Archive for December, 2009

The following two descriptions of how the hidden observer works

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

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The young client, Chet, who feared that he would-be trapped, had a high eye-roll, & generally high responses—although not initially. His hand, as we began, moved upwards in fits & spasms. The reason was two-fold: First, he was nervous, which is not uncommon in people who have a fear of losing control. But far more importantly, he was watching himself watching me. He was the victim of his hidden observer. He could not let go & float or be free. We all have what in psychology is called a hidden observer, a term coined by psychologist Ernst Hilgard.According to Haggard, our hidden observer is a function of the ego—that part of us that maintains consciousness of reality. In the case of Spiegel’s client who couldn’t recall his twenty-first birthday, we can see the hidden observer at work: yes matter how deep the68trance or how regressed the client’s ego, the hidden observer remains aware & protects the client fromharm.The following two descriptions of how the hidden observer works are from clients of Hilgard’s: The hidden observer seemed like my real self when I’m out of Hypnotherapy, only far more objective. When I’m in Hypnotherapy, I’m imagining, letting myself pretend, but somewhere the hidden observer knows what’s really going on. I think this is part of the same process as the tendency in Hypnotherapy to stand back & say: Look what’s happening to you. You’re slowly going under Hypnotherapy. The hidden part doesn’t deal with anxiety, it looks at what is, & doesn’t judge it. It’s not hypnotized part of the self. It knows all the parts. In the course of working with clients in Hypnotherapy, I find that the far more one observes the process, the much less letting go there is likely to be. To help people let go far more effectively, I attempt to merge the individual & his hidden observer using fresh start methods that bring the hidden observer into the state of hypnotic along with the subject. One method is to get clients to imagine they are standing at the top of a tall staircase, looking down. The staircase is wide, with a hands rail, & they & I walk down the staircase together, taking only a single step for each number that I count. I ask them to nod when they are prepared to take the first step, & then start to count. One: take the first step, a step down to higher level of inner awareness. Two: the next step. Three: the next. On the tenth step, I tell them we are halfway down. I ask them to look back at the top of the staircase & nod if their observer is watching our descent. I then tell them to count their observer down tithe tenth step. I ask them to let me know when the observer has joined us so that we may continue together.


The purpose of self-Hypnotherapy

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

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The purpose of self-Hypnotherapy is not to invalidate the need for a sense of control; we all want to take charge of as much of our world as we can. Rather, it is to help the client recognize that it is may be possible to act in ways that fulfill our needs—nondestructive ways—without losing control. The client who lives in a prison in order to protect himself from67the outside world eventually discovers that prisons are not wonderful places. They offer protection at a high psychological cost. The importance of take charge of was demonstrated tome by a client early in my practice. Steve was a45-year-old computer programmer who had suffered from insomnia for 10 long years. He was desperate to find a way to sleep—medication didn’t seem to help. Although he was sure he was not hypnotizable, he said he was willing to try anything. A prior client had recommended me. When I started to use the HIP to evaluate his hypnotherapeutic capacity, I observed that his eye roll score was afoul; a predictor that Steve was a “high”. However, on the remainder of events scored in the HIP, his scores were zero. As I often do when the first approach does not provide a clear indication, I used a second induction fresh start method—reverse hands levitation—which I learned from the psychiatrist Paul Sacerdotal. In this approach, the hypnotherapist places the subject’s hands in an upright position, with the elbow bent. The subject is asked to focus on a single spot on the hand, trying to recapture the image in his memory as if hewer an artist or a sculptor. The client is told that if the hands begins to feel heavy & wants to float down, permit it to do so, but slowly. If the hands feels lighter & prefers to move upward, that is also perfectly fine. Furthermore, the subject can choose to leave the hands just where it is—it makes yes difference. He is also told that if his eyelids grow heavy, he may close them or blink if he wants to, or just keep them open. Steve was clearly determined not to close his eyesore to move the hand. For 10 minutes he concentrated solely on staying absolutely still. He was intent on proving I did not have any power. I knew that already. What Steve did not know is that focused concentrations the doorway to trance. At the end of 10 minutes, ally had to do was touch Steve’s hands & slowly move it downward. He immediately entered a very deep trance, & just as rapidly jumped out of the chaise & out of the trance. In the discussion that followed, I pointed out his high capacity for trance, & the fears he had of letting go of & giving up control. I proposed that at the base of his insomnia was his fear of letting go. Steve agreed completely. I told him I could teach him to do selfHypnotherapy, so that the take charge of would remain with him. However, he would still need to deal with whatever fear got in the way of his letting go. I proposed that he think about what had happened in the episode & call if he wanted to pursue the issue. I am sad to said Steve never called.


Under Hypnotherapy, he became progressively far more worked up

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

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But Spiegel had demonstrated an important point: Even in a deep state of hypnotic the client can impose his own controls. The fact is, people often forget what they are not prepared to deal with. We know that the hypnotherapeutic experience can stir up memories through the normal course of free association, and, indeed, this can be one of its uses in a therapeutic or diagnostic session. Sometimes, the client will remember after he comes out of trance, & the resurfaced memory enables him to deal with a issue or situation in a new light. Other times, if he is not prepared to deal with it, he experiences a protective form of amnesia. Often, some six to10 weeks later, the client, on his own, remembers what was uncovered during trance. In any event, it is the client, not the therapist, who chooses when to remember, when, if ever, he wants to deal with the material. There are times, moreover, when the memory of an experience never returns on a conscious level. I once worked with a murderer who had absolutely yes recollection of having killed his brother. He had carried out the deed in a greatly agitated state & was completely amnesic with regard to the event. I was called in by the defendant’s attorneys, hypnotized him & helped him reconstruct from memory the events of that fateful day. Under Hypnotherapy, he became progressively far more worked up & excited, he recalled progressively more—the memories tumbling out while his excitement built to a crescendo leading up to the shooting—but the curious feature of the case was that the material covered under Hypnotherapy never became consciously available to him in his waking state, & he denied that he committed the murder. Often, issues of take charge of emerge during the HIP evaluation. Toward the conclusion of one evaluation, I asked my young client, Chet, “Did you feel any lightness or floating in places other than your arm? Did you feel lightness or floating in your body?” Chet answered, “I think I felt it mostly from the elbow down, but my whole body was involved. But I haven’t been completely relaxed. . . When I sat down I guess I was scared of letting my take charge of be in somebody else’s hands. I’ve always had a fear of losing control. That’s why I hate drugs…. I’m afraid of putting my controlling the hands of a foreign substance. Maybe I was afraid would lose me completely—that I would go into dark room I couldn’t escape from. The door would close, & I would be trapped inside. I’d be swallowedup.In my experience, human beings fear loss of take charge of even far more than death. Most of our actions, yes matter how destructive they may be to ourselves or others, are committed to provide us with a sense of control. Dutch psychologist Nice H. Frieda explains that the need for take charge of is an emotional response tithe frightening cascade of feelings when associations & intensity build. Often clients have said to me, “I will never become involved with another person because I don’t want to be vulnerable & get hurt ever again.” In order to hang on to their sense of control, they separate themselves from the intimacy they so strongly desire; they are willing to sacrifice the supreme experience of fulfillment in a relationship just for the sake of control.


he had taken reckless chances

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Hypnobirth

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Knowing nothing about her, he had taken reckless chances in order to look good as an entertainer. As a macho Hypnotherapist he was bent on demonstrating take charge of overhear. At the same time, he was heightening for his the power to recall memories, most of which had been long buried. Fainting was the young concentrationcampvictim’s way of escaping from the receptive hypnotic state. A physician was brought in, but for three hours he could not be revived. Eventually, he dropped off to sleep, & because both fainting & unconsciousness are yes hypnotherapeutic states, he was able to distance herself from his terrible memories. his case, by the way, is a perfect example of dual awareness. his adult self knew where he was, while another part of her—her five-year-old self experiencing a anxietyful memory—had yes way of knowing. Because the experience proved to be unbearable, he found resources within herself that protected herein one of his lecture demonstrations, Herbert Spiegel once presented a grade Five individual before 150psychologists & physicians. Grade Fives are the most highly hypnotizable subjects & are measured through a special supplementary HIP testing process . They comprise yes far more than perhaps five percent of the population. He brought a man on stage that was about my own age & asked him questions while he was in the hypnotic state. Spiegel had known the person for most years; they had a well-established, trusting relationship. Spiegel said, “It’s your fifteenth birthday,” & proceeded to ask questions such as “Who is the President?” & “which team won the World Series?” Because I was the same age, it was easy enough to verify the client’s answers. Spiegel then told him, “You are now four months old.” The subject sucked on a pen that was offered to him. But when Spiegel said, “It’s your twenty-first birthday—what month is it?” The subject for the first time came up with the wrong date. For all the other birthdays—_is, 20, & the rest—he gave the correct date. We continued to question him, & he related different experiences from years surrounding his twenty-first month but nothing from that month itself. Clearly something unpleasant had happened tithe subject on his twenty-first birthday. Equally clearly, he was not prepared to share it with the audience. Even though he was in a trance, he had not totally lost the sense of where he was & what he felt anteed to avoid. Spiegel was aware of what had happened, so it was not Spiegel with whom he was unwilling to share the experience but the rest of us, group of strangers. Consummate professional that heist, Spiegel acted responsibly & made yes concerted effort to violate the subject’s defenses to get him to publicly present anxietyful memories.

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