Month: October 2017

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state dependent memory

State dependent memory

    How to use state dependent memory in therapy

    Have you ever walked into a room and forgotten why you went in there? Newly published research has shown that moving through a door affects your memory of what you did in the room before you moved out through the door. This is an example of state dependent memory. The things you did or thought in one place are anchored to things in  that place.  When you move away from that place, you leave the anchors behind. So you cannot recall what you thought and felt when the anchors were present. This has been known for a long time. It has been proved with school children. If  you teach them in a classroom and test them on the material, they will have better recall if the exam is held in the room they were taught in, rather than an exam room.

    I used to be a diver. It is common among commercial divers for them to realize that they need a certain part to get the job done. But when they come out of the water they just cannot remember what it was they needed. The moment they plunge back in, the memory is there, fresh and clear.

    Clients can be fixed in state dependent memory

    State dependent memory affects much of what we do, and how we feel. Many of our clients are dominated by state dependent thinking. It is quite common that when you go home and visit your mother say, you change how you talk, how you behave and even how you think. These behaviors are anchored on the place or the person. The associations can be so strong that you will agree to do things that you would never have agreed to normally. But once you get outside you start kicking yourself.

    Quite a lot of therapy depends on breaking state dependent memories. Going on holiday for a few weeks is a very good way of forcing the associations to go into extinction. When the triggers are not there, the behavior fades. Doing something completely different, like mountain climbing, or spending a few days on a tall ship does the same thing. This is why delinquent teenagers are sent away on brat camps. Being in completely different environment with different rules, breaks the associations that were triggering their bad behavior.

    So sometimes the best thing we can do for a client is to encourage them to get out of the environment they are in. Maybe it applies to you too?

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    false memories

    False Memories Sexual abuse

      False memories 

       You can go through your whole life blaming your own behavior on something that is not true. But if you act on false memories, they might as well be true.

      I had a client today who reminded me of how pernicious and dangerous false memories are. This client was grossly obese. She told me that she used to be an alcoholic, she had eating problems all her life, she was unhappy and didn't know why.

      When I asked her what she thought the reason was, she told me that she supposed it was all because she had been sexually abused. I asked when this had happened and she told me it happened at age two. I asked her how she knew that, since no one has any memory of being age two.

      She said 'Well my mother told me'. I asked her what memories she had of the incident, and she said she didn't have any. I asked her 'So how do you know you were abused?' and she thought for a minute and then said 'Well, I suppose that I don't know'.

      This woman has gone through her whole life being told that she had been sexually abused. It has affected everything she has done, every thought, every action. Now, I don't know if she really was abused or not, but it doesn't matter. If you don't remember being abused then effectively you weren't abused.

      False memories are just as bad as real abuse

      But what has happened is that every time she felt bad, every time she felt unable to cope with something, the same old reason was trotted out - 'Oh, it's because you were abused'. This belief, put there by other people, has prevented her from ever examining her own life objectively, from seeing things as they really are. The result is that she has had a belief that her life was ruined from the beginning, that there is no point in trying to improve. She blames the 'abuse' for whatever she feels, for every reaction. That has prevented her from ever getting to grips with the real source of her unhappiness.

      I personally believe that child abusers should be strangled in the town square because of the damage they cause.  But the well meaning people who convince women that they were abused when they were not, are equally guilty. They  ruin just as many lives.

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      hypnotists today

      Are hypnotists today better or worse?

        Are hypnotists today better or worse?

        I was talking with some students the other day. One of them asked why we don't have such giants of hypnosis these days such as Dave Elman and Milton Erickson. They were quite taken aback when I said that the hypnotists of today are actually better than Elman and Erickson. They were even more shocked when I said that neither of them were in fact the great figures they are reputed to be.

        They are both long dead so they cannot defend themselves, but the evidence is fairly clear that Elman was a stage hypnotist and did almost no therapy and that Erickson's legendary skills, are just that, a legend. There are people alive today who knew both of them, and they certainly were not regarded as infallible therapists when they were alive.

        What made them major figures was the books they wrote. These gave a basis for studying their techniques and tended to sideline all the other hypnotherapists working at the time who didn't write books. I am not denying both were good hypnotists, but the scale of adulation, almost awe, has gone too far. Read some hypnosis blogs and discussion lists and you might be forgiven for thinking both were the descendants of gods.

        Hypnosis Hype

        The reason for this adulation is not hard to find. If you are offering a training course, do you want to tell prospective students that you will be teaching them standard hypnosis techniques, or do you want to tell them that they will be learning the secrets of the most powerful hypnotist who ever lived?

        Naturally you are going to puff up the so called Master Hypnotist, and the more you boost their magical powers the more your students will like it. And since your students won't know any different, they too will go out to the marketplace and tell everyone that they have been trained in the ways of the greatest hypnotic genius ever. And so it goes on. Each new class of hypnotic learners exaggerates even more, until the whole thing takes on a life of its own and the claims reach the level of absurdity.

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        past life experience

        Past Life Experience

          Past Life Experience

          People come for past life regression for many reasons. My client yesterday was driven by curiosity. He was over 70 years old and had always wanted to find out if he had a past life.

          He went into trance quite easily. I got him to imagine that he was lying in a luxurious chair. I deepened him twice until he has lost contact with his body. When he was well into trance I suggested that he felt like floating. Then I put him into a boat drifting down the river. As he was floating down the river I told him that he was pass parts of his life.
          I told him that he would see a scene from his life in childhood that had some special significance for him. It may or may not be something he remembered, but he would see and hear everything that was going on.

          Setting up for past life regression

          He described a scene that was outdoors with lots of people having fun on a sunny day. He was watching it from a distance and wanted to be a part of it. This established that he was able and willing to go back into his own memories.
          I suggested that the boat was going further down the river. The river narrowed and turned into a tunnel. The boat was going down the tunnel,  dark and calm. I then suggested that he saw a light, or a vibration, or something else which was a guide to him. The guide took him to a place outside the tunnel for his first past life regression experience.

          First Past Life Experience

          He said he was in some place. I prompted him and he said it was indoors. There were chains. He was cold, there were other people there but he could not see them. He was dressed very poorly. It was very dim and the light might be coming from flames. I asked him why he was there and he said he was there for punishment. He said he was aged about 20 but did not know what the date was, or what year it was. I asked him how he felt and he said he felt depressed.  I asked him why he was shown that scene, what lesson it might have for him. He said that maybe it's because I can move and I'm not actually chained.

          Second past life experience

          I then told him to take a deep breath and come out of that place. I suggested that the boat was going deeper into the tunnel. The walls were coming in and the water was going faster and there were waves and there was a noise up ahead. Once again, I suggested a guide appeared who took him out of there. Then I suggested he was going to come to some high place. He told me that in that place there was sunshine,  the sky was blue, there was a green valley below. I asked him what was going on there. He said he was just there for the view.

          I asked him what he wanted to do. He said he wanted to fly. I asked him what he called the place. He said it had no name. I asked him who he was. He said that he was a child. I asked them if it was a boy or a girl. He never answered. I asked him how he was dressed. He said he had bare feet. He then volunteered that there was bare rock all around. Then he repeated that he really wanted to fly from there.
          I got him to take a deep breath to finish off that particular life.

          Third past life experience

          For his third life, I told him that he was in the boat and the tunnel was getting narrower and narrower and the boat was shrinking and he was shrinking until he had shrunk down to a point. I told him that this point was floating in space in the place between lives. I asked him what he could see, what he was experiencing. He said he was in a void. I pressed for more details but he only could say that there were planets there. He was floating around among the stars. I tried to find out who he was and what he was doing, but the only thing he told me was that he was young.

          What past life regression is about

          We talked about his experiences. I discussed with him my theory that all past life regression experiences are actually metaphors of the person's current life. We talked about his feeling of wanting to join in with other people playing, and he said that was exactly how he felt growing up. He was always on the edge of things, he never felt that he belonged with other kids. About the PLR experience with the chains, thinking about it, "it is really how I feel about my life".

          He had a successful business but he really wanted to not be chained to it and retire. I asked him about the flying PLR experience. "I have had that dream before. It probably represents wanting to get away from everything."

          I think this exercise sums up perfectly how the events and memories that come out and past life regression are actually metaphors for what the person is experiencing right now and their own life. It may be that they're just not willing to face them, so their mind allows them to address them indirectly.

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          smoking weight gain

          Smoking Weight Gain

            Smoking weight gain

            I had an unusual client yesterday. She was very insistent that when she stopped smoking, she does not want to start eating instead. She is very afraid of putting on weight. And of something much deeper.

            When we were talking about the reasons for her smoking, she hinted at various dark things in her childhood. But she was also adamant that she was not going there. She told me that she wanted me to stop her smoking. That was her number one priority. And when she has successfully done that she might look into dealing with the other things in her past. She had stopped smoking for four days when she was taken into hospital to have a stent put into her heart after having had a heart attack. In the hospital she felt great. She could clearly feel the benefits of not stopping. But as soon as she got into the car on the way home it smelled of smoke and her husband was smoking.  She immediately said "give me one of those." And has been smoking continuously since then.

            Reasons for smoking

            We talked at length about why she smokes. She smokes whenever she is agitated, whenever she is unsure what to do, whenever she is getting stressed. Basically smoking is an avoidance mechanism. She is using cigarettes as a way of putting off dealing with whatever it is that she has to deal with. I spoke at length about finding out what it is that is driving her to smoke, what is that is making her nervous and unsure. I asked her for examples. She said "when I'm giving a presentation, when explaining things to a client". I said that after 30 years surely she should have gotten over that. I said that "this is just a clear example of the way that something is making you uncertain and unsure of yourself".

            I said that we really should try to deal with the deeper issues. But she absolutely refused. I told her that I could stop anyone smoking, and I didn't want her coming back in a few weeks. If  she was in a smoking household the pressure is so much stronger. Her husband smokes around her, he smokes indoors, she needs to put some pressure on him to be more supportive. He needs to recognize the danger he is posing to her. We left it at that.

            Hypnosis for smoking

            I suspected that she needed some willpower, some strength, some belief in her own ability to get through this. So I hypnotised her and took her to a bridge. On the bridge there was a powerful figure waiting for her to give her the strength that was missing.  The figure got her to realize that she was carrying something around with her. The figure said that these were stones. She dropped the stones off the bridge. And in return the figure gave her a magic talisman. 

            I then reconnected her to the feeling she had in hospital, of being a non-smoker. After she had experienced what it was like to be a non-smoker, I did a metaphor of draining all the doubt out of her mind. This removed her belief that she could not give up smoking.

            When she came back from trance she said that one of the stones was white and the second one was black. She said that she knew what they represented. She told me that the talisman was just a light. She went away convinced that she could stop smoking.

            But I still wonder what deep secret she is holding.

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            blame

            Who do you blame when things go wrong?

              Why blame yourself?

              Most people blame themselves for everything that goes wrong. It is a very human tendency. Your client can describe in great detail everything they do wrong. But they seldom consider whether their failings are actually their fault. Maybe the problem belongs to someone else?

              I sometimes wonder if there any need to diagnose the client at all. With some clients you can almost predict what their problem is from examining their family.  I had a client today who told me about her alcoholic mother, a father who was away at sea for one month on and one month off. And a brother with a temper problem and alcoholic binges. Add to that a sister with a permanent negative attitude to everything, and a grandmother who was strict religious.

              People tend to personalize their failings

              You could predict that she would be withdrawn, lonely, depressive. And of course she was. The problem she brought was lack of motivation and a life long history of weight problems. She told me that she never seems to be able to keep the weight off. She sabotages herself constantly, has relationship issues, her life is a mess. And it's all her fault.

              The strange thing is, that even with that cast of characters in her background, she still blames herself. She blames her own personal weakness for her condition. I have endless sympathy for people brought up in dysfunctional families ( I am one myself). But I never understand how people invariably see the problem as a personal one, and not a family one. They should consider whether their problems might be from something done to them, not something they have done?

              Maybe therapists should get family health training?

              I wonder if the curriculum of hypnotherapy training shouldn't include sections on recognizing the origins of disorders. Not just how to treat the symptoms.  Lessons in how to correlate clinical problems with family situations. That would be a major aid to accurate diagnosis and targeted treatment, in my opinion.

              What do you think?

              I wonder what examples other people can remember? Does having a dysfunctional family always mean you will be affected psychologically? Should we ask about family history first?

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              can be hypnotized

              How do you know if your client can be hypnotized?

                How do you know if your client can be hypnotized?

                Previous experience

                There are questions that you can ask to establish whether or not your client can be hypnotized or not.

                The first question to ask is "Have you ever been hypnotized?". I find that quite a high proportion of people who come to me for hypnosis have already had some experience of hypnosis. Some will have been hypnotized at a stage show. Others may have consulted a hypnotherapist at some point in the past.

                It is always useful to ask "and how did that go?". Very often my client will say "I don't think I was hypnotized". This opens up the way to a discussion about what the client expects from hypnosis, and why it didn't work at the time.

                If the client has been successfully hypnotized in the past it is often useful to ask "What induction method did the other hypnotist use?".  The answers are always interesting, and may give you some pointers as to which method to use.

                Establish their expectations about if they can be hypnotized

                You can also ask "do you think you'll be easy to hypnotize?". A "Yes" answer suggests that you should go straight on with your simplest induction. A "No" answer should lead to a discussion of why the client feels that way. It will very often bring out one or more false beliefs about hypnosis. Clearing these away will make your induction much easier. Then you can ask questions about how close they are to their subconscious anyway.

                Establish how open they are to their own subconscious

                If the client has never been hypnotized, then there are several ways to establish how susceptible they will be.

                1. Are you the kind of person who daydreams?
                2. Have you sometimes driven home, and realize you can't remember anything about the journey?
                3. Do you find that you can lose yourself in a book, or a computer game, or a movie, and forget about time and everything else?
                4. Do you often find yourself thinking in pictures instead of in words?
                5. When someone is talking to you, or you're watching TV, do you sometimes "zone out" and you can't remember what they said?
                6. Do certain events trigger vivid memories for you? So strong you feel like you're there?

                A "yes" answer to most of these will indicate that you have a client who is highly susceptible.

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                unconscious mind experiment

                Unconscious mind experiment

                  Unconscious mind experiment

                  As an unconscious mind experiment, I decided to put myself into a gentle trance. The object was to ask my unconscious mind what the subject of my next blog would be. I settled down in the chair, and just willed myself to go into trance. Within a few seconds I got a twitch in my hand. This is my personal indication that I'm going into trance. I got various images, none of which stayed very long, or led to anything much. I was actually sitting quite uncomfortably. As I felt myself relaxing deeper into trance I was worried I would fall out of the chair. So I brought myself out of trance. Maybe I just wasn't ready for it at this time.

                  And that got me thinking about how deep I had gone. That made me think of how would I know how deep a client had gone. It is always a problem to know how deep a client is. How can I get the client to tell me how deeply relaxed they are? 

                  How to measure hypnotic depth

                  There is no point in just asking them. The client would have no way of knowing, would have nothing to measure it against. Which made me think of using a ruler. I could tell the client to visualize a ruler. Tell them that one end was zero, fully awake, and the other end was ten,  deeply relaxed. Then ask the client to visualize where they were on that ruler.

                  This led me to the idea of an ever extending ruler. I immediately thought about a measuring tape. One of those things where you pull the tape out from a case. This would have the advantage of going far beyond ten. The client could envisage the tape being as long as they want. Even endless.

                  A new induction from my unconscious mind experiment?

                  And from that, the germ of a new idea arose from somewhere. If I could get the client to imagine where they were on the tape, then I could get them to imagine moving further along the tape. And if the tape went on forever, then I could suggest to the client that as they went along the tape they got deeper and deeper, more and more relaxed. And so the idea for a new and original induction emerged.

                  So perhaps my unconscious mind experiment worked. It is strange how the unconscious mind works. My unconscious mind experiment did allow me to find something totally new and unexpected to write about.

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                  NLP fast phobia cure

                  Why the NLP Fast Phobia Cure works

                    I learned the NLP Fast Phobia Cure many years ago. I have used it a lot. But nobody knows why it works. This book gives a reason.

                    I am reading, and rereading, the book by Peter Levine, In an unspoken voice. In his book Levine puts forward his theory that most psychosomatic and behavioural problems are the result of unresolved trauma. I am greatly impressed by this book because of the explanatory power of its underlying theory. It does not deal with hypnotherapy directly, but everything he puts forward as theory maps exactly on to what hypnotists do to fix their clients.

                    Why the NLP Fast Phobia Cure works

                    And bearing in mind that 'there is nothing as practical as a good theory' I keep finding insights into why standard hypnotherapy techniques work. The NLP fast phobia cure consists of taking the person to the edge of distress to the moment just before they will experience what they fear. Then they are encouraged to go through the experience visually. They see it happening very fast, then run it in reverse. Then they play with the images, making them bigger, smaller, distorted and so on.

                    This fits in perfectly with Levine's ideas. He says that when we have a traumatic experience and we are prevented from getting out of it, we freeze and dissociate, but the trauma remains within us. The only way to get rid of the frozen trauma is to work through the whole sequence of events slowly. That way you become aware of what is happening in your body. He says 'When we are able to slow down and experience all the elements of sensation and feeling that accompany our traumatic patterns, allowing them to complete themselves before we move on, we begin to access and transform the drives and motivation that otherwise compel us to re-enact traumatic events'.

                    The Fast phobia cure does exactly that. It allows the sufferer to control the speed at which events are experienced. You go through it all slowly and deliberately. So the NLP Fast Phobia Cure is actually the slow phobia cure.

                    NLP has never been able to provide a rational explanation for why the 'cure' works. I think that the Body Sensing theory explains it completely.

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                    hypnotic visualization skills

                    Hypnotic visualization skills in inductions

                      Hypnotic visualization skills are used in most hypnosis inductions.  But they don't have to be. You can use a breathing induction and avoid most visualization issues.

                      The problem is that most hypnosis inductions rely on visual imagery. If the client can't visualize, then they will have difficulty getting hypnotized. Inductions such as watching the sun going down, or waves on a beach, depend on a degree of visualization ability.

                      Test for Hypnotic Visualization Skills

                      It is easy to test for visualization skills. All you have to do is to ask the client 'can you imagine a horse?' Then ask them what color their horse is. Most people say 'brown'. Then ask then what direction the horse's head is facing. Most people say it is facing to their left. Then ask them to imagine their horse as a different color, or being smaller or larger. This will let you judge very accurately how good their visualization skills are.

                      However concerns about hypnotic visualization skills is probably over emphasized. People can imagine waves on a beach without actually needing to visualize the waves going in and out.  You  can be induced into trance by thinking about waves in general. The idea of waves is what is important, and most people can manage that. It helps if the therapist suggests 'imagining' the waves, rather saying 'now see the blue waves rolling up the golden sand and the white foam hissing as it spreads out. Now see the water rippling canyons through the soft sand as it withdraws...'. Putting too much detail into your suggested images is always a mistake.

                      Avoid the need for hypnotic visualization skills

                      The best way however, is to avoid the need for any visualization at all. You can use an induction that does not rely on imagery at all. Then it doesn't matter whether the client can visualize or not. I now always use a breathing induction. Everyone knows how to breathe. You link that to a physical relaxation induction, and then deepen  it  with a staircase countdown induction. This works reliably with 99% of people. It puts them into trance in about three minutes.

                      In hypnotherapy sessions, it is best to avoid problems rather than solve them.

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