Ok, so to say the word revivification does make you feel like you have a stutter and sound a bit like Arkwright from Open All Hours (those of you in the UK old enough to remember the TV show anyway!), however, it remains a very powerful and simple way to induce hypnosis.
The title of my post today is indeed verging on being a tongue twister, but the notion is very simple indeed, and it’s good to embrace simplicty from time to time, isn’t it?
Disappointingly, my huge dictionary only has revivification noted as the noun for the word revivify. So I may have to go and get myself a new one and revive my dictionary collection. However, my wordchecker keeps correcting my typing errors, so it knows that such a word exists which I am impressed with. The word revivify in my dictionary means the following:
To give new life or spirit to; revive.
Which does beautifully explain the notion of using revivification for the purpose of inducing hypnosis.
Revivification utilises a person’s memory to relive an experience intensely. So it is not exclusively to be used for hypnosis, though of course as a hypnotherapy trainer and hypnotherapist, I use it in such a way.
The classic experiences you can choose to elicit are those that are predisposed to have hypnosis present. For example, experiences that are similar to hypnosis that your subject has been in before, times of great fascination/absorption, times of intense learning and so on. of course, if you have a client that you have taken into hypnosis formally on one or more occasion before, then you can use that direct experience of hypnosis to revivify too.
Any good hypnotist and hypnotherapist will know that of course all your training in preparing your client for hypnosis, prior to the induction still counts here – you ensure you have rapport, be aware of creating the right amount of expectation for the upcoming hypnotic experience, be congruent yourself and firmly believe that the individual is going to successfully go into hypnosis, ensure your language suggests as much and behave accordingly. There are other considerations that we’ll assume are present and dealt with in order for you to begin the process.
Step One: Initially, you may conversationally or casually enquire about a state that you want to elicit. For example, “how do you know when you have been totally absorbed in something?” or simply “what do you like to do to relax?” or “How do you know when you are relaxed?”
The question needs to be open in order for you to gather sensory rich information from the individual that you are going to take into hypnosis.
Step Two: Now ask them to take a deep breath and as they exhale, to close their eyes and start to use their imagination.
You now start to explore the answer you were given (in step one) and you ask detailed questions about it, ideally having them explain a memorable occasion when that happened. You ask them to describe when, where, with whom, what happened and so on; giving a detailed account of it happening.
This in itself can begin to alter the mindset of the person, as they have to start imagining that scenario in order to recount it.
Step Three: You start to use linking language to smoothly join and connect that individual’s replies. So that each thing leads to the next step… You encourage that explanation to flow using words like ‘as’, ‘and’, ‘while’ etc. “As you sat in the chair in front of the TV, what happened next?”
If they have been into hypnosis in this formal manner before, ideally something they considered to be a deep experience of hypnosis, then steps two and three can simply be altered to this:
“Please recall that time when you were in a deep, deep state of hypnosis. Remember how you behaved; that is, how did you hold your body, what were doing, what was your posture, did your eyes feel a certain way (you elicit this information of their behavioural, physical experience of hypnosis) … And what were you thinking? What did you believe and how strongly did you believe in the experience? (Now elicit the cognitions that were present when they experienced hypnosis)… “
Step Four: Then, to induce hypnosis, you start to gradually change the tense of your own language from past to present, so that the individuals responses are being fed back as ‘softened’ instructions. “So you are totally absorbed and focused on the TV now… And your mind feels like it is not totally connected to the TV but you are still aware of it happening… Good, and you are enjoying that sensation aren’t you?”
Then, start to also shift the focus of your words from external descriptions of the setting and situation, to internal elements, sensations and thoughts to move the focus inside their mind and focus their attention inwardly. “So as you’re sitting on the sofa, watching the television listening to the music on the show, you are feeling deeply relaxed or is it more of that absorption you told me about earlier?”
If they have experienced hypnosis before, and gave you some responses to the latter part of stepo three, you can simply follow that up with:
“Thank you… now please just recall those feelings… in every way… in your mind… in your body… remember it like it is happening right now… right now… And allow yourself to recreate those conditions in the same way as best as you possibly can right now, right here… That’s it…Immerse yourself in that again right now…”
Step Five: You may like to start using the clients words that they used during their descriptions to revivify their experience some more. Maybe even a similar tonality to that used by them when describing the situation.
Then as you start to notice the signs that they are in hypnosis, you begin to deepen the experience using whatever you deem as the most appropriate deepener to use there and then with that individual.
That is revivification. Complex name, very simple process. Ideal if you have a very receptive client who has been in hypnosis with you before, or if you are doing a re-induction in the same hypnotherapy session.
Have a great day 🙂
