TALKING IN HYPNOSIS

      When a new client comes to see me for the first time, I always do a free consultation so clients have a chance to ask their questions.  One question that is often asked:  "Will I be talking during the session?"

       The answer I give - "it depends."  I do sessions every day where clients do not talk at all during hypnosis.  I get a lot of information ahead of time in the clinical interview so people do not have to talk.  This can take a lot of pressure off the client to perform.  He is not sitting there thinking "Oh, my gosh, she's going to ask me something.  Will I know what to say?"  Instead, the client has given me the information already so they can just sit back and relax during the actual hypnosis. Most of my clients do not talk during behavioral modification sesions like quitting smoking or improving performance. 

     But there are hypnotherapy sessions, where clients will want to communicate.  I don't know where she left the $10,000 diamond ring or what trauma happened when he was ten years old.  In age regression where the client sees or experiences himself in the past or age progression where the client experiences or sees herself in the future, the client can describe to the hypnotherapist what s/he is experiencing.

     Age progression is often used to visualize behavioral changes.  The hypnotized person may picture or imagine themselves exhibiting the new behavior (swinging the club, making healthy choices at a restaurant, being a nonsmoke. Age regression helps the client to picture events in the past.  This may be to help remember what happened to to remember forgotten feeings.  Age regression can also be used to help the client recover from a traumatic event by working through the memories and emotions of the event.

    Another way clients may communciate in hypnosis is through an ideomotor response. These subtle movements that can happen when a person is visualizing.  The client may use ideomotor signals to respond to hypnotherapist questions.  Instead of saying "yes", the client may raise her index finger.  To say "no" she may raise her thumb.  Lifting her pinkie may mean "I don't know."  These responses become automatic and are the client's body answer rather than talking.

    Talking is really up to the client.  Some people like to talk in hypnosis.  Others prefer to not have to talk enjoying the "mind massage" feeling.  It's entirely up to them.