Ericksonian and neo-Ericksonian hypnosis

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching · Milton H. Erickson

What it is

Ericksonian hypnosis is a permissive, individually tailored style of clinical hypnosis. Trance is elicited from the client's own experience rather than induced by a standard script. Zeig frames hypnosis as helping a client move from a problem state to an adaptive state, using evocative rather than…

Format

• The sources give no fixed session protocol; Ericksonian authors reject scripts in favour of tailoring. The phases below combine the ASCH generic session structure (Wells), Brooks's three stages, Lankton's planning and multiple-embedded-metaphor sequence, and Zeig's ARE model.
• Phase A: Assessment, screening and consent (session 1, before any trance)

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: neo-Ericksonian clinical hypnosis as currently taught in Milton H. Erickson Foundation and ASCH training. The spine is Dan Short's six core competencies (2019 edition) and Lankton and Lankton's clinical framework with the multiple embedded metaphor (The Answer Within, 1983; Crown House reissue 2008). Zeig's elicitation approach (absorb, ratify, elicit) and the generic ASCH session structure and…
• Practitioner scope. This guide is for licensed health professionals using hypnosis within their existing clinical competence. Lankton and Lankton liken mastery to a martial art and say a weekend workshop is not enough. Stage hypnosis, covert induction and any technique meant to bypass consent are not clinical methods and are not taught here. Surprise inductions reported in the Erickson literature are deliberately…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• New or changing physical symptoms always go back to the doctor.
• Only ratify what is actually observable; inaccurate ratification breaks trust.
• Dependence on the therapist's voice. Shift to self-hypnosis well before ending.
• If the event stops, e.g. the client stops hearing the traffic, re-anchor to breathing.
• Depressed clients may be unable to picture a positive self. Start with a small, near-future slice.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.