Hypnosis or Trance?

By Alan Jones Principal of Empowerment Trainings
C.Hyp. Dip.Hyp. NLP Trainer

Some traditionalists believe that in order to be an effective hypnotherapist clients need to be in the state of somnambulism which is easily tested for. Some modern Ericksonian style hypnotherapists and NLP therapists believe that the conscious mind can be bypassed using vague language and be as, if not more, effective than traditional Hypnosis. Personally I think they are both right, in that the effectiveness of any therapy is, in part, down to the expectations of the client; consciously and unconsciously.

One operating principle of NLP is, “If what you are doing is not working do anything else.” So if you are using a traditional method to induce trance and it is not working as well as you would like, switch to an Ericksonain style trance and vice a versa. To hold on to a particular style, as Erickson might have said is “Too ridged.”

Some people may be aware of the work of Dave Elman, who for me is in between traditional and Ericksonian hypnosis. There are many, I’m sure who will disagree and that’s fine. Opinions are like bodies, everyone has one. I think that too many therapists get caught up in defending their therapy. Carl Jung told his students to learn all the skills of therapy then forget them and be with their client, who after all is the most important person in the therapeutic relationship, aren’t they?

The comments and articles on this blog can only ever be someone’s opinion, be it based on their experience or their understanding and both will always be limited to their knowledge and their experience. In my opinion there is no such thing as “The Truth,” we all have our on truths which can only be based on our experience and our knowledge; academic knowledge is someone else’s opinion’s, it cannot not be.

This blog is open to all styles of hypnosis and therapies, personally I use both direct and indirect inductions; traditional and modern and will happily mix and match my style to suit the client.

Some hypnotherapists speed up their speech tempo, I usually slow mine down to about 25% of my normal speaking voice and pace my phrases to the out breath of my client.

Whilst anyone can buy a book or download scripts from the internet, anyone not qualified as a hypnotherapist should be aware of the following contra indications to the use of trance:

If your client or person you intend to hypnotise is being treated by any other practitioner, including their GP, for the condition they are consulting you; it is good etiquette to get your client to check with them, that they have no objections to you treating the client at the same time. You may wish to refuse to treat a client if they have not sought the other practitioner’s agreement, even though the client insists it’s OK. One reason is, that having two therapies together for the same thing, will mean that the client cannot be sure which treatment is benefiting them.

Prescribed medication.

It is illegal to suggest or recommend that someone on prescribed medication stops taking it or changes the amount being taken unless you are a qualified and practicing Medical Doctor treating the client.

Treatment of Pain

Pain is a signal from the body that something is wrong. If you are not a medical doctor, it is imperative you have your client seek medical advice before using pain control.

Psychiatric Disorders

If a client has received psychiatric treatment for a clinically diagnosed condition such as bipolar disorder (manic depression), schizophrenia or psychotic behaviour etc. you must refer them back to their psychiatrist or GP, unless you are a qualified medical psychiatrist and have access to their medical records.

A client who is likely to cause harm to themselves or others

This is a matter of personal choice. However, if I did consider such a case, I would insist that the person sign an agreement that they do not harm themselves or anyone else whilst they are being treated.

On drugs that cause an altered state

Anti-depressants etc, seek written medical confirmation that hypnosis is in order. Always check out any drug you are not sure of, prior to treatment.

This includes someone who has been drinking alcohol or is currently high on so called recreational drugs.

Any condition you feel you are not confident about treating

Refer the client.


For those new to or interested in hypnosis what follows is a traditional basic progressive induction script, using presuppositions and embedded commands for added effectiveness, to relax and unwind; also known technically as a Fractional Induction. This is a no content induction and therapist wishing to effect change would use their own style of intervention.

Script

You may feel more comfortable if you just allow your eyes to close and turn your attention inwards now… and focus on your breathing…become aware of the air as it flows into your body and as you breath out notice how you can relax more now…and the next breath….as it were finds itself…without any effort on your part…in your imagination I’d like you to see a light…this may be a large or small light…your light may be colour…just know that the colour of your light is the right colour for you…and if by any chance you have not noticed the light yet that’s alright too…Sometimes we know things before we notice them and other times we notice them before we are aware of them haven’t you…and as you become more aware of the light…or know that it’s there before you see it…mores closer to you and down towards your toes…feel the sensation of the light entering your toes…I wonder if that is a tingling feeling, a warm feeling or another sensation…whatever feeling you may notice is right for you…no two times…you allow yourself to relax…are the same…each time you begin to enter this state of relaxation will be unique and sensations may change or be similar…that’s right…as the light continues to enter your toes feel it filling your feet up to the ankles now…releasing, releasing and letting go now…as the light moves up through your calves up to your knees and on to your hips, filling you thighs and buttocks as you continue to relax, release and just let go now…as the light moves on up through your stomach…I wonder whether the sensations are changing as you relax deeper now…or if they are becoming more familiar to your conscious mind…while your unconscious mind…enjoys these feelings of relaxation…as the light continues to spread up through your back…relaxing your back muscles now…you may go back, right back to a time when you felt really relaxed haven’t you…as the light and those feelings spread through your neck up over the back of your head and down across your forehead, over your eyes, nose and down your chin…and I wonder if you’ve even bothered to noticed that your breathing has changed to a more relaxing and gentle rhythm…let the light relax the small muscles above your eyes…behind your eyes…relax the space at the back of your eyes…relax…give yourself the permission to enjoy the luxury…of letting go…completely…allow the light to continue to relax the space behind your eyes as those relaxing feelings gently float down through the roof of your mouth into your tongue…and as your tongue relaxes even more… just allow your jaw… to relax so your tongue can just float in your mouth, go deeper….go deeper…let it happen…let it happen…now simply follow the trance…your unconscious….mind is leading you on…follow your trance…into deep peaceful relaxation…

If you would like information about training to be a Clinical Hypnotherapist with Empowerment Trainings please click here or email alan@empowerment-trainings.org.uk

Can you really tell if someone is lying using NLP?

Recently I have seen some daytime television where shows are using Lie detector machines or so called experts who claim they know when someone is lying with 96% accuracy. Jeremy Kyle, Tricia and Judge Judy are some.

Judge Judy claims to know when someone is lying by their “Eye Accessing Cues,” a little more about them in a moment, Jeremy Kyle uses a lie detector machine and Tricia uses an expert. Some of the results and the shows hosts assertions change people’s lives; for the good or the worst only the individual’s concerned will know in time.

On a recent repeated show of Jeremy Kyle’s, five people took lie detector tests, four came back that they were telling the truth, the fifth’s result came back as inconclusive. Apparently the person being tested had a slight reaction, not enough for the expert to say they were lying. Jeremy Kyle then added, “One day you may tell her the truth.” This is a very damaging and dangerous remark because of the asserted implication that the person was lying and the seed of doubt is sowed in the other four minds. The preverbal, “Maggot eating away inside the apple,” as they now cannot help but question everything the other person says or does and go over events to look for clues that they may have lied.

At Talisman Training and Empowerment Training we know there is a difference between “The Truth” and someone lying. If someone believes what they are saying is the truth, then they are telling “Their Truth,” and cannot be said to be lying. This may not be the objective truth of say a video of a particular event, and even a video will only see and record sound from where it is placed, one perspective. For example four people can witness an accident; there will be four different versions of what happened. They can all be telling their truth and yet all four may not be telling “The Truth,” that’s why the Police have special accident investigators and scene of crime investigators. This is not done to prove someone is lying but to piece together their recollections and corroborate their experience of the event. Our truth’s are subjective and are limited by our sensory equipment, sight, hearing, feeling, taste, smell and our filters. Quantum Physics now accepts that the way an experiment is set-up and what the experimenter expects to prove has an effect on the results of their experiment. For more information have a look at Rupert Sheldrake Online

Electrical Lie Detectors

The lie detector or PolyGram only detects changes in emotions; it alone cannot tell if someone is lying. I will repeat that last bit, “It alone cannot tell if someone is lying,” only that the individual showed emotional reactions outside of a base mark about the question asked. This is the same for the so called experts. The only real way of telling if someone is lying is for them to tell you they lied. Anyone wanting more information about the PolyGram can visit Skeptics

Recent research suggests that in the future there may be a more accurate way of telling if someone is lying using brain scans, though as one of the researchers Feroze Mohamed, PhD, says, "There's a lot more reseach required." See utube clip here

Firstly let’s look at the advice of the world’s foremost expert in lie detection and FBI interview trainer Paul Eckman PhD. “There is NO ONE THING that a person may or may not do that indicates they are lying.” Paraphrased, “There are indications of inconsistency which need to be gone over again and again and areas where corroborating evidence needs to be sort.”

In NLP we use the information from "Eye Accessing Cues" for increased rapport and the benefit of our client’s so this is very useful model. At Talisman Training and Empowerment Trainings we teach a combination of Analytical Interviewing, NLP and Clean Elicitation for interviewing, this is amazingly effective and is one of the most respectful ways of interviewing young and other vulnerable witness, and interviewing generally for jobs and critical incident interviewing.

Eye Accessing Cues Explained.

Eye accessing cues are the movements our eye’s make when we are seeking information. With calibrating, that is continually checking it out; Eye Accessing Cues can tell us how someone is processing information, not if they are lying.

The Eye’s can be split into three zone, Upper, Middle and Lower. When the eyes move into the upper zone either left or right the person is processing visually, in pictures or movies, when the eyes move left or right in the middle zone, that is horizontally, the person is processing sounds, which we call auditory. When the eyes move into the lower zone the person is either processing through feelings, emotions or tactile feelings and playing internal tape loops, called inner dialogue. Generally a right-handed person will look up and to the left to remember pictures or movies and right to construct pictures or movies, look left in the middle zone to remember sounds and middle right to construct sounds, look down and to the left for internal dialogue and down right for emotions and tactile feelings. See diagram. The big misconception is that is a person is constructing either pictures or sounds they are lying. The only thing it means, if they are right-handed and conform to the model, is that they are processing information by constructing or reconstructing it, rather than it being a remembered picture or sequence of sounds.

Let me give you an example. If I asked you what you had for dinner on a Wednesday four weeks ago can you remember? Some people can, some will work backwards and reconstruct, piece together, what they had and others like me would not have a clue.

The Eye Accessing Cues is a model, not everyone conforms to it, not all left-handed people are the reverse of the right-handed model. The only way to find out how a person is processing information is to check it out on an individual basis. Remember that this is only a model of someone’s processing and not a lie detecting model. Also remember that a constructed picture or sound, once constructed can become a memory and change to a remembered picture or sound.

Conclusions on lying.

If someone is willing to deliberately tell lies so the observer or a Polygraph can be calibrated to the act of lying then are asked simple questions of no value, for example they turn over a deck of cards one at a time and they can either tell the observer the truth of a lie about the cards then you may get good at telling if they are lying about this trivial matter. Ask them a question about something that is important to them, something they don’t want you to know or is sensitive, then you might get a reaction and still you won’t know for sure if they are telling the truth or lying, especially if they believe what they are telling is “Their Truth.”

It is unsafe to presume you know someone is lying without independent corroborating evidence and even then they could still be telling you what they believe, which to them is not a lie.

I would suggest that we should all be very careful what we consider to be a lie as everyone’s truth is only as good as their senses, their filters and what they paid attention too at the time.

Using the Clean Elicitation Interviewing model developed by Talisman Training and Empowerment Training you can effectively recover more information from the interviewee than they consciously remember in a safe and respectful way.

Alan Jones

Point of interest:

Paul Eckman PhD has spent years studying micro muscle movements of the face there is an interesting clip of a micro part of his work on U-tube. To view the clip click here His interviewing technique is called "Analytical Interviewing."