Areas covered include:What is hypnosis and why use it? Hypnosis yesterday and today Inductions and awakening Deepening the hypnotic state Testing during hypnosis Ethics and potential dangers Self-hypnosis for stress coping Concepts about the subconscious taught by Charles Tebbetts Introducing the Art of Hypnotherapy
Roy Hunter, MS, Cht, teaches professional hypnosis and advanced techniques for professionals and teaches self hypnosis to groups and clients for personal or professional motivation. He was specially selected to carry on the work of the late Charles Tebbetts. He was awarded a PhD from Alpha University and California University with a major in clinical hypnotherapy.
The Art of Hypnosis is easy to read and understandable a and is
suitable for therapists of all levels, from beginner to seasoned
professional. The introduction to and overview of the techniques
used by Charles Tebbetts, and adopted by Roy Hunter, equips the
reader with knowledge and with techniques to practise as part of
their journey in learning to master therapy skills. I found the
book a refresher and more on the skills I learnt when I became a
therapist, and I would recommend the book to all therapists.Brian
Manship, Brian Manship Hypnotherapy
`Few books on the subject of hypnosis cover such a wide spectrum of
topics on the fundamentals of hypnotherapy. It is informative,
enlightening, practical and constructive. Every hypnotherapist`s
personal library should include a copy.`Conrad Adams, PhD Founder &
Academic Dean, Alpha University
Roy Hunter is well-known in hypnotherapy circles. He is a
widely-read author and sought-after speaker who diligently
continues the work and teaching of the late Charles Tebbetts,
considered by many to be a grand master of hypnotherapy. Hunter is
also a practicing hypnotherapist who, since 1987, has taught
Diversified Client-Centered Hypnosis at Tacoma Community College in
Washington. His books are required reading at schools of hypnosis
around the world. He was inducted into the International Hypnosis
Hall of Fame in 2000 and has received honors from national and
international hypnotherapy organizations. With Crown House
Publishing, he has recently released new editions of The Art of
Hypnosis, The Art of Hypnotherapy, and Mastering the Power of
Self-Hypnosis. Together, these three volumes form a comprehensive
home-study course on hypnosis for both professional hypnotherapists
and lay readers. The Art of Hypnosis (Third Ed.) begins with a
scholarly history of hypnosis - one of the best I've read. It's an
excellent manual on basic skills and concepts, covering tests of
hypnotizability, trance induction, deepening, measures of trance
depth, awakening, the formulation of suggestions, self-hypnosis,
and the subconscious. Many of the scripts and examples are verbatim
from Tebbetts. Hunter also draws material from other legendary
figures such as Milton Erickson, Ernest Rossi, Dave Elman, and
Walter Sichort. Although I'm a hypnotherapist with over two decades
of experience, I, nevertheless found several gems. Hunter, for
instance, gives eight arules of the minda that explain the
cognitive origins of unwanted behaviors and psychosomatic symptoms.
The book also provides six inductions, with precise instructions.
Hunter places a strong emphasis on training for professional
hypnotherapists (he recommends much more than a single weekend
course or a book), ethics, supervised practice, competence,
understanding each client, and working cooperatively with the
medical community. He teaches readers and students not only the
techniques of hypnosis, but how to perform those techniques with
empathy, intuition, and sensitivity to client needs.Judith E.
Pearson, Ph.D
Themes of Hunter''s readable overview of hypnosis basics include:
definition, purposes, history; the B. I. C. E. hypnotic formula,
suggestion and suggestibility tests, inductions, exits, and depth;
ethics, meeting client needs, the danger question; intentional
self-hypnosis, hypnotherapy, and Charles Tebbetts''s view of the
subconscious.
The book starts with the statement (1) by the author''s mentor,
Charles Tebbetts, that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. Thus, the
naAAve subject fearful of being controlled by another discovers
that she is the source of that imaginative-meditative state. That
one can call hypnosis other-guided focus finds support in Hunter''s
statement (3) that the hypnotist practices the art of guided
self-hypnosis. Guided auto-suggestion (15) and guided
self-mesmerism (44) amount to the same thing; guided meditation
(16) and monoideism are even closer. The other may be the
practitioner who gives an imaginative road map to what the client
himself, or a higher-self within according to Assagioli, creates.
In any case, you hypnotize yourself. One practitioner came to a
group with what he thought was a hypnotic induction record. It was
yodeling. Before he could correct the error he saw many of the
people were under. (Cf. Ben Franklin, p. 40) They obviously came in
having chosen the hypnosis experience.
Thus, Hunter considers hypnosis an art (16). Apparently the
hypnologist tunes in to the person in an individual way based on
practice experience to enable the visualizer to realize qualities
of self. A therapist does no less. Advisedly he puts the word
trance in quotes (16), implying a Hollywood shrouding of hypnosis
(11) in mysticism. He dramatizes everyday hypnosis by saying (16)
that he asks every client, When was the last time you cried real
tears during a powerful movie? (I confess to the ending of Love
Story and the rifle shot in Bambi.) As he says (17),
Even thought the critical faculty can be bypassed when we get
engrossed in the movie, that motion picture does not control us; it
only guides us through its story. It could be said, then, that the
movie is our hypnotist until the closing credits cross the
screen.
Following Hunter on self-hypnotizing I''d say it works better to
say offers a scenario for choice instead of guide.
Hunter goes on critically to relate the issue of the power of
direct suggestion to permanently remove a symptom or not (55) with
that of the Great Gulf (62) where many clinical psychologists and
medical professionals would like to suppress and outlaw the use of
hypnosis by others, going on to point out that those who practice
only hypnotherapy have far more experience than other professionals
who only use hypnosis occasionally.
Hunter devotes the middle third of the manual to important issues
of technique including precise language and unanticipated problems,
mechanicalness versus intuitive art in script construction,
awakening, testing depth of hypnotic state, direct versus indirect
suggestion, and the like.
The reader may find it odd since all hypnosis is self-hypnosis that
Hunter actually has a chapter on actually doing it for yourself.
Yet the untrained person would not intuitively know how to do
it.
He includes a chapter on ethics including the important question of
hypnotic seal where a person not dedicated to client-centered
choice tries to lock out any other hypnologist from working with a
client. Since he often finds this among professionals with advanced
degrees who are nevertheless undertrained in hypnosis or
controlling, this chapter continues his highlighting of the
irrelevance of advance degrees.
The issue resolves itself in a call for sensitivity to the needs of
the client and for positive cooperation among all persons who use
the modality.
The author concludes the book with a presentation of Charles
Tebbetts''s view of the subconscious and a distinction between
hypnosis and hypnotherapy, including the inadvisability, for
example, of doing away with headache pain since sometimes that is a
symptomatic clue of a medical issue that another professional must
address.
Hunter obviously writes from a background of great experience, as
when he reports faux pas, some grave, he and others have committed
on the way to perfecting the art.
The writing couldn''t be more clear directed as it is to a
basically educated audience. I''d guess that audience represents
three groups: the general reader who simply would like demystify
hypnosis, perhaps considering having the experience; a smaller
group of professionals who will compare notes with Hunter and pick
up useful tidbits in the process; a minute portion positively
considering undergoing training or, against Hunter''s advice,
practicing hypnosis from a book.
A reviewer can''t have much to complain about in the writing. Only
two flies show up in the ointment: Latin usage and a misconstrued
plural. In the latter case a phenomena (53) is as unworkable as a
apples. In the former, Albertus Magnum (instead of Magnus) means
Albert the great thing. De Planetarum Influxu (Mesmer''s doctoral
thesis, 37) simply translates as the influence of the planets
rather than the strange Planetorium Influx. Quibbles to be sure.
Further, every hypnologist makes her choice of terminology, and
trance, that mere passing over between what we call the conscious
state and that meditative focus we call hypnosis, strikes me as
unduly mystifying. Indeed, in the text Hunter repeatedly
underscores that in this meditative state a person is certainly
more attentive than in the distractedly fuzzy state of daily
mind-wandering awareness and often acts in his own interest, as by
walking out.
Hunter nicely gathers together on one page all the works he
generously refers to in the text, their merits specified, as
further aids to the reader. Although the index summarizes the
topics, the glossary may miss a term or two, as the very important
issue of hypnotic seal he could profitably have reemphasized.
The Art of Hypnosis effectively presents a wise, experienced, clear
explanation of hypnosis, including pitfalls to avoid, anyone can
understand. Thus, this reviewer recommends it highly indeed.Anthony
P. Bober
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