a common everyday approach after Erickson
a possible session format
14 comments so far
Priceless.
Perfect...thanks Rob!
I like it as a way to begin from and then to play with your own variations.
Bello Rob, wondering whether you could give me your creative contribution….
I often work with traumatic and (highly) dissociative patients. At the moment, mostly are attachment traumas, severe neglect over all.
In their being very dissociative, their trance abilities are obviously sophisticated, according to the fact that embedded in their problem there is a great part of hypnosis.
As Gabrielle Peacock suggests, a good way to work with them is to “start in the middle”, that is sharing and exploring their own trance world, without making them focus and absorbed in something different. It would be like getting them out of a trance and into another one that not necessarily would be useful. Ok.
Then,
Once you are there you can start working in the way you invite us to: resources to see and put in what is missing; you can explore what is wrong and see how he/she would change it; you can create safe places within; you can change perspectives and understandings adding new important information and you can create new solutions; etc.
However
1) when you are dealing with “evil” parts or parts of which the individual doesn’t know about, what do you suggest to invite to do in order to work on exploration and integration (re-association) with safety and within the window of tolerance of the subject? First step should be exploring and finding out the resourcefulness of this part, that is in what way it is there to protect… But it is not always simple….
2) these patients are often SO absorbed in their sufferance and dramatic past that sometimes the risk can be of falling in an overwhelming and iatrogenic experience… That is, if they go out of the window of tolerance, the therapeutic relationship is at risk. And as they get too absorbed in the traumatic emotions they fail in applying any learnt affect regulation strategy.
Other than utilizing safetyful like resources (e.g. shield,screen,flight,being there together and/or with some sort of magical power/Salvation Army, light stop when things get too emotional or tough. Etc ) what other solutions do you suggest to go and work there with them maintaining their window of tolerance?
Thank you very much in advance
MS
Here are some ideas, MariaSol, that I'm offering as just that - ideas, since you are with the individual people that you are with.
I have noticed that the most useful things we can do include taking care of our own mood of acceptance, expectancy and trusting the client and the process. This can innoculate us against catching the other's mood of fear, overwhelm and mistrust, and also offer them the opportunity to catch some of our mood.
Also maintaining a profound respect, even admiration of the person given what they have been through and express this by validating their suffering, their pain, their perseverance.
Being willing to move much slower than I want is something I've found helpful so that baby steps can happen with less apprehension than giant steps require.
Once there is some trust developed it can be transformational to support someone to learn how they can begin the "bad trance" and how they can learn a "good trance" perhaps by offdring them an opportunity for us to invite them into trance while they can learn how to not be hypnotised by us as a skill where they don't have to be hypnotised into the "bad trance".
These are just some ideas, MariaSol, and they will be much less important than what you have discovered yourself.
Thanks for the question.
I agree, helping someone learn control over their trance experience seems the most important thing, and the easiest place to start is with the invitation. I liken it to the experience of dozing after the alarm has gone off and being vaguely aware of the waking and the dream world simultaneously. Dozing off, just 5 more minutes sleep as teenagers are prone to say, or one morning my son replied to my “time to wake up” with " not yet I’m having a really good dream." I like to make it fun. Look for trance phenomenon and notice them, like stillness/catalepsy, and then invite them to wriggle their fingers or toes to remind themselves they are in charge. Take some time to practice in every session.
I think changing the emotion of the frightening experience is really helpful. Adding absurdity seems to work best. Like the space aliens. I had another woman recall that absurd song that was around in the 80s about the guy with the detachable penis who lost it at a party, I mentioned it right at the spot she would normally get scared and paralysed from the flashback of past abuse. She laughed raucously and couldn’t manage to have the flashback again without the detachable penis, so of course it lost its grip.
Thankyou very much Gabrielle, thankyou Rob. Very valuable hints. Empathy, Being there toghether, curiosity, creativity…. All aspects that can help in the overall goal of giving back control and overcome also the victimistic side of the equation, delivering more perceived strength and power over the negative feelings.
An experiential learning that can really turn things around. And deliver another possible way of looking at things, a different way of being in the past….the present…. or the future.
Very helpful.
Hi, in addition to the suggestions so far, it really is essential to get your traumatised client out from the problem-self-hypnosis.
You can slowly work with a safe-place and built it up and "embody" the safe feeling, but there should be also all resoources the client ever have optained through life -and they always have ! , otherwise they wouldn´t have survived and will sitting in your office- help them to imagine the ressources, and there you can use all the kinds of imagination with all senses and anchor this,
and what is inevitably importend to build up, is a feeling in the client, that he or she is in charge! There you can use a connection from a very easy situation, where they have been in charge in there life: this coud be as simple as have to cook eggs- this means that their system know, how to be in charge and control and this feeling is to used to connect the client with the certainty,that they can act, as they are in charge of their life.
Than the safe-place must have an "safty-layer/cover" , that is protecting the client but both the safe-place´s location and the safty-layer have to get the client the possibilty to interact with the environment and the client is in charge to decide what and/or hwom can get access through the layer.
If you have slowly and carefully indstalled this position, than you can invite your client to look at the past experiment ( if the wish) from this position in charge and safty and the sad experience can be zoomt out in a distance, where the clients body will say:"yes, know I can breath more easily and so on."
And from now, theu can evrything in life access from this position of safty, control and overview.
The man components is to distance them from the sad experience, reinstall feeling of safty and to be in charge and control how far / near things can get and that they get the feeling of overview - not stuck anylonger in the problem-self-hypnosis.
I´m not sure, if it makes sense to you- but I hope...
with best greetings and my love to italy :)
Jana
I can hardly wait to try this out! Thank you!!!
Appletree.
One step forward, two steps back. Its just as well I like line dancing and the hokey pokey.
Angus
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me. Feeling a bit Robert De Niro, Rob. Thanks!