Hypnotic Language
By: John Burton, Ph.D. and Bob Bodenhamer, D. Min
John Burton, Ph.D. and Bob Bodenhamer, D. Min., co-authored Hypnotic Language. It presents some highly original thinking about Ericksonian language patterns. The authors draw upon a diversity of psychological models, including Neuro-linguistics, developmental psychology, Gestalt psychology, and NLP, to explain the cognitive underpinnings that make Ericksonian hypnotherapy effective.
Dr. Erickson's asserted that trance is a natural, routine event that occurs in everyone, throughout the course of the day. Burton and Bodenhamer take the definition further. They state that any time we focus inward to assign meaning, that is "trance. Thus, all communication invites the receiver into a hypnotic trance." In that moment, when the listener's mind travels between not knowing and knowing, there is an opportunity for influence.
Hypnotic Language describes three cognitive mechanisms that allow influence during trance.
1) The Conscious-Unconscious Mind Split - The conscious mind consists of "primary awareness;" whatever one attends to at any given moment. The unconscious mind consists of "secondary awareness;" stored information residing outside of primary awareness. The authors postulate that hypnotic language overwhelms primary awareness processing capacity and creates access to (potentially useful) information residing in secondary awareness. Thus, in hypnotherapy, old data (the content of the problem) can be processed in a new way, for new meanings and possibilities that lead to solutions.
2) Cognitive Styles - Limiting beliefs and ineffective strategies develop in childhood, when flawed perceptions create "problem states" that carry into adolescence and adulthood. Hypnotic language patterns revisit these flawed cognitive/perceptual styles of childhood. However, this purposeful revisiting uses these cognitive styles to reshape the problem into a solution.
3) Perceptual Principals of Gestalt Psychology - Several principals of human perception make hypnotic language an effective tool for changing perception. Perceptual principals explain how people mentally sort and organize data into patterns and relationships. Hypnotic language uses these tendencies as leverage for creating new meanings. One example is changing the figure-ground relationship. Another example is to point out previously unperceived similarities.
Burton and Bodenhamer use case examples and scripts to show specific applications of hypnotic language such as belief change, shifting from a problem focus to a solution focus, and altering perceptions and meanings. Hypnotic Language reminds us that language can truly have magical powers, to harm or to heal, and that every communication with another carries the potential for influence-because at any moment, the receiver may enter "trance," to derive meaning and direction from the words. An awesome, somewhat disarming thought, indeed!
With our high standards for credentialing, NBCCH has a constituency of talented, astute, innovative hypnotherapists working in a wide variety of specialties. If you have some ideas, stories, theories or have read an interesting book about hypnotherapy, let us hear from you. Share your experiences, readings, discoveries, and insights with others and send your manuscript to this newsletter at interlink@natboard.com.
Reviewed by: NBCCH staff