Handbook of Hypnotic Techniques, Vol. 3: Voices of Experience, #6

By Mark P. Jensen

Hypnosis has proven efficacy for helping individuals make important changes in their lives. In Vol. 3 of the Handbook of Hypnotic Techniques series, master clinicians from around the world describe an additional set of favorite hypnotic strategies and techniques that they have found to be most effective in their own clinical work. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Denny Creek Press
• Release date: Mar 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224306664

Mark P. Jensen

Mark P. Jensen, Ph.D., is a Professor and Vice Chair for Research at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, USA. He has been studying chronic pain and helping individuals better manage chronic pain for over 30 years. He has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies to study the efficacy and mechanisms of various treatments for chronic pain, including hypnosis. He has published extensively (six books and over 500 articles and book chapters) on the topics of pain assessment and treatment. He has has received numerous awards for his writing and scientific contributions including the 2004 Roy M. Dorcus award for Best Clinical Paper from the Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, the 2009 Clark L. Hull award for Scientific Excellence in Writing from the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, and the 2012 American Psychological Association Division 30 Award for Distinguished Contributions to Scientific Hypnosis. His book on the use of hypnosis for chronic pain management (Hypnosis for Chronic Pain: Therapist Guide, published by Oxford University Press) won the 2011 Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis Arthur Shapiro Award for Best Book on Hypnosis. He is also a popular international speaker and workshop facilitator.

Book preview

Contents

CONTRIBUTORS

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: Introduction

CHAPTER 2: Not Everything that Counts: Therapeutic Scaling with Clinical Hypnosis

CHAPTER 3: Using Ideo-Dynamic Responses for Creative Problem Solving

CHAPTER 4: The Double Mirror Technique

CHAPTER 5: Nature-Guided Hypnosis: Facilitating Hypnotic Elicitation

and Therapy Through Client-Gen

CHAPTER 6: Hypnosis Encounters Quantum Physics: A New Healing Field

CHAPTER 7: The House of Self Technique

CHAPTER 8: The 3D Technique

CHAPTER 9: Co-Creating Hypnotic Experiences

with Couples

CHAPTER 10: It’s as Easy as 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

CHAPTER 11: The Gentle Art of Connecting Clients

with their Resources

CHAPTER 12: Application of Dissociative-Associative Techniques During Hypnotic

Psychotherapy

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Also available in the Voices of Experience® series…

Copyright 2024 Mark P. Jensen

Handbook of Hypnotic Techniques, Vol. 3: Favorite Methods of Master Clinicians

Edition: 1st Edition

Book 6 in the Voices of Experience® series.

Editor: Mark P. Jensen

ISBN# paperback:978-1-946832-16-0

ISBN# Kindle: 978-1-946832-17-7

Library of Congress # (paperback edition only): 2019906818

Published by:

Denny Creek Press

Kirkland, Washington

[e-mail]

Cover art by Roseanna White

Cover photo by Lisa C. Murphy

Interior design by Roseanna White

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by an electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording means or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Handbook of Hypnotic Techniques, Vol. 3: Favorite Methods of Master Clinicians /

Mark P. Jensen, editor.

Includes bibliographic references

ISBN 978-1-946832-16-0 (alk. paper)

1. Hypnotism—Therapeutic Use ​2. Psychotherapy

Dedicated with gratitude to the scientists who have studied,

are studying, and will study the effects and mechanisms

underlying hypnosis treatments.

Their contributions to the field are immense and inspiring.

Praise for

Handbook of Hypnotic Techniques, Vol. 3

"The editor, Mark Jensen, and the 11 experts he selected, give readers a symphony of ideas, methods, and suggestions suitable for all levels of training. Practitioners less experienced in clinical hypnosis are given entry to a room of secrets, with expert therapists generously revealing their favorite methods, methods that give effective and predictable results, and proven techniques that stay fresh in a therapeutic context, adaptable to the specifics of individual patients. Clinical experts can satisfy their curiosity about the work of colleagues of different nationalities and backgrounds, colleagues who have experimented with what they propose, recognizing how much there is still to learn in this scientific and artistic world of hypnosis.

Each chapter of this carefully edited book offers luminous pearls of wisdom scattered throughout both the theoretical and experiential parts, illuminating new paths. This book, with 11 useful techniques, proposed in a well-argued and structured way, gives the reader the desire to put new methods into practice. After experimenting with these methods according to the instructions of the authors, readers realize that they can make their own adaptations, introject them, insert them into their artistic repertoire using their own voice, which is unique and special, like that of the individual authors. In fact, the purpose of the book is precisely this: to pass the baton to the readers, who in turn can continue to spread what makes clinical hypnosis effective."—Consuelo Casula, Dipl. Psych, author of Metaphors for Personal & Professional Evolution: Gardeners, Princesses & Porcupines, past president of the European Society of Clinical Hypnosis, recipient of the IV International Award Franco Granone from the Franco Granone Centro Italiano Ipnosi Clinica e Sperimentale (CIICS), and recipient of the Pierre Janet Award for Clinical Excellence from the International Society of Hypnosis.

"TheHandbook of Hypnotic Techniques, Vol. 3 is a wonderful book that shows the enormous creativity of experienced practitioners, making you curious to try it out for yourself."—Burkhard Peter, PhD, Dipl. Psych, founding president of the Milton H. Erickson Society for Hypnosis, Germany (MEG), and editor-in-chief of the German journal Hypnose-ZHH.

"The Handbook of Hypnotic Techniques, Vol. 3 is an educational and practical resource for professionals wishing to expand their clinical expertise in the field of hypnosis. Dr. Mark P. Jensen has collected clever and inspired authors, with 11 effective techniques explored in comprehensive chapters. These offerings will energize clinicians who want to learn from some of the best in the field and enhance their skillset. As the latest addition to the Voices of Experience®series, this book is another must-read volume from Dr. Jensen."—Stephen Lankton, LCSW, Editor-in-Chief, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, and author of The Answer Within and Tools of Intention.

About the Voices of Experience® series

Research demonstrates that experienced hypnosis practitioners obtain better outcomes than hypnosis practitioners who are relatively new to the field. For example, Barabasz and colleagues found that the participants in a study of smoking cessation who were treated by clinicians experienced in the use of hypnosis evidenced over four times greater treatment response than participants who were treated by clinical psychology interns with minimal training (Barabasz et al., 1986). Although this finding may seem intuitively obvious, clinician experience has not been found to play a role in treatment outcome for many other (nonhypnotic) psychological therapies (Berman & Norton, 1985; Durlak, 1979; Shapiro & Shapiro, 1982).

Thus, hypnosis outcomes appear to be particularly sensitive to the benefits of experience. This makes sense, given that hypnosis involves the creative application of specific techniques for enhancing patient readiness to accept new ideas (i.e., the hypnotic induction; Jensen, 2017), as well as the skilled use of language to develop and offer suggestions for changes in how a patient feels, thinks, or behaves. By observing the patient’s immediate and longer-term response to treatment, clinicians discover and refine effective techniques and hone their use of language; through this process, they learn what works and what does not work.

Given the widespread use of hypnosis, clinicians in some regions will likely discover and develop techniques that other clinicians may not have (yet) discovered. Thus, there are master clinicians worldwide who are using effective methods that clinicians in other parts of the world may not have heard of or discovered yet.

Unfortunately, while many of the world’s most experienced clinicians facilitate workshops in their own countries, they do not always teach at international conferences, such as the triennial World Congress of Medical & Clinical Hypnosis (www.ishhypnosis.org). Nor is every practicing clinician able to participate in workshops that are offered around the world. The purpose of the Voices of Experience® series is to give practicing clinicians access to the wealth of knowledge held by master clinicians throughout the world, in order to increase the ease and efficacy of treatment.

To make this information easily accessible, in the chapters contained in the series’ books, the authors describe the theories or ideas that underlie their favorite hypnotic approaches and techniques. They also provide a transcript or script that illustrates the technique or approach they find useful, along with commentary. Thus, each chapter is much like having an opportunity to participate in a workshop offered by the authors. I hope and anticipate that readers will enjoy learning, and then incorporating into their practice, the wisdom and experience shared in this series.

Mark P. Jensen

Editor, Voices of Experience®

References

Barabasz, A. F., Baer, L., Sheehan, D. V., & Barabasz, M. (1986). A three-year follow-up of hypnosis and restricted environmental stimulation therapy for smoking. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 34, 169-181.

Berman, J. S., & Norton, N. C. (1985). Does professional training make a therapist more effective? Psychological Bulletin, 98, 401-407.

Durlak, J. A. (1979). Comparative effectiveness of paraprofessional and professional helpers. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 80-92.

Jensen, M. P. (2017). The art and practice of hypnotic induction: Favorite methods of master clinicians. Kirkland, WA: Denny Creek Press.

Shapiro, D. A., & Shapiro, D. (1982). Meta-analysis of comparative therapy outcome studies: A replication and refinement. Psychological Bulletin, 92, 581-604.

CONTRIBUTORS

George W. Burns, Reg Clin Psych

School of Psychology

Cairnmillar Institute

Melbourne, Australia

[e-mail]

Giuseppe De Benedittis, MD, PhD

University of Milano

Milano, Italy

[e-mail]

Roxanna Erickson-Klein, RN, LPC, PhD

Private Practice

Dallas, TX, USA

[e-mail]

Erickson-Klein.org

Michael Gow, MFDS RCPSG, BDS, MSc Hyp, PGCert

The Berkeley Clinic

Glasgow, United Kingdom

[e-mail]

Mark P. Jensen, PhD, FASCH

University of Washington

Seattle, WA, USA

[e-mail]

Fabienne A. Kuenzli, PhD

Private Practice

Lausanne, Switzerland

[e-mail],

www.reflexivepractices.com

Robert B. McNeilly, MBBS

Private Practice

Hobart, Australia

[e-mail]

www.cet.net.au

Joseph Meyerson, PhD

Master of Arts in Medical Psychology Department

The Max Stern Yezreel Valley College

HypnoClinic, State-Approved Institute for Hypnosis Education

Tel Aviv, Israel

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

Nicole M. Ruysschaert, MD

Private Practice

Antwerp, Belgium

[e-mail]

Peter Miller Schafer, LMSW

Private Practice

Penfield, NY, USA

[e-mail]

Enayatollah Shahidi, MD, Clinical Psychologist

Tehran University

Tehran, Iran

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

Laurence I. Sugarman, MD

Rochester Institute of Technology

Rochester, NY, USA

[e-mail]

J. Philip Zindel, MD

Private Practice

Binningen, Switzerland

j. [e-mail]

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: Introduction            

​Mark P. Jensen

CHAPTER 2: Not Everything that Counts: Therapeutic Scaling with Clinical Hypnosis              

​Laurence I. Sugarman and Peter Miller Schafer

CHAPTER 3: Using Ideo-Dynamic Responses for

Creative Problem Solving            

​Nicole M. Ruysschaert

CHAPTER 4: The Double Mirror Technique              

​Michael A. Gow

CHAPTER 5: Nature-Guided Hypnosis: Facilitating Hypnotic Elicitation and Therapy through Client-Generated Focused Attention              

​George W. Burns

CHAPTER 6: Hypnosis Encounters Quantum Physics:

A New Healing Field              

​Giuseppe De Benedittis

CHAPTER 7: The House of Self Technique              

​Enayatollah Shahidi

CHAPTER 8: The 3D Technique              

​J. Philip Zindel

CHAPTER 9: Co-Creating Hypnotic Experiences with Couples              

​Fabienne A. Kuenzli

CHAPTER 10: It’s as Easy as 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5              

​Roxanna Erickson-Klein

CHAPTER 11: The Gentle Art of Connecting Clients

with their Resources              

Robert B. McNeilly

CHAPTER 12: Application of Dissociative-Associative Techniques During Hypnotic Psychotherapy              

​Joseph Meyerson

ABOUT THE EDITOR              

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHAPTER 1: Introduction

Mark P. Jensen

This is the sixth book in the Voices of Experience® series and the third handbook of hypnotic techniques in that same series. This volume’s chapters 2 through 12 describe and then model 11 hypnotic techniques and ways of thinking about hypnosis that master clinicians from all over the world have found to be particularly powerful and useful.

A key idea or principle underlying this book―indeed, the key idea underlying the entire Voices of Experience® series―is that highly experienced clinicians, who have treated thousands of individuals over decades of clinical practice, have been shaped and trained by their patients to use the most effective approaches and strategies. As they observe their patients respond (or not respond) to various approaches, clinicians identify those that are most useful, honing and adapting classic hypnotic techniques and sometimes inventing new ones. In this way, clinicians’ patients are in many ways the most important and effective teachers.

As a result of this learning, clinicians who have been working for many years represent a rich resource. A primary goal of the Voices of Experience® series is to tap into this resource in order to make the knowledge of master clinicians available to other clinicians.

In Chapter 2 of this volume, Laurence I. Sugarman and Peter M. Schafer describe how clinicians can use scaling—which is the process of asking patients to rate their symptom or experience on simple rating scales—as a therapeutic strategy. They note that although scaling can and often is used to monitor symptom severity throughout treatment, this form of rating can also help patients dissociate from and thereby disrupt fixed maladaptive patterns. The authors describe three steps to helping patients better manage that which is being measured: (1) a relational step, (2) a disruptive step, and (3) a step that facilitates ongoing beneficial change. They also describe five principles that underlie therapeutic scaling which facilitate: (1) the therapeutic connection (relational principle); (2) an understanding of the dynamic and changeable nature of the presenting problem (plastic/dynamic principle); (3) disorientation and creativity (novel principle); (4) the eliciting of a patient’s resources (evocative [of innate resources] principle); and (5) increased comfort with uncertainty, including uncertainty about what good will happen (uncertain/progressive/continuing principle). They note that therapeutic scaling is about helping the patient notice that the problem can and does change, and that the patient has control over this change. In this way, the simple process of symptom severity rating can both facilitate hope and enhance self-efficacy.

In Chapter 3, Nicole M. Ruysschaert describes how clinicians can draw on ideo-dynamic responses―manifested either by an automatic movement associated with a hypnotic suggestion (e.g., hand levitation) or by visualizing that gesture in the absence of actual movement―to help patients understand their innate capacity to create physical, physiological, and nonconscious changes. In the chapter’s transcripts, she models two examples of the use of ideo-dynamic inductions: a piano levitation induction and a growing and shrinking ball induction. Both involve inviting the patient to experience and/or visualize automatic hand movements. The resulting responses can ratify the patient’s experience of hypnosis and the process of positive change. Moreover, these inductions are already associated with readily available metaphors for suggesting positive change. For example, the piano induction suggests maintaining a sense of control (a hands-on approach and in your own hands). The ball induction provides a visceral sense of change in the heaviness of a problem. A key feature of her approach is that it easily engages a patient’s creativity and curiosity.

Michael A. Gow presents his adaptation of the classic Double Mirror technique in Chapter 4. This is a future-rehearsal strategy that facilitates change, first by helping the patient formulate a very specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) behavioral change goal, and then by teaching the patient how to use a positive anchor. Once these are established, the clinician invites the patient to visualize (or, for those who struggle with visualizing, to …imagine what it would look like if you could visualize…) a pair of mirrors, with one always representing how the patient used to feel or be. The other mirror moves gradually forward in time, representing how the patient would like to feel or be in the near future, then again further into the future, and finally into the far future. The patient is invited to step into and out of the near future and further future mirrors multiple times, experiencing positive changes and anchoring this experience. The far future version of the patient in the mirror speaks to the patient, expressing gratitude (for what the patient has done for this future self) and offers advice. The technique ends with the patient looking again in the first mirror, and noticing what has changed and how that change occurred. The chapter is filled with wonderful details about the creative use of hypnotic language. As Gow notes, this strategy is useful for helping patients overcome phobias, reduce or eliminate addictive behaviors or habits, and make positive lifestyle changes for their physical health and psychological well-being.

In Chapter 5, George W. Burns describes hypnotic techniques that draw on the healing qualities of nature to improve well-being. As Burns points out, what we experience at any one time is determined in large part by our focus of attention. Focusing on the negative aspects of a problem, a catastrophic future, or negative thoughts about oneself, increases distress. On the other hand, focusing on positive thoughts and images or on the beauty of nature nurtures well-being. Burns notes that nature is particularly pleasurable and healing for many people. He describes a series of steps that clinicians can use―including use of the Sensory Awareness Inventory―to identify experiences associated with significant pleasure, enjoyment, and comfort. This process results in a list of up to 120 very specific items associated with well-being for the patient. These can then be incorporated into hypnotic suggestions tailored for the patient. Moreover, these items can be used to facilitate healing between sessions. Because a large number of the pleasurable activities identified are related to an experience of nature that is readily available, the helpful impact of treatment can be further enhanced by encouraging the patient to spend time between sessions absorbed in enjoyable and comforting activities.

Giuseppe De Benedittis is a neurosurgeon and pain management specialist who has made, and continues to make, significant contributions to our understanding of the efficacy and mechanisms of hypnosis for pain and symptom management. In Chapter 6, he points out that the human nervous system―which underlies our emotional and sensory experience―is a dynamic and extremely complex system that can be understood from a quantum perspective. Quantum theory has six basic principles (uncertainty, superposition, tunneling, wave function collapse, quantum coherence and entanglement, and nonlocality) that were developed to explain the chaotic behavior of subatomic particles. As Dr. De Benedittis notes, these principles can be applied to many biological processes, including the complex neurophysiological processes that underlie hypnosis and response to hypnotic treatments. In this spirit, he uses quantum theory to inform and explain the efficacy of key hypnotic techniques, including confusion techniques (which strategically apply chaotic patterns to the therapeutic process), dissociation techniques, tunneling strategies, and entanglement approaches, among others. Dr. De Benedittis provides examples of scripts that demonstrate how hypnotic treatment based on quantum principles can elicit hypnotic states and address a variety of presenting problems.

Enayatollah Shahidi is a physician and a clinical psychologist specializing in cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy who flexibly uses a variety of clinical approaches―including hypnosis―in his clinical practice. In Chapter 7, he describes his version of the House of Self technique, first developed by Carlos Manuel Castro. When using this technique, Dr. Shahidi begins by telling the patient that they will be going on an inner journey and that by doing so, they can change their inner world to help them achieve their therapeutic goals. The journey begins by walking towards a house, the exterior of which represents how others might view the patient, and the interior represents their inner world. During the journey, the patient first views the exterior and considers how they might want to make changes to how others might perceive them. Following this, patients are invited to enter the house and become aware of everything they see. Each detail of the interior is meaningful and represents significant issues, perceived obstacles, or problems. The patient is invited to make whatever changes to the interior that they would find helpful. As Dr. Shahidi notes, positive changes occur in the patient’s life as positive changes are made to the exterior and interior of the house during hypnosis.

In Chapter 8, J. Philip Zindel―a world-renowned psychiatrist and psychotherapist from Switzerland― describes the 3D Technique. The basic structure of the technique involves four steps: (1) an introduction, focusing the patient’s attention on their inner experience; (2) a series of questions asking the patient to consider what they wish to have as resources, and to locate those resources in the six directions that surround them: on their right, their left, behind, under, above, and in front; (3) an invitation for the patient to center themselves (or the presenting problem) in the space they have created, surrounded by the resources they imagined; and (4) to notice what they experience as a result of the first three steps. Dr. Zindel describes how these simple steps can be used for general ego-strengthening as well as for addressing very specific treatment goals. In order to ensure that the patient is empowered to make the best use of the experience, Dr. Zindel is very permissive during any post-session discussion of the experience, inviting the patient to reveal or not to reveal their experience, as the patient thinks best. The chapter ends with a fascinating and useful discussion of some key principles that underlie the 3D Technique; principles that would also be very useful to consider when using any hypnotic technique designed to empower individuals.

In Chapter 9, Fabienne Kuenzli describes a six-step hypnotic approach for helping couples co-create new ways of relating positively with one another: (1) inviting the couple to share a common hypnotic experience; (2) experimenting with strategies that limit the influence of negative judgements, resentment, or bitterness; (3) bringing to the foreground positive memories that can be used by the couple as resources; (4) encouraging the couple to create an image of, and then to experience themselves as, a couple in the future; (5) assimilating and ratifying the experience; and (6) reorienting the couple with the resources they have created. She describes each step in detail, providing the reader with the information needed to guide couples through this experience. The chapter includes a description of five specific exercises that the couple can engage in that nurture emotional intimacy and shared pleasure. Given the critical role of positive social connections in improving quality of life, the ideas and strategies presented in the chapter are particularly inspiring.

Roxanna Erickson-Klein is a licensed counselor who, as a daughter of Milton Erickson, has had a life-long experience with hypnosis. In Chapter 10, she describes a favorite hypnotic induction―the 1-2-3-4-5 induction―which utilizes numbers to increase anticipation and curiosity. This simple framework facilitates pacing the subject's responses and makes it easy to provide a variety of interpersonal multi-sensory therapeutic suggestions. The numerical sequence enhances expectation while also inviting spontaneous regression to other times and phases of life. Roxanna Erickson-Klein offers a session transcript in which this induction was tailored for a patient who began treatment with the reported problem of never feeling good enough. This patient's treatment goals included reducing the frequency of his negative self-talk, while increasing his awareness of having a good day. Virtually every sentence of the transcript provides wonderful examples of effective hypnotic language.

In chapter 11, Robert B. McNeilly describes his approach for achieving what Milton