I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Dr Rob McNeilly from Hobart, Tazmania about learning hypnosis and the work of Milton Erickson. Rob founded the CET in l988 to introduce Ericksonian Hypnosis and the solution oriented approach to hypnosis, counselling and coaching in Australia. He is co-author, with Jenny Brown, of Healing With Words and his other book is Healing the Whole Person. In the interview we discuss the work of Milton H. Erickson who was an American psychiatrist who helped found the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
You may heard the term “Ericksonian hypnosis”, or maybe covert or conversational hypnosis. For Erickson clients needed to be empowered to find solutions for themselves. For Erickson hypnosis flows from common everyday occurrences, such as waiting for a train maintained that trance is a common, everyday occurrence. These instances increased the likelihood that a trance state could occur. Erickson maintained that it was not possible consciously to instruct the unconscious mind, and that authoritarian suggestions were likely to be met with resistance. Although Erickson was known as a renowned hypnotherapist, he used formal hypnosis in about a fifth of his cases in clinical practice.