The ADVANCED: Modules and Learning Outcomes

 COURSE MODULES

Module One: Models of Hypnosis

1. State model
2. Neodissasociation model
3. Ericksonian/utilisation model
4. Role playing and/or sociocognitive model
5. Altered consciousness model

Module Two: Factors that facilitate or impede change

1. Rapport
2. Motivation
3. The therapeutic relationship and therapist skills
4. Primary, secondary and tertiary gain and malingering
5. Unrealistic expectations
6. Fear/nervousness around change
7. Psychological theories of change
8. Extra therapeutic factors

Module three: Advanced questioning and recognizing opportunity

1. Double barrelled questions
2. Double negatives
3. Loaded and leading questions
4. Meta questions

Module Four: Handling awkward situation, clients and questions

1. Dependency on therapy/therapist
2. Handling difficult questions
3. Door knob disclosure
4. The Therapy is not working

Module Five: Advance Clinical Approaches

1. Working without a script
2. Positive and negative language
3. Anchoring (collapsing anchors)
4. Association and disassociation
5. Embedded suggestions
6. Paradoxical intention

Module Six: Academic Skills and Critical Thinking

1. Professional abbreviations and symbols
2. Listening and reading skills how to critique and evaluate claims made
3. Logical and academic argumentation
4. Academic referencing (Harvard and footnote)
5. Level of analysis and levels of abstraction
6. Academic skills and critical thinking
7. Advanced ethical considerations and debates in clinical practice

Module Seven: Social and Scientific Research

1. Hypnosis and hypnotherapy research
2. Common sense versus scientific

1. Validity and reliability
2. Asking questions: interviews, case studies, surveys, questionaires.
3. Observational methods
4. Controlled experiments
5. Comparison studies
6. Grounded theory
7. Discourse analysis
8. Systematic review and meta analysis
9. Factors affecting the availability of research on hypnotherapy
10. Statistics
11. How and where to find research articles

Module Eight: Ethical Considerations and debates in Clinical Practice

1. Power dynamics in the therapeutic relationship
   1. Take on or refuse clients
   2. Refer them
   3. Hypnotise them
   4. Ask probing questions
   5. Professional knowledge
   6. Certificates
   7. Writing and keeping notes
2. Effectively screening prospective clients
3. What discussed at initial contact
4. Duties regarding breaking confidentiality (legal/moral obligations)
5. Working with other health professionals
6. Types of ethics
7. Hypnotherapy techniques with children

Module Nine: Growing as a Hypnotherapist

1. Being a reflective practitioner reflecting on our work, analysing strengths/weakness, etc
2. Getting the best from supervision
3. How to set up and run a peer group
4. Constructing a personal development plan
5. How to work with unusual issues not covered on initial trainings e.g. skin disorders, working with grief, and tinnitus.

Module Ten: Options

Advanced interventions and additional material eg scripts

Learning outcomes

The following learning outcomes must be met (in any order).

Important note: each question or task in the homework portfolio is accompanied by the learning outcome/s that it substantiates.

Learning Outcomes

1. Advanced clinical knowledge and skills

1.1 An understanding of advanced interventions.

1.2 An ability to devise an appropriate psychological intervention for a medical condition.

1.3 Sophisticated thinking, within the bounds of law and ethics, but beyond the confines of unnecessarily dogmatic rules sometimes asserted in training, supervision and reading.

1.4 Prioritising the client and specific, localised, contextual issues over inflexible rule-based thinking (i.e. 'bottom-up' versus 'top-down' thinking).

1.5 An ability to determine an ethically and therapeutically appropriate approach for more complex cases where specific training may not be available.

1.6 An understanding of what is meant by 'normalising' client experiences.

1.7 An ability to recognise 'loaded' questions.

1.8 An ability to recognise 'leading' questions.

1.9 An understanding of the nature and impact of extratherapeutic factors.

1.10 An understanding of primary, secondary, and tertiary gain, and malingering.

1.11 Knowing how to take an appropriate course of action with a client who is experiencing an epileptic seizure.

1.12 Knowing how to sensitively and firmly handle clients who breach personal or professional boundaries.

1.13 An understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of group hypnotherapy.

2. Theory and its application

2.1 Knowledge of the various theories on the nature of hypnosis.

2.2 A demonstrable understanding of psychological theories of motivation and behavioural change and an ability to apply this to clinical practice.

3. Academic thinking and argumentation

3.1 A demonstrable understanding of logic and academic argumentation.

3.2 A recognition of the problems associated with forming conclusions about other modalities based on small and biased data sets.

3.3 An ability to reference other authors' work properly, e.g. in 'Harvard' and 'footnote' formats.

3.4 An ability to critically appraise, in a professional, factual and non-emotive manner, claims made in the media, including digital media such as websites, or those made by colleagues, supervisors and trainers.

3.5 An ability to critique hypnotherapy literature in an academic and professional manner.

3.6 A forward-thinking appreciation of the potential consequences of scientific research and theorising on the future of clinical practice.

3.7 An ability to implement new techniques without direct supervision and critically reflect on this, e.g. assessing the suitability of the technique, outcome, and personal performance.

3.8 A demonstrable and respectful appreciation of both the advantages and disadvantages of interventions that have, or have not, been scientifically researched.

4. Ethics

4.1 Advanced thinking around difficult ethical issues, particularly those outside of codes of ethics and where an unambiguous and universally agreed upon solution is unavailable.

4.2 A considered approach to professional responsibilities around public protection.

4.3 An awareness of the subtleties around protecting client confidentiality, especially regarding the ease with which identifying details can be released, e.g., bit by bit in supervision.

4.4 An ability to handle awkward challenges to the maintenance of confidentiality, demonstrating an awareness of the issues, sound judgement, and sensitivity towards client needs.

5. Research methods and application

5.1 An understanding of scientific methodology and its advantages.

5.2 An understanding of the term 'falsification' in science.

5.3 An understanding of 'bias' in research.

5.4 A basic understanding of statistical methods, sufficient to enable engagement with hypnotherapy research literature.

5.5 A demonstrable ability to locate hypnotherapy research.

5.6 An understanding of the term 'pseudoscientific therapies/treatments'.

5.7 An understanding of the term 'empirically supported therapies/treatments'.

6. Professional development

6.1 An appreciation for the benefits of peer groups and an awareness of how to organise one.

6.2 Effective personal reflection on the learning that has taken place on the course.

6.3 A recognition of, and demonstrable commitment towards, professional development needs as evidenced through a Personal Development Plan.

'About' ADVANCED DIPLOMA and The Reflective Journal

About the Advanced Diploma

The Advanced Diploma in Hypnotherapy is a substantial in depth course taking your practice to the next level.

It encourages academic, critical and reflective thinking on your practice, learning and ethics.

It provides a clear advancement on your initial hypnotherapy training and experience enhancing your knowledge, skills and techniques. It also actively encourages a considered and critical approach to hypnotherapy research and theories.

Accreditation

The Advanced Diploma in Hypnotherapy offered by Unity has been Assessed and Validated at Advanced Practitioner Level by the General Hypnotherapy Standards Council (UK). On qualifying, Graduates immediately benefit from the letters AdvDipH after their name, signifying attainment of advanced level status. Graduates from this course (who have already qualified at Practitioner status via a course validated by the GHSC at Practitioner Level) are eligible for professional registration with the General Hypnotherapy Register (the GHSC’s Registering Agency) at Advanced Practitioner Level following two years in practice.

Eligibility

Applicants for this advanced course must have received a substantial amount of live training as required for professional membership. They must already be fully conversant with inducing, deepening, maintaining and disengaging trance, hypnotic and posthypnotic suggestions. They are likely to be practicing hypnotherapists who want to improve and enhance their skills for the benefits of their clients or practitioners who may have had time away from the Profession who wish to re-engage with their learning.

Benefits

The Advanced Diploma in Hypnotherapy will improve your knowledge and techniques and develop your critical and analytical thinking skills. It will also show you how to maximise success, deal with awkward situations/clients, expand your questioning techniques and develop you as a Reflective Practitioner.

Accountability

The GHSC reserves the right to randomly sample homework portfolios from accredited schools to check standards of student work and tutor feedback. Schools will be given feedback and expected to implement changes at the next available opportunity.

Learning outcomes

The following learning outcomes must be met (in any order).

Important note: each question or task in the homework portfolio must be accompanied by the learning outcome/s that it substantiates. One neat method of doing this is to place the learning outcome in a table just below the question (an example is provided later).

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

Growing as a hypnotherapist

Being a reflective practitioner - reflecting back on our work, analysing personal strengths and weakness, etc. Knowing when it is appropriate to reflect and maintaining good work-life boundaries (i.e. not over-reflecting).

Getting the best from supervision.

How to set up and run a peer group.

How to work with complex presenting issues. Examples might include skin disorders, working with grief, and tinnitus.

What is a Reflective Learning Journal?

A reflective journal is designed to help you think deeply about your learning, especially on issues such as: your progress in learning, the difficulties you encountered in the process of learning, the strategies you have taken to get around those difficulties, and your evaluation of your own performance.

What can you get from writing reflective learning journal?

For the study, writing a reflective learning journal helps you:

• bring together theory and practice,
• yield better understanding of the course material

For your development as a successful and independent learner, it helps you:

• See your strength and weakness as a learner
• Find out the methods of learning which suit your own learning style
• Notice how you can improve your learning in the future
• Gain a clearer picture of your learning progress and so in a better position to plan your learning

“I don’t know what to write!”

5 tips on what to write in a journal entry:

• Start off with whatever in your mind about your learning experience in the course
• Describe the meaning of what you have learnt. Also, your reaction, feeling, opinions, views on both the learning process and the learnt material
• List the goods and the bad, the strengths and weaknesses you consider you demonstrate in the course of your learning
• Make advice for yourself and make a plan for your learning in the near future

“Now I know what to put in the entry, but how should I write it?”

• Write in first person, as if you are writing a letter to a friend
• There is no right or wrong answer for a journal entry. Therefore, feel free to express your ideas, opinion, and thoughts
• Don’t hesitate to share your personal experience if that helps to illustrate your point
• Don’t limit yourself to words – diagrams and pictures are ok too
• Don’t be too intimidated by English rules. It’s okay to make minor grammatical errors if that does not interfer the transmission of ideas. So don’t put too much thought about how to write good English, instead spend more effort on what to write

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL OF PRACTICE

Reflective journal of practice - you are asked to reflect briefly on what happened as you implemented advanced techniques and skills you have learnt during your course. Please do this for at least one session with two different clients ensuring you have used a different technique/skill with each client. Learning outcomes 1.1 and 3.7 will be covered here, possibly others too.

Law of Attraction - according to Jennie!

Don’t Vibrate what you Hate!

Law of attraction, action!

What if you could really, I mean, really create the life you want rather than living by default as so many do? This step by step guide teaches you how. This is what you do.

1. Speak the lingo
2. Use vibration creation
3. Get polar
4. Do envisioning positioning

The Universe does not speak English

So, you may have heard or read that the Universe delivers to you that which you want. Yes, that’s true. For any to be a law, especially a Universal one cited in so many works by so many authors for so very long.... It must be consistent, reliable and absolutely, without question, true.

It may be correct to say that the Universe brings to you that which you want, though not necessarily, what you ask for.

The Universe does not speak English, its language is not spoken.

You give out an energy signature which is charged by your emotional state. This is what is constantly ‘read’ by the Universal forces and responded to consistently . In short, you VIBRATE. Every living thing does as everything is energy and energy vibrates.

You cannot think without feeling

You cannot feel without thinking

  However,

You can think and deny the feelings

You can feel and deny the thoughts

 That intricate connection of thoughts and feelings is called emotion.

So why do I not get what I ask for? There are contradictions between what you think you believe and what you believe you think!

Thoughts and feelings and actions and behaviours don't always follow beliefs and morals and values (put your money where your mouth is eh?) and these change according to age and experience and processing and power to imagine and compassion.

One of the most useful elements of exaggerated soap operas and Films is that we can see the character develop and unfold of people we may never choose to encounter "oh I can understand how one could be driven to insanity or murder or adultery now I have seemingly watched the entire life of a person unfold before me in less than two hours. I have seen their experience through their eyes and the varying perspectives of other characters sharing their world.”

  In fact, we are so capable of diving into someone else’s reality that we often lose connection with our own as we listen to well intentioned sympathetic advice from others who do not think in our heads, or feel in our bodies. The only one who really knows what is good for you, is you.

We do not get what we ask for because we do not speak the lingo and we do not mean what we say or say what we mean. As we sometimes have to fib to others for often good reason, it is time to tell yourself the truth.

You do it already!

If you are going to in any way accept the law of attraction then you have to play with the idea that because it is a universal law, that it is ALREADY working for you. It may not be working out exactly as you would like and that is because you are vibrating. Right here, right now, you are vibrating. You are spinning too, of course. You might already know that any point on the surface of the Earth is moving at 1675 km/h or 465 meters/second which equals 1,040 miles/hour. Just think, for every second, you’re moving almost half a kilometer through space, and it never even messes up your hair.

Well, maybe now that you are remembering how fast you spin, by forces beyond your control, it may not be too much of a leap to recognise that you also vibrate. All life does. That is because all life is made up of energy. Without getting into too much of the science stuff, everything is made up of energy, of particles and molecules and protons and electrons, which is all moving. By the way, the great news is, your Vibration IS under your control though you may not be aware of this fact yet and that’s why this book is so crucial to your understanding and awareness and how you will be able to make some positive changes easily and quickly just like I have done for hundreds of clients and delegates over the years. It’s your turn now./

Noticing what irritates you or drives you berserk is usually the first step! Anything, ANYTHING, you give your attention to gets locked into your vibration and becomes part of the signal you are sending out. Eg “I HATE it when he speaks to me like that/when I feel fat/when I’ve got no money/when nobody listens to me….. Etc” OOOOpppphs.

Why doesn’t my soul/spirit/higher self/just TELL me?

If you get irritated (and who doesn’t?!) at the manner in which your inner self communicates, or tries to communicate, with you then there is good reason why it does so in cloaked, metaphoric symbology.

We have cut ourselves off from many of the avenues through which this communication used to happen and are so busy and stressed within the barrage of information and data being thrown at us this way and that, that it has become difficult to think clearly. Difficult, though not impossible. Where do your thoughts come from ....do you think? Think about that then. Where do your thoughts originate? Take back control of thinking.

As a hypnotist, once you know how the mind works it is quite easy to implant a thought into the mind of another, usually and hopefully for therapeutic benefit, though not always. In the modern world it is impossible to function without your thoughts being hijacked. Go to the supermarket to just buy that one bottle of milk, drive a short distance without seeing huge advertisements in your pathway, that you read and yet don’t want to, much better to have eyes on the road though you do read them. Bus stops, shop windows, even the clothes of the people walking past you with their logos and statements, never to have to even mention television and commercials and bright colourful glossy bits of paper that issue forth from the letterbox into the privacy of your home.

A Simple Equation

  Your negative ego, which intervenes and blocks your manifesting much more than you are aware of and is NOT your friend, is not very clever. When you have to think about things more deeply, look for hidden meanings, ponder on ambiguities and then have your penny dropping moments of true realisation, then the learnings are far more impactful and durable.

SO, catch yourself THINKING! If you think ‘I never have enough’ (money) then put yourself in the vibe of having enough and send out a genuine thought about what you have enough of, avoiding the money focus. You may not have enough money so to lie to yourself to try and fool some part of the Universe to take pity on you will NOT work. However, send out the vibe of having enough love, enough air to breath, enough clothes to wear, enough water to drink and the vibe of ‘enough’ goes out to the Universe, attracting ‘enough’ back where the perceived lack is.

Think poor? = being poor so .....Think rich!

Think unloved? = being unloved so..... Think loved!

Think stupid? = being stupid so.......Think wise!

Think ugly? = being ugly so.......Think beautiful!

Think powerless? = being powerless so......Think powerful!

The subject does not matter! The Universe will see to it that your lack is fulfilled if you allow it. The way to allow it is to switch any thoughts of lack around on the spot. There will be SOMETHING you can feel rich about, there will be SOMETHING you are wise or clever about, there is SOMETHING beautiful you can focus upon, etc. Think think think think!

Affirmations

Some folks work with affirmations, standing in front of the mirror or with friends or screaming from tops of mountains to tell the Universe what they want, when the other 99% of the time, affirming quite the opposite. For example, saying aloud to yourself ‘I am rich’ repeatedly to attract riches to your life will not happen if:

1. It is said without the passion and driving force of the emotion of abundance, which is what FUELS the vibration and sends it spinning at the right frequency
2. You say it ten times a day when a hundred times a day you think of lack, such as when a bill arrives and you worry there is not enough in your account, or a friend asks to borrow money and you just can’t do it, or you want a new car and talk yourself out of it as you can’t afford it.

 Thoughts are pictures not words

To envision is to hold a certain thought in ones mind, that thought being the exact image of what it is one would like to manifest into a physical state. It is the end goal and the thing one wants to obtain for ones self. Often we are unclear of what it is that we want and what it will look like. We dream in pictures every night, though often do not remember the images. We think in images and translate them into words to communicate them. To communicate our thoughts and ideas on that which we want to send out to the Universe it is crucial to have a positive picture in mind of the scenario.

Therefore we must learn to be vigilant and be very careful in what we think, cleaning up our vibration by choosing only thoughts that relay information exactly upon what it is we wish to have manifest in our life.

We already, automatically create from the subconscious part of the mind, the task we undertake is to create consciously. Firstly though, recognise the subconscious and how it creates and work with it. The subconscious is responsible for turning the images held in one’s mind into physical reality. It holds anything perceived and held in one’s mind as actual truth.

know that it is already yours

For your manifesting to work you need not to believe that it is on its way and coming, but to associate positive feelings and appropriate sensory information appropriate to the thing you wish to attract. Imagine, pretend, that this is already yours in some alternate universe and what notice and understand what it truly feels like.

Recognise that you have little excitement about the stuff you already have, you kind of take it for granted and move on to the next thing you want, so really REALLY understand what the vibe feels like of ownership. How would I be different if I had this thing? What would be different in my life? How would I be regarded by others? Use stuff you have already manifested to tune into the vibe. OWN it.

receive

Receiving is an energy. It is not an insurance policy. It is not a guarantee of success. It’s an energy. Receiving is an energy to respect, to harness, to direct, to generate. It is a balance between disengaging the reluctance or refusal to receive and actively engaging and embracing the full body of what you truly want to receive. Receiving is neither friend nor foe, but will function as one depending upon whether you are your own friend or your own foe.

  The first key to the phenomenon of Receiving is that you already know how to do it. You already do receive -- and not just the good stuff! You see, you do not need to learn how to receive. You need to learn the magic of redirecting the allowing, but you already know the function. You're doing it already. You often allow too much bad stuff.

Receiving is a balance between disengaging from the resistances to receiving and engaging and embracing the full range of what you want to receive. Sometimes receiving is not so pleasant, and the key to it is to become conscious. Become AWARE.

Becoming conscious of the receiving that is already happening -- whether it's good or bad, whether you like it or not -- is a vital part to understanding and reaching the magic of manifestation.

You see, receiving isn't just sitting there with your arms open, waiting. Receiving isn't refusing to take the action (inspired action that is, inspired action! Not action for action’s sake in desperation and fury) steps because "I'm going to receive. I'm not going to program and process. I'm going to receive." Receiving isn't avoiding what needs to be done. "The washing up needs to be done. I think I'll receive clean dishes.“ It's not about procrastinating or avoiding processing. It's not that sort of dull, passive energy, it is a very active, very dynamic, very conscious choice.

  The Resistances 

The resistances are emotional states that manifest inside of you. ... The TRADITIONAL RESISTANCES are these ...

 ( You have been taught, conditioned (there is a difference between the two), manipulated, or threatened out of receiving.

 You were taught, conditioned, manipulated, or threatened into believing that to receive is weak, greedy, and selfish -- that it is just plain wrong. Time to redefine.

Think of all the things that happen without your effort! Beating of your heart, spinning of the earth, grass growing up all over the place, even weeds through tough tarmac and mould in your bathroom. So much happens without your interference and it is often our negative interference that halts our wellbeing.

Receive. Learn. Remember how. Just let it be. If we were to stop the negative thoughts about the stuff that we want it would more naturally flow to us. So let’s stop. How? By being aware, by using the polar opposite, by reading this tiny book again! It’s all here. Experiment with it, have fun with it and come see us sometime so we can start you off and do it for you! Learn more with Unity.

Past Lives and Present Concerns!

This is such an interesting/contentious(!) arena I wanted to post this for you!

Understanding:

Past life regression is a form of hypnosis which can be used to access the memories of an individual’s previous lifetimes.

The details uncovered from deep within the unconscious mind can explain how we can rediscover our former experiences which continue to have impact on our present situations. It offers a unique blend of meditation and hypnosis and therapy, taking participants on an exciting journey into the past, often explaining present day fears and phobias and clearing current blockages.

Participants are gently led into a beautifully calm state of mind using visualisation and relaxation techniques.

They won't fall asleep and will remain in control and fully aware of what is happening. It is a perfectly safe natural state of mind, similar to daydreaming. They will be able to experience their past in their mind’s eye as if they were actually there as it happened.

Sessions are also available privately. ______________________________________________________________

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Past Lives

There has been many possible explanations put forward as to what past life experiences may be, and you are free to choose whichever theory feels comfortable with your beliefs.

 

REINCARNATION: The belief that we return to this world many times in order to experience and evolve. I personally believe that this is the only concept that can explain all the experiences that I have dealt with during many hours of regression therapy.

 

GENETIC MEMORY: A theory suggesting that our memories are passed on from one generation to another through the cell structure or DNA. This can’t explain why most people regress back to many different cultural backgrounds.

 

FANTASY: Are we just making it all up? I do get asked this occasionally. There are many cases that can be documented through historical research, which can prove the accuracy of the information, far beyond the chances of random imagination.

 

SOUL MEMORY: The idea that people can access the memory of another soul, through the ‘Akashic’ records - the spiritual record of everything that has ever happened. This can be quite acceptable to some, but it doesn’t account for the continuity of character traits which seem to pass from on life to another.

 Regardless of personal beliefs, past life regression can work for everyone, so the important thing is to accept it and enjoy the benefits that it brings.

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Reasons for having Past Life Regression

People come for Past Life Regression for many different reasons. The main ones are:

THERAPY - Our character today represents a culmination of all the experiences we have had over numerous lifetimes. These past life events affect many aspects of our behaviour, and in some cases, past deeply emotional traumas can cause psychological problems which can not be cured with ordinary psychotherapy. Past life therapy can release these repressed thoughts and bring about a beneficial change.

UNDERSTANDING - Exploring your past lives offers a whole new dimension to the understanding of your own character. You suddenly realise for the first time why you are drawn to certain places or have a particular interest in something.

INTEREST - Many enjoy the experience of tracing their past lives purely from the point of curiosity. Certain past existences in particular can be pieced together with great detail, producing names, dates and places. Many of these details have been researched and authenticated, resulting in some fascinating literature on the subject.

RELATIONSHIPS - Quite often, groups of interacting souls reincarnate together and take on the roles of relations, friends or even rivals. Many believe this happens to balance the laws of karma - the harmony or disharmony caused by people’s behaviour towards each other. Have you ever met someone for the first time, yet feel you have known them all your life?

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I love and favour this so I reproduce it here for you, courtesy of Lazaris.

Extract from Lazaris article on past lives....

“Do you and your probable selves actualize the same events?

You do not ever meet a parallel lifetime, and you tend not to run into your overlapping lifetimes, because the trauma would be just too disconcerting. No, you don't run into them, and they don't have the same events.

Overlapping lifetimes are lifetimes where the previous one has not quite ended when the next one begins. The end of one overlaps the beginning of another. Sometimes your favourite television shows overlap, or two movies that you want to see on the same night overlap. It is disconcerting, isn't it?

Well, you do sometimes experience the same phenomenon in lifetimes since they are all simultaneous. One begins before the other ends, except with lifetimes you generally aren't aware of the overlap because it would be too confusing. It would be too confusing for a 5-year-old child to encounter or confront the 80-year-old man they are/were/are in a previous lifetime. It would be really disconcerting. They'd lock you up -- either as the old man realizing "I'm a 5-year-old child," or as a 5-year-old child realizing, "I'm an old man!" Either way, you're in trouble!

So therefore, you bury even the intuition or remembrance of such things. Shhhh! Don't even talk about that stuff, you know? Anyway, even if you did have an intuitive "hit," by the time you're six or seven you forget about it anyway, so we would suggest you aren't aware of probable selves like that. No, you don't run into them, and they don't have the same events.

With love and peace,

Lazaris”

Getting Ready

Sometimes, it is good to have a kind of shorthand communication with your client.

The usual is a finger signal for yes and for no. EG. Which finger will you raise for a yes response? Thank you. Which finger will you raise for a no response? Thank you. That's good.

Suggestion to state to client:

“Stored deeply in your unconscious mind are memories of other times and other places. You are able to retrieve those memories. At this time, you will be able to gain access to the record of the soul's journey. By looking deeply into your unconscious mind, you can see, hear, feel, or sense --- perceive in some way --- scenes from the past. Those memories can be processed to provide you with new understanding and insight.

Later, you can apply your insights to understand yourself better. Now, you are going to begin a process of recalling some memories. Whatever you recall will be just what you need at this time. “

Questions that can be useful for debriefing

A. In what way were the issues of that other life related to your present concern?

B. What behaviours in that past life were similar to the some actions in your current life?

C. What patterns are you observing?

D. What insight or understanding did you gain that can help you at present?

E. How can those insights and understandings be applied, in a realistic manner, to make some changes in your projected future?

F. What specific changes are you making in your life?

Extract from the PLR (Past Life Regression Organisation).

“IS PAST LIFE REGRESSION “REAL”?

In the frequently heated debate about whether past lives are "real", there is one question that is rarely asked: is PLR as effective in helping people to solve their everyday problems and improve their lives as other short-term interventions? This article will concern itself largely with this critical question, which is perhaps more important in the long run for PLR to become a proven therapeutic system than proving the "reality" of past lives.

Are Past Lives Real?

Firstly, however, I'd like to address the question of whether or not "past lives" are real. In my years of both academic research and experiments with PLR, I have found huge volumes of data that would prove to any legitimate scientist that many "past life" memories are based on real historic people and events. I refer the reader to Helen Wambach's seminal research work (Reliving Past Lives), Marge Rieder's extraordinary and well-researched Mission to Marlboro, and Ian Stevenson's exhaustively scientific 30 Cases Suggestive of Re-incarnation written by a sceptical scientist. It seems to me that books like these (all of which are available from the Association for Past Lives Research and Therapy at 909-784-1570) are sufficient to prove to any objective scientific analyst that past life memories have been documented as accurate for a significant number of test subjects. Those who continue to deny this may present themselves as scientific. In reality, they are trapped in an irrational dogma comparable to the beliefs of those church "scholars" in the 16th Century who maintained their belief in an earth centred solar system in the face of Galileo's telescopes. ("My mind is made up! Don't confuse me with the facts!") These hardened dogmatists are in charge of much of the research funding and training of therapists today, just as the Catholic Church had a stranglehold on science in the 16th Century.

In any event, I have no particular desire to "prove" the existence of past life recall to the fanatical sceptic, since I feel the literature on the subject is replete with such proof. However, I will happily grant that most past life memories recalled by client's are essentially unprovable, and may indeed often be figments of the client's subconscious imagination. (Example: the client sees himself as Sir Lancelot approaching Camelot in shining armor and mounted upon a white charger. Historically, King Arthur's knights, if they existed at all, wore leather armour, were incapable of fighting on horseback, and lived in primitive wooden forts circa 600 AD)

Does it Work?

My point, however, is that when therapists inquire into the "reality" of PLR, they are asking the wrong question. The important question in my view is not whether PLR is "real" but whether it works in solving the client's problems. This question, alas, is very difficult to answer. Although some authors focus on the stories of client's who have benefited from PLR, many are still writing about PLR as a kind of therapeutic circus show ("Wow! Wasn't that a fascinating story!") rather than researching the long-term benefits, if any, that the client experienced. A further complication is that most PLR therapists have received very little formal training in the field. Most trainings offer only a few hours of brief and disorganized instruction, without adequate supervised practice, and with little emphasis on the specific therapeutic issues that respond best to PLR. Many other trainings in hypnotherapy and psychotherapy simply dismiss the whole concept of PLR as "unproved" and therefore beneath their need to teach or explain. The results? Even the most enthusiastic of PLR therapists may have a hard time documenting any benefits achieved by PLR. We may compare the relative success or failure of modern PLR therapists to the clumsy chopping of "surgeons" in the 15th century, whose training was completed without any understanding of surgical cleanliness, or even the most basic fundamentals of anatomy. Surely, if we judged "surgery" by the success rate of these practitioners, it would be found to be mere quackery by any modern analysis. “

Anonymous therapist, internet source.

Mastering the Meta Model

Happy Hypnotism: Introducing the Meta Model Part 1

We are lucky to be hypnotists of the modern world because we can choose to mix and match our personal therapeutic approach from many great practitioners who have gone before us.

Many brilliant modern day hypnotists are great enthusiasts of the Indirect Model, the originator of which was Milton Erickson. In fact the Indirect Model is also referred to as the Ericksonian approach, with respect to the great Erickson. This is a fantastic approach and serves us all well, though today I would like to pay homage to its opposite: let’s take a look at the Meta Model.

Now you are familiar with the word ‘meta’ with our English words like metaphysics though maybe you have not given much thought to its origins. Meta comes from the modern Greek language and means ‘to go beyond’ or ‘after’. So metaphysics is beyond or after physics. To meta question is to go beyond or after, ‘ordinary’ type questioning.

John Grinder and Richard Bandler developed the Meta Model by modelling two very successful therapists, Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir, who got exceptionally positive results from their clients by having them be more specific in how they communicated. That is, they found that by using certain types of questions to gather information Grinder and Bandler observed that people tend to delete, distort and generalise their take on reality. We all do it. However, we do all this unconsciously. Hold onto your hats because once you become consciously aware of how we all dodge the true experience of reality, it can get a bit bumpy.

Regarding how we delete for example, we only present some of the information available at any one time, seeming to ignore some very relevant information as it does not suit our take on reality.

We distort by choosing to over simplify or fantasise about what is possible or what has happened. A lot of our stories would be quite bland without our own personal emphasis and deletion!

To recover the information missing as a result of deletions, generalisations and distortions, Grinder and Bandler identified twelve different patterns with corresponding questions and called this the Meta Model. So, the Meta Model is about being more specific to get a better understanding of the person’s take, or model, of the world.

All human communication has the potential to be ambiguous and as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, reality is certainly in the mouth of the communicator.

The purpose of the questions is to cut through this ambiguity, to access the missing information for both the client and the therapist.

We have a tendency to generalise by making general statements about what we believe, how we see others, our values and so forth. We usefully choose to ignore possible exceptions or special conditions that could present valid argument that would not support our cause. Like I say, we do all this unconsciously though and when we begin to realise how skewed our view of reality can be it can come as a bit of a shock. Of course, we do this for our clients in a loving way. If a person has no idea why on earth they behave in a particular way then we can ask the right questions and cajole the client into recognising that they are merely behaving in a way that serves them.

What I mean by this is that, let’s say a client says they can’t stop eating chocolate. Well, we know they can. We know they are not eating chocolate right now, so proving the point. What they really mean is they choose to eat chocolate from time to time because they find it tastes nice, makes them happy, gives them energy, is part of a sharing, social experience when offered it by a friend or loved one, it’s sweet, it’s smooth, it is fulfilling, oh I think I had better stop now before I need to go and buy some!

Asking the right questions can return a person to their sense of responsibility. Take responsibility for making a choice and you are back in control. However, the tricky bits come when someone pleads that it was not their choice at all. The cookie monster, the evil cigarette companies, the friend at work who is really not a friend at all and just wants you to be fat, is to blame!

Although based on the work of two therapists, the Meta Model has much wider reach and through this series of articles we will recognise how helpful it can be for our own inner talk as well as for communicating with others. Watch out though, as it can also provoke argument when used indiscreetly.

Once mastered, the Meta Model is a powerful and useful tool. However, it does take practice to master the questioning process and the process must be undertaken with a high degree of rapport for as soon as a person feels pressured you have lost their trust and maybe a good friend.

Why not to say Why!

Avoid asking ‘Why’

So, I offer to take you out for a meal at the local Italian restaurant and I mention that their pizzas are fabulous. You tell me you really don’t like pizza and ask about the pasta dishes. That’s fine. Maybe I should (oh yes, shouldn’t say should either by the way, as it implies that either you or the other is wrong) just accept that you don’t like pizza, knowing you have your reasons, and move the conversation to the delights of pasta, which I know that you do like. No, I don’t, oh dear. I ask you why. Why don’t you like pizza? If I asked you instead, which pasta dishes do you like we would probably have a lovely conversation about stuff you like and the interaction would be most mouth wateringly pleasant. Though I do not do I? Curious to my detriment, because I like pizza, I wonder how anybody cannot like the freshly made, fabulously tempting Italian delicacy. Why don’t you like pizza?

You may say it’s because it’s just like having cheese on toast and you could do that yourself without my having to pay a premium for it in a fancy restaurant. The way they toss the dough about stretching the gluten mass of bland chewing gum-like substance and twirling it into the bacteria ridden air just to show off is truly uncalled for. You might tell me that you absolutely hate anchovies and why do they have to share the planet with you anyway and the way the rubbery cheese just sticks to the roof of your mouth and coalesces in your stomach into one huge ball of goo as the stodgy mass slowly pushes its way through your twenty two feet of intestine only to seemingly get stuck in your colon and cause you to spend the whole night straining in the bathroom. Okay, I get it. You don’t like pasta, I would think to myself, good grief, I only asked.

That’s it, you see, I asked. I asked why. Why didn’t I just leave it? Why didn’t we just talk about pasta or, better still, go for a juicy steak. Oh, there I go again, asking why. Apologies to my vegetarian readers, gosh you can’t please everyone all of the time can you?

Of course, I exaggerate. Unless we were very close friends, family or spouses perhaps, I would probably only ever know your surface structure. You would keep all that paragraph locked away in your deep structure (particularly the bathroom scenario, just too much information thanks) and I would just recognise by your voice tone, body language and the look of dread in your eyes that pizza is a no-no.

The questions in the meta model do not have any ‘why’ questions. When you ask someone a ‘why’ question, often they feel they have to defend what they have said or done, make excuses or rationalise their behaviour. Asking why is like saying you don’t understand, or that you do not accept that someone else doesn’t like what you like, for example.

Another thing can happen here though, be warned. If someone really wants to tell you their opinion and you don’t offer any curiosity as to their preference, it is amazing how the information is offered anyway. The way we communicate with each other is truly fascinating and if you hold back on the ‘whys’ you are used to asking and your friend suddenly recognises the absence of them, they may think you no longer care.

So, what would you do instead? There is an interesting question; how do you ask questions without using why? Let’s examine that in the next part. Why? Now, behave, okay?