The One Woman Double Induction In Hypnosis

I hosted a practice group for a number of my students today. Katy Shannon, a graduate of my NGH certified trainings in New York and a wonderful and talented hypnotist, has just attended training by Stephen Gilligan and showed us the following wonderful induction.

Hypnosis should only be undertaken by a trained and qualified hypnotist.

Katy selected another student to be the client. She began by asking him what he wanted to work on, and he described a writing project that was giving him some difficulty. As she spoke to him I noticed she was drawing out details, words, language and images that she would no doubt be using during her work. Finally the client was able to describe what he wanted to achieve in a single sentence, laced with evocative imagery and metaphor:

“I want to create a three dimensional hologram [the metaphor for his project] that I can feel, and that is inclusive and ecological”.

• Katy: “Now, close your eyes and say the sentence”
• Client: “I want to create a three dimensional hologram that I can feel, and that is inclusive and ecological”.
• Katy: “does that sound right to you? Does it feel right?”
• Client: “Yes”
• Katy: “Excellent. Now. Say it again, with one breath for each word”
• Client: “…I…”
• Katy: “I”
• Client: “…want…”
• Katy: “want”
• Client: “…to…”
• Katy: “to”

The induction continued in this way for some time, with Katy repeating each word, reminiscent of a double induction with the client taking one part.

Now Katy altered her approach, as the client breathed in preparing to say the next word, Katy spoke fractionally before he could:

• Client: “…[breathing in]…”
• Katy speaking fractionally early: “three-dimensional”
• Client: “…[breathing out]…”
• Client: “…[breathing in]…”
• Katy speaking fractionally early: “hologram”
• Client: “…[breathing out]…”

I could see the client drop ever more deeply into trance as Katy began to weave her spell of words, fragments of the client’s sentence, other words and metaphors the client had used, and others that eased out of Katy’s mouth into the space between them.

• Client: “…[breathing in]…”
• Katy speaking fractionally early: “don’t”
• Client: “…[breathing out]…”

“Don’t” is such a typically non-hypnotic word that my antenna came up.

• Client: “…[breathing in]…”
• Katy speaking fractionally early: “don’t be”
• Client: “…[breathing out]…”
• Client: “…[breathing in]…”
• Katy speaking fractionally early: “don’t be”
• Client: “…[breathing out and smiling]…”
• Katy: “don’t be smiling”

Katy continues weaving her spell. Then:

• Katy: “Now I want you to say the sentence”
• Client: “…I…”
• Katy: “You” [changing to second person]

And so on, bringing the client a little further in, then out, then in and out of trance as his verbal mind was asked to act then forced not to…

Katy finally brought the client fully out of trance and back into the room. He reported a wonderful trance experience, very focused on the issue due to the repetition of the key sentence. The real deepener for him had been when Katy had “interrupted” him, which he reported as an increase in body tension as he breathed in without the expected release of speaking, followed by deeper relaxation when he “gave up the word” and simply breathed out. He had absolutely no recollection of the “don’t be” instruction, which had acted to create amnesia. Katy reported that this was her intention as the “client” was also a trained hypnotist and nlp master practitioner and she did not want his conscious mind to interfere.

This induction is elegant, fun and begins to directionalize the client’s change as soon as the induction begins. Give it a try!