Are you currently working as a hypnotherapist?
What kinds of issues/problems are you working with?
What is your specific need to learn a confusion induction as opposed to other inductions?

Keith

B^)

(nor, madam, will I change your oil…)

I’ve seen it happen with phobias, for instance. Once you get the strategy for producing the phobia you can alter it in some way. Let’s say a person sees a spider, makes a picture (in their mind) of a spider that scared them when they were 6, hears (inside their mind) the scream they screamed when they were 6 and then feels frightened. You get the client to change that pattern in some way. Maybe they change the sequence. Maybe they change some quality of the image or feeling. Maybe they change out content of the image or sound. Oftentimes some shift will make it so they can’t get back to the phobic feelings! This happens whether or not they’ve realized that they’ve brought the pattern under conscious control. In fact, these kinds of changes can be done without the client’s conscious awareness involved at all.

Good thought about metaphor. I love metaphor. Erickson was a master at creating metaphors that helped people break patterns. Sometimes the tasks Erickson assigned were more metaphorical in nature–sometimes not. Certainly having a metaphor that the unconscious mind can understand is helpful.

It reminds me of the story about the boy who wet his bed. Erickson assigned him the task of working on his handwriting if his bed was wet. Handwriting involves muscle control. So does not wetting the bed. In that case, the metaphor may have been an important component. Erickson also had the boy’s mother involved. She would rise at dawn to check the boy’s bed. If it was wet, she would wake him to practice handwriting.

Well, there’s some motivation there! Also some family dynamics. And, of course, metaphor.

Keith