Copyright © Donald Robertson, 2012.  All rights reserved.

Edmund Jacobson was a professor of physiology who developed the technique of Progressive Relaxation in the 1920s based on his research on muscular tension and relaxation.  This article looks in more detail at how the general skill of Progressive Relaxation was originally applied to the treatment of phobic anxiety and worry.  Jacobson studied the activity of muscles directly in his physiology laboratory, using a device specially designed for the purpose.  He taught patients to systematically release tension by first learning to observe it more closely, a process known as “cultivation of the muscle sense.”  Jacobson recommended that patients should try to become aware of how they unconsciously tense muscles in anxious situations or when worried and learn to respond by doing the opposite and selectively releasing all the tension from those parts of the body.  Writing of pathological phobias, Jacobson says:

It is not considered sufficient in treating such a condition through relaxation for the patient to learn to be relaxed merely when lying down. Rather, it seems necessary for the patient to learn to recognise when and where he is tense during the experience of fear and to relax the localities involved. This is differential relaxation. (Jacobson, 1976: 56)

A similar strategy is employed in the treatment of more abstract fears:

In training nervous persons to relax, the patients are directed, as previously indicated, in methods of observing what they do subjectively when they worry. They note tensions of which, as they assert, they have previously been unconscious. (Jacobson, 1976: 57)

According to Jacobson, when asked to monitor the location of bodily tensions during worry, subjects typically report faint sensations in the muscles around the eyes, as though looking at an image of the problem being worried about, or in the muscles involved in speech, as if they were saying the verbal thoughts that constitute part of the process of worry.

Jacobson found that when asked to monitor their physical sensations carefully during mental activity, his subjects almost always reported faint tension sensations around the eyes when picturing mental images and in their tongue, lips and throat when thinking in words, e.g., mentally reciting a poem. While these muscles were completely relaxed, mental images disappeared and verbal thoughts could not be continued. He claimed that all thinking, in words or images, entails muscular action normally so slight as to be invisible. He and his colleagues collected scientific evidence that appeared to demonstrate that thinking is accompanied by minute muscular tensions and movements, a miniature physical version of talking aloud and looking around.

When you think or worry or are excited, you see things in imagination or say things to yourself. According to numerous observations, by finding what region is tense and relaxing it promptly you mechanically remove the disturbing activity. (Jacobson, 1976: 124-125)

This is a remarkable claim and others have disputed the notion that muscles are always involved in thinking. However, it’s easy to observe that when engrossed in thought, e.g., when worrying intensely, certain people often tend to make slight hand gestures, change their facial expression, or even mutter under their breath, as if engaged in a “muted” version of normal speech and action in response to some imagined situation. It’s also true that people often report their thoughts diminishing as they relax their body deeply, particularly the muscles of the face. Note that when people merely relax superficially their thoughts often become more vivid or rapid. However, deep muscle relaxation of the face, neck, and head, tends to be experienced differently and people often feel as if they are falling asleep. Jacobson reputedly said, “It might be naïve to say that we think with our muscles, but it would be inaccurate to say that we think without them” (McGuigan & Lehrer, 2007: 58).

‘Try it now’: Relaxing the Jaw and Internal Speech

It’s possible to relax your jaw and the muscles of speech and still engage in internal dialogue, if you do so superficially, but what happens if you really relax these muscles much deeper than normal, trying to make them completely limp and slack?

1. Tense your jaw by clenching your teeth moderately for about ten seconds.
2. Then take a deep breath, hold it for a moment, and relax your jaw and face completely. Let your jaw hang slack as though you’ve been knocked unconscious, which should mean your teeth part, and perhaps that your lips part slightly. Let go completely for about 30-60 seconds.
3. Repeat this about three times in total, trying to release the jaw muscles, and relax the rest of the face, and all the muscles used during speech, more completely each time.
4. Now continue to let go of the muscles completely but try to spell the (arbitrary) word “RHINOCEROS” in your mind.

Notice if this seems more difficult than normal, or if it takes longer to get started or to complete the word. If so, consider the implications that this specific type of physical relaxation might have for controlling negative thoughts, particularly unnecessary worry.

Releasing Tension & Worry

Tension control is therefore intended as a form of mental self-control, by controlling the muscles involved in speech and vision, and other subtle tensions associated with mental processes. Stopping thinking, in this sense, resembles stopping talking aloud, only it involves letting go of tension and activity in the muscles more deeply.   Jacobson’s primary solution to “mental” problems, such as worry, is therefore to carefully pay attention to the subtle muscular tensions occurring during the process, especially around the region of the eyes and forehead, and the apparatus of speech, and to “let go” of those tensions completely, which he was confident would eliminate the associated thoughts and emotions.

Observation on worried patients suggests that their moments of concern involve particularly often the knitting of the brows, although this tension occurs commonly in most persons when they are thinking actively or facing relatively bright light. It may be of interest for you to note how often this tension occurs in persons you meet. Darwin considered tension in this region significant, noting that the animal which frowns or contracts his brows is meeting difficulty. Under this assumption, if a worrisome patient reports or seems to show such tension more or less habitually, he is drilled particularly in relaxing this region. (Jacobson, 1976: 58)

In other words, Darwin had observed that knitting the brows is a long-standing evolutionary response to encountering problems, shared with many of our animal ancestors. Even in relation to quite abstract thoughts, such as contemplating the idea of “infinity”, Jacobson claimed that measurable tension occurred in the muscles associated with speech, as if words were being spoken.

‘Try it now’: Relaxing the Eyes & Mental Imagery

You’re going to mentally picture (“visualise”) your finger moving horizontally, from right to left across your field of vision, while closely observing the movements in your eyes and even the faintest sensations in the muscles.

1. Start by actually moving your index finger before your eyes a few times, slowly, observing the changing sensations in the muscles around your eyes as you track your finger with your gaze.
2. Now close your eyes and just visualise your finger moving slowly across your field of vision several times, paying close attention to the muscles around the eyes to detect any slight tension or movement.
3. Now picture your finger being held stationary in the centre of your field of vision and notice any slight sensations in the muscles again.
4. Now picture your finger moving horizontally, as before, but much more quickly, notice how your eye muscles are involved.
5. Now wrinkle your nose and squeeze your eyes tightly shut for about 10 seconds. Take a deep breath and let go of the tension completely. Keep letting go more deeply on each exhalation of breath, for about 30-45 seconds. Repeat this cycle 2-3 times, progressively letting go of tension in the eye muscles more deeply and completely each time.
6. Once your eye muscles feel completely relaxed, keep letting go and avoid tensing them, while you try to picture your finger moving slowly across your visual field once again.

You should find that it’s difficult to picture the image while the muscles are completely relaxed and hence that by relaxing your eye muscles you can eliminate mental imagery, or by controlling your eye muscles, influence the speed of imagery, etc. (McGuigan F. J., 1981, pp. 182-188)

And clearly it must be hard when it is so seldom found.

For if freedom were close at hand and could be found without difficulty
how could it be that it is neglected by almost all?

But all excellent things are as difficult as they are rare.”

– Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethica, §5, Prop 42 n.

Review: Never Too Late to be Great

The Power of Thinking Long

by Tom Butler-Bowdon

www.butler-bowdon.com

In reading Tom’s new book I was reminded of the famous quotation above from Spinoza, one of the philosophers I most admire.  All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare – Rome wasn’t built in a day!  If personal success, in the form of freedom and happiness, was quick and easy, then more or less everyone would already have it.  When in fact, as a psychotherapist I’m acutely aware that most people’s lives are more unhappy than they tend to let on to others.  In the USA, the home of “positive thinking”, the prevalence of mental health problems is so high that almost 50% of the current population will have met criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis at some point so far in their lives.  There’s actually a lot more misery in the world than people realise.  I think the teachings of Buddhism are based on a similar observation: life is suffering.  Much self-help literature seems to gloss over the difficulty of life.  A notable exception is M. Scott Peck’s self-help classic The Road Less Travelled, which notoriously opens with the sentence: “Life is difficult.”  We have to recognise that a great many people in the world either live in great poverty and hardship or live lives of angst and quiet despair in the middle of apparent first-world abundance.  Personal success and happiness can take time and effort and sometimes only come later in life.  It’s easy to forget that in the legend of Buddha and many other great men, their journeys begin with a period of dissatisfaction.  Buddhist tradition claims that even Gautama Buddha only attained enlightenment around age 35; he spent years prior that searching and struggling. 

Tom gives many examples of great men and women who only flourished later in life, sometimes after many years of wandering, effort, or even personal suffering.  Spinoza’s philosophical masterpiece, the Ethica, was only completed a few years before his untimely death, aged 44 from lung disease.  Prior to that he had been expelled from the Jewish community as a heretic, having the most shocking curses placed upon his head.  His writings suggest great emotional turmoil and misery in his life before he finally achieved a kind of enlightenment, and “emotional remedy”, in the form of the imposing metaphysical system he developed.

I thus perceived that I was in a state of great peril, and I compelled myself to seek with all my strength for a remedy, however uncertain it might be; as a sick man struggling with a deadly disease, when he sees that death will surely be upon him […] is compelled to seek such a remedy with all his strength, inasmuch as his whole hope lies therein. (De Intellectus Emendatione, 4-5)

All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare, and sometimes take many years to achieve.  One more example…  Socrates, the pre-eminent philosopher-sage of antiquity, by some accounts, worked as a stonemason, following his father’s profession, until around middle age when he began to dedicate himself fully to the pursuit of wisdom.  He did not spring from the womb fully-armed with his philosophy but, rather, it appears it may have taken him half his life or more to begin developing into a philosopher, and his views were still a work-in-progress when he died.  Now at this point, it becomes apparent to me that I could probably go on offering up similar examples.  In fact, if I draw up a mental list of the people I most admire, it strikes me that virtually all of them took a long time to achieve things in life and often went through a period of initial hardship, setbacks, or emotional turmoil along the way.  I said that Socrates was my last example but I can’t hold back from mentioning another philosopher, discussed by Tom: Immanuel Kant.  Any first-year philosophy student will tell you that Kant was an intellectual titan, a giant of the European enlightenment.  I recall being acutely aware, when I was a young philosophy student, that Kant’s great work The Critique of Pure Reason was published when he was in his late fifties.  Somehow that knowledge comforted me.  It made me feel there was plenty of time to write a book or come up with a big idea myself.  As Tom points out, of course, we’re all living much longer nowadays so there’s that much more time to “succeed”, either personally or professionally, later in life.  We now live more than twice as long, on average, as people once did. 

Tom is someone I respect as a bona fide expert on self-help.  He has spent years immersing himself in the literature of personal development, studying the works of others in great depth, before developing his own contribution.  I think he’s right to believe that he spotted a gap, a problem that begged for an answer.  In writing this book, he did what seemed obvious to him but it only became so clear and obvious, as I understand it, after a long and patient journey.  In that respect, he is, of course, a living example of his own observations in this book.  We hear about people when they become successful.  For that reason, unless we take the time to delve a bit further into the lives of the people we admire, we’re prone to be duped by the illusion that success comes in an instant rather than slowly maturing over time as the result of a slow-burning process, often involving hard work and dedication for many years.  That illusion of instantaneous success can make people feel despondent.  Tom describes many strategies to help us take the long view.  Some of the exercises suggested in this book resemble techniques employed in cognitive-behavioural therapy, such as the method of “time projection” introduced by Arnold Lazarus, in which an individual is asked to jump ahead in time to a point in the distant future and look back on their life retrospectively.

Our relationship with time is one of the great neglected areas in psychotherapy, and personal development psychology.  It’s no secret that anxious individuals often seem to “run a fast clock”, time goes quickly for them.  In many of the clients I see in my therapy clinic, particularly those with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), the chronic worriers, there’s an overwhelming sense of urgency that goes hand-in-hand with fear of failure – a toxic recipe that creates intense anxiety, ruins sleep, escalates frustration, and leads to a permanent state of worry and apprehension.  Something is obviously wrong with this mind-set.  Indeed, recent research in cognitive therapy has found the sense of urgency in anxiety to be linked to what’s known as the “looming cognitive style” (LCS), a tendency to perceive risks as escalating more rapidly than they do in reality.  I think some of these anxious individuals would also benefit from reading Tom’s book because it would help them to question the type of time-pressure that they place themselves under: “to be a success by thirty”, etc.  As the calculations in the book show, by age 30 the average person still has 83% of their productive life remaining.  I’ll probably suggest reading it to some of my clients.  However, I think Tom’s book would be good for almost anyone else, young or old.  It’s a remedy perhaps to a defect in the existing literature.  I wish I’d been able to read it when I was young student, I’m sure it would have helped me ease the pressure off and relax into a more flexible long-term sense of direction, but my little anecdote about Kant served me well enough I suppose. 

For those interested in purchasing the book, the chapter headings are as follows:

1. Warming Up: Why what you’ve done so far may just have set the scene
2. Life isn’t Short: How increasing longevity is giving us multiple chances to succeed
3. The Long View: A simple way to join the elite
4. Lead Time: It’s the ‘time in between’ that matters
5. The 40 Factor: Why many people never do anything remarkable until their fifth decade
6. Mid-Century Magic: ‘Now for my next half-century’
7. The 30-Year Goldmine: How many, usually without intention, save their best for last
8. The Beauty of People: How background shapes us, but only to a certain point
9. Everything Big Begins Small: And often starts slowly

Tom’s a good writer and his style is very easy to follow and engaging.  “Once you start reading this book you won’t want to put it down” is a cliché but in this case it’s true.  You could probably read this book in a day or two because it flows so nicely, a bit like reading a novel.   Tom’s a trustworthy and knowledgeable guide in the self-help field and his distilled wisdom will potentially save you the job of reading hundreds of other books – thereby liberating another decade of your time to achieve personal goals in life!

A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Hypnosis

Copyright © Donald Robertson, 2012.  All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9781855755307

Due for publication in 2012.  Available for pre-order now.

The Practice of Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy is a major new clinical textbook on evidence-based practice in clinical hypnosis, written by psychotherapist and hypnotherapist Donald Robertson and published by Karnac, the UK’s leading specialist psychotherapy publishing house.  Based on extensive background research, it contains references to almost 250 different scientific journal articles and clinical textbooks on hypnosis and CBT.

About the Book

Hypnotherapy is arguably the oldest modality of psychological therapy, at least in the modern sense.  Psychologists have long attempted to conceptualize hypnosis in terms of cognitive and behavioural processes and the term cognitive-behavioural approach to hypnosis was first coined in 1974 by Theodore Barber, and his colleagues, one of the most prolific and influential researchers in the field of hypnosis.  Since then cognitive research on hypnosis has continued to evolve alongside the assimilation of modern cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques within the framework of hypnotherapy and vice versa.  This book explores the historical and conceptual relationship between hypnotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBT).

It proceeds to offer a modern cognitive conceptualization of hypnosis, based on the writings of James Braid the founder of hypnotherapy and drawing upon modern cognitive-behavioral research on hypnosis.  The author carefully explores the combination of hypnosis with both cognitive and behavioural interventions and ways in which methods can be adapted in the light of therapeutic principles derived from both fields.  The book aims to provide a comprehensive core text for the practice of cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy and to facilitate further dialogue between practitioners of hypnosis and CBT.

Available for Pre-order Online

• Karnac, the publisher
• Amazon UK
• The Book Depository
• Google Books
• Waterstone’s
• Blackwell

Table of Contents

Part I: The Cognitive-Behavioural Approach to Hypnosis
Chapter 1: Introduction to Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy
Chapter 2: James Braid & the Original Hypnotherapy
Chapter 3: Cognitive-Behavioural Theories of Hypnosis

Part II: Assessment, Conceptualisation, & Hypnotic Skills
Chapter 4: Assessment in Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy
Chapter 5: Case Formulation in Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy
Chapter 6: Socialisation & Hypnotic Skills Training

Part III: Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy
Chapter 7: Applied Self-Hypnosis & Coping Skills
Chapter 8: Affect: Hypnotic Exposure Therapy
Chapter 9: Behaviour: Problem-Solving Hypnotherapy (PSH)
Chapter 10: Cognition: Cognitive Hypnotherapy
Chapter 11: Conclusion & Summary

Copyright © Donald Robertson, 2010.  All rights reserved.

In 2006, Steven Jay Lynn collaborated with the Buddhist teacher Lama Surya Das, and two other researchers, in an attempt to explore the possibility of combining elements of Buddhist mindfulness meditation practice, cognitive therapy, and hypnosis, drawing on recent research in cognitive psychology.

Mindfulness versus Thought Suppression

Over the past couple of decades, enthusiasm for mindfulness meditation techniques derived from Buddhism has flourished among cognitive-behavioural therapists, inspired by the early success of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s meditation programme for stress management. Meditation and acceptance strategies have been used to counteract the tendency of many clients to try to suppress, control, or “fight” distressing thoughts. Lynn et al. refer to the recent study by Wegner and his colleagues, which found that when people tried to deliberately suppress a thought there was evidence of a “rebound effect” in which they subsequently experienced more intrusions of the thought than a control group who were simply asked to think freely about the same thing. Other studies have found evidence that emotional suppression can inhibit memory and problem-solving and increase physiological signs of nervous arousal. Lynn and his colleagues report that of nearly a hundred subjects who were asked to keep their minds blank while listening to hypnotic suggestions, only one reported any success.

Where thought-control strategies backfire, mindfulness and acceptance have been seen as offering an alternative way of responding to distressing experiences. Lynn et al. follow other contemporary cognitive-behavioural therapists in contrasting non-judgemental mindfulness and acceptance with the unhealthy suppression of thoughts and feelings. (However, they fail to mention that experimental studies on this “rebound” effect in thought suppression have produced some mixed results – q.v. Clark & Beck, 2010, for a more detailed review.) Lynn et al. also cite a 2003 meta-analysis of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and stress reduction approaches by Baer, which found a mean effect size of 0.59 (a medium-sized treatment effect) for this approach across various emotional problems and medical conditions. In other words, it probably works, but the effects are comparable to those of other therapies and not dramatically superior to them.

Mindfulness & Metacognition

Lynn et al. appeal to a cognitive model combining elements of Adrian Wells’ influential metacognitive theory and Lynn and Kirsch’s own “response set” theory to explain the mechanism underlying mindfulness meditation and its relationship with hypnosis. Contrary to Beck’s earlier cognitive therapy model, Wells introduced a focus on the notion of “metacognition”, thinking about thinking, or beliefs about beliefs. According to this model, negative automatic thoughts aren’t particularly unhealthy in themselves, but rather they become so because of our attitude toward them. In plain English, whereas Beck’s original cognitive therapy assumed that negative thoughts play a central role in the development of emotional disturbance, Wells points to the fact that many people experience lots of negative thoughts without becoming upset by them, whereas patients with severe emotional disorders appear to be unusually disturbed by individual negative thoughts and worries. Mindfulness meditation, likewise, can be seen as an attempt to adopt a more detached attitude toward our stream of consciousness, and thereby to modify our thinking about thinking, i.e., to see automatic (spontaneous) thoughts as relatively transient and harmless, rather than important and dangerous. Indeed, Beck has recently assimilated many aspects of Wells’ metacognitive approach into his revised cognitive therapy for anxiety (Clark & Beck, 2010).

Curiously, Lynn et al. don’t mention the fact that Wells’ metacognitive model raises serious problems for hypnotherapy because it suggests that the assumptions often made by hypnotherapists about the “power of thought” risk reinforcing maladaptive (metacognitive) assumptions held by many clients, i.e., the assumption that thoughts (including suggestions) are inherently powerful, whereas Wells teaches his clients that ideas are only as powerful as we believe them to be and we can learn to dismiss them as “mere thoughts”, lacking any real power or significance. Likewise, Lynn et al. cite the recent research by Twohig (2004), which found that by repeating a negative thought to oneself one hundred times, like a mantra or autosuggestion, subjects made it seem less believable rather than more so, as some hypnotists might assume. To borrow Wells’ terminology, hypnotism itself can be seen as a set of metacognitive beliefs rather than an altered state of consciousness or “hypnotic trance”. The belief that autosuggestions are powerful when phrased in certain ways and the strategy of attending to their meaning for a prolonged period, to the exclusion of distractions, are ways of “thinking about thinking” (metacognition), which it’s the aim of most “hypnotic inductions” to instantiate. In a sense, mindfulness meditation can be seen as a kind of “de-hypnosis” or “counter-hypnosis”, which aims to develop a metacognitive mind-set that weakens the hold of certain thoughts or suggestions, e.g., “Imagine that you are transparent, and disturbing thoughts and emotions cannot penetrate you or have any power to control your actions” (Lynn et al.), which contrasts sharply with typical preliminary hypnotic suggestions to experience certain ideas (suggestions) as powerful, controlling, and deeply penetrating into the mind, etc.

Combining Hypnosis & Meditation

Lynn et al. summarise the relevance of hypnosis to mindfulness training as follows,

1. Suggestions can be used to motivate clients to persevere with meditation practice on a regular basis.
2. Suggestions can be used to generate a patient mind-set, so that when the attention naturally wanders this is seen as normal and accepted.
3. Suggestions can be given about acceptance of things that cannot be changed.
4. Hypnosis can be used to help people avoid identification with thoughts and feelings.
5. Hypnosis can help clients to become more tolerant of unpleasant feelings.
6. Clients can be hypnotised to perceive negative thoughts as transient and unimportant.

They specifically recommend the use of the following hypnotherapy techniques in conjunction with mindfulness meditation, which generally involves exposure to aversive feelings and events in CBT,

1. Mental (“covert behavioural”) rehearsal of previously avoided situations.
2. Cue-controlled relaxation to help facilitate exposure to feared situations.
3. The use of hypnotic desensitisation to facilitate mental (“imaginal”) exposure .
4. The use of hypnotic regression or reliving as a form of imaginal exposure to traumatic memories (as in PTSD treatment).
5. The use of suggestion to help clients tolerate the discomfort and repetition of exposure therapy.

They add that the most basic use of hypnosis in combination with mindfulness-based CBT would be in the use of suggestion to directly develop an ongoing state of mindfulness. As Lynn et al. emphasise, virtually all modern researchers now take it for granted (following several well-known studies) that hypnosis does not necessarily entail any form of relaxation, although it is frequently accompanied by it. The same applies to meditation and Lynn et al. refer to a recent EEG brain imaging study in which subjects trained in relaxation showed markedly different brain activity from those trained in mindfulness meditation.

Negative Reactions

As an aside, Lynn et al. also note that a considerable body of research demonstrates the existence of transient, relatively superficial, negative reactions following standard hypnosis, i.e., things like headaches, feelings of nausea, anxiety, etc., in up to 29% of subjects. This is comparable to the rates of negative responses reported by control groups who are simply asked to sit with their eyes shut, without being hypnotised, for the same amount of time. However, similar negative reactions are also reported following meditation training, and may even be more frequent, being reported in up to 63% of subjects. Hence, we might say that although negative reactions can occur following hypnosis it may be as harmless (generally speaking) as common meditation or relaxation techniques.

References

Lynn, Steven Jay; Das, Lama Surya; Hallquist, Michael N.; Williams John C. (2006). Mindfulness, acceptance and hypnosis: cognitive and clinical perspectives. IJCEH, 54(2), 143-166.

Clark, David A.; Beck, Aaron T. (2010). Cognitive Therapy of Anxiety Disorders: Science and Practice.

 Welcome to our March 2012 Newsletter

Are you considering a new career as a hypnotherapist?

Our Diploma in Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy provides a complete accredited training in clinical hypnosis. It is open to complete beginners to the subject as well as experienced therapists interested in adding hypnosis to their existing skills. Our next intake is on Saturday 7th July, and a 25% early booking discount is available for bookings received by the 7th April. Click here for further information, prices and to book your place.

Interest-Free Payment Plans available

Anyone attending either our Foundation Certificate or Diploma can spread the cost of their course fees over ten months after payment of a small deposit. (UK bank account required). This is completely interest free, so works out to exactly the same amount as for those paying in advance.

Self-Hypnosis Taster Workshop – Bring a guest free of charge!

Attend our one-day Self-Hypnosis Taster Workshop on Saturday 12th May. This workshop can be taken on its own and will provide you with an excellent insight into our training as well as teaching you some fantastic tools for self-help and personal development. Our self-hypnosis workshop also forms the first day of our diploma training. You can bring a guest to the workshop completely free of charge! Click here to secure your place.

UK College recommended course:

Sports Hypnosis Certificate

The Centre for Sports Hypnosis will be running their popular two-day sports hypnosis certificate course on the 26th – 27th May. This course is open to qualified hypnotherapists and those currently working towards a diploma.

Places are limited so book online today to avoid disappointment! Early booking discount available.

Learn how to work effectively with amateur and elite sportspeople in a wide range of sports using proven techniques. This specialist course will give you a thorough understanding of the foundations of sports psychology, and the techniques used in sports psychology and sports hypnosis to help top athletes achieve their best.

Any Questions?

Please feel free to get in touch either by replying to this email or by phoning us on 0800 195 9809 (+44 (0) 1403 248266) and we’ll be more than happy to help. If you would like a copy of our prospectus sent to you by email, just reply to this message.

Self-Hypnosis and Autosuggestion for Self-Help

This is a new self-help workshop designed for the general public. Anyone is welcome to attend, although it may also be of interest to qualified therapists. It can be taken as a stand-alone workshop or used as the first day of our certificate or diploma training in hypnotherapy.

You can use the PayPal button below if you want to immediately reserve a place on the next self-hypnosis taster workshop by paying a small (£20) deposit securely online. The College will invoice you for the remaining amount.

Workshop Overview

• Introduction to hypnotism and suggestion
• Evidence-based approaches to self-hypnosis and autosuggestion
• Developing awareness of negative autosuggestions
• Self-hypnotic relaxation
• Positive autosuggestion and mental imagery
• Applied self-hypnosis for self-help

(NB: We are constantly researching and improving our material. Hence, course content may be subject to change at the discretion of the college without prior notice. This information is provided as a typical example only.)

Workshop Dates

• 12th May 2012
•  7th July 2012
• 10th November 2012

Workshop Venue

Central Croydon, South London

Entry Requirements

This course is open to everyone. No previous experience or training is required.

Course Fees

Course fees £132. Bring a guest free of charge.

A 20% discount is available to UK College Diploma graduates or to those who have previously attended this workshop and wish to repeat it.

Open Self-Help Discussion Forum

The Anxiety-CBT discussion forum on Yahoogroups is an open forum about CBT self-help for anxiety, stress, and related issues. It currently has over 500 members but has been inactive for some time. We are linking it to our existing blog and will begin posting automatic updates on new articles shortly.

Copyright © Donald Robertson, 2010-2012.  All rights reserved.

“Rhetoric” is the ancient name for what, to a large extent, we now call the art of “communication”, “persuasion”, etc.  However, the systematic study of rhetoric as a formal professional and academic discipline is over two thousand years old. It was one of the most important studies in ancient Graeco-Roman society, many hundreds of books were written about it, and it formed the basis of their children’s education system. However, the abuse of rhetoric by lawyers, politicians and gurus (the “Sophists”) led to condemnation from rational philosophers like Socrates who argued that truth should be prized above verbal manipulation.  This seems to have caused the word “rhetoric” to acquire negative connotations over the centuries, although Socrates and his followers felt that verbal prowess still had a valuable and legitimate place as the servant of philosophy rather than its master.  Indeed, classical rhetoric has always been closely connected to the “therapeutic” aims of Graeco-Roman philosophy, e.g., Marcus Aurelius employs rhetorical exercises as part of his meditations on Stoicism.  The article below makes some analogies between ancient rhetorical concepts and modern therapy strategies, particularly the wording of techniques and scripts in hypnotherapy.

Nor, after all, is this power of [hypnotic] suggestion, or persuasion, or concealed fascination, so remarkable or unaccountable as at first sight it appears to be. The secret of success with all sophistical [i.e., rhetorical] writers and orators is of a similar nature. They make repeated appeals to the feelings, as well as to the reason, until the minds of their readers or hearers get bewildered and withdrawn from the true bearings of the main points of the case and the assumed, and apparent sincerity and energy, of the writer, and still more so of the orator, who, to his other aids of words and arguments, adds that of his physical manifestations, to captivate and carry his entranced hearers along with him, through the power of sympathy and imitation, and fixed attention, at last irresistibly moulds them to his will. In support of this I might appeal to the personal feelings and experience of most people who have watched the effect upon a jury of a powerful and eloquent special pleader [in a court of law]; or observed the effect of an accomplished actor or actress on the stage, over an audience excited and entranced by the felicitous impersonation of fictitious dangers and difficulties, pains and perils, joy or sorrow, fear or courage, compassion, hatred, or revenge. – James Braid, 1852

Aristotle’s On Rhetoric

One of the classic texts of ancient rhetoric was Aristotle’s book on the subject, written in the 4^thCentury BC, in which he introduced the following tripartite schema for the analysis of rhetorical communication. These are the ingredients of any inter-personal communication and apply equally well to political oratory before an audience or to the inter-action between a hypnotherapist and an individual client.

1. Ethos(Character)

The character of the speaker, their reputation, prestige, appearance, and personality, e.g., the reputation or core qualities of the therapist (empathy, congruence, positive regard) identified by Rogers and Traux.

2. Logos(Speech)

The things said, their structure and format, the speech or arguments used to influence others, e.g., the techniques, metaphors, scripts, etc., of a therapist.

3. Pathos(Emotion)

The mental and emotional state of the audience, e.g., or the emotional state of the client or hypnotic “state”, etc.

Rhetorical Figures of Speech

Under the heading of “logos”, or verbal technique, classical rhetoric identifies a huge array of both verbal and non-verbal tactics and strategies used to create an effect upon the audience. Many of these will already be familiar from a variety of sources, as they are engrained in our culture. There are hundreds of relevant concepts, from which a small handful of those most relevant to therapeutic communication may serve as an illustration. Figures of speech are conventionally divided into “schemes” which create an effect by changing the structure of a phrase, or “tropes” which change the meaning of the words being used.

Rhetorical Schemes

Accumulation. A “summing up” which concludes by restating a preceding argument in a short and forceful manner. Note that this resembles the practice of repeating a short affirmation at the end of a lengthy hypnosis script. For example, a detailed description of confident behaviour in the workplace, describing its component behaviours and consequences, etc., might be reinforced by concluding with the suggestion, “You are now completely and utterly confident at work.”

Alliteration. Repeating a series of words that start with similar sounds, or lead with like letters. For example, “You are now growing powerful, peaceful, and poised.” This is sometimes considered euphonic, pleasant-sounding. It may also have a mnemonic effect, making slogans more memorable, e.g., “The three R’s: Reading, Writing, and ‘rithmetic.”

Anaphora. Repetition of the same, or similar, words at the beginning of successive clauses. This is sometimes used in hypnotic scripts. For example, “Sleep comes easily to you, sleep is something you enjoy, sleep is pleasant and comfortable.” See also Epistrophe.

Antithesis.The juxtaposition of contrasting or opposing concepts, e.g., “You are strong enough to make your point heard, and gentle enough to listen to the needs of others.” Erickson refers to a similar language pattern which he calls “apposition of opposites.” However, reference to antagonistic or conflicting ideas is presumed in most traditional “challenge suggestions” which appear to function by evoking mutually incompatible responses. For instance, “The more you try to bend your arm the more rigid it becomes”, a typical arm catalepsy suggestion, could be seen as employing a kind of rhetorical antithesis.

Assonance. The repetition of similar vowelsounds, e.g., “Heinz means beans.” This is more common in poetry than in prose, however.

Asyndeton. The omission of conjunctions between related clauses. For example, “You learn to speak out, contradict, attack” as opposed to “…speak out, contradict and attack.” “We came, we saw, we conquered” (Julius Caesar). Aristotle’s Rhetoric concludes, ‘I have done. You have heard me. The facts are before you. I ask for your judgement.’ Winston Churchill’s famous “We shall fight them on the beaches,” speech exploits this scheme at great length.  Asyndeton tends to create a more hurried effect, usually used to stimulate an energetic emotional reaction. This scheme can be used consistently throughout a script designed to suggest, e.g., energy and alertness. See polysyndeton.

Rhetorical Climax. The use of several successive words or phrases in ascending scale or importance. As the theme tune to the television show Friendsputs it, “It hasn’t been my day, my month, my week, or even my year.” The opposite, rhetorical “anti-climax”, where diminishing ideas are evoked, is perhaps less useful in therapy.  For instance, the goals of therapy can be affirmed rhetorically, “You’re going to learn to believe a little in yourself, to patiently acquire methods of helping yourself, to prepare to face your fears with my help, to face them first in small steps, to confront them repeatedly and with growing confidence, learning to depend upon yourself more and more as you approach the greatest challenges which face you, and finally to conquer them once and for all.”

Epistrophe. The repetition of the same, or similar, words at the end of successive clauses. This is also sometimes found in hypnotic scripts. For example, “You enjoy study, you embrace study, and you take pride in your ability to study.” See Anaphora.

Hendiadys. Which literally means “one through two.” (A bit like the “Buy one get one free” of rhetoric.) The use of two similar-meaning words or short phrases for rhetorical effect, usually two nouns instead of a single noun or adjective. For example, “You now grow relaxed and peaceful”, instead of “You now grow peacefully relaxed.” Further examples would include expressions like “null and void”, “heart and soul”, and “pushing and shoving.” The repetition of meaning is logically unnecessary (tautological) but adds rhetoricalforce to the idea.

Hendiatris. Like hendiadys, but meaning “one through three.” The use of three similar-meaning words or short phrases to express one common idea, such as “free, gratis, and without charge.” The ancients appreciated that threefold repetition often sounded appealing, e.g., Caesar’s famous veni, vidi, vici; “we came, we saw, we conquered.” Estate agents exclaim, “location, location, location”; politicians, “education, education, education”; sports coaches, “practice, practice, practice.” Hence, “You now grow calm, relaxed, and peaceful.”

Polysyndeton. The use of additional conjunctions for rhetorical effect. This is very common indeed in hypnotherapy scripts. For example, “Allow yourself to relax, and let go, and feel comfortable” as opposed to “…relax, let go, feel comfortable.” This slows down the rhythm of speech and usually creates a solemn or relaxing effect. See asyndeton.

Rhetorical Tautology and Synonymy. Tautology refers to the repetition of an idea in different words for rhetorical emphasis. Saying the same thing in a different way. This is frequently the case in hypnosis scripts where a similar is repeated many times, using different phrases to reinforce the same underlying ideas. Sometimes this can be by implication, e.g., “A male bachelor without a wife.”  Synonymy is similar to tautology but more specifically involves the deliberate use of individual words which mean the same thing.  Hypnotherapy scripts are full of synonyms, so much that hypnotists can often make good use of a simple thesaurus in designing their scripts, by including as many variations on the same concept as possible.

Verbification & Reification. The technique of changing a noun into a verb, sometimes called “verbification” or “verbing”, is mainly attributed to Korzybski’s General Semantics in modern therapy. Sometimes it can lead to strange neologisms, as in “Verbing weirds language”.  Albert Ellis made extensive use of verbification in his early writings on Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), coining such terms as “awfulising” and “catastrophising”.  Korzybksi famously argued that the verb “to be” was responsible for confusion and deadening of language. For example, “I am tense” can be replaced with “I am tensing my body.” Doing so encourages the speaker to be more specific and also to adopt responsibility for their current activity, which can lead to changing behaviour. The opposite process, “reification”, occurs when a process or activity is treated as if it were a substance (a “thing”), usually by referring to it by means of a noun. The familiar notion of doing something “unconsciously”, is transformed into the notion that it is done “by the unconscious” by introducing the noun and thereby reifying the concept, something which humanistic and behavioural therapists roundly criticised Freud for doing.

Calvin and Hobbes on "Verbing"

Rhetorical Tropes

Allegory.A short story that serves to illustrate a central message, i.e., the stories told by Erickson, or the ancient fables of Aesop.

Aphorism.A concise sentence, maxim, or statement that powerfully sums up an idea, e.g., “Hypnosis helps those who help themselves”, “All hypnosis is self-hypnosis”, etc.

Apophasis. Meaning “saying no”, apophasis is the ancient term for the rhetorical trope which evokes an idea by superficially denying it, e.g., “I don’t want you to become obsessed with using this self-hypnosis technique”, “Nobody’s suggesting it was your fault”, “Don’t think of an elephant”, etc. In a televised political debate in 1984, Ronald Reagan said he would never look to take political advantage of his opponent’s youth and inexperience, thereby indirectly but effectively undermining his credibility. This concept is central to the practice of hypnotic suggestion and presupposed by the common rules of suggestion, i.e., that suggestions should generally be phrased in the positive.

Euphemism. Using a more palatable phrase for one that might offence. Euphemisms are commonplace in marketing, e.g., high calorie drinks, which are potentially very unhealthy because of the large quantities of refined sugar in them, are simply relabelled “high energy” – a more positive-sounding way of saying the same thing.  In hypnotherapy, e.g., we might refer to “that unpleasant feeling” instead of “pain” to refer to it without evokingthe sensation. A therapist might refer to “those old emotions fading away” to avoid saying, “you’re not panicking and crying like a baby anymore.” In smoking cessation we might refer to “that old habit” to avoid conjuring up the images associated with more explicit and evocative phrases like “smoking cigarettes.”

Hyperbole. The use of exaggeration (“hype”) to emphasise a point, e.g., “You feel as if the whole world is applauding you”, “Your legs feel like they weigh a ton.” Hyperbole is also commonly used in hypnotic suggestion. It’s opposite, Litotes, deliberate understatement, is less common in hypnotherapy, except in the form of euphemism.

Irony.The use of a word or phrase in a paradoxical manner made significant precisely through the conflict with its normal meaning. The term specifically derives from Socrates’ professed ignorance. Assuming that he “knew only that he knew nothing”, was (ironically) the basis of his legendary wisdom. Picasso, e.g., said “Art is a form of lying in order to tell the truth.” Irony is common in therapy, e.g., clients’ attempts to achieve things often (ironically) result in the opposite. Ironically, trying not to think about something tends to make you think about it even more.  Trying too hard to make people love you, ironically, can drive them away. Trying to fall asleep, ironically, can keep you awake. Believing that you can’t be hypnotised, ironically, is itself a form of negative self-hypnosis.

Metaphor. Metaphors are specifically verbal combinations of one concept with another which gain meaning by the comparison, e.g., “He had the heart of a lion”, “The speaker was shot down in flames.” Confusion is caused when metaphors are taken too literally by people who misunderstand them, e.g., the notion of “trance” is arguably a metaphor in hypnotherapy, used to describe normal disorientation, selective awareness, or imaginal absorption.  People, however, take it in a more literal sense and assume that it refers to some sort of unnatural state such as the unconsciousness or automatism of a zombie. Hence, some modern hypnotherapists prefer to speak of a “trance-like feeling”, “feeling as if you’re in a trance”, turning the metaphor into an explicit simile.

Metonymy.Use of a word to refer to something associated with it, or of which it is one part. Lacan defined metonymy as “part for whole.” For instance, “the press” symbolises the media by association with the printing press, “the crown” symbolises the monarchy by association, “top brass” symbolises the military command.

Simile.Similes are like metaphors but made explicit by the use of a phrase such as “as if”, “as though”, or “like” which verbally indicates a comparison, “It was as if he had the heart of a lion.”

Neologism.The invention of a new word to create a new concept and add emphasis to it, e.g., therapists often turn nouns into verbs such as “You are catastrophising things” instead of “This is a catastrophe.”

Onomatopoeia. Words which sound like the thing they describe, e.g., “the buzz of the fly”, “the crack of the whip”, “the pop of the cork”, etc. The Greeks called foreigners “barbarians” (barbaroi) because they thought they sounded like they were just saying “bar, bar…”, the Greek equivalent of “blah, blah…” Not much used in hypnotherapy.

Oxymoron.A real or apparent contradiction in terms, the opposite of a tautology, e.g., “He was a likeable rogue”, or “It was a square circle”, “The midday Sun at midnight”, etc. Not much used in hypnotherapy.

Paradox. “Paradox” means contrary to (popular) opinion. Plato’s views were described as paradoxical because they seemed to turn received wisdom on its head. Paradoxes feature in therapy because human nature is paradoxical and many popular assumptions are based on misconceptions. For example, “paradoxical therapy” or “symptom prescription” revolves around the idea that deliberately engaging in a behaviour may make it lesslikely to continue as a habit in the future.

Paradoxes have rhetorical effect because they are surprising and therefore capture attention and stick in the memory. The most important paradoxes for the purposes of therapy are “apparent” but not “real.” For example, it may seem paradoxical that people can learn to reduce pain by first learning how to intensify it, but there is probably an explanation for this.

Personification (Prosopopoeia).Attributing inhuman things with human qualities. Sometimes called “the pathetic fallacy” in logic, or “anthropomorphism” in psychology and anthropology. For example, “The land was thirsty for rain”, “The book was staring back at him”, “The universe has got it in for me.”

Rhetorical Question (Erotema).The practice of posing a question in order to presuppose or imply a conclusion, e.g., “Do you really want to make yourself the whore of Big Tobacco by smoking yourself into an early grave?”

Synaesthesia.The use of words normally descriptive of one sense to describe another, e.g., “This wine tastes like an autumn breeze with an aftertaste that’s like warming your toes by an open fire”, “His voice sounded warm”, “The kitten looks sweet.”

Truism. An obvious, self-evident statement used for rhetorical effect, e.g., “Pain hurts!”, “Stupid people do stupid things”, “Some you win; some you lose.”

Logical Fallacies in Rhetoric

The study of logical fallacies is another important area in rhetoric, closely resembling the disputation of thinking errors in cognitive therapy.  However, it lies beyond the scope of this brief article.

Further Reading

Corbett, E.J. (1990). Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. Oxford: OUP.

Update (10th Feb): Severe weather warnings in place across many parts of England, check the weather and transport news to plan your journeys!  See National Rail Enquiries website for information on possible disruptions.

If you’re planning to travel to London for our forthcoming course or workshop, please remember to keep an eye on the weather forecast and transport news.  It’s possible there will be snow and ice, which may mean delays in the transport system.  Please try to plan your journey to take account of any problems.

We’re pleased to say that we’ve only ever had to cancel one day of training in over a decade due to the weather, when unusually severe blizzards hit London and all transport was suspended.  So planned courses will almost certainly continue to take place.  Many of our students will be staying in hotels nearby rather than travelling each day.  However, for those of you whose journeys may be delayed, it’s important to watch the transport news and you may need to allow extra time to reach the training venue.

Five-Day Weather Forecast for London

Self-Hypnosis and Autosuggestion for Self-Help

This is a new self-help workshop designed for the general public. Anyone is welcome to attend, although it may also be of interest to qualified therapists. It can be taken as a stand-alone workshop or used as the first day of our certificate or diploma training in hypnotherapy.

You can use the PayPal button below if you want to immediately reserve a place on the next self-hypnosis taster workshop by paying a small (£20) deposit securely online. The College will invoice you for the remaining amount.

Workshop Overview

• Introduction to hypnotism and suggestion
• Evidence-based approaches to self-hypnosis and autosuggestion
• Developing awareness of negative autosuggestions
• Self-hypnotic relaxation
• Positive autosuggestion and mental imagery
• Applied self-hypnosis for self-help

(NB: We are constantly researching and improving our material. Hence, course content may be subject to change at the discretion of the college without prior notice. This information is provided as a typical example only.)

Workshop Dates

11th February 2012
12th May 2012
7th July 2012
10th November 2012

Workshop Venue

Central Croydon, South London

Entry Requirements

This course is open to everyone. No previous experience or training is required.

Course Fees

£110 + VAT (£132 inc. VAT) Bring a guest free of charge.

A 20% discount is available to UK College Diploma graduates or to those who have previously attended this workhop and wish to repeat it.