Post/hypnotic suggestions make hypnotherapy stand apart from other psychotherapies. But what are they? And what do they do?

Hypnotic and posthypnotic suggestions are the lifeblood of hypnotherapy and help the profession to stand apart from all other psychological therapies.

During a hypnotherapy session, hypnotherapists will deliver 2 types of suggestion:

Hypnotic suggestions are for inducing and maintaining trance and asking things of the client during trance, e.g. to experience relaxation or to visualise something e.g.,.

“Please close your eyes and take a deep breath.”

“ There are many ways to enjoy a good thing and those things can appear in the most curious of ways" 

"With your head resting there, it's easy to find a place of peace & calm"

Posthypnotic suggestions are for the effects the client wants to occur after (post) hypnosis. These are the suggestions clients take away with them after the therapy session and are related to the presenting issues. For example...

“Would you find yourself being unable to bite your nails?”

“When you see chocolate, you will feel a sense of calm and control”

“When your workload increases, would you find yourself remaining calm?”

“It's interesting to find confidence growing each and every day in the most unexpected ways”

So these are examples of posthypnotic suggestions - the things the client wants to do, or be, after they have left the session.

There are many different styles of suggestions that a hypnotherapist will create for a client during hypnotherapy, here are just 5 examples... 

1) Yes-set

This is a well known strategy commonly used by people in marketing and sales. Whilst the client wouldn't be offered anything they haven't already told the hypnotherapist they want, and of course, the client's requests are ethical and moral, this is a great strategy. It helps to bypass any resistance to enable the client to be more on board with the changes they want to implement.

An example for someone brought up in the northern hemisphere might be something like...

“You remember those winter’s days when the wind is cold” (client nods) “and making a snowball as a child” (client nods) “and how numb and leathery your skin felt” (client nods) “notice that feeling there in your hands now”.

Here the client is asked a series of questions that the hypnotherapist knows will result in a ‘yes’ response. This example is to help a client to find numbness in their hand for pain relief. After 3 yes’s the hypnotherapist is able to ask a question where ordinarily delivered too soon, would have been met with resistance i.e., a "no" response.

2) Creating questions out of statements

Asking questions rather than making statements enables a client to often react better with things they are resistant too, or ambivalent about.

Take the following paragraph for example, and see how easily this could be met with resistance…

"Find a spot on the wall. As you look at that spot, your eyes will blink. Your eyelids will become tired and close. Slow and then fast, speeding up more and more. Then they will close. You will feel comfortable as they close. You will feel yourself going deeper and deeper into trance."

And here it is again with the statements replaced with questions….

"Would you like to find a spot you can look at comfortably? As you continue looking at that spot for a while, do your eyelids want to blink? Will those lids begin to blink together or separately? Slowly or quickly? Will they close all at once or flutter all by themselves at first? Will those eyes close more and more as you get more comfortable? That’s fine. Can those eyes remain closed as your comfort deepens?"

3) Contingent suggestions

With contingent suggestions, the hypnotherapist connects a suggestion with ongoing or inevitable behaviour. This could be a behaviour they are seeing in the therapy room e.g.,

“As your hands relax you might become aware of your habit loosening its grip.”

or something they know the client will be doing or wanting to do, outside of the therapy room e.g.,

“While eating healthily would you find increasing confidence in your abilities to perform well at any task?”

So connections are made with things that otherwise have no real or logical connections. The client makes these connections real for themselves.

4) Binds

Binds create an illusion of choice for the client. The choices are made by the client. And the presupposition underlying the two choices is the same. So both choices lead to the same outcome.

“Would you notice yourself relaxing now, or later?"

So the presupposition here is that at some point the client will relax, but the choice is up to them when it will happen. The choices are complementary and both equally enticing options. Whilst the client is pondering on when it will be, rather than whether, other options e.g., to not relax, are invisible or unavailable!

5) Double binds

A double bind involves an inherent contradiction or impossibility. They act as confusional language, engaging the client further in a trance as they try to understand.

“Would you like to go into a deep light trance or a light deep trance?”

Like the binds, the client has the illusion of choice with the presupposition that they will enter a trance at some point. However, the choices are contradictory as it’s impossible to be both light and deep at the same time!

Karen is the Principal at the Academy of Advanced Changework, and published author of 'The Advanced Hypnotherapist'.

Her Academy provides attended Diploma courses in Hypnotherapy & NLP on the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne, Australia, and a range of online & distance CPD courses internationally, including an Advanced Diploma in Hypnotherapy course for qualified hypnotherapists and '15 Great Ways to Spice Up Your Post/Hypnotic Suggestions'

Are you a qualified hypnotherapist ready to take your hypnotherapy know-how to an advanced level? Find out more about our internationally recognised Advanced Diploma in Hypnotherapy for qualified hypnotherapists by downloading a Free copy of ‘The Advanced Hypnotherapist’ https://eepurl.com/c-Bqsn written and published by Karen Bartle MSc, and Dr Paul Peace.