Category: Client Management

It is too easy to convince yourself that a quiet client is a good client. But when the client is lying there with his eyes closed and you are talking away at him, how do you know that your client hasn't just gone to sleep? And does it matter? Can you learn in your sleep?

Can you learn in your sleep?

Many hypnotists have been persuaded that even if the client is asleep, their unconscious mind is still awake, and is still taking in whatever is being said. This is based on analogies with the 'cocktail party effect'. This says that even if you are talking to someone at a party, and focusing on what is being said, if your name is mentioned at another table, you will instantly recognize this. The belief is that your unconscious mind is monitoring your environment all the time and never shuts down.

I am convinced that this is nonsense. If it was true, then all we would have to do is to record textbooks and play them to students while they were sleeping and we could close all the universities tomorrow. The fact is that there is no evidence whatsoever that people can learn while they are asleep. It has been tested hundreds of times and the outcome is always nil. You cannot learn while you are sleeping.

Therefore trying to do therapy while the client is asleep is also a waste of time. If your client is sleeping then you are just talking to yourself. No one else is listening.

The difference between trance and sleeping

So how do you tell the difference between a sleeping client and a hypnotized client?

This is all part of the philosophy of constantly interacting with your client in hypnosis. Hypnotherapy is not a one way process, the client has to be actively engaged all during the session. If you are constantly engaging with your client, he won't go to sleep.

The easiest way to test whether the client is still listening to you is to ask for a response. At the end of each section I say to the client 'Now take a deep breath, and allow your mind to clear'. If you get a deep breath, then your client is still responding, if not they are either deep in trance, or asleep.

If I don't get a response I repeat the instruction, a little more firmly 'Now I want you to take a deep breath, take a deep breath now and let it out... Ahhhh'. This usually produces a definite deep breath and I know I can carry on.

If it doesn't, then I have to wake the client. The first thing I try is to get them to move. 'I want you now to move into a more comfortable position, move your body so you are more comfortable'. I will repeat this possibly several times more forcefully and louder until the client moves and I know I am getting through.

If the request to move doesn't work then I say in a loud voice... 'I am going to count from Five up to One, when you get to one your eyes will open'. Even in deep somnambulism this will rouse the client. If the client is very tired then I might have to repeat it, almost shouting until the client responds. I never, never touch or shake the client.

Ensure trance by re-induction

When the client opens his eyes, I act as if this is a normal part of the session. I say something like 'That's very good. You are a very good subject. Now I want you to close your eyes again, and then try to open them. As you try to open them you will find it gets harder and harder to open those eyes. Try it now and you might be able to open them a bit, but the harder you try the harder they will want to stay closed, until you just can't open them at all'.

That will put them right back into trance and they are ready to continue. You might have to repeat parts of what you covered already, but that's OK. Repetition leads to a more definite effect anyway, and the client won't know the difference.

Then as you progress through the session keep testing with deep breath instructions, or asking the client to describe what he is experiencing and you will be sure that his unconscious mind really is listening.

What do you think?

What do you say after hypnosis? Have you developed something to say that makes a difference? Or is it quite unnecessary?

What to say after coming out of trance

Follow up after hypnosis is important. When the client is brought back out of trance it is usual to ask something like 'How was that?' or 'How do you feel?'. Neither is particularly helpful. What is better is to use the fact that the client is still partly in trance. Saying something like 'I think your mind knows you are a non-smoker now' is much more useful.

Igor Ledichowski has a useful tag line. He recommends saying to the client as soon as they open their eyes 'You were great!'. This immediately banishes any lingering doubts in the client that they might not have been responding well.

Andrew Newton suggests hustling the client out of the door as quickly as possible, but I think that is disrespectful. I like to send the client on their way in a good frame of mind. Very often the client needs to talk about what they have just been through and to ask questions about the therapy or how they are feeling. Spending a few minutes on that is worthwhile.

One thing that Newton recommends is that as the client leaves, to say 'Let me know how well you are getting on'. This uses the supposition that they will be doing well.

Follow up after hypnosis

But the session isn't really ended when the client departs. What distinguishes the average hypnotherapist from the outstanding hypnotherapist is follow up. You will never get any better unless you can measure how well what you are doing actually works.

Follow up simply consists of an email or phone to the client a week or ten days later to see how they are getting on. It should be a genuine enquiry showing concern for the client's wellbeing. Most therapists don't do this. I think it is because they are afraid they might learn that it didn't work. But without a fearless attitude to feedback it is very difficult to improve your work

What do you think?

What do you say after hypnosis? Have you developed something to say that makes a difference? Or is it quite unnecessary?

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?

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.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

I had a client come in last weekend who  reminded me of the dangers of Google Diagnosis. He told me he had OCD and wanted me to cure it. I asked him "How do you know you have OCD?" He said "I started making a list of my symptoms, and then I looked them up on Google". He went to lots of different sites and the more he read the more he was sure that he had OCD. And now he wanted rid of it.

I started asking about his symptoms. He told me what they were. I pointed out that in fact there are many things that could be causing them. And some of the symptoms he was listing were contradictory. But he was adamant. He had OCD. Here was here to get me to fix his OCD. He wouldn't hear of anything else. OCD was it. He wanted cured. My job was to get on with it.

Don't do Google Diagnosis

It took a lot of patience and counselling and persuasion to get him to consider that perhaps he did not have OCD. What he actually has is a form of depression. When we went over that, he found that all of the symptoms were better explained by that. And just as importantly, there were other symptoms he had been ignoring that were predicted by the depression.

We then sorted out a plan for him.

But it is just too easy to get information from the Internet and half understand it, and then base your life on that. How many other people have convinced themselves that they are suffering from this thing or that thing, and are self medicating themselves into ill health?

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.

Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744). An Essay on Criticism, 1709