18 Ways to Induce and Deepen Hypnotic Trance
By Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D., L.P.C.
"You are going deeper-deeper." How many times a day does a hypnotherapist say these words? Would you like to add some variety to your deepening methods? Here are 18 things to say to induce and deepen hypnotic trance. Each item on the list has a short script as an example. You will recognize several hypnotic language patterns. Keep in mind that some methods overlap. Read all the scripts in the entire list sequentially and you will have an effective trance induction for relaxation.
Begin by telling the client to close his or her eyes. Make yourself comfortable and close your eyes.
1. Ask the client to take a deep breath and relax. Ease back and take a deep breath, all the way in. As you slowly let it out, perhaps you can feel your muscles beginning to relax, at the same time that your mind is just beginning to pay attention in a different way.
2. Pace the client's current experience with truisms and lead into trance. You are listening to my voice, and the sounds in the room. You are aware of your surroundings. You are aware of the position of your arms and legs. You can feel the texture of your clothing. You can feel the support of the chair on which you are sitting. You notice your breathing, and you notice how much more relaxed and calm you feel, than just moments ago.
3. Reassure the client that trance is easy to attain and he or she is a good hypnotic subject. Going into trance is different for each person, and whatever way you experience it is just find. I am sure you can do this.
4. Compounding: The more you listen, the more you relax. The more you relax, the easier it is to go within and achieve that level of inner awareness where special learning takes place.
5. Fractionation: As you learn to go into trance, you can practice it for improvement. Open your eyes for a moment. Look around. Now close your eyes and go right back to an even more satisfying level of relaxation and concentration.
6. Establish Cause-Effect: As you wonder what hypnosis is all about, you understand more. Each breath you exhale can make it more satisfying. I hope each moment that passes brings you a greater sense of comfort. With each word I say, you can advance more completely into relaxation and concentration, as you please.
7. Progressive Relaxation: (Suggest that each part of the body is relaxing. Be sure to pause between each sentence, giving the client time to respond). Send the thought of relaxation all the way down to your feet and feel your feet relaxing. Allow that same relaxation to move gently upward through your body, into your ankles and calves. Let the relaxing feelings continue, so that now your knees and thighs can feel more relaxed, as the relaxation moves into your hips and abdomen. Now feel the muscles of your back beginning to relax and let go of all that tension. Even your shoulders relax as comforting sensations flow down into your chest and each exhale helps that sense of relaxation and letting go. Let the relaxation flow down your arms, into your elbows, down into your wrists, and all the way down to the tips of your fingers. Your entire body is relaxing more, while that soothing feeling moves into your neck, your scalp, and all the muscles of your face relax. Your entire body feels relaxed from head to toe. All the tension has melted away.
8. Presuppose that deepening is occurring: I wonder how completely you are relaxing. You are discovering for yourself how satisfying trance can be. While you are relaxing, many subtle changes are occurring.
9. Describe some common aspects of trance: Your breathing might be slower now and more regular. Perhaps your muscles are more relaxed and your hands might feel loose and limp, while your heartbeat and pulse are slowing down. You may be finding it easier to concentrate on the things I say, although from time to time, you are thinking your own thoughts too.
10. Suggestions of all possibilities: People go into trance in a wide variety of ways and everyone's experience is unique. Some people relax quickly, and some relax more slowly and some vary the pace. Some people hear every word I say, and others tune my voice in and out. Or you might pay attention to your own thoughts and not really listen at all. For some, trance is a light, floating experience, and for some it is a deep heavy experience, and for some, it is a combination of sensations. How you create this experience for yourself is really up to you, or you can just relax and discover what happens naturally. It may be what you expect or something different, or some of each.
11. Arm Catalepsy: As you focus inward, you can notice how relax your arms are. Let them feel so relaxed that they feel heavy-so heavy that for now, they just don't want to move. They are so heavy and relaxed that it's just too much effort to move them. Try to lift your right arm and find you'd rather not lift it, or it is so heavy, it just doesn't want to lift. Stop trying and relax even more comfortably. This should give you an indication that you are now fully in hypnotic trance, and how pleasant and peaceful it can be for you.
12. Eye Closure: Now relax your eyelids and all the muscles around your eyes even more than before. Let your eyelids feel heavy and drowsy. Let your eyelids relax so much that they just don't feel like opening. They are so heavy, so relaxed that if you tried to open them, it would seem difficult. Now relax your eyelids so much more that they just want to stay shut. Later on, of course, they will open easily, but for now you can enjoy the feeling of allowing your subconscious to take part in this process, relaxing your eyelids so much they just want to stay closed. Now test your eyelids to be sure they want to stay shut. Very Good! Now stop testing and experience the satisfaction of realizing that your mind and body are fully cooperating with the process of hypnosis, as you relax more peacefully.
13. Revivify a memory of previous trance (if it was pleasant) or a similar experience of comfort and relaxation: (Note: Ask the client to describe the previous trance before you begin hypnosis. Then use the client's own words here, as you help the client access the memory). I trust you can remember that previous time when you were hypnotized. You might recall some of your thoughts and observations and the sensations you felt as your body relaxed and your mind seemed to "focus inward," as though you were "drifting effortlessly" while feeling comfortable and secure. You remember that it was "a soothing feeling to let go of all that stress." You can have those same satisfying feelings now.
14. Metaphor or Analogy: Some people say going into trance is as comfortable as going to bed at night, at the end of a long, productive day, with nothing else to do but close the eyes and let go and relax. There are no distractions and nothing to think about. You can just let the mind drift, feeling warm and comfortable, while enjoying the peaceful quiet.
15. Counting: I am going to count now from one to five. With each number, just let your mind and body relax more and more, so that by the time I reach the number five, you will be much more deeply relaxed, with a fuller sense of inner awareness. One, relaxing deeper and deeper. Two, relaxing more and completely. Three, a deeply comfortable feeling. Four, going within to find what is there to discover. Five, much more relaxed now.
Note: If you use counting to deepen the trance, reverse the count with you reorient the client. Example: Now I am going to count from five to one and with each number you'll become increasingly alert. Five, coming up now. Four, feeling more alert. Three, ready to return to conscious, wakeful awareness. Two, ready to move about again and open your eyes, and one, eyes open, fully alert now.
16. Splitting: (Pose to the client that he or she is aware of two opposite things at once. Use a different tone of voice for each one). You have a conscious mind...and you have an subconscious mind. Your conscious mind is aware of the external world...and your subconscious mind manages your inner awareness. The conscious mind deals with facts and logic...while the subconscious mind works with intuition and creativity. The conscious mind thinks about the problems...while the subconscious mind holds the solutions. Mere conversation speaks to the conscious mind...and hypnosis speaks to the subconscious mind.
17. Guided imagery: Imagine you are drifting down a quiet stream in a canoe, under a lovely blue sky. The current carries you along, so you can just sit back and relax and enjoy the scenery. Overhead, an occasional cloud floats slowly by, moving effortlessly with its own sense of direction, even though you don't know where it is going. It changes shape as it moves, sometimes resembling something recognizable, sometimes not. On either side of you there is a riverbank, with trees, grasses, shrubs and flowers. Butterflies flit among the colorful flowers, seeming to know just what to do to get at that sweet nectar deep inside each one. All is peaceful and tranquil, as you let the current carry you, and the gentle rocking of the canoe, under the warmth of the sun seems to lull you into a deeply restful state.
18. Word play: As you trance-sition into hypnotic trance in your own way, getting out of your own way, you might trance-fer some previous learning to have it your own way, or it could be that you wait for the experience to trance-form your awareness of how you own the way you do it and trance-late what I say, into something you can use now or have discovered earlier on.
This piece appears in my book, The Weight, Hypnotherapy and You Weight Reduction Program: An NLP and Hypnotherapy Practitioners Manual (Crown House 2006). To find out more about this book go to www.engagethepower.com.
