We’ve talked about hypnosis training here before ad infinitim it seems. Well, here’s another little bit on the subject.
The following was prompted in part in response to a response to a post from a fellow who doesn’t seem to be able to be able to get the hang of getting his trance partners into proper hypnosis but who instead opts to tell them a story that will help them feel like going into trance while they are lying on a bed. Lo and behold the folks go to sleep and wake up having had a very pleasant relaxing dream but they then do not respond to the post-hypnotic suggestions to which he would like suggestions on what he is doing wrong. There isn’t really much more on the subject and it isn’t clear if he’s a raw beginner just telling fluffly stories or if he’s trained in Ericksonian language patterns.
However, one response to his query on the Hypnosis Technique Exchange did catch my eye and prompted a response. That response was that the follow needs to "get thee to a hypnois school" and learn the skills. The respondent notes that she had been to a school with three-hundred-and-fifty hours of classroom work and supervised practice and that she has never failed to have someone enter hypnosis.
While I would agree that training is important . . . heck, I’m more than happy to tell folks to "get thee to MY hypnosis trainings" . . . however, it’s not always practical for many folks . . . and the whole "reputable" conundrum will lead a whole lot of folks astray.
Hypnosis is an incredibly simple skillset. Basic skills in hypnosis does not require 350 hours of classroom work. Hypnotherapy could use more hours but hypnosis in and of itself is very straightforward and . . . honestly . . . only requires a few hours to learn the bare bones basics (albeit, competence comes with more practice and feedback and practice and guidance).
Failure is okay. There is some very good company among the folks who have tried and failed but who then go on to improve so that success comes more often than failure and failure eventually becomes a very rare thing indeed.
Some folks will make the claim that they’ve never had a person not go into hypnosis based upon their competence, some based upon random luck as to who they have drawn so far, some upon self-serving pride, and others because of rather broad definitions of what hypnosis is. It is okay to fail . . . it is not okay to choose not to learn from that failure.
Dave Elman wrote that he was disappointed when his students – medical doctors – would report back to him that their first few attempts at hypnosis went well . . . as he felt that would tend to make them over-cocky and unprepared when a difficult case does hit them . . . he much preferred that his students go up against a difficult case earlier so that it would let the steam out of ’em a bit and they would begin developing adaptation strategies to ensure more success later. Milton Erickson, Herbert Spiegel, and Dave Elman are considered by many to be three of the foundation hypnotists of the twentieth-century with approaches and techniques behind success rates that are considered to be extremely impressive . . . and yet, all three of these men reported failures , even late into their professional lives well after their reputations for near-universal success were made . . . even into their golden success years when their experience and knowledge were at a point that their skillsets rarely failed them . . . but fail them, they sometimes did and they were never ashamed to admit it nor cowardly enough to attempt to hide it. Of course, this statement is not directed at the respondent, rather, it is in response to a number of trainers and hypnotists out there who I have seen make what are doubtlessly unfounded and outlandish claims of twenty-second cures and one-hundred-and-twenty-percent success rates (yes, a fellow with a large ego and equally small math skills makes such a claim). When someone tells me they have NEVER failed, I have an urge to look at the teeth and the shoes as that sounds too much like a dreamhorse than the bona fide contraption.
Whether a school imparts competence is also problematic. I personally know folks who have taken many hours of instruction from instructors with "high reputation" who come out of the trainings with a piece of paper granting them certification from a "prestigious" organization who cannot reliably hypnotize others. Some schools also differ on what counts for hypnosis as some folks would discount what the original correspondent in this discussion is reporting as being merely light trance or perhaps just sleep while others would call it profound hypnosis. For example, as has been discussed here before, one formal school in Hong Kong teaches a full-year certification course in hypnotherapy with hundreds of hours of classroom instruction and guided practice and yet the only induction students are taught is progressive relaxation with guided imagery . . . for that school, the fellow’s trancey story approach would be exactly correct. However, you will also note that there is no reliable means to test "depth" or to effectively ensure compliance to suggestions, post-hypnotic or otherwise. Yet, this school is reputable in that it is associated with and certifies for a number of organizations with international reputations (including a fairly well respected organization in the US).
For me . . . hypnosis is NOT just lying there relaxed. For me, hypnosis is indicated by the physiological signs, imaginative involvement, and the utility of compliance to suggestions. Depth of trance is a useful illusion but it is one that helps to direct suggestibility and acceptance of suggestions. I am a very strong advocate of deepening through testing and that the testing and deepening be overt and interactive.
As far as training goes . . . Caveat Emptor. Good training is certainly the best route . . . however, I do know a number of folks who got more from a good book or video course than they got out of paying several thousand dollars to attend a training that is a whole lot less than useless. That includes some "reputable" and so-called world class hypnosis "experts" who make a pretty good living blathering on with no actual hypnosis content in their courses but instead "metaphorical stories" about unconscious installation or zen aphorisms that don’t translate into technique or practice. I am amazed when I hear from a number of friends that they paid a large sum to attend a workshop given by one extremely famous hypnotist only to be confused by the terminology used or the zen expressions being utterred. Do they ccome out with any of the skills promised in the course description? No. Do they blame the course and the instruction? No, they assume it is their own failing (and these guys are bright and skilled hypnotists in their own right). Do they go back to the next course? Sadly, some do, assuming they must continue until they correct their own faults of understanding. Should they? No.
Bad training is worse than no training.
When the training is good and competence-based, it is by far the best option in the world. When it is anything less, then a reasonably intelligent and hard-working individual can probably accomplish more instead of the training or in spite of it.
While instruction is desireable, especially with someone with competence both as a hypnotist and as a teacher (some great hypnotists can’t teach worth spit) . . . the best educator is simple experience and learning from that experience.
Of course . . . I would also be quite happy to say . . . "get thee to my training program" . . . and I do say that . . . feel free to browse here for announcements . . we’ve a very nice one coming up in November that folks would do well to attend . . . the Speed Hypnosis course in Instant and Rapid Hypnosis Techniques looks to be a very special offerring that is well worth not missing. See here and here for more information that you do cannot afford to miss. However, I am also aware that there are others out there who are also competent trainers . . . albeit, in this place, at this time, they aren’t offerring what I can offer due to my unique talents and technical experience.
It is not the number of hours that makes a training worthwhile, but the experience itself.
All the best,
Brian
SPEED HYPNOSIS – Nov. 18-19, 2006
Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com
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