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Hypnosis Authority Cal Banyan Provides Hypnosis Certification Training Courses, Videos, Audios, Books & More - New Video Every Week
Hypnosis Authority Cal Banyan Provides Hypnosis Certification Training Courses, Videos, Audios, Books & More - New Video Every Week
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hi there, i think the position people take on the whole "touch vs. no-touch" thing can to some extent be recognized as an indication of how a practitioner approaches the work... by that i mean, if a hypnotherapist is approaching this work primarily as a form of suggestive counseling or talk therapy that's done in a relaxed state with eyes closed, then yes it might seem unreasonable to touch. as you mentioned cal, with your formal training in the psychology and counseling fields, that is generally discouraged and sometimes not permitted if you're working as a therapist/counselor. makes sense there.
but it seems to me that if someone approaches this work primarily as a hypnotist who uses hypnotism to help clients, not as a therapist or counselor, then not-touching is quite an odd restriction, given that hypnotism has historically been and phenomenally is very intertwined with physical interaction.
i am of course not talking about hugging clients, or putting a hand on someone's arm out of sympathy, or backrubs (!!!) --- touchy-feely stuff that as you mentioned is more likely for the personal gratification of the hypnotist... but rather things like rapid or instant inductions or trance ratification mechanisms that involve catalepsy etc.
it is so simple to just casually ask clients "Oh yeah, do I have permission to touch you on the hand, arm, shoulder, maybe your forehead?" and even better if you point to each area on your own body as you say this. out of thousands of sessions, i have only had 1 (maybe 2) individual(s) request that i not do so... no big deal... just honor their request. if people generally reacted negatively that would be a red warning flag that something isn't right and the necessary trust wasn't in place, so that needs to be worked out before even trying to move forward.
on the other hand if a hypnotist were to ask with a creepy sense of insecurity "Can I touch you while your eyes are closed?" it should not be surprising that creepiness is contagious.
Otherwise, since hypnotists are supposed to be doing hypnotism and not just talking to people, to me it does not make much sense not to make fullest use of hypnotic techniques and phenomena which could benefit the client, as long as consent is obtained and there is proper documentation of what went on during a session (which is a good idea anyway even if operating on a no-touch basis).
I'd assume that when dealing with a client, they fill out a form, somewhat like you would when seeing a doctor. Before you even see your client you would read from that form, the reason the client is seeing you. Then I would choose the induction appropriately. And how to be handled.
Sorry to burst your bubble guys, but this one needs to be popped. Your prescribed non-physical method unfortunately only sounds good in theory. Let’s look at a few solid reasons why it is a bad idea to advocate this policy. Possibly others will choose to add to this list.
Using an approach that only incorporates sight and sound is greatly disadvantageous for clients and will significantly lengthen the amount of time that they spend doing session work. This method of running ones practice virtually eliminates for hypnotists the ability to implement most instant and rapid inductions and will therefore lengthen each session. Without touch, up to 1/3 of all NLP applications will no longer be usable because all kinesthetic techniques will necessarily be eliminated. In addition, it will minimize the use of or greatly reduce the effectiveness of many common deepeners, suggestibility tests and convincers. That is not a good thing.
Here is one common example: It will eliminate anchoring a safe place on ones shoulder and what will effectively replace that…a finger-snap? From my perspective, your approach increases the likelihood of abreactions going out of control. Here are some others: obtaining arm or leg catalepsy, using an arm drop deepener or the 8-word induction.
Doing work on Skype (or any other similar medium) is a slower process. Many will attest to that. Yet if you are recommending only non-touch sessions, you might as well close your office building down and just conduct a virtual reality school and practice online. What is the advantage of that? You can charge your clients less money, because in my opinion that is what your services are going to be worth without using the modality of touch.
hello doc regal, im curious about what bubble is being bursted here? it doesn't seem to me that either cal or elronn are recommending a no-touch policy? in fact it seems both cal and elronn (and myself as commenter) agree that touching is OK if its done with consent and for a specific purpose as part of a technique. if someone just read your comment but did not watch or listen to the podcast content they might get the impression that they are indeed advocating a non-physical approach, which seems to be the opposite of what they're suggesting. am i missing something?
Wow! I need to laugh now as well as apologize for jumping to conclusions. I took time to review the whole recording, and I see now that by skipping through the program as I did, I landed on segments that created an entirely different message. Hmm, this is interesting and funny at the same time. It's amazing how details get lost when spot checking for highlights. Lesson replayed: Do not judge a book by it's cover.
hey doc regal, i've done that same thing myself. at least it gave you the oppty to raise good points in favor of reasonable touching. i agree with you, and of course that means our opinions are correct 🙂
Will, Steve & Doc Regal - Thanks for leaving your comments. We really appreciate the input and participation!
I hope you will leave suggestions for future topics.
Hello Cal and Elron
Great show as always, for me it has always been a challenge the touching part as my religion don’t allow me to touch the opposite sex in none emergency’s (as I’m also a paramedic where i can touch), and it did work out good for you cal at the convention where you got the honour to huge all the woman for me,
I did after time learned to work with out touching, but i always take it slower when i work with women, i don’t have much of convincing, so i kind of wait for them to tell me that they feel they where hypnotized, etc. Then i also cant do the tapping on forehead to tell them to go to the first time.
But at least i can do testing to see what level they are with out touching, but not being able to convince is the hardest part.
Keep up the good work..
issac
The Elman induction can require the hynotherapist to lift the clients limp and relaxed arm and use the arm drop as a deepener and also as a guage of the willingness of the client to give control to the hypnotist. Also waking state NLP uses anchoring with shoulder touch or arm touch.
i beleive its the amount of ambiguity in the context from moment to moment that should denote whether touch is appropriate. with the elman induction it is made clear that it the hypnotist looking for relaxation. with anchoring in nlp sometimes you dont want the client to know that touching the shoulder or arm triggers a feel good anchor. so in both cases you can set a protocol "occasionally i will touch you on the hand shoulder or head." and as you go through that touch yourself on those places then when you get agreement touch the client there as a demonstration of what the touch feels like to remove ambiguity.. this is how that touch will feel. then appropriate times when there is no ambiguity touching can be used.
i remember Cal used to place the clients hands over their heart when doing the informed child work to lock the informed child into the clients heart. would Cal like to talk about this himself?