Executive summary about hypnosis by Christopher Montrose
Milton Erickson is considered a legend in the field of hypnosis for having done more to change the way modern hypnosis is practised than anyone else in the past century. Essentially, Milton Erickson would use indirect methods to achieve the results he wanted.
The Method
Milton employed an "indirect" method. This means that he did not actively always seek to instil a trance, but that he talked around the topic, probed, and sought to seek detail from the patient first before just going into a standard trance induction.
By understanding the patient, Milton Erickson was able to equip himself with an arsenal of tools. He would learn specific details about his patients and use those details to indirectly solve the problems they were facing. Examples would be certain words that have a strong influence over a particular patient, their favorite things, experiences from their past. He has said that most of his techniques involve some form of confusion.
"Distraction can be a powerful ally when someone is trying to overcome something difficult." Milton Erickson
Often Milton's hypnosis would be very story based, and his sessions would often not be purely hypnotic, but more like an open conversation where trance was not involved at all.
It is this "normalizing" of hypnosis which in-fact popularized it and led it into the mainstream. People stopped seeing hypnosis as a mysterious practice, as a voodoo, or a magic. It became accepted, and the results spoke for themselves.
A Famous Early Study
There's a story about an older man who had an overpowering fear of riding in an elevator. Milton Erickson's solution was to have the man stand in the elevator with a nice looking young lady, who would distract the old man by offering him kisses, much to the dismay of the long-time married gentleman. The fear of being unfaithful to his wife was greater than his fear of elevators, and he was able to overcome this fear through indirect treatment.
Here the theory of distraction was practised. Whatever we hold foremost in our minds we focus on, and we can have issues with. Because the man wasn't able to think about the elevator, due to thinking about something else, he was able to move past his fear and even experience it without incidence.
Milton Erickson never hid behind the veil of mystery that appeals to some hypnotherapists of the time, and that's partly why his style of hypnosis was so effective. His down to earth approach allowed him to connect with his patients on a personal level, to learn about them and use his findings to treat them with hypnosis.
As time passes, history will remember Milton Erickson for his unique contributions to the field of hypnosis and his no nonsense, conversational style of indirect hypnosis.