Ericksonian therapy and utilisation

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Milton H. Erickson Foundation's operational definition of Ericksonian therapy as six core competencies (Short, 2019 edition; Short, 2021), with the inventory organised by the six core strategies of Short, B. A. Erickson and Erickson-Klein (2005, Hope & Resiliency). Systemic task, metaphor and paradox work follows the structure of S. and C. Lankton (1986/2007), gift-wrapping and processing follow Zeig, and choice-architecture strategies follow Short (2026). Hypnotic technique (inductions, deepening, trance phenomena) is covered in entry 087 (Ericksonian hypnosis) and is only cross-referenced here.

Ericksonian therapy is an orientation, not a manualised therapy. It derives from the clinical work of the psychiatrist Milton H. Erickson, MD, and is defined by principles (competencies), not by a fixed protocol. Short (2021) notes it is nonstandardised and values creativity and differentiated treatment, which makes it hard to operationalise [source: Short 2021 abstract]. It is used with individuals, couples and families, as a strategic approach that draws on hypnotic observation and motivation skills, and need not include formal trance [source: Haley 1973/1993 publisher description; Lankton & Lankton 1986/2007 contents].

Core idea of change: the client already has the resources for change. The therapist (a) tailors the work to the person, (b) uses (utilises) whatever the client brings (habits, beliefs, perceptions, symptoms, resistance, circumstances) as the vehicle for change, and (c) builds experiences, through tasks, stories, binds, reframes and suggestions, from which new responses emerge. In Zeig's teaching, dynamic experience comes before dynamic understanding [source: Zeig, Fundamentals of Ericksonian Therapy, workshop description]. Change is expected to happen naturally, from within the client, and the client stays the central problem-solver [source: Short 2019, competencies 'naturalistic' and 'strategic']. Short's recent work puts it in choice terms: clients thrive when value-aligned options become visible and selectable, and agency comes before transformation [source: Short 2026 slides].

2. Framework

No standard phase model exists in the primary sources. Ericksonian therapy is deliberately individualised [source: Short 2021; Lankton monograph introduction: Erickson opposed rigid schools and held that treatment should fit each patient and therapist]. Two published structures can guide sequencing:

Lankton & Lankton (family/systemic work), in book order: systemic assessment and treatment planning; strategic task assignments that perturb family organisation; metaphor protocols to develop emotion, behaviour and belief; paradoxical prescriptions to increase role flexibility; suggestion and hypnosis to stimulate unconscious resources. Interventions are combined into progressively more complex strategies [source: Lankton & Lankton 2007 contents and endorsements; internal steps are [uncertain]].
Zeig's fundamentals: use diagnostic categories to individualise; tailor direct and indirect methods; 'gift-wrap' the idea so the client can act on it; utilise; then process the intervention [source: Zeig workshop description].

Working phase sequence for individual therapy [synthesis, assembled from the sources above and Short et al. 2005]:

Engagement and detailed description (session 1). Goal: rapport, plus the client's own framing, language, values and resources. Erickson had patients describe their experience in detail and quantified problems [source: Short et al. 2005, ch. 10 excerpt]. Move on when you can state the problem in the client's terms and know what the client values and already does well.
Goal alignment and tailoring (sessions 1–2). Goal: a concrete goal the client chooses, plus a plan for which strategy family to use (distraction, partitioning, progression, suggestion, reorientation, utilisation) and how to package it. Move on when you and the client agree on what 'better' looks like in observable terms [synthesis; 'strategic' and 'tailoring' competencies, Short 2019].
Intervention cycles (most sessions). Each cycle: a seeded or framed idea, then an in-session experience (anecdote, bind, reframe, optional hypnosis per 087), then a between-session task, then a review of the client's response, which is utilised in the next cycle. Move on when change appears outside the session and the client owns it [synthesis].
Consolidation. Goal: credit change to the client's own skill and choice (Short calls this 'endowment'), extend it to new contexts, and anticipate setbacks [source for endowment: Short 2026; rest synthesis].
Ending. Therapy is meant to be brief and focused on present and future participation in life [source: Short et al. 2005 preface excerpt]. End when goals are met. Leave follow-up open [synthesis].

Session count and format: individual, couple or family sessions; brief by design. No typical number of sessions is given in the sources [uncertain]. Between-session tasks are central in strategic and systemic versions [source: Lankton & Lankton contents]. Formal hypnosis is optional; see 087 for screening and procedure.

3. Guiding principles

The six core competencies [source: Short 2019, Principles and Core Competencies of Ericksonian Therapy; the Foundation course lists Erickson-Klein, Gilligan, Yapko, Lankton, Zeig and Barretta as presenters for these]:

Tailoring (individualising): adapt both the method and your relationship style to this client's needs and capacities. In practice: no stock interventions; choose words, pace, directness and examples that fit this person.
Utilisation: use the client's existing habits, beliefs, perceptions, symptoms, resistances and situation toward the goal; rests on acceptance and optimism. In practice: treat whatever shows up, including objections, as material to build with, not to remove.
Strategic: organise problem-solving around the client's values, needs and goals; the client is the central problem-solver, not the problem. In practice: every intervention has a stated goal the client endorses.
Destabilisation (depotentiation; confusion): temporarily disrupt habitual frames, beliefs or conscious tracking so conditioned responses are blocked and new learning becomes possible. In practice: gently unsettle a rigid frame (surprise, a new angle, mild confusion), then offer an alternative. Use only with clients stable enough to tolerate it [caution: synthesis].
Experiential: learning happens through active involvement (observing, encountering, doing), not didactic telling. In practice: prefer a task, story or in-session experience over an explanation.
Naturalistic: expect change to arise by itself and draw on natural processes of healing, learning and adaptation, out of respect for the client's inner capacities. In practice: speak as if change is expected and already partly happening, and credit it to the client.

Further principles from the sources:

Hope and resiliency are central [source: Short et al. 2005]. In practice: look for and amplify existing coping and strength from the first session.
Brief, internally directed, present- and future-focused [source: Short et al. 2005]. In practice: go into history only as far as it serves the goal; orient toward life beyond therapy.
Cooperation, not control [source: Short et al. 2005, ch. 10 'Cooperation versus control']. In practice: suggestions are offers the client can take up, not commands.
Experience before understanding; direct and indirect methods both count [source: Zeig workshop description]. In practice: indirection is a tool chosen for a reason, not a creed; be direct when directness fits.
Gift-wrapping [source: Zeig]. In practice: package an idea in a form this client will find meaningful and acceptable (story, task, reframe, question).
Influence as nudge, not coercion [source: Short 2026, influence continuum: coercion, persuasion, nudge, autonomy]. In practice: design the context so the adaptive option is the easiest one, and never pressure.
Salience [source: Short 2026]. In practice: ask which words or images will carry the most meaning for this client, and use those.
Lead with humility; be 'choice agnostic' [source: Short 2026]. In practice: the client's choices may differ from your values. Short drops the term 'resistance' (it presumes a subordinate) in favour of collaboration and goal alignment.
Endowment [source: Short 2026]. In practice: attribute progress to the client's own skill and insight.
Focus on choice, not change [source: Short 2026]. In practice: help clients see choices they already have, not force change.
Systemic view (family work) [source: Lankton & Lankton]. In practice: a symptom is read within relationships, and interventions may target family organisation.
Transparency and consent [synthesis]. Indirect methods do not exempt you from informed consent. Tell clients early that you may use stories, unusual tasks, reframes and optional hypnosis, that they can ask the purpose of anything, and that they can decline. Never use indirection to get past a client's refusal of a goal; utilisation serves goals the client has chosen.

4. Intervention inventory

How to read this section. Technique names and their grouping come from the sources cited. Where the source gave only a heading (the Hope & Resiliency excerpt defined only some sub-techniques), the working description and steps are inferred from the name and the competency definitions, marked [uncertain] and [synthesis]; check them against the book before relying on them. All example language is illustrative unless quoted and cited. Hypnotic procedures (formal induction, deepening, amnesia, trance phenomena) are in entry 087.

A. Assessment and tailoring procedures

Detailed description in the client's own terms

Purpose / when: first sessions, and whenever a new problem appears. Builds rapport and shows how the client frames the problem, which is the raw material for tailoring and utilisation [source: Short et al. 2005, ch. 10 excerpt].
Steps: (1) Ask for a slow, concrete walk-through of a recent episode: where, when, who, the sequence, sensations, thoughts and what happened next. (2) Note the client's key words, images, values, humour, interests and occupational skills. (3) Note what the client already does that works, even partly. (4) Note rigid beliefs and approach them with curiosity, not challenge [source for curiosity about rigid beliefs: Short et al. 2005; steps 1–3 synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Take me through last Tuesday, minute by minute, as if I were watching a film of it." "You said it 'grabs' you. Where does it grab first?"
Watch for: the client becoming absorbed and less guarded as they describe (Short et al. report Erickson using this absorption as a lead-in to distraction and suggestion). Over-detailing a traumatic memory is a different matter: keep trauma narratives brief and grounded in early sessions [synthesis].

Quantifying the problem

Purpose / when: to make an 'all-or-nothing' problem divisible, so partial improvement becomes thinkable [source: Short et al. 2005: in the asthma case Erickson asked how intense the fear was, split the asthma into a fear-driven and an allergy-driven part, and worked in percentages].
Steps: (1) Ask the client to rate intensity or frequency. (2) Ask what proportion is driven by each component the client identifies. (3) Let the client choose a realistic target proportion for change. (4) Use the client's figure in later suggestions and tasks [steps 2–4 synthesis from the case summary].
Example language (illustrative): "Of the whole problem, how much would you say is the fear and how much is the body itself?" "What percentage could you comfortably let go of first?"
Watch for: the client choosing the number (ownership). In medical presentations, any reduction in medication or medical care is decided by the treating physician, never by the therapist [synthesis; Domain VI rule].

Goal alignment

Purpose / when: always, and before any indirect or strategic intervention. The strategic competency requires goals built on the client's values [source: Short 2019; Short 2026 'collaboration and goal alignment'].
Steps: (1) Ask what the client wants instead of the problem, in observable terms. (2) Link the goal to what the client values. (3) Agree a first small sign of progress. (4) Check the goal is the client's, not yours or a referrer's [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "When this is behind you, what will you be doing that you can't do now?" "Why does that matter to you?"
Watch for: vague or imposed goals, which predict 'resistance'. Utilisation and indirection are only legitimate in service of goals the client has endorsed [synthesis].

Finding salience (selecting the client's meaningful words and images)

Purpose / when: tailoring. Before designing an intervention, find which words, images or stakes will carry meaning for this client [source: Short 2026 'salience'].
Steps: Short pairs four cognitive biases with prompt questions the therapist can ask themself. Reactance: is the client hearing that something cannot be done? Negativity bias: do they really see the danger? Status quo bias: is there a way to avoid change? Ownership bias: is it the client's choice, insight and solution? Use the bias most active in this client to decide the framing [source: Short 2026, paraphrased].
Example language: these are planning prompts for the therapist, not lines to say to the client.
Watch for: interventions that are 'clever' but not salient to the client usually fail [synthesis].

Systemic assessment and treatment planning (family/couple work)

Purpose / when: couple and family presentations. The symptom is assessed within system dynamics, and a treatment plan sequences tasks, metaphors, paradox and suggestion [source: Lankton & Lankton 2007, ch. II title and endorsements; the specific assessment dimensions are [uncertain]].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Map who does what, when the symptom occurs, and how others respond. (2) Identify the family's developmental stage and current demands. (3) Name each member's goal. (4) Plan which interventions target which relationships, in what order, rising in complexity.
Example language (illustrative): "When she starts to panic, who notices first, and what does each of you do next?"
Watch for: taking sides, and losing the person with least power in the room [synthesis].

B. Distraction (Short et al. 2005, ch. 7)

Definition: narrowing the client's focus so they are not overwhelmed by the distressing parts of their situation [source].

Red herring

Purpose / when: when a feared element (an object, a moment or a sensation) dominates attention and blocks cooperation. An emotionally charged decoy draws attention while the therapeutic work happens elsewhere [source: Short et al. 2005; examples: a dentist leaves a syringe visible as a decoy while working with hypnosis; a girl with rigid bathing rituals was invited to elaborate her anxiety, then playfully told she would not notice someone watching].
Steps (synthesis from examples): (1) Identify what the client's attention is locked onto. (2) Openly give attention to a decoy element, or invite elaboration of a peripheral detail. (3) While attention is engaged there, introduce the helpful suggestion, task or step. (4) Debrief, crediting the client.
Example language (illustrative): "Before we deal with the big thing, I'm curious about something smaller: exactly how do you decide which towel to use?"
Watch for: distraction must never conceal something the client has not consented to (for example, a procedure). Use it only to make agreed work bearable [synthesis].

Questioning and presupposition

Purpose / when: questions compel thought and answers, and a presupposition assumes something else is true. Together they shift the client's frame without argument [source: Short et al. 2005, which gives the case of a homicidal patient in an elevator: Erickson asked where the patient would prefer the act to happen while walking him toward attendants (an emergency example)].
Steps: (1) Decide which helpful assumption you want taken for granted (change will happen, the client has a resource). (2) Build it into a question about when, how or which, not whether. (3) Let the client answer. Their answer rehearses the assumption [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Which part of the week do you think you'll notice the change first?" "When you handled this better before, what did you draw on?"
Watch for: in risk situations, use presupposition only alongside standard safety procedures, never instead of them [synthesis].

Emphasis on detail

Purpose / when: [uncertain: named in the source table of contents, not defined in the excerpt]. Working description: absorbing attention in fine detail to reduce global distress and open curiosity [inference].
Steps (synthesis): ask for very fine-grained sensory description of a neutral or resource element: texture, sound, the exact sequence.
Example language (illustrative): "Describe the exact colour of the light in that room."
Watch for: calmer, absorbed responding. Avoid fine detail of traumatic material early in therapy.

Therapeutic amnesia

Listed under distraction in Short et al. (2005); not defined in the excerpt [uncertain]. It is a hypnotic phenomenon: see 087. Do not use amnesia or suggestion in any way that could shape or 'recover' memories.

C. Partitioning (Short et al. 2005, ch. 8)

The sub-technique names are from the source. The descriptions below are inferred [uncertain] because the chapter text was not in the excerpt. Shared logic (inference): divide an overwhelming problem into parts so some parts can change first.

Symptom definition

Purpose / when: when the problem is global and vague. Define it precisely so it becomes bounded [inference].
Steps (synthesis): specify onset, triggers, duration, intensity, where in the body, and where it is absent.
Example language (illustrative): "So it's not all day, it's the first twenty minutes after you wake. Is that right?"
Watch for: the client spontaneously noticing exceptions.

Formal diagnosis

Purpose / when: use a diagnostic label or category to contain, normalise or individualise. Zeig likewise notes that diagnostic categories help individualise treatment [source for Zeig; use within partitioning is an inference].
Steps (synthesis): name the condition, give its usual course and its treatable parts, and separate the person from the label.
Example language (illustrative): "What you describe has a name, and it has a known shape, which means we know where to start."
Watch for: the label becoming an identity or a reason to stay stuck.

Prognostic splitting

Purpose / when: [uncertain] Working description: split the expected outcome, so that some part of the problem is predicted to change and some to remain or change later. This lowers pressure and makes partial success a success. Compare Short's 2026 framing example: "Even with hypnosis, 10% of the problem will still remain." [source for the quote: Short 2026].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Agree which part is likely to improve first. (2) Predict that some residue may stay. (3) Invite the client to find out how much goes.
Example language (illustrative): "I'd expect most of this to settle. A small part may hang on a while, and that part can teach us something."
Watch for: relief, and challenge responses ('I'll beat that 10%').

Dividing conscious (from unconscious)

Purpose / when: [uncertain: the heading is truncated in the source]. Ericksonian practice often addresses conscious and unconscious processes separately, so the client need not consciously 'try' [inference]. Mostly used in hypnosis (see 087).
Steps (synthesis): let the conscious mind attend to one thing while the client is invited to notice other learning happening by itself.
Example language (illustrative): "Your conscious mind can keep its doubts, and the rest of you can carry on learning anyway."
Watch for: reduced effortful 'trying'. Avoid this with clients who have dissociative disorders [synthesis].

Dissection

Purpose / when: [uncertain] Working description: break a complex problem or experience into components that can be handled separately [inference].
Steps (synthesis): list the components (situation, thought, sensation, action, response of others), then target the most changeable first.
Example language (illustrative): "Let's take it apart. Which piece feels easiest to shift?"
Watch for: a sense of manageability.

Partitioning of time and space

Purpose / when: [uncertain] Working description: confine the symptom or the work on it to specific times or places, so the rest of life is freed from it [inference].
Steps (synthesis): agree a time slot or place for the worry or symptom-related activity, and outside it the client defers.
Example language (illustrative): "What if the worrying had its own appointment, 6 to 6.20 each evening, in the kitchen chair?"
Watch for: symptom-free zones growing.

D. Progression (Short et al. 2005, ch. 9)

The names are from the source. The descriptions are inferred [uncertain]. Shared logic (inference): change in small, graded or cumulative steps.

Geometric progression

Purpose / when: [uncertain] start with a very small change that builds on itself and grows over time [inference].
Steps (synthesis): agree the smallest change the client is sure they can do, then increase it stepwise, each step building on the last.
Example language (illustrative): "Just one degree of difference this week. Next week we'll see what one degree became."
Watch for: spontaneous generalisation.

Progressive desensitisation

Purpose / when: feared situations. Graded approach [name from source; procedure synthesis].
Steps (synthesis): obtain consent; build a graded list with the client; begin with steps the client rates manageable; stay until distress falls or the agreed time ends; the client controls the pace; use grounding and a closure check. Contraindications: unstable medical conditions, current crisis, or untreated PTSD without stabilisation. For trauma, use an established trauma protocol.
Example language (illustrative): "You choose the step, and you can pause at any point."
Watch for: falling distress across repetitions. Escalating panic means drop down a step.

Pattern interruption

Purpose / when: [uncertain] change one small element of the symptom sequence (timing, order, place, a component) so the pattern can no longer run automatically [inference].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Map the sequence precisely. (2) Choose one safe element to alter (do it later, in another room, in a different order, with an added step). (3) Prescribe the altered version. (4) Review.
Example language (illustrative): "Keep checking the locks if you need to. Just begin at the back door instead of the front, and count backwards."
Watch for: the pattern loosening or feeling 'silly'. Never alter safety behaviours that protect against real risk.

Cognitive progression

Purpose / when: [uncertain] lead the client step by step through reasoning they agree with, toward a new conclusion [inference].
Steps (synthesis): a series of questions, each building on the client's last 'yes'.
Example language (illustrative): "You've managed harder things. You managed them by preparing. So what preparation would this need?"
Watch for: the client drawing the conclusion themself.

Forward progression

Purpose / when: [uncertain] move attention from the past problem toward future functioning [inference].
Steps (synthesis): invite a detailed picture of a near-future step done well, then link it to a first action.
Example language (illustrative): "Picture next month, once this is a bit easier. What are you doing on a Saturday morning?"
Watch for: concrete, specific futures rather than vague ones.

E. Suggestion in conversational therapy (Short et al. 2005, ch. 10; full hypnotic use in 087)

The source calls this Erickson's best-known strategy and says it is not limited to hypnosis. Its purpose is to help the client reach a goal they cannot reach consciously alone [source: Short et al. 2005]. Sub-techniques named: cooperation versus control, direct, indirect, permissive, interspersal and repetition, and the confusion technique. Brief conversational use is given here. Structured hypnotic use (preparation and consent, induction, deepening, suggestions, re-alerting, debrief, self-hypnosis) is in 087.

Direct, indirect and permissive suggestion

Purpose / when: direct suggestion when the client wants clear instruction. Indirect suggestion (implication, presupposition, story) when direct advice has been rejected before. Permissive suggestion (options, 'you may…') to protect autonomy. Short (2026) describes permissive suggestion as creating open-ended structure for spontaneous insight and self-determination [source: Short et al. 2005 headings; Short 2026].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Choose the form from the client's response style (salience, reactance). (2) Phrase the suggestion as an offer. (3) Observe the response and adjust.
Example language (illustrative): Direct: "This week, practise the breathing twice a day." Indirect: "Some people find their shoulders let go before they notice they've relaxed." Permissive: "You might find it easier in the morning, or perhaps the evening suits you better."
Watch for: the client taking the idea up as their own. Never use suggestion to shape memories or beliefs about the past.

Interspersal and repetition

Purpose / when: key words or ideas are woven repeatedly through ordinary talk or a story so they gain weight without a lecture [source: heading in Short et al. 2005; description is inference] [uncertain].
Steps (synthesis): choose two or three goal words (for example 'comfortable', 'ease'), and let them recur naturally in your conversation or story.
Example language (illustrative): "…and when the garden was finally comfortable, he could sit there with ease…"
Watch for: keep it natural. Heavy-handed emphasis feels manipulative and damages trust.

Confusion technique / destabilisation

Purpose / when: temporarily disrupt a rigid frame so a new response can form. Short (2019) names this as a defining competency (destabilisation, depotentiation, confusion) [source]. Short et al. (2005) note that Erickson's teacher inspired his pairing of familiar material with confusion ('therapeutic shock') [source].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Use it only with a client who is stable, has consented to the approach and has a clear goal. (2) Introduce a mild surprise, an unexpected question or an overloaded reframe. (3) In the moment of uncertainty, offer a simple, clear alternative. (4) Restore orientation and debrief.
Example language (illustrative): "Before you decide you can't, check whether the 'can't' is a fact or a forecast, and whose forecast it is. Now, what's one thing you can do?"
Watch for: contraindicated in psychosis, dissociative disorders, acute trauma, high anxiety, cognitive impairment, or a fragile alliance [synthesis]. Stop if the client becomes distressed rather than curious.

F. Reorientation (Short et al. 2005, ch. 11)

Sub-techniques named: insight, reframing, externalisation, reorientation in time [source]. The descriptions are mine where not in the excerpt [uncertain].

Insight

Purpose / when: used selectively, when understanding will help, often after an experience has already shifted something (consistent with Zeig's 'experience before understanding') [source for heading: Short et al. 2005; timing synthesis].
Steps (synthesis): after a change, invite the client to name what they learned, in their own words.
Example language (illustrative): "Looking back at this week, what do you now know about yourself that you didn't before?"
Watch for: insight used as a substitute for action.

Reframing

Purpose / when: change the meaning of a behaviour or situation so a different response becomes available. Short's 2026 'framing' strategy shapes how a situation is perceived [source: Short et al. 2005 heading; Short 2026].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Fully acknowledge the client's view. (2) Identify the positive function or a different meaning that fits the same facts and the client's values. (3) Offer it tentatively. (4) Link it to a task.
Example language (illustrative): "Your stubbornness has kept you going through all this. What if we put it to work for you instead of against you?"
Watch for: the reframe must be credible to the client. Never reframe abuse, danger or harm as positive.

Externalisation

Purpose / when: locate the problem outside the person's identity, so they can work against it [source: heading; description inference] [uncertain].
Steps (synthesis): name the problem as an entity in the client's words, and ask how it operates and when the client resists it.
Example language (illustrative): "When 'the Worry' shows up, what does it tell you to do?"
Watch for: do not externalise responsibility for harm to others.

Reorientation in time

Purpose / when: shift attention to past resources or to a future in which the problem is resolved [source: heading; description inference] [uncertain]. Age progression or regression in hypnosis is in 087.
Steps (synthesis): (1) Recall a past time of competence, or (2) imagine a future self who has solved it, then (3) bring a specific resource or step back into the present.
Example language (illustrative): "Think of a time you learned something hard, maybe riding a bike. What did you do when you wobbled?"
Watch for: stay with resource memories. Do not use time reorientation to search for or 'recover' trauma memories. Memories are the client's experience, not facts to be uncovered.

G. Utilisation (Short 2019 competency; Short et al. 2005, ch. 12)

General utilisation of what the client brings

Purpose / when: throughout therapy. Use the client's habits, beliefs, perceptions, symptoms, resistance and situation as the medium of change [source: Short 2019].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Accept the client's current behaviour and frame as valid starting points. (2) Find the energy or skill inside it (for example, the persistence in a compulsion, or the vigilance in anxiety). (3) Redirect that energy or skill toward the goal. (4) Credit the client.
Example language (illustrative): "You're clearly someone who notices every detail. Let's use that eye to spot the moments it eases."
Watch for: the client feeling understood rather than corrected.

Utilising resistance or reactance

Purpose / when: a client who opposes direction. Short gives the case of a teen who says he will not talk: the therapist agrees to do all the talking, and says the teen need not listen or even stay awake [source: Short 2026, paraphrased].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Accept the opposition explicitly. (2) Give permission for it, or prescribe it. (3) Frame what you offer so that continuing to oppose still moves toward the goal, or so that taking part is the client's own choice.
Example language (illustrative): "You don't have to say anything. I'll just think out loud, and you can ignore all of it."
Watch for: the client re-engaging on their own terms. Short avoids the word 'resistance', so think of this as reactance plus a goal mismatch, and recheck goals [source: Short 2026].

Simple bind

Purpose / when: offer a choice between two acceptable options, both in the therapeutic direction [source: Short et al. 2005, heading; description inference] [uncertain].
Steps (synthesis): frame two options that both include the desired behaviour, and let the client choose.
Example language (illustrative): "Would you rather start the walk before breakfast or after?"
Watch for: the client must keep a genuine third option (not now, or no). Otherwise the bind becomes coercion.

Double bind (therapeutic)

Purpose / when: a bind working on two levels, so that whatever the client does counts as progress (for example, both doing the task and not doing it yield therapeutic information or change) [source: heading; description inference] [uncertain].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Prescribe a behaviour. (2) Frame non-compliance as also useful. (3) Debrief both outcomes.
Example language (illustrative): "Try the exercise. If you find you can't, notice exactly what stops you, because that tells us what to work on."
Watch for: must be benevolent and transparent on reflection. Do not use with paranoid clients [synthesis].

Utilisation of a minor problem

Purpose / when: [uncertain] work on a smaller, related problem the client is willing to tackle, so that success generalises to the main one [inference].
Steps (synthesis): identify a low-stakes problem with the same structure, solve it, and link the learning to the main problem.
Example language (illustrative): "Before the big presentation, let's see how you handle asking the shop for a refund."
Watch for: spontaneous transfer.

Symptom prescription

Purpose / when: instruct the client to perform the symptom deliberately, often with altered conditions (time, place, amount), so it shifts from involuntary to voluntary or loses its function. Named in Short et al. (2005); paradoxical prescriptions are a chapter in Lankton & Lankton [source for names; procedure inference] [uncertain].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Map the symptom. (2) Obtain the client's agreement to an experiment. (3) Prescribe it at a set time, place or duration, framed as gathering information or practising control. (4) Review.
Example language (illustrative): "This week, set aside ten minutes at 7 pm to worry on purpose, as hard as you can, and write down what you notice."
Watch for: never prescribe self-harm, suicidal behaviour, violence, substance use, restrictive eating, purging or any dangerous behaviour. Not for clients in crisis [synthesis].

H. Choice-architecture strategies (Short 2026)

Short presents four strategies: framing, priming, redirection and utilisation (utilisation is above) [source].

Framing

Purpose / when: shape how the situation is perceived, using negativity bias. Short's example: "Even with hypnosis, 10% of the problem will still remain. I'm sorry." [source: Short 2026].
Steps (synthesis): predict an outcome that the client's bias will push them to beat or to accept.
Example language (illustrative): "Realistically, some of this may stay. I'm not sure how much."
Watch for: never frame falsely or discourage hope beyond what is honest.

Priming (story of a similar client)

Purpose / when: activate a reference point using social conformity. Short's example offers the story of a client who reminds the therapist of this one [source: Short 2026].
Steps (synthesis): ask permission, tell a brief, de-identified, composite story of someone who found a way through, and let the client draw the parallel.
Example language (illustrative): "You remind me of someone I worked with. Would you like to hear what she tried?"
Watch for: protect confidentiality (use composites), and keep the story true to what happens clinically.

Redirection

Purpose / when: shift the client's focus, using ego-centric bias. Short's example: a nurse who boasts of seducing married doctors is asked to describe a time it did not go well [source: Short 2026].
Steps (synthesis): accept the client's self-presentation, then ask for the exception or cost, in their own terms.
Example language (illustrative): "Tell me about the one time it didn't go the way you wanted."
Watch for: reflection arising without moralising.

I. Strategic and systemic interventions (Lankton & Lankton 1986/2007)

The chapter contents are not drawn on here. The names come from the table of contents, endorsements and the Foundation monograph listing. Procedures are synthesis [uncertain].

Strategic task assignments

Purpose / when: perturb family or individual organisation through between-session tasks [source: ch. III title].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Base the task on the goal and the client's salient skills. (2) Make it specific: who, what, when. (3) Gift-wrap the rationale. (4) Review in detail next session, and utilise whatever happened.
Example language (illustrative): "This week, on two evenings, I'd like the two of you to swap who cooks, and notice what changes."
Watch for: completion, partial completion and modification are all information.

Ambiguous function assignments

Purpose / when: named in the Lankton endorsements and in a monograph chapter by W. R. Boyd [source: Erickson Foundation monograph listing; Lankton endorsements]. Working description: a task whose purpose is left open, so the client brings their own meaning and learning to it [inference] [uncertain].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Prescribe a specific, safe, slightly unusual activity. (2) Say there is something to learn from it without saying what. (3) Next session, ask what they learned and build on it.
Example language (illustrative): "Go and look at the oldest tree in the park for ten minutes. There's something there for you. I'm curious what you'll find."
Watch for: client-generated meaning. Explain the purpose afterward if the client feels tricked [synthesis].

Metaphor protocols and multiple embedded metaphor

Purpose / when: develop emotion, behaviour and belief through stories [source: Lankton ch. IV title]. In The Answer Within a central method is the multiple embedded metaphor, used to deliver interventions designed from the diagnosis [source: Lankton publication descriptions]. Tales of Enchantment organises metaphors by goal type [source: same].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Choose the goal: an emotion to retrieve, a behaviour to model, or a belief to shift. (2) Build a story whose characters and structure parallel the client's situation, using the client's salient interests. (3) Tell it with attention to the client's responses. (4) Do not interpret it unless the client asks. In the embedded format, begin several stories and leave each unfinished, deliver the central intervention in the innermost one, then close the stories in reverse order. The exact Lankton protocol is not drawn on here [uncertain].
Example language (illustrative): "I knew a carpenter who was sure the old door could never close properly again…"
Watch for: absorption, and the client's spontaneous comments on the story. Stories aimed at a client's distress should fit their culture and dignity.

Paradoxical prescriptions

Purpose / when: increase role flexibility in families [source: Lankton ch. V title]. See also symptom prescription above.
Steps (synthesis): as for symptom prescription, applied to an interaction pattern (for example, prescribing the argument at a set time with set rules). Assess safety first: never use with domestic violence or coercive control.
Example language (illustrative): "Keep having the argument, but only on Thursday at 8, for 15 minutes, sitting down."
Watch for: pattern disruption. Stop if anyone is at risk.

Blocking communications

Named in the Lankton endorsements only, not described [uncertain]. No procedure is given here, to avoid inventing one.

J. Zeig's processing tools

Gift-wrapping

Purpose / when: package each idea so that this client can receive and act on it [source: Zeig workshop description].
Steps (synthesis): (1) Define the idea to convey. (2) Choose the wrapping: story, task, question, reframe, joke or trance. (3) Choose a wrapping salient to this client's values and interests.
Example language (illustrative): for a keen gardener working on patience: "Tell me how long you wait before you dig up a seed to check it."
Watch for: the client taking the idea up as their own.

Processing the intervention

Purpose / when: after any intervention, to see what the client did with it and to utilise the response [source: Zeig description names processing; steps synthesis].
Steps (synthesis): ask openly what they noticed, accept all responses, link the gains to the client's own effort (endowment), and plan the next step.
Example language (illustrative): "What did you notice this week, and what did you do that made the difference?"
Watch for: the client attributing change to the therapist, which calls for endowment.

Not covered: Haley's directive techniques

Haley's Strategies of Psychotherapy (1963; public domain) contains the chapters 'Techniques of directive therapy' and 'The therapeutic paradoxes', and Uncommon Therapy (1973) presents Erickson's strategic case work. Their specific techniques are not described here [uncertain]. Consult these texts directly.

5. Handling problems

The sources say little about handling difficulties. Short (2019/2021) and Short (2026) give the stance (utilisation, collaboration and goal alignment rather than a concept of 'resistance'). Hope & Resiliency has a chapter on contraindications (ch. 13, p. 223) that was not in the excerpt [uncertain]. Everything below that is not tagged with a source is my own synthesis [synthesis].

'Resistance', or a client who opposes everything. Short treats opposition as reactance plus goal misalignment, not defiance [source: Short 2026]. Response: (1) Recheck whose goal this is. (2) Utilise it: give permission not to change, or prescribe going slowly ("Don't change too fast") [the teen example is from Short 2026; the rest is synthesis]. (3) Offer choices rather than directives. (4) Lower the directness.
Stuck or no change. (1) Check salience: is the intervention wrapped in this client's meanings? (2) Partition: make the goal smaller, or quantify it and target a small percentage. (3) Change strategy family, for example from suggestion to a task, or from reorientation to utilisation of a minor problem. (4) Re-examine the formulation, including system effects (who benefits if nothing changes?). (5) Consider referral, or a different modality if there is no progress after an agreed review point.
Non-completion of tasks. Treat it as information, not failure. Ask in detail what happened, and utilise it: "Something in you knew it wasn't the right task. What would have been right?" (illustrative). Make tasks smaller, more salient or ambiguous-function. Never shame the client. If the double-bind framing was set up at the outset, both outcomes are usable.
Overwhelm, or distress rising in session. Stop indirect and destabilising methods. Switch to direct, transparent, grounding work: orient to the room, slow the breathing, name the time and place, and reduce the task. Use distraction and partitioning to narrow focus to a manageable part [source for the distraction purpose: Short et al. 2005]. Close with a check on the client's state and safety before they leave. For hypnosis-related abreaction, see 087.
Dissociation, trauma material or psychosis. Safety and stabilisation first. Confusion, double binds, 'dividing conscious' and paradox are contraindicated in active psychosis, dissociative disorders and unstabilised PTSD. Memory work uses an established trauma protocol with readiness criteria. Never use suggestion, metaphor, hypnosis or time reorientation to 'uncover' or 'recover' memories, and treat remembered events as the client's experience.
The client feels tricked or manipulated (rupture specific to indirect methods). Acknowledge it plainly, explain the purpose of what you did, apologise for any lack of clarity, and offer a more direct way of working. Prevention: discuss the approach at the start (informed consent), and keep every indirect method in service of an agreed goal. Short's 'lead with humility' and 'choice agnostic' stance supports this [source: Short 2026; rest synthesis].
Other ruptures. Use standard rupture repair: name it, invite the client's view, take your share, and adjust. Ericksonian tailoring means changing your relationship style, not insisting on the method [tailoring: Short 2019].
A paradox or symptom prescription backfires (the symptom increases or the client is distressed). Withdraw the prescription openly, say it was an experiment, and return to collaborative planning. Never prescribe dangerous behaviour, and never use paradox where there is risk to self or others.
Suicide or self-harm risk. Suspend strategic and indirect methods in favour of direct, standard risk assessment and safety planning (including lethal-means counselling: safe storage and removal), with involvement of crisis services as indicated. Do not use presupposition or binds in place of explicit safety work.
Medical symptoms (pain, asthma, gastrointestinal, dental). Ericksonian work is an adjunct only, after medical assessment and alongside medical care. Any change to medication is the prescriber's decision. The source examples (asthma, burns, dental) were within medical settings [source: Short et al. 2005 case summaries; rule from synthesis]. It is never a treatment for physical disease itself.
Couples and families. Assess for violence and coercive control before any paradoxical or interaction-prescribing task. Keep each member's goal visible. Prevent a 'clever' intervention from allying you with one member against another.
Over-reliance on the therapist's cleverness. Watch for the client crediting you for change. Use endowment: attribute gains to the client's own skill and choice [source: Short 2026].
Cultural mismatch. Stories, humour and indirection land differently across cultures. Tailor wrapping to the client's cultural frame, and ask when unsure.
Competence and training. Formal hypnosis requires training within your licensed scope (see 087). The Milton H. Erickson Foundation and its affiliated institutes offer training [source: Foundation catalogue pages]. No single credential for 'Ericksonian therapist' is given in the sources [uncertain].

Sources

Sources:

Books and papers cited:

Short, D. (2019). Principles and Core Competencies of Ericksonian Therapy (2019 ed.). Milton H. Erickson Institute of Phoenix.
Short, D. N. (2021). What is Ericksonian therapy: The use of core competencies to define a therapeutic orientation. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 28(3), 282–292.
Short, D., Erickson, B. A., & Erickson-Klein, R. (2005). Hope & Resiliency: Understanding the Psychotherapeutic Strategies of Milton H. Erickson, MD. Crown House.
Lankton, S. R., & Lankton, C. H. (1986/2007). Enchantment and Intervention in Family Therapy. Crown House.
Lankton, S. R., & Lankton, C. H. (1983/2008). The Answer Within: A Clinical Framework of Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. Crown House (description only).
Lankton, C. H., & Lankton, S. R. (1989). Tales of Enchantment: Goal-Directed Metaphors for Adults and Children in Therapy. Brunner/Mazel (description only).
Haley, J. (1963). Strategies of Psychotherapy. Grune & Stratton (table of contents only) [uncertain: publisher not verified].
Haley, J. (1993 Norton paperback ed.). Uncommon Therapy: The Psychiatric Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. (description only).

Further reading (not drawn on): the full texts of Haley (1963) and Haley's Uncommon Therapy, and the full Short (2021) article. Erickson's own papers on utilisation are not drawn on here.

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