Hypnosystemic therapy (G. Schmidt)

1. Introduction

Version followed: Gunther Schmidt's hypnosystemic approach as set out in Einführung in die hypnosystemische Therapie und Beratung (Carl-Auer, 1st ed. 2005; 6th ed. 2014 and 10th ed. 2022 consulted as reading samples) and Liebesaffären zwischen Problem und Lösung (Carl-Auer, 2004; 7th ed. 2017, 9th ed. 2021), as taught at the Milton-Erickson-Institut Heidelberg (MEIHei). The process sequence below follows the eight-step structure of the Einführung. Only the tables of contents, forewords and opening chapters of both books were open to me. Where a technique's steps come from secondary German sources (training theses from the INKONSTELLATION academy that cite Schmidt 2022 by page), this is stated. [source: Schmidt 2022 Einführung reading sample; Schmidt 2021 Liebesaffären reading sample]

What it is. "Hypnosystemisch" is Schmidt's term for combining systemic-constructivist therapy (the Heidelberg family-therapy group around Helm Stierlin) with Milton H. Erickson's hypnotherapy. Schmidt met Erickson in 1979 and coined the term around 1980. It is an integrative framework and a therapeutic stance, not a fixed protocol. The authors themselves call it an attitude rather than a set of methods. It is used in psychotherapy (individual, couple and family work, and inpatient care at Schmidt's sysTelios clinic), and also in counselling, coaching and organisational consulting. [source: Schmidt Einführung 2022 pp. 7–10; Stierlin foreword in Liebesaffären; Carl-Auer catalogue page; Bendlin 2022]

The origin is placed in Heidelberg in the 1980s, and the method is described as working "without formal induction". Both points hold in this sense: Schmidt describes an indirect, Ericksonian use of hypnotherapeutic findings within ordinary conversation ("Gesprächstrance"). This suits settings where a formal trance ritual is not possible. Formal hypnosis is not excluded, but it is not the core of the method. The approach is also sometimes called solution-focused. That is only partly accurate: Schmidt draws on de Shazer and Kim Berg, but he deliberately values the problem experience as well, rather than focusing on solutions alone. [source: Einführung ch. 1–2, p. 10, p. 20; Grimm/DAJEB 2024]

How change happens (core idea). Experience is organised in patterns, or "Erlebnisnetzwerke": linked elements such as inner images, inner voices or sentences, body sensations and posture, breathing, felt age and size, behaviour, interaction, and context (place, time, people). A problem is a narrowed, largely involuntary focus of attention on a problem network. Schmidt calls this "Problemtrance": the conscious, willed side wants well-being, while involuntary processes feel stronger. The person experiences themselves as a victim of these processes. Since no-one can instruct a living system into an experience, the therapist invites rather than directs. Change means introducing differences into the pattern, and altering one element or link is often enough to reorganise the whole network. The therapist uses (utilises) everything the client brings, including the symptom and the attention focus of the problem trance. With these the therapist helps build a "Lösungstrance", an equally vivid solution-focused network that the client can reach on purpose. Symptoms are treated as costly but competent attempts at a solution that serve legitimate needs. [source: Einführung pp. 7–8, 11–19; Liebesaffären introduction; Gaismayer 2024 citing Schmidt 2022:34; ARGE 2016]

2. Framework

Nature of the framework. This is an integrative process model, not a manualised session-by-session protocol. The steps loop back on each other. [source: Einführung TOC ch. 8; Gaismayer 2024 fig. 3; Hasters 2022 §3.1–3.10]

Process steps (structure of the Einführung, ch. 8; content of each step from the sources noted):

Clarify the context that led to seeking help. Goal: understand who sent the client, who wants what, and what the referral means in the client's "home system" (Heimatsystem) as distinct from the "therapy system" (Beratungssystem). Move on when: you know who is a customer for change and what relationship the help-seeking has to the client's life context. [source: Einführung TOC; Hasters §3.1]
Clarify the mandate (Auftrag) and build imaginable goal visions (Zielvisionen). Goal: reach an agreed, workable order and a goal described as experience that is present and beginning, not as removal of the problem. Move on when: the client can picture and feel the goal and agrees to work on it, or a "second-choice" order has been agreed (see 4.2). [source: Hasters citing Schmidt 2022:100–107; Gaismayer citing Schmidt 2022:102]
Focus on exceptions and past solution experiences (Lösungserleben). Goal: create hope and self-worth and retrieve episodes that went better, with their sensory and bodily detail. Move on when: at least one episode, or a substitute resource, can be vividly re-experienced. [source: Hasters citing Schmidt 2022:108–111; Bendlin 2022]
Compare problem and solution patterns. Goal: map the elements of both networks and find differences and switch points. Move on when: the client can see and feel the difference between the two states and name at least one element they can influence. [source: Einführung TOC; Hasters §3.4; Gaismayer]
Work with conscious and unconscious processes (dissociation), intuitive knowledge and the body. Goal: make the solution state reachable through the body and involuntary channels, not only by insight. Problemlösungsgymnastik belongs here. [source: Einführung TOC; Hasters citing Schmidt 2022:113–116]
Treat the symptom as a competent but costly solution attempt ("dialektische Hypnosystemik"). Goal: identify which needs or loyalties the problem serves, so that the new solution can honour them. [source: Einführung TOC; Liebesaffären introduction; Hasters §3.6]
Ambivalence coaching and new goal development. Goal: reach cooperation between the conflicting "sides" and, if needed, revise the goals. [source: Einführung TOC; Hasters §3.7; Bogner 2026 citing Schmidt 2011]
Pattern interventions, evaluation and closure. Goal: practise the change in daily life, evaluate it every session, define closing criteria early, and mark the end of therapy. [source: Einführung TOC; Hasters §3.8–3.10]

Session count and format. No fixed number of sessions is given in the sources [uncertain]. Schmidt presents the approach as fast and lasting, citing outcomes from the Fachklinik am Hardberg (Herr 2002). Settings named: individual, couple and family therapy; addiction, trauma, psychosis and depression treatment; inpatient psychosomatic care; supervision; teams. The MEIHei coaching curriculum runs 10 three-day modules plus 2 supervision modules, which gives a sense of the training depth expected. [source: Einführung ch. 1; Carl-Auer catalogue; MEIHei certificate 2025] Practical default [synthesis]: 50–90-minute sessions, often spaced two to four weeks apart so the client can experiment between them. Steps 1–3 usually take the first one or two sessions; steps 4–8 cycle as needed.

3. Guiding principles

Each principle is followed by what it means in practice.

Systemic context and circularity. Experience and behaviour arise in relation to other people and the environment, and the same behaviour can be a competence in one context and a deficit in another. In practice: always ask in which context, for whom and for what the behaviour makes sense. [source: Liebesaffären introduction]
Autopoiesis / no instructive interaction. Living systems organise themselves, so no-one can be forced into an experience (Schmidt cites Maturana). In practice: offer options and invitations, never orders, and let the client decide what fits. [source: Einführung p. 8]
Constructed reality. Reality is built through distinguishing, naming, explaining and evaluating, and a focus on deficits narrows consciousness "hypnotically". In practice: choose your descriptions on purpose, because every question focuses attention. [source: Liebesaffären introduction]
Attention focus creates experience (Aufmerksamkeitsfokussierung). Problem and solution are both states of focused attention. In practice: track where the client's attention goes, moment to moment, and invite shifts. [source: Einführung TOC and ch. 2; Häublein TOC 4.9; ARGE 2016]
Willed vs involuntary (willkürlich/unwillkürlich). Suffering lies in the conflict between conscious intention and stronger involuntary processes. Schmidt links this to Grawe's concept of "Inkonsistenz". In practice: do not try to override involuntary processes with will. Work with them through images, the body and indirect language. [source: Einführung ch. 2]
Trance is natural and active. Schmidt describes trance as "ein aktiver Prozess unbewussten Lernens" (an active process of unconscious learning; Einführung p. 19). Everyday trance phenomena such as dissociation, age regression and progression, time distortion, tunnel vision and inner "tape loops" occur in problems too. In practice: recognise these phenomena in the problem and use them in reverse. [source: Einführung pp. 11–22]
Utilisation. Everything the client brings is material: symptoms, problem talk, attribution style, resistance, relapses, and contradictory orders. In practice: when something gets in the way, ask how it could be used. [source: Liebesaffären TOC; Häublein TOC 4.5; Grimm 2024]
Valuing the problem (Würdigung) alongside solution focus. Unlike a strictly solution-focused approach, the problem experience is taken seriously and given space. In practice: pace and acknowledge first, and only then invite change. [source: Grimm/DAJEB 2024; Hasters §3.3]
Symptoms as solution attempts. Symptoms are often unconscious interventions serving legitimate needs and can be honoured as relationship-shaping competences. In practice: ask what the symptom protects or achieves, and what it costs. [source: Liebesaffären introduction]
Competence activation and potential hypothesis. Every person has usable abilities. In practice: search for exceptions and resources before searching for causes. [source: Gaismayer citing Schmidt 2022:108; Häublein TOC 4.9]
Multiplicity. A person consists of many "sides" (Seiten), and none is the whole person. In practice: talk about "a side of you that…" rather than "you are…". [source: Häublein TOC 4.6; Liebesaffären TOC]
Body as a "clever" resource. Posture, breathing and movement are part of the network and give fast feedback. In practice: watch and use somatic markers, and test solutions in the body. [source: Häublein TOC 4.10; Hasters §3.5]
Equal, cooperative, transparent relationship ("auf Augenhöhe"). Schmidt describes growing "humility before the autonomous competence of clients" and stresses transparency. The therapist is a strategic leader of the conversation, not of the client. In practice: explain what you are doing and why, ask permission, and let the client be the expert on fit. [source: Liebesaffären foreword and introduction]
Therapist as "Realitätenkellner" (waiter of realities). The therapist offers possible realities like dishes from a menu, and the client chooses. In practice: phrase interventions as options ("one possibility would be…"). [source: Hasters 2022, chapter 3 introduction]
Therapist's own state. Schmidt devotes a section to building the therapist's optimal "therapist trance" and uses the therapist's own inner states for cooperation. In practice: notice your own problem trance (hopelessness, pressure) and re-centre before intervening. [source: Liebesaffären TOC and introduction]
Tailoring. Fit the therapy to the unique culture of each client system rather than applying a standard method. In practice: adapt language, pace and interventions to the client's metaphors and values. [source: Einführung ch. 1; Bendlin 2022]
Do not dissolve "illness" automatically. The illness construct may organise a system, for example by securing care or loyalty. In practice: check what a change of label would cost the family before challenging it. [source: Liebesaffären introduction]

4. Intervention inventory

All example language is my own illustrative wording, not Schmidt's. Where the sources name a technique but give no steps, the steps are marked [synthesis] or [uncertain]. Most interventions are conversational: they create focused, trance-like attention inside the dialogue without a formal induction. For formal trance work (4.18), the screening in that section applies.

4.1 Clarifying the context of help-seeking (Kontextklärung)

Purpose / when: First contact. Clarify who initiated the help, what the referrer, family and client each expect, and how coming to therapy fits into the client's home system. [source: Einführung TOC ch. 8; Hasters §3.1]
Steps: (1) Ask how the idea of coming arose and whose idea it was. (2) Ask what each relevant person (partner, parents, employer, referring doctor) hopes or fears will come of it. (3) Ask what it would mean in the home system if therapy succeeded, or failed. (4) Note contradictory expectations; they are used in 4.2, not argued away. [steps partly synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Whose idea was it first that you come here? … If your wife could secretly watch this session, what would she hope to see happen?" / "Who would be most surprised if things changed?"
Watch for: A client sent by someone else (visitor position), loyalty to people who would lose something if the problem went away, and the therapy system copying the home system's patterns. Working: the client starts saying what they want, separately from what others want.

4.2 Clarifying the mandate and order types (Auftragsklärung; utilising order dilemmas)

Purpose / when: Before any change work, and again whenever work stalls. Schmidt treats the order as an intervention context of its own and teaches how to use contradictory or impossible orders ("Utilisation von Auftragsdilemmata"). [source: Liebesaffären TOC; MEIHei curriculum; Hasters citing Schmidt 2022:100–107]
Order types (as summarised by Hasters, citing Schmidt 2022:100–107): a customer order for change of the client's own experience or interaction; a complaint order, where the client wants others or circumstances to change; a visitor order, where the client is sent and has no wish of their own; and a co-consultant order, where the client wants to help work on someone else's problem. With a complaint order the original wish may be unachievable, so the therapist offers a "second-choice" order: what the client could change in how they deal with it. [source: Hasters §3.2]
Steps [order partly synthesis]: (1) Ask what the client wants from these sessions, as distinct from what they want in life. (2) Classify the order type silently. (3) For a visitor order: value the client's coming, and ask what they would need to get out of it so that the time was not wasted, including how to get the referrer off their back. (4) For a complaint order: acknowledge that the wish is legitimate and say openly that therapy cannot change the other person. Then offer a second-choice order focused on the client's own response, wellbeing or influence. (5) For contradictory orders (e.g. "make me stop drinking but don't touch my drinking"), name both sides as valid and make the dilemma itself the work (see 4.13). (6) Agree on the order explicitly, and check it again later.
Example language (illustrative): "I can't change your boss, and I won't pretend to. What I could offer is that we look at how you want to be when he behaves like that. Would that be worth something to you?" / "Part of you wants to stop, and part of you is very clear it doesn't want to be told to. Both make sense to me. Could we take both seriously here?"
Watch for: Signs of agreement without investment (polite nods, "yes, but"). Working: the client restates the order in their own words and with some energy.

4.3 Building a goal vision as experience (Zielvision / Zielerleben)

Purpose / when: After the order is clear. A goal stated as the absence of something ("no more panic") keeps attention on the problem network and can strengthen the problem feeling. Goals should therefore describe what is present and what begins, how success will be noticed, and they should be "fokussierbar und imaginierbar" (focusable and imaginable). [source: Gaismayer and Hasters citing Schmidt 2022:102–103]
Steps: (1) Take the client's goal, which is often negative. (2) Ask what will be there instead, and keep asking "and instead?" until you reach an approach description. (3) Make it sensory and specific: where, when, with whom, posture, breathing, inner voice, what others notice. (4) Invite the client to step briefly into the goal experience now and to notice their body. (5) Scale how believable or reachable it feels (0–10). [steps 4–5 from Gaismayer and Brueggen; ordering is synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "When the anxiety isn't running the show any more, what will be there in its place? … What will you notice first in your body when you walk into that meeting like that?" / "Who will be the first to notice? What will they see?"
Watch for: Goals that depend only on others (go back to 4.2); goal images that trigger a visible problem reaction such as tension or shallow breathing, which signals an unaddressed side (4.13); and goals that are too far away (scale down to a first step). Working: the client's body and voice change as they describe the goal.

4.4 Pacing and valuing the problem; utilising problem talk (Würdigung)

Purpose / when: Throughout, and especially early on, and whenever the client feels unheard or the therapist pushes solutions too fast. The approach gives problem experience respectful space. Schmidt lists "utilisation of problem talk" and "balance between solution focus and appreciating the problem" (in depression) as topics. [source: Grimm/DAJEB 2024; Liebesaffären TOC; Hasters §3.3; Brueggen 2024]
Steps: (1) Let the client describe the problem in their own words. Reflect it back without evaluating, matching their pace and vocabulary. (2) Acknowledge the effort, coping and suffering in it. (3) Mark the problem in time and scope, e.g. "so far" rather than "always". (4) Only then ask about its function (4.12) or about exceptions (4.6). Pacing does not mean giving up your own view. [source: Hasters ch. 3 introduction; Brueggen 2024 ("so far" rewording from Prior's MiniMax, not Schmidt)]
Example language (illustrative): "So for the last two years this has cost you a lot of sleep and a lot of strength, and you have still kept going to work every day. That is quite something."
Watch for: A client who keeps returning to the problem story, which means they do not yet feel understood, so go back to pacing. Working: the client relaxes and begins to offer their own "but there were times…".

4.5 Exploring the experience network of the problem (Erlebnisnetzwerk / pattern mapping)

Purpose / when: To turn a vague problem into a map of concrete, changeable elements. Schmidt describes problem patterns as linked elements: cognitions, behaviour, communication, emotions, physiology and context. Secondary sources citing Schmidt 2022:34 list inner images, inner voices, body sensations, felt age or size, and breathing. [source: Einführung pp. 7–8; Gaismayer citing Schmidt 2022:34]
Steps: (1) Pick one recent, specific episode. (2) Slow it down and ask for the sequence: trigger, first inner reaction, inner images, inner sentences ("tape loops"), body sensations, where in the body, posture, breathing, how old or how big they feel, what they do, how others react. (3) Ask from which perspective they see the scene (from inside or as an observer). (4) Write or draw the elements and links where both of you can see them. (5) Ask which element comes first or seems strongest. [steps 2–5 synthesis built on the cited element list]
Example language (illustrative): "Let's slow that moment right down. Just before it got bad, what was the very first thing you noticed? … And if that tight feeling had a voice, what would it be saying? … How old do you feel in that moment?"
Watch for: Over-association. If the client goes deep into the problem state while describing it, move them to an observer position ("look at it from over there") (4.8). Working: the client is surprised by details and links they had not noticed, and starts to see the problem as a process rather than a fact about themselves.

4.6 Exceptions and patterns of success (Ausnahmen / Muster des Gelingens / Lösungserleben)

Purpose / when: After pacing. Aims: build hope and self-worth and retrieve the elements of a solution network. [source: Einführung TOC; Hasters citing Schmidt 2022:108–111; Bendlin 2022]
Three scenarios (Hasters, citing Schmidt 2022:108–111): (a) the client consciously remembers better episodes; (b) better times happened but "came, I don't know how"; (c) there seem to be none. For (c), Hasters reports four further checks before concluding there is no solution experience; their content was not described in detail [uncertain].
Steps: (1) Ask for times when the problem was absent, weaker, shorter or handled better, including in other areas of life. (2) For each, explore the sensory, bodily and image details, as carefully as for the problem in 4.5. (3) For type (b), treat the involuntary competence as evidence that the system "knows how" and invite curiosity. (4) For type (c), look for transferable competences from other contexts (sport, caring for others, work) or for how the client has prevented things from getting worse. (5) Link the found elements to the goal vision. (6) Suggest next steps only when the client can see room to act; otherwise they may feel overwhelmed. [source: Hasters §3.3; steps 1–4 partly synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "When was the last time it was even a little bit easier? … What was different in you then: how were you sitting, what were you saying to yourself?" / "How have you managed to stop it from getting even worse?"
Watch for: Dismissal ("that was just luck"), which is fine; utilise it ("so something in you can produce luck"). Working: posture brightens and the client adds details spontaneously.

4.7 Questioning techniques used as attention-focusing invitations

Purpose / when: All phases. The MEIHei curriculum teaches circular questions as "indirect, competence-stimulating invitation techniques". Every question focuses attention and therefore works as a small induction. [source: MEIHei certificate 2025; Hasters §3.2–3.4]
Types named in the sources: goal-vision questions (how would you notice, how would others react); scaling questions; hypothetical questions ("suppose…"); circular questions (what would X think if…); metaphorical comparisons; and questions on how the problem could be deliberately made worse. The miracle question is used too, but sources attribute it to de Shazer, not Schmidt. [source: Hasters §3.2–3.4; Brueggen 2024]
Steps [synthesis]: (1) Choose the question for the attention shift you want: toward resources, toward the observer position, or toward others' perspectives. (2) Ask slowly, then wait; silence lets inner search happen. Brueggen describes silence as an intervention in its own right. (3) Follow up on the non-verbal answer as much as the verbal one.
Example language (illustrative): Worsening: "If you wanted to make sure tomorrow goes really badly, what exactly would you have to do or tell yourself?" Circular: "What would your daughter say is the moment you're most yourself?" Scaling: "On 0 to 10, where 10 is the goal picture, where are you today, and what makes it that number and not lower?"
Watch for: A barrage of questions with no space to answer. Working: the client goes quiet, looks inward and answers with new information. A brief everyday trance is the sign that the question landed.

4.8 Comparing problem and solution patterns; observer position (Unterschiedsbildung)

Purpose / when: Once both networks are mapped. The aim is to make the difference between the two states experienceable, and to find the "hooking" and "unhooking" points (Verhäkeln/Enthäkeln) where one tips into the other. [source: Einführung TOC ch. 8; Hasters §3.4]
Steps: (1) Put the two maps side by side, on paper or as two floor positions. (2) Invite the client to look at both from a meta-position, as an observer standing next to them; comparisons are made from there to avoid over-association. (3) Ask for differences element by element: posture, breath, images, inner voice, felt age, interaction. (4) Ask where the switch point lies, i.e. which element tips the state first. (5) Choose one element to change first (4.15). [source: Hasters §3.4 (meta-position); steps otherwise synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "From over here, looking at both, the 'me in the meeting' and the 'me with my friends', what's the biggest difference you can see? … And where's the moment one turns into the other?"
Watch for: The client falling into the problem state while describing it, so move them physically back to the observer spot. Working: the client can name and feel a difference, and the problem looks less total.

4.9 Pendulating between problem and solution networks (Pendeln)

Purpose / when: To strengthen access to the solution state and make switching between the states familiar. As cited from Schmidt by Gaismayer: horizontal pendulating moves between problem and solution networks; vertical pendulating moves between conscious and unconscious levels. Repeated shifts may tire the analytic mind and deepen the solution trance. [source: Gaismayer 2024; no Schmidt page given, so uncertain]
Steps [synthesis built on that description]: (1) Have the client briefly touch the problem state, at low intensity (e.g. 3/10), and notice the body. (2) Shift to the solution state and notice the body. (3) Repeat several times, shortening the time in the problem state each time. (4) End in the solution state and ask what the client noticed about the switch.
Example language (illustrative): "Just dip a toe into how it was, only a little… notice where you feel it… and now step back over into how it is when it goes well… notice what changes in your breathing."
Watch for: Trauma-related material. Keep the problem dose low, and do not pendulate into traumatic memories without stabilisation (see 4.18 and section 5). Working: the shift becomes quicker and the client reports more control.

4.10 Problem-solution gymnastics and solution body coordination (Problemlösungsgymnastik / Lösungs-Körper-Koordination)

Purpose / when: In phase 5, once the problem pattern and a goal state are known. It builds a bodily "transfer" from the problem posture to a solution posture that the client can use in daily life. According to Hasters, Schmidt calls these among the most effective interventions he knows. Problem triggers cannot be fully prevented, so the aim is a reliable transition mechanism rather than never entering the problem state. [source: Hasters citing Schmidt 2022:113–116; Bendlin 2022]
Steps: (1) The client describes the problem interaction and its trigger. (2) The client deliberately adopts the problem posture and exaggerates it, e.g. hunched, fast shallow breathing, restless feet. They notice what happens inside and name it. (3) The client experiments with a different posture, breathing and small foot or toe movements until one feels intuitively right and gives a sense of sovereignty. (4) They practise moving from the exaggerated problem posture into the solution coordination several times. (5) The client picks an inconspicuous "mini-version" for daily use, e.g. one deep breath, stretching the toes inside the shoes, letting the shoulders drop. (6) They agree to practise it daily and especially just after the trigger. [source: Hasters §3.5; Bendlin 2022; step order partly synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Would you be willing to try something a bit odd? Show me, with your whole body, how you sit when it gets you, and make it even more so… What do you notice? … Now let your body find, by itself, a way of sitting that says 'I'm in charge here'. Take your time and trust what your body chooses."
Watch for: Embarrassment, so normalise it and model it yourself. Clients with chronic pain or physical limits should adapt the postures. With trauma survivors, exaggerating the problem posture can trigger flashbacks, so keep it brief and low-intensity, and stop if dissociation shows [synthesis]. Working: a felt shift within seconds, and the client reports using the mini-version in real situations.

4.11 Utilising involuntary and somatic signals (ideomotor feedback)

Purpose / when: Continuously. Schmidt regards involuntary processes and ideomotor phenomena as central (Einführung ch. 2, fig. 1). Secondary sources describe using breathing, posture, voice and facial changes as live feedback about which side of the client is reacting. [source: Einführung pp. 20–21; Bogner 2026; Brueggen 2024]
Steps: (1) Calibrate the client's baseline (breathing, colour, posture, voice). (2) When a marked change appears, during a goal image for instance, gently feed it back and ask about it. (3) Treat the signal as information from an involuntary side, not as "resistance" or noise. (4) Use it to adjust the intervention or the goal. [synthesis based on the cited descriptions]
Example language (illustrative): "Just now, when you said 'next spring', your breath went quite shallow. Did you notice that? … What might that part of you want us to know?"
Watch for: Mind-reading. Offer observations as questions, never as interpretations imposed on the client. Working: the client becomes curious about their own signals.

4.12 The symptom as a competent but costly solution attempt (dialectical hypnosystemics)

Purpose / when: In phase 6, when the problem persists despite motivation, or when change seems to threaten something. In Schmidt's view, symptoms often serve legitimate needs, such as loyalty, protection or regulation, and are relationship-shaping competences. Relapses and addictions can be understood as competent but costly regulation. [source: Liebesaffären introduction and TOC; Einführung TOC; Hasters §3.6]
Steps: (1) Ask what the symptom achieves or prevents, for the client and for others. (2) Run effect comparisons across relationships: how would the parent, partner or team be affected if the symptom vanished overnight? (3) Name the need behind it and value it. (4) Ask what the symptom costs. (5) Look for a way to meet the same need at lower cost, and build it into the solution network. [source: Hasters §3.6 (effect comparisons); other steps synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Suppose the exhaustion disappeared tomorrow. Who in your family would have to change most? … So in a way it has been looking after something important. Could we find a cheaper way to look after it?"
Watch for: Positive connotation that sounds cynical or blaming ("you want to be ill"). Value the need, not the suffering. Working: relief, less shame, and new ideas for meeting the need.

4.13 Working with sides and ambivalence (Seiten-Modell / Ambivalenz-Coaching)

Purpose / when: In phase 7, when the client is ambivalent or blocked ("I want to, but something stops me"). Schmidt describes multiplicity, meaning the person as made of many sides. In a two-sides version cited to Schmidt 2011, a conscious, willed side (intentions, goals, values) is set against an involuntary, autonomous side (emotions, bodily reactions, automatic patterns). The involuntary side is treated as a "solution with side effects" that guards a value forgotten in the conscious plan, such as safety or loyalty. The aim is a cooperation contract, not defeating that side. [source: Liebesaffären TOC; Häublein TOC 4.6; Bogner 2026 citing Schmidt 2011; Hasters §3.7]
Steps: (1) Frame the issue as a dilemma between two (or more) sides and name each. (2) Externalise them, e.g. with floor anchors, chairs or a flipchart, so that the client takes an observer "I" position that hosts both. (3) Give the blocking side a voice and ask what important need it protects. (4) Value its intention explicitly and give it a respectful role (e.g. a "safety officer"). (5) Negotiate: what would the protecting side need in order to allow a step forward? Let it advise on the plan. (6) Check with bodily signals whether both sides agree (4.11). Revise the goal if needed. [source: Bogner 2026 (case-derived elements); chairs and floor anchors as externalisation are named in Bogner; step order partly synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like there's a side of you that really wants this job, and another side that tightens your stomach every time you think about applying. Let's give each its own place. … If that tight side could speak, what is it trying to keep safe?"
Watch for: The approach can feel too binary when role conflicts are complex, so allow more than two sides. Intense focus on involuntary processes can overwhelm. Clients with dissociative disorders need a stable observer position first and should not be pushed into parts dialogue without trauma-informed stabilisation [synthesis]. Working: the blocking side softens, and an agreed, smaller step emerges.

4.14 Externalising and symbolising the problem (e.g. depression as a "visitor")

Purpose / when: When the client is fused with the problem ("I am depressed"). Schmidt's depression chapter names symbolising depression as a "visitor" (Besucher) and treating depression as information about legitimate needs. Secondary demo material describes giving the trigger figure a form and a name and asking what it wants to achieve. [source: Liebesaffären TOC; Gaismayer 2024]
Steps [mostly synthesis]: (1) Invite the client to give the problem a shape, colour, size, name or place in the room. (2) Ask when the visitor arrives, what it says, and what it wants for the client. (3) Value its message, e.g. a need for rest or a boundary. (4) Negotiate how it can be received differently: when it may come, how long it stays, what it needs before leaving.
Example language (illustrative): "If the heaviness were a visitor knocking at your door, what would it look like? … What message might it be bringing, one that deserves to be heard even if you don't want it to move in?"
Watch for: Severe depression with suicidal thinking, where a risk assessment comes first (section 5). Working: more distance, and the client starts to talk about the problem rather than from inside it.

4.15 Pattern interventions and pattern interruption (Musterinterventionen / Musterunterbrechung)

Purpose / when: In phase 8, to practise the change. Change means introducing a difference into the pattern, and one element or link may be enough. Secondary sources describe changing, removing, swapping or re-ordering pattern elements, and quote Schmidt's phrase for pattern interruption as a form of "Verstörung" (disturbance). In addiction, it means stopping the habitual sequence, e.g. reaching for a substance or fleeing, and inserting stabilising alternatives. [source: Einführung p. 8; Gaismayer 2024; Hasters §3.8]
Steps: (1) Using the map from 4.5, pick an early element in the sequence. (2) Design a small change: a different place, time, order, posture, inner sentence, or sensory detail, e.g. picturing the critical inner voice in a cartoon voice. (3) Rehearse it in session, in imagination and in the body. (4) Agree a real-life experiment framed as research, not as a test. (5) Review the experiment next session. [steps synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Next time the urge comes, before you do anything else, I'd be curious what happens if you stand up and do the shoulder thing we found, and only then decide. You don't have to stop anything, just change the order."
Watch for: Too-big changes, which tend to provoke relapses (4.20). Working: the client reports the old sequence "didn't run the same way".

4.16 Observation tasks between sessions

Purpose / when: After exceptions are found, or when the client cannot yet name any. Hasters (§3.3) mentions observation experiments in exception work. [source: Hasters §3.3; details synthesis]
Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask the client only to notice, not to change, when the problem is a bit weaker or when they handle it a bit better. (2) Ask them to note what they, and others, were doing then. (3) Review the observations in the next session as material for 4.6.
Example language (illustrative): "Between now and next time, there's nothing to change. Just be a researcher: notice the moments when it's even slightly easier, and what's going on then."
Watch for: The client returning with "nothing". Value their honesty and look for how they kept things from getting worse. Working: the client brings back episodes they would not have noticed before.

4.17 Metaphors, imagination and rituals

Purpose / when: In any phase, to invite involuntary processes indirectly. The MEIHei curriculum lists positive connotations, metaphors, rituals, dissociation strategies, multiplicity models, and personality development through imagination. Language patterns, images and metaphors "invite" involuntary processes. [source: MEIHei certificate 2025; Grimm/DAJEB 2024; Einführung TOC ("Imaginationen")]
Steps [synthesis]: (1) Collect the client's own metaphors ("I'm stuck in mud"). (2) Develop the metaphor from inside its own logic: what helps someone stuck in mud? (3) Offer images that carry the solution qualities you found in 4.6. (4) For rituals, design a concrete symbolic act with the client, e.g. putting a letter away, a closing gesture, or marking a transition. (5) Let the client choose what fits.
Example language (illustrative): "You said it's like walking through mud. People who know mud say you don't fight it, you shift your weight… I wonder what 'shifting your weight' would look like for you this week."
Watch for: Metaphors imposed by the therapist that do not fit. Working: the client develops the image further on their own.

4.18 Conversational trance and, where indicated, formal hypnosis

Purpose / when: The default is conversational trance: questions, pacing and focused imagery used in dialogue. Schmidt describes hypnosis as the ritual or communicative procedure, and trance as the resulting altered state. The indirect Ericksonian approach builds hypnotherapeutic findings into ordinary conversation. [source: Einführung pp. 11–22] Formal hypnosis is not described step by step in the sources [uncertain]. If you use it within your licence and training, the standard structure below applies [synthesis].
Screening and contraindications (sources): Many textbooks list hypnosis as contraindicated in severe depression, severe personality disorders and psychosis. Schmidt replies that competence-focused Ericksonian methods have been used with these groups, citing Yapko, Milzner, Reddemann and Watkins & Watkins, but the excerpt gives no screening procedure [source: Einführung ch. 2]. Benaguid & Schramm (2016) note that acute psychosis, borderline and histrionic personality disorder are generally considered contraindications. Some specialised clinicians do work with these groups. They also state that hypnotherapy is not a method for uncovering repressed childhood trauma, because of the risk of false memories. [source: Junfermann handout 5]
Added screening [synthesis]: dissociative disorders and unstable PTSD (stabilise first and avoid age regression into trauma); active suicidality; substance intoxication; epilepsy or medical conditions where relaxation or breath focus might mask symptoms (coordinate with the treating physician); clients with a history of coercive or abusive "hypnosis" experiences; and adequate consent capacity. Use hypnotic work for medical complaints only as an adjunct within medical care.
Structure for formal trance [synthesis, general clinical hypnosis practice]: (1) Preparation and consent: explain what trance is and is not. Agree a stop signal and what you will and will not suggest. (2) Induction: an Ericksonian, permissive style that utilises the client's current focus, e.g. breathing, a goal image, or a resource episode from 4.6. (3) Deepening: gentle, optional, using the client's own imagery. (4) Therapeutic suggestions or imagery: build on the client's solution network and invite, never command. (5) Re-alerting: count or walk back, and bring attention fully to the room. (6) Debrief: ask what stood out and check orientation and wellbeing. (7) Self-hypnosis practice: a short self-guided version of the solution state, e.g. anchored to the body coordination from 4.10.
Example language (illustrative): "You can keep your eyes open or closed, whatever suits you… and as you notice your breathing, you might let that memory of the lake come back in its own time… and you can always open your eyes or tell me to stop."
Watch for: Spontaneous abreaction, dissociation, age regression into painful memories. Reorient immediately (section 5). Never use trance to "find out what happened". Working: the client reports a vivid solution state and can recreate it alone.

4.19 Dissociation techniques and "inner conferences" (named only)

Purpose / when: Schmidt's depression chapter lists "Dissoziationstechniken" and "innere Konferenzen" (inner conferences). The MEIHei curriculum lists dissociation strategies. The steps are not given [uncertain]. A conservative reading compatible with 4.8 and 4.13: help the client step out of the problem state into an observer position, then let the relevant inner sides meet and confer from there [synthesis]. Do not improvise structured parts-dissociation work with clients who have dissociative disorders without specialist training. [source: Liebesaffären TOC; MEIHei certificate]

4.20 Relapses as "honour laps" (Ehrenrunden) and pacing the speed of change

Purpose / when: Whenever the old pattern returns. In the addiction chapter, Schmidt treats relapses as "Ehrenrunden" (honour laps) that carry information. Secondary sources describe relapse as an involuntary competence signalling that development went too fast or that needs went unmet. Possible responses are "slower" or "not yet". [source: Liebesaffären TOC; Hasters §3.9]
Steps: (1) Normalise the relapse and remove shame. (2) Explore it as information: what need came up, what was too fast, which side was overruled? (3) Value what the client did to get back on track. (4) Adjust the pace or goal, and if needed agree on "slower". (5) Use the episode to sharpen the transition mechanism (4.10, 4.15). [steps 2–5 synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "So the old pattern took one more honour lap. Before we get annoyed with it, what was it telling you about that week? … Maybe something is saying 'not so fast'."
Watch for: Dangerous relapses (substance use with medical risk, self-harm) need safety measures and medical input, not reframing alone [synthesis]. Working: the relapse becomes a learning step, and the time back to the solution state gets shorter.

4.21 Restriction model (Restriktionsmodell) (named only)

Bendlin (2022) mentions a hypnosystemic "Restriktionsmodell" for working with constraints that cannot be changed, using externalisation and imagery. Its steps are not described [uncertain]. Practical reading [synthesis]: separate what can be influenced from what is a given (illness, losses, institutional rules), value the given, and focus change work on the client's stance toward it.

4.22 Evaluation each session and planned closure

Purpose / when: Every session, and at the end. Evaluate progress each session, define closing criteria early, and mark the ending explicitly. [source: Hasters §3.9–3.10; Einführung TOC]
Steps: (1) At the start of each session, ask what has been better, and scale it. (2) At the end of each session, ask what was useful and what should be different next time. (3) Early on, agree how you will both know therapy can end. (4) At the end, review the solution network and the transition mechanisms, anticipate honour laps, and mark the ending with a small ritual or summary. [steps 1–2 and 4 partly synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "What should we do more of next time, and what less?" / "How will we know we've done enough, and that it's time to stop?"
Watch for: Hidden dissatisfaction, which you can draw out by asking about it explicitly. Working: scaling rises and the client increasingly plans steps independently.

4.23 Regulating the therapist's own state ("optimal therapist trance")

Purpose / when: Before and during sessions, especially with "difficult" cases. Schmidt includes building the optimal therapist trance as a topic and uses the therapist's inner states to shape cooperation. [source: Liebesaffären TOC and introduction]
Steps [synthesis]: (1) Before the session, recall a state in which you work at your best, and use your own body coordination. (2) During the session, notice when you slip into a problem trance, e.g. hopelessness, pressure to fix, or irritation. (3) Treat it as information about the client system. (4) Re-centre and, if useful, share it transparently ("I notice I'm starting to push. Let me slow down").
Watch for: Burnout and over-responsibility. Working: you stay curious under pressure.

5. Handling problems

The hypnosystemic sources reframe most "problems in therapy" as information to utilise. Concrete responses given in the sources are cited; the rest is marked [synthesis].

"Resistance" / the client doesn't do what was agreed. In this approach, resistance is information from a side whose needs have not been considered, or a sign that the pace or order is wrong, not a client deficit. Response: (1) Thank the client for the information. (2) Check the order again (4.2): is this a visitor or complaint order being treated as a customer order? (3) Ask what side of them was not on board, and give it a voice (4.13). (4) Offer "slower" or a smaller step. [source: Liebesaffären introduction (utilising resistance); Hasters §3.2, §3.9; steps synthesis]
Non-adherence to between-session experiments. Response: Do not frame tasks as homework that can fail. Frame them as research, in which "I didn't do it" is also data. Ask what got in the way, and whether that obstacle was protecting something. Shrink the task until the client is confident they can do it (scale 8 or above). [synthesis, consistent with 4.15–4.16]
Stuck in problem talk; the client cannot find any exceptions. Response: Go back to pacing and valuing (4.4). Explore how they have kept things from getting worse, and look for competences from other life areas (4.6, type c). Use the worsening question (4.7). If the client sees no point in continuing, Hasters reports that ending can be legitimate, and doing so openly respects their autonomy. [source: Hasters §3.3; Brueggen 2024]
The therapist pushes solutions too fast; the client feels unheard (rupture). Response: Name it openly: "I think I jumped to solutions too fast. You hadn't finished telling me how hard this is." Then give the problem space before going on. The approach explicitly values the problem alongside solutions. [source: Grimm/DAJEB 2024; repair wording synthesis]
Contradictory or impossible orders (e.g. from referrers, courts, families). Response: Make the dilemma transparent, value each party's interest, and agree what this client wants within the constraints. Utilising order dilemmas is a core Schmidt topic. [source: Liebesaffären TOC; MEIHei curriculum; detail synthesis]
Overwhelm or flooding during problem-network exploration, pendulating or body work. Response [synthesis]: (1) Stop the exercise. (2) Orient to the present: eyes open, name five things in the room, feel the feet on the floor, slow exhale. (3) Move to the observer position ("look at it from over there"). (4) Return to a resource state from 4.6 or the body coordination from 4.10. (5) Debrief and lower the dose next time. Secondary sources warn that an intense focus on involuntary processes can overload the client and requires good calibration skills. [source for warning: Bogner 2026]
Dissociation or spontaneous age regression. Age regression is a trance phenomenon Schmidt lists, and it can happen spontaneously in problem states. Response [synthesis]: Reorient firmly but gently, using the client's name, the date, the place and present-day facts, and ask them to move their body. Do not deepen or explore the regressed state. Treat the material as the client's present experience, not as a historical memory to verify. Plan stabilisation before any further trauma-related work, and refer to a trauma-specialised colleague if needed. Never use trance, imagery or suggestion to "recover" memories. [source for memory caution: Benaguid & Schramm 2016 / Junfermann handout; source for trance phenomena: Einführung ch. 2]
Trauma work. Schmidt names trauma therapy as an application area (Carl-Auer catalogue), but the sources give no trauma processing protocol [uncertain]. Response [synthesis]: Use hypnosystemic interventions mainly for stabilisation: resources, safe-place imagery, body coordination, sides work with an observer position. Do memory processing only with an established trauma method and its readiness criteria, by a trained clinician. Do not use the age-regression and "comfort the younger self" demonstrations in secondary sources as trauma processing without that training; they also combined non-hypnosystemic tools.
Severe depression and suicidality. Schmidt reports using competence-focused methods in depression and treats depression as information about legitimate needs. Response [synthesis]: Do a standard suicide risk assessment first, and repeat it. Make a safety plan, including lethal-means counselling (secure storage or removal), and involve others where indicated. Coordinate with medical and psychiatric care. Utilisation and reframing never replace risk management. [source: Liebesaffären TOC; Einführung ch. 2]
Psychosis. Schmidt describes systemic and hypnotherapeutic concepts for psychosis (Liebesaffären), while textbooks list acute psychosis as a contraindication for hypnosis. Response [synthesis]: No formal trance in acute psychosis. Conversational, competence-focused systemic work (order clarification, family context, valuing, exceptions) can be used alongside psychiatric treatment by experienced clinicians. Keep imagery concrete and reality-based. [source: Liebesaffären TOC; Einführung ch. 2; Junfermann handout]
Addiction and relapse. Response: Treat relapses as honour laps that carry information (4.20), and value loyalty conflicts. Ensure medical safety (withdrawal risks) through medical colleagues [synthesis]. [source: Liebesaffären TOC]
Utilisation misused as "anything goes" or manipulation. Stierlin's foreword stresses that hypnosis is not a manipulation technique. Response [synthesis]: Be transparent about what you are doing and why. Ask consent before trance-like or body exercises. Never use indirect suggestion to bypass the client's stated wishes, and offer options the client can freely reject (the "waiter" stance).
Positive connotation backfires ("so you're saying I want to be ill?"). Response [synthesis]: Apologise, separate the need from the suffering ("the suffering is real and not chosen; I'm curious what need is hiding underneath"), and slow down.
Coaching settings. MEIHei trains hypnosystemic coaches. Response [synthesis]: Refer to clinical care when you see persistent clinical symptoms, risk to self or others, trauma-related flooding, or substance dependence.
Therapist in a problem trance (hopelessness, over-responsibility). Response: See 4.23. Use supervision and team reflection; Schmidt describes the team as a "competence greenhouse" (Kompetenztreibhaus). [source: Liebesaffären TOC]

Sources

Sources

Further reading (not drawn on)

Schmidt, G. (2004; 9th ed. 2021). Liebesaffären zwischen Problem und Lösung. Hypnosystemisches Arbeiten in schwierigen Kontexten. Heidelberg: Carl-Auer.
Schmidt, G. (2005; 10th ed. 2022). Einführung in die hypnosystemische Therapie und Beratung. Heidelberg: Carl-Auer. (Pages cited via Hasters and Gaismayer are second-hand.)
Hammel, S. (2024). Transforming Lives with Hypnosystemic Therapy. Taylor & Francis.

Not drawn on: the full chapter texts of Schmidt's books on order types, sides, dissociation techniques, inner conferences, the restriction model and relapse; Schmidt 2011 (cited by Bogner); and SySt (Varga von Kibéd / Sparrer) sources, which are a related but separate Munich structural-constellation tradition and not used here. [uncertain]

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