Betty Alice Erickson, M.S., L.P.C., L.M.F.T.

Milton H. Erickson Institute of Dallas

4144 North Central Expressway --Suite 520 -- Dallas, Texas 75204
Phone: 214 676-3745 baemail_2000@yahoo.com

Workshop: Fundamentals of Hypnosis 48

Anecdotes & Metaphors: Easy, Effective and Engaging

Constructing Therapeutic Metaphors and Stories

Story-telling can give a therapeutic message in non-threatening, indirect, pleasant, easily-

remembered and enjoyable ways.

A therapeutic story:
1. Has a goal defined by the therapist
a. Clients may choose another goal
b. Clients may alter your goal to their own goal
2. Carries a message incorporating that goal
a. May be about you or others
b. Must be true
c. It can be something heard or read.
3. May have other material to distract
4. Is often fun
5. Teaches and instructs
6. Normalizes the situation
7. Has been used by people since the beginning of time

A conversational trance will happen if the story is told well:

1. Focused intently on listener
2. Change of voice
3. Matching, pacing and leading
4. Sincerity, honesty and vulnerability
a. Connection
b. Openness to the other
c. Teller is in a trance also

Therapeutic stories are memorable:

1. They touch the heart of the listener
2. They create emotions even in highly guarded clients
3. The message can sink into the unconscious and become a part of the person
a. Conversational trance increases that likelihood

We all have a wealth of therapeutic stories available in our hearts, our minds and our
memories.
Betty Alice Erickson
Workshop FH 8Anecdotes & Metaphors: Easy, Effective and Engaging page 2

Language
Language can:
Connect with others
Communicate as well as form thoughts
Reinforce self-image
Create others images of us
Nurture our unconscious perceptions of our self,
o our past, present and our future
o of the world

These perceptions are often non-productive

They are almost always strongly defended

Language includes:
Word choices
Syntax
Sequencing in the sentence and the conversation
Tonal quality and emphasis
Facial expressions and body language
Communications we dont fully understand consciously

Language is always layered.

Consciously we hear only surface meanings and levels
We hear all levels--we know that we know without knowing how we know
We respond without knowing all the layers of our responses
o People respond from internal experiences and definitions
o We dont know another persons internal reality

The unconscious:
Is wiser than the conscious
Understands the meanings as well as the words
Has each persons overall welfare as the goal

In good communication, language in good communication is chosen so people can access

their own conscious and unconscious resources.
o Those resources are best reached when language allows and invites
connection
o Understanding consciously is not necessary for unconscious understanding

Some things are un-understandable
Betty Alice Erickson
Workshop FH8 - Anecdotes 7 Metaphors: Easy, Effective and Engaging Page 3

LANGUAGE

Language communicates and forms thoughts. It reinforces self-image; creates

others images of us and nurtures our unconscious perceptions of self, the past,
present and future and of the world.

Language includes word choice, grammar, sequencing, voice tone and emphasis,
expressions, body languageand communications that we dont understand
consciously.

Language can be layered. We deal consciously with surface meanings but we

hear all the meanings. We know that we know without knowing we know.

Hypnotic language speaks to the wise unconscious.

Language offers ways to connect and embrace.

Each person has their own language. Value-loaded words are excused by the
conscious, but heard by the unconscious. .

We dont really know what the internal experiential learnings of any person are
sometimes they dont even know. Responses are built on those internal
experiences and definitions.

Hypnosis opens people. Our language should offer autonomy, respect,

acceptance, encouragement, faith in them and hope for the future.

PRINCIPLES OF SUGGESTION

When attention is concentrated on an idea, that idea tends to realize itself.

When imagination and intellect conflict, imagination usually wins.

A stronger emotion or feeling usually overpowers a weaker one.

Betty Alice Erickson
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Indirectly Direct and Directly Indirect

Many of these suggestions combine methods of creating directly indirect and or indirectly
direct ideas, suggestions, injunctions and commands for the subject. The more that can be
included in a particular frame, the more likely the hypnotist is to create the wanted
outcome for both. --- Indirect commands allow the hearer to do it his way, to
accept or reject, to feel his own sense of independence even as he pleases the hypnotist.

Tone of voice, the emphasis, the sequencing of the suggestion all give direct but
indirect messages.
o And now you can close your eyes any time you want, now.
o As you listen without even having to hear, you know youre understanding
o There are ways, different ways, ways youve not even thought of, so many
ways for you to feel really comfortable,

Confusing instructions are often enough to let the subject know he is choosing.
o You can remember to forget and forget to remember as you remember to
forget.
o As you sit here, understanding what you understand you dont understand,
and understanding what you do understand, and we both understand that
you understand far more than you consciously understand you understand.

Differentiation between the hypnotist and the subject.

o I want you to . and I can want whatever I wantI can even want to win
the lottery, or I can want you to learn so much as I know you will

Statement in a sequence of actual truisms.

o You sit here breathing out and then in, with your eyes closed, your hands
resting on your thighs, your feet on the floor, as you remember back in the
pages of your mind to a pleasant time youve forgotten to remember for a
long time

Anticipation of a likely future.

o We both know the future is yet to be and you can make so much of your
own future in ways youre learning now

Praisewe all like praise

o What a good job youre doing as you continue to learn what you need to
learn, today and all the days of your life
Betty Alice Erickson
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Anecdotes and metaphors allow utilization of what the clients offer. It gives
options of:

Productively building on whatever is available.

o The problems, words, world the client gives you
o Whatever fits into their world
o Whatever moves you or the client closer to the goal
o And remembering that:

Life is fluid and changing

Words are fluid and meanings change

Re-defining truthfully
o In more pleasant, and helpful ways
o In more global or more specific terms
o In different and more useful ways
o In whatever ways broadens your and the clients thinking

Allowing clients to choose what works for them

o Offers respect and dignity for the autonomy of the person
o Reaffirms the persons own competence
o Uses the other persons own timetable
o Provides future seeding
o Lets the person consider, manipulate and change what hes heard
For his own benefit and growth

This changes the definition of therapy

o Problems always exist
But problem content can be changed
Or accepted
o Different ways of looking at things can be fun and creative
Can become a joint and enjoyable exercises
o Expansion of choices becomes the focusnot the problem
o Practicing different ways of thinking and responding can be a goal in itself

Utilization is:
o Using the patients world and languagehis terms, his meanings, his goals,
his wants
o Using the patients own experiential learning as the base for his productive
goals

The most effective communication with that person always meeting him in his
own world and using that world for his betterment.
Betty Alice Erickson
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Contraindications for Using Anecdotes & Metaphors in Regular Therapy

None--- But----

1. Most people are reluctant to try

a. What if it doesnt work?
b. What if they dont like it?
c. What if I cant think of one?
d. What if they ask why I am telling a story?

2. It makes me, the therapist, uncomfortablefor the above reasonsand more.

3. All the above doesnt matter.

a. Stories are nice to hear.
b. And everyone likes them.
c. You can think up storiesyou have a wealth of experience
d. And if they dont worknobody cares. They become a part of the
connected-ness between both of you.