ERICKSONIAN HYPNOSIS: Gentleness and Possibilities

Milton Erickson was an amazing man, a healer and wise person, an MD and father, and a skilled hypnotist who sometimes used trance to increase a person's potential for change, and sometimes just used a way of communicating that allowed the client to discover a new path.

This is often the core of healing.

As in Feldenkrais: it's not the "sore shoulder" that is the "problem. No, the "problem" is between the ears, being stuck in an habitual way of using ourselves that will result in "sore shoulder" no matter how many operations or massages we have.

With Erickson, if you were stuck, he didn't delve into the why, and had no interest in overcoming your "resistance," but was very concerned with giving a person new ways of tasting and experiencing and succeeding in reality.

One nice story is of a little boy, brought into his office, who stomped on the floor in protest at being there. Milton looked, nodded and said, "Pretty good for a little small boy. But if you were a big boy could you stomp harder?" Sure the boy could. "Almost. Could you stomp harder, like a really big boy?" And so on, until, exhausted, the boy more or less begged to sit down and do whatever talking was necessary. The boy never failed, never got into conflict, was never made wrong. His natural energies were used and then he came to a decision to do something else.

And he had proved to both his and Milton's satisfaction, what a "big boy" he could be.

Another client, in a mental institution, was driving everyone nuts going around saying he was Jesus, and didn't need to work, he just needed to give them all the Truth. Milton listened, nodded and then innocently asked, "But if you are Jesus, aren't you a carpenter?" The guy had to say yes. "And then you must be good at doing carpentry?" The guy had to say yes, and ended up becoming quite useful and proud of himself doing odd jobs around the place.

Neither of these instances involved hypnosis per say, and both show a key aspect of Ericksonian hypnosis: the client is always right, and that right can always be used in new and interesting ways.

A trance, which as I use it, is not some wuwu way out thing, but a sense of deep absorption, is a chance to imagine a world in ways that begin to show new possibilities.

In Feldenkrais we might work with one side and have all sorts of amazing improvements, and then "just" imagine doing the work on the other side, and be amazed to have results "just" from imagining. In an Ericksonian trance, we can imagine an alternative set of behaviors in which we try out and succeed in some new behavior: eating more healthfully say, or exercising and enjoying it, or being thrilled and happy to see ourselves in the mirror, or taking time to really enjoy and relax each day.

The essence of Ericksonian hypnosis is the expansion of possibilities.

Amazingly enough that is the essence of WakeUp Feldenkrais, and of Feldenkrais work, and of the Byron Katie work. What a small sweet world we have here, all for your change and improvement and delight!