We’ve explored the way we can think of hypnosis as an experience that involves focus and absorption that we mutually agree as being hypnosis. We’ve also explored how easy it is for any person to become focused and absorbed in something that they like to do. So it makes perfect sense then, as a way of inviting someone into a hypnotic experience that would be useful to them and relevant to them to invite them into an experience that they like and to then invite focus and absorption so that we can have what we can agree on as a hypnotic experience. 

We can ask someone, “Would it be okay for you to do something that you like to do?” Of course, the client has already told us what that is. So, if they like reading a book, we can say, “Would it be okay to read a book?” If they like walking in nature, we can ask, “Would it be okay to go walking in nature?” If they like to cycle, “Can we go for a bike ride?” And, because we all like to do something that we like to do, when we invite someone into the experience of doing something they like to do, we can expect that that would be very agreeable and easy. 

We can offer alternatives, like, “You might like to remember some specific time, just recently or sometime in the past, or some imagined time that didn’t really happen. It really doesn’t matter. And then, as you allow yourself to connect with this experience of doing something that you like to do, to allow yourself to begin to focus on some part of your experience, and you may find yourself focusing on one particular aspect of it or you might notice that your focus shifts from here to there, to different places, different parts of the experience. None of that’s important. You might even find that you start focusing on one experience and then find yourself becoming more interested in another experience. So all you need to do is allow yourself to focus in whatever way you are focusing on, whatever part of your experience that you find yourself focusing on.” 

Then we can invite this client… “You can become more absorbed. As a part of any experience of focusing, it’s only natural to allow yourself to become more absorbed in the experience, and so, as it continues, that absorption can increase and it doesn’t need to increase in a way that you might expect or that you might think that I want, but you can simply allow the absorption to increase in any way that it does.” 

Next, we can comment on the various changes. If we look for them, they're often very apparent. We can look at the breathing and comment on what we very frequently and expectedly find. “Your breathing is showing those subtle changes. It’s slightly slower, slightly deeper.” We can talk about the blinking. “I noticed that your blinking is showing those interesting alterations, a little bit slower and of maybe a very faint hint of pausing before they open each time.” We can comment on the facial configuration. It’s very common for someone in any focused, absorbed experience to find that their facial muscles are smoothing out.

Predictably, we can expect some stillness [except for children]. In adults, if there is some stillness, we can comment on this. “There's a lot of immobility in your body. And, although you know you could move, perhaps for the time, you really don’t need to move, but can allow yourself to be comfortably still.” 

Speaking about these changes that we can observe helps to ratify for each client that something is happening. Also, as we speak about them, there is a tendency for these experiences to be enhanced. If for example, we’re looking for stillness and there’s fidgeting in someone’s hands, we don’t need to mention that. We can just say, “I notice that your feet are very still.” 

These observations need to be pure observations without any interpretation. If we say, “You are comfortably still,” that’s a presumption on our part. We don’t know whether someone’s comfortable or not. All we can do is comment on what we can observe. Some people may look relaxed, but may not feel relaxed. It’s best to keep our observations to simple observable facts, devoid of any interpretation or meaning that may or may not fit with the individual client’s experience. 

When such a client has an opportunity to begin to focus and then become absorbed in some experience that they like, we can encourage them to pay attention to the different senses as they become aware of by asking questions about each of the senses in turn. “What can you see, if you look to the left, to the right, if you look above, if you look behind you? Who else is there?” We can ask about sounds, “Is there anything in particular that you become aware of, any sounds around?” 

We can ask, “Is there anything in the air? Can you smell something?” Some people will notice the freshness in the air or the saltiness of the sea spray if they're walking by a beach. We can ask anyone, “Is there any particular taste in your mouth?”. This is not very often fruitful, but it’s nice to have it there as an option. We can also ask about the general mood. “How are you feeling? What's it like for you to be in this space?”

As we ask these questions, even if the client doesn’t respond, if they don’t respond outwardly, the questions tend to evoke a richer textured inner experience of what’s happening. But most often, the client will reply and tell us. “Oh, I can see such and such. I can hear that or something else.”  and, as they say it themselves, that adds to the richness, it adds to the texture, it adds to the experience. It makes it more real, more memorable, more accessible. 

So this process of inviting someone into hypnosis, by simply inviting them to re-experience and imagine something that they like to do, to invite focus, to invite absorption and then for us to comment on the changes and ask for enhanced texture around these changes can be such a simple, such an easy, such an elegant, such a respectful way for any individual to find their own individual way into their own individual hypnotic experience, in contrast to a more rigid way of suggesting that someone do this, that or the other, according to our ideas, as a function of our expertise and professional knowledge. 

Rob