I have found that rather than trying to define hypnosis, which can tie it down in some rigid way, is it is more useful to give a description so that when we use the word we can have some agreement about what we mean. 

For me, it can be a relief to think of hypnosis as 

an experience 

where there is focus 

and absorption 

that we can mutually agree as being “hypnosis”. 

By having this description and emphasising the experiential aspect of hypnosis, by identifying the components of focus and absorption and particularly by emphasising that it is only hypnosis by mutual agreement, we can avoid debating about what hypnosis really is and what it really isn’t. 

It follows for me that we can think of meditation as an experience where there's focus and absorption that we call meditation; mindfulness as an experience with focus and absorption that we can call mindfulness, EMDR or TFT as experiences with focus and absorption that we can call EMDR or TFT. There are differences between these approaches in what the focus is, and we can also see the similarities between these experiences so we don’t have to get involved in complex arguments about whether meditation, mindfulness, EMDR or TFT is the same as hypnosis or different from it. 

We can then begin to explore hypnosis and how someone can go into hypnosis, based on this description. All we need to do is to find a way of helping a person to have an experience, to become focused and to become absorbed in that experience. This allows us a much simpler approach. We don’t then have to learn complex techniques or convoluted methods of hypnotic “induction”. We can simply invite anyone interested into an experience, invite some focus, invite some absorption and then invite the possibility of this being called hypnosis. 

From this perspective, we can get to the usefulness of hypnosis without having to be bogged down by all of the minutiae and arguments about what it is or isn’t, really. This allows hypnosis to be much more ordinary, much more a common everyday experience and brings it out of the weirdness, out of the ivory tower complexity of some special theoretical position.

We can begin to explore, with each individual client, what experience would be useful for them, how they could benefit from focusing and becoming absorbed in it so that they can move from their problem and towards their solution. 

Rob