Comments on: Why Do Hypnotherapists Use The Word ‘Trance’ To Refer To Hypnosis?

By: Adam Eason

Adam Eason — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 09:08:46 +0000

Thanks for that Andy, very nicely put.

I really love that Alan Sugar quote.

Good hearing from you.

By: Andy Palmer

Andy Palmer — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:13:39 +0000

A bit late to the party again, but there is a quote from Alan Sugar from when IBM PCs were just beginning to take off in the word processor market (paraphrased)
“Yes, I’ll put in fans in my computers, and if they want it purple with white polka dots, I’ll do that too. What’s the point of me banging my head against a brick wall and saying ‘You don’t need the damn fan, sunshine?'”

For me, therapy is about knowing where your client is starting out and being behaviourally flexible enough to move to where they are. If their (perhaps naive) expectation is that there is such a thing as trance, then explaining the process in terms of a trance metaphor is probably useful.
Hartlands book also describes the usefulness of the trance metaphor for anaesthesia and analgesia, in contrast to building up the expectation of suggestibility for change work.

So, I would like to think that I will use the word trance where and when it’s useful, although that doesn’t prevent me from tutoring the client in more useful metaphors as we go along

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:07:03 +0000

So why do hypnotherapists bother using the induction/relaxation and overloading techniques they do instead of using NLP/Cognitive techniques? What IS ” the correct meaning of the word ‘hypnosis’” then?

By: Donald Robertson

Donald Robertson — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 21:36:31 +0000

Actually, I’m starting to think hypnosis might be better conceptualised as a “meta-cognitive set”. It’s actually primarily a set of attitudes towards autosuggestions, which are thoughts themselves, so cognitions about other cognitions. “Depth of trance” could arguably be replaced simply by degree of belief in the power of suggestion, and certain attitudes about how suggestions work and what type of responses to expect. That’s a bit like the old idea that “If you believe you’re in hypnosis then you’re in hypnosis”, altered/trance state or not.

I think Prof. Kirsch seems to be moving toward a “metacognitive” model of hypnosis,

http://www.hypnotherapists.org.uk/1502/mindfulness-metacognition-and-hypnosis-august-research-snippet/

Best,

Donald

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:37:35 +0000

Thank you, hurrah to the mutany!! 😉

By: Steve Baxter

Steve Baxter — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:59:50 +0000

As Irving Kirsch says, Hypnosis is not therapy. So perhaps it doesn’t matter what you call it, hypnosis, trance, deep relaxation, only that you create the appropriate mind-set, attitude, beliefs to support the actual therapeutic intervention to follow.

If we are seeking this goal of a ‘suggestable client’ surely we do not want to rely on words where the client can attach such a wide range of possible internal representations, meanings? It does seem to me that if we use either of these words – hypnosis, trance – we immediately have to explain them!

By: Adam Eason

Adam Eason — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:25:05 +0000

In reply to Sophie Nicholls.

Goddammit, this is tantamount to mutiny! Both my fellow trainers are publicly disagreeing with me… This is not allowed ladies!

As I have been writing in the members forum here, I was actually taught to use the word trance. My first training was 15 years ago now and I hope that my teacher has continued to develop and grow and update his work in the same way I have.

My issue is also this… What is wrong with explaining the correct meaning of the word ‘hypnosis’ and then ensuring that the client is comfortable with that? It is hypnosis we use, do we need to rename it ‘trance’?

We are not ‘trancenotists’ are we? Though I suspect there is someone out there buying up the rights to http://www.trancenotist.com as we speak!

Plus, there is much evidence to suggest the word trance can affect suggestibility detrimentally. I understand and appreciate that many people will have exceptions to this, but I like to appreciate empirical research findings too.

So there.

ps. Plus it is great marketing to get everyone a tad heated with these discussions!

By: Sophie Nicholls

Sophie Nicholls — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:13:05 +0000

Don, I didn’t see your comments here until I’d already posted mine. Completely agree that ‘cognitive set’ is an excellent way to describe what we’re helping our clients to develop and practise. And I suppose that is why I sometimes find myself questioning my use of the terms ‘hypnosis’ and ‘hypnotherapist.’ There is such a long tradition of misconception, from Victorian times onwards…

Adam, Gilligan’s use of the word ‘trance’ is, I’m sure, influenced by Erickson but also, as I understand it, by his research and work in other cultures, particularly with people in Indonesia. So clients in other cultures might understand ‘trance’ in a different way.

Did I also not say that, of course, you are right, Adam. Of course you are. Absolutely. 🙂 Sometimes. 😉 Ha ha ha…

By: Judith

Judith — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:23:20 +0000

Oh heck!

Just when a couple of your students and I were speaking about this very same subject this weekend. One had felt during an hypnosis exercise that the word ‘hypnosis’ was having a counter-effect on her experience and the consensus was that for her ‘trance’ would have been more gentle.

In fact we agreed that the word trance is very hypnotic (:

I agree with Andy – get an understanding of your clients needs first and that will clarify an appropriate use of language for them. – are these called ‘Trance words’? (:

You can’t get me Adam – I’m too far away

Judith x

By: Andrew Fogg

Andrew Fogg — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 12:50:23 +0000

Isn’t language wonderful? We can have two words with an apparently common derivation that can be used to mean completely different things. As Donald says above, the word “trance” in Victorian medicine denoted something quite unusual and sinister while writings of the same era used the word “entrance” to mean, “to fill with delight, wonder, or enchantment”.