate

map noisy tiredness think up

light screaming relaxation judge

shadow sharp to have a

presentiment

belief

proportion sounded moan abstract

glance resonance deplore suppose

at a glance whistle aching try

watch grind being moved concentrate

examine explosion alter speculate

sight outburst to excite intention

catch a glimpse of bustle sympathize suspicion

vision uproar to be impressed malice

optics clamor emotion cerebration



15

review listener cordiality subtlety

landscape consonance tenderness idealize

EXAMPLE OF VERBAL UTILIZATION OF VISUAL REPRESENTATION

CHANNEL

“It is seen and it can be looked at watching, and when it is shown, to demonstrate revealing

when appearing, aiming at a vision, what it could be cleared up elucidating a very clear

blinking, remaining all the unclear or shiny far away, making a twinkle transparent, an

image turning up as a picture, tracing an overview with a perspective as a map with its

lights and shadows giving proportion with a unique glance or at a glance, watching when it

is examined, how to sight or catch a glimpse of a vision, the optics of a quick look

reviewing while conjuring that landscape”.

EXAMPLE OF VERBAL UTILIZATION OF AUDITORY REPRESENTATION

CHANNEL

“It is heard when it is listened to attentively what sounds harmonizing all what is dissonant

as babbling. It is necessary to be all ears, as an alarm ring, opposed to the whispering

silence as a murmur, tuning a stentorian sound syntonizing the phrase ‘if you fall on deaf

ears…’, with good tone and musicality, avoiding stridence and sharp screaming screeches,

making the resonance sound like that whistle or teeth grinding, opposing to the explosion



16

and the outburst, the bustle, the uproar, the clamor, while like a hammering that announces

the great chime in consonance with all the listeners who are willing to hear”.

EXAMPLE OF VERBAL UTILIZATION OF CENESTHESIC REPRESENTATION

CHANNEL

“It can be felt and even touched, grasping the attraction, attracting what repels, captivating

when slipping, rejecting what is hard and what is soft, what is cold and what is warm, what

is sour and what is sweet, what is acid and what is bitter. To find support on what is rigid

and heavy, making weariness and relaxation light, having a presentiment on moans when

deploring the ache, being moved without getting alter and becoming impassioned when

sympathizing with the affectionate impression, as an irritating emotion of affectivity,

cordiality and tenderness”.

2- ELEMENTS WHICH COME FROM THE NEUROVEGETATIVE SYSTEM

Breathing is one of the most important expressions when mirrored by the therapist.

Basically, we can consider three different types of breathing:

a) High in the breast: corresponds to the visual images and hysteric personalities.

b) At diaphragm height: corresponds to auditory phenomena and paranoid personalities.

c) At abdomen level : corresponds to cenesthesias and depressed personalities.



17

The changes in the skin tone (darkening), pupil dilatation, changes in blood pressure and

visceral activities demand a subtle observation on the part of the therapist.

3- THE POSTURE

It indicates how a person gets situated in the world. The attitude that he/she adopts can

be primarily of attack, of escape or immobility.

C- TACTILE BEHAVIOR

Shaking hands in our culture constitutes a “functional unit”, a complete act. The

therapist can accompany the patient’s pressure with a similar one.

D- TERRITORIAL OR PROXEMIC BEHAVIOR

It is the adequate distance the patient needs during the interpersonal communication.

Depressed personalities prefer a minimum distance; whereas hysteroids, paranoids and

schizoids prefer greater distances.

E- OTHER BEHAVIORS



18

Perfume and smell emission, for example, should be taken into account when building

up rapport . A neutral smelling environment in the consulting-room would be the most

adequate.

F- CLOTHES, COSMETICS, ORNAMENTATION, ENVIRONMENT, ETC.

It can be adjusted to the type of patients attended. It is possible sometimes to produce

certain adjustment to a patient in particular, when he/she expresses so.



19

RAPPORT CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

1) Practice the described elements one or two items daily until they have been dominated

automatically, without a conscious effort on your part.

2) On reading what goes before, divide your experience as follows:

a- Items that you believe are utilized in everyday practice;

b- Items you doubt about doing them or not;

c- Items whose practice you believe is difficult.

3) Start with one or two items which are difficult to practice (for example, observe the

breathing, pupil dilatation, changes in the blood stream paying attention to the veins,

changes in the color of the face skin, etc.). Continue with the doubtful items and finish with

those you do daily, as a way of confirming them.

4) When meeting pathological items (asthmatic breathing or stammering, for example)

instead of mirroring them, utilize the movements of one of your fingers, following your

patients’ rhythm, or start practicing some other similar procedure. Do not mirror

pathological behaviors directly but indirectly – using other sensory representation channels,

for example -. The patient will grasp unconsciously your action attributing it to your

understanding of his/her pattern of world as a therapist.



20

5) Keep the rapport in all the sessions and with all your patients. To verify rapport setting ,

the therapist could perform a different item with the patient and he/she will change his/her

behavior when “mirroring” the therapist. This will confirm your ability to establish

rapport .

6) As you spontaneously get hold of an item, this will go to your unconscious and it will

turn into an automatic routine.

7) Observe how the members of your family, friends, children, adolescents, old age people

establish rapport or not. When reading a text, observe how the author establishes

rapport with his/her readers utilizing the different sensory representation channels.

8) A month is enough for the therapist to dominate rapport construction for its professional

and personal utilization. Practice, practice, practice.

A- VOCAL BEHAVIOR

Mirror verbs, adjectives and adverbs in the communication with your relatives,

acquaintances or strangers and patients. Take the necessary time to detect these predicates

and return the communication with words that contain the same predicates or other similar

ones. It is not necessary to repeat the same predicates but only a representative part of

them.

For example,

“– Today it is a beautiful day”



21

“– A wonderful day like this invites to go out”

The tone, the tempo and the volume of the voice and the typical sounds can be mirrored

independently of the communication contents. Take into account that you can change the

intention of what you say changing the tone, the tempo and the volume of your voice.

B- KINESIC BEHAVIOR

1- BODY MOVEMENTS

a) Facial expressions: they can denote the expression of authentic emotions: joy, sadness,

fear, wrath; or substituted emotions: for example, depression (false sadness) instead of

wrath; false fears (phobias-panic) for joy; false wrath (irritable personalities) instead of

positive affects; false happiness (through denial, despise and success) , negative attitudes

facing reality, that prevent its elaboration). Practice observing the others’ facial

expressions mirroring them. You could practice your own facial expressions in a mirror,

taking into account the description of the diverse possibilities of carrying them out that

have just been analyzed.

b) Movements of eye brows, blinking, neck, shoulder, arms, legs feet, look direction, will

not be difficult to be mirrored. Take two items at a time and practice constantly until you

incorporate these abilities to your daily observation.

2- ELEMENTS WHICH COME FROM THE NEUROVEGETATIVE SYSTEM





23

dilatation, to match it you could do a gesture with your hands, putting your palms together

and then separate them, symbolizing a dilatation. The patient will grasp this gesture

unconsciously as an attitude of understanding from the therapist. Or the therapist can mirror

patient’s heartbeats through a finger movement which follows the patient’s thorax, as an

indirect signal of the phenomenon that is taking place at blood stream level.

3-THE POSTURE

Adopt a body posture similar to your patient’s. You could practice postures with your

relatives whenever there is an opportunity to do so.

C - TACTILE BEHAVIOR

Press your patient’s hand the way he/she is used to doing so and with the same pressure.

Take into account that the tactile contact also triggers unconscious processes by means of

the so called “anchors”; therefore be careful with these contacts to avoid inadequate

contents that would not match the patient’s world model.

D- TERRITORIAL OR PROXEMIC BEHAVIOR

Find out which the best distance for each patient during communication is. A neutral

distance would be that one in which one of the parts remains independent of any body

contact possibility. At a time in his career, Erickson “used to invade” the patient’s territory



24

when practicing inductions; in view of this uncomfortable situation, the patient would

always choose to close his eyes and enter trance to “escape” from this.

E y F – OTHER BEHAVIORS

The environment is basics for rapport building up and for the influence upon the others.

For example, a priest giving a mass in the middle of the countryside is different from a

priest in a majestic church. Therapy in a consulting-room is different from therapy in a

seminar as well. The environment is adequate in a therapeutical session when it matches the

task and the patient. Check your consulting-room, having into account, among others, the

following details:

a) Ornamentation

b) Lighting

c) The chairs

d) Your own look as a therapist

Anton Chekhov wrote that if there was a weapon hanging from a wall, it should be shot

during the play. Erickson would sometimes utilize some objects that were in his consulting-

room (paperweight, clock, etc.) to incorporate them in the therapy and to indirectly interact

with the patient by means of metaphors and metonymies. With respect to the therapist,

his/her clothes, his/her cosmetics, etc. should match the task and the patient. In most cases,

this is to favor a constant environment to avoid variables which, even being unseen by the

therapist, could have a negative influence, conscious or unconscious, in the patient, without



25

being controlled by the therapist.

FINAL OBSERVATIONS

Rapport construction and maintenance favor your collaboration in the therapy and

accelerate the processes of change. Rapport breaking-up on the part of the therapist bring

about the patient’s abandonment of the therapy and his “defenses” turning out to be

stronger. In general, it is probable that the defense mechanisms and the abandonments are

the therapist’s unconscious creation more than the patient’s. Independently of the contents,

the therapist could ask himself/herself operatively: which answer from the patient do I

expect he will need?; What did I say or do to obtain this answer from the patient?;

What did I say or do so as not to obtain this answer from the patient?



26

MICRODYNAMICS OF TRANCE AND SUGGESTION (Erickson-Rossi)

(1)

Attention

fixation

(2)

To diminish the

potential of the

conscious

disposition of the

response

(3)

Unconscious

search. Indirect

suggestion

forms.

(4)

Unconscious

processes

(5)

Hypnotic response (new

datum or response in the

form of behavior

experimented as hypnotic

or that fully occurs by

itself 1. Stories

which

motivate

interest,

fascination ,

etc.

1. Shock, surprise,

the unreal and the

unusual

1. Allusions,

puns, jokes 1. An amount

of : a. Spread

suggestions

b. Literal

associations

c. Individual

associations

d. Multiple

word meaning 2. Standard

eye fixation

2. Reference frame

change; resistance

and failures

displacement, both

determined

2. Metaphor,

analogy, popular

language

2. Perceptive,

sensory,

autonomous

processes

3. Approaches

by

pantomime

3. Distraction 3. Implication 3. Freudian

primary

process

4. Approaches

determined by

theimagination

and

visualization

4. Dissociation and

unbalance 4. Implicit

directive 4. Defense

mechanisms

characteristicof personality

5. Levitation

of the hand 5. Cognitive

saturation. 5. Double binds 5. Zeirganic

effect

6. Relaxation

and all forms

of experience

emotional,

6. Confusion, non

sequitur

6. Words that

start exploratory

sets

6. etc.



27

perceptive,

sensorial,

internal.

7. Etc. 7. Paradox 7. Questions and

tasks which

require

unconscious

searches

8. To Condition via

voice dynamics 8. Pause with

therapist’s

attitude of

expectation

9. Structured

Amnesias

9. Open-ended

suggestions

10. Etc. 10. To cover allresponse

possibilities

11. Compound

statements

12. Etc.

I – FIRST INTERVIEW

Names and last names

Date of birth

Identity card

Place

Address

Telephones

Degree of education

Activities

Marital status (name, age and couple occupation)

Children (name, ages and activities)





29

4- How is your … (problem, life, situation, etc.)?

5- As from when…?

6- Where…?

7- What for…?

8- Always…? Never…? Sometimes…?

9 – What happens before…?

10 – What happens after…?

11- Who (…) in your family…?

12- How is it constrained…?

13 – What would happen if …?

14 - How do you know it…?

15 - What do you feel with respect to your problem…?

16 - What do you feel about what you feel…?

II RESOURCES AND PATIENT’S CONTEXTS

(THE FOUR ROLES TO BE PERFORMED)



30

17- I COUPLE

18- II FAMILY RELATIONS

19- III WORK-STUDY

20- IV ENTERTAINMENTS-HEALTH CARE- SOCIAL RELATIONS: daily

activities, incomes, aspirations, learning, general physical-clinical state.

Questions to be made and not to be made with respect to the personal patient’s history,

according to operative needs: the therapist will decide if that information will be relevant or

not for its hypnotherapeutical utilization.

III DESIRED STATE

Type of questions:

21- What changes would you like to achieve?

22- What do you expect to obtain with this treatment?

23- How do you know it?

24- What for?

25- How?

25- When?



31

26- Who with?

27- What would happen if you had already achieved it?

28- What would you like to happen? (“people were always told what they should do”,

Virginia Satir)

29- What is the least you are willing to accept?

30- When did you achieve it?

31- Who you know or knew does it or did it?

32- How long do you expect changes?

33- What are you willing to do to achieve them?

34- Pretend you do not want to change and express in which sense you do not want a

change (secondary benefits)

35- What would happen to the persons important to you when realizing your changes?

36- What would happen to the persons important to you when realizing your changes?

37- Utilize your fantasy, directed towards checking internal programs or imagine

yourself changing and verify how different your life would be.



32

In this first interview, fundamental and unique, it is important the Observation; for

example, the congruency between what the patient answers and the therapist’s confirmation

of the use that the patient does of his/her sensory representation channels, likewise any

other guideline that would attract the therapist’s attention, according to the preparation of

each therapist, his/her ideology, theories, paradigms, etc. This is only one of the models the

therapist could utilize, who may be utilizes others with the same purpose. Our guidance

may constantly change.

The purpose of the first interview is to decode-understand what actually happens to the

patient – his/her true motives related to the problems to solve – , the strategies to follow to

achieve therapeutical targets when applying hypnotic language: indirect suggestions, and

metaphors, and/or anecdotes, etc. the patient made (utilizing his/her own language,

motivations, etc.). These are the two most important and difficult tasks of any therapist.

The following questionnaire is an abridged version of the former one so as to utilize the

data obtained to build up therapeutical effect inductions.

INTERVIEW (REDUCED QUESTIONNAIRE)

Names and last names

Date of birth

Identity card

Place

Address



33

Telephones

Studies (Degrees)

Activities

Marital status (name, age and couple occupation)

Children (name, ages and activities)

Other data of interest

PRESENT STATE

1- What is your consulting?

2- How can I help you?

3- As from when?

4- Who in your family has something similar?

5- What impels this learnt limitation to be overcome?

6- What would happen if you had already overcome it?

7- How do you know it is possible to overcome that limitation?

8- What do you feel about what it is happening to you?

9- What do you feel about what you feel?

RESOURCES AND CONTEXTS

10 -Work. Study.

11- Entertainments. What do you like most in life?



34

12 - Description of your family, your opinions and feelings.

13 - Social groups (friends, companions)

14 - Couple

15- Your complete activities throughout a day.

16- Your economic income (high-medium-low-without income)

17- Learning: degrees, courses, etc.

18- Your clinical history in detail: important diseases, medication, etc.

19- Projects

DESIRED STATE

20- What changes would you like to achieve?

21- What do you expect to get here for your benefit?

22- How do you know it?

23- Did you achieve it at some time in your life?

24- How long do you expect these changes to be produced?

25- What are you willing to do in order to achieve them?

26- Pretend you do not want a change and explain the benefits this would bring you,

etc.

27- What would happen to the persons who are important to you when realizing your

changes?

We have sent this reduced questionnaire to some patients to obtain answers by e-mail

with aleatory results. Some patients broadly answered it and others did it insufficiently. We

advise to use it only exceptionally (for example, when a patient lives in another country).



35

CHAPTER II

HYPNOTIC LANGUAGE AND INDIRECT SUGGESTIONS

1 - PHRASES WITH PERVASIVE REFERENCE INDEX

“All of us human beings have own resources to solve problems”.

2 - PHRASES WITH PERVASIVE REFERENCE INDEX WITH SUGGESTED

NAME

“José, all of us human beings (José) have own resources (José) to solve problems (José)”.

NOTE: the subject tends to retain the words closet o his/her name.

3 - NOMINALIZATIONS

“The attraction of the positive is convenient”.

“Goodness is appreciated”.

NOTE: nominalizations are, grammatically, verbs and adjectives converted into nouns for

the subject to take them into action.



36

4 - DELETIONS

a) Grammar deletions: “He was relaxed”.

b) Non-grammar deletions: “Yes, so it is, then…”.

5 – SELECTION RESTRICTIONS

“Trees seem to fill the change of seasons”.

NOTE: selection restrictions of the word “tree” are defied here when granting the object

human features that do not correspond. The subject will attribute this to himself/herself.

6 - AMBIGUITIES

a. Of punctuation: “Punctuation is necessary, it begins to be distracted”.

b. Phonologic: “He came from Asia and he got near a friend to drink wine”.

c. Syntactic: “If psychologists are hypnotized, it can be interesting”.

d. Within reach: “Men and women in constructive searches”.

7 – MINOR STRUCTURES EMBEDDED

a. Questions: “a father asked himself …”; “I don’t know if…”.

b. Orders: “a friend obeys reasonable orders, such as “take it easy!”.

8 – DERIVATED MEANINGS



37

a. Typical postulates of conversation: “Have you got the time?”

b. Pre-suppositions: “even more comfortable”.

9 – INTERPERSAL TECHNIQUES

You can better take advantage of your communication to achieve more success”.

NOTE: Highlight one or more words changing tempo, volume or voice tone.

9.1 - INDIRECT ASSOCIATIVE FOCUSING

A friend’s father was ready to listen to attentively.

NOTE: this technique employs indirect references.

9.2 - INDIRECT IDEODYNAMIC FOCUSING

“I met a person in Bahía who walked as if he were dancing, with slow and

undulating movements”.

10 - IDEO-MOTOR PROCESSES



38

“A muscle sometimes gets contracted and all of a sudden we realize that it is an

involuntary action”.

10.1 - IDEO-SENSORIAL PROCESSES

“Everybody indulges a nice perfume”.

10.2 - IDEO-AFFECTIVE PROCESSES

“We smile when seeing the smile on another person”.

10.3 - IDEO-COGNITIVE PROCESSES

“When we recall some dreams we seek meanings”.

11 - TRUISMS UTILIZING TIME

“Your symptom can disappear anytime. As soon as your unconscious finds a

healthier way”.

12 - NOT DOING, NOT KNOWING



39

“It is not necessary that your conscious tries to understand unconscious

attitudes”.

“We do not know many things we think we know only because we explain

them subjectively. Sometimes, it is necessary to accept not knowing as it turns up”.

13 – OPEN-ENDED SUGGESTIONS

“We are endowed with multiple possibilities related to the fact of choosing

alternatives leaving aside the learnt limitations and, it is surprising to discover them

and apply them to everyday life”.

14 – COVERING ALL THE POSSIBILITIES OF A CLASS OF RESPONSE

“You can open a door with your right hand, with your left one and with both. Or

you can not open it, imagining the sensations you would have if you did it in those

ways”.

15 – QUESTIONS THAT FACILITATE NEW POSSIBILITIES OF RESPONSE

a) Guided questions due to the subject’s conscious choice:



40

1- “Could I choose to look at a point somewhere?”

2- “And why not concentrating on the point you chose?”

b) Questions which can be answered in to levels (conscious-

unconscious):

1. “And displacing that point to another place looks easy, doesn’t it?”

2. “And also changing its color ?”

c) Questions which can only be answered unconsciously:

3. “And is your unconscious ready for you to relax much more?”

4. “And can you realize comfortably that the best your unconscious can

do is that you sleep?”

16 - COMPOUND SUGGESTIONS

With conjunctions and other coordinating expressions: and, but, or else,

either…or, neither…nor, one…another, ones…others…

With conjunctions and other subordinating expressions: after, why, since, as

from, from (the moment), until…



41

“A patient told his personal history and the therapist answered him, but in another

sense, or in other words, although the patient did not understand if he made it

unconscious. Therefore, while his unconscious will react afterwards, the therapist

was sure (pause), because from the moment he made an induction until the patient

seemed perplexed consciously he knew he had transmitted ideas and

understandings”.

NOTE: two clauses joined by a grammatical conjunction or a pause that communicate themmutually.

16 a – THE YES SET AND REINFORCEMENT

“You achieve it and you can go on step by step”.

“Step by step you can go on TO ACHIEVE YOUR OBJECTIVE”.

16 b - CONTINGENT SUGGESTIONS AND ASSOCIATION NETWORKS

“Each time you breathe in, your thorax will make your resting arms rise slightly”.

NOTE: it has to do with joining a suggestion to an inevitable behavior.

16 c – THE APPOSITION OF OPPOSITES



42

“If you feel a pain and a more intensive one appears, the first one can remain

unnoticed”.

16 d - THE NEGATIVE

“And you want, don’t you?”

“And you can, can’t you? Can you?”

“You can do it, can’t you?”

“Why not letting it happens?”

16 e - SHOCK, SURPRISE AND CREATIVE MOMENTS

“Your affective intimate life (shock) … (creative moments of unconscious searches)

what you need to think and understand for your well-being” (relief )

17 – IMPLICATION AND IMPLIED DIRECTIVE (if …, then…)

“Now IF you close your eyes, and your hands rest comfortably, THEN you will find out

something interesting in the relaxation IF THEN it seems to be important for you”.

17 a – IMPLIED DIRECTIVE



43

Part 1: an introduction binding to time:

“As soon as…”

Part 2: binding suggestion:

“your unconscious has found new alternatives…”

Part 3: the answer under the form of a behavior that indicates that the implied suggestion

has been accomplished:

“a slight smile could appear in your face”

18 – BINDS MODELLED ON AVOIDANCE-AVOIDANCE AND APPROACH-

APPROACH CONFLICTS

a. “Would you choose entering into a light, medium or deep trance?”

b. “Do you prefer to study hard for a few days to pass the exams or study during your

holidays?”

18 a -THE CONSCIOUS-UNCONSCIOUS DOUBLE BIND



44

“Your unconscious can do things that you conscious can also do in a similar way.

You could raise a hand consciously while raising the other by itself, without

noticing it unconsciously”.

18 b - THE DOUBLE DISSOCIATION DOUBLE BIND

“ Now in a moment, memories will appear but you can forget them as they are

appearing… (pause)… or you can remember important facts that will help you and

not know that you had remembered them before”.

NOTE: described by Ericsson and Rossi in 1976, it confuses the conscious mind and

depotentiates its referential frames, erroneous ideas and learned limits to facilitate

unconscious searches of new resources for behavior changes).

19 - EXPRESSION OF IDEAS AND UNDERSTANDINGS

“Er ickson defined accurately what he wanted to achieve for himself and revised

all the objective and concrete alternatives to obtain it, taking always into account

time and action for that purpose. Then he could allow his unconscious to do it for

him, if then he entered into a very deep trance taking the proposals suggested

consciously, proposals that should always be very simple, clear, intense and

important”.



45

20 - ZEIGARNIK EFFECT

“It will continue…” expression used a lot in different backgrounds (TV series, serial

stories in newspapers, etc.) which creates expectations and increases the recalls of

what has been experienced.

“and the therapeutic effects during this session will continue by themselves”.

“for the time being we will interrupt your interesting statement to resume it the next

time we see each other ”.

NOTE: Bluma Wulfovna Zeigarnik (1900-1988) psychologist and soviet psychiatrist

(Prienai) stated that “the persons tend to better recall the incomplete chores, or the

interrupted ones than those that have already finished”. In 1927 she published a research

paper related to this: she gave a group of subjects a set of 18 to 21 successive chores

(enigmas, mathematical problems, poems, etc.). Half were interrupted before they had been

finished. The interrupted chores were better recorded, while the rest were ignored or less

recalled.

21 - CHARACTERISTICS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS (in dreams and in the wake)

1 – Absence of chronology (it only recognizes the present).

2 – Absence of the contradiction concept (no does not exist).



46

3 – Symbolic language (to reach the top of a mountain can be a symbol of success in a

dream).

4 – Pleasure principle predominance (tendency to avoid displeasure without caring about

means).

5 - The internal reality perception is more intense and real than the external.

22 – DEFENSE MECHANISMS (forms of maintaining the balance)

1 - REPRESSION (to avoid reality)

2 - PROJECTION (to alleviate guilt taking tension away)

3 - DISSOCIATION (an object that can be good or bad)

4 - ISOLATION (to satisfy pulsions in a virtual way)

5 - SUBSTITUTION (to change a situation or person for a more acceptable one.

Example: The boss reprimands him and then he ill-treats his wife)

6 - SUBLIMATION (negative pulsion changes into social values)

7 - RATIONALIZATION (to justify errors)

8 - NEGATION (to deny real or painful imagined aspects)

9 - FANTASY (creation of worlds of one’s own with consensus)

10 - DISPLACEMENT (to transfer negative impulses on other persons or objects.

Example: a child that sucks his thumb when a brother is born)

11 - REGRESSION (to assume a childish position to obtain benefits)

12 - COMPENSATION (to compensate limits with other actions)



47

13 -IDENTIFICATION (to imitate others)

23 – OXYMORON

Example: “zero tolerance-empty head-funny clumsiness of the bear’s walking”.

“My books are full of vacuums” (Augusto Monterroso, 1921-2003)

NOTE: (technical term composed of two words of Greek origin that mean,

respectively, acute, pricky and soft, blunt, foolish). It consists of harmonizing two

opposed concepts in only one expression.

24 - NON SEQUITUR (from Latin “it does not follow” )

1 – If he is a man, then he is a mammal.

2 – He is a mammal.

3 - Therefore, he is human.

NOTE: Fallacies in which the conclusion is not drawn from the premises.



48

CHAPTER III

CONSULTANCY INTERVIEW WITH A PATIENT

PERSONAL DATA

NAME: José ……….

DATE OF BIRTH: 12-12-1940 IDENTITY CARD ……………

PLACE OF BIRTH: Río IV, Province of Cordoba, Argentina.

Telephone: …………… e-mail: ………………. www. ………………………

EDUCATION: University of Buenos Aires Year: 1976

DEGREE: Sociologist

OCCUPATION: reduced activities (pensioner)

MARITAL STATUS: married. CHILDREN: 2. GRAND-CHILDREN: 3

INFORMATION

a) SEMICONDUCTED INTERVIEW:

T: …Go ahead…

P: Well…I need professional help to solve my crisis that consists of wishing to make

projects to earn more money and not make it happen. I lack motivation as well. May be my

age influences in my personal development as if there would be nothing more for me. I



49

don’t try to find creative solutions and professional competition stopped motivating me.

Besides, I’m a loner, that is why I don’t try to get into any social group or have friends. I

only have what my professional activity provides me: to give some individual classes, some

piece of advice every now and then. Every day seems to be lost; filled with sleeping in the

morning, routine red tape, Internet information, TV and Revista Ñ , a weekly cultural

magazine. I don’t know if I could do other things than the ones I do…

b) CONDUCTED INTERVIEW

1. T: What is your consultancy?

P: I have too many ideas or projects and, I don’t know what to d ecide on so

as to feel and confirm myself that I do useful and money-worthy things.

2. T. Could you give an example of one of those ideas?

P: To create a systematization about the sociological use through a model

that the others learn. I don’t know where to start. And time goes by and by.

3. T: How can I help you?

P: Actually I don’t know. I trust you can help me if I can express my

difficulties as clearly as possible.

4. T: What am I going to help you in?

P: To help take concrete and feasible decisions.

5. T: What changes do you need to achieve?



50

P: Pleasant and measurable changes to get better situated in my context.

Mainly earning more money as easier as possible and enjoying while I am

doing it so.

6. T: What are you here for?

P: To chat with a professional to achieve some objectives that help me

overcome my crises.

7. T: How is that situation?

P: between starting something new and leaving aside all the projects, leaving

them stand by, in suspense, always for the future.

8. T: As from when?

P: After some projects ending up in failure and, giving in creating other

possibilities. As from my pension, to fix a date.

9. T: Where?

P: In my work and technical environment.

10. T: What for?

P: To reassure myself, as a full and constant certainty.

11. T: Always…never…sometimes…?

P: Hardly ever in the social reality.

12. T: What happens to you a moment before?

P: I think I am more realistic now and I do away with or attenuate the

attitude of “counting the chickens before they are born”. But that does not

allow me, instead, to fulfill the plans that follow the way of my concerns.

13. T: What happens to you afterwards?



51

P: Emptiness. Resignation.

14. T: Does this happen to anybody in your family?

P: It could be my mother basically, though hers is simpler because she never

made money.

15. T: How is it stopped?

P: The social background due to my isolation and lack of information.

16. T: What would happen to you if obtained what you want?

P: I would take it as something natural.

17. T: How do you know it?

P: I don’t know. I feel that way.

18. T: What do you feel with respect to your questioning?

P: That it is too late for new successful undertakings.

19. T: What do you feel about what you feel?

P: Not much interest in general. Sometimes sadness…

DESIRED STATE

20. T: What changes do you want to achieve?

P: Use the information to earn money easily.

21. T: What do you expect from this professional bind with me?

P: An objective guidance to achieve targets.

22. T: How do you know?



52

T: I don’t find any other reasonable explanation.

23. P: What for?

T: To demonstrate myself that it is possible.

24. T: How much time?

P: A job of three months or so.

25. T: Who with?

P: Me as owner and hire help for what I cannot do or I don’t know in

informatics.

26. T: What would happen if you had already achieved it?

P: I don’t consider it as a heavy task but rather something funny.

27. T: What benefits do you want for you?

P: Achieve it comfortably and enjoy it while getting money.

28. T: What for?

P: For my safety and to distribute it among the people I love, my

wife, my children and my grandchildren.

29. T: What is the least you would be willing to accept?

P: To be constant in insisting on the search for new alternatives.

30. T: When in your life did you achieve it?

P: I can’t state it precisely.

31. T: Who you know or you knew made something similar?

P: Several. People who work in sales in Internet.

32. T: How could you make it up to now?

P: In a very irregular for, asystematic.



53

33. T: How long do you expect changes?

P: In three intense months.

34. T: What are you willing to do to achieve it?

P: Accept beliefs that can be operative.

35. T: Imagine how different your life could be.

P: With more freedom.

36. T: Could you pretend that you don’t want these changes to be

produced and explain what would happen?

P: It would be more comfortably for me apparently and it would be

all justified due to my pensioner condition…What can be

economically demanded to a pensioner, to the one who is offered a

seat on the bus?

37. T: What would happen to the persons who are important to you when

realizing your changes?

P: They would be pleasantly surprised.

SYNTHESIS OF ANALYSIS FOR THE CASE UNDERSTANDING

I -The patient answers for the action of seven unspecified verbs connected with

ideas that remain in projects and a commitment of “what do I do”, , and a without



54

an ego and a “knowledge”…where the apparent necessity of “what is useful for the

others” occupies the first place and, the second place “what is remunerative”: who

for?, what for?, for himself and/for the others? And it is in this point where it seems

to be all? stored, or part and besides the energy, strength, libido, attraction, positive

focusing, passion with the risk of turning into frustration, envy, loneliness,

abandonment…: “there’s nothing more for me”, no effort, this is what prevents him

from creative searches to be produced. The patient defines his problem as a vital

crisis.

II - Conducted interview. In general the patient communicates his erroneous ideas

related to undertakings of which he doesn’t know the structure that will allow him

to make them come true to obtain positive economic results. He resorts to the

therapist for guidance with respect to target formulation. He delegates his role in the

therapist, forcing him and, states that “it is too late for new successful

undertakings”, this seems to be a challenge towards the therapist and a commitment

that is accompanied with certain expressions which show a better sense of reality.

There are several contradictions and incongruities that the therapist should reframe

to the patient.

III – Patient’s resources and context. There are enough resources in the patient’s

context to achieve an important target that would place him in the process he wants



55

to activate in himself. Time, emotional and family stability, economic easiness in

daily life, weekly cultural contact. These are the conditions that will allow the

patient in this case devote himself plainly to a project, now being supervised by

other professionals and to obtain objectively what he reasonably plans to do.

IV – The desired state is congruent and of collaboration on the part of the patient.

He seems to be in the process of going along a hardly unknown way that according

to his statements, he will make it true. The therapist does not know yet what the

patient’s attitude related to earning more money in an easy, funny way, consist of

exactly. In the last resort, the patient declares himself as “non-imputable” for the

fact of being a pensioner (in activity). The time he fixes to obtain results seems to

be reasonable, taking into account that he will use Internet.

Diagnosis: normal personality in search of professional help to implement

economic objectives.

Positive prognosis, intense and pleasant work for the patient and therapist until the

patient, through his ideas and understandings given by the therapist, gets surprised

by the changes he has at hand.



56

NOTE FOR THE INDUCTION

CONSTANTS

1 – “What is there”: It is referred to the obvious, what is immediately

observable for the therapist, comments that make the patient not raise

objections. E. g.: “You listen to my voice, you feel the temperature of this

place and see my face”.

2 – Sensory representation channels: repeatedly connect the patient with

the several sensory representation channels suitable to achieve full

communication. E. g.:

P: I need professional help to solve my crisis.

T: Could you make an image of your own (visual channel) in this moment,

adding a sound (auditory channel), feeling what appears (cenesthesic

channel) and asking yourself (internal dialogue) y communicate to me your

experiences?

3 – Causal links. There are three types (use two or three of the first two

types constantly)

a) Weak link: “and”, “or ”



57

b) Medium link: “while”, “but”

c) Strong link: “he will do that, he will produce, etc.”

E. g.: “AND listen to my voice AND keep your hands at rest AND your feet

are together WHILE I talk to you WHILE you look at me WHILE

BREATHING AND THAT WILL MAKE you be interested in what I will

tell you next…”

The first two are directly verifiable by the subject; the third one is not in an

indirect way. However, the natural tendency to accept the third one is at

stake if the first two have created a “yes” set.

Conclusion: it is convenient to have into account and utilize the three forms

of structuring the communication during the inductions.



58

STRATEGIES FOR THIS CASE

Therapeutical strategies are the therapist’s formulations or actions to induce

in the patient what he needs to change and achieve his own objectives. The

therapist is based n some conclusions from the first interview.

1 – Make a project easy to achieve happen. Motivate him by inducing

immediate or brief achievements. Reframe the advanced age issue by

demonstrating that historically some persons of the same age in the world

could motivate and be successful. Induce him to connect with persons who

are willing to help him, preferably professionals; in this way he will not feel

“lonely”.

2 – Induce correct targets and change of erroneous, such as “it is too late for

new successful undertakings”.

3 – Gather the patient’s resources and induce him to utilize them all

gradually, from the simplest to the most complex one.



59

4 – The therapist should be informed about the informatics possibilities that

function as the patient’s project support and induce him indirectly to make

him get informed by his own, leaving aside the pretext that he is retired.

METAPHORS

1 – Crisis as an opportunity: patient’s language, real problem setting, isomorphic

(same meaning) problem creation and possible solution/s.

2 – Pleasant changes; earn money easily.

3 – Dilate the time to do gratifying things against others which are not so much,

even being of immediate commitment.

4 – Expressionism in art as powerful metaphors of quick and conclusive

achievements.

5 – Aspiration-inspiration.

6 – Retirement and several activities.



60

WORDS OR PHRASES UTILIZED BY THE PATIENT TO BE UTILIZED IN THE

INDUCTION

Well… Professional help. Projects. There’s nothing more for me. I don’t make efforts.

Competition. Lonely. Lost days. I don’t know. I don’t make an effort (without action).

Systematic. Where to start. Time goes by and by. Age crisis (70). Always for the future.

Failed projects. Since my retirement. “Count the chickens before they are born”.

Emptiness. Resignation. My mother. It is late to undertake something. Sometimes sadness.

I neither study nor read. Only Ñ . Free mornings. Paint in a session. Expressions, naked

human figures. High pressure-enlarged prostate-maculopathy. Aspirations-Inspirations.

Use informatics. Objective guidances. Three months to demonstrate changes. Comfort and

money-earning indulging. My certainty and distribute. Constance. Accept operative beliefs.

Freedom. Condition of pensioner. Pleasant surprise.

AUTOHYPNOSIS

It is essential that the therapist becomes sensitive to autohypnosis to be able to

develop an inductive communication in front of the patient. It can be very simple. Erickson

was asked once: “how do you enter into trance?” And he answered: “I don’t know… I try

to… wait… and the trance comes alone”. “And what do you enter into trance for when you

treat a patient?” Ericsson answered: “so as not to miss any detail of the communication or

when I don’t know what to do with the patient”. The induction that is presented next has



61

such structure and contents that the patient without doubt will enter into trance. The

therapist can make use of it. Another way of achieving it is, for example, to propose: “I am

only going to enter into trance when I construct the patient the metaphor that is ready for

him”. Practicing with this Handbook , the therapist will find out the best way of doing it.

And it can be also useful to record and listen to a complete induction.

MULTIFUNCIONAL INDUCTION

STEP 1 OF TRANCE AND SUGGESTION MICRODYNAMICS

1. – CAUSAL LINKS: and, while, that will do. “what is there”: hands and feet at

rest, breathe, look at, speak (sensory representation channel)

-Well… José… and listen to my voice and keep your hands at rest and also your

feet and while you breathe and look at me and that will do that you become

interested in all I’m going to tell you next.

2 – PHRASE WITH A PERVASIVE REFERENTIAL INDEX

As for example, that we all the human beings have our own resources.

– WITH SUGGESTED NAME



62

And resources José, to be utilize to achieve objectives.

– NOMINALIZATIONS

As the decision to get a professional help to make a project real and to obtain

relaxation, for example, to attract better the possibilities.

2. - GRAMMATICAL DELETION

and while in this way, the relaxation…

3 - NON-GRAMMATICAL DELETION

and, so it is, then…

4 – SELECTION RESTRICTION

And I remember a man in the countryside, in front of a fig tree that was about to be

cut down by a peasant with an axe in his hand, because according to him it was very

dry. The fig tree seemed to exclaim: “There’s nothing more for me!” And the man

told the peasant: make a ditch around the fig tree, water it every day and then if

after a month there’s no new leaf, axe it down.

5 – PUNCTUATION AMBIGUITY



63

And you don’t make efforts you in this way can relax much more.

6 – PHONOLOGICAL AMBIGUITY

And some short-stories of Asia are interesting if the reader goes to other places and

compares them.

7. – SYNTACTIC AMBIGUITY

And if researchers worldwide get in contact they will enrich the information.

8. – RANGE AMBIGUITY

Travels and untiring travelers women and men travelers…

9. – EMBEDDED MINOR STRUCTURES


a) QUESTIONS



64

A father asked himself where to start bringing up his small child so that when he

grew up, he would make his own projects real.

b) ORDERS

Then he remembered that his father once exclaimed: “Make your project come

true!” And he thought then it was a constructive order.

c) TYPICAL POSTULATE OF CONVERSATION

It is neither necessary for you to remember all I am going to say nor it is

necessary to compete with your recalls.

10 - PRESUPPOSITION

And you don’t know the benefits yet and of remembering and of forgetting.

11 – INTERPERSAL TECHNIQUE

When you feel accompanied by significant persons for you

12 – INDIRECT ASSOCIATIVE FOCUSING



65

Similar to a father who was willing to listen to some advising

13 – INDIRECT IDEODYNAMIC FOCUSING

and he also said that he observed a person who seemed to dance while walking and he

thought: “This one must have lots of friends indeed”

14 – IDEOSENSORY PROCESSES

and I smile when noticing the joy in his face, the right occasion for positive ideas

15 – IDEOAFFECTIVE PROCESSES

and while all that was happening I felt affection for that unknown person as it occurs

when waking up from a dream that moves us.

16 – IDEOCOGNITIVE PROCESSES

and we can remember that dream or not; however, making us think seriously of ideas

of complex processes and how to mentally simplify them for its practice afterwards.

17 – TRUISMS UTILIZING TIME



66

and in any moment of concentration, your preoccupation appears and disappears while

your unconscious seems to find out a solution to satisfy as well, in a moment, to your

conscious part.

18 – NOT KNOWING, NOT DOING

and it is not necessary that your unconscious takes part in these unconscious actions

that seem lost things due to the fact that the unconscious ignores what to do with its

individual projects.

19 – OPEN-ENDED SUGGESTIONS

Because we are endowed with multiple possibilities and resources to choose

alternatives, leaving aside learnt limitations, and it is always surprising to find out ideas

that turn into acts, into projects to easily become real, and we don’t know it, yet.

20 – COVERING ALL THE POSSIBILITIES OF A CLASS OF RESPONSES

And you can do whatever you want. May be systematize a set of ideas for gestation and

action or find out when to start those events or ask for help to people who know what you

need to know to be able to choose in a concrete and measurable way the ways of earning

more money quickly.



67


21 – QUESTIONS THAT FACILITATE THE THERAPEUTICAL ANSWER

a) QUESTIONS FOLLOWED BY THE CONSCIOUS PATIENT’S CHOICE

1 – Could you focus on the benefits that you actually want to obtain for you being 70 years

old?

2 – And concentrate on your choice, always towards the future?

b) QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED CONCIOUS-UNCONSCIOUSLY

1 – And to displace what you want to another place of success seems to be easy, doesn’t it?

2 – And also to change pleasantly the image, the sound and, the feeling of being retired?

c) QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED ONLY UNCONSCIOUSLY

1 – And your unconscious gets ready for you to relax much more to try to clear up what you

want more?



68

2 – And you can realize that your unconscious is in the process of achieving pleasant

surprises about what you want?

22 – THE “YES” SET AND THE REINFORCEMENT

o Very well, you got it and you can continue step by step (Yes set) ,

o Step by step you can continue, to ma for your objectives (reinforcement).

23 – CONTINGENT SUGGESTIONS AND ASSOCIATION NETWORKS

When thinking of all this, that will produce that when you breathe in your thorax will

elevate and you will notice a slight movement up in your arms.

24 – OPPOSITION APPOSITION

And your conscious can realize what happens but your unconscious cannot do it in the

same way.

25 – THE NEGATIVE





70

29 – DOUBLE BINDS

Would you like to make your projects come true before or after three months as from now?

(Pleasant model about avoid-avoid conflicts) or work every day between three or four hours

until achieving them? (Unpleasant model about approach-approach the conflicts).

30 - DOUBLE DISSOCIATION DOUBLE BINDS

Then, if your unconscious agrees with the first option you could move your left hand; if

you are with the second, you could move your right hand and you can find it out without

noticing it …. (Pause)… or you could realize about your closed or open eyes without taking

into account the former.


José, it is funny the phrase “counting the chickens before they are born” or in

the Quixote, that it is not funny: “each is worth for what he has and has what he is worth”.

You have decided to undertake a beautiful project, concrete and objective, that neither

would have emptiness nor would have resignation while being in the process of achieving

it. “A failure can be part of a successful life – Erickson wrote – . It could even be a present

for your mother, who, according to what you told me out of this session, the only thing she

could write was her own name and last name and however, she guided you, José, to copy



71

the first letters of the alphabet, and also that you made her only one present during her

lifetime, a gold brooch, José. Your problem is not a problem, you have nothing to solve

(metaphor 1) nobody and nothing oblige you to do so. As Maquiavelo and the

mathematicians, divide to govern situations now a pleasant one and don’t even think that it

is late for undertakings: you have already started them. I agree that sadness is an authentic

feeling when you lose something; you are in a path of achievements… where is the loss and

what of? You need neither to read nor to study; it is not necessary for your project… you

can do it as a pastime, pleasantly (metaphor 4): I met a friend who painted pictures and in

the meantime he didn’t care about his work . He drew and painted with his left hand

although he was right-handed, quickly, and when he liked them he kept them in a folder.

He put aside some of them. Moments of passion. All in one session with no interruptions. It

was easy and pleasant for him. ( strategy 1). (Strategy 2): in those moments he thought that

nothing was too late for him… he was creating. Among other things he found out that

mornings were free, at his disposal. And he forgot of his controlled high blood pressure, of

the enlargement of his prostate and the beginning of a maculopathy in his right eye.

Another friend aspired to having individual possibilities and “he inspired himself working”,

as Picasso used to say. And without knowing, playing, he went into Internet, listening to

and meeting other persons, optimistic, who were giving orientations of earning money. He

got enthusiastic. It appeared to him that some ideas were concrete and objective with

surprising results (according to them), obtaining money and getting free time, gaining in

certainty and freedom with the capacity of helping other persons. He felt full of pleasant

possible surprises. All those ideas seemed to be projects that should be continued

( Zeigarnik effect) and as he was a man with intentions of achieving his objective he was a

man with possibilities, therefore he would achieve it (non sequitur ). And he didn’t care



72

about chronological time but his own time (absence of chronology) if he achieved it or not,

this was a choice between two possibilities at the same time and at the same space (absence

of contradiction), how to get to his objective represented in any way (symbolic

language) feeling true reality inwardly (perception of the internal reality) and plainly

enjoying those moments above all other things (predominance of pleasure principle). He

also felt that he avoided the so called negative “reality” (repression), it didn’t help him and

the external world and the people seemed to be dispensable for his project (projection):

only elements necessary to fulfill it rescuing the positive (dissociation) to satisfy what was

imagined (isolation) and to need to discharge nothing neither in nothing nor in nobody

( substitution), transforming beautiful social values to share ( sublimation), taking into

account that logic errors could crop up (rationalization) and rejecting what could be painful

(negation) to achieve his objective to make his project come true, a project that would

make him gain freedom, help others, although there are some utopian elements, as in any

successful undertaking.

José, here you have a map to recreate and continue it day by day, every day. Your

unconscious “knows” what to do with all these ideas and understandings and your

conscious will help you plainly but not a bit more than what it wishes.

And now, José, making one, two or three soft and deep breathings, filing inside what is

necessary to file at the right time and place, you will wake up completely, feeling integrated

in all your self, ready to continue your daily life, now renewed with more ideas and

understandings … well…

THE END OF MULTIFUNCIONAL INDUCTION



73

MULTIFUNCIONAL INDUCTION IN THE PRACTICE WITH THE PATIENT

-Well… José… and listen to my voice and keep your hands at rest and also

your feet and while you breathe and look at me and that will do that you

become interested in all I’m going to tell you next.

As for example, that we all the human beings have our own resources.

And resources José, to be utilize to achieve objectives.

As the decision to get a professional help to make a project real and to obtain

relaxation, for example, to attract better the possibilities.

and while in this way, the relaxation…

and, so it is, then…

And I remember a man in the countryside, in front of a fig tree that was about

to be cut down by a peasant with an axe in his hand, because according to him

it was very dry. The fig tree seemed to exclaim: “There’s nothing more for

me!” And the man told the peasant: make a ditch around the fig tree, water it

every day and then if after a month there’s no new leaf, axe it down.

And you don’t make efforts you in this way can relax much more.

And some short-stories of Asia are interesting if the reader goes to other places

and compares them.



74

And if researchers worldwide get in contact they will enrich the information.

Travels and untiring travelers women and men travelers…

A father asked himself where to start bringing up his small child so that when

he grew up, he would make his own projects real.

Then he remembered that his father once exclaimed: “Make your project come

true!” And he thought then it was a constructive order.

It is neither necessary for you to remember all I am going to say nor it is

necessary to compete with your recalls.

And you don’t know the benefits yet and of remembering and of forgetting.

When you feel accompanied by significant persons for you

Similar to a father who was willing to listen to some advising

and he also said that he observed a person who seemed to dance while walking

and he thought: “This one must have lots of friends indeed”

and I smile when noticing the joy in his face, the right occasion for positive

ideas

and while all that was happening I felt affection for that unknown person as it

occurs when waking up from a dream that moves us.



75

and we can remember that dream or not; however, making us think seriously

of ideas of complex processes and how to mentally simplify them for its

practice afterwards.

and in any moment of concentration, your preoccupation appears and

disappears while your unconscious seems to find out a solution to satisfy as

well, in a moment, to your conscious part.

and it is not necessary that your unconscious takes part in these unconscious

actions that seem lost things due to the fact that the unconscious ignores what

to do with its individual projects.

Because we are endowed with multiple possibilities and resources to choose

alternatives, leaving aside learnt limitations, and it is always surprising to find

out ideas that turn into acts, into projects to easily become real, and we don’t

know it, yet.

And you can do whatever you want. May be systematize a set of ideas for

gestation and action or find out when to start those events or ask for help to

people who know what you need to know to be able to choose in a concrete and

measurable way the ways of earning more money quickly.



76

-Could you focus on the benefits that you actually want to obtain for you being

70 years old?

And concentrate on your choice, always towards the future?

And to displace what you want to another place of success seems to be easy,

doesn’t it?

And also to change pleasantly the image, the sound and, the feeling of being

retired?

And your unconscious gets ready for you to relax much more to try to clear up

what you want more?

And you can realize that your unconscious is in the process of achieving

pleasant surprises about what you want?

Very well, you got it and you can continue step by step

Step by step you can continue, to ma for your objectives

When thinking of all this, that will produce that when you breathe in your

thorax will elevate and you will notice a slight movement up in your arms.

And your conscious can realize what happens but your unconscious cannot do

it in the same way.





78

find it out without noticing it …. (Pause)… or you could realize about your

closed or open eyes without taking into account the former.

José, it is funny the phrase “counting the chickens before they are born” or in

the Quixote, that it is not funny: “each is worth for what he has and has what

he is worth”. You have decided to undertake a beautiful project, concrete and

objective, that neither would have emptiness nor would have resignation while

being in the process of achieving it. “A failure can be part of a successful life –

Erickson wrote – . It could even be a present for your mother, who, according to

what you told me out of this session, the only thing she could write was her own

name and last name and however, she guided you, José, to copy the first letters

of the alphabet, and also that you made her only one present during her

lifetime, a gold brooch, José. Your problem is not a problem, you have nothing

to solve nobody and nothing oblige you to do so. As Maquiavelo and the

mathematicians, divide to govern situations now a pleasant one and don’t even

think that it is late for undertakings: you have already started them. I agree

that sadness is an authentic feeling when you lose something; you are in a path

of achievements… where is the loss and what of? You need neither to read nor

to study; it is not necessary for your project… you can do it as a pastime,

pleasantly: I met a friend who painted pictures and in the meantime he did n’t

care about his work. He drew and painted with his left hand although he was

right-handed, quickly, and when he liked them he kept them in a folder. He

put aside some of them. Moments of passion. All in one session with no



79

interruptions. It was easy and pleasant for him; in those moments he thought

that nothing was too late for him… he was creating. Among other things he

found out that mornings were free, at his disposal. And he forgot of his

controlled high blood pressure, of the enlargement of his prostate and the

beginning of a maculopathy in his right eye. Another friend aspired to having

individual possibilities and “he inspired himself working”, as Picasso used to

say. And without knowing, playing, he went into Internet, listening to and

meeting other persons, optimistic, who were giving orientations of earning

money. He got enthusiastic. It appeared to him that some ideas were concrete

and objective with surprising results (according to them), obtaining money and

getting free time, gaining in certainty and freedom with the capacity of helping

other persons. He felt full of pleasant possible surprises. All those ideas seemed

to be projects that should be continued and as he was a man with intentions of

achieving his objective he was a man with possibilities, therefore he would

achieve it. And he didn’t care about chronological time but his own time if he

achieved it or not, this was a choice between two possibilities at the same time

and at the same space , how to get to his objective represented in any

way feeling true reality inwardly and plainly enjoying those moments above all

other things . He also felt that he avoided the so called negative “reality”, it

didn’t help him and the external world and the people seemed to be

dispensable for his project: only elements necessary to fulfill it rescuing the

positive to satisfy what was imagined and to need to discharge nothing neither

in nothing nor in nobody, transforming beautiful social values to share,

taking into account that logic errors could crop up and rejecting what could be



80

painful to achieve his objective to make his project come true, a project that

would make him gain freedom, help others, although there are some utopian

elements, as in any successful undertaking.

José, here you have a map to recreate and continue it day by day, every

day. Your unconscious “knows” what to do with all these ideas and

understandings and your conscious will help you plainly but not a bit more

than what it wishes.

And now, José, making one, two or three soft and deep breathings, filing

inside what is necessary to file at the right time and place, you will wake up

completely, feeling integrated in all your self, ready to continue your daily life,

now renewed with more ideas and understandings … well…

THE END OF THE INDUCTION IN THE PRACTICE WITH THE PATIENT

APPLICATION OF ERICKSONIAN HYPNOTHERAPY (OR SUBLIMINAL

COMMUNICATION ) IN GROUPS, COUPLES, FAMILIES AND CHILDREN

Regarding this, we will provide a brief reference, with an informative purpose only. It is

convenient if it is a group, a group of not more than 6 participants. As in the individual

therapy, it is recommended a complete interview to be carried out for each one; the



81

comprehension is built up, the strategies and metaphors as well for each participant. The

elements described for the individual therapy should be used in the sessions, utilizing

hypnotic language and indirect suggestions in such a way that none of the participants

should be aware of whom the inductions are pointing at. Dynamically, there can be

interaction among the members and, the therapist with that material will built up inductions

for one or several members. This methodology can be utilized in other cases which are not

psychotherapeutical, in business, educational, couple, family environments. Two

professionals can work together. Inductions from games, TV, Internet can be utilized for

children; that is why, it is necessary to carry out an exhaustive investigation into the child’s

world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Erickson, M. H. and E. L. Rossi. Hypnotherapy. An Exploratory Casebook , New

York, Irvington Publishers, 1992.

Grinder, J., DeLozier, J. and Bandler, R. Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of

Milton H. Erickson, M. D., Volume 1, California, Meta Publications, 1977.

(These books are available in Spanish)

Rapport. Hypnosis of Milton Erickson, review of Buenos Aires Milton H .Erickson

Institute, published as from the year 1992 until 2006 (50 issues, with more than

4000 pages, articles mostly from Milton H. Erickson).



CONTACTS:

Milton H. Erickson Institute of Buenos Aires

Sánchez de Bustamante 1945 P.B. “A”

1425-Ciudad de Buenos Aires- Argentina

[email protected]

www.escueladehipnosis.com.ar

Documents

Handbook of Ericksonian Hypnosis