Permissive, not Authoritative, Hypnosis

"The Ericksonian approach, or Permissive Approach, acknowledges every person as a unique individual that has unique behaviors and ways of entering a trance state and receiving suggestions. The subject knows how to relax and how to enter a trance state. The hypnotist merely acts as a guide into a hypnotic state.
Before Dr. Milton Erickson developed the Permissive Approach, the prevailing method of hypnosis was known as Authoritative Hypnosis.

In Authoritative hypnosis, the hypnotist has a power relationship over the subject and uses relaxation techniques on the subject in order for them to enter a trance state. For example, one might be reminded of the popular image of stage hypnotists when they say, “You are getting sleepy” or “Your eyes are getting heavy” (Alman, 1983, p. 26).

The idea is that the hypnotist must act in a way to get the person’s conscious mind out of the way in order to open up the unconscious, usually attempting to put consciousness “to sleep” (Alman, 1983, p. 26).

In Authoritative Hypnosis, the unconscious mind if viewed as a reservoir or a fertile piece of ground in which one can “implant” suggestions. According to this approach, the unconscious is like a basement where experiences are stored and lay stagnant unless they are aroused by some external stimuli.

Also, according to this approach to unconsciousness, the hypnotist must then tell the unconscious mind what it should do.
This approach is also faulty, because the unconscious mind is not a neutral space which will do whatever the hypnotist tells it to do.

This theory of hypnosis is often ineffective, because if the person cannot enter a trance when the hypnotist tells them to, then they are viewed as simply “unhypnotizable”.

Milton Erickson believed that every person has the ability to enter a trance state, and every person does so on a daily basis (see Haley, 1986).

The unconscious, according to Erickson, is a living and active participant in the psyche, and “knows” what is best for the person.

Erickson saw the unconscious as intelligent and autonomous. He said the trance state is, “An opportunity for the subject to set aside his or her identification with any limiting conscious processes and shift into a context (i.e. trance) where he or she can access and utilize resources for therapeutic gain” (Zeig, 1980, p. 89).

Notice the shift in language; the hypnotist is not forcing the subject to enter into a trance state, but instead allowing them to do it themselves.

Using this approach, hypnotherapy treats each subject as an entirely unique person.

Erickson would say that “the hypnotist should utilize the subject’s present reality, affirming that what they are feeling is perfectly fine and that it can lead them into a desired outcome (e.g., experience trance)” ( Zeig, 1980, p. 89)

For Erickson, to accept the person’s reality meant that the hypnotist must have the attitude that what the subject is doing at any given time is valid. The person has perfectly good reasons for seeing the world in whatever way that they do. In comparison to the authoritative approach, this means that the person can never be unhypnotizable.

To accomplish this, Hypnotherapists engage in what is known as “pacing” and “leading.”

“Pacing” means that the hypnotist relays the person’s communications back to them, not attempting to coerce them in any way, in order to build trust and rapport between the subject and hypnotist.

The term “leading” means that the hypnotist communicates ideas or behaviors that are slightly different from the ones the subject is currently experiencing. However, these communications are slightly closer to the desired trance state.

For example, a hypnotist may say to a person, “You are sitting there, looking at me, breathing deeply, and as you shift in your chair you may also begin to shift into a state of comfortable relaxation” (Zeig, 1980, p. 90). The above quotation is a good example of pacing and leading, in that the subject’s non verbal communication is acknowledged, accepted, and then a new lead is proposed by the hypnotist.

This process of pacing and leading is continuous in hypnotherapy, like a spiraling stair case.

Any sort of resistance to a given lead is not really resistance at all, and certainly does not mean that the subject cannot be hypnotized. All it means is that the given lead does not work for that person. So the hypnotist can throw it out and try something new, thus actually doing something constructive because the hypnotist now knows what does not work for that person (Zeig, 1980, p. 89-90).

Erickson also emphasized the use of indirect language to allow the subject’s unconscious to reveal itself in whatever way it feels is best.

For example, if I say the word “sky” there are an infinite number of images that can be associated with that word. Someone could see a bright blue, clear sky. Someone else could see a blue sky with clouds, or a completely cloudy sky.

Ericksonian hypnotherapy utilizes this indirect language so that the subject can communicate their own association to the language presented, rather than conforming to a prefabricated idea that the hypnotist imposes on them.

Ericksonian therapy is concerned only with guiding the individual as he/she exists in the present, and so there would be no need to “dig up” past negative or traumatic experiences.

In fact, many times Ericksonian hypnotherapy is successful at treating the symptoms of a subject (sometimes eliminating them), which will allow the person the ability to look back at their experiences on their own in a calm manner (Zeig, 1980). "

adapted from Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by Kevin Sprenkle