When I first learnt hypnosis, I had to learn specific, rigid hypnotic induction techniques … “Look at that spot, relax your body, your eyes are getting sleepy, they are going to close …” And while this was often effective, it was very boring, hour after hour, using the same words, the same technique. I had trouble staying awake at times. 

Also, some people didn’t respond to these suggestions. They couldn’t continue to look at the spot that I asked them to look at. They found that when they tried to relax their body, they just got tense. And sometimes their eyes weren’t getting sleepy. Sometimes their eyes didn’t close. Then we were in big trouble. Usually the way I managed this, in my ignorance, was to say that they were resistant, had secondary gain, weren’t ready to change, or that they were poor hypnotic subjects, that hypnosis was not suitable for them. 

Since my learning with Erickson, I prefer to invite someone to experience something, and then invite them to begin to focus on some aspect of that experience and allow a natural absorption to follow. In response to such an invitation, nothing is imposed, there is no intrusion. Each individual can find their own focus, their own degree of absorption adding to their senses of autonomy and self trust.

I can then comment on any physiological changes that can be observed and that we want to encourage. 

I have noticed that when anyone begins to focus and become absorbed in an experience, no matter what it is, there is a natural tendency for their breathing to change, however subtly, usually becoming a little slower and a little deeper. There is often an alteration in their blinking, usually slowing down, and sometimes with an interesting tendency for the eyelids to remain closed for just a minutely longer amount of time, almost like their eyelids become a little sticky, just reluctant to open - very subtle. But I've noticed that if we look for it, we can often see it. 

Also it’s common to be able to observe a flattening out of the facial muscles, a smoothing out of the face, sometimes the shoulders lower. Some astute observers can also notice, at times, a slowing of the pulse that’s visible in the neck. Oft times, there is a relative stillness in the body in adults, although children, of course, have their own way of becoming focused and absorbed. Often, they keep moving quite noticeably. But in adults, usually there's some stillness. 

If we comment on these observable changes, there's a tendency for those changes to be enhanced, which ratifies to the client that something is happening and as well as that, adding to the therapeutic relationship, since the client feels respected and their experience is affirmed. 

As well as commenting on the specific changes, we can make generic comments as background reassurance and encouragement, by saying things like, “that’s good”, “that’s right”, “ah-ha”, “good”, “yes”, “lovely”, “fine”. It’s not a matter of commenting on everything - just what we want to encourage. If a client is fidgeting, we don’t need to comment on that, although we could perhaps say, “I notice that there's a lot of stillness in your feet.”

Inviting someone in this way into a focused, absorbed experience that is their experience, and having their experience validated and enhanced, is a much more respectful and effective approach than applying some rigid hypnotic induction technique.