Rabbit, rabbit…. Non-stop chatter can be a pain, can’t it?
Many would know that without the spoken word, hypnotists may well be rendered impotent… Hypnotists and hypnotherapists, in my experience, tend to dominate the amount of talking that is done when the hypnosis process is going on and that may not be a very good thing from a therapeutic perspective…
As I was preparing to teach my hypnotherapy diploma last weekend, whilst doing some of my own study and research, I was struck by this sentence from the article entitled Assaultive Behavior in the Analysis of Children by Herman Daldin PhD.
He states “I believe verbalization will reduce the intensity of affects“.
Good parenting guides often suggest that to minimise aggression, a child should be taught to “use words” to express themselves. This substitution of language for action is intended to allow the child the freedom to have his feelings, get them vented, but to not allow the child to physically hurt others or to hurt property. However, perhaps there is more to the notion of “using words” than just the teaching of internal control.
Perhaps, as Dr. Daldin suggests, the words actually change the feelings that are felt by people.
When we think of psychotherapy or other forms of talk therapy we know that at times, people feel better when they have described their internal and external experiences. The key ingredient to their relief is not just sharing their story, but that the very act of verbalising their experience changes how they experience their situation. So why don’t hypnotherapists allow for more expression by the client in hypnotherapy?
Is this idea just old hat or is this actually a profound notion? I think the latter. I think it is absolutely mind bending to think that the act of putting a story into words, changes how the storyteller feels about his story.
As I write daily on this blog, I have the same experience. Blogging has changed how I feel about my work and the hypnosis and hypnotherapy field. The effort to convey my ideas in a clear and cogent form regularly instills in me a renewed excitement for my profession.
So in hypnosis and hypnotherapy, I often encounter hypnotists and hypnotherapists who dominate the conversations and leave little room for the individual to express themselves at all… Which by all accounts is missing an opportunity to let someone feel better by just speaking and verbalising…
