VI

6.Metaphors

The Father of Hypnotherapy

No discussion of hypnosis orneuro-linguistic programming (NLP) can be complete without discussing Dr. Milton Erickson. Erickson was an American psychiatrist and the father of modern hypnotherapy. Although Erickson was the leader in hypnosis, he only used formal hypnosis inone-fifth of his sessions (BT10 Fundamentals of Hypnosis 04, 2010). The real unique skill of Erickson was his use of metaphors.

Erickson understood and mastered the premise that anything that assumes trance causes trance. In other words, you do not have to formally induce someone into a trance state in order to deliver unconscious commands or information.

The Wikipedia page on Erickson (Wikipedia, 2020) sums up how well he used this metaphor model:

Erickson believed that the unconscious mind was always listening and that, whether or not the patient was in trance, suggestions could be made which would have a hypnotic influence, as long as those suggestions found resonance at the unconscious level. The patient could be aware of this or could be completely oblivious that something was happening. Erickson would see if the patient would respond to one or another kind of indirect suggestion and allow the unconscious mind to participate actively in the therapeutic process. In this way, what seemed like a normal conversation might induce trance, or a therapeutic change in the subject.

The basic principle that Erickson subscribed to is that what assumes trance causes trance (BT10 Fundamentals of Hypnosis 04, 2010).

Erickson maintained that trance is a common, everyday occurrence. For an example, while waiting for buses or trains, reading or listening or being involved in strenuous exercise, it is quite normal to become immersed in the activity and go into a trance state, removed from any other irrelevant stimuli. These states are so common and familiar that most people do not consciously recognize them as hypnotic phenomena.

The same situation is in evidence in everyday life, however, whenever attention is fixated with a question or an experience of the amazing, the unusual, or anything that holds a person’s interest. At such moments people experience the common everyday trance.

Because Erickson expected trance states to occur naturally and frequently, he was prepared to exploit them therapeutically, even when the patient was not present with him in the consulting room. This would be similar to how we are not present with a consumer when they encounter an advertising mes