Therapeutic Trances: The Cooperation Principle in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy

383 Pages·1987·1.777 MB·English

by  Stephen Gilligan

Therapeutic Trances
Therapeutic Trances is a manifesto of the fundamental principles and techniques
of Ericksonian hypnotherapy. This innovative volume lays out the principles
and practice of developing relationships with patients and creating a hypnotic
environment in which true healing can take place. The book offers therapists
specific questions to ask and practical ideas to pursue, thereby illustrating how
therapists may cooperate with clients to translate problems into solutions. Stephen
Gilligan synthesizes the approaches of Erickson, Bandler & Grinder, and Bateson
to bring a new perspective to the field.
Stephen Gilligan, PhD, is a psychologist in Encinitas, CA. He was one of the
original Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) students at UC Santa Cruz; Milton
Erickson and Gregory Bateson were his mentors. After receiving his psychology
doctorate from Stanford University, he became one of the premier teachers and
practitioners of Ericksonian hypnotherapy.
Routledge Mental Health Classic Edition
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ideas to a new generation.
Four Approaches to Counselling and Psychotherapy (Classic Edition)
Windy Dryden and Jill Mytton
Depression
The Evolution of Powerlessness (Classic Edition)
Paul Gilbert
The Therapeutic Use of Self
Counselling practice, research and supervision (Classic Edition)
Val Wosket
Human Nature and Suffering (Classic Edition)
Paul Gilbert
Individuation and Narcissism (Classic Edition)
Mario Jacoby
Shame and the Origins of Self-Esteem (Classic Edition)
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Therapeutic Trances
The Cooperation Principle
in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy
Classic Edition
Stephen Gilligan
Classic edition published 2019
by Routledge
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First edition published by Routledge 1987
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gilligan, Stephen G., 1954– author.
Title: Therapeutic trances : the cooperation principle in
Ericksonian hypnotherapy / Stephen Gilligan.
Description: Classic edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018018800 | ISBN 9781138584341 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781138584358 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780429506079
Subjects: | MESH: Hypnosis—methods
Classification: LCC RC495 | NLM WM 415 | DDC 616.89/
162—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018018800
ISBN: 978-1-138-58434-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-58435-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-50607-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction to the Classic Edition vii
Foreword by Jeffrey K. Zeig x
Introduction xiii
1 The Ericksonian Approach to Hypnosis 3
2 The Experience of Trance 31
3 The General Approach of the Ericksonian Hypnotherapist 63
4 Cooperation Strategies 98
5 Creating a Context for Therapeutic Trance 148
6 Associational Strategies for Developing Therapeutic
Trance 181
7 Depotentiating Conscious Processes: Confusion
Techniques 235
8 Balancing Associational and Dissociational Strategies:
Practical Issues Regarding Therapeutic Inductions 299
Epilogue 347
References 349
Index 355
Acknowledgments
Many people have participated in the birth of this book, and special thanks go to
the following:
• to those colleagues who read and provided feedback on the manuscript, espe-
cially Chris Beletsis, Lisa Chiara, Steve Dwoorman, Hank Freedman, John
Klinkert, Barbara Larocca, Marc Lehrer, Carol Locke, Neil Perrine, Eileen
Shields, and Jeff Zeig;
• to Julianna St. John, who helped considerably with her secretarial skills;
• to Ann Alhadeff of Brunner/Mazel, who contributed invaluable editorial
assistance;
• to Paul Carter, who was my teaching partner for most of the years in which
the manuscript was being written and who therefore contributed meaning-
fully to the ideas presented below;
• to my students and clients, without whose partnership I would have learned
nothing;
• to Denise Ross, my wife and soul mate, whose love and presence inspired me
at a time when the manuscript was in danger of never being completed;
• and to Milton Erickson, whose unorthodox and multifaceted ways trans-
formed all my images and ideas of therapy, not to mention life itself.
To all of these individuals and then some, I would like to say, “Thank you.”
Introduction to the Classic Edition
It’s been over 30 years since the first edition of Therapeutic Trances was pub-
lished. I was a much younger man, barely over 30 years old, still an intensely
devoted student of Milton Erickson. A lot has happened since then, and my work
has evolved beyond Erickson, though my respect for his legacy has only deep-
ened. I started studying with him when I was 19; he was really my first major
psychotherapy influence, and so I didn’t have that many bad habits to overcome.
One of the major things he taught me was that creativity is the major skill we’re
looking to activate in our clients, and that therapeutic trance is a major modality
for achieving that.
When we talk about creativity in a therapy or coaching session, we mean it in
a practical way: How does a person create new relationships, new identities, the
new parts of their being needed to move forward in a positive life? And when
we talk about trance as a medium for that process, we’re not talking about an
artificial trance where a client is “put to sleep” and told what to do, but a natural
trance wherein a person’s unique values and experiential patterns are welcomed
and stirred into the “quantum soup bowl” of therapeutic trance, to mix and morph
into new identity mosaics that, in Erickson’s words, best express the needs and
competencies of the present self. My appreciation for these ideas has only deep-
ened over 40 years of professional and personal life, and so I’m happy to see this
second edition of the very first book I wrote.
Creativity has been studied extensively over the past century, with most theo-
retical models strongly influenced by the 4-step model proposed by the American
psychologist Graham Wallas (1926). The first step is preparation, where con-
scious effort defines and explores a problem or goal. At the point of an impasse, a
second step of incubation occurs, wherein creative people take a break—a nap, a
walk, playing music, socializing, whatever pleasurable activity provides rest and
release from stickiness. If you’re lucky and well prepared, a third step of illumina-
tion occurs: The light bulb goes off, and an answer suddenly “flashes” into aware-
ness. (Some of my most pleasurable and creative moments in writing have come
in the hot tub late at night, after a long day of working on the manuscript.) You’re
not out of the woods yet—a fourth step of verification is needed, where a lot of
work is required to translate the inner realization into an outer sustainable reality.
viii Therapeutic Trances
We can see these four steps really as an alternation between two ways of think-
ing. The first is what in hypnosis we call the conscious mind. This is the effortful
machinations of the verbally dominated social cognitive intellect, which is able
to focus attention, set goals, move in sequences, consider new meanings, and so
forth. The second type of intelligence is what might be called the creative uncon-
scious, which provides the complementary intelligence of nonlinear, experiential
symbolic thinking. As in a dream or in play, the creative unconscious is able to
go anywhere from anywhere, and anything can turn into anything. For any sort
of sustainable creativity, there usually needs to be a good reciprocal relationship
between these two minds.
That means, for example, that a learning process starts with some intention:
There’s something I want to experience or achieve in my life. You do your best
to get there, but at some point you get stuck and find yourself sensing, I don’t
know what to do next. Most of the time we try harder, so much so that an idiom
developed to remind us: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging! This point of
not-knowing is when and why trance is helpful: It’s a signal to open up to new
possibilities. This is what a therapeutic trance helps you to do: safely surrender
to a deeper creative intelligence within in order to allow a new self to emerge.
Once this inner shift occurs, you still need to exercise it through commitment and
practice.
For example, a middle-aged woman, a mathematics professor, reported strug-
gling with the sudden passing of her father. She shared how her father had been
the most positive person in her life, and how she couldn’t imagine how to move
forward in her life without him. I asked if this meant that she wanted to move for-
ward, but didn’t know how, and she agreed. I asked her to attune to that inten-
tion, and then notice any experiential responses in her body. She said she felt
tremendous anxiety in her chest. Taking a few moments to positive attune to that
somatic experience, I gently “welcomed” it into our conversation, and asked if
there were any images connected with it. The client said, It’s like an elephant’s
foot is stepping on my chest. Staying in that “experiential resonance” mode with
the client, I gently suggested that it was likely bringing an important resource to
her. The woman closed her eyes in an inward response, quiet for a few moments
before breaking out into a laugh. She reported observing the elephant stand up,
turn around so its truck pointed outwards from my client’s heart, before waving
it and bellowing loudly into the world. The woman noted she had been reading
about Ganesh, the Hindu “elephant God,” also known as the clearer of obstacles,
and this elephant was apparently there to help her clear the path forward for the
next step of the journey.
This small example suggests one of the main values of hypnotic trance work
in psychotherapy: It opens new creative pathways when a person is stuck. This
is where and why trance is used: When a person consciously does not know how
to positively respond to a challenge, trance opens a safe space for the creative
unconscious to give a “second opinion” on the issue at hand. This allows a person
Introduction to the Classic Edition ix
to feel the partnership of the “conscious” and “creative unconscious” minds as the
most important relationship for health, happiness, and creative living.
This is what I learned from Erickson, and this book describes the careful and
generative framework that Dr. Erickson developed from over 50 years of psychi-
atric practice. I hope the work is as inspirational and helpful to you as it has been
for me.
Stephen Gilligan
Ph.D.
February 12, 2018
Wallas, G. (1926)
The Art of Thought. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.