HYPNOSIS FOR CHANGE
By Josie Hadley and Carol Staudacher
This is a beautiful book that I continue to enjoy every time I go back to remind myself of some of its main points. On page 12 of chapter 1, “What is hypnosis?” there is a great description of the different levels of consciousness and their range. I copied the information down to keep in my wallet so that I can easily refer to it when needed. The chapter presents in a very clear way, the various levels of consciousness and gives examples of the mental and physical characteristics as well as the activity of consciousness.
Chapter 2 is extremely helpful in analyzing several types of inductions. It also provides on page 29, an interesting description of the hypnotic voice. There is a description of two types of voices: “Monotone” and “Rhythmic.” There are two useful relaxation inductions towards the end of the chapter that can be very helpful to the reader.
Chapter 3 illustrates hypnotic communication that is mainly based on suggestions. The chapter goes on to help the reader understand the major types of suggestions such as: relaxation suggestions, deepening suggestions, direct suggestions, imagery suggestions, indirect suggestions, and posthypnotic suggestions. In addition, the authors offer very helpful guidelines for the effective use of suggestions and they show examples for each of them. This is a very interesting chapter because it prepares the readers before they begin using the specific scripts for each of the topics presented throughout the book.
The chapters 4-20 are targeted to describe specific topics: weight loss, smoking cessation, stress reduction, treating phobias, natural childbirth, health problems, pain control, improving self-esteem and motivation, improving learning experiences, improving athletic performance, enhancing creativity, sleep problems, anxiety and panic disorders, healing the adult survivor of child abuse, loss and separation, surgery, and overcoming depression.
All chapters describe the objectives and what to expect when using the inductions. They not only provide great inductions to follow but they also offer exercises where the reader can use blank lines to anticipate/brainstorm his/her responses or suggestions. It is interesting that while one person is reading their inductions, you can, at the same time, be elaborating on yours. I have used some of the inductions and have found them to be very helpful and full of rich imagery that have benefited my clients and my own learning.
Chapter 21 “For the Hypnotherapist: Special Considerations” offers many tips for the reader that are gems of information which can make a difference in any clinical intervention. For example on page 276 under “Defining the Problem”, the authors state: “During the first interview, allow sufficient time to define the problem. Discover the causes by asking when, where, with whom, and under what conditions a symptoms occurs.”
Finally, I highly recommend that you buy this book and have it handy because it is a great source of information. It will certainly help you anytime you read it.
Reviewed by Ennio Ammendola, M.A.
September 21, 2011