Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 5, Issue -2, 1 August 2020 | Page 11

Likewise, taking someone in and out of mini-trance many times simply by
using conversational hypnosis means that when they do go into hypnosis
proper they tend to go deeper – just as frustrating someone’s desire to go into
deep sleep increases their desire and need to sleep when they are finally
allowed to slumber.
But more specifically, here are three ways we can help our clients go deeper
into trance naturalistically.
Deepener One: Ask them to (hypnotically)
Or better still, imply through presuppositional language that they will go
deeper into trance:
“In a few moments, as you go deeper into hypnotic trance, you can notice
what pleasant images and ideas come to mind.”
The suggestion to go deeper is taken as read whilst you have them focus on
the benefits of doing so. We haven’t directly asked them to go deeper, but the
message is there and presumed.
As we know, many client problems are, or feel to the client as if they are,
catch-22 or double-bind situations: ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’.
Of course, this attitude is not at all helpful in itself, but we can use it as a
basis to instead pose a ‘blessed if you do, blessed if you don’t’ situation.
That is, along with the usual hypnotic presuppositions, we can use that other
staple of hypnotic communication: illusory choice. You give your client a
‘choice’, but both responses lead to the same therapeutic outcome.
“In five or ten seconds or so you can... just notice how you can relax deeper
into trance...
or maybe just become more fully immersed in your calm and tranquil inner
experience... as you relax deeper to each word... or space between each
word...”
What kind of a (real) choice is that? “Relax deeper into trance” or “become
more fully immersed in your calm and tranquil inner experience”. Of course
it’s the same thing, but the client has a sense of having been given a choice,
and the conscious mind rarely dissects communication enough to pick up this
kind of subtlety.