Neo-Ericksonian Approaches to Psychotherapy & Hypnosis

Wherefore “Neo-Ericksonian” Hypnosis?

One of my favorite things I get to do each year is to teach Karate-style wood-breaking to an assembled group of high school juniors at an annual Rotary Club Youth Leadership Camp. It’s called RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award) and I’m privileged to offer a two-hour long presentation both on how to break wood and, of course, the metaphorical value of what doing it means. The wonderful people at RYLA flatter me by saying that it is one of the high points of the kids’ experience each year, but it is certainly a high point of mine.

Now, to successfully break a board with your bare hand requires several things. One of the most important of these is to follow through. To do this you aim past the board. You imagine that your target is a few inches on the other side of the board. So, when the time comes to break it, you are not punching the board, you are punching through the board.

I call it creative lying. (It is also an integral part of my E.A.S.E. model of goal getting. If you’d like to read more about that you can find an article about that on my Ericksonian.com website.)  I call it that because, in a way, it is exactly what you are doing… you are lying to yourself. The goal is actually to hit the board but you tell yourself, and act as if, your target is beyond the board. The radically improves your chances of succeeding.

Well, in the same way, attempting to emulate or model Milton Erickson and be as effective with our clients as he was is well and good. I can’t imagine any better role model than Dr. Erickson. But what if we dared to imagine going further and aimed just a little bit past that goal? What if we strove to follow his lead and actually improve upon it?

This is the goal of creating the label “Neo-Ericksonian” Hypnosis. I believe in many ways it is the world many of us are living in already. To give it a name allows us to ask important questions and to define and refine what is actually meant by the term.  My hope is that, perhaps paradoxically, this will help clarify the original vision Milton had and create even better practitioners of the art.

Another category of presupposition, Repetitive Verbs and Adverbs are verbs and adverbs beginning in “re.” Some examples include repeatedly, return, restore, renew. If you “return” something, it presupposes you borrowed it in the first place.

And you’ll discover that trance helps you restore  your whole body.

John was going to renew his subscription.

If you repeatedly do that, it might get stuck that way.

Here’s another category of presupposition. This is still in the realm of reversing the meta model because if we heard our clients using language like this we might choose to question their presupposition using the meta model.

Repetitive Cue Words are words that imply - or presuppose - that the action referred to has occurred and can or should be repeated.

(too, also, either, again, back)

I suggest you do a swish pattern again.

Well, you can also quote Ericksonian.info if you cite the site.

It’s a wonderful thing to have dessert, too.

Sally wasn’t long and tall either.

Comparative As

This is a form of a presupposition that uses the sentence structure listed below. What is being presupposed is a comparison that is non-specifically stated, but that gets a bit overlooked because of the “as” used twice.

(as………as)
I don’t know anything as powerful and profound as Ericksonian Hypnosis.

It is very hard to find a treasure trove of Hypnosis Information as profound as www.ericksonian.info.

There has never been a TV show as far-sighted as Star Trek.

Comparative

(er, more, less)

The more you study Sleight of Mouth the less slight of mouth you’ll be.

She’s sweeter in the morning.

It’s faster to fly when you have the time.

Ordinals are words like first, second, third, next, another. Words that imply more than one. This is one of my favorite categories of presupposition.

I think we’ve made some great progress in our first session, don’t you?

OK, one thing you are going to love about this new car is its styling.

I was cutting the grass when another rabbit ran out from under a bush.

This category also refers to time.

Complex Adjectives

are words like “new, old, present, former, and previous.”

Once you’ve mastered complex adjectives you’ll never go back to previous skill levels.

We are trying to return our house to its former glory.

Avid NLP learners rate dougobriensblog.com as the new must-read web site.

Hypnosis is about out growing old ways of thinking.

One can’t imagine the present standard lasting long.

Here’s another simple presupposition. This one has to do with time.

Subordinate Clauses of Time

Like these: before, after, during, as, since, prior, while, yet, now, again

I have noticed that as people practice they gain greater fluency.

While kids text constantly their attention is bifurcated.

When you find friends who stand by you when the going is hard, cherish them.

She rode the horse which sold for the highest price that year again.

It’s Tuesday. Has the guy that always wears cowboys boots comes in yet?

After you read this you will find you want to use these skills daily.

Here’s another simple presupposition (where what is being presupposed is essentially the existence of the thing.)

Relative Clauses These are complex noun phrases where the noun is followed by a phrase beginning with who, which, or that.

I have noticed that people who practice their skills become most proficient.

It’s the kids who text constantly who worry me the most.

When you find friends who stand by you when the going is hard, cherish them.

She rode the horse which sold for the highest price that year.

Tuesday afternoons the guy that always wears cowboys boots comes in.

Reverse Meta Model
A “Presupposition” is something that is pre-supposed or accepted to be true in advance of any discussion. So if you and I were arguing about whether the moon were made of green cheese or not (everyone knows it is swiss cheese) it may not even be NOTICED that we’ve both accepted as a fact the existence of a moon. If one of us were from Mars we might not be aware of moons as a thing. It is actually pretty amazing how much we presuppose. How much we believe without seriously calling it into question.

Of course, when we hear other people doing this with their language, we can use the meta model to call it into question. (I guess “calling it into question” might be another name for the meta model.) As the therapist, however, we sometime may choose to deliberately presuppose certain things into our communication. Thus we reverse the meta model.

SImple Presuppositions

Bandler and Grinder’s book, “The Structure of Magic” is a treasure trove of incredibly useful presuppositions.  Here are five “simple presuppostions:”

1. Proper Names

(Presupposing that this specific person exists)
Won’t you be delighted when Agent Scully walks through that door?

2. Pronouns

(…that this general person exists)
Won’t you be keen when she walks in?

3. Definite Descriptions

(this specific thing exists)
I liked the woman in the blue uniform.

4. Some quantifiers

(all, every, some, few, many, none, each)
Everyone has many potentials that they are unaware of, yet are there.

5. Generic Noun Phrases

(Noun phrases standing for a whole class)
I have often considered the great communicators of our time to be poets.

I suggest you write out several examples of each one above. Because, when you write them, you know you know them and they will be yours to use. Or perhaps I am wrongly presupposing that that is of interest to you.