Ericksonian Therapy

Hypnotherapy makes use of dream or trance as a method of therapy or treatment. Traditional methods of hypnotherapy make use of a method called direct suggestion. This method might not work for everyone, more because some people tend to act resistant to these methods.

Ericksonian therapy is also a form of hypnosis or hypnotic therapy. It is based on the method called “Indirect Suggestions” in hypnosis. This is found to be effective even in people who tend to resist traditional methods of hypnotic therapy.

When you hear the term “hypnosis”, all you might think of is those olden days where you were bound, and put to sleep in a chair, while the hypnotic therapy continued. Ericksonian hypnosis is totally different from this. You might be surprised to hear that it happens to most of us, unconsciously, everyday. Sometimes it gets noticed, where as in some others, it goes totally unnoticed. Some real-life examples of display of Ericksonian hypnosis are the behavior of people on elevators, daydreaming, silly fears, and so on.  

In traditional ways of hypnosis, you are made to sleep, while your mind blindly follows all that the therapist asks you to. But in Ericksonian hypnosis, a different approach is taken to get results. The key is to observe and then makes use of the natural processes that occur in each of us, in treatment. We tend to display various states of awareness in response to different stimuli. Each of us is able to settle into or respond to stimuli of any kind, good or bad. This ability is by virtue of our state of mind. The response and adaptation we display results from the way we stabilize our innumerable internal and external states with the information we receive from other humans around us. Then, we use these adaptations and responses to form our intentions and energy flows.

We may receive positive or negative outcomes for any situation. While positive outcomes normally tend to make us happy, we take negative outcomes with disappointment. But, we need to understand that negative outcomes are aimed at providing us more space and chance to improve ourselves. This means that we have the ability to control the way we respond. Even processes that happen unconsciously tend to affect the way in which we behave. With some amount of practice, we should be able to control our physical responses to stimuli also. Some of our responses to known problems or outcomes result in unhappiness and resentment. Similarly, there are various unconscious responses also, that are capable enough to bring us happiness and success.

So, this therapy makes use of indirect suggestions. These suggestions are hard to resist. Most often, the person would not even be able to identify it as a suggestion. These suggestions appear to the person as stories or metaphors, and so he or she does not resist it. The therapist delivers suggestions in a tone that the person does not decipher them to be commands or suggestions. So, the person unconsciously gives in, and does as directed. These suggestions are also known as embedded commands.

Let’s look at an example that will help us understand what indirect suggestions can look like. Suppose a small child is carrying a lighted candle in his hands, to place it on a shelf. The child is careful not to spill the wax and burn his fingers. The parent seems to notice the child carrying the candle, and yells out to the child to be careful and not to spill the wax or drop the candle. Hearing this yell, the child would definitely have spilt the wax and dropped the candle. He gets whacked for doing that.

Let us look at a few more scenarios making use of indirect suggestions. Suppose you are asked to not think about your breathing for sometime, you will certainly start thinking about breathing instantly. This is because when you are supposed to not think of something, your brain needs to represent that and then tries to remove that image. Think of something else instantly in your mind. 

Ericksonian therapies are aimed at bringing about changes in us. This therapy mainly deals with our perception to various problems and the way we respond to them. Life shows up different to different people. To some, life will seem bleak and doomed; where as, some others seem to enjoy each moment they live in.           Such people remain positive and reasonably joyful even at difficult situations. This is possible if we are able to give a little thought before we act or behave. This therapy aims at bringing about this small change in the way we think.