The Basics of Therapeutic Hypnosis: Therapy Books, #2

By Buddy Wagner

This book is designed for classes to teach hypnosis and for therapists who want to learn about hypnosis. It includes discussions of all the essential elements of therapeutic hypnosis including building rapport, conscious/unconscious dissociation, creating metaphors, the induction sequence, the use of therapeutic trance phenomena, posthypnotic suggestions and the process of ending the hypnotic session. It also includes exercises to practice these skills and gives examples. Finally, it discusses the treatment of chronic pain and phobias/panic attacks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Buddy Wagner
• Release date: Jan 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310483271

Buddy Wagner

Buddy Wagner is a National Certified Counselor and a National Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist. He is a graduate of Mississippi College with a Bachelor's Degree in Latin and the University of Mississippi with a Master's Degree in Community Counseling and a PhD in Educational Psychology. He served as Director of the Counseling Center at Mississippi College from 1986 to his retirement in 2009. He continued to teach in the Counseling Psychology Graduate Program at Mississippi College to 2018. He taught Techniques in Group Counseling, Techniques in Brief Therapy and Special Studies in Hypnosis. He and his wife, Sheila, live in Clinton, Mississippi. Between them, they have five children and six grandchildren.

Book preview

The Basics of Therapeutic Hypnosis

Second Edition

Buddy Wagner, PhD

Published by Buddy Wagner at Smashwords.com

Copyright 2015 Buddy Wagner

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or it is not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Disclaimer

This book is for educational and informational purposes only. The contents should not be applied for the treatment of any individual. No guarantees of results are implied, expressed or intended as a result of reading this material. The material is not intended as a cure or remedy for any mental health problem. Reading this book does not prepare or qualify you to use hypnosis in a therapeutic relationship.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2 - Self-Hypnosis

Chapter 3 - Leading Others Into Trance

Chapter 4 - Metaphors

Chapter 5 - Use of Trance Phenomena

Chapter 6 - Post-Hypnotic Suggestions and Cues

Chapter 7 - Using Hypnosis for Specific Issues

Postscript

References

About the Author

Preface

I was trained in hypnosis in the early 90’s, received advanced training a couple of years later and became a National Board Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist. I have used hypnosis in my practice since this training. I do not exclusively use hypnosis. I also use Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Positive Psychology, Mindfulness and Energy Psychology. Most of the time I use some combination of these five approaches. I find that these work well together.

For the past several years I have taught a class in hypnosis for graduate students who are being trained to become mental behavioral health counselors, marriage and family therapists or school counselors. I am writing this book to use as a text for this class. This book will give a step-by-step account of how I teach the class. Anyone teaching hypnosis may find this book useful as well as anyone interested in learning about hypnosis and its use as a therapeutic tool.

"Hypnosis is not a cure-all. It will not solve all the world’s problems, but it is an effective tool to assist you and others in resolving many of the issues that you face. I find it especially useful in assisting with problems that are unconsciously based; problems that are not conscious choices. People do not choose to have phobias, panic attacks, anxiety, depression or chronic pain. These are the types of issues where I find hypnosis working most effectively. Hypnosis also works quickly in resolving the problem. I seldom see a person more than four sessions.

An effective therapist has as many tools in her tool chest as possible. If she can only use one theory or one technique, she will be ineffective many times. Hypnosis is one of many tools that I use. I highly recommend that you add this tool to your set of skills." (Wagner, 2013)

This is not intended to be a comprehensive book about hypnosis. There are many good books already on the market. It is intended to be a brief account of the essentials of therapeutic hypnosis. I hope that by reading this book, you can easily understand the necessary ingredients that go into effective therapeutic hypnosis.

Chapter 1

Introduction

In this chapter my goal is to give you an overview of the following chapters. I’ll give a brief synopsis of the chapters so that you will know what to expect in each chapter.

In chapter 2 I discuss self-hypnosis. By learning to use trance in your own life, you will have a better understanding of how to use it with others. This chapter tells you how to produce a trance and how to know