The Thrill of Success

Do you ever have clients who do not keep you posted on their progress of change? I'd say many of us do. I know several hypnotist who consider clients they do not hear from as being successful. I'm not sure why this is? It seems like possible denial.

I try to keep an open door for past clients, always asking them to keep in touch, let me know how it is going, good days and bad days, etc. Now granted some do take advantage of this, and I think it is great. But then there are those I wonder about who do not respond to emails or phone calls following up.

Yesterday though, I had a new client who said she was recommended by a friend of a friend. She finally told me who (didn't know the full name, only a few sketchy details, but enough for me to know who). It was a client from a year ago who suffers from all sort of maladies related to the lungs, which cause immense depression. Medication she is on makes her very sensitive to light, so she, once a very outdoorsy person, now has to live life in the dim confines of her house, which she describes as a prison. Pretty glum. My heart broke for her at the time, but I thought it was great that she was taking a step forward to do something. For anonymity, I'll just say she had an addiction problem, and she wanted to kick it. Apparently she did after our session, which was the intent and expectation. It's just really good to get positive feedback.

So, clients, please realize that most of us hypnotists are interested in what is happening with you, good or bad. You bring us in on some pretty personal information, and we become invested in your outcomes. Please let us know how it is going.

And hypnotists, sharing your successes and pitfalls can always be a great help to others. If you care to share, please do so. Clients, too.

Hypnosist

For the past month or so, we have all been seeing what we want to see, or rather, I have been seeing what I want to see. But, the magic spell has been broken, and a hero stepped in to rescue me from delusion. Who is this hero? Well Paul, of course.
He discovered the hidden error of my ways. Rather than being the transparent hypnotist, I have been masquerading as the transparent hypnosist. The veil has dropped and I'm now back to being a hypnotist. Thanks for catching the misspelling on the blog header!
But...now that I am thinking about it. Perhaps my subconscious mind was telling me something with that misspelling. If you break it down, what is a "tist?" I'm sure someone here has studied Latin and perhaps will share. Then again, what is a "sist?" It's not a cyst, but a bit of assist. And isn't that what we do, assist people to help them accomplish what they want to accomplish? So perhaps, I am a hypnosist. Hmmm....

Sitting Duck

As promised last week, thought I'd talk about ducks. Ducks, you say? Yes, ducks. And yes, it pertains to hypnosis and life in general.

Lisa Halpin (if I recall correctly) coined this term "duck" for potential clients who are probably not willing to be good clients. These people wants the quick fix and want to take no responsibility for creating their own change. They may use a skeptics logic as an excuse to not utilize the benefits of hypnosis (I wasn't really hypnotized. This won't work. And the list of excuses goes on). A duck expects you to see them after normal business hours or weekends. A duck may also be someone who makes repeated appointments (if you let them) and does not have the courtesy to cancel. A duck may try to stiff you on the payment end. In other words, a duck is not a good client.

Why are they called ducks? If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck (unless it is a hunter with a duck call, which I suppose, would be even worse).

I bring this up because a while back, one of you emailed me and asked if I had a problem with people not showing up for appointments. I didn't answer in the email because I thought it might be worth addressing here. Yes, I have people who miss appointments. It is annoying, especially since my office is about 45 minutes away from where I live (the price we pay for living in quiet isolation rather than the near by metropolis). I tend to think of these people as ducks. But I do realize that there may be valid reasons why the person missed the appointment. As one psychologist friend says to his clients, "You have one time to miss an appointment without canceling in advance. After that you pay for the hour whether you are there or not." I use this now and have it on my intake form, asking people to sign off on it. I also have new clients fill out an intake before I agree to see them. If they are not willing to go so far as filling it out in advance, then well, duck, duck, no goose, just a duck.

Also, if I get an inkling that someone is a duck, I always provide them (mandatory) with a free information session. If they are willing to show up for that, it gives me an opportunity to learn more about him or her (are they analytical or non-analytical, how do they process information, what is the real motivation for seeing me). Oh, the other important thing about scheduling information sessions with a potential duck - if your office is not convenient to your life, schedule the appointment for a time when you are already at the office (after another client, etc.).

The day before the appointment, I also send email or call to confirm. This seems to help.

If someone misses an appointment (the first paid session), I tend to email or call them and say something to the effect, "I had you down on the calendar this afternoon. Is everything okay?" This keeps the door open.

So, potential or already clients of hypnotists, please don't be a duck. We know your life is important, but so is ours. Please be courteous. It doesn't take much. (Keeping in mind that if you are actually reading this, you probably are not a duck).

It's Not My Pain

I am sipping my coffee (some odd Indiana Jones inspired flavor from Boca Java) and shaking my head. The forums on the Internet are probably an anthropologist's dream of unique and strange behavior. They are intriguing, often helpful, a great way to meet others with like minds, and yet, they are also occasionally disturbing (but I'm preaching to the choir, I suspect).

Here's the latest. In response to a client (and my own interests), I posted a question about migraines and alternative methods of dissipating them in an alternative health Google forum. I have noticed now that it has gotten way off the subject and seems to be a battle about the legitimacy of acupuncture, chiropractors, does money exists, and other diatribes. So much for relieving the old headache.

However, I have received some interesting suggestions and remedies that I thought I would share (please note that this is not an endorsement of mentioned ideas. It is merely intended for the enjoyment of the reader):

1. Organic coffee enemas
2. Chinese herbs
3. Getting rid of commercial household cleaners
4. Drinking more water
5. Adding a little bit of sea salt (trace amount) to water to balance trace minerals
6. Acupuncture
7. Chiropractors
8. Pharmaceuticals
9. Increasing magnesium
10. Psychology

There were more, but these standout. The one I like the best and actually has helped me (my client is opting for drinking more water, along with my suggestion of relaxation and meditation) is a simple suggestion - It's not my pain. My family history includes brain tumors and head injuries. It was suggested that my subconscious mind may have taken on this pain of my loved ones. And saying to myself (along with deep breathing) that "it's not my pain" seems to really alleviate a lot of my head aches.

If you care to add any of your success stories in relation to headaches or migraines (or anything that you feel is pertinent), please share!

Question of the Day - Book on the Night Stand

It seems like having an interest in hypnosis means reading - a lot. I am ever grateful to the book recommendations everyone sends me. It's all part of the learning process. So today, I though I would ask: what hypnosis (NLP or other related subjects) are you currently reading?

Me? I'm reading "Monsters and Magical Sticks: There's No Such Thing As Hypnosis?" by Steven Heller and Terry Steele. I'm not that far along, but its a nice once over of hypnosis and NLP. The authors have a lovely, slightly sarcastic sense of humor, so it's not drudgery to read it and its easy to hold onto the information.

Please feel free to share your reading material.

A Not So Esoteric Saturday

Guess I'm back to weekly rituals. Today's reference to hypnosis is not so fun, but just something that has nagged me for a few days.

The headline reads:

Murder retrial hinges on whether witness was hypnotized

To get the real gist of this, you may want to read it yourself (it is short), but to synopsize:

A murder may be retried because a key witness may have been hypnotized before the trial. Basically, the witness may have been hypnotized by his mother to help him sleep and accept the fact that he wasn't responsible for the death involved in the case. If any of the testimony resulted from this "session" it could be inadmissible.

It seems pretty interesting, though I'm not sure what I think about it. I understand that hypnosis is far from being a truth serum (remind me to tell you about a call I got several months ago from someone who wanted me to use hypnosis on them to prove to their ex-spouse that they were innocent of abusing their children - I didn't do it, by the way). What I wonder in this case is what sort of hypnosis the witness's mother used. Perhaps it was regression to just release the issue? I guess I don't really understand why it would be inadmissible, unless the courts believe that false memories were implanted, etc.? Any thoughts?

Crack Pot Remedies

Another quick tale or more about a post from two weeks ago. We'll save ducks for another time. http://transparenthypnotist.blogspot.com/2007/05/hypno-massage.html

I spent last week looking for a copper bracelet. Yep, the cheap (but pretty, really) kind. Why? Have I gotten tired of the traditional metals in my life? Being an industrial girl, one never really tires from any type of metal. So, no, that's not it.

Rather, it is an attempt to make my body feel a little bit better. I decided in the spirit of open mindedness to go to an intuitive healer (I mentioned this in a past post) just to see what it is exactly that they do. I was led through a guided meditation involving a tour of the mind. Leaking copper pipes played a huge role. So the intuitive healer "suggested" I add a little copper to my life and hence the quest for a cooper bracelet.

Since that time, I have engaged in the quest, going to what a friend of mine calls the crack pot remedy section of every pharmacy I pass. Well, sure enough in a small pharmacy I found a cooper bracelet (with magnets), sure enough, not in the jewelry department, but in a section with magnets, herbal extracts and large funky sunglasses.

Are you wondering if this "crack pot" remedy really helped? I'll tell you even if you are not - YES, indeed it did help. The most noticeable change that has occurred in the four days that I have been wearing it is that my hand and wrist were sore from using a track pad on my lap top (I didn't take the mouse with me on my retreat) and the soreness has gone away. For those of you who are thinking that it would heal with time, I continued to exacerbate my hand and wrist by constant use of the track pad and not the mouse.

Is it the cooper? Is it the magnets? Is it a placebo effect? Or perhaps, is it a "suggestion" from the intuitive that it would make me feel better?

Blowing Out the Smoke

As I drink a cup of British Breakfast, I am contemplating a call left on my business line at midnight (yes, 12:00 am on the dot, and yes, I have my business line transferred to the house when I'm not at the office). I ignored it and went back to sleep. Then at the crack of dawn, it began to gnaw at my paranoia. Was something wrong at the office? Worse was something wrong with the office?

So, I got out of bed, shuffled to my desk and checked the message. Wouldn't you know it, at the midnight hour someone decided to give up the ciggies. Rather poetic timing and all. (So, if you who called is reading this, you have my appreciation for the timing even if it did take me out of Egypt.)

Smokers. Hmmmm. My personal problem child - in that it is always the smokers it seems that are the problem child. I think there may be a humor book out there that needs to be written about hypnosis and smokers.

Dearest clients and potential clients who may be considering using a hypnotist to curb the ciggies, I am not mocking you. Many, many people have kicked their smoking habit in the butt using hypnosis as a tool, and many have been just fabulous clients. However, in my experience, smokers are the ones who call in the middle of the night (and don't let me stop you from doing this if you need to, most people are away from their business phones then), the ones who do not return phone calls or emails, the ones who miss appointments, and a variety of other antics. Here's the thing, we as hypnotist understand your plight. It's not just about getting over an addiction or giving up a bad habit, it is giving up a friend who you may have come to believe is a comfort and a joy (though not a true friend, but a creature that takes and takes, is really abusive, and has its own agenda that cares nothing for you and only about making money for big tobacco). With this in mind, if you have made an appointment with a hypnotist to have a session and you decide you are not ready to give up smoking, please, please, please, just call and cancel the appointment. Your hypnotist will understand and not think poorly of you. It's just not your time to quit and that's okay. That way, when you are truly ready, no bridges will have been burned, no guilt, and the path for liberation will be always open.

So, if you are a smoker trying to quit and have questions, please post them. I or some brillant hypnotist who reads this blog will respond. Or if you are a hypnotist with a good smoker story, please consider sharing it here.

Tomorrow I will talk about ducks.

Back to Normal Consciousness

He always rubs his wrist after a session. It is because his wrist has fallen asleep and if it doesn't fall asleep, then he says, he wasn't in a hypnotic state. This happens whether he is reclining, laying down, or sitting up.

She says she gets twinges of euphoria during a session.

Another undoubtedly gets chilled (and always uses my handy dandy throw).

To counteract this effect of hypnosis, another has hot flashes.

Most report feeling like they received a full night's rest in the hour.

And then there is me. Unless the suggestion for no head pain is given before returning to normal consciousness, I get head aches.

Okay people, what do you or your clients experience during a hypnosis session?

Ghost

Interestingly enough, I posted a question to a paranormal/reincarnation group on Google and found that a gentleman answering my question has posted it all over. Interesting.

I had not intended for this blog to get very paranormal, metaphysical, or New Age, but alas, it seems like a avalanche descending.

I used to say I was a clinical hypnotist, but what a confining category it seems to be. I have always been fairly open-minded and discovered a joy in working with those who have the more unusual issues. These seems to include a variety of others wanting to enhance psychic ability, see ghosts, to control one's ability to be a medium, understand the meaning of life, and of course re-experience past lives. I do admit these people are probably most fascinating to me where as the classic smokers and weight loss clients are those of whom I empathize.

A while ago, I went to a local NGH meeting and the leader of this particular group was very much against doing anything but clinical hypnosis, arguing (against whom I was never sure - himself maybe?) that anything else defames the noble profession. I see his point though it seems driven out of fear or an urge to control. Hypnosis has a lot to come up against. This person is also against stage hypnosis shows, but as a wise hypnotist once told me:

We need hypnosis shows because it provides an opportunity for the public to try it, be seduced by its magic, and eventually be less afraid of it and actually utilize it as a tool in making life better.

So, I'm fairly sure, at least in my own practice, that just providing clinical hypnosis services is limiting and perhaps close minded. Rather, it's all about how one presents one self and hypnosis. If it is done in a way that is respectful to profession, self and client, well then maybe one can really accomplish something, including pushing the boundaries of mind.

What I Learned This Last Week

I'm back with my coffee cup in hand. I really missed you all this past week.

With little Internet access these last several days and much time for contemplation, I discovered a simple truth of life. It is up to each of us to pay attention to ourselves, help others when we can, but to know that there are some things others must do for themselves. Perhaps this seems simplistic, but I think it is so easy for each of us (do gooders) to charge in without thought of consequence to rescue someone from themselves. Things difficult for others seem so easy for us to decipher, and there we are, feet past the threshold, perhaps taking over, making comments and suggestions to ease someone else's burdens, especially loved ones. But truth be told, by doing for one's self or letting others proceed without interruption is a fundamental way of learning.

Perhaps we learn the lesson of just “being there” while raising children or perhaps we learn it in small revolutions (like this one). It seems a simple concept, but harder to implement. The desire is to help, but maybe the other person needs to learn to ask for “help.” By helping when help is not sought, it creates friction in relationships, potential unhealthy dependency, or it may just cause others to avoid seeking help when necessary.

This comes about after observing friends and family this past week as some struggled with illness and injury, job dissatisfaction, and job changes. In watching different dynamics, I came to the conclusion it was best to offer help (not charge in and just do it), listen and ask a few clarifying questions, and continue my lot in life, being the quintessential mental cheerleader, trusting in the learning process within others. It was also a lesson in patience.

And this lead to thoughts about my role as a hypnotist. Client success occurs most often when the people seeking my services really want and are ready for assistance in learning about themselves. Success is when the client supposedly seeking help, understands that they are helping themselves. It is they who actually make the changes they want to make. For those hoping I will instantly take away or change something for them (turning them into zombies to do as I bid them), they maybe sadly disappointed.

Now I Eat Fish

My retreat is going along well, but I decided to pay a visit to the local library to check in and see what is happening in Ellie's World. LOL.

I received this from Frank Munkle, who along with his partner and wife Louise, are regressionists. I hope you enjoy it! (And Frank and Louise, it was great meeting you last week!).

A woman I will call "K" came for a private session. I questioned why she wanted the regression. She told me that she wondered why she has such a strong dislike for fish. She didn't want to eat fish. In fact, she didn't even want to eat near people who were eating fish. She also mentioned that she had an emotional feeling about the sinking of the Titanic. A motion picture about the sinking of the Titanic had recently been showing in the theaters - so I thought that was the reason why she had those feelings. (I discovered later that I was wrong)

When "K" was regressed, she found that she was in Italy in the early 1700's. She was a healer and used herbs to help people recover from minor illnesses. According to the established church, no one except for trained physicians, priests and nuns, was allowed to be involved with healing. The church considered it blasphemy if others were attempting to do healing as Jesus did. A minor town official discovered that the woman was involved with healing and warned her to stop. She did not stop her healing practice. Later, when the town official learned that the woman was still doing the healing, he sent two of his employees to get rid of her. They captured the woman and put her into a boat. They took her out into the bay and threw her overboard. Next, she told me that as her soul was going up above the water, she could look down and see fish eating pieces of her body where she was floating. Hundreds of years later, when the Titanic struck an iceberg and was sinking, my client was on the other side of life helping those traumatized souls who had drowned when the Titanic sank.

From the perspective of those victims who had drowned as the Titanic sank and their souls went to the other side of life, whose soul was more qualified to empathize with them than a soul who had been deliberately drowned when she was thrown into the bay off the coast of Italy? So, then she knew why she disliked fish and why she felt the connection with Titanic. Also, in this life, the town official is her brother.

This is not the end of the story. The woman I regressed called me a few weeks later and told me she had been shopping in a large grocery store. The clerks were offering small samples of various foods to the customers. Naturally, "K" did not stop her cart as she passed a display where free samples of fish were being offered. Suddenly, she thought, "There is no reason now for me to dislike fish." So, she backed up her cart and accepted the fish sample and she enjoyed it.

Retreating

Well, I would do another esoteric Saturday, but alas, I am in the process of packing up and heading out on retreat. So, I will leave any fun hypno references up to you. Feel free to post for me.

I will be staying in a non-Internet place, but will check in periodically, so please don't give up on the transparent hypnotist. I'm just going to be a little more ethereal this coming week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate that particular holiday.

Making the Day

As Frank Munkel says:

Rather than HAVE a good day - MAKE a good day.

This Thing Called Self-hypnosis

Sometimes I meditate. Sometimes I relax with breathing work. Sometimes I just sit and listen to the wind whispering through the trees. And sometimes, often even, I practice self-hypnosis.

I had a client recently ask me who hypnotizes me and was totally surprised when I said "me." Yes, the perfect segway to help her learn how to do it for herself. At first she looked puzzled and asked, "But you said all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. Who guides you?" And I could see the confusion, but again was thrilled for the segway and spent the remain time with her teaching this wonderful tool.

Her last question to me was, "Why do you teach people how to do this? Won't they stop coming to you?" I didn't dare tell her that it seems like many people who have the tool either don't take the time to practice and there seems to be huge number who prefer to have a "guide." I just wished her well with it, told her to keep in touch, and practice, practice, practice.

Here's my question for all the hypnotists out there: How many of you practice self-hypnosis and what is you preferred method?

Throwing Out A Few Words

As hypnotists, we inevitably have to be wordsmiths, poets, story tellers, (and more importantly) listeners, and watchers.

A few terms or concepts perhaps that maybe should be modified in our vocabulary:

Under - meaning that we put people under hypnosis, as in under my spell, under my bed? Under where? Or is this under as one would be in anesthesia? Still, seems odd.

Susceptible - wouldn't receptive be a better word? People are susceptible to colds, not usually receptive.

Subjects - are we royalty (yes, again with the queen dreams)? The word also sounds so scientific and research based. With our clients, we may be experimenting in that we have to figure out what works for the client (assuming one is a client-based hypnotist), but it sounds so negative.

(I cannot take credit totally for these thoughts, only that I agree with them. A friend of mine brought it up the other day, saying these were thoughts mentioned in a workshop she had attended).

Okay, hypnotist, your thoughts, please.

Hypno-Massage

Recently, I decided to explore sister modalities to the hypno realm, and tried a hypno-massage. If you ever have the opportunity I recommend trying it. It can be a wonderful and beautiful experience.

Basically, the idea is to use massage as a relaxation tool in order to bring one to an alpha level (oh why or why can't it all be alphabetical - I so crave a natural order - with alpha being the waking or normal consciousness and beta being a the relaxation level? Perhaps I should have learned the Greek alphabet). My particular experience used a more guided imagery approach to help relieve some physical pains of which I have been suffering. The lady I saw is also an energy worker and intuitive healer. New age perhaps, but I'm so willing to take those routes before committing to a problem and the medication associated with it.

At one point my body began to tremble uncontrollably, which was interesting. After she helped me return to normal consciousness, she discussed her findings, which included perhaps having another physical and tweaking a few habits, along with some meditative suggestions.

All in all, I was extremely happy, felt a weight lifted and realized that some of my thoughts were reframed. Very nice.

The Gulf in Golf

Golf. There's a subject.

Henry Bolduc recently said:

I don't believe in golf. I've never played it, but maybe if I did I would believe in it more - a few million people probably do. I see them out there with sticks and little white balls, and they seem happy, driving around in those little bumper cars.

I love this! It so applies to what hypnotist do. Just because people may have never experienced hypnosis or past life regression (in Henry's case) or perhaps have a skeptics view point, this does not take away validity.

Interestingly enough, golf seems to pop up a lot theses days. Clients wanting to improve their game, lose the yips, and create better personal concentration. And there they are and here I am, much like Henry. This is probably one of my weaker areas, helping those with personal change for game improvement. I suspect it maybe because I have never been particularly interested in playing sports (yet I enjoy going to professional sport events - go race horse Hypnosis). I can intellectualize about it, but it is so frustrating. I have good success with fringe issues, confidence building, concentration in general, anxiety release, and yet helping those with golf performance and yips seem to elude me. Any thoughts?

The Sunday Question: Making A Living

Somewhere along the way, it may be something that nags the mind, it may be the expectations of those who influence us, or maybe, just be it it seems very interesting or perhaps even easy - but we all choose our way in the world and how we plan to survive.

Hypnosis, at first seemed much like the latter to me, interesting and easy. Are you smiling, those of you in the know? I so did not know the half of it. What I did know is that I knew people who had made huge emotional and physical changes due to hypnosis. I knew people who had gone the route of other "therapies" and who seem to stay locked in a course that included many years of said therapy. How could one not be attracted to hypnosis then in the field of healing work?

So over the years, I studied and read, read and practiced and one day, threw all caution to the wind and opened an office to pursue clinical hypnosis (not complete caution - I did create and have maintained a business plan and utilize small business counseling when needed). That's all I do. No teaching, no shows. I do offer community guided meditations though and occasional workshops on self-hypnosis, etc.

I won't say it has been easy or as lucrative as I had hoped. What I have truly learned is that it seems to be a lot about marketing. And recently I have gotten a small itch to think about doing stage work (though the thought isn't completely loud, yet).

Now I wonder, just how everyone else out there is doing with the idea of using hypnosis to make their living and how they approach it. Do they teach? Do shows? Or are there others who just practice in a clinical setting?

...That the babe was a hypnotist

They couldn't tell why that tiny eye
Would make them writhe and twist,
They found it so, but how could they know
That the babe was a hypnotist?
Another esoteric Saturday with many thanks going to
Terry O'Brien and his collection of hypnosis trivia
at www.hypnosisinmedia.com. The above quote is from a
J.M. Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle comic opera called
JANE ANNIE or, The Good Conduct Prize.

Here is the summary of the plot:
Set in a girls' boarding school and the golf green
attached to it. Bab,described by the authors as a
"bad girl," plans to elope, but cannot decide whether
to marry Jack the lancer or Tom the press student. Jane
Annie, the school's "good girl," schemes to take one
of them (Jack) off her hands, and calls on her powers
of hypnotism to accomplish it.
This is too much fun and a lovely coincidence.  I have had a long
love affair with Barrie's writings. He had me at "Clap your hands
if you believe in fairies." (Yep, Peter Pan).

So Terry, you made this rainy Saturday interesting already.
So the question is - do the boys in question accept the hypnotic
suggestions of marriage?

Read the play to find out.  LOL.

A Good Thought for the Day

After much coffee (and coffee cake) this morning with my friend Jessa and discussing the problems of the world (with personal issues), she offered the best advice her mother has ever given her:

Is it going to matter in ten years?

Sharing

All of you who are reading this and commenting - you guys are wonderful!!! Your comments and participation are more than I had hoped for and so thank you for taking the time to read this and share your knowledge and expertise. Just know that it is all deeply appreciated!

And in honor of you, I thought I'd share Michael Raugh's relaxation mp3 (with his permission). It is at http://www.secondtrances.com/stressrelief.mp3. He uses Terri Watts's Seven Plus or Minus Two induction and utilizes great suggestions for relaxation. Whether you are familiar with the induction or not, it is fun and Michael has a great voice. I know this induction, so it was interesting to actually hear it for a change (and a good mental exercise from reciting it in my head like Catechism and to just enjoy listening).

Enjoy!

Leggs

Something odd that I have noticed:

When I have clients with back to back appointments (or with as much as an hour in between), they seem to show the same patterns. Does this happen to anyone else?

The best example of this was a client who came to me for weight loss. In the middle of the session, she began to move for legs, not just a little, but like chair dancing. When I brought her out, she said she was shocked. Her husband had told her she had restless leg syndrome, but she didn't believe him. She said she became aware of it during the session and was unable to stop herself from moving. All is well that ends well, though. She has lost weight and her husband's insomnia has also disappeared (she went to a doctor about the legs...I know, I know - hypnosis would have probably helped that as well, but you can only bring a horse to water, there's only so much you can make them drink;).

Here's the oddity. My next client was with someone I had worked with before and found to be calm in her manner when hypnotized. So, in the middle of her session, she begins to move her legs restlessly. Now, one might think it was the inductions orsuggestions I had given, but I used two totally different inductions and techniques (I even listened to the session recordings to see if I had inadvertently given an odd suggestion. I found nothing.) When I brought her out, she had no memory of moving her legs.

How odd, but this sort of thing seems to happen often (not the legs, hadn't seen it before, hadn't seen it since).

Clip art provided by www.designedtoat.com/nat.htm.

On the Fly and trancing out

No coffee today, sadly. Well, there will be coffee but it will be while sitting in traffic listening to a book on tape as I head toward the office.

Here's a question for all the practitioners of the mind arts reading this: When doing trance work, do you trance out as well? I've heard that Erickson did and that was a huge part of his success.

I've heard others talk about it too as not being such a good thing, especially if you read scripts. Heard one story (no names mind you) about one such hypnotist losing his place in the middle of a session and asking the client where he was. Ah, the stuff of urban legends.

I find that I do have a tendency to go into a hyper state of awareness with certain clients provided that I am appropriately relaxed and completely focused. And I admit, I use notes (ever the purple clipboard) to help me keep my place or if there is specific wording I want to get absolutely correct in the suggestion portion. It keeps me in a certain awareness.

So, anyone else? Oh, and what are your views on trance? Some say it is what happens during hypnosis, others say there is no such thing as a trance.