Ericksonian Hypnosis: Reframing Problems as Resources

Milton Erickson is famous for utilizing client resources. One of the creative ways he did so was by turning perceived challenges into assets.

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Several years ago, I had a client who was very anxious and tense about a new job he was starting. You could see the tension in his posture and hear it in his voice as he was imagining all the things that could go wrong.

As he was doing this, I was thinking about Milton Erickson. Erickson did some very unusual things in his sessions. Erickson would often ask himself something like "What ability must the client have in order to reproduce the problem?" In other words, if somebody ha a nail biting habit, and they do it every time they get nervous, they have the ability to consistently reproduce a pattern, over and over again.

Then Erickson might have though "Where is that ability useful?" For instance, where would the ability to consistently reproduce a pattern of behavior, over and over again, come in useful? Then, think about how that ability could be used as a solution for the presenting problem.

Back to my client...

I asked him, more about his situation and you could see him get more tense as he explained it. Then, I stopped him and I said, "You know, you have this powerful ability" and he said "What do you mean?" I said "You can imagine things happening and have that imagination, because it's so vivid, affect you powerfully in an emotional way. He said "Yeah, I don't really like it." "Of course, " I replied. "But imagine how it's going to be when you shift that to imagining the things you want to have happen and have it have a powerful, positive emotional effect on you."

You could see the steam come out of his ears; he'd never considered it that way. Later on, in trance, I began to guide him in using his imagination positively in creating powerful, motivating positive emotions in his mind.