Dealing with the roots instead of just cutting back the weeds.
A new and exciting approach to hypnoanalysis.
Jure Biechonski MSc

Essex, United Kingdom

What is Transactional Hypnoanalysis (THA)?

THA is part of transpersonal psychology and works with the theory that our personalities are made up of many different parts. The aim of THA is to integrate the aware ego within the personality by teaching us how to access our different personality parts in hypnosis. During hypnoanalysis we learn how to nurture those parts of our personality that have been suppressed, and how to disempower those that have become inflated.

By learning to access the different parts of our personalities we gain a much deeper understanding of ourselves, which then affects our relationships, our ability to express our spiritual experiences and ourselves. The overall aim of ego integration in THA is healthy psychological management of the personality as a whole.

Happiness

During my years at university studying for my master’s degree I attended seminars on every psychological dysfunction under the sun, but not once was I taught anything about functional states of mind such as happiness or joy. It seems as though happiness is considered to be a crime that must be avoided. I was concerned by this and turned to my Dictionary of Psychology (Penguin Books 1985) for help. To my horror I found that the word ‘happiness’ was not listed. Neither was the word ‘joy’. This worried me greatly and I started rifling through the dictionary in search of any reference at all to a positive mental state. After many hours of obsessive searching I established that the most positive word listed in the Dictionary of Psychology is the word ‘content’.

As therapists we deal with people’s problems every day. We are trained to listen carefully to the presenting problem, and gently to explore and understand the underlying problem. But what is it that we are trying to achieve? So much attention is devoted to the abused, abandoned, neglected, rejected, pampered and unloved child, that we often know very little or nothing at all about the humanistic concept of the fully functioning and self-actualised happy child.

So once we have explored the nature of their issue of concern (presenting problem) and understood the roots or causes of the problem (underlying problem) it would be very useful to ask the client what it is that they want from therapy. In most cases the client will find this question difficult or impossible to answer, but this is exactly why the question is so important. I recommend using the Miracle Question:

Imagine that tonight, while you are sleeping, a miracle occurs. The miracle is that the difficulties and problems that have brought you here (to therapy), have somehow been magically resolved. It isn’t until you wake up, that you are aware that the miracle has happened.

What it the first thing that makes you realise that the miracle has happened?

How do you feel?

What are the things that you do differently now that the miracle has happened?

What other things happen through the course of your miracle day? (e.g. Did you have breakfast? What did you do afterwards? Did you go to work or take the children to school – get lots of details.)

Who else is aware that this miracle has happened and how do they know it has happened?

The Miracle Question is a great way to start therapy because it gives the therapist and the client something very important in their work together, namely the expression of a favourable outcome. Lets not forget that, ultimately, the aim of therapy is happiness.

The Child figure in history.

We are all born princes and princesses and the world turns us into frogs (Berne). Berne believed that we are all born autonomous, and that our parents’ good intent socialises our finest qualities out of us.

The child figure has its roots in ancient mythology and in fairy tales. Nearly all religions tell the story of the child who became a leader and a saviour, just as The Bible tells us: and a little child shall lead them

In ancient mythology such child figures are usually abandoned, orphaned or in some way under threat. There was Moses who was found abandoned in the bull rushes, and of course Jesus who was born in a stable and who was threatened by King Herod who commanded the slaughter of all infants. There was also Krishna, whose birth was accompanied by great danger, and the child Zeus in Greek mythology, who was in danger of being devoured by his father Chronos. The roman twins Romolus and Remus were abandoned and set adrift on the river Tiber and later raised by a wolf.

European fairy tales have their fair share of children threatened by demons and ogres. There is Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, Hansel and Gretel and the Witch, Cinderella and her wicked stepmother and ugly sisters.

Jung in his Essay ‘The Psychology of the Child Archetype’, saw the child as a universal symbol existing within the collective unconscious.

It is not surprising that so many of the mythological saviours are child gods. This agrees exactly with our experience of the psychology of the individual, which shows that the child paves the way for a future change of personality. In the individuation process, it anticipates the figure that comes from the synthesis of conscious and unconscious el­ements in the personality. It is therefore a symbol, which unites the opposites; a mediator, bringer of healing, that is, one who makes whole. Because it has this meaning, the child motif is capable of numerous transformations . I have called this wholeness that transcends con­sciousness the self. The goal of the individuation process is the syn­thesis of the self.

When we are born, we are born free, assertive and magical. Each of us has a psychic fingerprint that is our own, unique identifying way of being. When we see a happy toddler we can really sense its aliveness, the enthusiasm with which it constantly explores its environment is almost contagious. The child within us has a powerful presence that sits at the very core of our being.

The Vulnerable child

When we are born we are born vulnerable and completely dependent on our parents or caregivers for survival. This early child self is called the Vulnerable Child. As we grow older other parts of the personality will develop to protect our vulnerability and to help us survive the adult world, but in the beginning we are vulnerable and dependent.

The Vulnerable Child smiles and laughs from deep down inside when it is happy and it is also highly sensitive. At this stage it knows instinctively who to trust and who not to trust. It also loves to play and to discover. Every moment is new and full of wonder and it is this playfulness that fuels the child’s inexhaustible creativity and aliveness.

As the Vulnerable Child we know what our feelings are and we express them openly. We instinctively laugh, cry or make cute sounds in order to attract the attention we need to meet our needs. If we are hungry, we cry. When we cry we discover that our parents come and feed us. Then sometimes when we cry our parents don’t come, so we scream. And then we discover that when we scream they come. But then at other times we scream and our parents become angry with us and we don’t get what we need. We quickly learn that when we smile at our parents, they are loving towards us and make us feel protected.

At this stage in life we know what we want and we openly demand it, our behaviour is spontaneous and driven purely by survival instinct. According to Freud the infant psyche is just a mass of instinctive drives, collectively termed the id. Although the child is a purely instinctive being at first, it very quickly learns that a smile gets a reaction, and then it learns that by modifying its behaviour it can often get what it wants/needs. This is the development of what Freud called the ego, which is the part of the personality that tests reality and enables the personality to make practical adaptations that are necessary for survival in the adult world. The ego adapts by creating rules for the personality that determine its behaviour.

The Inner child

As it grows older the child is more and more exposed to the adult world, and the grown-up voices that deal with needs and wants start to drown out the inner voice that deals with feelings and instincts. The more the child listens to its parents and teachers the more they seem to be saying: Don’t trust yourself, don’t feel your feelings, don’t say this, don’t express that, do as we say, we know best, don’t be a child, be careful, grow up.

It doesn’t take long for the child to start hiding its natural curiosity and spontaneity, and to lose its ability to feel. The very qualities that give children their unique aliveness are suppressed as the process of raising, disciplining, and educating children turns them into predictable adults.

The essential self of the child is severely damaged by a growing-up process that encourages the repression of the child’s vulnerability. The Vulnerable Child is suppressed and the baby is, so to speak, thrown out with the bath water. In this way the adult world is not a safe place for children. In the name of survival the growing youngster suppresses its delightful child spirit, and that child spirit becomes the Inner Child, locked away deep inside us and waiting to be set free.

In The Bible Moses tells us that he wasn’t very good with words: "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech, and slow of tongue." (Exodus IV:10). And later we learn that he was hard of hearing, when God suggested to Moses that his brother, Aaron: "shall be thy spokesman () even he shall be thee instead of a mouth" (EX IV:16). Maybe it was a bit of a struggle up there on Mount Sinai for poor old Moses on his own trying to make out what God was saying. Maybe after the tenth commandment to: "honour thy father and thy mother" (Exodus XX:12) he was just too tired to hear the last and most important commandment of all: honour thy children.

Embracing the child within.

The Inner Child that has been locked away for so long constantly tries to get our attention, but many of us have forgotten how to listen to what it is saying. Every time we ignore our true or gut feelings, we ignore our Inner Child. Every time we fail to nurture our bodies and souls, we neglect our Inner Child. Every time we talk ourselves out of childlike needs, telling ourselves that they are neither rational nor practical nor grown-up, we abandon our Inner Child. We may feel, for example, an urge to jump for joy and skip through the park, or to cry openly over the loss of a friend. That is the Inner Child asking to be let out. But the grown-up inside us manages to keep the Inner Child under lock and key: Pull yourself together, you can’t do that, big boys don’t cry, stay in control!

By locking our Inner Child away we lose our spontaneity and our natural zest for life. Over time this can drain our energy and lead to chronic or serious illness. By hiding our Inner Child we also hide our true thoughts and feelings, which means that other people can’t know what we are really feeling and thinking. This separates us from other people because they can never see who we really are. As a result we never get to know each other and never experience true intimacy. This is a tragic loss. In order for us to be fully human, the child within must be embraced and expressed.

The Rule maker.

The first part of our personality that we develop to defend our vulnerable side is the Rule Maker, the part that creates the rules that determine how we behave. The Rule Maker observes the family and the culture around us very closely, and works out how we can best meet our needs and protect our vulnerability. The rules that each of us create are unique to our own situation because we are all unique and different, but the rules are created in the same way for all of us.

For example, if your Rule Maker decides that you should smile when your parents want you to (because this makes them happy and therefore loving toward you) and that you should eat your meals when they ask you to, then you will quickly develop a pleasing part of your personality. Your Rule Maker has worked out that if you want to be loved and protected then you must smile and be pleasing. The Pleaser will then come into play whenever your parents want you to smile.

The pleasing strategy works well during childhood, but in adulthood it is controlling and limiting. For example, have you ever wished that you behaved differently in certain situations but felt that you can’t control your behaviour? Or have you felt that your reactions to some people are automatic rather than deliberate? Or perhaps you often find yourself doing what others want you to do? If this is the case then it is likely that as a child you developed a part of yourself that pleased others in order to get what you wanted (probably love) and now you don’t know how to stop.

The Rule Maker sorts our behaviour into yes behaviour and no behaviour. This process continues throughout childhood into adulthood and is largely responsible for the personality characteristics that you have today. The example below shows how David used this process as he learned to relate to others in childhood:

David is a five-year-old and he has a younger sister. One day they are playing together and David’s sister takes one of his toys and starts to play with it. David grabs the toy back and his sister starts to cry. His mother is alarmed by the crying and tells David that he shouldn’t do that, that as the older brother he must share his toys with his sister. David responds that they are his toys and that he does not want to share. His mother encourages him to develop his sharing self, and discourages him from developing his individual selfish self.

The next few times his sister takes his toys, David is tempted to take them back, but he notices the disapproving look of his mother, and decides instead to share. He notices that when he does this, his mother approves of him. One day when his mother isn’t there, and his sister takes a toy, David grabs it back and hits her over the head with it. She starts to cry. Mother rushes in and is angry with David and punishes him. David’s Rule Maker takes note of the mother’s reaction, and decides that if he wants his mother’s approval then the sharing behaviour is better. As David experiences this pattern over and over again he begins to develop a pleasing, giving personality, which, he has learned, enables him to get along with others and to get his survival needs met.

The Self system

All aspects of our personality develop in the same way. As we go through life’s experiences our Rule Maker creates rules based on our survival needs at the time, and we create other aspects of our personality, like the Pleaser, to fit in with these rules. All the aspects or parts of our personality together form the primary self system.

The primary self system is what we identify with, it is our me, and it can be separated out into its component parts, which are called our primary selves. Some of David’s primary selves, for example, are his Rule Maker, his Pleaser, and his Vulnerable Child. Together, they form his self system, which is the same as the Jungian persona that we develop, according to Jung, in order to survive interaction with the outside world.

"The ego has succumbed to a combination of different subersonalities, which have taken over its executive function. Thus, what in fact is functioning as the Ego, may be a combination of what has been referred to as one’s Protector/Controller, Pusher, Pleaser, Perfectionist and Inner Critic. Therefore, we say that the Ego is identified with these particular patterns." (Stone & Winkelman, 1985, p. 21)

During childhood your Rule Maker will also decide that some behaviour is bad. For many of us this might include aggressive and selfish behaviour (though in some family situations the Rule Maker may decide that being aggressive is necessary for a child's survival). Any behaviour that we discard along the way becomes our disowned self system, which can be separated out into its component parts, called our disowned selves. David’s disowned selves would include his Aggressive Self and his Selfish Self, because his Rule Maker decided that he must be kind and sharing.

This is our Jungian shadow that we suppress in order to gain acceptance and approval from others. Each of our primary selves in our self system has a complementary disowned self that is opposite in content and equal in power. The disowned selves are buried in our subconscious mind and are often projected onto other people or things in later life.

"The people in the world whom we hate, judge, or have strong negative reactions toward are direct representations of our disowned selves. Conversely, the people in the world whom we overvalue emotionally are also direct representations of our disowned selves." (Stone & Winkelman, 1985, p. 13)

Multiple personalities

By the time we are three years old we have acted out almost all known behaviour and experienced almost every known emotion. At this point we decide to use only some of our characteristics, labelling some as good and others as bad. Nobody can tell us why it is that we divide our personality up in this way, but Transactional Hypnoanalysis (THA) gives us plenty of evidence that we do.

One of the remarkable things about THA is that we can talk directly to the different aspects of our personality, and that when we do so we discover that all these aspects are complete personalities in themselves, each one with their own opinions, feelings, and needs.

Think of how you function in the work place. You are probably organised, rational and responsible. But when you leave work and go to a party you may be more lively, carefree and irresponsible. Or maybe you are always rational and responsible and you hate parties, because you don’t have access to your party-going self.

THA encourages us to see ourselves as being made up of many different personal selves, all with their own characteristics. By learning to access these personal selves we increase awareness and improve our understanding of how we function. This understanding affects our personal relationships, our ability to express our spiritual experiences and ourselves in a positive way.

Creating rapport with the vulnerable child

When a client comes to see a therapist usually they are in child ego state, they are a lost child that seeks parental guidance and approval. The client looks up to their therapist as a parent who will save, rescue and protect them from the uncertainty of the adult world.

By making the assumption that the client knows better and sticking to the Client Centred rule of not giving advise to the client we might reinforce the parental rejection of ‘deal with it yourself’ we do not give advise to clients but rather give them the information so the can make the choices.

The interaction below between the therapist and client is a complimentary transaction between a nurturing parent and an adapted child.

Therapist		Client

The therapist below is responding to the client as an adult to adult.

Therapist		Client

And sometimes trying to cross the transaction from adult therapist into adult client, once again reinforces parental rejection.

This resembles to the Freudian interaction between the Parent judgmental Superego, which observes, orders, corrects, nurtures and threatens and the child’s Id, home of uncensored instincts and drives. By crossing the transaction the therapist introduces the Ego, which is the Adult ‘reality testing’.

By doing that the parental injunctions of ‘grow up’, ‘don’t be a child’ are being reinforced once again.

But how about creating the following supportive transaction created within the framework of THA.

Therapist	Adapted Client (Child)	Free Client (Adult)

The therapist ‘nurturing parent’ is establishing rapport with the adapted ‘child’ client during the initial consultation, while regression takes place the therapist will communicate from his free child ego state with the adapted child client’s ego state.

Here we introduce the concept of the client having two separate yet conjoining influencing parts, the Adapted Client and the Free Client.

The most important part of THA is helping the client learn to use the Free Client part within them. It is this part of the client that is the empowered, the guide, the enforcer and, for many clients presenting themselves for therapy, the part they do not even know exists!!

As we move deeper into the workings of THA we will find out not only how to communicate with the clients Adapted part but also how to introduce the clients Free part to create the aware ego that is needed to resolve issues not only in the clients past, but those that are reflecting themselves in the clients present life with the Other.

I remember once observing an angry child who sat under a table refusing to come out. A critical parent was trying desperately by looking down at the child to understand what is happening and convinces the child to come out. But if a child to child transaction took place then the whole scenario might have been much more productive. How about getting down there under a table and level with the child to understand better how this child is feeling.

Imagine for moment that you are five years old and your mother is shouting at you. You feel scared! The therapist asks you what you would like to say to your mother, probably you would like to say nothing and run away. Because when you are five years old you are a feeling child and not an executive decision making adult. By going on a psychic level into your own free child state you have increased your level of empathy with the scared child and established rapport based on mutual understanding of the feelings involved.

Then you introduce the adult part of the client into the picture, allow the client to become their adult self, reintroduce the incident again and ask the ‘adult’ client what is that they would like to say to the ‘child self’ ‘.And as you are looking at your younger self, you are the only person in the whole world that knows.. how this child / younger self feels you are the only person in the whole world that knows how this event has affected this child / younger self. And you are the only person that knows what that child needs to hear. What would you like to say and to do now for that child / younger self?’

Sometimes it might be useful to empower the client to say something to the parent from their adult ego state, it is important to encourage the client to make statements like ‘I feel I think I want’ rather then ask ‘why’ question which will invite frustrating because answers.

Communicate with the ‘child’ from your own child ego state and with the ‘adult’ from your adult ego state.

It is clear by now that we all suffer from what orthodox psychiatry call Multiple Personality Disorder. By disowning different parts of ourselves we relocate them outside our psyche and refer to them as entities, which are outside our conscious mind. Those personalities are our disowned selves that due to the superego of our parents and society we have judged as unacceptable and pushed them out of our personality.

During our life time we integrate our family into our inner family, we continue carrying with us our internal mother, father, brother, sister. We have made them and the messages they have gave us as parts our psyche.

Those messages, those irrational thoughts, feelings that out adult selves judge as irrational are only our inner children, those children have different emotional ages that are distant from our biological age. So when we feel or think something that our rational adult mind is judging as irrational it is not we that have those feelings or thoughts but our inner child. At that moment we continue the abuse of our parents by judging this child as stupid. Our inner parents continue very effectively the childhood abuse that we have suffered, our parents might have done there best the raise us and give us the love they thought we need, they gave us what they have received from their parents who in turn received from their parents.

The family into which we were born has parents and grandparents, brothers; sisters and cousins, aunts and uncles. We may also have close friends who function as family members and who, at times, are closer to us than our actual families. Learning about our families and how we fit into them is a very important part of the growing-up process.

What is fascinating to consider, and what is a new idea for most people, is that we have an inner family as well as an outer one. This inner family is influenced, first of all, by those closest to us. It consists, at first, of selves that resemble the personality patterns of our family members, friends, teachers, or anyone who has had any kind of influ­ence over us, or, conversely, it consists of the personality characteristics (or selves) that represent the exact opposite patterns.

Learning about this inner family is a very important part of personal growth and absolutely necessary for the under­standing of our relationships, since the members of this inner family, or selves, as we like to call them are often in control of our behaviour. If we do not understand the pres­sures they exert, then we are really not in charge of our lives.

How does this inner family develop? As we grow in a particular family and culture, each of us is indoctrinated with certain ideas about the kind of person we should be. Since we are very vulnerable as infants and children, it is important that we be the kind of person we should be, and we behave in a way that keeps us safe and loved and cared for. This need to protect our basic vulnerability results in the development of our personality the development of the primary selves that define us to ourselves and to the world.

By establishing a dialogue between our inner parents, or parts of us that are learned behaviours, thoughts or feelings introduced to us by our outer parents and adopted by our inner parents, we are enabling the ego, the executive of the personality, the driver of our psychological car to decide which of those parts is allowed to have a voice, to suggest to the ego-personality, to the consciousness to take action. Being aware of our different parts and the role that they play in our lives, allows us to take control of our selves and become a parent to ourselves the kind of parent we never had!

The Balance of the aware ego and its effect on others

The purpose of balancing the aware ego within THA is to create a situation not only within the client but one which also effects those around them. During my years of teaching I have witnessed students starting courses for a variety of different reasons. The one thing that stuck in my mind has been the absolute belief that one can change others. This has led to frustration, annoyance and sometimes a stubborn refusal within the student to realise that the only way others change is when we change!

The games that we are often unwittingly and unconsciously drawn into have been excellently documented in Berne’s ‘Games People Play’.

Games

Games are played outside of conscious awareness. If we consciously played games then we would be being manipulative. Games are second only to intimacy as the best means of obtaining strokes. However, the strokes received will be negative. Have you ever had an interaction in which you and the other person both end up feeling bad, and afterwards you said to yourself something like:

Why does this keep on happening? or

How on earth did that happen? or

I thought that he/she was different to the others, but . . .

Did you feel surprised at the painful way that things turned out - yet, at the same time, realise that the same sort of thing had happened to you before? If you had an interaction like this, it’s most likely that in classic T.A. language you were involved in playing a game. And just like football or chess, psychological games are played according to predetermined rules. THA determines to help the client become aware of the games being played in their present life, and allow the Free Adult the opportunity to teach the Adapted client what to do about them.

Conventional T.A. as with many other approaches to therapy assumes that the answer to changing ones transactions with others is simply by becoming AWARE that those transactions are happening. Through applying these methods with clients over the years it has become apparent that simply knowing is not enough. Countless clients presenting themselves for therapy have the same story to tell:

I have been in therapy for years I KNOW what is causing my problem but nothing has changed!

How many times have you become aware of a part of your personality that you are not happy with, and how many times, no matter how much conscious effort you put into it have you fell into the same old trap of responding in the same way as before to a situation that, strangely, keep reappearing in your life.

The reason for this? You are operating from the same ego state as before.

The THA Transaction

What does THA do that allows you to alter the way you respond to others? Lets take our model from earlier and see how after the transactions WITHIN the client has taken place we are able to communicate with others in a different way:

Therapist	Adapted Client	Free Client	Other

5: The Aware Transaction

The Hypnotic conditioning of the adapted client

As the major part of the transactions occurs within hypnosis is important for us to realise where our hypnotic conditioning is aimed. This is to the Adult of the Adapted Child, since it is ever present within us .

According to our model of transactions within THA we are encouraging the Adapted and the free child to be aware of each other and work together for the benefit of the client as a whole. This is what is known in THA as the AWARE Client. One that is able to listen to each part and give that part what it didn’t get at the time it was needed. We can also refer to this as CORRECTIVE PARENTING.

The Journey Back

Just take a deep breath and relax because we are going on a journey... a journey to the past and we are going back to your childhood street and you stand on that street in your present age.

And as you listen to all those sounds, smell all those smells, see all those old cars and familiar people in the street, just allow yourself to have all those feelings, all those memories, all those thoughts

We arrive now in front of your childhood house...look very carefully at this house... notice its colour... size...windows... and the colour of the front door, and very soon we are going to enter this house as invisible guests... we are approaching the door... and as you put your hand on the handle... and feel its texture, allow all of those feelings, thoughts and memories to be present... take a deep breath and enter the house.

We are now standing in the living room. Listen to the sounds... is it a loud house or a quiet one? Notice the furnishings, the wallpaper, the different doors leading into the rooms of your home. Starting to come back now? And as you walk into that room there it is, just as it once was, and nothing has changed... nothing.

And as you are looking now at your father you notice what he is doing and what he is wearing and as you are looking at him you become aware of all those feelings and then you look at your mother, what is she doing at the moment? And as you are looking at her once again you become aware of all those feelings, sense the atmosphere, look at your siblings, Brothers? Sisters? What are they doing?

And somewhere there in the room you notice the little you and I want you to look at this child very, very carefully... look what the child is doing right now and as you are looking at that child you are the only person in the whole world who knows what that child is feeling... you are the only person in the whole world who knows what that child is thinking... you are the only person who knows this child’s hopes, fears, dreams

And as you have approached the child the child looks up at you and they are the only person in this room at the moment that can see you and you look at the child’s face, at the child’s eyes and you know, you understandand, you become aware of all those feelings

And now you take the child by the hand and go to the child’s room and you look at this room, the furniture, the window and the view out of the window, you might notice some toys or books and you become aware of the atmosphere of that room

And as you sit with the child on the bed, you hold the hand of the little you and you are the only person in the whole world who understands what this child is feeling and thinking, you are the only person in the whole world who knows what that child needs to hear right now... something that maybe nobody has said to the child before or something that the child needs to hear

So you say it to the child, whatever it is that the little you wants to hear right now, and you might consider giving the little you a hug and as you hold that child in your arms you become aware of your feelings and you become the child held by your adult self and you once again become aware of those special feelings, savouring that special moment, that sacred moment

And you take the child by the hand and walk out of the room, into the living place, you pass the mother and father and other siblings out into the street, down the street, far away to a special place ... and it can be a place that you know or a place of your imagination... it can be indoors or outdoors... and when you are there you just spend time with that child and you give the child a hug and as you give this child a hug the child becomes part of you and now you know that the child that you once were is still alive in your adult shell and you can feel that child inside you and you know deep down inside that that child is always there

And from now on whenever you have thoughts and feelings that your adult self knows are not supposed to be there you will become aware of the inner child inside you and all you will need to do is to go inside and tell this child what the child needs to hear right now because you are the only person in the whole world who knows what that child needs to hear and you might choose to reassure the child, to play with the child, or even sometimes just give that child a reassuring hug

Because that child that you once were is still alive in your adult shell and will always be there and you can become a parent to the child, a parent that the child never had but always wanted to have, you can become a brother, a sister, a friend to that child, the kind that the child always wanted, but never had

And now you start to become aware of your body on the chair, the sound of your breathing, your feelings, your thoughts and your surroundings because now you know

Transactional Hypnoanalysis Session

Guidelines

1. Explore the client’s issue of concern with the client.

2. Reflect the feelings involved.

3. Identify the different parts of the personality that are battling with each other.

4. Induce hypnosis using somnambulism.

... and very soon I would like to speak to your subconscious mind as if I am speaking to somebody else, and what I want you to do is not to think about my questions neither consider your answers, and give me the first thing that comes into your mind

5. Access the subconscious mind.

... I am going to count to three and snap my fingers, and your subconscious mind will reveal itself as a shape, a colour, or a common image. 1-2-3 snap, tell me what you have? (wait for response)

6. (if the client says nothing or says they don’t know, refer to Negative Responses handout)

7. Mentally separate the client’s subpersonalities.

8. The different parts of the client’s personality are addressed with empathy and acceptance and referred to as real people.

9. Give each part a positive label and acknowledge it’s positive function.

10. Subconscious mind would it be appropriate to talk to (client’s name) part that is... (presenting problem). Yes or No?

11. I am going to count to three and snap my fingers and you will become (client’s name) part that . (presenting problem)

12. Observe your client carefully, notice any changes in body posture, tone of voice, energy

1-2-3 snap, Are you (client’s name) part that? Are you male or female? Are you old or young? How long have you been in (client’s name) life? When did you first appear in (client’s name) life? What happened then? How did you help him/her? What are you doing in (client’s name) life at this moment? Can you be more specific? What do you think about (client’s name)? What do you think might happen to him if you were not around? What are you protecting (client’s name) from?

14. Establish an accurate picture with your client with as many details and feelings as possible.

15. Remember that you are talking to a part of the client, talk about the feelings involved in the present tense.

16. Once the event is established and the feelings accessed and revealed, introduce the client’s ego / self into the picture.

17. I am going to count to three and snap my fingers and you are going to become your ego self. 1-2-3 snap . And as you are looking at your part that (presenting problem), How do you feel about this part?

18. Subconscious what useful thing (client name) can learn or discover from that part?

19. Subconscious would it be appropriate for (client’s name) to say something to this part?

20. and now you might want to give a hug or hold that partor thank this part for being in your life and protected you for so long.

21. .and I wonder what is that you would like to do with this part right now? Where would you like to put it or store it in your life? And from now on you know that whenever you have those feelings / thoughts it is not you but your part. And you can always go inside and become the choice maker the decision maker the driver of your psychological car and tell that part of you what you want.

22. . Subconscious mind is there anything else that (client’s name) needs to explore (client’s name)right now?

23. If yes go back to stage 3

24. If no.. I want to thank you subconscious mind for allowing us to do this important work for the benefit of (client’s name) and I want you silently from deep inside your heart and soul to thank your subconscious mind also for looking after you in the best way it knows how, and you can now know that you have the ability to listen and hear to whatever your aware self within you wants and needs.. (TEACHING THE CLIENT SELF EMPOWEREMENT)

25. End trance.

26. Discuss with your client the feelings involved and their experience; establish a conscious decision when and where it would be appropriate for the client to get in touch with their inner self.

Transactional Hypnoanalysis
Becoming the parent you always wanted

Guidelines.

1. Induce hypnosis using somnambulism.

2. and very soon I would like to speak to your subconscious mind as if I am speaking to somebody else, and what I want you to do is not to think about my questions neither consider your answers, and give me the first thing that comes into your mind

3. Access the subconscious mind.

4. I am going to count to three and snap my fingers and your subconscious mind will reveal itself as a shape, a colour, or a common image. 1-2-3 snap, tell me what you have? (wait for response)

5. (if client says nothing or says they don’t know, refer to Negative Responses handout)

6. Subconscious mind would it be appropriate to go back in safety and comfort to just a few moments before the first feeling / event has occurred. Yes or No?

7. If no response: Subconscious mind what is preventing (client’s name) from going back to that time (wait for response)

8. Repeat 4 using the reason, until subconscious mind allows regression.

9. I am going to count to three and snap my fingers and you will find yourself just a few moments before.

10. 1-2-3 snap, are you inside or outside? Is it daytime or evening? Are you alone or is there someone there with you? How old are you? What is happening? Or something important is about to happen go to that time now Establish an accurate picture with your client with as many details and feelings as possible.

11. Remember you are talking to the client’s regressed younger self, talk about the feelings involved in the present tense.

12. Once the event is established and the feelings accessed and revealed, introduce the client’s adult / present self to the picture.

13. I am going to count to three and snap my fingers and you are going to become your adult self. 1-2-3 snap

14. . And as you are looking at your younger self, you are the only person in the whole world that knows how this child / younger self feels you are the only person in the whole world that knows how this event has affected this child / younger self. And you

15. It might be useful to swap a few times between the adult / present self and the child / younger self to establish rapport and clarify what the child / younger self needs.

16. and now you might want to give a hug or hold that child / younger self as you do.. that child / younger self becomes part of you. And from now on you know that whenever you have those feelings / thoughts it is not you but your inner child / younger self. And you can always go inside and become a parent a brother a sister.. a friend.. or a lover.. that you always wanted to have and tell that part of you what they need to hear and maybe give them a hug or some reassuranceor whatever they need at that time.

17. . subconscious mind is there anything else that (client’s name) needs to explore right now?

18. If yes go back to stage 3

19. If no.. I want to thank you subconscious mind for allowing us to do this important work for the benefit of (client’s name) and I also want you silently from deep inside your heart and soul to thank your subconscious mind for looking after you in the best way it knows how, and you can now know that you have the ability to listen and to hear whatever that child / younger self ever present within you wants and needs.. (teaching the client self empowerment)

20. End trance.

21. Discuss the experience with your client and the feelings involved; make a conscious decision when and where it would be appropriate for the client to get in touch with their inner self.

The Journey forward

... just take a deep breath and relax, because we are going once again on a journey, a journey this time to the future.

And we are going to the street of your future house, and you stand there in your present age and as you listen to all those sounds, smell all those smells and feel all those feelings and think all those thoughts, we arrive now In front of your future house and I wonder if it the same house you lived in before or a different house.

Look very carefully at his house, notice its colour, size, the windows, and the colour of the front door, and very soon we are going to enter this house as invisible guests, we are approaching the door, and very soon we are going to enter this house as invisible guests.

We are approaching the door, and as you put your hand on the handle, and feel its texture allow all those feelings, thought and memories to be present. We are standing now in the living room, listen to the sounds, is it a loud house or a quiet house, notice the furnishings, the wallpaper, the different doors leading into the different rooms of your home. You look at the furniture, the decorations and the different objects around you.

and your looking around you very carefully, are there any other people living in this house, a partner? Children? Pets? Look at them very carefully and become aware of all those feelings and just .. sense the atmosphere.

and as you are wandering around the rooms of the house you notice the future you. Look at that person very carefully, notice at how this person looks, the clothes this person is wearing, and what this person is doing. Look into this persons eyes and become aware of what you see there.

and now I want you to become that person. And as you become that person you look back at the present you, and as you are the only person in the whole world that knows what that younger present you is feeling ... you are the only person in the whole world that knows what that person is thinking and you are the only person in the whole world that knows what this persons hope and dreams are about the future, and especially you are the only person in the whole world that knows what is preventing that person from moving forward.

and you invite that person top sit down next to you, and as you are the only person in the whole world that knows what advise and encouragement this person needs, say to that person what you know they need to hear now ....

and now I want you to become the present you, you have just heard those words, that advise, that encouragement and I wonder if there is anything else that you would like to ask that future you ..

and as you ask you listen to the answer, and you feel what you feel, and you think what you think

and now its time to go back to the present, but before you leave I want you to find a way to thank your future self for the words of wisdom and enlightenment that you have just heard, and as you give a hug to the future you turn your back and walk out of the house carrying the aspect of the further self with you.

and from now on wherever you are, wherever you go, whatever difficulties you encounter, physical or emotional, you can always close your eyes, take a deep breath and go forward to your future house and ask for any support, guidance or advise you need from that future you in the journey of life.

Because that person that you have just met, and that you know you will become, is very much alive in your present self, and will always be there, and you can become a child of that future you, because that future you is the parent, the guide, the mentor that you never had, but you always wanted to have.

And now as you become aware of your body on the chair, the sound of your breathing, your feelings, your thoughts, and your surroundings, because now you know

Progression

Age progression differs from future timing and pacing in suggestion therapy to help the client to identify their hopes and wishes for the future.

The importance of progression in therapy is that it gives us the opportunity to explore our wishes and hopes for the future instead of getting psychologically stuck in the past by constantly trying to psychoanalyse past life events and use them as a justification of our present dysfunctions.

Erika Fromm has expressed her belief that age progression procedures are contraindicated with seriously depressed and suicidal clients. Erickson still used this method, however, with quite depressed clients. Nonetheless, I urge great caution in utilizing it with seriously depressed clients who may project themselves negatively into the future, stimulating further feelings of hopelessness.

Clients sometimes present us with what they call us ‘fear of failure’. It is useful to explore with them past failure experiences. Often we can be surprised when they say to us ‘I can't remember any’ but even if they have or don’t have past failure experiences is always useful to ask ‘tell me about your successes in life’. Some of them will sit there stunned in silence trying to recall a memory of success. We can help them by asking some simple questions, like ‘do you drive a car?' In most cases the answer is yes and our response is accordingly ‘well that means you have passed your driving test, that’s a success!’

We are held done by our past childhood experiences by suppressing the Freudian Id drives, we are pushed to achieve by our parental Freudian superego and paralysed by our fears of an unknown future. Sometimes the fear is about making the ‘wrong’ decision, up to a point that no decision is made. Those decisions are usually about choosing a direction in life, but there is no such thing as ‘direction’, only ‘directions’.

... and I want you to imagine you a going for a stroll in the countryside ... listening to your footsteps on the gravel, feeling the temperature of the air against your skin, and listening to the natural sounds or the sounds of silence around you and you have arrived at a junction of footpaths and you are standing there wondering which way should I go shall I turn left shall I turn right shall I go forward or shall I go backwards It doesn’t matter just keep walking into any direction and if you don’t like it, you can simply leave the footpathwalk across the field walk across the forest .. Until you join a different footpath.

If you don’t like your job, you can change it! If you don’t like your house, you can move! If you don’t like your relationship, find somebody else! Because you are not a tree .. you can move! The only permanent thing in life is change, and as long as you are changing you are moving!

In therapy, apart from discovering the roots, we want to know how big, how tall and in what shape our tree of life will grow. We can approach a client's presenting problem in two ways. One, by regression and exploration of past experiences and creating a dialogue between the adult and the child and becoming a parent to that child, but also what we can do is to move forward by progression to a time in our life that the problem has been resolved and then asking that future person for the advise and guidance we need.

As age progression is sometimes contraindicated with seriously depressed or suicidal clients let us assume for a moment that a client, by progressing forward, will find themselves in a much worse condition or state than they are in the present. At that moment, we can, from that negative future, make small steps of regression to the time that things have changed for the worst. By doing this we can find a more appropriate and constructive way to change that moment, that is yet to happen, to a more constructive future. This means that instead of listening and succumbing to the destructive self we can get in touch and in tune with the higher resourceful self.

If we assume for a moment that the client came to therapy from their own free will, then the part that brought them to therapy is the resourceful higher self. It might be a very small part, but it is still there, and it is still dissatisfied with the present condition and wants to change. We see therapy in the following way ’Instead of finding what is wrong and trying to cure it, find what is right and teach the client how to use it’, ‘Instead of focusing on the weakness, teach the client to access their strengths’. Each human being has the potential to self-actualise and it is our task as therapists to help them and teach them to access this part. By giving the higher resourceful self a higher view of what is happening so it can support the ego from ’disintegration’.

Let us assume that a client has accessed a positive future. Once we have established the full picture, in all the sensory modalities of that future, we can take small steps of regression back in time between the future and the present to the precise moment of change and therefore help the client to be fully aware of the ‘actual’ step or steps that have taken place to make that change, by investigating when changes have happened and what has caused the change.

Pro-Regression

The above diagram shows an example of Pro-Regression.

Using this method of pro-regressing to the moment of change we can deal with the following common presenting problems:

Smoking - Go to a time in the future when you are a non smoker and allow your non smoking future self to talk to you as a smoker in the present and give you all the advice you need.

Slimming - Go to a time in the future when you are your ideal weight and notice what you look like, be aware how it feels and allow that future slimmer self to talk to your overweight present self and give them tips and suggestion for losing weight.

Anxieties, Phobias, Depression - Go to a time in the future when those issues have been resolved and allow the future self to give you the support you need.

Relationships - Go to a time in the future and see how the future self has coped and is coping with that person. What advise can you give to your present self?

Bereavement - What relationship would you like to have with that deceased person in the future

The line of awareness.

In the initial consultation it is useful to assess where your client is at the moment. Are they fully present in the here and now? Or are they stuck with some kind of unfinished business or unresolved issue between the past and the present?

It is useful to know, apart from their biological age, what their emotional age and also what is their intellectual age is, and apart from helping them to resolve their past issues and bring them to the present , the here and now, also to move them as close as possible mentally and emotionally to the hopes and the wishes of the future. To move them from the memories of the past to the experience and awareness of the present and the hopes of the future.

Remember there is no regression without progression.

Transactional Hypnoanalysis
Age Progression

Guidelines.

1. Induce hypnosis using somnambulism.

2. and very soon I would like to speak to your subconscious mind as if I am speaking to somebody else, and what I want you to do is not to think about my questions neither consider your answers, and give me the first thing that comes into your mind

3. Access the subconscious mind.

4. I am going to count to three and snap my fingers and your subconscious mind will reveal itself as a shape, a colour, or a common image. 1-2-3 snap, tell me what you have? (wait for response)

5. (if client says nothing or says they don’t know, refer to Negative Responses handout)

6. Subconscious mind would it be appropriate to go forward in safety and comfort to a time in your future when your issues of concern have been resolved? Yes or No?

7. If no response: Subconscious mind what is preventing (client’s name) from going forward to that time (wait for response)

8. Repeat 4 using the reason, until subconscious mind allows progression.

9. I am going to count to three and snap my fingers and you will find yourself in that time in the future.

10. 1-2-3 snap, are you inside or outside? Is it daytime or evening? Are you alone or is there someone there with you? How old are you? What is happening? Establish an accurate picture with your client with as many details and feelings as possible.

11. Remember you are talking to the client’s progressed older self, talk about the feelings and facts involved in the present tense.

12. I am going to count to three and snap my fingers and you are going to become your future self. 1-2-3 snap

13. . And as you are looking at your younger self, you are the only person in the whole world that knows how this younger self feels you are the only person in the whole world that knows what is preventing that younger self from moving forward how this event has affected this younger self. And you are the only person that knows what that person needs to hear. What would you like to say and to do now for that younger self? (wait for response)

14. it might be useful to swap a few times between the future /older self and the present / younger self to establish rapport and clarify what the present/ younger self needs.

15. and now you as the present younger self choose a way to say goodbye and to thank your future self for the support, advise, inspiration or whatever that future self has given you. And as you now give a hug to your future self you go away carrying that aspect of the future with you. And from now on whenever you find it difficult to make decisions or fear the unknown you can always close you eyes take a deep breath and relax and access that future resourceful future higher self and ask for support or guidance.

16. I want to thank your subconscious mind for allowing us to do this important work for the benefit of (clients name) and I also want you to silently from deep inside your heart and soul to thank your subconscious mind for looking after you in the best way it knew how, and you can now know you that you have the ability to listen and to hear the advise and guidance of the future higher resourceful self ever present within you.

17. (Teaching the client self empowerment).

18. End Trance.

19. Discuss the experience with your client and the feelings involved. Make a conscious decision when and where it will be appropriate for the client to get in touch with their future self.

20. In subsequent sessions consider the possibility of creating a dialogue between the present self, the past self and the future self. By embracing them you become the present aware ego, the choice maker, the driver of your psychological car.

Bibliography.

Hal Stone & Sidra Winkelman PhD, 1985. Embracing our selves.

Devross Company

Hal Stone & Sidra Winkelman PhD, 1989. Embracing each other.

Devross Company

Stewart & Joines 1987. TA Today, Life Space Publishing

Frodham, F. 1953. An Introduction to Jung’s Psychology.

Hammondsworth, Middlesex, Penguin Books, LTd.

Jung, C.G. 1933. Modern man in search of soul. New York; Harcourt, Brace.

Barnett E.A. 1979. Unlock your mind and be free! Westwood Publishing, California.