Abnormal reactions under hypnosis (abreactions)

Reflective Journal – Week 3.

This week we covered module 3 which was on self-hypnosis. My understanding of hypnosis is that it’s all self-hypnosis and in our normal working days we’re listening to our own internal dialog and thus taking these conversations to heart. The old clichés like “You’re your own worst enemy” are so true for a lot of us because we’re repeating negative mantras to ourselves everyday.

With self-hypnosis you’re effectively doing the opposite. You’re repeating positive mantras and life affirming statements.

I know that I have a really negative internal dialog and I’m very quick at criticizing myself at every opportunity so I really need to practice what we’ve been taught.

One of the basic self-hypnosis techniques we ran thru went like this (and this is the first time I’ve looked at it since the weekend so I haven’t been practicing!):

When you’re ready to go to sleep, every night, for seven consecutive nights repeat the following mantra ten times (I’ve seen this quote somewhere before or something very similar but I can’t remember where…)

“Every day, in every respect, I get better and better”

In order not to fall asleep whenever you’re reading this tap down with each finger in turn. This will help you to keep track of how many times you’ve repeated the phrase.

This works nicely with another similar tool whereby you think of all the good things that have happened throughout the day. If you can’t think of anything good then you need to change your definition of good!

This step is to follow a simple induction. Do this in your second week continuing with the previous step.

Do this twice a day.

Sit in a comfortable chair with your back supported.

Focus your attention – effortlessly – on a spot opposite you slightly above eye level.

Take three deep breaths – slowly. As you inhale your third breath, hold it for three full seconds as you count backwards: 3..2..1

Close your eyes, exhale, RELAX, and allow yourself to go into a deep, sound hypnotic rest.

Now count down from 25 to 1. This should take you about three minutes so really take your time and as you do so imagine each number being written on a whiteboard or displaying on a computer screen.
To reawaken just count from one to three and you will awaken refreshed and alert (actually think about these words as you count) ready to go about your business in an energetic way.

Perform this exercise twice-a-day for seven days, after which time you’ll be able to drop in beneficial suggestions.

In the third week continue with step one – this new step replaces step two. Find yourself a small card, about the size of a business card, which will fit in your purse or wallet. On this card write some suggestions which meet the following criteria that will help you achieve your goals

Positive, Simple, Believable and Measurable.

In an attempt at being open and sharing here’s what I wrote (I’m visibly cringing at the thought of sharing these with everyone!):

“I can absorb and retain information easily for easy and quick recollection. I am positive, charming, charismatic and nice to be around. People see me as happy, enlightening, interesting and open.”

I can visualize everyone vomiting as they read this!

Anyway when you’ve written out this card here’s how to use it:

As in step two, find a comfortable, supportive chair. Find a spot on the opposite wall which is slightly above eye-level. Hold the card at arms length (or closer if you’re really short sighted). Read your suggestions to yourself three times, put the card down and take a really deep refreshing breath. Pause and exhale. Do this with two more, deep, calming breaths. On the third breath hold it and count back from 3 to 1.

Exhale and go into a deep relaxing state of hypnosis.

Now go over your positive suggestions and really imagine, see, feel, smell how it’s going to be to achieve your goals.

Because you’re in a calm detached state the words may fragment as your imagination takes you to new places. This is OK. Just enjoy the feeling.

In a few minutes you’ll naturally feel it’s a time to stop and wake-up. At this point just count forward from 1 to 3. Now go about your business feeling refreshed and relaxed in every way.

Repeat and stir until cooked!

Blackboard Induction

As a part of module 4 of the course we covered an interesting induction that’s especially good for those people who don’t respond well to normal direct or Eriksonian type inductions. It’s classed as a confusional technique because of the way it gets the subject very involved in a repetitive task which leaves their unconscious mind more open to suggestion.

Now, personally, I prefer the Eriksonian approach so I didn’t think it would work well for me but I was pleasantly surprised by how affective it was.

I was even more surprised by how well it worked on my partner during our practice session. When I started to read the script all was going well and I saw all the notifications as expected. But then as I got to the part where she had to start performing the task she had an abnormal reaction (abreaction). She started to laugh out loud in a very animated and childish way all with her eyes closed. Luckily one of the course tutors was at hand and encouraged me to go with it. I was very shocked as this hadn’t happened to me before and I was thankful that I had a controlled and safe environment in which to practice.

After a few minutes my ‘client’ calmed down and returned to a settled state I continued with the script and bought her out of the trance.

During the debrief she explained that my voice reminded her of a children’s TV presenter and she regressed to being a young child in school who was being reprimanded by her teacher.

It was quite an emotional and deep learning experience.

Time-Line Regression

Here we learnt about time-lines and how to set goals and see how you’ve achieved them. Basically, as I know understand it, it’s about setting yourself goals for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 1-year. By setting goals in this sequential manner you’re able to build from a small start without over stretching your imagination. When you’ve written down these goals image the path on which you’re going to travel and slowly make your way to each of these posts. By the time you get to the one-year mark you’ve essentially been through the process of achieving your goals. A few anchoring techniques along the way can make this a very interesting and powerful form of waking hypnosis.

When my next practice buddy walked me through my time-line goals (which I found very difficult to put into words) it made the hairs on the back of my neck and gave me goose-bumps.

All-in-all it was a very emotional and quite draining weekend but it’s totally worth it because I’m learning so much about myself.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 5th, 2007 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Hypnotherapy, Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.