HYPNOTHERAPY
By Fonya Lord Helm, PhD, ABPP
E
ricksonian hypnotherapy is a particular kind of hypnotherapy that uses the strengths and coping mechanisms you have already developed, have used often, and are woven into your character. No formal induction process is necessary, since Erickson’s approach uses permissive rather than authoritative hypnosis to create the trance state together. You will go in and out of trance without necessarily being aware of it and where your unconscious decides to go will be the right place at the right time, because the wishes of the individual come first and are respected. This approach was created as a medical form of hypnosis, so it could be different for each individual with powerful effects for healing and solving problems.
The website of the Milton H. Erickson Institute of the Bay Area in northern California is www.miltonherickson.com. The website explains Ericksonian hypnotherapy much more fully.
Age Regression is another form of hypnotherapy that can be useful. It uses integrated imagery combined with regression hypnosis.
This approach to hypnosis relies on your imagination and the creation of a trance together. The themes that emerge from this work can have a powerful therapeutic effect in your present life. We can go back into your past looking for whatever your unconscious wants to go. We also can go forward into your future, age progression, in your imagination. Both age regression and progression can be useful. I have found that when we travel in time, you will have a strong sense of where you want to go, once we establish a trance together with the purpose of traveling in another dimension with our imaginations. You will discover ideas and themes that you never thought of before that can be useful for your present life. What you think and believe in your conscious mind is quite different from the ideas and images in your unconscious mind.
For a fuller description, go to the website of Atlantic University, www.atlanticuniv.edu, and click on Academics, then Online Programs, and then Integrated Imagery: Regression Hypnosis. This description will describe the process in much greater detail.
