I just got back to Taipei from a Spring Break trip with my family so I’ve a ton of email to get through but some thoughts on the Omnigrads post regarding can’t find the fear . . . take what you can and ditch the rest . . . this discussion is intended for experienced hypnotists familiar with regression, parts, and other more advanced techniques. It is NOT for folks who have not taken a strong competency based training or those who are inexperienced with advanced hypnotic or focused trance techniques.

A bunch of quick notes . . . some of which you will find useful . . . but I won’t tell you which ones . . . just a hodgepodge of thoughts you can add to the mix of what you’ve been working with and what you may or may not have thought of before . . .

Off the bat . . . pretalk, pretalk, pretalk . . . get to the fears and misconceptions about what is going to and what needs to happen and make certain he understands that the process is for his real benefit. Get the hypnotic contract and seal it with a demonstration of it’s power with a physcically induced suggestion that has convincer stategies built in right at the get-go.

My first thought is to deal with the resistance in that he can’t get to or feel the feeling associated with the fear . . . instead of going for the fear (don’t call it a “fear” call it a “feeling that has everything to do with this issue”), have him describe what his body feels during the feeling, not the feeling itself, but the anticipation of the feeling or the like and see how that gives you a foothold. He’s there to deal with the issue and if he won’t or can’t get into it, then you’re not going to be as helpful. Sure, you can offer some temporary relief with suggestion but it’s not going to have longterm helpfulness that the real deal techniques will give.

Alternatively, have him focus on the resistance. Notice the language patterns he uses when he talks about it. Is it competely dissociated from the feeling or is he associated and having difficulty facing it so he associates into other feelings? Check out some resources on “focusing” which helps folks find the feelings the subconscious is putting into their bodies as signals and communication and allows them to recognize those feelings, acknowledge them, and communicate with them in a worthwhile way. The protostudy on focusing was based upon categorizing thousands of hours of therapy and they found that the key to successful therapy had less to do with methodology, therapist, or client presenting issues but in how the client associated into their issues. Those that were analytical and reserved while using the logical mind to describe their issues and feelings were less likely to be successful as those who could Feel the feelings within their bodies and stumbled for meaning while being aware of how those feelings changed or intensified. The focusing and associated awareness into these feelings can be trained . . . some folks take a bit longer as they really never were taught to be “in touch” with their feelings.

One tact to use, is to focus on another feeling altogether, something he doesn’t mind describing. Get full on descriptions . . . and feelings . . . do some regular hypnosis with some suggestibility effects and once you’ve trained compliance and heightened suggestibility, start doing physical effect suggestions that are tied into suggestibility and hypnotic phenomenon and then attach those physical effects that convince and demonstrate hypnosis is going on so that the expectations of something very powerful becomes much more real and expectation is built then attach the feelings you need him to experience to those physical effects (balloons raising the arms, as the balloons lift the arms they lift them higher and higher and as they go higher notice the feelings that have everything to do with this fear and issue become much more powerfully present, stronger, as the arm becomes a steel bar unbendable, the more you try to bend the arm the more the feeling that has everything to do with this issue enters the arm and the body and the mind, the more you try, the stronger the feeling, as I count from five to one, with each number the feeling intensifies and with each number you try to bend your arm and the feeling becomes even more powerful until I reach the number one and your eyes clse (if not already closed, I’ve done this as an initial induction set going from suggestibility testing to instant physical induction) and your body relaxes and the feeling takes you to a time and place when this feeling that has everything to do with the issue was new, the first time you felt this particular feeling . . . five, stronger, more powerful, four, the more you try the harder it is to bend the more powerful the feelings become . . . etc. And the like. This is in part my take on one way to use compounding to intensify and engage imaginative response. It’s a strategy that relies upon compounding expectations based upon physcial suggestibility effects which often accellerate compliance to other suggestions. They don’t actually have anything to do with one another but the physical effect based upon suggestibility response causes the client’s imagination to become very powerfully involved in the process and the connection to “something powerful is going on” becomes heightened to the point that compliance to other less physical but very emotional suggestions increases in power. Many folks make the assumption that if the hypnotist’s suggestions are somehow having a powerful effect on voluntary control of major muscle groups in this way, he must also be able to exert the same sort of influence over emotions and mental processes and that expectation leads to a more powerful hypnotic experience and accellerated acceptance of and compliance to therapeutic suggestion. In my experience. Your mileage may or may not vary.

I just saw your reply to Burt so the eyes open stuff may not be as helpful but with issues like this, you can still shift his awareness so that there is an inward and outward focus through which you can pass the feelings. Some of the notes I made below were before I read your reply to Burt so adapt them to your needs and I will add a couple bits that might or might not be helpful which you can chew on or not, up to you.

I would echo Burt’s good advice.

Check and HAVE HIM FEEL the feeling while in the waking state (don’t ask him “if” he can feel it, but tell him something like “when you feel that feeling how does it feel? where do you feel it? feel it now. Got it? Good. Now, make it stronger and describe what it feels like.” or the like).

You can then add in something along the lines of “you’re doing good but let’s really concentrate on just what’s going on here with this feeling so go ahead and close your eyes and notice how the feeling gets stronger” and then intensify that feeling so it’s like a powerful force, in his body, and from there just ride along the affect bridge to the ISE when that feeling was new.

Alternatively, you can do a parts approach with eyes closed or even eyes open (although I would prefer eyes closed in order to intensify focus or imaginative involvement).

A couple other alternative approaches you might give a go with this (don’t try them, just do them) . . . take a look at Burt’s “unconscious conscious communication” protocol in the archive and give it a whirl based upon the feeling he describes and experiences (make him feel it, don’t let him back out of the experience so deal with any resistance or misconceptions before the session and get it going) . . . have him “let your concsious mind go into the background while this feeling becomes more present, comes forward, and in a moment I will be speaking with this feeling while the conscious mind goes into the background so the feeling ill open the eyes and we’ll have a very interesting experience while we sort out just what this feeling needs and is” or whatever. It’s a parts approach with a twist.

Another approach is to go with Tom Vinzinni’s 3D Mind process which I have found works well as a hypnotic process (it was designed for waking state but I just love to do hypnosis) and can be helpful in allowing a person to take their fears apart and see the drivers behind them so that they can then be dealt with at the micro level than as one overwhelming fear. I’ve used it as part of my parts therapy process and have good results (albeit, the model is evolving and some bits may not resonate with your own experience so I find myself abandoning the full model and using the bits that WORK for me, although I would suggest that anyone interested in this process should keep abreast of the tweaks and changes as they evolve). With an unsighted person, 3D mind can be done through kinesthetic or tactile means (rather than visually miming taking the part out into 3D space as in the original, with permission touch the place where the feeling is and mime pulling it out while describing what he should be feeling – connected but dissociated).

All the best,
Brian

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw] Certified Hypnotherapist
Executive Director, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HypnosisTechniqueExchange
http://www.briandavidphillips.com