One of my favourite deepening hypnosis processes is one championed, developed and often referred to by Michael Yapko, and is called the Mind’s Eye Closure.

I like it because it is fairly quick, really does the job of deepening well and helps in a variety of ways with the session. The technique involves offering suggestions about imagining the presence of a “mind’s eye” as the (albeit metaphorical) part of our mind which thinks and imagines stuff even when our body is relaxed, comfortable and still.

Here on this blog, I have written a  variety of ways of using eye fixation to induce hypnosis and for self-hypnosis purposes, and this process offers up a similar notion using your imaginary mind’s eye and the eyelids of that mind’s eye. The hypnotherapist guides the client to imagine the mind’s eyelid getting heavier, for example and we then extend the metaphor so that this (imaginary) eyelid closing also helps the mind to quieten and be less distracted.

It is great to use if a client has come from a busy environment, or is fidgety at the beginning of a session, for example.

This is the way Michael Yapko suggests it is done and can be found in his book Trancework in the chapter on Strategies of Hypnotic Induction. He suggests you word it something like this, having ideally completed an initial induction of some kind:

“…. just as you have eyes that see the world around you, you have an inner eye that many people refer to as the “mind’s eye”… and it can see images and process thoughts even as you relax deeply… and you can think of your mind’s eye as having an eyelid… and like your physical eyes your mind’s eyelid can gradually grow more tired and heavy, and it can begin to drop… and as it begins to close it slowly closes out more of those stray thoughts and stray images and leave your mind clearer and clearer, more quiet and open and free to experience whatever you would choose… and it’s closing more and more… and your mind grows quieter, more restful… and now your mind’s eye can close… and close out any stray thoughts or images that you don’t want to interfere with how relaxed you are…”

Yapko, M (2003) Trancework, Brunner Boutledge, pp 301.

I like the way this technique can help people ‘switch off’ and get focused on the hypnosis. I tend to prefer that you suggest their mind is more and more clear rather than it is perfectly clear, because if they have some minor internal dialogue, they may feel that what you are suggesting is not working and as such develop some resistance to the procedure.

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