PUTTING THE SESSION TOGETHER
Once you have determined how the mind of your client works through suggestibility you are now ready for the next step. The
hypnosis session.
This chapter will guide you through the various parts of the session and help you to understand how to put them together to be the most effective.
Contents of This Chapter at a Glance.
PUTTING THE SESSION TOGETHER
Organizing the session . . . 63 Putting it all together (chart) . . . 64 Analytical session instruction . . . 67
ORGANIZING THE SESSION
You have now had the opportunity to learn about suggestibility tests. You have learned the difference between analytical and non-analytical subjects. This chapter will aid you with the organization of all this material so you will know how to create a session as a result of the suggestibility tests. The chart below gives you the basic format of how to put together a session for an analytical or non-analytical client. Of course, the way you find out whether your client is analytical or non-analytical, is as a result of the suggestibility tests that you gave them at the beginning of the
interview. If they responded favorably and reacted to the suggestions given in the suggestibility tests and you found them to rank on the right hand side of the scale that you used earlier to gauge analytical and not analytical subjects …
… then you would use the non-analytical information on the next page. If they ended up on the left side of the scales you would use the analytical information on the left of the chart. The information on the chart is just a guide or an example to be used. Each step can be substituted with a similar script. For instance on the non-analytical side, the progressive relaxation may be substituted for the simple body scan, the eye strain method or any similar non-analytical type induction. Just as the non-analytical test may be substituted with any of the test that you have. If you find that while you are conducting the session with a non-analytical client that he is just not responding well to your test and he earlier tested non-analytically but near the center of the scale, you may want to change over during the session and swap to an analytical approach which as you learned earlier works for all clients. Sometimes when judging whether someone is analytical on non-analytical they may vary a little from where you
thought they were. You thought they may have been slightly non-analytical and they were more analytical than you had expected. Always be prepared to change midway if you feel there is a need to.
Instructions on Non analytical Sessions
It is important to understand before we begin instruction on the section that
approximately 80% of society is non-analytical and approximately 20% of society is analytical. Now even though only 20% of society is analytical, the analytical session is effective on everyone. The reason for this is that the purpose of the analytical session is designed to keep your clients‟ mind busy in giving them a task to do while you are simultaneously delivering the helpful suggestions that they require. It is very simple to keep someone‟s mind busy and it can be done to anybody however not everyone can relax or even enjoys to relax.
Understanding this concept will greatly assist you in having a successful session every time. For example if you‟re conducting a non-analytical session and you find that your client is not relaxed enough to the depth required to deliver your
session which works on everyone. With this information in your arsenal there is absolutely no reason why you should fail in conducting a hypnosis session.
Let us first speak about the non-analytical session which is the information on the right side of the diagram labeled PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER. As you can see, the session is divided into five categories which are induction, debt tests, deepener, suggestions or scripts and awakening.
It is important to realize that before you conduct any session you must always conduct your suggestibility test to find which is the best session to suit your client. So if you look at the chart, you will notice right at the very top the title
“Suggestibility Test (2 minimum)”. This is where you will begin by conducting a minimum of two suggestibility tests. If in conducting your two suggestibility test you find that your client is very non-analytical, you may want to add a third suggestibility test which can greatly help your session through the building of expectancy. The more expectancy that you can create in your client, the better results your session will have.
Once you have conducted your suggestibility tests you will then know which session to conduct whether it be analytical or non-analytical. For training purposes we will first describe the non-analytical session.
The first part of the non analytical session is to choose an induction. The purpose of the induction is simply to calm your client down and help them to relax. It is all about letting go and bringing them to the moment. It is important when conducting your induction that you do it very slowly, giving them enough time to relax
completely. Don‟t worry about being too boring while doing the induction as that is exactly what you are shooting for.
Once you have conducted your induction is now time to test your client to see how relaxed they actually are. The way you test this is by using a depth test. It is
important not to confuse the depth test with a suggestibility test as they have two entirely different purposes.
An example of a depth test would be the “yardstick test”. Basically with this test you are asking your client how relaxed they are in association with the 36 numbers on a yardstick. The number 1 would be as if they were not relaxed at all and the number 36 would be the most relaxed they could possibly be. Between number one
and 36 they are to choose the number that would best represent how relaxed they are. If they would choose the number 5 that would mean that they were not relaxed
enough to conduct your session further and you would need to take them deeper into relaxation through the process of conducting a “deepener” after which you would then test them one more time. On the other hand, if when you tested them they said they were relaxed at the number 30, then you would simply continue on with your session as they are relaxed enough. For the most part if your client said the number 17 or more, they were most likely relaxed enough to continue.
Notice as we stated earlier, if your client was not relaxed enough you would conduct a deepener. A deepener is designed to do exactly as the title suggests, to deepen the relaxation level of your client. In most cases the deepener is just a vehicle to relax, or bore them even more into letting go. Even if your client reacted really well with the depth test showing that they were a number 17 or above, in most cases you would still conduct a deepener whether it was required or not. Just consider it icing on the cake. The purpose of doing it either way is to lengthen the session and give them a better experience. Without a deepener your entire session would
probably be only about 15 minutes but inserting a deepener will serve two purposes. The deepener is the part of the session that most people are familiar with. It is the part of hypnosis session where they can travel in their minds and possibly see
beautiful images and experience the deep relaxation that they are looking forward to. In the event that you had to conduct a second depth test and they were still not deep enough, you have a choice of conducting a second deepener or swapping them over to an analytical session.
Keep in mind that the analytical session works on everyone while the non-
analytical session only works on approximately 80% of society. The reason for this is that not everyone is able to relax however with the analytical session, anyone‟s mind can be kept busy.
Upon completion of your deepener or even your second depth tests if it was required you are now ready to conduct your suggestions or scripts. The suggestions is whatever you would need to tell your client to help them to change or improve their present situation. The word “script” is simply a shortened version of the word prescription and means the same thing as the suggestions.
bring a client back to the here and now. Once your client comes back, you may want to take a few moments to let them reflect on their experience and even ask them questions about what had occurred.
Instructions on Analytical Sessions
Now let‟s speak about the analytical session which is along the left hand column of the chart. Before we begin speaking about this column I would like to begin with telling you all that is necessary for an analytical session. To conduct an analytical session all that is really required would be the analytical vehicle, the suggestions and the awakening. The reason for this is that with an analytical client, relaxation is not required. All you need to do is to keep their mind busy. So you can began right with the analytical vehicle and while their minds is busy deliver the suggestions. Although conducting a session this way would be completely effective, the analytical client would probably not be happy that the entire process went so quickly. Doing it this way would probably take up approximately 10 to 15 minutes. In other words it would be over before they even realized it was started. Therefore we conduct an induction and a depth test before the actual analytical vehicle.
You may be asking yourself right now why would you conduct an induction or a depth test on an analytical subject? That‟s a good question. Realizing that analytical people do not like to relax, the analytical induction is designed differently than the non-analytical. An analytical induction does help you to relax but does it in a busier manner. It keeps the mind more occupied usually with movement, or instilling more thought process.
As for a depth test, whether your client passes or fails the depth test does not
matter. Remember the purpose of the depth test is simply to see how deep your client is in relaxation and since it is not important for an analytical client to relax, then the results of this test does not matter. After conducting the test, if your client passed the test write that information down on your intake sheet because it will give you
ammunition that you can use later on if your client comes back next week and states that he was not in a deep enough state of hypnosis or that he doesn‟t feel it worked. You would have a tool to use the results from the depth test to show them that they were. What about if they did not pass the depth test? In the event of using the yardstick depth test if they responded that they were only at number five you would simply respond with “very good, you have a strong mind” and continue along with
your session.
It is important to keep in mind that whether they passed the depth test or not that relaxation is not a prerequisite for the analytical mind. Once you begin the analytical vehicle which will keep their mind busy, everything will be the way it should be for you to deliver your suggestions. Once again upon delivering your suggestions you would simply conduct your awakening and then take a few moments if you choose to discuss their experience.
Whether conducting an analytical or non-analytical session one of the most effective statements that you can say upon their emerging from hypnosis is, “from when you close your eyes at the beginning of the session until you just opened them right now how long did it seem like to you, five minutes or less?” Then wait for their response. In the case of non-analytical clients, most of them will respond with
approximately 5 minutes or even less as you suggested. You will find that the
analytical client will be more aware of time so don‟t be surprised if they get the time exactly on the minute. The purpose of this question is to see if there was a “time distortion” that occurred for your client.
Many times even though your session may have taken 35 to 45 minutes, because of how relaxed the client was they may have only recalled four to five minutes. This is called a time distortion. You will learn in an upcoming chapter in this book that there are basically six levels of hypnosis. Once you go beyond the third level,
amnesia is created in which they will not remember most of what occurred during the session. Keep in mind that they will be hearing everything as you say it and still taking in your suggestions however they will not remember most of it consciously afterwards. Therefore if they were in level four or higher, even though the session may have been 45 minutes, as soon as they passed that level, time will have seemed as if it were still. It is important before you have them close their eyes for the session that you look at your clock and time the actual session so you have proof of how long it took. Most clients will not be happy knowing that they only had a four or five minute session so you may want to have proof that it was more like 30 to 35 minutes.