Book Review: Techniques of Hypnotic Induction

By George Gafner

Crown House Publishing Co. LLC, Wales
Copyright, 2009

Reviewed by Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D.

As a hypnotherapist, I was intrigued by this small book focusing solely on hypnotic inductions. In Techniques of Hypnotic Induction, psychotherapist George Gafner, brings over 30 years of experience teaching hypnotherapists how to communicate with the unconscious mind skillfully, through story-telling inductions.

Gafner begins with an overview of the applications and efficacy of clinical hypnosis, backed by research studies. The applications include gastro-intestinal disorders, skin disorders, anesthetic-free surgery, nausea associated with chemotherapy, asthma, gender identity disorders, cystic fibrosis, and of course, smoking and weight management, as well as pain management, insomnia, substance abuse, and anxiety and mood disorders.

Next, the author offers a metaphoric trance induction with helpful notes in the margin showing how he indirectly suggests various trance phenomena: time distortion, dissociation, hallucination, and catalepsy. Then he launches into a series of hypnotic story-telling scripts, which are whimsical, haunting, and amusing, --all designed to induce trance with indirect references to time distortion, opening the mind to discovery, considering options for problem-solving, acceptance, releasing, and dissociation. These scripts teach readers how to insert suggestions into fascinating stories that help clients experience the effects of hypnosis. The scripts obviously speak to the unconscious mind and the influence of Milton H. Erickson is evident. While the scripts are beautifully written, readers are reminded to adapt them to their own circumstances and the preferences and sensitivities of their clients.

Gafner includes a very nice chapter on the hypnotic voice-a subject I've not seen in other books on hypnotherapy. He follows with a chapter on guided imagery inductions, based on scenes from nature - mountain vistas, streams, and forests. He also presents inductions that utilize confusion for clients who are not easily hypnotized or who may be somewhat resistant to direct suggestions.

The main text ends with a few practical recommendations for educating clients about hypnotherapy, introducing colleagues to hypnotherapy in clinical settings, and additional practice guidelines. The two appendices cover a range of techniques (with references to other books where each may be found) and a glossary.

Techniques of Hypnotic Induction makes enjoyable reading for hypnotherapists who want to bring creativity and imagination to their inductions. The clever scripts are interspersed with instruction written with just enough hypnotic language to appeal to the conscious mind as well as the unconscious mind. The entire book makes for a truly entrancing learning experience.

Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D. is a licensed psychotherapist and life coach with a solo practice, Motivational Strategies, in Springfield, Virginia. She is a certified hypnotherapist and NLP Trainer as well as Executive Director of the National Board of Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists. She has written The Weight, Hypnotherapy and You Weight Reduction Program: An NLP and Hypnotherapy Practitioner's Manual. Her website is www.engagethepower.com. And her email is judy@engagethepower.com.

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By: Stephen Gilligan and Robert Dilts

Copyright 2009, Published by Crown House Ltd., Wales

Reviewed by: Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D.

Ironically, I picked up The Hero's Journey just one day after reading Viktor Frankl's
Man's Search for Meaning -for the third time, in preparing a presentation on finding a
life purpose. As I sat with The Hero's Journey open in my hands, I saw the same
themes...our lives are about responding to a calling, living our gifts, and healing our
wounds...

Steve Gilligan and Robert Dilts, two of the finest trainers in Neuro-Linguistic
Programming (NLP), present The Hero's Journey in the transcript of a four-day
workshop. They begin with the premise that humans are manifestations of spirit.

Each life is a heroic journey in which spirit can unfold and reveal itself. To find meaning and fulfillment, each person's task is to heed a calling that shapes an ultimate purpose.

Illness, confusion, or dysfunctional relationships are signs that one has strayed from the journey or refused the calling. In the journey, we are aided by other beings--"sponsors" and "guardians"--who help us remember our true selves.

The authors draw from many cultural traditions that find their intersection in the mythological stories and archetypal symbols of the hero's journey. The book guides
readers in exploring the aspects of the journey:

· Hear the call
· Commit to the call
· Cross the threshold
· Find guardians
· Face and transform demons
· Develop an inner self and new resources
· The Transformation
· Return home with the gift

According to Dilts and Gilligan, the self consists of three minds: Somatic (physical),
Cognitive (intellectual), and The Field (expanded consciousness). Each mind operates
in one of three states: primitive, ego-based, or generative. Through lecture, poetry,
and verbatim demonstrations, the authors describe NLP-based processes for accessing
the generative state, in each level of mind.

The somatic mind becomes generative through alignment and centering. The cognitive mind becomes generative through self-acceptance, personal transformation, and by sponsoring others. We open to The Field when we expand our model of the world beyond the self and the moment. We realize ourselves as generative spirit, (you might say we achieve "enlightenment") by integrating the three minds, each at the generative level.

The text contains various exercises for recognizing one's calling and bringing it into
reality; reframing problems and limitations, holding a "sacred conversation,"
expressing the inner spirit, working through internal resistance, and unfolding the
journey. The exercises incorporate trance (centering and mindfulness), archetypes,
symbols, body awareness and movement, submodalities, and timelines. Gilligan and Dilts teach skills to honor, bless, and discover the calling in one's wounds and challenges, and to move through life transitions by transforming one's energies.

The book invites readers to occasionally enter The Field, to be present in it, going
meta to individual experience and connecting with "intelligences beyond the local
self." Obviously, this is not a book for light reading. The authors speak about creating time for "practices" that nurture the spirit, so that one might operate more effectively in the world. I thought about how and why I could be more consistent about exercising. Such practices allow an ongoing transformation of identity. From this perspective, our habits become statements about personal integrity.

This book provides a format for groups who want to explore new dimensions of personhood. For me, it crystallized concepts that I had wondered about, yet had never
known how to discuss. Gilligan and Dilts establish a vocabulary for spirituality for
goes beyond the philosophical, into the experiential. They are teaching what mystics
have always known and done.

Perhaps one of our greatest fears is that life has no meaning and no purpose, and that
suffering is an end in itself. Yet many people plod along in daily tedium, seeking
only to satisfy basic needs. Frankl wrote, "We had to learn...that it did not really
matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to
stop asking about the meaning of life and instead to think of ourselves as though we
were being questioned by life." Gilligan and Dilts take the search for meaning one
step farther, by inviting those who are willing, to embrace life as the hero's journey.

Purchase The Hero's Journey through Crown House Publications Ltd. at www.chpus.com

Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D. is an NLP Trainer, hypnotherapist, licensed professional
counselor, speaker, free-lance writer, and life coach. Her practice, Motivational
Strategies, is located in Springfield, Virginia.

Her web site is www.engagethepower.com.

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by: Shelle Rose Charvet

Copyright: 2009

Reviewed by Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D.

No matter what business you're in, it's a sure bet: You have customers. It's also a sure bet that customers will bother you, or someone on your staff, with their problems and complaints. This book teaches how to transform unhappy customers into loyal customers, and customer complaints into customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction means repeat sales, more referrals, and higher profit---oh yes, and fewer frustrations for customer service staff!

Shelle Rose Charvet's new book (November 2009), The Customer is Bothering Me, is all about navigating the communication challenges of customer service. The book's principal tool is the LAB Profile, an easy-to-use questionnaire developed and tested by Roger Bailey in the 1990's. With this tool, customer service reps can:
* Identify what motivates people just by asking a few questions and listening to key elements of the conversation.
* Communicate with words and phrases (Influencing Language) that match each customer's thinking processes and decision-making style.
* Inspire the customer to think differently and or take action.
* Create positive customer relationships.

The Customer is Bothering Me is the long-awaited follow-on to Rose Charvet's highly successful Words that Change Minds. With the latter, you can learn to interpret the LAB Profile, and apply the conversational guidelines in a number of business situations, such as teambuilding. With the former, you can apply the same principles to assuaging the ire of upset customers.

Rose Charvet first contrasts typical customer service philosophies, and how these philosophies influence the customer experience. She then examines customer rage, from the customer's point of view, and discusses "The Great Customer Attitude Shift" of the last decade. Additionally, readers get a good look at the problems faced by understaffed and overworked customer service employees. Want to find our how companies reward bad customer service? Read chapter 4.

This book tells corporate managers how to revamp their customer service philosophies at every operational level. The author provides specific tactics for every step of the customer service transaction, from greeting the customer, determining the customer's need, offering knowledge and solutions, to nurturing the relationship.

With short case studies, sample dialog, scripts, tables, and templates, Rose Charvet teaches readers exactly how to respond to customer emotions, stay in rapport with the customer, ask the right questions, understand customer expectations, clarify what the customer wants, make amends, and create a positive image in the customer's mind. The text even goes so far as to recommend the voice tone for the customer service rep to use at each point in the process.

If your company relies on mass marketing, chapter 12 gives language guidelines for ad campaigns with optimum customer appeal. Additional topics include recruitment considerations, branding, staff morale, how to handle adverse publicity, and customer feedback mechanisms.

This book stands out for the clarity of the instruction, its structured approach to a common and difficult problem, and a proven, cost-effective solution. As an author, business consultant, corporate trainer, and business owner, Shelle Rose Charvet is the consummate expert on business communication skills. The Customer is Bothering Me is sure to prove an indispensible manual for customer service training.

To purchase this book go to www.TheCustomerisBotheringMe.com

Dr. Judith E. Pearson is an NLP Trainer/Master Practitioner and licensed psychotherapist practicing in Springfield, Virginia, specializing in solution-oriented counseling and coaching She is also a trainer, writer, and speaker, and has published The Weight, Hypnotherapy and You Weight Reduction Program. Her website is www.engagethepower.com.

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By Jill B. Cody, M.A., L.C.P.C.

Reviewed by Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D., L.P.C.

Jill Cody's superb skills as an NLP Trainer and Master Practitioner are evident in Win the Weight War, destined to become a popular, worthwhile book/CD package, offering NLP-based solutions for weight control. The book focuses on ten strategies designed to change dysfunctional perspectives about eating and emotional attachments to food. In the accompanying CD, Jill provides a hypnosis session to reinforce the main concepts in the book.

The author advises readers to approach their eating habits from the head, heart, and gut, to understand and resolve the psychological and emotional issues that drive overeating. With case examples, self-assessment questionnaires, and a solid grounding in NLP, she guides readers to set realistic and compelling outcomes, and to develop workable thought patterns for self-motivation and sensible choices. Readers learn how to end self-sabotage and find emotional balance.

Jill teaches people to understand the difference between eating for hunger and eating for emotional comfort. She shows them how to avoid the common pitfalls of dieting and addresses the major psychological barriers to weight management: limiting beliefs, self-criticism, self-sabotage, and faulty decision-making.

With guest author and personal trainer, Kip Jawish, readers can rev up their motivation to exercise. Guest author and nutritional consultant, Jane Mercado, contributes her knowledge on healthy cooking, basic nutrition, shopping tips, and low-fat food choices.

Jill skillfully combines training in self-hypnosis, visualization, and practical behavioral tips that can transform any reader from frustrated to successful and from overweight to slim and trim. With Win the Weight War, you can go beyond the drudgery of mere dieting to reshaping your thinking about the interrelationships of food, exercise, emotions, motivation, and weight. Jill Cody is your Brigadier General for winning the "battle of the bulge."

The hypnosis CD, with the same title, demonstrates Jill's mastery of hypnotic language patterns, sure to help listeners create changes at deep cognitive levels. The trance-work is engaging and relaxing, with appealing phrasing, voice tone, word selection, and pacing of suggestions for resourcefulness and learning. Her use of embedded commands, double entendre, visualization, implied cause-effect, compounding, and time distortion would make Milton H. Erickson proud! Her "conversation with the future self" is the best I've ever heard!

Jill Cody is an NLP Practitioner and licensed psychotherapist practicing in Frederick, MD. She also gives talks and seminars on solution-based methods for healthy living. Her book is available at Amazon.com and other online bookstores.
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Dr. Judith E. Pearson is an NLP Trainer/Master Practitioner and licensed psychotherapist practicing in Springfield, Virginia. Through her practice, Motivational Strategies, she offers solution-oriented counseling, coaching, and hypnotherapy. She has written a book for therapists; The Weight, Hypnotherapy and You Weight Reduction Program and recently released a CD: Discover Your Learning Genius. Her website is www.engagethepower.com.

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By Edwin K. Yager, Ph.D.

2009, Crown House Publishing, Ltd., Wales

When I first picked up Foundations of Clinical Hypnosis, by Edwin Yager, I did not feel enthusiastic. First, the title sounds like the dry, dull textbooks I waded through as an undergrad. Second, as a hypnotherapist of 20 years, I thought I'd find the subject matter too basic. I am happy to say I was wrong on both counts. Yager's book provides stimulating reading. It is written in a straightforward way and holds basic information for beginners, as well as innovative methods for seasoned practitioners.

Yager covers much of what many would consider "standard fare" for books about hypnosis: hypnosis-related terminology, hypnotic phenomena, hypnotic language, the risks of hypnosis, common applications, and hypnotic tools and methods. He gives a decent review of the research on hypnosis for memory enhancement, touching on the controversial topics of confabulation and false memory. I especially liked his chapter on brief inductions. He also addresses two topics seldom found in books or journals on hypnosis: 1) Hypnosis during sleep and 2) hypnotic language in giving informed consent in medical settings (with guest author, Stephen Bierman).

The author differentiates two basic approaches to hypnotherapy: direct suggestion and hypnoanalysis. He writes that direct suggestion aims for the alleviation of symptoms, while hypnoanalysis, on the other hand, goes to the root cause of symptoms. Hypnoanalysis regresses the client to a seminal event and allows the client to reframe the meaning of that event. Yager advocates hypnoanalysis when the client is "resistant" (i.e., non-responsive) to direct suggestion. He notes that the seminal event should be viewed in a dissociated manner to avoid abreaction and re-traumatizing the client. He also writes that knowledge of the event is not enough; the client must also derive a belief change or a new cognition, such as "you survived that." I found this discussion extremely helpful as a guide in selecting hypnotic interventions and strategies.

Yager is an adherent of Dave Elman, who defined hypnosis as "bypassing the critical factor," to communicate with the unconscious mind. Yager states that "all clinicians use hypnosis, knowingly or unknowingly," because the clinician-patient relationship is structured with three factors that increase the client's suggestibility; 1) the clinician is regarded as an authority, 2) the client is often in confusion or emotional distress, and 3) the client expects the clinician to do something to alleviate the confusion or distress. Thus, we have the perfect formula for hypnosis (authority, emotion, and expectation).

Yager's chapter on Subliminal Therapy, by itself, makes this book worthwhile reading. Subliminal Therapy is a protocol for communicating with the unconscious mind to review memories, extract relevant data, relate cause and effect, derive solutions, and execute decisions. This communication is accomplished via a pendulum, ideomotor signals, visualization, or having the client report on subjectively perceived physical sensations. While no formal induction is required, clients often go into trance during this process.

Yager has chosen the unusual name of Centrum (also the commercial name of a multi-vitamin) to indicate the part of the mind with which the therapist communicates. He characterizes Centrum as a part of the client's consciousness that is wise and helpful-a part that can communicate with all other parts of consciousness. Astute readers will note that Subliminal Therapy draws from Ego State Therapy and the "parts model" of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Yager gives ample description, a flow chart, and a case transcript to show how to conduct Subliminal Therapy; the instructions to give, the questions to ask, and how to work with the information received.
Foundations of Clinical Hypnosis concludes with brief discussions of various applications of clinical hypnosis, and the considerations unique to each. These include the commonplace, such as smoking cessation, weight loss, insomnia, and pain management, as well as the atypical: asthma treatment, childbirth, breast enlargement, wart removal, stuttering, and ocular correction.

Among his other achievements, Robert Yager, Ph.D. is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, and a Staff Psychologist of the UCSD Medical Group. He is certified as a Consultant in Hypnosis by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. He also maintains a private practice in San Diego, California.

I recommend his book to other hypnotherapists because it makes for an excellent desk reference. I also recommend it as an introductory textbook for those in hypnosis training programs. It can be purchased through the Crown House Ltd online catalog in the U.S. and the U.K.
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Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D. is a Clinical Hypnotherapist and Master Practitioner/Trainer in NLP. She is Executive Director of the National Board of Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists and has a private practice in Springfield, VA. She has published

The Weight, Hypnotherapy and You Weight Reduction Program: An NLP and Hypnotherapy Practitioner's Manual and has recently released a hypnosis CD entitled Discover Your Learning Genius. Her website is www.engagethepower.com.

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By: Joseph Tramontana, Ph.D.

2009, Crown House Publishing, Ltd., Wales

Reviewed by Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D.

For mental health practitioners trained in hypnotherapeutic approaches to addictions, compulsions, and habit control, Joseph Tramontana's new book will make an excellent library addition. Hypnotically Enhanced Treatment for Addictions provides strategies and scripts for alcohol abuse, drug addiction, gambling addiction, smoking cessation, and weight loss. The methods in this book can be extended to other compulsions and impulse control disorders as well.

This book packs a wealth of practical information into just 144 pages. Readers get advice on client interviews, assessment questionnaires, tests of hypnotizability, and explaining hypnotherapy to clients. The author trains readers in hypnotic processes such as trance induction, trance ratification, deepening, affect-bridge, ego-strengthening, reframing, ideomotor signaling, and reorientation---specifically for addictions. He includes therapeutic metaphors, tips on assessing motivation, and methods for preventing relapse.

He recommends "packaged programs" which I, too, have found useful in working with these client populations. Such programs consist of a specific number of sessions, contracted between the therapist and the client, with each session focusing on a unique aspect of the presenting issue.

This highly readable book is thorough and straightforward with excellent examples and case studies. Solid gold instruction for hypnotherapists!

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Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D. is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Clinical Hypnotherapist, and Master NLP Practitioner/Trainer. She is Executive Director of the National Board of Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists and has a private practice in Springfield, VA, under the name Motivational Strategies. She has published The Weight, Hypnotherapy and You Weight Reduction Program: An NLP and Hypnotherapy Practitioner's Manual and has recently released a hypnosis CD entitled Discover Your Learning Genius. Her website is www.engagethepower.com.

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