Yes I do indeed get asked a lot about the best hypnosis books to buy to help become a hypnotherapist and learn hypnosis.
Here are the hypnosis books that I would most recommend, the important stuff for hypnotherapists and students of hypnosis:
– Hartlands Medical and Dental Hypnosis by Heap and Aravind
– Essentials of Clinical Hypnosis by Kirsch and Lynn
– Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors by Corydon Hammond et al
For those interested in stage hypnosis and mentalism:
– Encylopaedia of Stage Hypnotism by Ormond McGill
– The Secrets of The Amazing Kreskin by Kreskin, of course.
Medical and scientific importance:
– Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology by Lynn, Lilienfield and Lohr (If your surname does not begin with the letter L, you are not allowed in their gang)
– DSM-IV – The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the fifth edition is due out next year.
History of Hypnosis:
– Hidden Depths by Robin Waterfield
– The Discovery of Hypnosis: The Complete Writings of James Braid by Donald Robertson
For an exhaustive text on NLP:
– The Encylopaedia of Systemic Neuro Linguistic Programming and NLP New Code by Dilts and DeLozier
And I forget the book I referred to about self-hypnosis…
There are others I like, but all the above I love and deem important to the hypnosis student.
I am more than happy for others to share their favourites here too 🙂
That’s funny, I was planning an email to you today to share with the 2010/2011 diploma students.
You recommended “Training Trances” in your course prerequisites for last year, although we never actually discussed it in the classes.
I particularly like the way that this book is a direct transcript of a hypnosis training seminar, and as such, is almost like being there. There is clever use of typography to enable analogue marking, and a really nice embedded command that I find myself following every time I read through it.
Another book that I highly recommend is “Monsters and Magical Sticks“.
This is not a technical manual, but a series of anecdotes. There are useful style tips to pick up, but the main reason that I love this book is that it does a great job of explaining what we do in terms that are accessible to all. I also particularly like the central premise of the book that “there is no such thing as hypnosis”, with the justification that “all communication is hypnotic“
Ah yes, I do love that book Andy, it is very well written and easy to follow and fits in with primarily an Ericksonian approach to hypnosis. Thanks for mentioning that one.