Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual

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Adam Eason School of Therapeutic Hypnosis Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual

www.adam-eason.com Hello and welcome to this manual. Let me welcome you to this manual — this manual gives you all the handouts that are used in class for you to refer to. It also gives you scripts for group hypnosis sessions and exercises done in class on the videos that you do not get to witness in the video footage. Divided into each module, this manual is also going to give you some essential further reading and some exercises to further your skills. That is your introduction and warm welcome over with. Let’s roll our sleeves up and crack on, shall we?

Contents

Module One ��p3

Module Two ��p19

Module Three ��p37

Module Four ��p39

Module Five ��p43

Module Six ��p52

Module Seven ��p59

Module Eight ��p64

Module Nine ��p70

Module Ten ��p76

A Very Brief History of Hypnosis:

Ancient Culture — Indian, Greek and Egyptian Sleep Temples, the Bible

Many accounts date back to the Bible with references of relieving pain and healing by touch. Hysteria is first referred to in Ancient Egyptian history. It was thought of as a result of a moving uterus in women. Later became known as the ‘wandering womb.’ The term hysteria used for women may still be partly responsible for some women being characterised as hysterical. This condition was often treated with prayer. Egyptians were known to have sleep and dream chambers designed to induce trance-like states. There’s also suggestions in history of ancient Greek temples where the ill would go and when they were ready to be healed they were given substances like poppy seed and led into the temple where there was music, incantations, and suggestions, otherwise known as magic spells. The ill person would then go to sleep and ‘hypnos’, the god of sleep, was believed to visit the sleeper in the night.

Dark Ages

During the renaissance, people previously termed as having hysteria, came to be considered as possessed by demons and in need of exorcism. Hysterical symptoms defied the constraints of physical possibility. Right up to the 18th Century, where the most historical related figure was Father Johann Gassner, whose exorcisms bore uncanny resemblance to stage hypnosis perform- ances.

1493–1541 Paracelsus — Magnet Healing

Paracelsus was a Swiss medical doctor and the first known physician who used magnets or Lode- stones (naturally occurring magnets) for healing people. He would pass these magnets over the bodies of the ill to begin the healing process.

1628–1666 Valentine Greatrakes

Greatrakes was an Irish man, who according to many sources in history would heal people by placing his hands over their bodies and passing magnets over them. Many people referred to his as ‘the Great Irish Stroker’, he was known for massaging or stroking problems out of the body.

Mesmer was a student of a Jesuit priest known as Father Maximillian Hehl (1720-1792). Hehl or sometimes spelt ‘Hell’, who not only had an amazing name, but also practised magnet healing and gave Mesmer a set of his magnets to study and make use of. Mesmer (also termed as the ‘father of hypnosis’) came to the conclusion that there was no true magnetism involved but another universal force at work. In 1766 he wrote a book on a theory he termed ‘Animal Magnetism’. The work of Sir Isaac Newton was of great interest to Mesmer and ‘Animal Magnetism’ was about the influence of the moon and planets on the human body in relation to human illness. Mesmer stated that illness was caused when a disturbance in the universal energy flow was disrupted. He held group sessions in Paris salons, these salons had many large tubs (called Baquets) filled with water, iron filings and large rods believed to be magnetised by Mesmer. The clients would gather round and with the help of Mesmer’s many assistance would apply the rods to their affected areas and would have all manner of interactions from crying, convulsing, hysteria and looking glazed over in their eyes. Dramatic crisis was a major term of this era (later now referred to as ‘abreaction’, whereby the client re-experiences negative emotion and ‘releases’ it). Allegedly Mesmer abandoned the use of these magnets when one day they were not at hand so he had to reach for a stick instead (Hypnosis, James, Flores and Schober 2000) and later opted for slow passes with his hands over the patient’s body. Here also is the first glimmer of a divide in believe when an enquiry labelled ‘the Franklin Enquiry’ because of Benjamin Franklin being the American Ambassador at that time in Paris 1784. Mesmer refused to co-operate with the enquiry and eventually the commissioners (amongst many were Antoine Lavoisier and Joseph Ignace Guillotin) worked with a student of Mesmer’s Named Charles Deslon. Many experiments were performed with participants classed as susceptible to mesmerism. The participant in one experiment was informed that magnetic force had been applied to trees in an orchard, where they had been no such force applied and the participants responded accordingly and collapsed, having a ‘crisis’. Another experiment was performed with the opposite, where a ‘mesmerist’ stood behind a screen and passed magnets in front of the participant who failed to respond to the actions. When the screen was removed and the same technique was used at the same distance the participant responded. The commissioners of the experiments concluded that terms such as ‘animal magnetism’ and other such creation need not be created and that the critical factor in mesmerism was the patients believe and use of imagination. These were some of the very first controlled psychological experiments. Remember the pictures I showed you in class? Remember the mention of convulsions? Everyone heard this is what happened and so it happened. There were also pictures on walls of people having convulsions and people in hysterical states during his healing sessions. I have included a book on Mesmer for your reference if you’d like to research further.

Puysegur practised Mesmerism and brought us the term ‘Artifical Somnambulism’ as opposed to the emotional crisis used by many mesmerists.

1756–1819 Abbe de Faria — ‘Lucid Sleep’

Rejecting the notion of ‘Animal Magnetism’ and termed a state with what he called ‘lucid sleep’ and went on to mesmerise 5,000 people and stated that only one fifth of them were capable of ‘lucid sleep’ (Medical and Dental Hypnosis, Heap & Aravind). This figure is equivalent to the 10–20% of the population that are considered highly susceptible to hypnosis today. Faria stated that, “We cannot induce concentration in individuals whenever we desire; rather we need to find people who are inherently susceptible”. He also replaced passes of the hands or other object such as magnets over the patient’s body with the use of verbal suggestion and one of his induction techniques involved having the subject concentrate on the concept of sleep. If the person was susceptible to this method then they would eventually enter into a ‘lucid sleep’ state.

1791–1868 John Eliotson — Use of hypnosis in surgery

Eliotson was quite a strong willed character, quite irritable at times and quick to make snap judgements. And later on an aggressive opponent of James Braid. Eliotson invented the modern day Stethoscope we use today and, as a senior physician at The London University College Hospital and Professor of Medicine at The University of London, he promoted using ‘mesmerism’ and specifically in surgery. He later lost his position because of his use of Mesmerism as a pain control and anaesthetic method.

1795–1860 James Braid — ‘Hypnotism’

Braid brought us the word ‘hypnosis’, which was originally termed ‘neurypnology’. He considered sleep was significant idea with regards to hypnosis. Braid was a Scottish doctor practising in Man- chester who went to see a public exhibition of mesmerism, found it fascinating but the theories quite outrageous. He brought us a new induction method with the fixation of the eyes on a point just above eye level. This was due to Braid noticing that the subjects who took part in the mesmeric acts would fixate their eyes, looking up at ‘the mesmerist’. This is where I refer to a point where major state vs. none state theories begin to emerge more intensely. Here’s the definition that Braid gave hypnosis: “A derangement to the state of cerebral spinal centres by fixated stare, absolute repose of the body, immobility of the body, fixed attention on the words of the hypnotist, and suppressed respiration’ — coming from the angle of hypnosis being a “psychological state a person is put in, similar to that of the mentally ill.” In 1855 he changed his definition of hypnosis to: “A state of mind induced primarily by suggestion.” He then referred to hypnosis as ‘Monoideism’, whereby the focus of attention was placed on the subject focusing on a single idea or concept suggested to them by a hypnotist, free of other dis- traction. The subject being in this state of heightened awareness would have more intensified imagination, belief and expectation than when in the ‘normal’ waking state. This was the era where

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module One • p5 Amnesia became a major characteristic of hypnosis for around 100 years, without amnesia the state the subject entered was termed as not true hypnosis. Unfortunately for Braid the term ‘monoideism’ did not stick as well as hypnosis. Eliotson was an aggressive opponent to the later James Braid, Eliotson and Braid would argue publicly with regards the state vs none state argument of hypnosis and their differing views.

State vs Nonstate (more on this later on in this manual)

State emphasises differences between hypnosis and everything else. Nonstate emphasises similarities between hypnosis and everything else. aka sociocognitive/ cognitive behavioural. State = Special state — altered consciousness — magical Nonstate = Sceptical — rational — common sense (Scottish = Braid)

1808–1859 James Esdaille

Esdaille was a Scottish surgeon who experimented with mesmerism as anaesthesia in surgery and practised on many patients, initially convicts in Bengal, India. Eventually he operated on around 200 with large scrotal tumours, who were to report feeling little or no pain. There was again much controversy other these practises especially with those from the medical profession.

1823–1904 Ambroise-Auguste Liebeault — School of Nancy

Liebeault combined elements of Braid’s ‘focused attention’ hypnotism with more recent mesmerism. He joined forces with Hipolyte Bernheim to founder the Nancy School of Hypnotism.

1835–1893 Jean Martin Charcot — Hypnosis as an abnormal state

Charcot was a popular and well educated neurologist and surgeon in Paris and had the stance that hypnosis was a ‘special state’ much similar to people with hysteria, mania and other mental disorders who all exhibited phenomena such as hallucinations, amnesia, cataleptic states etc. He was influenced much more by mesmerism and the early work of James Braid — with reference to ‘a special state’.

1837–1919 Hipolyte Bernheim (state vs non state arguments with Charcot), emphasis on suggestion, Hypnotherapy School of Nancy

Bernheim, who was at that time a professor of medicine at Nancy, was introduced to hypnosis by Liebeault (who together co foundered the Nancy School of Hypnosis). Liebeault and Bernheim both had the ‘none state’ or none special state views to hypnosis, as likened to much a more amplified occurrence of everyday phenomena. At this stage in time there were great differences between Jean Martin Charcot at his school in paris (special state) and The Nancy School of Hypnosis (None state), run by Liebeault and Bernheim.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module One • p6 Charcot stated that hypnosis had three stages these being lethargy, catalepsy and then somnambulism. He insisted hypnosis was an abnormal state. There was then more rivalry between the well know and popular Charcot with his colleagues at the Paris school (with hypnosis being a special state) and The Nancy School (non state, hyper suggestibility in all of us)… Liebeault and Bernheim made the emphasis on hyper suggestibility rather than a special state or abnormal state and this created many a ferocious argument that lasted for around 20 years, even to this day to a lesser degree. The good points of this being Bernheim did demonstrate that the range of phenomena classed as ‘hypnotic phenomena’ could be demonstrated in 15% of the population so could not be confined to patients of hysteria; this ‘hypnotic phenomena’ was also found in everyday occurrences as natural states.

1859–1947 Pierre Janet — Dissociation

Janet had the view on hypnosis as dissociation and was particularly interested in abnormal states due to his work as a psychologist and psychotherapist. He had the view that hypnosis was a special state and went on to do research into automatic behaviour, such as automatic writing.

1849–1936 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov — Stimulus response

We have Pavlov to thank for the research he did into ‘stimulus response’ which now forms the basis of Anchoring in Neuro Linguistic Programming, which is today part of hypnotherapy.

1857–1926 Émile Coué — Laws of Suggestion

Coué set out ‘The Laws of Suggestion’, which are greatly used by today’s modern hypnotists and therapists. Coué wrote a book on the use of his techniques known as ‘Auto-suggestion’. His theory on hypnosis was that of a suggestion and he abandoned any claim others put forward to him with regards hypnosis was a sleep like or induced condition within another. The French pharmacist, popularised the following laws of suggestion: The Law of Concentrated Attention Whenever attention is concentrated on an idea over and over again, it spon- taneously tends to realize itself. The Law of Reversed Effect The harder one tries to do something, the less chance one has of success. The Law of Dominant Effect A strong emotion/suggestion tends to replace a weaker one.

Nonstate proponents starting rolling into town next:

Sarbin 1950s — Role enactment, sceptical. Think, act, feel = role.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module One • p7 Barber 1960s — Empirical research, proof of Sarbins view ‘imaginal Absorption.’ Kirsch — Expectation = dominant factor Spanos — Cognitive strategies. Talked of GDF, Goal Directed Fantasy. Hypnotist gives suggestion/ instruction — client makes images and does self-hypnosis.

1911–2005 Theodore Sarbin — Mr Role Play

Sarbin developed one of the earliest set of scales for measuring hypnotic susceptibility (The Fried- lander-Sarbin Scale). He was known as ‘Mr Role play’ for his theories into Role Enactment in hypnotherapy. He believed in the none state side of the argument and believed that the client acted according to the role expected by the therapist.

1927–2005 Theodore X. Barber — ‘Cognitive behavioural’ theory of hypnosis

Barber performed a major body of research indicating that hypnosis was not a special state — thereby he held the none state view in favour that hypnosis was more a result of ordinary psychological factors, such as imagination, motivation and expectation. Barber also developed ‘The Creative Imagination Scale’ and the Barber Suggestibility Scale; note there the emphasis on ‘suggestion’ and ‘imagination’ rather than ‘susceptibility to hypnosis’.

1942—1994 Nicholas P. Spanos —‘ hypnotic skills training’

Spanos was a professor of psychology at Carleton University and another researcher into hypnosis. He developed his own method of training others to be good hypnotic subjects. He called the training ‘The Carleton Skills Training Programme’ (CSTP). Accordingly this guy adopted the non state theories of the previous Sarbin and Barber. Decline of hypnosis — due to emergence of psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)

Psychoanalysis and Hypnotherapy

Hypnosis, which at the end of the 19th century had became a popular phenomenon, in particular due to Charcot’s public hypnotism sessions, was crucial in the invention of psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud, a student of Charcot. Freud later witnessed a small number of the experiments of Liébeault and Hippolyte Bernheim in Nancy. Back in Vienna he developed abreaction therapy using hypnosis with Josef Breuer. When Sigmund Freud discounted its use in psychiatry, in the first half of the last century, stage hypnotists kept it alive more than physicians.

1856–1939 Sigmund Freud — Psychoanalysis

Freud studied hypnosis with Charcot at the school of Nancy, but abandoned it due to his greater interest in psychoanalysis and free association. He found that his use of hypnotic regression and abreaction created short lived results on the direct removal of symptoms in his patients. Freud also claimed that hypnosis was a volatile state and dangerous — maybe because of his search for ‘repressed memories’ or what some call ‘analysis paralysis’, that being the over analysis of negative

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module One • p8 events. During this time many refer to it as the ‘heyday’ of hypnosis when the use of hypnosis declined greatly. Average hypnosis sessions required to affect change — statistics shown 5–6 in research by Platanov. James Braid average — 5 sessions. Average sessions a client of Freuds had? 1300 — minimum of two years therapy, often starting with daily sessions for the initial weeks. You do the math!

1884–1952 Clark L Hull — “Anything that assumes trance causes trance.”

Hull is considered the most influential figures in behaviourism and was president at the American Psychological Society. He wrote the first major scientific text on hypnosis after he and his team conducted many experiments and published these in a book called ‘Hypnosis and Suggestibility’ in 1933. His work remained unnoticed by the majority for around 25 years.

1885–1973 George Estabrooks — Direct hypnosis / authoritative approach

Estabrooks focussed on the direct approach to hypnosis — my guess is the ‘special state’ approach used by many a stage hypnotist today, whereby they shout “sleep!” to another in a commanding voice.

1901–1980 Milton Erickson — Indirect / permissive hypnosis

Erickson is referred to many as the ‘father of modern hypnosis’. He focussed his work on the use of indirect suggestion or permissive language (allowing the client to find resources they had already within them) which is used greatly today in modern hypnotherapy. Ericksons work led to the creation of ‘Ericksonian’ style hypnosis within the field of hypnotherapy. He also developed a number of techniques known as ‘pattern interrupts’, one example being the hand shake induction as a means for a rapid induction.

1900 Dave Elman

Elman created a variation of inductions whereby he would show the client how to ‘do’ hypnosis and get them to follow him. He used a combination of authoritarian and permissive inductions. I leave him here because he is of interest to me. Elman published a book with the title ‘Hypnotherapy’.

1921–2004 Andre Weitzeenhoffer — Stanford Scales of Hypnotic Susceptibility

During the 1950s, Weitzeenhoffer, along with a famous chap named Ernest Hilgard (1904–2001) developed the most widely used scales of hypnotic susceptibility (known as the Stanford Scales of Hypnotic Susceptibility, since they were developed at Stanford University, surprisingly!). Ernest

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module One • p9 Hilgard also notably eveloped his Neo-dissociation theory on hypnosis, based upon earlier dissociation theorists work.

1950–Today Richard Bandler, NLP…

Although not mostly about hypnosis, NLP and hypnosis are inseparable as of today. Bandler along with his colleagues, who were interested in language and behaviour decided to study people who were excellent at something and model them. NLP was born and we (as hypnotherapists) now have much more knowledge of language, behaviour and neurology then we did previously… NLP is built upon the Universal Modelling Process (Distortion, Generalization, Deletion), this is believed to be the universal process for learning and mental cognition of which is what makes up the convenient attitudes and beliefs modelled from successful people — the techniques are a by product of these beliefs, but nonetheless useful. The co-founders Richard Bandler & John Grinder modelled many successful people including: Gregory Bateson, Fritz Perls, Milton Erickson, Noam Chomsky, Alfred Korzybski, Virginia Satir.

1963–Today Paul McKenna — The Gates Trial

As Richard Bandler once mentioned, “Paul McKenna was one of the last witches to be persecuted for hypnotherapy in court…” on the introduction to one of his master classes. He was referring to the famous Paul McKenna vs. Christopher Gates Trail which took place in 1998. Christopher Gates had gone to one of McKenna’s stage shows in 1994. The next day his girlfriend had reported he was acting quite strange; on being admitted to hospital, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The trail debated the state vs. non state theory and eventually Paul McKenna was cleared of making someone a schizophrenic. The case was cleared with ‘all hypnosis is self-hypnosis’ declared. If you’d like to see the case notes, get in touch and I can show you how and where to get them. Finally, to this date there are still those that push hypnosis as a special state, where the other person has no control. Comedy shows and horror movies play upon this belief formed centuries ago and the media never fails to have an image of someone swinging a pendulum with a ‘victim’ under their power.

First International Congress, 1889

First International Congress for Experimental and Therapeutic Hypnotism was in Paris, France August 8–12, 1889. Attendees included Jean-Martin Charcot, Hippolyte Bernheim, Sigmund Freud and Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault. The second was in August 12–16, 1900.

British Medical Association Approval, 1892

The Annual Meeting of the BMA, in 1892, unanimously endorsed the therapeutic use of hypnosis and rejects the theory of Mesmerism (animal magnetism). Even though the BMA recognized the validity of hypnosis, Medical Schools and Universities largely ignored the subject.

The British Hypnotism Act of 1952

In 1952, the Hypnotism Act was brought by United Kingdom government to regulate the public demonstrations of stage hypnotists for entertainment.

British Medical Association Approval, 1955

On April 23, 1955, the British Medical Association (BMA) approved the use of hypnosis in the areas of psychoneuroses and hypnoanesthesia in pain management in childbirth and surgery. At this time, the BMA also advised all physicians and medical students to receive fundamental training in hypnosis.

American Medical Association Approval, 1958

In 1958, the American Medical Association approved a report on the medical uses of hypnosis. It encouraged research on hypnosis although pointing out that some aspects of hypnosis are unknown and controversial.

American Psychological Association Approval, 1960

Two years after AMA approval, the American Psychological Association endorsed hypnosis as a branch of psychology.

Good books on subject of the History of Hypnosis :

Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis by Robin Waterfield A History of Hypnotism by A Gauld.

I have publicly and privately debated this one… Lost energy for the debate for a while, then got back on one and gone for it again… It has been argued about, fought over, discussed, debated and still no-one really has created a wholly ‘agreeable-upon’ definition of hypnosis — some might argue that it is virtually impossible to define such an intangible subject matter. Here is an attempt to distinguish between various different meanings of the word ‘hypnosis’ and related concepts according to many varying people within and related to this field:

Dictionary Definition(s)

Hypnosis: 1. Hypnotic trance; an altered state of awareness (‘trance’) in which unconscious or dissociated responses to suggestion are enhanced in quality and increased in degree (‘hyper-suggestibility’). 2. Hypnotic induction (‘hypnogenesis’); the process by which hypnotic trance is induced in the operator (‘auto-’ or ‘self-hypnosis’) or in others (‘hetero-hypnosis’). 3. Hypnotism; the field of study which encompasses, among other things, hypnotic trance; its induction, management, and application; and related subjects such as the phenomena of ‘waking suggestion’ and naturally occurring (‘hypnoidal’) trance states. (Abbrv. of ‘neuro-hypnotism’ meaning ‘sleep of the nervous system.’) Hypnotherapy: The use of therapeutic techniques or principles in conjunction with hypnosis. I’d say it is important for you to make sure you distinguish between hypnosis and hypnotherapy as well as being a hypnotist and a hypnotherapist. So here goes with a load of definitions and discussions for what hypnosis actually is… First up, the man himself, Scottish common sense hypnosis man…

James Braid:

He is the man who first coined the term ‘hypnotism’, so he has some big authority and credibility in this debate, in my opinion. Though I have seen people on hypnosis discussion forums argue against even that notion! James Braid replaced the supernatural theory of mesemerists who were around before and during his time, with a genuine scientific, medical account based on measurement and observation, thereby pioneering the medical acceptance of hypnosis. Braid actually coined the term ‘Neuro- Hypnotism,’ which he himself abbreviated to ‘Hypnotism’:

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module One • p12 “…a peculiar state of the nervous system, induced by a fixed and abstracted attention of the mental and visual eye, on one object, not of an exciting nature.”

Braid, Neurypnology, 1843

Braid later reviewed his idea that hypnosis was a specific neurological state and replaced it with the theory that hypnosis was ‘monoideism,’ the fixation of consciousness on a single idea or object (and we got the eye fixation induction as a result):

“The real origin and essence of the hypnotic condition is the induction of a habit of abstraction or mental concentration, in which, as in reverie or spontaneous abstraction, the powers of the mind are so much engrossed with a single idea or train of thought, as, for the nonce, to render the individual unconscious of, or indifferently conscious to, all other ideas, impressions, or trains of thought.”

Braid, 1852: 53–54

Hippolyte Bernheim:

One of the great, early pioneers of hypnosis. Professor Bernheim not only had a very cool Christian name, he was also an important figure in the history of French psychology and is credited with popularising the view that hypnosis is fundamentally both a state of heightened suggestibility and induced by means of suggestion. He also refuted the connection people made between hypnosis and sleep:

“To define hypnotism as induced sleep, is to give a too narrow meaning to the word, to overlook the many phenomena which suggestion can bring about in- dependently of sleep. I define hypnotism as the induction of a peculiar psychical condition which increases the susceptibility to suggestion. Often, it is true, the sleep that may be induced facilitates suggestion, but it is not the necessary pre- liminary. It is suggestion that rules hypnotism.

I have tried to show that suggested sleep differs in no respect from natural sleep. The same phenomena of suggestion can be obtained in natural sleep, if one succeeds in putting one’s self into relationship [rapport] with the sleeping person without waking him.

This new idea which I propose concerning the hypnotic influence, this wider definition given to the word hypnotism, permits us to include in the same class of phenomena all the various methods which, acting upon imagination, induce the psychical condition of exalted susceptibility to suggestion [hyper-suggestibility] with or without sleep.”

Hippolyte Bernheim, Hypnosis & Suggestion in Psychotherapy, 1884: 15–16

He may have been a wiley stage hypnotist, but remained very influential and well-loved in the hypnosis world until his fairly recent death. He stated: “Basically, hypnosis can be regarded as a state of mind produced by the transfer- ence from one level of consciousness to another; a state with capacities for mental activities distinctly its own directly keyed to the automatic nervous system rather than the sympathetic (central nervous system) productive of the state of mind of somnambulism, i.e. subconscious behavior.” The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism, 1996: p.12 You’ll have to excuse his spelling, he is American! ;-)

The UK Book of Statues:

Now here is one of those things that is sure to fire me up… This is the official legal definition of “hypnotism” provided by the Hypnotism Act 1952. However, I would like to point out what utter nonsense and garbage I think this is, what’s more I think it is incredibly misleading in that it implies hypnosis is a state of ‘sleep.’ This is a step backwards, and did not examine findings of medical researchers such as Bernheim and even Freud. Very annoying. This definition, as stated in the Hypnotism Act, still stands in British law: “Hypnotism” includes hypnotism, mesmerism and any similar act or process which produces or is intended to produce in any person any form of induced sleep or trance in which the susceptibility of the mind of that person to suggestion or direction is increased or intended to be increased but does not include hypnotism, mesmerism or any similar act or process which is self-induced. The Hypnotism Act, 1952 Pah!

The British Medical Association (BMA):

Conscious of the uselessness of the previous definition, the British Medical Association wisely decided to offer up their own definition in response to the Hypnotism Act. This definition concentrates on the measurable psychological and physiological changes in hypnosis. Note well that it deliberately substitutes ‘altered attention’ for the misleading expression ‘induced sleep’ used by the Book of Statues. Although phrased in medical jargon, this is a consider- able improvement in my opinion: “A temporary condition of altered attention in the subject which may be induced by another person and in which a variety of phenomena may appear spon- taneously or in response to verbal or other stimuli. These phenomena include

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module One • p14 alterations in consciousness and memory, increased susceptibility to suggestion, and the production in the subject of responses and ideas unfamiliar to him in his usual state of mind. Further, phenomena such as anaesthesia, paralysis and rigidity of muscles, and vasomotor changes can be produced and removed in the hypnotic state.” BMA, ‘Medical use of Hypnotism’, 1955 If you ever explore this further, you could examine the American Medical Association’s definition which is seemingly pages long!

Dave Elman:

Mr Elman (or ‘Big Dave’ as I like to refer to him) is one of the most highly respected figures in the history of clinical hypnotherapy. Many refer to his book, ‘Hypnotherapy’, as a must-have for any hypnotherapist — I am not one of those many, as it happens. He pioneered the use of rapid induction techniques and was a great advocate of the hypno-ana- lytic approach to therapy. His work is characterised by an astute, common sense approach. He did believe that only medical professionals should use hypnosis and most of his work was aimed at the medical community: “Hypnosis is a state of mind in which the critical faculty of the human is bypassed, and selective thinking established.” Dave Elman, Hypnotherapy, 1964: 26

Gil Boyne:

Gil is a renowned hypnotherapist, trainer of hypnotherapists, and founder of the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners. He is well liked and respected by other hypnotherapists and is still alive. Here is his definition: “Hypnosis is a natural state of mind with special identifying characteristics: 1. An extraordinary quality of relaxation. 2. An emotionalized desire to satisfy the suggested behaviour: The person feels like doing what the hypnotist suggests, provided that what is suggested does not generate conflict with his belief system. 3. The organism becomes self-regulating and produces normalization of the central nervous system. 4. Heightened and selective sensitivity to stimuli perceived by the five senses and four basic perceptions. 5. Immediate softening of psychic defenses.” Gil Boyne, Transforming Therapy, 1985: 380-381

A man whose work I really rather like, he states: “Hypnosis is conceptualized as an experientially absorbing interactional sequence that produces an altered state of consciousness wherein self-expressions begin to happen automatically, without conscious mediation.” Gilligan, Stephen, G., Therapeutic Trances, 1987

Dr. Milton H. Erickson

Finally then, I’ll offer up this little lot from the ‘father’ himself… In ‘The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, Volume I’, page 113, Erickson is quoted as stating: “The hypnotic state is an experience that belongs to the subject, derives from the subject’s own accumulated learning’s and memories, not necessarily consciously recognized, but possible of manifestations in a special state of non waking awareness”. And one of my favourite explanations can be found within ‘The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, Volume IV’ of the same series, page 224: “It is a state of consciousness — not unconsciousness or sleep — a state of consciousness or awareness in which there is a marked receptiveness to ideas and understandings and an increased willingness to respond either positively or negatively to those ideas. It derives from processes and functioning within the subject. And is not some mystical procedure, but rather a systematic utilization of experiential learning’s– that is, the extensive learning’s acquired through the process of living itself.” For those preferring something very easy to remember, from ‘Experiencing Hypnosis’, pg. 187, 1981, Erickson so eloquently states: “All hypnosis is, is a loss of the multiplicity of the foci of attention.” Check that out! I think that is the most hypnotic definition of hypnosis that exists!

Remember: What your own definition of hypnosis is and how you interpret hypnosis will dramati- cally effect and influence your work with your clients, so be sure to have a considered, researched and explored model to work with in your own mind.

In a moment when this hypnotic session is at an end, I shall be counting you up and out of hypnosis as I count from 1 to 5. So when, in a moment, I count one, you have full control, flexibility and co-ordination throughout your entire body, from the tips of your toes, to the top of your head, from your finger tips and thumb tips to your shoulders, this is your entire body. Any feelings, all feelings of lightness and/or heaviness return to their true sense of perspective for you. (Any floating limbs are returned to the conscious mind control as you have the right to expect) When, in a moment, I count two, you position yourself back in the place where you entered into hypnosis, remembering and recalling what was to your left and right, above and below you, remembering and recalling some features of the place.

When, in a moment, I count three, all sounds return to their true perspective and have their correct levels of importance to you. (The sound of my voice, music, etc. is again simply the sound of my voice, having no hypnotic authority for you) When, in a moment, I count four, you are keeping and bringing with you all the wonderful benefits of this hypnotic session, incorporating them into your life. And when, in a moment, I count five, you open your eyes to be fully emerged from hypnosis. 1–2–3–4–5 Eyes open, fully emerged. (Not “awake”) Remember that if necessary, you can bring them up and get them refreshed and energised instead of lethargic and zombied out! Remember… Do not use the word ‘awake’ — you did not send them to sleep. Clients are very suggestible at end of the hypnosis session — use that time wisely. Congratulate them — tell them how good they were (for use next time).

The Use Of Ratification in Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy: http://www.adam-eason.com/2011/03/31/the-use-of-ratification-in-hypnosis-and- hypnotherapy/ Remember: In the video we were pointing out those signs of hypnosis (eyelids fluttering, breathing changing, internal movements, swallowing rate, skin colour, pulse rate, etc. Feed these things back and ratify throughout your hypnosis sessions, it is very effective and very easy to suggest that they “notice that fluttering in your eyes, showing you are doing this so well now and can take you deeper down…” and so on).

The No-Fail Hypnosis Suggestion: http://www.adam-eason.com/2011/04/05/the-no-fail-hypnosis-suggestion/

Hartland’s Medical and Dental Hypnosis:

Highly recommended: If you have it (I recommend you get it if you have not done so) read chapters 1–8 of ‘Hartland’s Medical and Dental Hypnosis’ book by Heap and Aravind. This will greatly supplement this module’s learning.

Eye Accessing Cues:

Read these articles for an up-to-date critique on eye accessing cues and form your own opinions: http://www.kevinhogan.com/NLPeyeaccess.htm, and then also http://www.bradburyac.mistral.co.uk/nlpfax09.htm

Basic Progressive Language:

Ensure you read, understand and begin to fully apply the use of language as in the appropriate section of my self-hypnosis book. Use progressive language all the time from now on — I am assuming you know that stuff from here onwards.

Rep Systems:

Read, explore and investigate opposition to representational systems, predicate preference and matching for rapport development. As a hint, you might like to Google ‘Michael Heap 1988 NLP critique’… Also read my own blog entry on this subject: http://www.adam-eason.com/2011/07/07/do-we-need-matching-and-mirroring-for- effective-rapport-in-hypnotherapy-sessions/ Review the video footage, use the forum, have fun, laugh lots, be loving and practice your skills.

What does NLP stand for? What does it mean? Richard Bandler’s definition:

Neuro: Nervous system through which experience is received and processed through the five senses. Linguistic: Language and non-verbal communication systems through which neural representa- tions are coded, ordered, and given meaning. Programming: The ability to organise our communication and neurological systems to achieve specific desired goals and results.

Who are the three therapists that NLP was based upon?

Milton Erickson — Hypnotherapist & Psychiatrist Friedrich (Fritz) Perls — Gestalt Therapist Virginia Satir — Family Therapist

Submodalities: Checklist Visual

• Black & white or colour? • Near of far? • Bright or dim? • Location? • Size of picture? • Associated/Dissociated? • Focused or defocused? • Framed or panoramic? • Movie or still? • 3D or flat?

• Location? • Direction? • Internal or external? • Loud or soft? • Fast or slow? • High or low? (pitch) • Tonality? • Pauses? • Duration? • Uniqueness of sound? Kinaesthetic:

• Location? • Size? • Shape? • Intensity? • Steady or fluctuating? • Movement/Duration? • Vibration? • Pressure/heat? • Weight?

Class Exercise: A step-by-step way of mapping across:

1. Identify and problem state and a resource state. The resource needs to be more powerful than the problem state. 2. Elicit the submodalities for both states and list them. i.e. You need to get them into a time and place when each occurs. 3. Now get them into the problem state, at a time when it occurs in their life and start to tweak the visual and audio submodalities first (only do kinaesthetic if they require it) one at a time. 4. Keep tweaking the submodalitites until the state is changed. match the submodalities of the problem situation with the resource state.

The Godiva Chocolate Pattern Handout:

Apathy describes a feeling most of us struggle with at one time or the other. Suppose you desire to do something that you know you need to do but presently you do not wish to do. And even

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Two • p20 though you need to do it, or you feel you must do it, because you don’t enjoy doing it, you prevent yourself from doing this particular task. Richard Bandler developed a submodality change pattern that he calls the Godiva Chocolate Pattern that will help you change your feelings from apathy to desire. Wanting to (desire, compulsion) and not wanting to (apathy) do something can be conceived of as operating as primary level experiences. This makes it easy to shift these experiences with a submodality mapping across. 1. “B” begins by thinking about something they have enthusiasm or a compulsion about. This procedure gets its name from the way some people compel themselves over eating chocolate. Utilize all three rep systems in the image. 2. “B” thinks of something they have to do or needs to do so that “B” might as well enjoy doing it. The decision must be congruent with the total system. “B” chooses something that “B” not only needs to do but wants to do. “B” checks their ecology by asking if there any parts object to “B’s” enjoying carrying out this decision enthusiastically. 3. “A” leads “B” in the formation of this decision (# 2) in their mind. Then, “A” asks “B” to open up a small hole right in the middle of the image. 4. “A” leads “B” to form an image of # 1 right behind # 2. “B” will see a small portion of # 1 through the hole of # 2. 5. Now “A” leads “B” to allow the little hole to open up but only AS RAPIDLY as “B” needs to get a full feeling response to # 1. Then “A” directs “B” to allow the hole to close but NO FASTER than “B” can KEEP the feelings generated by experiencing #1. 6. “A” directs “B” to repeat the process done in # 5 three or four more times. “B” performs these rep- etitions rapidly Do a break state between each repetition. Make certain that the feelings of # 1 attach to # 2. 7. “A” asks “B” to look at # 2 and experience the feelings of # 1 simultaneously. 8. Do a debrief.

Creating Your Perfect Future: Future Pacing/Well Formed Outcomes:

In my role as personal development coach in the 2006 BBC1 TV series ‘Run for Glory’, I had to devise a particular technique that drew on many modern psychological fields and one that was all encompassing of many essential ingredients that had benefited me during my own marathon running successes. The participants of the TV series all had very particular and personal reasons for running the London Marathon and were running to raise awareness of their good cause. One of which was a man with AIDS, two ladies had overcome cancer, one had a son with terminal illness. Despite none of them being athletes, they all successfully completed the marathon with the training guidance of Steve Cramm and Sally Gunnell along with a set of psychological techniques from myself.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Two • p21 At the end of last year there was a piece of research carried out in the US that stated that athletes often say that when they are playing well, be it shooting hoops, hitting baseballs, catching passes — the ball appears bigger. Likewise, they say that when they are in a slump the ball appears smaller. When Mickey Mantle hit a 565-foot home run he said, “I just saw the ball as big as a grapefruit.” But Joe “Ducky” Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals said during a slump that he was “swinging at aspirins.” Appearances may be reality, in a sense. The study by University of Virginia psychologists found a correlation between batting averages of softball players and how big, or small, they perceived the ball to be. The study documents that when the players were hitting well they clearly perceived the ball to be bigger. And when they were hitting less well, they perceived the ball to be smaller. The interactions between mind and body — perception and action — may be as interlinked as athletes believe them to be, according to the paper that appeared in the December 2005 issue of the journal Psychological Science. There are many such similar pieces of research that demonstrate how perception and the images we replay in our minds directly affect our performance. The human mind appeared on Earth with astonishing suddenness. Just 70,000 years — the merest eye-blink of geological time — covers our ancestors’ transformation from smart ape to self-conscious Homo sapiens, according to evolution theorists, that is. There we stood as Homo sapiens with the rituals and symbolic art — the cave paintings, beads and bracelets, decorative lamps and burial graves — things that marked the arrival of a self-aware mind. One plausible cause for the great advance made by Homo sapiens was the development of modern speech or, to be precise, the ability to internalise speech and so create a controlling ‘inner voice.’ The suggestion that inner speech could be the key to understanding the special attributes of the human mind is hardly new. Even the Ancient Greeks and the 17th-century philosophers of the Enlightenment — particularly Thomas Hobbes — made reference to the possibility. And Charles Darwin wrote in ‘The Descent of Man’: “A long and complex train of thought can no more be carried on without the aid of words, whether spoken or silent, than a long calculation without the use of figures or algebra.” In the 1930s, the brilliant Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky tried to rebuild the whole of psychology on this insight — an attempt that was defeated by his early death from tuberculosis and the suppression of his writings by the Soviet authorities. As a result, it is only during the past ten years or so that it has begun to dawn on psychologists that inner speech, that is our internal dialogue, may have a very important role in fashioning the human mind itself, going far beyond logical thought to include the entire apparatus of our higher mental powers. Much of the evidence is being gathered outside the boundaries of traditional psychology by researchers in fields as diverse as anthropology, sociology, linguistics and educational psychology as well as the fields of hypnosis which is where my great passion lies.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Two • p22 Of course, every thought and utterance that we say to ourselves is affecting our physiology. There was the experiment done by Norman Cousins, author of ‘Head First: The Biology of Hope and the Healing Power of the Human Spirit’, and he had blood drawn and they tested his blood levels and his immune levels and then immediately after that for one hour he meditated on feeling peaceful feelings. He filled his mind with a simple meditation technique, with ideas and thoughts that were strong on everyone around him being peaceful and everybody finding peace all around him. He did that for one hour and at the end of that hour had blood drawn again and it was shown that some of his immune factors went up 200% in his blood. This was just based on the thoughts he was thinking for one hour. Being heavily involved in the field of hypnosis, there is a well known ‘trick’ that you can play with the mind: You can take an ice cube and tell someone who is in hypnosis, that you are about to place a red hot coal on their hand, and you place it on their skin. Of course, I do not recommend anyone doing this, but it does work and it is a great example of how powerfully your thoughts affect your physical body. The ice cube goes on the skin and having told them that it is a coal that is hundreds of degrees hot, the body has a hard time telling the difference between extreme hot and cold anyway. About 50% of the people find that their skin actually burns and even creates a blister with fluid inside of it as a result. All thanks to the mind sending the exact information to the body for it to begin the healing process. So, I wanted to devise a technique that allowed our unlikely marathon runners to clear out any unwanted thoughts and plant progressive powerful thoughts so that there brain could work for them as well as their legs. If you really want to learn how to clear your mind of unwanted thoughts and begin to prepare yourself for overcoming sporting challenges, or in any other aspect of your life, get used to being in charge of your mind. One key is to remember to focus on your desired outcomes as much as possible. As a general valuable rule; what you focus on the most is what you get. A great way to do this is to start to run yourself through this procedure as often as possible: Firstly, if you keep reminding yourself that you have difficulties being wealthy, then you will continue to have difficulties. If you tell yourself that you can’t do something then you are perfectly right. When you say you can’t do something, you close down that part of your unconscious mind and lose the possibility of anything else happening. Continue to deliver progressive and positive messages to yourself, be open and ensure that you do not keep on reminding yourself how to have problems. There may well be times during your days or as you want to start developing yourself, that old unwanted thoughts and beliefs creep in to your mind. These thoughts and beliefs need to be nipped in the bud. Your thoughts may be images, sounds, your internal dialogue or things you imagine might happen, or feelings and sensations. You want to stop these thought processes from spreading. As I have said numerous times already, imagine that your mind is like a fertile garden and the thoughts that you have in your mind are seeds. All that your thoughts need to grow, is your attention. Your attention is like the rain and sunshine that the seed needs to grow. So, if you allow old, limiting thoughts and beliefs to continue to grow and then keep focusing on them, you are going to have a mind filled with fruit of the belief that you do not know how to overcome obstacles or worse still, a mind filled with failure or lack. If you are in debt and you keep thinking about

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Two • p23 clearing that debt, all you are doing is keeping debt being planted in your mind. Even if you do not want that thought, the content of the thought is the seed you are sowing in your mind — positive or negative. 1. If and when old beliefs or negative thoughts enter your mind in any form (image, sound, feeling) that support any slightest idea about lacking prosperity, failing or being unable to do something, then first of all you need to stop the thought. Shout “Stop” to the thought in your mind to stop it from spreading. Just being aware of it is often enough to stop it going any further. Here you are acknowledging the old thought and choosing not to let it become a seed in your garden. You can even go for imagining that you are letting out an almighty primal scream on the top of a mountain, or even adopt my approach of, “Shut the hell up!” One of the important things to know about this technique is the wonderful notion that “if you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” With this process, you are learning to do new things inside your mind to stop the old pattern from happening on auto- pilot. Instead of just letting old thoughts rattle on and you putting up with them, you are now getting them by the scruff of the neck. 2. So, having stopped the old thoughts by shouting “stop” in your mind, now take two or three deep breaths from the area beneath your tummy button. The area that is known as “the hara” in eastern medicine and philosophy. Take some really good deep breaths, pushing your tummy out as you breathe in and altering your physiology so that you are standing, sitting or holding your body differently than you were previously. Hold your body in a powerful posture, the way that you know you can do when you do something well. Have you ever imagined watching yourself travelling around on a roller coaster? Imagine watching yourself going round on it now and then compare this thought with the thought that you are actually on it? Looping the loop and firing around on the actual roller coaster. They are two very different experiences. Whether you associate with your thoughts in your imagination or step back and dissociate from them really affects your internal experiences. 3. So, thirdly, put the unwanted thought on to a screen of any sort. Just put it on to a screen to dissociate yourself from it. This stops it from becoming a further seed in your mind. Imagine you have a screen in your mind and any unwanted thoughts just get put on to that. Then send that screen away, make it smaller, smash it, ‘white’ it out, just get rid of it in any way. Banish that thought from your mind. Can you remember TVs that had the knobs on the outside and if you turned up the brightness, the screen went all white? Well, imagine that with your mind’s eye and white out the old thought. Get rid of it. From here onwards, this is future pacing and creating well formed outcomes, that is required for many future NLP sessions: 4. Now bring up a picture in your mind of how you do want to be, in charge of your own mind, relaxed, experiencing the joy of success, wealthy or just achieving your prosperity dreams. Place that picture in your mind as if you were looking at it on a new screen. These do not have to be perfect cinema screen pictures by the way, just imagine it as best as you can. If I asked you what colour your front door is, you have to imagine it in order to answer. Just imagine or even pretend that you are imagining and however you do this is the right way for you.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Two • p24 5. As you look at it, make it as vivid as you can. Add your favourite soothing sounds, maybe a favourite piece of relaxing music, or even imagine someone with a wonderful voice, motivating you or giving you sexy, alluring messages. I often imagine Marilyn Monroe huskily, seductively and softly whispering to me to go and do things that I initially did not want to do, hmmm. Then add some wonderful feelings to that version of yourself as you look at it. Where in the body are those relaxed feelings? Make the picture as sensory rich as you can. Use colours and details as much as possible. 6. As you look at this image of yourself in your mind, think to yourself, “I just know that is going to happen,” the same way that you know a brick will fall to the floor if you let go of it. Then, think to yourself, “I deserve that.” Really know that you deserve it. Finally, think that this is funny, humorous and refuse to treat it seriously. When we take our goals too seriously, we often make them too rigid, think to yourself that the journey to your desired outcome is going to be enjoyable and fun! 7. Next, step into that image of you in your mind. Wear it, act like it. When you pretend to be a certain way, you are learning how to be that way at the deeper behavioural level. Really, truly associate with it, feel the feelings of it and get it lodged into your unconscious mind. How does that version of you think, how does that version of you hold their body? Then do those things and BE that version of yourself. This is so important, here you are acquainting your mind with that outcome, you are teaching it how to be that way. Spend some time on this step and really associate with that outcome. See what you would be seeing, hear the sounds of your success, feel the feelings that you would feel. The simple fact that you can imagine what it is like demonstrates that you know how to do this; the potential already exists within you. So, to recap, first stop the unwanted thoughts in your mind. Stop them in their tracks. Take some deep breaths and alter your physiology, then dispose of that thought. Replace it with a more progressive thought about yourself performing wonderfully and deeply. Think about your desired outcome and really allow yourself to move towards that goal. Use this technique and start getting in control of your own mind. You have a mind of your own. Take charge, you are interrupting the old patterns with this process. Take some time out every day to create that image of yourself and how you want things to be and then step into it and immerse yourself in it. Remember, the images you allow in your mind, along with the sounds you play and the feelings you encourage all affect your performance, so get in control of your mind and choose what you allow on board. Think about that next time you try talking yourself out of taking some prosperity actions or sowing seeds in your mind your mind with the things that could go wrong. Have a good think about your perfect desired outcome for your future. Think about your perfect day in sensory rich detail. Include sights, sounds, smells, feelings and everything else that occurs on a perfect day in your future when you are wealthy and financially abundant. Then run through it in your mind on regular basis in the way I have spoken about. Make this a part of your day, to create your perfect future scenarios in your mind, your ideal outcomes. Create them and allow your mind to begin to pull you in that direction. Getting the right well formed outcomes in your mind is so important.

This following script is entirely of my own creation, and is the content of my individual audio hypnosis session for ego strengthening. This is your programme for strengthening and enhancing your inner self. From this moment forwards and lasting throughout your entire lifetime, you find that you are feeling and being progressively more and more mentally calm. You are more and more calm in your thoughts, more and more calm in your feelings, more and more calm in your reactions, more and more calm in your responses. Progressively feeling and being more and more calm with place and person, time and event, circumstance and situation, so wonderfully, naturally and easily calm and beautifully and gently relaxed. It’s like you have more time for your thoughts, more time for your self, your inner self. And mental calmness is the ability to experience events, circumstances and situations in your life in their true and correct perspective and so progressively you do find from this moment forwards that you are experiencing each and every aspect of your life in its true perspective, experiencing each and every event in your life in its true perspective, as it should be; free from distortion of events and happenings of the past. You are so much more mentally calm and what this means is that you have the ability now to deal with and to cope with each and every aspect of your life in a more and more calm way, having time for your thoughts and your feelings, your reactions and your responses. And because you are more and more calm, you are more and more relaxed. More and more physically relaxed, for example, when you are walking upstairs, you are using the muscles that are required to climb upstairs, and the muscles you are not using are resting and relaxing, easily, gently and naturally. And on the occasions when you are resting all your muscles, each of your muscles in turn are relaxing easily and gently, conserving and reserving the energy and the life force that flows through your system. Giving you more natural energy at the times you require it and need it the most, enhancing your belief in yourself, your enthusiasm and your motivation for life. And you know, there is a by-product, a natural benefit of feeling and being more and more relaxed and feeling and being more and more calm. And that is that you notice, you truly notice, that you are becoming, feeling and being more and more confident, more deeply self assured and this is natural because two of the main ingredients of increased confidence are mental calmness and physical relaxation. When you are calm mentally, when you are relaxed, physically, you find that you are naturally feeling and being more and more confident, and so you are from this moment forwards being more confident in each and every aspect of your life. You are more and more confident with place and person, more confident with time and event, more confident with circumstance and situation, so much more confident in your self, really believing in your self and your abilities to achieve the goals you set your self in life. A deep-rooted self-belief in your self. More and more confident in relying on your self to help your self get the very best out of each and every aspect of your life, getting the most out of each and every situation. Instinctively and intuitively depending on your intuition and your instincts and your inner, natural, creative abilities to help you make the most out of each and every aspect of your life.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Two • p26 As you are and feel more confident, more deeply self-confident, so those around you can feel it and how wonderful that feels, how naturally your self-esteem is enhanced more and more each day and night, night and day. Growing and enhancing within you. nd because you are becoming more and more confident, so it is that you are becoming more and more competent. More and more competent in each and every aspect of your life that pleases you. You are better and better in more and more aspects of your life, better and better at making changes in your life that please you, better and better at achieving goals. Better at relying on your self in a way that promotes, endorses and encourages the results you are looking for, the effects that you wish. Because you are becoming better and better in each and every aspect of your life, of course, this means that you are becoming better and better at using hypnosis. You find that your hypnosis is of a better and better quality. Each and every time you choose to enter hypnosis you find that it is easier and easier and more natural for you to enter into hypnosis. You find that you go deeper and deeper so naturally and easily. As a result of this you find that your hypnosis sessions are more powerful and beneficial for you and to you. As a result of your continuing better quality hypnosis, you find that the quality of your sleep is also becoming progressively better and more natural. Each and every time you choose to sleep, you drift easily and simply into sleep, each and every time you choose to enter into sleep you enter into a deeper and deeper, more natural, more beneficial, refreshing, invigorating and relaxing sleep. You find also from this moment forwards and lasting throughout your entire lifetime your sleep is progressively more and more undisturbed. Undisturbed, of course except in case of an emergency and an emergency, as you know, is anything that requires your immediate attention and should such an emergency occur or exist, of course, you wake and deal with it in the most appropriate way. In the absence of such an emergency your sleep continues to be so wonderfully refreshing and relaxing that you wake at the time you set yourself, feeling and being so wonderfully calm, refreshed, relaxed and at ease, often waking with enthusiasm, sometimes with excitement, and always, always with this wonderful, gentle beautiful mental calmness. This is your programme for strengthening and enhancing your inner self. It is a natural hypnotic programme always working effectively and efficiently for you and to you, each breath that you breathe and with each beat of your heart, you are strengthening and enhancing this programme, ensuring that it is working even more beneficially and progressively for you. I thank you and your subconscious mind for allowing you to benefit from this deep hypnotic session, knowing next time deeper, next time even more progressive.

Do your ABC set up and SUD scale %.

Preamble

Take a moment to settle into your posture and make yourself comfortable… Close your eyes… [Pause] Your goal in this exercise is to become deeply self-aware… aware first of your body… and then of your mind… make it your aim, step by step, to contemplate things as deeply as possible… Self-awareness can become a pathway to deeper self- control and self-mastery…

Entire Body Awareness

Now, begin by being aware of your entire of your body as one… From the top of your head, all the way down into your fingers… and down into your toes… Be aware of your entire body as one… every nerve, muscle and fibre… Don’t try to change anything; don’t try to stop anything from changing. Sometimes things change just by being observed…

Self-awareness brings natural harmony and balance back into the body… Be passive, a detached observer, just be contented to notice what you notice, feel what you feel… From time to time I will give you a few moments of silence to deepen your contemplation in your own way… Take a few moments now to become more aware of your entire body as one…

[Pause]

Mindfulness of Breathing

Now, allow your breath to guide you deeper into self-awareness… Notice the sensations of your breathing… notice your tummy… rise… and fall… Notice the chest… rise… and fall… the rib cage expanding… and relaxing… Notice even the faintest sensations… even the tiniest feelings caused by the breath… around the sides of the waist… the sides of the chest, and beside the arms… Perhaps, if you pay deep attention to the breath, you may even notice some feelings in the lower back… the upper back… the neck and shoulders… maybe even sensations elsewhere in the body that accompany the breathing…

Now be aware of the entire process of breathing… all of the sensations as one… be aware of the rhythm of the breath… Don’t try to change the breathing… don’t try to stop it from changing… just be a passive observer… let the body do the breathing… all by itself… If your mind wanders, that’s okay, just keep bringing it back to your breathing… That cycle of spotting when your mind wanders… calmly accepting the fact… and patiently bringing it back to the here and now, the flow of your experience… is the essence of mindfulness…

[Pause]

Now turn your attention even deeper… toward your mind… to consciousness itself… all the time aware of your breathing… The breath is the mirror of the emotions… When you are emotional, people can usually hear it in the sound of your voice… the sound of your breath channelled through your vocal cords… When the body is tense the breath is tense… when relaxed the breath is relaxed… Be aware right now of the mood of the breath… The emotional tone and character of your breathing pattern… Take a few moments to contemplate your emotions and your breath more deeply, in your own way, in silence… [Pause] Now turn your attention to your thinking… Emotions are the space within which thoughts grow… Emotions shape our thinking… our mood colours our thinking…. and our thoughts, in turn, can influence our mood… Become more aware of your thoughts, judgements, attitudes, opinions, and beliefs… of anything you say to yourself, in your mind… Become mindful even of unspoken thoughts at the back of your mind… Notice deliberate thoughts, or one’s that just happen to cross your mind… Don’t judge them… just accept the fact that they are happening, and allow yourself to become a detached observer of your own stream of consciousness… Notice in particular, how you respond to your thoughts, as they occur, moment by moment… how you feel about them as they happen… Now take a few moments to contemplate your thoughts and feelings more deeply, in your own way, in silence… [Pause]

Mindful Exposure

Now, take that mindful self-awareness with you as you imagine that you are in the target situation we discussed earlier… Really picture it as if it’s happening right now… See what you would see… Hear what you would hear… Feel what you would feel… No sooner than you’re imagining being there, to your satisfaction, just nod your head “yes” so I can see… [Wait for response] Now observe things more closely… Notice the contrast, the difference from where you were a moment ago… Observe your body, the use you make of your muscles and posture in that situation… Notice any changes in your breathing… Observe your thoughts; notice any changes in your attitude or thinking pattern… Observe the use you make of your mind in that situation… Don’t try to change your way of responding to things, and don’t try to stop things from changing… Just become more and more aware of what actually happens in that situation, what you do, how you respond… Notice what you do to yourself… What it feels as if you are telling yourself… Realise that your thoughts are just thoughts… You are not your thoughts… Your thoughts are not facts… They could be very different… Your feelings and emotions could be very different… Now you are beginning to notice certain things about that situation that free you from your old responses… You notice more and more and more… You notice how your thoughts are affecting your emotions and behaviour… You find that you can easily put your observations into words. If it helps, complete the following sentence in your mind, “I now notice…”, and put your own ending on those words… “I now notice…” Notice as many differences as you can in the way you experience and think about things… When you’re ready to continue, just nod your head so I can see… [Wait for response]

Good. Now set aside that target situation for a moment… Fade it from your mind… Just relax and bring your awareness back into your body in the here and now… Let your mind rest on the rhythm and pattern of your breathing… Notice the difference, the contrast in your experiences… Just pay attention deeply to yourself… do nothing… [Pause 10 seconds] Now put yourself back in that target situation with deeper self-awareness… Really imagine that you are there right there, right now… See what you see… Hear what you hear… Feel what you feel… Notice what you do in that situation… Notice how you use your body and your mind… You are not your thoughts… Your thoughts are not facts… They could be very different… Every time you find yourself in this or any similar situation, or even think about it, you are becoming more self- aware and more in control… [Pause 5 seconds] Now complete the following sentence in your mind, “Now notice…” Notice as many differences as you can in the way you experience and think about things… When you’re ready to continue, just nod your head so I can see… [Wait for response] [Repeat this section as many times as appropriate, 2–3 more times for classroom exercises]

Emerging

In a moment you are going to finish this exercise and move ahead into the room around you and the tasks at hand… Bringing a sense of self-awareness and inner calm… into your life and into your actions… [Pause] Think about the room around you… Think about action… movement.., think about looking around and getting your orientation… raising your head a little… Now begin to breathe a little bit more deeply… let your body feel more alive and ready for action… breathe energy and vitality into your body… breathe a little deeper and deeper again.., until you’re ready to take a deep breath, open your eyes, and emerge from meditation.., taking your mindfulness and self-awareness forward into life… take a deep breath… and open your eyes now… when you’re ready…

Psycho-education

Explain and frame the process. OK. Let’s begin now…

Induction

[Normally you would begin with short hypnotic induction, but just ask the client to close their eyes and relax for the sake of classroom training exercises, as follows.] Put your feet flat on the floor, rest your hands on your lap, and make yourself comfortable… Close your eyes, take a deep breath… exhale slowly… and relax completely… SLEEP NOW… Let your body feel more and more sleepy, while your mind remains aware, calmly listening to my suggestions… SLEEP DEEPER… Imagine that your body is sleeping completely and utterly, totally at peace, while your mind remains aware… Let go, and rest completely and utterly…

Preparation

Rather than a graded hierarchy, simply establish one typical trigger situation and identify the affective, behavioural and cognitive responses to be changed. Make sure an initial percentile SUD rating is obtained before proceeding. ABC Model: Affect, Behaviour and Cognition (current and goal for each) SUD :___% Target Situation: Get sensory rich description.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

In a moment, I’m going to ask you to imagine that you are tensing various muscle groups in turn… Don’t actually tense them. Just imagine that you are tensing them. Of course, if you really imagine that you are clenching your fist tightly, e.g., you may find your hand muscles tense a little as a result. That’s fine. Imagining the feelings of tension first makes it easier for you to then relax the muscles more deeply than normal, and that’s just what you’re going to do now. After the tension, I want you to actually relax each muscle group as deeply as you possibly can, if possible, beyond your normal limit of relaxation; much, much deeper than usual. Begin by imagining that every muscle in your body is becoming tense and rigid… Really keep that feeling of tension in mind for a few seconds… Imagine all the muscles are growing more rigid… [Pause] Now, very, very slowly, relax the body completely and utterly… Let every last ounce of tension progressively melt away, dissolving into nothingness… release the muscles much deeper than normal… far beyond your normal limit of relaxation… Good…

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Two • p31 Now turn your attention to your right leg… Imagine what it would feel like to tense all the muscles in the leg and push hard against the floor… Really keep that tension in mind for a few seconds… [Pause] Now, very slowly, relax the muscles in the leg completely and utterly… Let your leg relax progressively… much deeper than normal… far beyond your deepest point of relaxation… Good… Now keep the right leg relaxed… relaxing deeper and deeper… turn your attention to the left leg and do the same thing… Imagine for a few seconds that the left leg is completely rigid and tense, pressing hard against the floor… [Pause] Now, very slowly, relax the muscles in the leg completely and utterly… Let your leg relax progressively… much deeper than normal… far beyond your deepest point of relaxation… Good… Now keep both legs relaxing deeper and deeper… Turn your attention to your right arm and imagine for a few seconds you are tensing all the muscles, making a fist and tightening the shoulder… [Pause] Now, very slowly, relax the muscles completely and utterly… Let your arm relax much deeper than normal… far beyond your deepest point of relaxation… Good… Now keep your right arm relaxing deeper and deeper… Turn your attention to your other arm and imagine for a few seconds you are tensing all the muscles, making a fist and tightening the shoulder… [Pause] Now, very slowly, relax the muscles completely and utterly… Let your arm relax much deeper than normal… far beyond your deepest point of relaxation… Good… Now keep your arms and legs relaxing deeper and deeper and deeper… Turn your attention to your neck and imagine for a few seconds you are tensing all the muscles in your neck and shoulders… [Pause] Now, very slowly, relax the muscles completely and utterly… Let your neck and shoulders relax much deeper than normal… far beyond your usual deepest point of relaxation… Good… Now imagine that you are tensing all the muscles around the eyes, squeezing the eyelids shut tight… [Pause] Now, very, very slowly, relax the muscles completely and utterly… Let your eyes and all the sur- rounding muscles relax much deeper than normal… Let your gaze lose all focus, let your eyes relax and drift into a comfortable resting position… imagine you are deep in a pleasant sleep… Good… Now imagine you are tensing all the muscles in your face for a few seconds, tensing up your face and clenching your jaw tight… [Pause] Now, very slowly, relax the muscles completely and utterly… Let your face relax much deeper than normal… Let your features become totally vacant and empty… just as if you were deep asleep… Good… Now imagine that even your breathing is becoming more and more relaxed… Relax your body so deeply that your breathing changes all by itself… When the body is relaxed it uses less energy, so the breath becomes more shallow and gentle… Let your breathing gently take you deeper and deeper and deeper into relaxation…

Now, just take a moment to scan through your body as a whole… if you find any residual traces of tension whatsoever… just imagine the feeling turning into a cloud of coloured mist… [Pause] Now picture it all relaxing away, melting into nothingness… [Pause] Good. Now I want you to show how relaxed you are… If there is any tension left in your body, just signal by raising this finger [tap right index finger] so I can see… [If the client does raise their finger then return to the start of this section and test again until they feel completely relaxed.] Good. You now feel completely relaxed… stop trying… and remember you can always let go of the tension deeper… far deeper than ever before…

Counting Deepener

Now, in a moment, I’m going to begin counting from ten down to zero… Think only of deep and pleasant sleep and relaxation… With each number I count, just imagine that you are relaxing the whole of your body and mind deeper and deeper and deeper again… far beyond your previous level of relaxation… [The word “SLEEP” should be repeated with gentle authority, it must be said meaningfully each time.] Beginning now… SLEEP… ten… SLEEP… nine… SLEEP… eight… SLEEP… seven… SLEEP… six… SLEEP… five… SLEEP… four… SLEEP… three… SLEEP… two… SLEEP… one… SLEEP… zero…

Initial Desensitisation

You are now going to imagine the scene we discussed earlier, and as you do so please remain completely relaxed… [Briefly describe the scene] Think of relaxation, imagine relaxation, focus on letting go more deeply than ever before… As you relax you are neutralising any tension or discomfort and those peaceful feelings will quickly generalise and spread to any similar situations… As you continue to relax deeper and deeper and deeper, really imagine that you are in that scene right now… picture it through your own eyes, as if it is actually happening right now… make it seem real… all the time remain completely relaxed… really believe you are there right now… facing things… and continue to let go and relax completely… When you are picturing that scene to your satisfaction, just nod your head ‘yes” so I can see… [Wait for response] Good. Keep relaxing deeper and deeper and deeper, as you really imagine being in that scene. [Pause for 5–7 seconds] Now fade that scene completely for a while… relax even deeper than before… Calm your mind and smile to yourself inside as you relax completely and utterly… Good. From 0–100%, what percentage discomfort did you have in that scene just now? [Wait for response] OK. [Give sincere praise if the client has reduced their rating. “Excellent. Well done, keep up the good work; you’re doing just great.”]

Now as I count again, just allow yourself to relax even deeper than before… Beginning now… SLEEP… ten… SLEEP… nine… SLEEP… eight… SLEEP… seven… SLEEP… six… SLEEP… five… SLEEP… four… SLEEP… three… SLEEP… two… SLEEP… one… SLEEP… zero… [Pause] Now imagine the same scene again and as you do so please remain completely relaxed… [Briefly describe the scene] As you continue to relax, really imagine that you are in that scene right now, as if it is really happening… and continue to let go and relax completely… When you are picturing that scene to your satisfaction, just nod your head ‘yes” so I can see… [Wait for response] Good. Keep relaxing deeper and deeper and deeper, as you really imagine being in that scene. As you do so, just continue to relax away the remaining tension from your body or mind any way you can… When you’re ready, just nod your head so I can see… [Wait] Now fade that scene completely from your mind… relax even deeper than before… Calm your mind and smile to yourself inside as you relax completely and utterly… Good. From 0–100%, what percentage discomfort did you have in that scene just now? [Wait for response] OK. [Give sincere praise if the client has reduced their rating. “Excellent. Well done, keep up the good work; you’re doing just great.”] [Repeat this section until SUD has reached 0%, and then twice more for over-learning. For classroom exercises, do not repeat more than about four times in total]

Self-Efficacy & Reinforcement Emerging

Good. Now you’ve already exhibited some extremely valuable skills… You’ve learned how to face your fears and overcome them by using specific relaxation techniques… You will always remember how to do that, and you’ll get better and better at relaxing your fears away… You’ll find that you begin to feel more relaxed and confident in a wider and wider variety of different situations in life… Your skills will spread and generalise to many other times and places… Whenever you need to relax, you will be able to do so… More easily and more confidently with each day that passes… In a moment, I will begin counting from 1 up to 5… With each number I count a feeling of self- confidence and satisfaction is emerging from within you and growing stronger and stronger. You’re looking back on a job well done, with a sense of achievement and gratification. You take forward all the positive benefits of hypnosis and those improvements grow stronger and deeper with each day that passes. As that feeling grows, your eyes will slowly open and you are emerging from hypnosis. You will gradually become more and more aware of the here and now, the real world around you. The improvements you experience will begin to spread throughout many other areas of your life in turn and you feel a strong desire to take direct action to help yourself, using the skills and ideas that you have now learned… Beginning now… On the count of 1… Feeling stronger and more confident as you begin to emerge from hypnosis… 2… Your body feels more alive, your mind is strong and alert… 3… A sense of

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Two • p34 confidence flows through your being as if you are telling yourself “I can do it!”… 4… Your eyes are alert and ready to open now… On the count of 5… [Click fingers] Opening your eyes and looking forward once again…

Debriefing

Good. You did very well. Can you tell me what you learned from that experience? [Listen] What thoughts were going through your mind while you did it that seemed to help? [Listen] [Continue discussion with focus on positive aspects of experience and constructive learning]

Please read this article about catalepsy, and remember how I demonstrated arm catalepsy in class. Then do practice establishing arm catalepsy this module, it is one of the first steps toward having a repertoire of hypnotic phenomena you can elicit when required to: http://www.adam-eason.com/2011/02/07/hypnotic-catalepsy-in-and-out-of-hypnosis- sessions/ Please also read this article to introduce you to the notion of response sets as I talked about in class this module. Just having a basic understanding for now is great, but this is a notion you’ll require much more later on in the diploma, so please be sure to read this: http://www.adam-eason.com/2011/05/12/using-response-sets-in-hypnotherapy-sessions/ Here is a write up and explanation in detail for the hand press induction as I demonstrated in class too, please read this and make sure you add it to your list of inductions that you know and can use: http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/12/17/the-hand-press-hypnosis-induction/ Then here is a write up about pattern interrupt inductions and an explanation of the handshake induction that I demonstrated in class. The article also includes a great video clip of my friend James Brown demonstrating it too: http://www.adam-eason.com/2011/06/17/inducing-hypnosis-with-a-pattern-interruption/ Next, here is a write up of how to do the deepeners I demonstrated in class this module too, using a mirror and the perfect hypnotist: http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/12/08/deepening-hypnosis-with-a-mirror-and- the-perfect-hypnotist/ Here is a video clip at my YouTube channel of me demonstrating how to do the drop induction on a previous student, Steve — as I showed you in class this module. This particular demo was not focusing on catalepsy so much as I did in class, but it will give you a good idea of those processes which we look at later on in the diploma. You’ll be doing this induction yourself later in the diploma, so getting an awareness of how it is done now, is going to serve you well. I also mention anchoring toward the end which aided this induction: http://www.youtube.com/adameasonhypnosis?gl=GB&hl=en-GB#p/a/f/0/uuLAfRzBqMo Please consider re-reading the section of my self-hypnosis book to swot up on suggestion guide- lines. For an even better low down on suggestion structure and typical rules of suggestion, read chapter two of the book by Corydon Hammond et al, ‘Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors’ — it is worth its hefty price for that chapter alone in my opinion. it is important to understand the classic rules of suggestions as discussed in the video.

Revivification

Revivification utilises a person’s memory to relive an experience intensely. The classic experiences you can choose to elicit are those that are predisposed to have hypnosis present e.g. trances your subject has been in before, times of great fascination/absorption, times of intense learning and so on. Remember that everything you have learned in previous months still counts — rapport, hypnotic principles, pacing and leading etc: • Casually ask about an event you want to elicit. For instance, “What’s it like when you feel totally absorbed? What do you like to do to relax?” • Ask detailed questions about it (using meta model) when, where, with whom etc. • Connect your subject’s answers to the next thing that happened, “As you went into the room, what happened next?” (So using, “with”, “as”, “while”, “since”…) • Gradually change the tense from past to present, and shift the focus from external to internal ones, “So as you’re sitting on the boat, casting your line, you are feeling deeply relaxed or is it more of that tranquility you mentioned?” • Identify the subjects trance words (those words/phrases that are the essence of that state). Repeat the trance words using her tonality and gestures. Remember those trance words! • When practicing this, give general learning suggestions and exit the trance, “So go ahead and open your eyes only as quickly as your unconscious is earning to access and induce trance more and more easily!” You can use this protocol to revivify any experience. I have expanded a bit on this notion of revivification in this article here at my website: http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/12/06/hypnosis-revivification-inducing-hypnosis-by- revivifying-previous-hypnotic-experience/ You budding critical thinkers should consider understanding logical fallacies that I refer to often. Please do read this article of mine: http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/09/13/why-all-hypnotherapists-should-be-able-to- spot-logical-fallacies/ Then please acquaint yourself with the notions of critical thinking by reading this article of mine, it will serve you incredibly well: http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/09/03/anecdotal-hogwash-from-hypnotherapists- and-why-hypnotherapists-need-critical-thinking-skills/ Finally, I also want you to read this article, just a little one, but note the piece of research I quote, it is purposely meant to be slightly provocative, and although I want you to practice the language

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Three • p37 patterns and get good at them to enhance some facets of your work, do note that there is no evidence to suggest they are any more efficacious for therapeutic results: http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/09/29/do-we-need-indirect-hypnotic-language- patterns-in-hypnotherapy/

Cognitive Mood Induction Script Handout

Run through the usual ABC model & use a SUD Scale if you so choose. (Important! Remember to ascertain the previous negative cognitions and the new positive cognitions before you commence)

Test Cognitions

Just close your eyes for a moment and picture yourself in the target situation we identified earlier, as if it’s happening right now. Say that old, negative cognition to yourself like you really mean it. [State NC to remind client] Keep repeating it to yourself in your imagination. When you’ve got the feeling just nod your head so I can see. [Wait] How does that feel? Do you get those negative feelings? [Listen] If that makes you feel bad when you believe it, then we can help you by under- mining that old habit of thinking and gradually removing it from your mind. We do that by coun- ter-acting it with a positive suggestion… Now, with your eyes shut, continue to imagine that you are in the target situation but, this time, begin saying the new, positive cognition to yourself instead. [State PC to remind client] Keep repeating it to yourself in your imagination. When you’ve got the feelings just nod your head so I can see. [Wait] How does that feel? Does it feel better? [Listen] If that makes you feel better when you believe it, then we can help by reinforcing that belief in your mind until it becomes a habit, making it “second nature” to you. It’s as simple as that. So, are you ready to begin using hypnosis to make that change now? [Listen] [Induce and deepen hypnosis]

Cognitive Imagery: Repeat Section

Now let’s repeat that process of turning the negative into positive… Each time you’re learning more and more deeply to control your own thoughts and feelings… Picture yourself in that target situation as if it is happening right now… Pretend you are there and imagine what you would see. Begin repeating the old, negative cognition to yourself in your imagination. [State NC to remind client] Say it like you really mean it and try to evoke those negative feelings… When you’re satisfied you’ve done that, just nod your head so I can see… [Wait] Now you’re going to banish those old, negative thoughts and feelings and replace them with the new, positive ones… Keep picturing the scene around you and imagine that you are really there… Begin repeating your positive cognition in your imagination. [State PC to remind client] Say it like you really mean it, as if you accept it 100%, at an emotional level… Imagine how that changes everything… When you’re satisfied you’ve got those new feelings, just nod your head so I can see… [Wait] Good.

Post-Hypnotic Suggestions

Now you’ve learned how to turn that negative into positive thoughts and feelings… You find you can do this much more easily whenever you now choose to do so… You also find yourself able to apply the same skill to other areas of your life… The more you do so, the more confident and self-assured you now become… Begin testing that out as soon as you emerge from hypnosis and you will continue to prove to yourself that you are now more in control of your own thoughts and feelings…

[Optionally: Add ego-strengthening suggestions as appropriate.] [Emerge from hypnosis.]

Perceptual Positions Anchoring Handout:

This method can be used to unite the power of anchoring throughout a person’s sensory representational systems while also including insights gained from experiencing different perceptual positions in the process.

Do this with a communication, an event or incident, a behaviour or just as the person in their entirety. This example is running through a future time when the client is doing something they wish to achieve or a way they wish to be.

Step One:

Mark out 4 positions and explain something of the process to the client (Set Up).

Step Two:

Have the client move to the 1st position. Invite them to see what they see (or will see) as they are “doing this well now. That’s right!” Using Ericksonian language patterns to help reinforce things. Asking, is everything that “you see now just right to do this easily?” If there is anything that needs to be changed let them change it and then see the changes.

Step Three:

Have them move to the 2nd position. Looking back at themselves through the eyes of another. Watching them “doing this well now. That’s right!’”Asking, again, is everything that you see now from this perspective just right to “do this easily?” If there is anything that needs to be changed let them change it and then see the changes.

Have them move to the 3rd Meta Position also known as, in this pattern, the Hidden Observer. This is the position that can step outside of the dynamics of the 1st and 2nd position and see the Big Picture. Have them look at everything that is going on between them, the other(s) and see if what they see from this higher perspective is also conducive to achieving the desired outcome. Use Ericksonian language patterns to help reinforce their capabilities.

Step Five:

Step back in the first position when you and they are happy that all of the visual information is correct. Then set the anchor on the person’s arm.

Step Six:

Step into position 4 and break state. E.g. “Can you remember what show you put on first when you got ready to leave home today?”

Step Seven:

Repeat steps 2 through to 6, for the auditory rep system.

Step Eight:

Repeat steps 2 through to 6 for the kinaesthetic rep system. Setting distinct anchors for each.

Step Nine:

When you have run through Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic Rep Systems, and have three distinct anchors set in each it is time to transfer the anchor. Have the client move from the 1st position (where they will be having just set the kinaesthetic anchor) to the Break State 4th Position. Then, when they are ready, have them move back to the 1st position. Revivify the visual anchor: “Okay. Now let yourself notice again now, everything that you’re seeing as you’re doing this well. That’s it. Notice everything that you see as your really doing this well in full conscious unconscious alignment. Which makes it so much easier. Nod when you are seeing this now.” [Client nods] Press original visual anchor and then press chosen anchor on hand (or wherever it is) to transfer the anchor. IMPORTANT: Take your hand off of the original anchor first so that the anchor that remains is the new one on the hand.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Four • p41 Repeat for the auditory and kinaesthetic anchors. Transferring them all to THE SAME ANCHOR on the client’s hand. Move back to the 4th position and Break State. e.g. “What do you think — is it true that left-handed people are better musicians than right-handed people?” Then have them fire their anchor (the reason they fire their anchor in the position is to demonstrate that the anchor works outside of the original 3 positions which mean that it will work any where. Encourage your clients to use their anchors often!

Additional viewing on Nested Loops:

Terrible sound quality here, but you might like to watch me demonstrating this stuff here: http://www.youtube.com/adameasonhypnosis?gl=GB&hl=en-B#p/a/u/2/cU6iHOpK-lk

NLP Frames:

Backtrack Frame:

1. Let “B” think of something they would like to accomplish. As “B” tells “A” about the outcome, “A” asks of “B” questions that will elicit from “B” high quality sensory based information. 2. As “B” answers “A’s” questions, “A” silently identifies the process words or predicates that “B” uses. “A” may wish to take notes of the statements and/or predicates. 3. Then “A” backtracks by saying, “Now let me make sure I heard you correctly, you said…“ For the first several responses, “A” accurately matches the process words “B” used. Then let “A” begin to deliberately mismatch some of the responses. 4. “C” stands behind “A” with hands on “A’s” shoulders (thumbs on “A’s” back). When “A” matches “B’s” responses according to “C’s” memory, “C” squeezes their right thumb into “A’s” back. When “A” mismatches “B”, “C” squeezes their left thumb into “A’s” back. “A” and “C” should pay close attention to “B’s” responses to the mismatches. There will probably occur some incongruence in “B’s” response. See if a mismatch effectively causes incongruence. A mismatch usually works about the same as a slap in the face! 5. Continue for a few minutes each round, stopping only for only very brief conferences when “A” and “C” disagree about a match or mismatch. 6. If you have time at the end: Stretch: Try to match “B’s” predicate sequencing, e.g., “I’ve been telling myself for some time that I could look at things differently.” Reply, “So you’ve been saying to yourself that a different outlook may be necessary.”

Types of “As If” Frames

1. Time Switch: Pretend that you have moved six months or a year into a successful future. Then, look back and ask yourself, “What steps did I take that led me to this successful outcome?” 2. Person Switch: “If you could become anyone you wanted to become, who or what would you become and how would they handle this problem?” 3. Information Switch: “Let’s just suppose that you had all the information you needed, then what do you suppose…?” 4. Function Switch: “Just pretend that you could change any part of the situation…” The “As If” frame provides a valuable communication tool when dealing with people who resist change. Pretending as a rule does not create as threatening an environment as when we face real change. Since the frame tends to remove the threatening aspects of change, people’s minds become open to new choices.

This is the exercise using the “As If” Frame that we did in pairs:

1. “B” selects something they find themselves stuck in and desire to move forward. 2. “B” imagines moving into the future and looking back on how they easily handled the stuck state. “A” assists “B” by using lead-in statements such as: “Let’s suppose that…”; “Let’s pretend that…”; “If you began to imagine that…”; “When you act as if…” Or, “A” may say something like this, “Now notice yourself handling the problem that used to bother you, and see and hear yourself effectively coping with the problem using new behaviours.” 3. “A” directs “B” in running a movie of themselves performing as they desire with the new resources they have discovered. 4. “A” asks “B” if the movie appears satisfactory to them. Re-associate them into the problem and have them run a movie of it. “A” then asks “B”, “Are you satisfied in dealing with this situation by using these new behaviours?” This “ecology check” determines if the person as a whole has total agreement with the change. 5. If “B” answers “no”, “A” recycles them to number 1 and continues. If “B” answer “yes”, proceed with the following steps. 6. Do a Break State. 7. Test. “A” asks “B”, “Think of the stuck state one more time.” Typically, as “B” begins to think of the stuck state, they will automatically move to the dissociated state of seeing themselves successfully solving the problem as in step number 2. 8. The goal of this exercise provides “B” with some new choices rather than getting stuck in limited choices or no choices.

When two people in conflict lack agreement about something, they will continually butt heads. Often disagreements will arise because they are looking at a situation from different points of view, and do so in categorical ways. To achieve an agreement frame, both must move to a higher logical level that encompasses all of the concerns, perceptions, and frames of reference. This pattern enables us to facilitate the process whereby people or groups in conflict can reach quality agreements with each other. Remember, you never solve a problem at the level of the problem. You must chunk higher to agreement. (It is good to read the relevant chapter about this in Tony Robbins’ book — ‘Unlimited Power’) 1. Identify the current frames. Ask each person for a specific description of their outcome. “What do you want specifically?” “What values, beliefs, and criteria drive this goal?” “What do you evaluate about this as really important?” (These questions not only gather important information, but also pace each person so that each feels heard and understood. It also begins to construct meta- or higher level outcomes for an agreement frame.) 2. Identify common elements. Find a common element at a higher level that brings the two parties into agreement. Chunk up to a higher positive intent that both can agree on. “Jack wants a blue chair and, Jill, you want a red one. It seems that, at least, you both agree on purchasing a chair, right?” By pacing the higher-level want, it moves the parties there. 3. Identify a higher level category. If you get a no, then move the parties up to the next category. In the example, you might use “furniture.” “Do you both agree that you want to purchase some piece of furniture?” Continue until you find some level (category) of agreement. “So you could both agree on an expenditure for the house, right?” 4. Utilise the parties’ meta-outcomes to formulate the larger level agreement frame. “By purchasing X, what will that do for you, Jack?” “And if you purchase Y, what will that do for you, Jill?” “When you get that outcome, what does that do for you?” Continue this until the parties agree to the other person’s higher level intent. “So you both want a comfortable and attractive home?” 5. Frame the negotiation using the higher level agreements. Move back down from the general frame of agreement to specific exchanges. “Would purchasing this blue chair meet the criteria of comfortable and attractive?” “Would letting Jack decide this one and Jill the next purchase meet your joint criteria of having equal input into decisions?” 6. Confirm agreements. During the process, continually identify and solidify all levels of agreement reached and their importance to each party.

1. Establish a resource anchor. You may set a resource anchor in order to bring the client out of trauma should they associate into the traumatic event. I do not use this any more for I have learned that when a client associates into a traumatic event, just have them stand up really fast, and breathe deeply from the abdomen. This will dissociate the client from their traumatic state. 2. Acknowledge to the client the mind’s ability of one-trial learning. “How amazing how you always remember to feel afraid or hurt when you think of the bad memory. I can’t even remember to take out the garbage. You remember to feel phobic (or afraid or hurt) every time you recall the memory. How amazing!” 3. “Imagine a blank movie screen.” Walk the client into an imaginary movie theatre and have them sit down seeing the blank movie screen up there in front of them. Once the client has the imaginary movie screen, have them place a black-and-white photograph of themselves on the screen. This photograph represents their younger self just before the onset of the bad memory when they felt safe and secure. 4. Next, the client dissociates once more from their body and moves into an imaginary projection booth. The client should now look out of the projection booth at themselves sitting in the theater seat observing a black-and-white picture of themselves on the movie screen. 5. Now, the client runs a black-and-white movie of the bad memory or phobia all the way through to the end of the event. The client watches themselves watching the movie, experiencing a double dissociation from the memory. They watch themselves watch the movie. 6. Once the client runs the movie to the end to a scene of comfort/security, ask them to freeze frame and white- or black-out the picture. They will just see a blank screen. 7. Now, lead the client to associate into the screen where they blanked out the movie. They leave the projection booth and enter their body in the theatre seat. Then have them enter the movie and associate into the image that appears on the screen. Have them associate into the image of themselves at the end of the movie after they survived the trauma. Guide them carefully and graciously. Use your language carefully. 8. Direct them in running the same movie backwards, in colour and associated. “You have seen movies run backwards, haven’t you?” Once you get a yes, make sure they associate into the movie, and invite them to see everything in colour. “Now run that same movie backwards and real fast. Do it in one or two seconds.” You can anchor them to a sound as you say, “Whiiisssshhh.” By watching their eyes, you will know when they run the movie backwards and how fast they did it. 9. Repeat the Process. The client now repeats steps seven through eight until the kinesthetic disappears. If you desire, they can repeat the process until the image disappears as well. Make sure they do not go to the end of the movie associated — that will re-install the phobia or trauma. After they have run it backwards say, “Now, clear your screen. Put yourself back at the end of the movie. Go straight to the end of the movie. Just imagine yourself at the end when

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Five • p46 you were OK. See what you saw and hear what you heard. Now, run the same movie backwards in colour. Repeat until it disappears.” 10. Test and Future Pace by seeing if the client can access the phobic state. See if their non-verbal response matches their earlier state of the phobia or trauma. You may say, “Imagine walking into that situation right now.” Or, if you know the content, express it more explicitly. For a phobia of water, say, “Imagine walking out into a swimming pool into deeper and deeper water.” If any phobic response reveals itself, check out how accurately they have followed the procedures and re-run the phobia cure making sure they follow the exact procedures.

Experiencing Your Time-Line

The best way to learn Time-Lining, as with any NLP technique, involves experiencing it. You have experienced your Time-Line. And, you have experimented with memory replacement. Now, you will experience the letting go of a negative emotion. Here is the two part exercise we did on the video:

Part One: Time-Line Experience

1. Have client notice 5–7 experiences from their past stretching into their past. 2. Notice where each event is located. Have them link a silver or golden cord from their chest outwards through all of these past memories. 3. Do the same for some future memories. 4. Now get them to experiment with their time line. If their future is to the right, get them to reverse it. Have them push their time line out away from them so that the events and the cord is 6 or 7 feet in front of them and notice the difference. 5. Have them bring the timeline back into themselves and then turn to face the future. Do the same for the past. 6. Ask them what is the best experience of their time line and how it is most useful for them. 7. When finished have them invite their unconscious to store their timeline in whichever way is most appropriate to them.

Part Two: Making Changes with Time

1. Have client stand in their present. 2. Have client turn around to face their past. 3. Get client to step back into their past down a parallel time line to the event. So they are, in effect, just to one side of the event.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Five • p47 4. Ask them what resource does their Deeper Self, their Wise Self know they need at that moment to help them. Let them tell you what it is. 5. Have them step onto the time line at the event . Let them reach forward and take the resource from their Deeper Self. Integrate the resource. 6. Let them look to the other side of the timeline and become aware of someone else — a Special Person who wants to help you, it may be a parent, a spouse, a spiritual figure. Notice what kind of advice this other person wants to give to them. Let the help be given. 7. Ask the person: and how does that help you now? 8. Let them accept and integrate the advice. 9. 9) Having accepted both bits of help invite them to thank their Deeper Self and the Special Person for what they have done. 10. Then have them turn around and face the future. Bringing back the new insights and resources with them. 11. When they return to the present ask them what changes they are beginning to notice. 12. Let them face their future and project the changes out into the future. Reorient them to the now.

Parts Therapy (Module 5 and/or 6):

The Classic Six Step Reframe (Can do in or out of hypnosis)

1. Clearly identify the client’s unwanted behaviour and then invite them to: 2. Make contact with the part that creates the behaviour. 3. Separate the positive intention from the behaviour. 4. Get the Creative Part to find three new ways to satisfy the positive intention. 5. Check that the original part agrees with these three new ways. 6. Do an ecology check — is every part in agreement with the new behaviours? 1. The behaviour could relate to something they do, a physical symptom, a way they feel sometimes, or even something they avoid doing. 2. Contacting the Part, you simply invite the client to: ‘“Go inside and make a connection with the part of you that does XYZ. Notice what kind of confirmation ion get which tells you when that connection is made. It may be a thought, a feeling a picture or something else.” 3. Separate the positive intention from the behaviour. Ask the part what the positive intention is: “What are you trying to do for me?” And notice what you notice. If the response seems to be a negative intention. Keep asking, “and by doing XYZ how are you trying to help me?” Take it back until you find the positive intention.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Five • p48 4. The Creative Part. Invite the client’s Creative Part to generate at least 3 new ways to achieve the positive intention without the unwanted behaviour now. 5. Ecology Check. Check that the original part is in agreement with the three new choices. If not, ask the creative Part to generate three new ways. Do this until the original part is in agreement. When the original part agrees to the new behaviours ask it if it is willing to take responsibility for doing the new behaviours in the appropriate contexts. 6. Check that all the parts agree. Then you’re done!

Negotiating Between Parts: Visual Squash:

1. Invite both parts to ‘come out’ and communicate with us in consciousness (e.g. a part of someone may wish to do a new training course and another part of them wants more time off). 2. Have part X (new course) sit on one hand and part Z (time off) on the other. Have hands palms upwards, with a gap which feels natural to the client between hands. 3. Have client perceive them in some way. It may be visually. Some people tend to see ‘little selves’ on each Land. Others see objects that represent the behaviours of each part. Some may notice instead that one hand part) feels heavier or lighter than the other. It may be that each part ‘speaks to the person in a distinctive voice’. Often the client will notice the part represented throughout the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic systems. 4. Ask Part X if it is willing to communicate with us in consciousness. 5. Part Z if it is willing to communicate with us in consciousness. 6. Ask each part if it is aware of the existence of the other part. 7. Ask each part what its positive intention is. (e.g. Part X may say it will increase their level of skill and learning potential — Part Z says it would give them more time to walk in the country.) 8. Ask each part if it is aware of the other part’s positive intention(s). If they are not then let them communicate each parts positive intention to each other. 9. Ask each part what it would need from the other to ensure that it’s positive intention would be satisfied. (e.g. Part Z would ask a guarantee from Part X that at then end of the course, there would be a break from courses of at least a year.) 10. Let the communication continue until they soften their positions and begin to move towards a common ground. Suggest that as these parts find common ways to work together while main- taining their positive intention that they can signal this to you by gently moving their hands closer together as they ‘continue to find many new ways of united self expression’. 11. When the client’s hands touch, have client ‘pull both parts back inside them’. Allow some time for the integration to take place. 12. Do an ecology check to ensure that every part agrees with the process.

1. Identify the conflict and the parts involved. 2. Make a visual image of each part and place one part in each hand. 3. Separate the intention from behaviour (reframe each part so that they realise that they actually have the same intention). What resources does each part have that would be useful to the other part in assisting it to be even more effective? 4. Create (visualise) a third part with the combined resources of each part. Place this third image in the centre of the other two images. 5. Create a series of visual images representing the transition (metamorphosis) from each part to the centre image. 6. Have the other person begin to bring their hands together and, at the same time, have the internal images begin to merge (collapse) so that the third image remains. 7. Take the integrated image inside. 8. Test and Future Pace.

Gestalt Empty Chair:

This example is Parts work too and can be used in either way. (It can also be used with a relationship situation where changing between chairs represents changing people.) 1. Have 2 chairs opposite each other. 2. Have the client sit in one chair and be the you that does XYZ. Fully experience it. 3. Then have them change chairs and be the you that does ABC. 4. Then have each version of you explain to the other how their behaviour effects them. And have them respond back to that version of you from the other version’s perspective (and vice versa). 5. Guide the negotiation by communicating with each part and then at appropriate moments have the person change chairs back and forth so that the communication continues as it would between two people with you as the mediator. Do this until they reach an agreement. 6. Unite and reintegrate the parts.

When we talk of frames, think of how the simple frame of calling something ‘hypnosis’ affects it: http://www.adam-eason.com/2011/05/16/when-a-situation-is-defined-as-hypnosis- hypnosis-is-more-likely-to-happen/ Past Life regression and the paranormal mindset: http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/07/06/past-life-regression-in-hypnosis-and-the- paranormal-mindset/ Past Life Regression, the Hypnotherapists Dilemma: http://www.adam-eason.com/2008/04/30/past-life-regression-the-hypnotherapists-dilemma/ Should Hypnosis Be Used To Recover Memories? Does Hypnosis Increase The Chances Of False Memory Syndrome? http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/10/08/should-hypnosis-be-used-to-recover-memories- does-hypnosis-increasethe-chances-of-false-memory-syndrome/ The Use of Regression in Hypnotherapy: http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/01/12/the-use-of-regression-in-hypnotherapy/ Questioning The Use of Regression In Hypnotherapy: http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/10/01/questioning-the-use-of-regression-in- hypnotherapy/

Remember the notion by Robert Anton Wilson of “What the thinker thinks, the prover proves…”

Discovering limiting beliefs:

Ok, OK, so I admit it, I have watched one or two episodes of Celebrity Big Brother on the TV here in the UK. I am not a reality game show fanatic, however, I find it fascinating, absolutely fascinating. One thing that I have found fascinating is how different people react to others just because of what they believed before they entered the house rather than treating individuals on the basis of how they have experienced them first hand. There was a young musician from a fabulous band in the Big Brother house called Preston and he voted for a lady called Faria to be evicted from the house simply because of the fact that she is famous for a kiss-and-tell story with England football coach at the time, Sven Goran Erickson. The first evictee, Jodie Marsh, was also cold and unpleasant to Faria on the first night for the very same reasons and expressed that to Dennis Rodman who is also in the house. Yet neither of them judged Faria on how they found her or on their own personal experience of her. Jodie and Preston both openly stated beliefs that they thought she was not a “proper celebrity” (whatever that is) because of how she was famous and Jodie Marsh actually said, when she was evicted from the house last week, that she thought Faria was lovely! Amazing stuff. When she got to know her beyond what she originally believed, she discovered something that was liberating and kind instead of to the contrary. Oh, how our beliefs make us act! How peoples beliefs limit them! How wonderful it is when we change limiting beliefs, eh? Your beliefs are pretty much the rules of your life, well at least they are the rules that you will no doubt be living by. These rules may be what sets you free to achieve things in your life and live the way that you think is important. These beliefs may well also be restricting you and holding you back; they may even be creating the belief that you are incapable of achieving your goals. Or as in the case of contestants from Celebrity Big Brother, stop you from being agreeable to someone! At the time of writing, we are only in the third week of the New Year and how many of you are losing sight of your New Year goals or resolutions? Your beliefs may well be affecting your degree of success. I believe in gravity and am guessing that you all believe in it too. Now, I have never been inclined to test gravity by trying to walk on air, that would be crazy! Gravity is not influenced or altered in any way, shape or form by my belief in it; or yours for that matter. However, our relationships, abilities and possibilities are all influenced by our beliefs about them.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Six • p52 We tend to form our beliefs as the result of our experiences and then we act as if they are true. In one sense they are self-fulfilling prophecies. If you believe you are a likeable person, you will act that way, approach people openly, be agreeable, warm and enjoy being with people. They will warm to you and so confirm your belief. We think that beliefs are formed by experiences, but equally experiences are the results of beliefs. Hmmm… interesting stuff, eh? So this then means that you can choose your beliefs! Wer-hey! Before we all start getting too excited at this prospect (I can tell you are all on the edge of your seats now) understand that the belief that beliefs are changeable is in itself a challenging belief to many people because they tend to think of beliefs as possessions. People talk about ‘holding’ and ‘having’ beliefs, ‘losing’ or ‘gaining’ them. No one wants to ‘lose’ something. It would be better talking about them ‘leaving’ or ‘outgrowing’ beliefs rather than ‘losing’ them. If you have studied self-hypnosis, read my book or listened to my self-hypnosis masterclass audio programme, you will know what I think about the word lose and its connotations anyway. What’s more, we all have a personal investment in our own beliefs. When the world confirms them, then they make a lot of sense to us, they are then predictable and give us a sense of security and certainty. We even may take a perverse pleasure in disaster, providing we have predicted it; how many of you have used the term, “I told you so,” and found it to be a satisfying phrase? Not because you necessarily wanted anything to go wrong, but because your beliefs were proved correct. So, let me move on to the subject of negative and limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs are the major offender stopping us from achieving our goals and living our dreams. They act as rules that stop us from getting what exists within us as potential and we all have so much potential that we do not tap into nearly enough. Limiting beliefs hold us back from achieving what we are actually capable of and what we deserve. So have a good think about this question; “What is stopping you from achieving your goal?” Know that the answers are very often your limiting beliefs. Early limiting beliefs may come from childhood influences such as parents or teachers or people whose beliefs we deemed worthy of believing ourselves. These early beliefs often stay hidden and we do not consciously evaluate them as adults. We also pick up limiting beliefs from the media. The numerous soap operas that take up so many hours of TV time set up situations where the char- acters have to act out ridiculous limitations, otherwise there simply is no drama to compulsively view! Here are some typical limiting beliefs that are amazingly common: • “No pain, no gain.” • “I need to have lots of money to be happy.” • “I can’t trust anybody.” • “I am more unlucky than others.” • “You can’t get over a bad start in life.” • “I am too old to learn to use a computer.” • “I can’t earn more money without other people losing it.” • “I never get what I am after.” • “Other people are better than me.”

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Six • p53 • “I do not deserve to be successful.” • “I can’t get what I want.” • “I have reached my limits.” • “I need to work very hard to have enough money to live.” • “Success takes a very long time.” This is important: These and similar beliefs are only true if you act as if they are. Suppose they are mistaken? what difference would that make? Is the difference worthwhile? In the process of achieving your goals, sometimes just being able to articulate any existing limiting beliefs and in turn noticing their effect is enough to alter or dissolve your old unwanted belief and therefore change and update your own reality. It has certainly been my experience that the majority of people are not usually aware of their limiting beliefs. So the first step is to put them into language or to write them down. Then they are exposed and can be examined and ideally let go of. There are two simple ways to do this. The first way is to simply ask yourself what the reasons are that you are not currently achieving your goal. What do you think is holding you back? Ask yourself that question and answer as truth- fully and thoroughly as you can. The answers will reveal what it is that you perceive to be limitations. More often than not, these limits will be more about you than about the world. When they are about you, they are something that can be changed or updated. A good principle to work from is the following: Whatever you state is preventing you from achieving your goal is a belief and comes from you, not reality. Barriers to success are created in the outside world from limiting beliefs in your mind. Now, I have found that when people do ask themselves these questions (as mentioned earlier) in their own mind, they are rarely honest with themselves, so here is another approach that I use a lot with my one to one clients to discover what, if any, limiting beliefs you have…

Step One:

Take a piece of paper and write down an important goal. Have a good look at that goal and really think about it.

Step Two:

As you think about that goal, assess and score each of the following statements. Score each of these statements by giving it a score out of 10, where 1 means you do not believe this statement and 10 means that you believe it without a doubt at all. • I deserve to achieve my goal. • You have the skills and abilities necessary to achieve this goal. • It is possible to achieve your goal. • Your goal is clear and defined. • Your goal is desirable to you.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Six • p54 • Your goal is worthwhile. Look at the scores that you have written down and look at the lowest scores for any of your answers and begin to explore them. This can be wonderfully enlightening. Low scores highlight and indicate a limiting belief or that you have not thought about the goal sufficiently. If you have discovered some doubts in some areas of your goals, now begin to ask yourself about the reasons you are doubtful or what could be making you doubt this? List and write down your answers. When you begin to question and examine your beliefs you can unearth what might be limiting beliefs and then you can begin to heighten your awareness of whether or not your beliefs are preventing you from achieving your goals.

Updating beliefs process:

I have to admit it; I was addicted to watching the wonderful TV series ‘Lost’. For me, it was simply the best thing on television for a good few years. It reminded me about how I was when Twin Peaks was going strong all those years ago and so I recently went and got hold of the first series of Twin Peaks again and have watched it again. I have seen those shows many times now and, like with ‘Lost’, I still have no idea what the heck is going on! Now, as a man with a wild and vivid imagination, I have entered all manner of debates with friends and family and colleagues about what is going on, about what they think and what we believe about it all. I have been finding myself in a similar state at times as to when I was a child being easily led into all kinds of naughty shenanigans by others; whenever someone tells me their theory, I change my mind about what is going on! I have had tales from people telling me that they have friends who know the director of ‘Lost’ and have told me what their theory was and so on and so forth. Each time someone has given me a good reason or a great thought, my brain has gone in to overdrive and my beliefs about my theory has changed. Now I am going to talk about how to go about changing beliefs and changing some of your big life beliefs as easily as if you were changing your beliefs about a TV show. So here we go with the belief changing process…

Step One:

The first step in our belief changing process is to do just that; identify the limiting belief that you want to shift. As you have done with the previous article. Having identified a belief that you think is limiting or restrictive or causing you problems, make sure that you write it down concisely and precisely. When you get a belief down on paper and look at it in that way (I am not suggesting that you pull faces at the words by the way!) it then begins to dissipate already; it is exposed and vulnerable.

As you look at that written limiting belief, think about it and ask yourself what it is doing for you; how do you benefit from having that belief? What purpose is that belief serving; this must be something positive, keep asking yourself what the positive intention is of that belief, believe me when I say that there is one; otherwise you would not do it would you? Regardless of the fact that it may be limiting you in a variety of ways, there is a positive intention behind it, there is a way in which you benefit from having that belief and now is the time to find that out; find out what purpose it is serving.

Step Three

Now ask yourself what you would prefer to believe instead. Then guess what I am going to ask you to do? You guessed right, well done; write it down. Of course, there are some rules about this new desired belief; Firstly, it has to be stated positively and progressively, remember that you want to move towards goals not move away from fears with your beliefs, ask for what you want, not what you don’t want. Secondly, you must ensure that you are comfortable and happy with the desired belief, make sure that it does not harm, conflict with or upset anyone to have this belief; that includes yourself! Thirdly, it needs to satisfy the same positive intention as you discovered that the old belief had. So, go ahead and write down this new belief. Also, make sure that it is worded in the present tense, by that I mean phrase it as if it is occurring now. For example if your goal were to achieve your ideal weight, a suitable new belief would be: “I am believing increasingly more in my ability to achieve my ideal weight.” By doing that now, you have made the desired belief relevant and pertinent now and you have gone and given it flow, direction and energy. Get it worded in the present tense and move on to the next step.

Step Four

Recall a time when you doubted a belief? Can you remember an occasion when you doubted something that you really used to hold as a firm belief? You may wish to reflect on your life, think about the kind of beliefs that you had at certain times in your life, I know that mine have changed and altered a great deal over the years. I remember having solid beliefs about certain things when I was at college and can remember doubting those beliefs as I learned more about life and throughout my studies. When you think about that period of doubt, how did you know that you were doubting your belief? Did you have certain sensations in your body? What were you thinking about? How did you think about it? What were you experiencing? Really see if you can get back into that state of doubt, psychologically and physiologically. While in that state, bring to the forefront of your mind the old

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Six • p56 unwanted limiting belief that you identified earlier and have a think about your old limiting belief that you want to shed; do this while in that doubting state. Great isn’t it? Who would have thought that there are advantages to doubting things? So, as you do this, begin picking away at the old withering belief by asking yourself: • “What are the disadvantages of this old belief?” • “Does it really fit in with what is truly important in my life?” • “In the past, when was having this old belief getting in the way of my success?” • “What would it be like to not have this old belief?” Before moving on to the next step, take a breather. When you sit down to run through this process, take a couple of minutes out now, think of something completely different; what shoe did you put on first when you went to work this morning? What do I really think is going on in ‘Lost’?

Step Five

This requires a similar process to Step Three, however, as you think back through your life, just have a think about times when you have been impressionable, willing to learn, open to change and especially open to new beliefs. Remember everything about that wonderful state of receptivity; How did it feel? Where in your body were the feelings? What did you see? What internal dialogue did you have? Really run through as much as you possibly can to achieve that state again for yourself right now? As you recall a time when you were open to a new belief, now really focus on and think about your new desired belief while in this open, receptive state. Now ask yourself: • “How would it feel to have your desired belief?” • “How is it a better belief than the old one?” • “What difference would it make to your life to have this new belief?” • “What things would you do that you have not been doing?” • “What would you be able to achieve and overcome now?” To round off this step nicely, take some time out now to evaluate the new belief. How good does it feel? Is there any tweaking to do? Can you make it even better and even more empowering?

Step Six

This step is about relaxing… Get yourself nice and relaxed and breathing deeply and comfortably and then go ahead and imagine that deep inside of you exists a large furnace and if you really want to be free of the old belief forever, then imagine tossing it into the furnace and watch it burn away into nothing.

Step Seven

Finally, this last step is about taking some action. Make a choice to take some action. What can you and what will you do differently this very day as a result of having this wonderful new belief? How

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Six • p57 about you set yourself a task, to achieve today, a task that is based on this new belief being true for you and your life now. Start doing things differently straight away and get that new belief firmly embedded into your unconscious behaviour patterns. When you start to do things differently, you then have physiological support and experience of the new belief and it becomes verified and enhanced with each new day. Changing your beliefs can actually be as simple as flitting beliefs about a television programme that you follow, but to change them powerfully and mindfully requires some continued concentration and requires a good investment of time and energy. However, when you do change and update and upgrade your beliefs, this can and does subsequently open the way for a major change in your experience of life and a rapid progression towards successfully achieving your goals and enriching your experience of life. Enjoy this process, have some fun with it and get to the heart of your own development with updating any outmoded beliefs with your clients and yourself.

Additional Reading:

The Dickens Pattern — especially useful with smokers and weight reduction clients. http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/12/20/cartesian-logic-the-dickens-pattern-and- christmas-self-hypnosis/

There are many systematic forms of reflective practice, especially in the fields of teaching and formal psychotherapy. You are advised to research these systematic models to fashion the best way to integrate it into your own practice. This is what is included in my own reflective practice form, as we ran through in great depth on the video:

Reflective Practice Form

• Reflection Point (Problem or Critical Incident) (What actually happened?) • Cognition & Emotion (What did you think and feel at the time?) • Behaviour (What did you do in response?) • Consequences (What happened as a result of your actions?) • Analysis (So what does it mean for you personally?) • Evaluation (What were the pros and cons of what you did?) • Learning (What else have you learned?) • Alternative Options (What could you potentially do in the future?) • Deficits (What practical skills or information, if any, would you need to acquire?) • Action Plan (What will you actually do in the future?)

Article written in 2008: (If using with clients, do much more ice imagery and so on, as we did in the video) Nb. You can watch me conduct another glove anaesthesia on a student on a video clip in the Gold Plus members area. Just last night prior to writing this, there was a superb television delight on entitled Hypno-Sur- gery and it showed a man receiving hypno-surgery. That is, he had a hernia operation without any anaesthesia other than by using hypnosis. This really excites me. I have been writing about it a lot at my blog over recent weeks and the hypno-surgery programme did not fail to deliver. Of course, it is a sensation because it is on television, however, these have been done for years. There are lots of filmed studies and masses of research that has been done using hypnosis alone when performing surgery. Many ways have been used to alleviate pain over the years and I have experienced many myself and found hypnosis accompanied with a range of mind skills and tools to be by far the best way of overcoming and altering my response to it. Can you remember a time when you had a paper cut and you did not realise that you had it until later on that day when you saw it with your own eyes? It was not until you saw it that it hurt and thought ,“Oooh that smarts a bit.” I remember I had been helping my father in the garden when I was young, I had been weeding (great jobs that Dads give you!) and my hands were covered in earth and when I washed them off later on in the day when I came into the house, I noticed that I had grazed my hand and having seen it, it began to sting a bit; it had not done so until then. These examples are of naturally occurring anaesthesia, the capacity of which exists within us all. There was a military doctor called James Esdaille who is mentioned in many hypnosis text books and he would use hypnosis and auto suggestion with fellow soldiers for all manner of different ailments, he even carried out amputations with no anaesthesia other than that of the suggestions that he was delivering to his patient. One of the most basic methods for using your mind to create anaesthesia is called the glove anaesthesia method and today I want to share it with you for you to use as and when you like. Important point here: You must only use this pain-control technique when you know the cause. You will also consult a doctor if the condition persists.

Step One:

Find a comfortable place where you will not be disturbed. Close your eyes. Get yourself relaxed. Ideally, get your self into a state of self-hypnosis. Go read my book or invest in the self-hypnosis master class if you need to learn how.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Seven • p60 Otherwise, focus on your breathing, let it be steady, deep and slow. Imagine relaxing all the muscles in your body one by one and really do take the time required to establish a nice relaxed physical state. Use your imagination to imagine a favourite place, somewhere you feel safe and relaxed. Imagine that you can hear the sounds of that place, see the sights, feel the feelings that you would feel in that place. Use your conscious mind’s awareness and focus on each of the muscles in your body and think the word “Soften” into each of your muscles. Imagine them melting, softening and allow your mind to be peaceful. Take a good few minutes to do this; indulge yourself.

Step Two:

Develop a strong sense of purpose right now. Using your internal dialogue, remind yourself and tell yourself that you have the power and ability to be in control of any sensations in your body and mind. Because you really do. Tell yourself that You accept that you are in control of your own mind. Focus on and imagine the unlimited power of your mind, tell yourself that you can send numbing sensations into any part of your body. Develop a sense of belief in yourself and in the power of your own mind. Really encourage and empower yourself. At this stage, also tell yourself that the word ‘anaesthesia’ is your key trigger word for a conditioned response later on. Imagine that these words of personal power and belief that you say to yourself are being delivered to the deepest depths of your mind. Imagine that they’ve been accepted on every level of your body and mind.

Step Three:

Now we begin to invoke the glove anaesthesia. Begin by concentrating upon your dominant hand, really focus on it to the exclusion of all else. Notice the tiniest of sensations within it. Begin to imagine that using your attention, your dominant hand is free of all feeling. This needs some time and concentration. Maybe you can use your imagination to imagine that your hand is encased in ice. Truly imagine those feelings. Separate your hand, in your mind, from the rest of your physical body. Think of it as detached from your physical being. Continue to focus your attention upon your hand and allow it to lose all feeling. Using your internal dialogue again, tell yourself that your hand is becoming numb. No feeling at all. Inside your mind instruct your hand to go to sleep. Tell it to go to sleep. Be aware of all the unusual sensations that are in your hand as you focus upon it and keep all your focus and concentration upon it. Tell yourself that every breath you take seems to cause your hand to become number, and number, until you just can’t feel your hand at all. You just can’t feel your hand at all because it is numb. No feeling. Numb. Tell yourself that with authority and belief.

Now, you’re going to transfer this lack of feeling to the part of your body that you desire to feel numb and have the anaesthesia in. So when you are sure that you have created the correct level of numbness in your hand you’re going to raise your hand and place it upon the part of your body you want to feel numb. When you do this, you’ll transfer this numbness to that part of your body. So then go ahead and raise your hand and touch the part of your body you want to become cool and numb. Maybe imagine the numbness as a colour that you are spreading into that area. maybe imagine that part of your body being filled with that colour and creating that numbness. Imagine all the sensations of numbness are being transferred into that part of your body. Release the numbness into that other part of your body. Then spend some moments doing that properly and thoroughly now. As you do it, give yourself a time limit that this is going to last for. Naturally, you do not want that part of you to be numb forever. So make sure that you set yourself a time limit when your self induced anaesthesia will end.

Step Five:

Now that you have transferred the calming, soothing, numbing coolness, and you’re physically feeling better and better in that area. Really enjoy the sensations and marvel at your own amazing self. Imagine coolness permeates the area. Imagine you experience wonderful relief in that area. Breathe deeply and relax completely. Maybe even repeat a little mantra of support to your self at this point: “Calm, cool, soothing, numbing sensations permeates the area. Better and better. Numbness. Relief. Numbness. Use words that appeal to you the most.

Step Six:

When you have maintained the state and are sure that you feel really good. Say the word “anaesthesia” to yourself, so that each time you use this word in future occasions, when you have the right intention and conditions to do this again, saying the word will bring the resources of this session to make next time even better. Breathe deeply, embrace the sensations in your body and mind and repeat the word to yourself. Trust that each time you choose to use it in the future, it has a wonderful effect of enhancing and amplifying your control over your anaesthesia.

Step Seven:

And it’s time to focus the incredible power of your imagination by imagining yourself doing this even better next time. Imagine that you feel more and more in control of your own mind each time you do this. Experience the joy in this realisation. Create every detail of this future occasion in your mind, including your reaction and the reactions of others.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Seven • p62 And in so doing you communicate your desire to the levels of mind that will assist you in manifest- ing this natural anaesthesia better and better each time you do it. Each time you use that word when practising your anaesthesia, tell yourself it works more and more profoundly and powerfully. Imagine yourself really feeling good about this and what you can do with the power of your own mind. Spend a few moments quietly doing this.

Step Eight:

When you have fully absorbed all you can from this wonderful experience, open your eyes and remember all that has been communicated.

Step Nine:

Practice, practice, practice. You may want to practice doing this on your arm. Prior to doing it, pinch your arm until it hurts to gauge what your pain tolerance level is in that arm. Then when you have it anaesthetised, test how different the sensations are. Pretty cool, eh?

Talking to Feelings:

Just before marrying Katie, we went on holiday to the Caribbean. I did the classic things of sipping my pina colada, small talking with my beautiful fiancé and soaking up the sunshine, eating well and reading lots and lots. It was also my birthday while we were there. I love birthdays. I love celebrations of any kind. They give me a nice feeling — I love the anticipation feeling, I love the excitement and the attention during the day and the way everyone seems to be. It is as if we filter everything during that day in way which allows us to focus on good feelings. A birthday on holiday was even more wonderful, I have to say. In my therapeutic work over the years, I have noticed that it is a rare individual who focuses on feelings at all, let alone focuses on good ones. Often we tend to roll around in our feelings without realizing what they mean or what they are actually telling us. What I want to suggest today is that people learn how to be aware of their feelings and what those feelings are actually communicating — what can we learn from them? Recently I attended a large Buddhist meditation event, I am not Buddhist, however, I thoroughly enjoy the meditations and I love many Zen philosophies and ideas and so I enjoyed this particular Zen Buddhist event. One of the things that we were instructed during a guided meditation was to focus on a feeling and become more aware of it and then communicate with the feeling. I found it to be incredibly enjoyable, very useful and thought I would share a similar technique with you here. This exercise allows you to be acutely aware of the feelings you have in your physical body and to connect the feeling with a meaning; sometimes this can lead to old emotional wounds healing, though most of the time, it is a faster way to process out life experience and of course to benefit and know yourself better. Once any feeling is out, or let go of, it is always wise to go back and make sure there is only relief, peace and well-being remaining. So be sure to check at the end of the technique I am sharing here today. If you happen to discover that something else remains that also needs to be dealt with, then simply go for it in the same way as you did the first one using the technique given. I love the idea of communicating with our feelings. I mean if you think about it, the simple process of making them separate things that we can communicate with, is disassociating us from them and helping us distinguish them more accurately, isn’t it? When your feelings dialogue with you, you may well find it useful to have it tell its body and its mind what it needs from them. I have found this to be wonderfully powerful and beneficial. There is much insight to be gained when we observing and becoming aware of how different aspects of ourselves are working or not working together.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Eight • p64 For example, my emotions once told my mind to stop being so busy — I had such a frantic thought process in my mind all of the time that it was like giving my feelings data overload! My emotions felt that they had to block off a lot of feeling because they couldn’t really cope with all of those thoughts that kept coming in. At the same time, my emotions told my body that they liked to colour my body with some beautiful, bright colours, because my body (at the time) was too devoid of feeling sometimes, too aligned with my busy, frantic, mental life. This insight has helped me greatly in aligning my physical, emotional, and mental aspects of myself.

Step One:

Induce hypnosis. Deepen sufficiently. Ideally, have them be very mindful of themselves throughout.

Step Two:

Think about the day you have had up to now. Now think about the day you had yesterday and maybe even the last week. What stands out? Have you been dealing with any issues? Have you encountered any problems at all? Is there anything in particular you are working through at this time in your life or at this moment? What area of your own personal development do you think requires most attention? Just roll some, all or one of these questions around in your mind silently to yourself, answering honestly and allow yourself to express to yourself whatever comes to the forefront of your mind. As you express something, allow yourself to sense that it must have a feeling accompanying it. Ask yourself if you are experiencing a feeling somewhere in your body as you express what is on your mind. If not, then just continue noticing how you express what is on your mind. If yes, there is an accompanying feeling that goes with the thoughts then mentally locate the feeling. In your mind you can even point to where the feeling is located in your body. Spend some time to found out where the feeling is before moving on.

Step Three:

Now is the interesting and liberating part… Reach deep inside your mind and body and go to the feeling, focusing your entire attention there on that location. As you get more aware of it, become aware of the qualities of the feeling — does it have a shape? Is it moving? Does it have colour or is it clear? Does it have a texture? Is it still or is it moving? Really tune in to this feeling. Now carefully watch the feeling to see what happens, and what it does. Reporting to yourself if you notices any changes. Stay with it, follow the feeling wherever it wants to go. As unusual as it may sound, just enjoy observing it.

Often the feeling will dissolve when noticed, which may be a good thing if it was negative or limited. You can share this insight with yourself inside your mind: “My unconscious mind simply wanted me to notice it. Now I can let go of it.” Sometimes the feeling may become intensified. If so, focus on the feeling. Stay with it. If your mind wanders, keep bringing it back to the intensified feeling…

Step Five:

If and as the feeling intensifies, allow the feeling to speak or communicate in whatever way is best for you. Ensure that you are not consciously directing your feeling. In whatever way feels the most natural to you let the feeling talk to you. Tune in to it and hear what it says, or sense it, or just understand it and tune into it and observe it. Trust that however you are doing this is the right way for you.

Step Six:

As you allow the feeling to freely and honestly communicate with you, really allow your body and mind all the freedom it needs to express the feeling — you may want to sigh, cry, moan, yell, swear (that may just be me!) whatever is asking to be expressed. If there is no emotional release, be OK with that too. You may even want to ask the feeling what it needs in order to let go and then follow the feeling’s instructions. So for example, the feeling might communicate that it needs some time alone with you to experience this, indicating that you may need to rest or have some solitude or reflection. Or it may directly guide you to express this feeling directly to your partner or family or colleague, etc. Or the feeling may just need permission to express itself in a way that you may not usually allow or may refrain from doing and bottle up usually. Follow your gut feelings, your intuition and instincts with this.

Step Seven:

Finally, when you feel that you have processed the feeling all that you need to, take a couple of nice long energizing breaths and open your eyes. Wiggle your toes and fingers and go about your day with the heightened awareness of what you are truly feeling. The more you do this, the more you’ll start to notice how and what you are feeling when you are not doing this. You’ll start to recognize what your mind and body are communicating to you un- consciously and you’ll be aware of your feelings at times other than holidays and birthdays…

In keeping with the same theme of working with feelings, I am offering up next a simple process for turning your feelings into objects. “What? “ I hear you cry… You students know that in therapy we often notice clients ‘nominalise’ thoughts, feelings and emotions — that is, they turn a process into a thing… instead of ‘feeling the experience of being depressed’, they often refer to ‘having this depression.’ We teach our clients to become aware of the process of what they do so that they can stop doing it, interrupt it and eventually stop it. Here, we do this on purpose. “So why would we want to turn feelings into objects then?” Another good question from you guys today. When we are dealing with things in our own mind and looking at self-improvement rather than actually receiving therapy, it can be useful on many levels to deal with a ‘thing’ rather than a mass of intangible feelings or emotions. That ‘thing’ can be assessed and communicated with if need be. And that is what this technique is all about.

Step One:

Induce hypnosis, deepen sufficiently, have client be mindful.

Step Two:

While acknowledging that many of us experience sensations that we regard as unpleasant and undesirable, without getting into one in too much depth… Just notice any symptoms of any unwanted emotion you may have currently or had recently. Shortly we are going to dissolve and remove all those symptoms. The symptoms you experience are very subjective feelings. We feel them, but as we know only too well, it is difficult to consciously modify our feelings. It is much easier to modify an object. So right now, we are going to change any unpleasant sensations into objects. So think about any unwanted emotion you may have had in the past few weeks… Notice whatever the sensations are and give the feeling a shape. Whenever you feel those sensations in the future, you can always give them a shape. Just imagine a shape… allow yourself to visualise or imagine that shape and trust that whatever comes to mind is right for you, do your best not to judge or consciously decide if it is right or wrong. It can be any kind of shape… abstract or concrete… it can be an object or a geometric design, soft or hard… .and give it a colour. Whatever shape or object and colour that first comes into your mind is the right one for you at this time. Don’t try to force the shape, just allow it to happen. Take all the time you feel is necessary to really get this right in your mind.

So, as you picture and imagine the size and colour of that shape. You can give it a size by knowing the size or picturing it next to something you know the size of… recognise and realise that the shape is the symbol of your discomfort or unwanted emotion or feeling… Perhaps the larger the shape is, the more severe the discomfort is. Just assess it from this dissociated stance for a few moments.

Step Four:

Here comes some fun then… Practice making that shape larger… and larger… and make it as large as you possibly can… just let it continue to grow larger enough to fill your total frame of reference… that’s right. If it starts to make you squirm, you have it large enough. Then, just let it grow smaller… and smaller… and smaller still and so small YOU can’t even recognise it anymore… When you first make the shape bigger, it is easier to make it smaller… And if you have difficulty making it smaller, then use a trick or two. If the shape is a balloon. you can stick a pin in it or you can blow it up until it explodes or you can blow it up really big and watch with amusement as it flies around the room getting smaller and smaller… or you can tie it to the back of a car and let it drive away, or pretend it is filled with helium and you can release it and watch it float away until it is smaller… and smaller… and so small you can’t even see it and more. Use your imagination in whatever way is best for you and just ensure you diminish it as best as you can. Again, taking all the time necessary to do that.

Step Five:

As you watch that symbol become smaller, the feelings associated with it are becoming less and less intense and you can make them smaller… as small and comfortable as you want to make them… and you’re making them smaller by practicing making them bigger and then smaller. Easy-peasey! Just realise that these are skills and as with any skill… the more you practice, the more powerful the skill becomes, and you can use these skills any time you desire. Whether in a state of self-hypnosis or not. Of course, with self-hypnosis you amplify the effectiveness of the process. The more you practice. the easier it is for you to allow these skills to be totally and completely effective… Just practicing making the shape smaller and the colour of the shape fade.

Step Six:

Once you feel that you have practiced this enough for this session, knowing that you can give the shape a size and colour and then instantly and easily make the shape smaller and the colour fade away. Let the shape disappear.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Eight • p68 Imagine that you are finding it difficult to even find the shape as it shrinks and fades. Then open your eyes, wiggle your fingers and toes and go about your day. As I often, decide to take some action that will prove to you that you are making those changes.

Additional Viewing:

Excuse Blow out: http://www.adam-eason.com/2011/06/09/using-self-hypnosis-to-blast-through-excuses- instructional-video-clip/

The Gestalt Prayer

I do my thing and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, And you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you, and I am I, And if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful. If not, it can’t be helped. Perls, 1969

Three-Step Assertiveness Strategy:

There are several versions of the popular “three-step” model of assertiveness, which can be seen to resemble certain principles employed in “problem-solving” training (PST). 1. Listen, state the facts, and acknowledge other views. Listen to the other person’s views and recognise them. Summarise the situation in an objective, impersonal way, sticking to the relevant facts and acknowledging other people’s perspectives. Avoid any emotive rhetoric or cognitive distortions, e.g., catastrophising or mind-reading. 2. Say what you think or feel. Assert your objections or alternative viewpoint. Use “I talk” to take responsibility for your views, be congruent and expressive (“face talk”) to avoid sending a mixed message. 3. Say what you want to happen. Offer a suggestion for compromise or a solution to put into action, and a first step that can be taken right away if appropriate. For example, “I understand that you think we should pay for the pizza because we ate a slice of it, however, on the other hand, we didn’t notice until then that it wasn’t cooked properly in the middle, and, we would be happy to pay for one slice as long as you refund the rest of our money.” This model reminds the client to take time and recognise the other person’s views before responding, in order to avoid sounding dismissive or failing to understand the other perspective. By then expressing their feelings honestly, they are reminded not to suppress them but to seek acknowledgement from the other person, hopefully leading to some degree of mutual understanding. By concluding with a proposed solution, they are giving direction to the conversation, and shifting focus on to the future and more positive steps that can be taken.

If you would like an easy-to-use coaching and problem-solving model that you can also use with teams, this is it. The S.C.O.R.E. model is part of the NLP toolkit, but you can still get good results with it even if you don’t have any NLP experience. Even if you are trained in NLP, you may not be familiar with the S.C.O.R.E., as it’s not taught in every school, but it’s definitely worth knowing about. And if you are already know the S.C.O.R.E. (Boom, boom!), you may be interested in some tips I’ve picked up for getting the best from it in practice, and you will definitely want to know how it can be transformed into something still more powerful through an appreciative, solution-focused frame.

Origins

Robert Dilts states in the Encyclopedia of Systemic NLP and NLP New Coding that the S.C.O.R.E. model originated in 1987 when he and the late Todd Epstein noticed that they were intuitively using a more effective method than their advanced NLP students for mapping out problems and designing interventions to get to solutions. As they examined their own problem-solving process to find how it differed from that of their students, they found that they were viewing any problem situation as having these five compo- nents: Symptoms: these are the immediate signs that tell you there is a problem. Causes: which may be the antecedent conditions that gave rise to the symptoms, the intentions behind behaviours giving rise to the problem, or current constraints. Outcomes: your desired result or goal, where you want to get to. Resources: the qualities, capabilities, reserves and help that you can bring to bear on solving the problem. These can be past, present or future. Effects: the longer term, systemic and higher level results of the outcome. You can arrange these elements on a time-line like this:

The SCORE Model graphic

Sample questions to clarify each component: Symptoms: • What’s not working? • What do you want to change? Causes: • What are the underlying causes? • What’s stopping you from fixing this? • Who or what is benefiting from not fixing this?

• What do you want instead of the problem? • Where do you want to get to?

Resources:

What skills/money/equipment/contacts do you have that will help you to solve your problem?

Have you faced a problem like this before? How did you solve it?

Effects:

• What will it do for you/your team/your organisation/society for you to attain your goal? • How will reaching your outcome change things? • What will you learn from it?

Generally you would start with the Symptoms. After that you can go in any direction. There is no set order or prescribed length of time to be spent in each component — let your interest and intuition, and your calibration of the client, guide you as to when to move to another component, and which one to move to.

The Dancing SCORE Pattern Handout:

Step One:

Have in mind a problem that you wish to overcome or resolve. Ideally a problem which will benefit from an expanded insight.

Step Two:

From a neutral position, imagine mapping out four separate positions in front of you: cause, symptom, outcome and desired effect related to the problem. Map in chronological order.

Step Three:

Now step into the location and the spot for the symptom and really associate with the symptom. Find a movement of some kind which somehow expresses that experience.

Step Four:

Now step backwards and into the location of cause. Associate with it and find a movement that expresses the ‘cause’ state. Notice changes in movement and let your body lead you.

Break state. Think about your desired outcome, think about the desired state of having this outcome. Step in to that. Fully express this state and fully associate with it. Be led by your body as you move your body into the shape and motion of that state of ‘outcome’.

Step Six:

Step forward into the ‘effect’ space in front of you. Imagine and feel the results of having achieved your outcome. Think of how your life changes when you have this effect, how it permeates your life. Get a full physical representation of the desired effects in your life. Get a real physical feeling and move your body as it leads you to do.

Step Seven:

Now then, having gone through the steps on the previous 4 locations, get a progressive series of steps going. Start at the ‘cause’ location, walk slowly through all four positions of the sequence, adopting each of the moves as you walk through each state and location. Fully recreate each of the physical body movements. Make sure you go slow enough from symptom to outcome so your mind creates a connection between these two spaces and associates the movements with each other. Repeat this several times until you have created your very own dance.

Step Eight:

In the neutral position, think and a feel about what could possibly be missing from the dance you have created. Now get a movement, led by your body again for this missing resource.

Step Nine:

Starting at the ‘cause’ location, incorporate the new resource movement into each of the mapped out locations. So do the previous movement while at each step and add the new movement too.

Step Ten:

Now repeat and step through all the spaces, move from cause to effect with the new fully incorpo- rated movements, forming a powerful kind of dance, that is something you can do. Do it like no-one is watching, really enjoy it and express yourself…

Step One:

Identify the life transition issue that is being faced. What do you want to examine and work on here? First up you define the dragon. You might include key elements of the context or the environment relating to this life transition. You think about reactions of your partner, friends and family. Maybe consider the details of your current circumstances. Sense the issues you face and what the dragon represents for you.

Step Two:

Create a central space for the dragon. Then mark out six spaces around the dragon. For each of those spaces, map out the following archetypes: • The Innocent: Does not know the dragon exists. Is not yet experiencing the dragon consciously. • The Orphan: Overwhelmed or consumed by the dragon. Experiences the dragon as a threat. • The Martyr: Persecuted by the dragon. • The Wanderer: Avoids the dragon. Is adverse to it. • The Warrior: Fights the dragon. Considers the dragon an adversary to engage in battle with. • The Sorcerer: Accepts the dragon. Experiences it as powerful, even seen as a resource or an ally.

Step Three:

In a neutral space have a good think, sense your feelings and notice which archetype represents you the best right now in relation to the dragon. If unsure, alter perceptual position.

Step Four:

Step into space that represents you best now. In your mind and body, sense how that feels. Take on the posture of that archetype, get the gestures of it, the voice tone, the expressions and the stance of being here and feel how it feels to be that way. Notice all you can notice about what it means to be associated with this archetype in this space.

Step Five:

Progress and move through all the remaining positions in the cycle or spaces around the dragon. Discover what each space feels like in relation to the dragon. The stance, the body posture, the gestures, the voice tone, everything about it. Take each space on in depth and explore it fully.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Nine • p74 Finish up moving to the space which feels most appropriate for you to be in at this time. Think about the next steps in the cycle of your transition from this place and think about that in real-life terms and what that means to you. What is coming up? What might you need to do? Take some time to think about and feel what that means to you.

Step Six:

Return to your neutral space and reflect on the entire process and what you have learned and what you can now choose to do. Think of the actions needed in your life, think of things you want to go and do as a result of this exploration. Consider changes in your thoughts and feelings towards this transition in your life. You can now examine and think about how to develop the best mindset and strategies in life for this stage of your life.

Additional Reading:

The Identity Matrix: http://www.adam-eason.com/2010/11/09/a-bit-of-nlp-today-the-matrix-of-identity/

Coping To Mastery (Example in more depth):

On the plane journey back from a holiday in Portugal I was on, some good friends were on the same flight as us and they were enjoying having their young daughter on a plane with them for the first time… many might be worried about such a thing, not these guys… They were all excited and happy about the prospect as we waited in the airport and then when the plane took off, she was interested, excited, and thoroughly loved the experience in its entirety, all the way laughing while we landed. There was much preparation that went on for this to happen… They did not know consciously or really choose to do what they did, but they joked about how they pointed at planes in the sky and talked about being on one of those, when they played in the garden. They imagined and played games imagining being on planes and got a marvelously good level of comfortable mental association and it all panned out perfectly. That is what I am writing about here. Most of the people that come to see me for therapy have learned somewhere along the line to cope in some way with their issues… They have not mastered dealing with the issue, otherwise they would not need to see me. Here, I want to talk about a process that allows anyone to move from coping to mastering just by using the power of your mind, so that you can metaphorically be flying without a care too.

Steps To Move From Coping To Mastering Using Self- Hypnosis:

Prior to starting with this process, for a moment close your eyes and think of a situation that you feel uncomfortable about. that is the situation that we’ll use throughout this process… Ideally a situation that you’d like to feel wonderfully at ease, confident and comfortable about in the future. So with that situation in mind, imagine the situation like it is a film clip that has a distinct beginning, middle and ending. Like a scenario whereby you imagine that the scene begins at a point before anything has happened, goes through the discomfort of the situation, and ends when it is over and you feel safe once again. Run through that entirely and thoroughly in your mind before you even begin this process. Having done that, briefly and starting at the beginning, go ahead and describe the sequence of events out loud to yourself or someone else that you can get to listen. Just verbalise it and make sure it sounds right and is a worthwhile situation to be dealt with.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Ten • p76 Then give yourself a score of between 0–10 about how confident you feel about the situation right now having run through it. maybe make a note of that score — this is going to help us measure your progress later on. Now you are ready to move on and get into it…

Step One:

Take several nice deep breaths, and as you let it out, imagine relaxing your body and softening your muscles. Engage in the moment, focus on your breathing, get really comfortable and let your body kind of begin to melt and float down and relax. Be an observer of your own experience and just feel everything letting go, absolutely nothing for you to do, just relax. Enjoy the stillness and allow your body to be properly, deeply still. Go inside your mind and just observe what is happening inside you while you are relaxing. Ideally, go get my book on self-hypnosis and learn how to develop a good level of trance for yourself. Otherwise, use whatever form of meditation or relaxation that is right for you. Then, when you are ready and inwardly focused, proceed to Step Two.

Step Two:

OK, so if you have studied or explored the field of NLP, you’ll be aware of this kind of process of dis- sociating… Though it was being done a long time before NLP started popularising it… Now just imagine that you are seated in the back row of your own private cinema. If you used to snog quietly at the back row of the cinema, then you might want to sit in a different seat… ;-) You are going to watch a film clip of that situation, the one you ran through prior to starting this… This time, it is going to be viewed in a different way though. You’re going to view things from a distance, and feel more detached, neutral and objective about them. So that from here onwards, you can still think about those things but you do so in a way that is much more helpful, progressive and constructive. What we want to happen here is for you to be able to face those old negative, unwanted emotions, feelings and thoughts and learn from them. Heck, maybe even grow stronger as a result of them! So bring the cinema screen to life and see yourself on the screen at the beginning of that imagined situation. Hit the pause button for a moment. In a moment, you are going to watch the things you were worried might happen — which was a ridiculous thing to do, wasn’t it? Run it through including the beginning, middle, and end. Tell yourself that the more you watch, the more calm, relaxed and confident you feel. Face those old, unwanted fears, worries or anxieties from this distanced position and just drain all the negative feelings away. maybe you can see them, imagine them as colours, or hear them, or just assume that they are draining in whatever way is best for you. Really do that right now, watch yourself going through that. Once you have arrived at the end of that scene, fade the screen, blank it out, pull a curtain over it and relax. If you know of a good pro-

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Ten • p77 gressive relaxation process, go through that for a while, do all you can to relax yourself more than before. OK, so now when you think about that same situation, how self-confident do you feel about coping with it, on a scale from 0–10, what number do you have? How higher is it than it was before? Cool, eh? Repeat this process at least two more times, remembering to score yourself after each time.

Step Three:

So having done that at least three times, you now use your imagination and actually put yourself in that same situation… So this time you are seeing things through your own eyes, hearing through your own ears and feeling what it is like to be in the situation. As vividly as you can, imagine being there and it’s happening here and now. While you are there, you may want to deliver some powerful messages to yourself, affirming that, “I can do this,” or ,“I feel calm,” or, “I am in control of myself,” or whatever kind of internal dialogue helps enhance how you feel in this situation. Imagine that you are now coping with that situation in a more calm, relaxed and confident manner. Not perfect yet, though better than before. Start at the beginning, and imagine yourself handling things in a more progressive and capable manner. Then once you have reached the end of the clip, with you in it, blank out the screen, fade the picture or pull a curtain over it all and relax as much as you possibly can. Again, using whatever relaxation technique is best for you. So that now when you think about that situation, on a scale of 0–10 how self-confident do you feel about coping with it? How much higher is that number now? Repeat this process at least two more times, remembering to score yourself after each time.

Step Four:

So this is the climax, the crescendo, the mastery being met… The fun. Finally then, you imagine yourself having totally mastered the same situation and dealing with it in a completely calm, relaxed and confident manner. You may want to repeat any internal dialogue or messages to yourself again. Saying them with vigour and with a sense of really meaning it! So that you are now handling that situation to the best of your ability, as calm, relaxed, and confident as you can imagine. It is personal to you, so do this in whatever way you deem to be the best of your abilities. Again, as before, start at the beginning, and imagine yourself experiencing things in as progressive and comfortable way as possible, as if it is happening right now. When you’ve reached the end, blank out the screen and relax. Really nice and deeply, breathe a deep breath and relax.

Platinum Programme for Hypnotherapy Manual Copyright 2012 Adam Eason. All rights reserved. Module Ten • p78 OK, one more time now, when you think about that situation, how self-confident do you feel about coping with it, on a scale from 0–10, what number do you have? You can repeat this until you get to zero, if for any reason you have not already.

Step Five: Exit.

Practice this technique over and over again. It’ll make a huge difference. Go and take some action, that is undeniably convincing to you that you are making this change.