Smoking Cessation with NLP/Hypnosis

Posted by Keith Livingston on July 21st, 2008 filed in Hypnosis

Smoking Cessation with NLP/Hypnosis

Recently, several hypnotherapists have asked me for input on what makes an effective smoking cessation intervention. Here’s a quick overview…

Motivation for Smoking is Key

Smoking cessation with hypnosis/NLP is a matter of finding out why they smoke and including that motivation in your suggestions. So, if smoking helps them relax, get an anchor for relaxation. Have them pick out several alternative behaviors to smoking, make sure at least some of them could be as immediate as having a cigarette (drinking a glass of water, taking a deep breath etc.). Take them to a time in the future, when in the past, they would have had a cigarette (talking on the phone, after a meal etc.) As they step in to the situation, have them, in their imagination, engage in the alternate behavior. You fire off the anchor and suggest that they get even better relaxation from the new behavior. Lather, rinse, repeat. Do it in trance and/or out.

How to Find Out Why Someone Smokes

To find out what motivates them to smoke, ask them. And/or, step them into a time when they really wanted a cigarette. Get the feeling behind the desire! People can have a few reasons to smoke so they might smoke for different reasons at different times.

Use Direct Suggestion

If all else fails, just hyp-mo-tize ‘em and tell ‘em they are a non-smoker.

Also reframe, reframe, reframe any negative beliefs they have about stopping smoking.

Use the Swish, Luke

Sometimes you get an image or sound that is particularly instrumental in creating a desire for a cigarette. If you get one, swish it away! I recall a client who had a nice, closed up picture of a burning cigarette end, glowing cherry red, with an appetizing waft of smoke curling up. That image was part of what motivated him to smoke. Once we swished it out to a healthier and even more appealing image, much of the desire was gone.

Future Pace

Future pace to make sure your work is clean. If they still feel a desire for a cigarette, you may not have covered all the bases as far as their motivations for smoking…

Now go save people’s lives!

Keith

Hypnosis Speeds Post-Surgical Healing

Posted by Keith Livingston on July 8th, 2008 filed in Hypnosis in the News

Hypnosis Speeds Post-Surgical Healing

I just ran across an article from the April, 2003 American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. The article is about a study following a small group of surgical patients. Some of the patients were given no special treatment, some were given 8 sessions of “supportive attention” and some were give 8 hypnosis sessions, with suggestions targeting rapid recovery.

I bet you can guess what happened…

Hypnosis Does A Body Good

The hypnosis group scored significantly better than the other two groups. In other words, according to objective assessments of healing (wound size, for instance), the group that got hypnotized healed more quickly! Of course, the assessments were done by photo, by professionals who did not know which group the patients belonged to.

Many Possibilities For Using Hypnosis Are Not Yet Fully Explored

According to the authors of the study, the trial indicated that use of hypnosis and suggestion can increase the rate of healing and that hypnosis should be studied further as far as augmenting physical healing.

Results of this preliminary trial indicate that use of a targeted hypnotic intervention can accelerate postoperative wound healing and suggest that further tests of using hypnosis to augment physical healing are warranted.
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Apr 2003 by Ginandes, Carol, Brooks, Patricia, Sando, William, Jones, Christopher, Aker, John

Instant Inductions Video Examples

Posted by Keith Livingston on July 2nd, 2008 filed in Hypnotic Inductions

Instant Inductions Examples

Michael Bennett from Bennett/Stellar University dropped by my place the other day. He was kind enough to demonstrate his latest instant induction on me. It’s fast, it’s fun, it works. See the video here…

Here’s a collage of instant inductions from Sean Michael Andrews.

Sean is really a master of all things hypnotic and instant. Watch him at work here…

A lot of folks ask me about instant inductions. It’s important to know what you’re doing or things can go south quickly. Learn how to do instant inductions the right way here…
Instant Inductions

Healing With NLP & Hypnosis

Posted by Keith Livingston on June 13th, 2008 filed in Additional NLP Techniques and Processes

Healing with NLP & Hypnosis

Helping people who need your help

Recently, I had the chance to work with a person who was experiencing intense, unexplained back pain. She rated her pain as a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 (ouch). In a 45 minute session, we were able to get the pain level down to a 2. Within an hour or so after the session, she was completely comfortable.

It brought to mind a huge opportunity in the NLP & Hypnosis fields–namely, working with folks with chronic pain, illnesses or who have experienced an accident or trauma. According to the National Pain Survey (1999), about 75 million people in America alone are living with chronic or acute pain due to disease, disorders, surgeries or accidents.

About 40% of people suffering moderate to severe pain are unable to find adequate relief–that’s a lot of folks you can help. And pain relief is only one of the areas you can help with. There’s stiffness, range of motion issues as well as anxiety and fear related to traumatic injuries and disease.

Introduction to Healing with NLP & Hypnosis

1) Referral

Always, always, always work with a referral from a qualified medical professional when you’re working with a physical issue or a qualified mental health professional when working with a psychological issue. Most of us in NLP & Hypnosis are not medical doctors and we need to make sure it’s medically OK before we proceed.

2) Direct suggestion can be a fall-back

Hippolyte Bernheim (yes, that’s his real name) was a doctor who wrote a book about hypnosis in the 1880’s. In those days they didn’t have a many of the techniques we have today–regression, parts work, timelines etc. Bernheim himself used mostly direct suggestion. Even with the crude methods he used, Dr. Bernheim was able to achieve remarkable results-even when patients were afflicted with physical maladies.

So, if you don’t have any other ideas, you can always fall back to direct suggestion and suggest that their symptoms improve or disappear altogether (again, with a physician’s approval).

3) Attitudes and beliefs

In my experience, a lot of success or failure in working with physical issues has to do with your beliefs and your attitudes. Hold, in your mind, a representation of your client in a healthy, vibrant, comfortable state. Continue to work toward that goal diligently.

4) Get rapport with everybody–especially the symptom

People often have multiple motivations going on at the same time - some of them at cross purposes. In the hypnosis biz we sometimes call these conflicting motivations “parts.” Working with physical conditions is often about parts work. The part of them that runs or maintains the symptom may be out of rapport with other aspects of their personality. It’s your challenge to get rapport with everybody in there.

5) Reframing

Reframing can be thought of as interpreting or even “spinning” things to help get the outcome you’re after. I’ve noticed that masters of healing with NLP & hypnosis are also masters of reframing and use reframing extensively in their work.

Here’s an example…

Client: “The pain has moved from my back and is now rolling up and down my spine and I’m feeling tingling sensations.”
Therapist: “Your unconscious may be experimenting with different ways to communicate with you. Perhaps, as it finds ways that are more comfortable for you, you can agree to pay more attention to the communication and you can grow more comfortable, even still.”
Client: “Yes, that feels better.”

In this example, the sensations of pain rolling up and down the back could be interpreted in a variety of ways. It could be a sign of things getting worse, of new problems arising or even of demonic possession. The therapist instead, chose to interpret the meaning of the new sensations as progress toward the client’s outcomes (namely, a healthy, vibrant, comfortable state).

The therapist couched these terms with soft words such as “may” and “perhaps” in order to invite the client to experience it that way–not to force the client down that road.

Common reframes in healing
* Pain, or other symptoms, are a communication. We’ll teach your mind other ways to communicate that are much more comfortable for you.
* The unconscious mind holds on to symptoms when it doesn’t know how to deal with a particular situation, It’s the mind’s way of protecting you. As soon as we give your mind a better way, it will exchange that symptom for the new learning.

6) Regression, trauma and learning

Many people are experiencing chronic conditions as a result of an accident or injury. Regression to that incident, coupled with new perspectives and learning about that event are often key in making tremendous progress with symptom relief. Dave Elman style regression, timeline work, re-imprinting, the NLP fast phobia cure and the Traumatic Injury Relief Pattern are just a few of the techniques you can use to decrease or eliminate the trauma and take the power out of those old memories.

7) Suggestion

Usually, even when not working in formal hypnosis, clients are in a highly suggestible state when doing this kind of work. Use it. Suggest that they will continue to improve, even after the session is over. Suggest that the learnings, understandings and experiences they’ve had during the session will deepen and spread out to help them in all areas of their lives.

Now, obviously there’s a lot to working with physical issues. This is a good start though. And remember… If you get stuck, you can always hypnotize someone and just suggest they get better!

To you health (and everyone else’s).

Keith

The Traumatic Injury Relief Pattern

Posted by Keith Livingston on May 21st, 2008 filed in Additional NLP Techniques and Processes, NLP

The Traumatic Injury Relief Pattern

Here’s a little pattern that can cement your reputation as a powerful healer/NLP Practitioner/Hypnotherapist. It’s called the Traumatic Injury Relief Pattern and it’s useful for millions of people who have had injuries or accidents.

The Origins of T.I.R.P.

Legend has it that the traumatic injury relief pattern is a result of NLP developers modeling the healing capabilities of a Peruvian Shaman, and combining them with the aspects of the NLP 3-place dissociation model. The process is a simple one, you will likely recognize parts of it if you’ve had previous NLP training. It should only take about 20 minutes to complete.

Before you start, make sure the client has been seen by a medical professional and you have a referral from that medical practitioner.

The Step-By-Step

1) Get a gauge for the client’s current level of symptoms. If they are experiencing pain, anxiety or stiffness, have them rate it on a scale of 1 to 10. For range of motion issues, if a doctor OKs it, check to see how far they can move and note it.

2) Have the client establish a dissociated, observer position. Ask the client to imagine they are sitting in the projection booth at a theater, watching the memory of the accident, as a black and white movie, on a movie screen. Have the client view the incident from the moment before the actual trauma occurred, all the way past the end of it.

3) Have the client notice and tell you, from this observe position, what slight change in behavior they could have made that would have avoided the accident. It’s important that the change be as small as possible–it can’t be that the client wasn’t there, didn’t get in to the car etc.

Once your client has that small change, have them remember it and set it aside, for now.

4) Take the dissociated movie of the memory and have the client run it all the way to the end. “Freeze frame” on the last frame. Have the client change that last frame to color and associate in to the picture. Now, have them very quickly, run the movie backwards with everything happening around them, backwards at high speed.

Check in with the ratings you got earlier. It may be useful to re-experience the situation more than one time backwards.

5) Have the client remember the small change that would have had things work out much better. Have them add that behavior in to their movie and mentally rehearse the incident again from an associated viewpoint. Do it 8 to 12 times (start fresh each time) forward in real time. This time, they avoid the incident or the damaging parts of the incident.

6) Instruct the client to think about whatever residual effects of the traumatic event remain and follow your index finger, with their eyes, without moving their head. Move your index finger in a sideways figure eight pattern 6-12 inches directly in front of their eyes. Make sure you are moving your finger in an upward movement when crossing the mid line of the figure eight.

It’s a good idea to now check the client’s current level of symptoms, if any and note the progress you made. Congratulations!

I know you will find this to be an amazing therapeutic process for those you are helping to recover from a traumatic injury.

Enjoy,
Keith Livingston

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