The Time Magazine March 27, 2006 issue has a feature article about the use of hypnosis as anesthesia during surgery. To read the Time article click HERE.

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By: Bill O'Hanlon

There's something extraordinary about Dr. Erickson...

There is continued interest in the work of Milton Erickson, M.D., as evidenced by the proliferation of books, tapes, workshops and conferences on his approaches. Who was this man and why are people so interested in his work?

Milton Erickson was a psychiatrist (he also held an M.A. in Psychology) who developed many innovative ways of dealing with resistance in therapy, of doing hypnosis and psychotherapy, and (most importantly perhaps) of utilizing the skills and abilities that people already possess to accomplish therapeutic results. Dr. Milton had polio twice and spent his final years in a wheelchair, finally succumbing to complications from the resulting muscular deterioration in March 1980. Since the time of his death, there has been even greater interest in trying to replicate and understand his techniques and approaches. Many consider him the originator of the paradigm shift which has let to the advent of brief solution-focused psychotherapy.

Some said he was an eccentric genius whose work can never be replicated by others, but more and more people have been able to understand, practice and teach his approaches. This effort has given rise to the "Ericksonian" movement, people who work in Erickson's tradition and legacy. Erickson's work was often characterized (by himself and others) as naturalistic, directive and indirect. Cornerstones of Erickson's approaches were the use of task assignments; the use of stories, analogies and metaphor; and the utilization of client resources, resistance, beliefs and symptoms in the service of change. Each of these approaches will be discussed in more detail immediately below. ç the Naturalistic Approach ç Erickson viewed clients as having all the resources available within them and/or within their social system in order to make the changes they needed to make. the therapist's job is to access these resources and help the client put them to use in the appropriate areas of their life. Erickson didn't view people as fundamentally flawed or in need of fixing. He wasn't very oriented to discovering the "roots" of the client's difficulties, but rather, in getting them to use their own abilities to make changes in the present. He had a great faith in Nature and people's natural abilities to be healthy. Sometimes it was a matter of accessing their skills and abilities, and sometimes it was a matter of unblocking the expression of these natural abilities, but he had confidence that if they had access to and could use those abilities, they would be fine. To Erickson, therapy "...was predicated upon the assumption that there is a strong normal tendency for the personality to adjust if given an opportunity." (1955)

Erickson also approached the therapy situation as a more natural one than do many therapists. His interventions, even his hypnotic inductions, were often indistinguishable from ordinary conversations. He had social interactions with clients at times, and they often interacted with his family, as his waiting room was his living room (often also occupied by one of his 8 children or his wife).

Directive Therapy

Jay Haley's books, Uncommon Therapy (1973) and Ordeal Therapy (1984), skillfully and entertainingly describe the side of Erickson's work that is perhaps most like AT: getting people to do something in order to improve their situation or to break out of previous restrictive patterns. "The thing to do is to get your patient, any way you wish, any way you can, to do something," said Erickson (1980), and "...once you break through rigid, fixed patterns of behavior patients are forced to reorient; they are forced to pick up the pieces to put them together; and they are forced to function in a totally different way." (1962)

Erickson's task assignments were often the vehicle for his directive therapy. He didn't often try to teach people skills to practice, but instead gave them assignments that would naturally lead to the accessing of the personal or social resources or to breaking up symptom patterns or interaction patterns surrounding the symptom (e.g. family interactions). These tasks were often unusual, like telling a patient who was ashamed of a gap in her teeth to practice squirting water through the gap or having a young boy who wet the bed practice his handwriting under his mother's supervision in the middle of the night.

Erickson wasn't directive about how people should ultimately live their lives, but he had no qualms about directing people's behavior in order to move them beyond the dilemmas that confronted them.

The Indirect Approach: Tiptoeing around resistance

Erickson often used indirect communication in language and in action to suggest or imply rather than to direct request or state things. He created a context for the person to cooperate and to learn things implicitly rather than explicitly. He used words and his non-verbal communication to indirectly communicate an expectation of change and to make therapeutic interventions. He rarely used awareness or insight as the prime means of effecting therapeutic results.

The Use of Metaphor and Multi-Level Communication

Erickson was well known for his story-telling abilities in therapy and teaching, which is well represented in Sidney Rosen's book, My Voice Will Go With You (Rosen, 1982). This is another area in which Erickson used implicit communication rather than explicit. He might use planning and eating a meal together as a metaphor for a couple having sexual difficulties and he might never mention their sexual difficulties during the course of treatment. This approach not only brings forth the creativity of the therapist, but, allows clients to project their own meanings and solutions and to personalize the interventions.

The Utilization Approach: Matching, participation and alteration of clients' realities and symptoms

When a colleague recently asked which techniques of Erickson's would last the longest, the utilization approach immediately occurred to me. Erickson was firmly committed to using everything the client brought to therapy as grist for the therapeutic mill. Like a good organic gardener, everything is part of the compost to grow plants and harvest the fruits of one's labors. Erickson would accept, match (by his behavior and/or his words), and participate with what other people saw as resistance or uncooperativeness. He didn't interpret resistance. Instead, he encouraged it and then got the person to modify the expression of it to lead in useful directions. Erickson was able to work with many people who had "defeated" a number of therapists or who were generally not good candidates for therapy. Sometimes he was even able to accomplish this in a very brief time period. He would accept, participate with and alter clients' realities and behavior.

He was very adamant about treating each client as unique and individual. He espoused no theory of therapy, but had a general approach of utilizing clients' behavior, beliefs and symptoms. He thought that rigid categories of diagnosis or techniques in therapy were counterproductive and disrespectful of the individual.

What about hypnosis?

Erickson was one of the people who helped bring hypnosis into modern times, by updating the techniques and training in the area and by helping to get hypnosis recognized as a legitimate medical, dental and psychological tool. His hypnotic technique was as innovative and individual as the rest of his work. He emphasized flexibility and observation rather than ritual as the main tools of the hypnotist. He also stressed the importance of the ethical and knowledgeable use of hypnosis. He wrote many articles in the field and helped to found one of the major journals and professional societies in the field. Interest in his work is one of the factors surrounding the recent renaissance of hypnosis in psychotherapy.

Erickson's contributions

Erickson made seminal contributions in the areas of brief therapy, hypnosis, strategic therapy, family therapy and cybernetics. He was a curious, experimental psychiatrist who didn't accept the dogma of his profession. He counted among his admirers the famed anthropologists Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead, as well as numerous therapists. One of his former students, the family therapist Jay Haley, himself regarded as a master of therapy, "Not a day passes when I do not use something that I learned from Erickson in my work. Yet his basic ideas I only partially grasp. I feel that if I understood more fully what Erickson was trying to explain about changing people, new innovations in therapy would open up before me." Most of his former students feel this way. One of them, Jeffrey K. Zeig, set up the Milton H. Erickson Foundation in Phoenix, Arizona to further his work and to set up an archive for therapists to come and unravel the genius of Milton H. Erickson.

You are invited to investigate Erickson's work. But be careful, you may get hooked like the rest of us "Ericksonians" and I promise your therapy (and perhaps your life) will never be the same. There's something about Milton Erickson . . .

Bill O'Hanlon, 223 N. Guadalupe #278, Santa Fe, NM 87501
Phone: 505.983.2843, fax 505.983.2761

Website: www.billohanlon.com

Posted by Ron Klein at 12:08 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Your clients may be Eligible to get a tax credit or deduction for their Weight Loss and/or Smoking Cessation Hypnotherapy Programs with an I.R.S. ! Tax laws passed for 2003 onwards mean clients could possibly get a tax credit for money paid for smoking programs. If they do not qualify for the credit, they may be able to claim Stop Smoking programs as a medical deduction.

Clients may also be able to claim weight loss programs as a medical deduction if advised by a physician to lose weight. Tax credits are credits on taxes! Medical deductions are medical expenses claimed that exceed 7.5% of gross annual income.

Stop-Smoking Programs: Include in medical expenses amounts paid for a program to stop smoking. However, do not include amounts paid for drugs that do not require a prescription, such as nicotine gum or patches that are designed to help stop smoking.

Weight-Loss Programs: Include in medical expenses amounts paid to lose weight if it is a treatment for a specific disease diagnosed by a physician (such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes or heart disease). This includes fees paid for membership in a weight reduction group and attendance at periodic meetings. Do not include membership dues in a gym, health club, or spa as medical expenses, but clients can include separate fees charged there for weight loss activities.

Always check with your tax accountant, professional tax preparer or the I.R.S. before claiming deductions or tax credits on your tax returns.

Posted by Ron Klein at 05:49 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By: Phyllis Watts, Ph.D.

Psychology and managed care are engaged in a conversation. It is a national conversation and an incredible one. The discussion, conversation, argument is not only about economics or the industrialization of health care. It is, at its deepest level, a conversation about soul--a fight for the soul of our profession. And, I believe that unless we can come to see that, we will miss the essence of what is happening and our deeper role in this unfolding drama.

For me the conversation is about values. It is a conversation about nothing less than how we conceptualize life. In this conversation, we as psychotherapists are the ones who must carry an understanding of the sacredness of the therapeutic process, of the therapeutic relationship, of the soul, and of the essence of our work. It is not the job of managed care, nor that of our clients.

Yet, when I look around, I do not see us claiming what is ours to claim. This, I think, is due to our fear and anguish and our highly individualistic natures. Perhaps most important it is due to our forgetting the values and yearnings that brought us to the profession. Fear is being used to get us to comply rather than to reflect, analyze, and organize a coherent response. For me the question is not, "What will managed care pay for?"; but, "What is our role, our responsibility to our clients, our profession, ourselves and our society?" We are not just "providers," we are psychotherapists. The function we serve in this culture is essential.

The archetypal or collective power of our role for our culture is enormous. If we forget this, just tell a stranger what we do and watch the response. Often it is one of fear mixed with wonder, because the role itself carries the huge mystery and compelling curiosity of moving into the deeper realms of life, for which I see a true hunger in our culture. There is a yearning for connection with self, with others and with life that the values of our material world don't fulfill. For me, a central part of our task is to facilitate a movement for our clients toward wholeness and the fullness of whom one is, whatever the capacity of the client, whatever our theoretical orientation. With managed care, it is a task we are less and less able to accomplish.

Evolution of managed care.

During the late seventies there was a huge push in our field to be able to receive third party reimbursement. We wanted parity with psychiatry. But, in order to have parity we had to become more indentured to the DSM as the conceptual frame from which we would operate. We had to accept it as the map of the territory of psychological functioning. People who consulted us had to be "patients" and we had to "treat" them. Because of the path we took, we came to be viewed by the general public as part of the medical establishment.

There were pluses to using the DSM as the map; namely a burgeoning of our field and an increase in access to psychotherapy. There were also many minuses in that it entrenched the stigmatization of psychotherapy as being sought only for mental illness. And, it devalued it as something one would pay for oneself. And why would you, if it means that you are mentally ill, if that is the map? It was not about cultivating the value of working on oneself, but about weakness, dysfunction, pathology. Also, it narrowed for us the map that we were using to chart the territory of human well being and human suffering, until we would forget . . . and begin to think that the DSM wasn't just a map, but in fact the territory itself. We have a nine hundred page book that describes for us "mental illness." But we do not have one mutually agreed upon sentence that describes mental health. Why do we as therapists not notice this? Abraham Maslow was reputed to have once said that there were really only three important questions in psychology; namely, what is the healthy individual, what is the healthy society, and how do we get there as soon as possible?

The issue isn't just the economic market or the industrialization of health care, but values. People in our culture have always tried to find the money to pay for what they valued. Though, what is mostly valued in our culture is image rather than substance. If we were driven to acquire self development, interpersonal development and community development in the way we are driven to acquire material development, what a different society this would be.
Psychology's values, managed care's values . . . an unholy alliance.

The values of managed care fundamentally differ from those of psychology. We are being encouraged to develop our primary relationship with the managed care company rather than the client. From their perspective, the relationship between therapist and client is tangential. Yet, the most prevalent, consistent finding in outcome research is the importance of the relationship, irrespective of theoretical orientation.

For me, the world-view of managed care is essentially a fundamentalist one. There is an extreme demand for conformity on the part of the therapist and regimentation in working with clients. There is a strong focus on pseudo-science and the language of science to legitimize their reimbursement policies. Managed care views the person as a machine and uses industrial, technological metaphor rather than organic process metaphor to define what we do. We are "providers," essentially technicians, who are being required to dispense "units of treatment" to "patients" in the proper "dosage." But, we are not machines. We are living organisms. And we have internal lives that have meaning and that guide and shape our external lives . . . whether or not we acknowledge it. What's more, I am not a "provider". The whole notion of "generic-izing" our profession--renaming us, truly devalues who we are and what we do. I am a psychologist and I practice the art, craft, and science of psychology through psychotherapy, organizational consulting, teaching and writing. Managed care is asking us to turn therapy into manufactured white bread. It all looks the same, it all tastes the same, there is little texture, substance, aroma and nourishment. It doesn't fill the soul.

Language, and who controls it, is the central defining issue in the battle with managed care because of what is happening historically at this juncture. Currently western culture is at the cusp between two eras. For the last several decades we have been leaving the modern era and moving into postmodernism. There are profound and complex implications for this vast cultural shift (too numerous to name here), but the most central for therapists is the change in the cultural view of the importance of language. In the modern era, language was seen to merely describe reality, if used "objectively." In the postmodern era, language is seen to create reality and there is no such thing as pure objectivity. New theories are emerging that reflect this change in eras. In the more behavioral domain there is "solution oriented" and "narrative" therapy and in the psychodynamic domain there is the "inter-subjective" approach.

It is this pivotal shift that is central for us to understand in our struggle with managed care. We are not being asked to merely fill out a form, but to enter their reality, and to act as though our reality and our values don't exist. We must use their language, their standards, their way of conceptualizing in order to "relate" to them. In the postmodern era, who controls language controls reality. In fact, in this new era, it's all about competing realities and different voices vying for dominance in the cultural milieu. So, it is extraordinarily dangerous to give up our voice. Yet that is the crux of what is happening to all of us.

So how do we invigorate the soul of our profession? First we must remember our roots and shift to a broader paradigm of psychological functioning. This is essential. Then understand that it is through the replication of ideas . . . how things are defined, described and repeated . . . that attitudes, opinions and values change. Our market isn't managed care--it is the general public. But how we are positioned in the minds of the general public is problematic. Psychology must come to people in a much more direct, personal and non-stigmatized way. At a cultural level we must work to develop the value of psychological understanding and awareness. This is done through workshops, articles and lectures on issues outside of "mental illness." It is done through developing public relations campaigns that let people get to know us in human ways. It is done through using research to shape public policy in regard to its impact on psychological well being. It is done through writing, faxing, e-mailing and phoning media representatives when we see our profession or the value of psychological awareness being denigrated or misrepresented and when we see it valued. It is done through developing a creative matrix at local, regional and national levels out of which we stimulate ideas, actions and support. It is done through not losing heart.

I truly love psychology. But I believe we have lost our way and are in danger of losing much more if we forget to remember our roots, to know our responsibility and for each of us to find where we stand . . . then to have the courage to act from that stance.

Earlier versions of this article were published in 'The National Psychologist' and 'California Psychologist.'

Phyllis Watts, Ph.D., has practiced psychology for the past two decades through psychotherapy, organizational consulting, lecturing, teaching, writing and her own self work. Throughout this time she has had and continues to have a fee for service practice. Her interests encompass the role of the feminine realm of experience in our culture, the relationship between psychotherapy and spirituality, the psychological impact of the postmodern era and dance as the embodiment of soul. She is the president of Wild Swan Resources.

You may write her at 3010 "I" Street, Suite 1, Sacramento, CA 95816.

Phone: 916-447-7463, fax: 916-421-6919, e-mail: wildswan@aol.com.

Posted by Ron Klein at 08:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Feeling like you could use a little joy...Click the link below, sit back and experience Bliss.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4776181634656145640

Posted by Ron Klein at 08:01 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Dear Friends,

When I write for the NBCCH INTERLINK, I imagine all of us sitting down together around my kitchen table over coffee or tea, and getting to know each other, sharing our mutual interest in hypnotherapy. We'd tell each other about our work, and the latest things we've learned about clinical hypnosis, and we'd even exchange information about interesting conferences, books, and seminars. Since my kitchen table isn't that large, and getting all of you together at once isn't possible, I hope that this column will be the next best thing to it and that this newsletter will continue as a forum for the friendly exchange of ideas, advice, and innovations. So sit down, relax, and pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea and read on.

I recently read something of interest in a newsletter of complimentary medicine and holistic health. The article said that more hospitals are creating staff positions for clinical hypnotherapists. Job requirements typically include a college degree, 120 hours hypnotherapy training, and 25 hours on hypnotic anesthesia and/or pain management training. The job description covers many duties including:

Hypnotic pain control for pre and post surgical patients
Relaxation therapy and guided imagery for enhancement of healing
Hypnosis for overcoming phobias, habits, and fears
Participating with physicians as part of the health care team
Presenting seminars to staff and community on the medical uses of hypnotherapy

This is exciting testimony that clinical hypnotherapy is gaining respect and recognition among those sectors of the medical community that are turning to a holistic approach to patient care. I have talked to members of NBCCH who are now doing more networking with doctors and medical clinics to ask for referrals and to help physicians understand what hypnotherapists do, and how our work is valuable to the health related professions.

Hypnotherapy is also making inroads in the field of sports medicine and sports psychology. Ted Garrett recently published Sporting Excellence (Anglo-American Books, 1999) explaining the uses of NLP and hypnosis for improved sports performance, for motivation to excel, and for helping sporting people cope with defeat, pain from injury, rehabilitation, and the stress of competition. Perhaps you'd like to offer hypnotherapy services to some local sports teams in your town.

I encourage those of you who are working in a medically related capacity to write an article for this newsletter and give other NBCCH certificate holders the benefit of your experience and advice. Working with physicians or offering your services to a nearby hospital, clinic, or sports team may present a possibility for expanding your practice or branching out into a new specialty. Perhaps you could even approach hospitals, clinics, or coaches with the idea of adding your services to their staff and write your own job description as a full-time employee or an independent contractor or consultant. Your NBCCH credential will carry much weight when you point out our high certification standards.

By now, I am sure the conversation around my kitchen table would really pick up as everyone begins to consider these ideas! More coffee anyone? Judy Pearson

Email Judy at: judypear@cox.net

Posted by Ron Klein at 10:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By: Charles M. Citrenbaum, Ph.D.

Inside this article:

* What is Hypnosis?
* What is a trance?
* How does hypnosis work?
* What is self-hypnosis?
* What is Clinical Hypnosis helpful or useful for?
* Can anyone be hypnotized?
* What about the level or depth of trance?
* Will I cluck like a chicken?
* Is hypnosis like being asleep?
* Is hypnosis like transcendental meditation?
* Is trance and relaxation the same thing?
* Can someone not wake up from hypnosis or trance?
* Are hypnosis and biofeedback the same?
* What about all these hypnosis clinics?
* Hypnosis for cigarette smoking cessation and diet control
*
Just what is Hypnosis?

Hypnosis is a word that means one person helping another to experience a trance. This trance experience "belongs" to the person or patient, so really all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.

What is a Trance?

Trance is a very natural, everyday experience for all of us. You, the reader, have been in and out of a trance a number of times since you woke up this morning. For example, when you stare off into space and you daydream or fantasize, that's a trance. When you have been riding down the highway and are lost in your own thoughts or entranced in a conversation with a passenger and are surprised that you have forgotten part of the ride or that you traveled so far, that's a trance. A person can be entranced reading a good book, entranced listening to music or watching a TV show. Trance is a conscious experience but an altered or alternate state of consciousness.

How does Hypnosis work?

All hypnosis involves a focus of consciousness on something (e.g., the hypnotist's voice, staring at a spot on the wall or imagining something in one's mind like consecutive numbers). Since the person's conscious attention is concentrated or focused, the person "lets go" of control of the unconscious mind. The "unconscious" includes our automatic, unconscious behaviors and experiences, and the functioning of the involuntary nervous system. The unconscious usually is quite significant in terms of our emotional experience. Many emotional problems are significantly influenced by unconscious processes.

What is Self-Hypnosis?

Self-hypnosis means going into a trance for yourself. Usually a person will use a structured procedure or "induction" which involves a focus of consciousness. After practicing self-hypnosis, many people can just "let go" and go into a trance without needing the induction procedure. Most people find self-hypnosis more effective after first being hypnotized by someone else.

What is Clinical Hypnosis Helpful or Useful For?

Hypnosis is not a cure-all, however, sometimes the results of hypnosis can be very dramatic and effective. The usefulness or limitations or hypnosis are not yet fully established. Hypnosis is a tool to be used by a professional within that person's profession and training. For example, a dentist might use hypnosis to help a patient with pain but he or she should not treat phobias. More and more physicians are using hypnosis for stress management.

Hypnosis can be very effective in the treatment of a wide variety of emotional disorders, such as phobias and other anxiety conditions, many sexual problems, and unhealthy habits or compulsions. Of course, more complex conditions, such as psychotic disorders or serious depressions, would usually require medication and psychotherapy, but hypnosis might also be helpful as a part of the treatment plan. Hypnosis can also be helpful in treating acute or chronic pain.

Can anyone be Hypnotized?

Anyone can be hypnotized. Besides the skill of the hypnotist, the two variables that are most important for being hypnotized are: (1) the person's motivation and (2) the person feeling at least some safety or comfort within the hypnotist setting. Some people may have a more difficult time "letting go" into trance than others and it may take longer for these persons to learn to experience trance.

What about the level or depth of trance?

Different experiences can be associated with various levels of trance. However, there is little relationship between the depth of trance and treatment effectiveness. For example, just as many persons with whom I have used hypnosis for cigarette smoking cessation were successful who experienced lighter states of trance as those who experienced a deep trance.

Would someone say or do something against their will because of hypnosis?
(In other words, will I cluck like a chicken?)

This is a myth. No one would ever say or do something against their morals or values because they are hypnotized. Such misconceptions stem from portrayals of hypnosis in the mass media and by stage hypnosis.

Is hypnosis like being asleep?

Not really. Sleep, like coma, is unconscious experiencing. However, with trance the person is quite conscious but conscious processes might be slowed down or suspended to some extent. The hypnotized person is aware of the hypnotist's voice and of other things taking place in the environment, sometimes even more aware than she/he would be normally.

Is hypnosis like transcendental meditation?

Transcendental meditation (TM) is a trance-like experience and can be considered a form of hypnosis. When the practitioner of TM is alone and meditating, it is therefore like a form of self-hypnosis. However, the objectives of practicing TM may be different. In TM, the objective is to clear the mind; with clinical hypnosis there could be many different clinical objectives. For more information on TM, do a search on the web at Google or try the Transcendental Meditation Portal.

Is trance and relaxation the same thing?

No. In most clinical applications of hypnosis, there will be at least some relaxation or a slowing down of bodily processes. However, a person can be in trance even when the body is not relaxed. For example, most long distance or marathon runners will go into trance after running a number of miles. They might imagine being somewhere else and this will help them to "leave their body in some way" (in a manner of speaking) and not experience as much muscle pain or discomfort. In other words, whether they know it or not, they are doing self-hypnosis for pain control and to increase stamina.

Can someone not wake up from hypnosis or trance?

First of all, when you're hypnotized or in a trance, you are not asleep. Sometimes a hypnotized person who is coming out of a trance may feel a little groggy for a few moments and may continue to feel calm or "slowed down" but the hypnotized person can choose to become alert or come out of trance whenever desired.

Are hypnosis and biofeedback the same?

No. Hypnosis as described above is somewhat different from biofeedback. Biofeedback usually involves providing electronic feedback to an individual with the aim of gaining increased control over one or more bodily functions. For example, providing visual readout of fingertip temperature might eventually allow a person to learn how to increase that temperature by conscious decision, etc. For more information about biofeedback, search at Google or try the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback.

What about all these hypnosis clinics?

Most involve group hypnosis. These clinics are less costly but also likely to be less effective than hypnotic treatment done on an individual basis by a qualified mental health or medical professional. Group hypnosis sessions, are often run by persons who not trained in either mental health or medicine, and having these qualifications can be very important for success.

Hypnosis for Cigarette Smoking Cessation and Diet Control

I am the senior author of the book, Modern Clinical Hypnosis for Habit Control (find it at amazon.com). For over 500 people that I have treated, hypnosis was very successful in helping them to stop smoking. About 10% of these patients had a mild "slip" or relapse after 9 to 12 months, but most were then able to stop smoking after a brief intervention (sometimes over the telephone). Treatment for smoking cessation for most people is 3 to 4 one hour sessions, or 2 longer two hour
sessions. In all cases, patients are screened ahead of time. Important screening variables are motivation, current stress in the person's life, and the extent of alcohol use.

Hypnotic treatment for diet control involves 3 to 6 or more hourly sessions. Treatment is weekly at first and then tapers. Hypnosis for weight loss has also been quite successful. However, it is often necessary to address a number of emotional and systemic issues or patient sensitivities that are associated with overeating or being overweight. An important strategy in the treatment of unhealthy habitual patterns is having patients regularly practice self-hypnosis.

Dr. Citrenbaum has agreed to permit NBCCHers to copy any part or all of the above article to produce a brochure or handout for new clients. Please attribute any printed brochures, etc. to him.

WebPages: http://www.headmenders.com/charlie.htm

Email: ccitren@aol.com

Posted by Ron Klein at 08:53 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In the late 1980's, a substantial number of mental health professionals expressed an interest in forming a national certifying Board for clinical hypnotherapy. Their desire was to formulate an organization that would promulgate appropriate standards for the field, and be inclusive of the broadest range of mental health professionals who practice clinical hypnotherapy. As a result, The National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists was formed.

I was invited to participate by bringing my experience in administration, marketing, and database management to the endeavor. Since the inception of NBCCH in 1991, I have helped establish the office, set up and formulate administrative procedures, consulted with an outside contractor to design computerized data management, and hired staff.

Now that the computerized data system is in place, the staff can respond more quickly to your and other inquiries. Applications are presently being processed in a timely fashion. Our administrative goal is to handle new applications on the same day they are received.

My primary role for NBCCH is to keep the office running smoothly and efficiently. While your inquiries relative to certification matters should be directed to Judith Pearson, Ph.D., Executive Director-Certification, I will be more than happy to help if you have questions concerning application and renewal fees, the administrative status of your file, replacement certificates, etc.

As you can see, we have established the Interlink Newsletter as a blog on the internet. New entries will be added as we receive them from contributors. Please log on frequently to read what's new.

Posted by Ron Klein at 01:37 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Tell Us What You Think - Your feedback matters!

We'd love to hear what you think of the new NBCCH INTERLINK! Please send your comments, questions, and ideas for material you'd like to see included in the future to:

Ron Klein
admin@natboard.com

Posted by Ron Klein at 09:00 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Listing on the NBCCH WebPages is FREE.

Go to www.natboard.com and click on "Find a Hypnotherapist." Look at how other NBCCHers are listed. Email your info to the NBCCH office in plain text in 2 paragraphs. We will format it in 2 columns for you on the WebPages. People who are listed report receiving referrals often.

Posted by Ron Klein at 02:44 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It is important that you keep your email address current with the National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists. If you change your email address, please notify the NBCCH office ASAP.

The password for this INTERLINK newsletter will change periodically. You'll get an email with the new password from time-to-time, so you can continue gaining access to it.

Posted by Ron Klein at 02:16 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

We appreciate your feedback, comments and corrections of any typos you notice.

Posted by Ron Klein at 11:17 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Submitted by: Steve Adreas, M.A.

All those who believe in telekinesis, raise my hand.

I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.

OK, so what's the speed of dark?

Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.

Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film.

Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark.

Many people quit looking for work when they find a job.

I intend to live forever - so far, so good.

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

24 hours in a day ... 24 beers in a case.....coincidence?

When I'm not in my right mind, my left mind gets pretty crowded.

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.

I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

No one is listening until you make a mistake.

Success always occurs in private, and failure in full view.

The colder the X-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.

The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.

The severity of the itch is proportional to the reach.

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism -- to steal from many is research.

The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.

Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life.

The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before.

A fool and his money are soon partying.

Steve Andeas, M.A., NLP Trainer
1221 Left Hand Canyon Dr., Boulder, CO 80302, USA

email: sa_inquiry@steveandreas.com

Posted by Ron Klein at 12:26 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

"Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over,
it became a butterfly".

Posted by Ron Klein at 12:08 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D.

"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 (in italics) 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 fine. 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 sensations 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 tension. Even your shoulders relax as comforting sensations flow down into your chest and each breath you exhale helps with 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 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 relaxed your arms are. Let them feel so relaxed that they feel restful, so comfortable, it's as though they just don't want to move. They are so heavy and relaxed 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 experienced hypnosis. 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 your 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.

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 a 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 later or have discovered earlier on.

Posted by Ron Klein at 12:23 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Science has discovered a new atomic mass: Administratium.

This new element has no protons or electrons, thus having an atomic number
of 0. It does, however, have 1 neutron, 125 assistant neutrons, 75 vice
neutrons and 111 assistant vice neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, which are
surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since it has no electrons, Administratium is inert. However, it can be
detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.

According to the discoverers, a minute amount of Administratium causes one
reaction to take over four days to complete when it would normally take
less than a second.

Administratium has a normal half-life of approximately three years; it
does not decay but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion
of the assistant neutrons, vice neutrons, and assistant vice neutrons
exchange places.

In fact, an Administratium sample's mass will actually increase over time,
since with each reorganization some of the morons inevitably become
neutrons, forming new isotopes. This characteristic of moron promotion
leads some scientists to speculate that Administratium
is spontaneously formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in
concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as the "Critical
Morass."

Posted by Ron Klein at 11:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)