Rubin Battino, MS
Some New and Some Old Tools
for Doing Very Brief Therapy With Hypnosis
December 11, 2015. 3:15-5:15 PM
The 12th International Congress on Ericksonian Approaches to Psychotherapy
December 10-13, 2015. Phoenix, Arizona
rubin.battino@wright.edu
www.rubinbattino.com
937-767-1854
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Educational Objectives
1. To understand the role of expectation in doing effective
therapy.
2. To understand the power of AS-IF behavior (and the Miracle
Question) as examples of reframing.
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Outline
Part I: Some Old Tools for Doing Very Brief Therapy
with Hypnosis
The Importance of Expectation
AS-IF and the Miracle Question (deShazer & Berg)
Gestalt Therapy Two-Chair as Hypnosis (Perls)
Narrative Therapy and Externalization (White &
Epston)
Psychodrama (Morenos)
Provocative Therapy ( Frank Farrelly)
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Outline – continued
Part II: Some New Tools for Doing Very Brief Therapy
with Hypnosis
Inclusivity – Either/Or vs. Both/And (Bill O’Hanlon)
The Three Gifts – Cognitive Hypnotherapy (Trevor
Silvester)
NLP – Neurolinguistic Programming (Bandler &
Grinder & Pacelik)
Transforming Negative Self-Talk (Steve Andreas)
NOTE: Most approaches will
involve audience participation.
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Importance of Expectation
Research done at the Brief Family Therapy Center of
Milwaukee.
When the client and the therapist expect that change will
occur and rapidly, it does!
My clients all know that I expect to help them with
whatever they present in one session.
My sessions are open-ended.
Clients are told that the decision to return is theirs.
Hypnosis is generally a part of these sessions to
consolidate and reinforce.
“What are you willing to change today?” Mary Goulding’s
opening remark.
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AS-IF
 Acting “As-IF is magical.
 No physiological differences between real and
acted emotions.
 On coin-toss have spouse act next day as-if
relationship is improving (or normally).
 Act as-if chemotherapy were a gift from God
(rather than a poison).
 Act as-if you were happy, etc.
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Miracle Question
“Suppose that tonight while you are asleep that a
miracle occurs, and the miracle is that what
prompted you to come talk with me today is
realistically solved and resolved. When you wake up
tomorrow morning, what will have changed in your
life? What will be different? How will you and
others know that the miracle has occurred?”
Group Exercise.
Developed at Brief Family Center of Milwaukee by Insoo Kim Berg.
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Gestalt Therapy Two-Chair Exercise as Hypnosis
It is suggested to the client that it would be useful in
resolving a current or old conflict within themselves or with
others by having a conversation with the participating
components which may be real or imaginary, and also can
be objects. Examples are:
Unfinished business with a living or dead person of
significance.
Finding a way to continue the relationship with the person
who has died, instead of attaining closure.
Polarities within the person: feeling up or feeling down;
calm/anxious/panicked; right/wrong; love/hate;
sad/happy; good/bad, etc.
Possible group exercise within self.
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Brief Family Therapy Center’s Three Rules
1. If it is not broken, don’t fix it.
2. If it worked once, do it again.
3. If it doesn’t work, don’t do it again. Do
something different.
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Narrative Therapy and Externalization
Developed by Michael White and David Epston.
Externalization is best-known method.
Belief: The person is not the problem – the problem is the
problem.
Suggest that the person is being controlled and tricked by
some internal “demon” or “evil spirit.” Have the client come
up with a mutually acceptable name for the externalized
problem. Are they being controlled by “Big D” (for
depression, e.g.)? How long has this been going on? Have
they been able to resist it or put it in its place or ignore it?
How did they do that? Discuss finding a way to “exorcise” or
get rid of Big D. Use hypnosis to reify the client’s way to
overcome Big D and banish it forever.
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Psychodrama – Developed by Jacob and Zerka Moreno
Psychodrama is always done with an audience. A person
volunteers to be the protagonist, tells something about her
life, and the director then sets the scene with her help. The
scene is then acted out with volunteer actors. Immediacy is
given to the client’s situation by acting out what she thinks
is going on in her life. Inanimate objects can be given roles.
The drama continues until a resolution develops. The acting
out frequently involves trance states. Can be a rapidly and
effectively powerful agent of change. (There are training
institutes.)
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NLP – Neurolinguistic Programming – Developed
by Bander, Grinder, and Pucelik
Meta Model: The study of linguistics provides many ways to
linguistically answer the question, “When the client says something,
how do you know what to say or ask next?”
Some useful NLP approaches are:
Changing Personal History
Time-Line Therapy
Fast Allergy Cure
V-K Dissociation for Phobias
Grief Therapy
Seven-Step Reframing
Steve and Connirae Andreas web resources are: nlpco.com;
realpeoplepress.com/blog/; and steveandreas.com
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Part II: Some New Tools for Doing Very Brief Therapy with Hypnosis
Note: any time that a client goes “inside” they are in some level of
trance.
Bill O’Hanlon’s Inclusivity Approach
Clients (and many therapists) believe that they are either depressed or
active, calm or anxious, sad or happy. That is, they are either this or
that. Inclusivity gets into the confusion of the oxymoronic BOTH/AND
realm as in the following:
“I wonder how it would feel to be …”
happily depressed
depressingly happy
compulsively spontaneous
spontaneously compulsive
sadly delighted
delightedly sad
calmly panicked
panicked calmly
anxiously peaceful
peacefully anxious (etc.)
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Cognitive Hypnotherapy and the Three Gifts (& 3 more)
Developed by Trevor Silvester
Gifts -- Each evening for one week look back over your day and
select three positive things that have happened and write them
down. Also, please write down how you were responsible for those
“gifts” occurring.
Gratitude – Find three opportunities in any given day to thank
somebody for something beyond the run of everyday pleasantries.
Savoring – Set aside a period of time every day for savoring. Choose
two or three things each day. Immerse yourself fully in the pleasure
of it.
Kindness – Do an act of random kindness every day. Do this without
any thought or personal gain, and also do it at some cost or
inconvenience to you if possible.
Note: How are these activities connected to AS-IF behavior?17
Transforming Negative Self-Talk – Steve Andreas
Many people get stuck with negative self-talk that repeats endlessly
and controls their lives. A few examples are: You’ll never succeed.
Who would marry you? How can you be so unfeeling? You just never
learn, do you? Why are you such a negative ornery child?
In Andreas’s two books* he gives 23 ways to carry out these
transformations. They are things like changing location of the voice or
its tempo and locality or talking to yourself positively. Two ways are
illustrated below and the next slide.
Talking to Yourself Positively – “What else can I enjoy / learn /
appreciate / love / see more clearly / understand/ try right now?” [The
word “else” is critical.]
“Look around and say to yourself,
‘I am sitting on this happy chair. There is this happy table. And there
are those happy windows with curtains.’” Do this for ten minutes now,
and every day for ten or fifteen minutes.
*Andreas, S. (2012). Transforming negative self-talk. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Andreas, S. (2014). More transforming negative self-talk. New York; W.W. Norton &18Co.
Transforming Negative Self-Talk – continued
Transforming a Message (developed by Melanie Davis) – Presuppose
that what a client has been saying to himself is positive and useful, but
has been badly misunderstood. Divide the sentence into two or more
parts as in the following examples:
CL: I’m no good. TH: Say “I am.” CL: Yes, you are. Say “I know good.”
CL: “I know good.” TH: Yes, you do. So, what good do you know?
CL: I’m useless. TH: Keep saying, “I am.” CL: I am. TH: Yes, you are.
(Then strongly, Use less! Use less!)
CL: I’ll never be able to sleep. TH: Say, “I’ll never! Be able to sleep.”
CL: Something’s wrong with me. TH: Say, “Something is … row with
me.” or “Some think strong with me.”
NOTE: Phrasing and emphases need to be appropriate.
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Closing Group Healing Meditation
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WHENAll
ALL
ELSE
FAILS
When
Else
Fails
Trephining or
Trepanation
THANK YOU
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