Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 5, Issue -3, 1 September 2020 | Page 16

POETRY AND HYPNOSIS
POETRY FOR HEALING
“Only poetry can mend a rupture in our civilisation.”
John Carey, P.Hd.
As hypnotherapists we deal in the language of the unconscious mind —in
metaphors, symbols, imagery, and sensory detail. Our profession and our
tools are not new; for thousands of years humans have done this: shamans,
monks, prophets, poets. In some languages, the ancient word for poet is the
same as the word for prophet.
By definition, a prophet or prophetess is someone who speaks by

inspiration, edifies, uplifts, heals, and sometimes predicts things to

come. Poets also do this. The very nature of poetry, with its rhythms,

images, inferences, and maternal patter, is designed to reach the

mind on a different level than everyday prose. Delivered to the mind in this
way, poetry can inspire, heal, and even predict, as suggestions and images
that bond with the unconscious begin to unfold into reality.
Contemporary poetry is life-affirming and directly relevant to all of our lives.
The wonderful thing about contemporary poetry is that a poem can be about
anything. There are poems about cars, girls, homework, lawn mowers, blue
nudes, bicycles, suicide, love, death, the moon, and much more. The power
of a good poem can move and change a person profoundly and
unforgettably. Most people have at least one poem that they remember that
affected them—the poem read at a wedding or funeral or during an
inauguration speech.
While not all of your clients may be interested in poetry, a few solid
collections in your library can enhance your hypnotherapy practice in
several ways. First, poetry can be a window into your client’s subconscious
mind, or to parts of him/herself. Second, poetry can be used as a secondary
induction to induce hypnotic trance. It is also wonderful for embedding