Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 2, Special Mega Annual Issue, 15 June 2018 | Page 39

Sleight Of Mouth

- a fun, efficient and very useful technique both for
self-help and in combination with hypnosis...
Sleight of Mouth – Verbal Aikido
Sleight of Mouth is a kind of verbal Aikido – a method to confront
and change arguments and beliefs that was developed by Robert
Dilts modeling Richard Bandler – I learned it from Doug O’Brien –
a skilled hypnotherapist from New York and author of Sleight of
Mouth. The map below is my personal adaptation, Doug uses a
different one originally.
SleightofMouth-Formula-E
Together with Fredrik Praesto I invited Doug O’Brien over to do a
workshop in Sleight of Mouth for members of the International
Hypnotists Guild. The method is systematic and relatively easy to
apply – and Doug is a great teacher – it is based on 16 ways to
meet an argument or fundamental belief. This article is a short
introduction.
Just like in Aikido, the underlying principle is to turn your
opponents energies back on them, in a non-aggressive search for
a way out of deadlock, opening the door to a new perspective or
solution.