Transpersonal hypnotherapy

Domain VII · Transpersonal, psychedelic & altered states · Jack Elias, Allen Chips · 1988 · Seattle

What it is

"Transpersonal hypnotherapy" is not a single defined school or manualised therapy. The term is used by at least three separate sources, and their content overlaps only partly.

Format

• (I) hypnosis basics, induction and trance levels, session structure, suggestibility games, quick inductions, progressive relaxation and self-hypnosis
• (VI) shadow work, entity release, probable futures, couples and group hypnosis, and building a practice

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• What the sources give. Elias's six "phases" are training phases, not client treatment phases:
• NATH's sequence is client interview, then induction, then deepening, then suggestion or regression. Certification requires three supervised suggestive-therapy sessions and one "Happy Childhood Regression". No published source gives a number of client sessions, a treatment length or criteria for moving between phases. The session numbers in the table below are the author's own estimates.
• Working framework for a licensed therapist:

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

• Shame spikes. Go slowly.
• Over-reading the cues. Treat them as hypotheses only.
• Members who do not re-alert fully, and contagious distress.
• Relapse shame driving dropout. Normalise it and keep the relapse plan current.
• The client treating images as predictions or premonitions. Correct this gently.

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.