Discourse on Trance and Healing

by Maurice Kouguell Ph.D, BCETS.

Having learned how to hypnotize, you are now in possession of a most  wonderful and powerful tool which needs to be treated and used with respect. Acknowledge and cherish your  newly acquired technique. Pursue your professional development and growth by a never ending quest for new horizons.  Further your own development in areas of altered states and  pursue your curiosity by constantly furthering your knowledge of man. Immerse yourself in the pursuit  of  knowledge. Knowledge which goes beyond Doing. Allow yourself the joy and excitement of learning.  Study with the very best. Find your  temporary identity and then move on to a different professional  level. Ask yourself if you would go for help with someone trained as you are or, would you seek help from someone different and if so why?

Why not take a leap away from being limited by the technical aspects of hypnosis to seeing the practice of hypnosis as requiring the understanding of individual  psychological needs. In his book Hypnosis - A Jungian Perspective, James Hall states "...The field of hypnotherapy is a collection of techniques in need of a unifying theory. Hypnosis remains a tradition embodying a large number of techniques, but one who lacks an intrinsic theoretical infrastructure of its own. It has seemed best therefore for a clinician practicing hypnosis to do so within the most comprehensive understanding of human psychology....Thus placed  hypnotherapy becomes a useful part of the treatment of the human psyche."
 
 

My formal training was in clinical psychology, school psychology, family life and last, but not least Hypnosis, including various aspects of altered states,  existential therapy, experiential therapy and the list continues.

My training was along traditional lines. It included the diagnosis, prognosis and course of treatment. At the completion of the evaluation of the client and after having thoroughly "measured" the possible variables, one proceeded to a case conference which included a social worker and psychiatrist. So the person was seen from each of three perspectives. Each had a slice and now we were to put all the parts of the picture into one. It's important to remember that in the '50's the emphasis was on diagnosis.The above training was most valuable for it validated one's  thinking skills and, provided three different ways of looking at the client. All therapists were expert in metaphors, except it was referred to as symbolic behavior. 
 

Much of what I learned, in retrospect, cluttered my mind. I scored  intelligence and personality tests with such expertise that I no longer needed a manual. At clinics, I demonstrated to graduate students the perfect administration of a battery of tests. I demonstrated for them (behind a one way mirror), how to take a history, how to conduct  clinical interviews, how to administer intelligence tests, personality tests, vocational tests etc. Yet while I had mastered the necessary skills and had become a master technician, I felt isolated and frequently out of step.

Now, some twenty years later I have become aware that my discontent had to do with the realization that my learning was essentially following linear thinking.
 

In their book on Existential Hypnotherapy, King and Citrenbaum state:
" A master therapist like a Zen master has a beginner's mind, a mind empty of preconceptions and totally open to the experience of the person in front of him or her. Hearing Patients tell their stories, watching them as they do so and feeling what it is like to be in the room with them enables the therapist to understand their reality and to plan better interventions, but only if the therapist's mind is clear enough to perceive accurately." Of course, you cannot do so when  expertise is limited to reaching for a script and hopefully matching the complaint of your client to it.

In his latest book 'Learning and Teaching Therapy' published in l996 by the  Guilford Press,  Jay Haley writes "Most forms of therapy have their origin in hypnosis ......even people who do not practice direct hypnosis can use training in hypnosis - inducing  skills.... Hypnosis training teaches the use of metaphors in messages as well as straightforward directives." While Haley, well known through his 19 books and his work with Erickson has high praise for hypnosis,  he also expresses his concern for therapists who are looking to be trained in clinical hypnosis.
He  states: "To learn clinical hypnosis, one must watch a teacher hypnotize; one is then watched by the teacher, who can guide one's action....This requires a setting where there are clients to practice on.  A seminar in which therapists hypnotize each other can teach participants how to induce a trance, but it does not teach them how to change people...."
 

The essence of any therapy requiring direct interpersonal contact between two human beings, presupposes a great degree of awareness of the fact that  communication is affected by the mere presence and proximity of two human beings (or more in a group process ). One must remain aware of the mutual effects clients and therapists have on each other. I wonder how many physicians  recognize  and differentiate  in their patients the presence of the WHITE COAT SYNDROME as creating temporary high blood pressure. So even without intervention something is occurring, often because of a trace memory.

 Today we also recognize the ever present continuous interaction / relationship of the mind-body-spirit communication. We have acknowledged the existence of the connections and now we are beginning to know how to handle it.

Much of our training follows linear thinking. Most teaching methodologies  follow  this format  because it is so much easier to prescribe the same approach to all students and trainees.

Steven Wolinsky in his book - Quantum  Consciousness, differentiates the core principles of Psychotherapy and Quantum Psychology in the following manner:

"The gist of the principle is visually captured  in the billiard ball metaphor in which the structure and movement of each billiard ball  can be clearly defined and predicted. When billiard ball A is struck, it will move toward pocket A. This is a very orderly world and Isaac Newton, a genius and innovator of his time,
described a reductionist view of the world; everything could be reduced to small units acting and reacting upon one another in a cause and effect measurable predictable pattern.....For example, a client who comes to therapy complaining about his poor relationship with women is suggesting that some relationship with a woman (probably his mother), has caused the problem. ....In contrast,  while most forms of therapy focus on helping the client become a whole person Quantum Psychology expands this context of whole personhood to include the rest of the universe" 

I was not taught or made aware of the importance of taking into account how each specialist reacted subjectively with his own attitudes and backgrounds to the client. 
Yet, there are several definite variables frequently omitted in most training programs. As a matter of fact, there are many components left out which affect  us and have not been taken into consideration.  In retrospect, there are some irreconcilable orientations between institutional thinking and the individuality of each person within the system.
 

In the pursuit of my continuous explorations, research and discovery of the world of trance work and altered states, I took three giant leaps. 

1. Allowing myself to question traditional and institutional thinking and being open to other alternatives:  I trained in Touch for Health, Brain Gym, NLP et al.. 
2. Participating in training workshops conducted by  Dr. Lewis B. Wolberg 
3.  Workshops with  Drs. Arny and Amy Mindell in Process Work. But none of this could have happened without my awareness of being discontent.

I attended a 3-day workshop given by Drs.Arny and Amy Mindell. Arny was a 
physicist before becoming a Jungian analyst and Process Oriented therapist.  Amy, a clinical psychologist, brings in her additional training as a dancer. They teach how to use our symptoms and life threatening illness including fears, fantasies and pains as windows towards enlightenment. Arny is also known for his work in psychiatry and near death interventions. Amy has helped further with her contributions in the area of philosophy, dance and ethics. 

(On a subjective note I was so happy that my wife had joined me for that amazing experience for I would have been unable to put into words the essence of that training and share with her the excitement created from the very first moment on and still continues to do so weeks later.) 

The Mindells gave a general introduction which illustrated their approach in relationship to Jungian analysis as well as Gestalt therapy. They introduced how  Jung connected with dream work and they went on to discuss the connection between dreams and the body, and extended their views of body symptoms and how they relate to world issues. 

The  workshop was described in the advertisement as follows: " Process work with body symptoms and disease is based on the idea that there is a flow of life and wisdom behind illness which can unfold by learning to follow body experiences. Symptoms are direct expression of the dreaming body. During the presentation Amy and Arny demonstrated  how to work with symptoms in a holistic way, unraveling their meaning in a person's life. Deeper dimensions of those symptoms can be found in a comatose state and in near death experience."

During the workshop Arny and Amy worked with participants on unfolding their individual dreaming processes during which time relationship and community process become integrated. This process leads not only to the acknowledgment of the richness of one's life but also to healing.

The initial phases of the dream work are reminiscent of the process of Focusing. Starting with a meditating state or altered state of consciousness one learns how not to be disturbed or get involved with anything that surfaces. One experiences becoming witness to whatever one is experiencing without judging it or trying to figure out what it represents. One observes and acknowledges...watching without analysis or interpretation, which leads in time to transformation.
 

I feel we need to adopt an approach  which is comfortable to us as practitioners. A modality in which we believe at this time in our professional growth  - thus we remain open to new insights. While I subscribe to tradition I also see and feel the urgency of  being aware of the dangers of being locked into it.

Dr.Wolburg left a legacy which became a tradition and went beyond his phenomenal knowledge. The same could be said of Milton Erikson as well as the Mindells or Gendlin, to name a few. What do they all have in common? 
Their greatness goes beyond their knowledge and deep respect of the client  and includes a humbleness which reflects wisdom devoid of self aggrandizement.  I am grateful and appreciative of the importance of tradition in the practice of psychology and I believe that any therapist in any health related profession needs to know  how people function, what makes them behave in certain ways .We have preached that our therapies are client oriented...yet often they are technique oriented, which remind us that there is a client in our office. How can we refer to client-oriented hypnotherapy when the same script is used for different clients who only share in common the reason for being in the hypnotist's office?
 

I hope my readers share my enthusiasm about learning. In analyzing the excitement derived from such experiences, I believe that there are two factors present.  l) Constantly discovering different approaches to viewing others and the self and, 2) understanding and relating to that experience. 
 

1. 1972(chapt.(1) Feng, Gia-Fu and English Ytao Te Ching: A new Translation, N.Y.Vintage 76)