Session #323: Effective Hypnosis (Lessons from Dr. John Hartland)

Disclaimer: Transcripts were generated automatically and may contain inaccuracies and errors.

---

This is the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast, Session number 323 effective hypnosis lessons from Dr. John Hartland. Welcome to the Work Smart Hypnosis Podcast with Jason Lynette, your professional resource for hypnosis training and outstanding business success. Here’s your host, Jason Lynette. Welcome back to the program.

It’s book report. Doesn’t that sound exciting, but trust me on this one, because as you listen to the content here, I’m gonna be making some references to a now classic book in the hypnotic profession, Heartland’s Medical and Dental Hypnosis, a book, which is often found on Amazon. You may have to dig around for a bit of a used copy, but it kind of all goes around to the idea of you’ve got somebody hypnotized.

Now what? And this book is one that kind of goes to show one of the classic premises in terms of culture and content, that the best way to hide something is to publish it. And I bring this up because there’s a conversation that was posted to one Facebook group and then someone did the thing where they commented on the Facebook post in another Facebook group and not the original one, which don’t do that.

Respond to the actual person asking the question, and. Share commentary elsewhere, but it kind of went around to the question of somebody worked with a client to stop smoking, who despite doing a lot of the right things, and I, and I know the person who did it, they did a lot of right stuff. Still, the person walked out and lit up a cigarette in the first two hours.

To which those of you who know Don Martin, who used to be out of the St. Louis area, he would build the premise that, oh, you’ve stopped for more than six months before on your own. So even without me, you can do this today, at least for six months. Right? Which is kind of building that psychological case that this person does have the capability, but also calling out the fact that they have some responsibility on their own.

The real reason I’m recording this episode though, is to highlight some of the work. Of someone who I think is one of those unsung pioneers of a lot of hypnotic change work. Dr. John Hartland, who lived from 1901 to 1977, and first and foremost, he was a British psychiatrist. He was involved with a British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis.

So take note of that in advance of this conversation, because his work was integrated with both. Psychiatry and hypnosis. So he was combining multiple modalities inside of the work. Now, most of you already know his work from ego strengthening, and in fact, it’s one of the earlier podcast episodes in this series in terms of strengthening your ego, strengthening and sort of a thematic through line of direct suggestion that you can use inside of your work to further enhance even advance strategies.

We’ll link to that previous episode In the show notes though, I’ll tell you, there’s some nuances that I’ve picked up from rereading his book recently that I wanted to kind of come on for a solo episode and share, because it does help to draw some lines in terms of client responsibility, how our clients are capable of change, and even better, how we can communicate what hypnosis is, how it works, and even better.

On top of that, understand, let’s say some of the app. Limitations of hypnotic suggestion, which then open up the conversation towards how we could make hypnosis even more effective. From there. Out of that book, I kind of modeled the ultimate framework for any hypnotic suggestion and basically how hypnotic suggestion actually works, which for those of you that have gone through work smart hypnosis, live and online, you know, this is how I kick off the training.

Now, here is the formula that makes all hypnosis work, and if you don’t understand the basic formula, , you’re gonna be struggling throughout the rest of it. So we kick off with that. So then we understand in the words of another pioneer, Dave Elman, once you understand the rules of hypnotic suggest. There’s not a person in the world you cannot hypnotize provided they wish to make the change and they wish to experience hypnosis.

So a bit more of a teaching episode and kind of giving some commentary as to how we can also make even other hypnotic methods. Even more effective, which this is a bit of a preview Yes. Of Work Smart Hypnosis Live. This is the training that I’ve been doing now for going on about seven or eight years, which even prior to the pandemic, we had already migrated it to be an online event because what’s unique about this is that it’s a hybrid approach to learning.

It’s a combination of one part guided tour through hypnotic workers, which is my online hypnosis training library, and the people going through Work Smart Hypnosis, live and online. Lifetime access to hypnotic workers as part of their tuition. But the other part of that then is discussing the content, breaking it down, and here’s where it gets awesome.

Setting it into practice, setting it into motion with other hypnotists, other students all around the world. So whenever we’ve offered this, it has always sold out every time that we’ve offered it online. And a few times throughout the year, I’ll bring in a guest instructor, and that’s the case for the one coming.

In June of 2021, which even if you’re listening after the fact, still head over to work smart hypnosis live.com. We always have an event coming around the corner, but the one coming up next, I’ve got Richard non guard joining for me. So my approach to hypnosis is based in the linguistics. You’ll get a preview of that in this week’s podcast content, but then also bringing in the kinesthetics and the hypnotic phenomenon because your client is already feeling and dealing with their.

So to create a hypnotic process where they can feel the change occurring. Well, that’s what I found to be the most effective in terms of helping my clients, bringing in Richard non guard. His whole approach is based on contextual psychology, contextual hypnosis, and more importantly, that dips into a basis of hypnosis based upon.

Research evidence based hypnosis. Let’s not do what previous podcast guest Curtis riles, ones called Throw spaghetti at the wall. Hypnosis, Let’s do work based upon what is actually proving to be effective in clinical trials. So if you’re brand new to hypnosis, This creates an incredible opportunity to really learn what’s working now in a professional hypnosis business, as well as also being better prepared to communicate to others just how effective this stuff actually is.

Or for those of you that are already well trained in hypnosis. I would say the benefit for you is getting away from rigid protocols, scripted techniques, and also really learning the independence of how to customize on the fly with the person in front of you. This is why the events that we do are typically half people that are brand new and one half people who are looking to refine what they already know.

Either way, at the time of this recording, this is coming out the first week of May, 2021. We’ve already sold out one third of the spots. As the event is coming up June 30th, you can see all the dates and details at Work Smart hypnosis live.com. We’ve already sold out one third of the spots. We will sell this one out again as we’ve typically been doing, and you get lifetime access to the digital contents so you can benefit from the material long after the event.

All the details over at work smart hypnosis live.com. And with that, let’s jump directly into this week’s episode, session number 320. Effective hypnosis lessons from Dr. John Hartland. Now, let me give you a bit of a roadmap of this information before we officially jump in. This is about specific excerpts.

This is about specific language patterns as we go through this material. So this is actually the second recording of this week’s episode in that I’m not giving specific page numbers. Also because there’s different versions of that original book. Again, Heartland’s Medical and Dental Hypnosis, and it’s more the bigger picture themes.

So let’s kick this off. Heartland would talk about therapeutic suggestions during hypnosis. And inside of there, he gives two basic formulas. First of the mood, B is that as X is happening, you will do or think or feel. Y This is how I kick off all of my trainings. Almost every hypnotic suggestion for change, creating the hypnotic state, deepening, whatever it might be, it’s always a cause and effect relationship.

As you do this, you notice that, and this also applies to the change work too, because as you throw out those cigarettes, you realize you are taking back control of your life. As you step onto that platform, you feel that confidence rising throughout. So again, we’re most often creating cause and effect relationships because that’s how the mind works.

In fact, that’s the same way the person has the problem. Their issue is already anchoring and we are helping to rean anchor, that’s a word. Now, we are helping to create new associations, new connections. So as X happens, you’ll notice Y, you’ll feel Y, you’ll do Y. The other format of this is still basically the same formula.

But now with another nuance to it, as I count from one to 10, let this thing happen. So let’s imagine a classic hypnotic technique like glove anesthesia. As I count from one to 10, let your hand become more cold and numb. Well, some of you have been around me already to know that I say this is now suggesting yourself into a corner.

The better way to phrase this would be as I count from the number one onward, let this thing happen more and more. Those of you that have been through Work Smart Hypnosis, live and online, those of you that have seen my hypnotized with conviction content, this is a major theme that I teach. Don’t give a framework as to the conclusion.

Give an open ended f. So this way, if I was trying to even do a reactive style hypnotic regression, if you wanted to, as I count from one onward, let that feeling rise up throughout you. The benefit of this is that I’ve set no limit. If I had to count to three, if I had to count to six, if I had to count to 11, it’s okay.

And no, None of my clients have ever called each other to say, Hey Joe, my arms stuck to the chair on number seven. What about. Three rats. No, of course that doesn’t happen. But understand, there’s a basic formula inside of this work, cause and effect relationships, actions and results, pacing and leading.

These are all the same definition. So this is why I’m recording this session. By the way. It was that, uh, post that someone put up about the guy who purposefully lit up a cigarette a few minutes after the stop smoking session. Let me read an excerpt from the Heartland book on post hypnotic suggestion, which before I do that, I think we all need an update as to what a post hypnotic suggestion is.

If you came from a stage hypnosis background, which was my origin story. We think of post hypnotic suggestion as now the show’s over. But when I say this word, someone out in the audience does the funny. Well, that is a post hypnotic suggestion. When I say my name, people stand up and start to yell this thing out.

Just to give you a favorite bit back from the day, I would turn people into martians. This is a classic bit, you know, when I say this word, you’re gonna stand up and speak in this Martian dialect, but I would purposefully have people in the audience heckled. During the post hypnotics, and it was fun in a high school because, you know, public high school, they’re sensitive about content.

And I would say when you stand up, when I say this word, you’re gonna yell the most offensive things about me that you can think. And it’s fun to then watch the staff of the high school start to cringe and worry about what’s about to happen. And then the funny thing happens as to go, but you’re still those Martian visitors.

So I’ve given you this extended description of post hypnotic because that’s what post hypnotic suggestion is for the stage hypnotist. As a person who helps to create change through hypnotic suggestion, all hypnotic suggestions pointing at a change are a post hypnotic suggest. Think about that the client can hang out in your office all day and not have a fear of flying, but you’re not working on making them feel comfortable in your room about flying.

You’re working them, working with them to feel more comfortable once they’re on the airplane, which is where I’d crack the joke, we can do that and you can hang out all here day and feel comfortable. But then I maybe start to rethink my business model and charge you by the hour. So every suggestion for change.

Is a post hypnotic suggestion. Here’s Heartland’s definition. A post hypnotic suggestion is not a magic spell, or in negative terms, a curse. It quickly decays in strength, unless consolidated by the naturally occurring processes of conditioning and cognitive restructuring. A lot of jargon, him about to break it down for you.

It is usually easily overridden by conscious control or existing competing habit. The suggestion has to be aimed at responses that are appropriate to the context, valued or acceptable to the subject or patient, or demonstrably within the subject’s repertoire or personalities. I’m gonna make sure we put that in the show notes for you, by the way, [email protected].

We’ll make it easy this week. Work smart hypnosis.com/ 3 2 3. This is episode number 323, So let’s break it down. Post hypnotic suggestion is not a magic. I’m on board. In the words of Karen hand, we are not the wizard. Continuing with heartland. It quickly decays in strength unless consolidated by the naturally occurring processes of conditioning and cognitive restructuring right here.

My good hypnotic people is the definition for, how does this suggestion become permanent? There it is, but let’s use simpler language. A hypnotic suggestion becomes permanent as long as it is still congruent to the individual and has a reinforcement mechanism to my amazing editors at Podcast Network Solutions.

Right there is the feature quote of this week’s episode, A hypnotic suggestion becomes permanent as long as it is still congruent to the change the person wishes to create, and still has a reinforcement mechanism attached. , which let me break debt down further. So as long as it is congruent to the person themself, if they want the change, it has one half of the formula to remain congruent.

And two processes of conditioning. I pulled from that language from Heartland that it has a reinforcement mechanism, which before you get all up in arms on this, yes, that could mean they listen to an audio every week for the rest of their life, but it doesn’t have to. Because still being alive because they’re not smoking is a reinforcement mechanism, no longer living in physical discomfort because you help them overcome a fear, overcome hypnotic pain relief, overcome whatever else that was holding the back.

Is a reinforcement mechanism being a lot of my clients, being confident in themselves so that they market effectively and draw in their ideal customers is a reinforcement mechanism. So this piggybacks to the aspect of, again, being congruent to the individual. As long as the hypnotic change is still congruent to the individual who wishes to produce the change, and there’s a reinforcement mechanism, that’s when change becomes p.

and again, it’s gonna be a little bit of creative license as to what that process of conditioning, the method of constant reinforcement is going to be. My favorite feedback from a client the last couple of years, yes, she dropped about 40 pounds of body fat. Yes, it’s easier for her to buy clothing. Yes, she feels more confident in her business, but in her words, the biggest benefit has been she doesn’t have to spend so much time thinking about the problem that used to be there.

She just goes, I know what to do. and it’s easy and hell, even if the scale goes up a couple of pounds, I know exactly what to do to get back on track. That is one of the strongest pieces of, again, ongoing continued reinforcement mechanism. Let’s continue. Heartland says, It is usually easily overridden by conscious control or existing competing habits.

So let’s go with the easy one first. Existing competing habits. I have never seen a client. To get off of heroin because, um, scope of practice. However, to say it simply, there are some drugs that are so dangerous they have to go on another drug to get off the first drug. However, I have seen many people by way of medical referral to come in and help them to rebuild their lives now that they’re no longer using the heroin.

So usually easily overwritten by conscious control or existing competing habits. So what would be the existing competing habits if they’re still hanging out with the heroin junkie? Friends, it’s not a supportive environment for them to not be the heroin junkie. Again, I’m seeing them after the fact in terms of building confidence, building their skills, building up who they’ve now become.

So the obvious one is that in our hypnotic. And some coaching inside of that, we’re helping to then again, rebuild the structure as to what the rest of their life is. They might not want to keep all the alcohol in their house. If they’re quitting drinking, they might not want to keep all the junk food around them if they’re no longer eating that garbage.

And all the other examples you can think of, usually easily overridden by conscious control. This is where at all point of the game, huge credit, by the way, to an amazing podcast episode with who I think has the coolest name in all of this entire industry. The podcast episode I did with Felix Mockus as much as Felix is the guy known for selective eating disorder.

The amount of time he spent on that podcast episode with me talking about client responsibility. So it’s the client’s responsibility to existing competing habits, throw out the cigarettes position themselves for success, is how I tend to say it. So at any point in time they could override the change.

I’m debating whether I should censor myself here and I think I should, but a guy who I saw like in 2012 to quit smoking, who came to see me again in 2017. Because he went back to it , I think I gotta go cryptic on this when I go, What made you go back to it? And he used one word, which was a slang term for a piece of the female anatomy.

And as he put it, he goes, I met a girl who said that she’d only date a guy if he was also a smoker. And so we started dating. The problem was she was also involved with several other smokers. Despite I thought we were, you know, she cheated. So again, , he made the decision that she might be worth it, and clearly you got the rest of the story.

So again, at any point in time, your client can consciously override. That’s what happened with this person who put up the post, the person made the decision. We’re using hypnosis to help. Do people see. That they have more options and more strategies than they give themselves credit for. So we keep these things in mind cuz this is the stuff we ought to be addressing in our pre-talk, in our marketing materials, in our sessions.

Do you see how now just simply uttering the suggestion. You’re never gonna be afraid of this thing again. You’re now a non-smoker. It’s not enough. As I look at hypnosis now as being a process of mutual psychological influence in which hypnotic phenomenon may be possible, I have become so much more effective.

And this is where the origin of it, some of it comes from the rest of Heartland’s definition. Of post hypnotic suggestion is basically that it has to be something that they can still do. I can help the opera singer feel more confident. Her skill of actual performance comes back to her preparation, training, and experience.

I talked to someone a couple of weeks ago who’s helping people through hypnosis, who learn languages faster. And yes, he’s hitting the research around memory, but his marketing is brilliant because pending he actually makes use of the marketing. Uh, he’s also talking about the fears, the stress, and the negative stories that people often tell themselves as to why it’s harder to learn a language when they’re older.

No, change the story. Change your life. So there’s some examples from Heartland’s book just kind of round this out, that for anxiety management, here’s an example of suggestion from Dr. John Hartland. From now each and every time you feel these anxious feelings in your stomach, you will immediately take a deep breath and as you breathe out your whole body, robax.

Do you hear the cause and effect relationship here? I wanna punch this up further though, because Heartland has in his. Every time you feel these anxious sensations. And again, those of you that have gone through work smart hypnosis live and online have heard my bit on the power of distance and dissociate to deliver this suggestion.

The way it’s written is telling the client they’re still gonna have the problem. Every time you feel these sensations, you’ll do this and feel better. No, even if there is the rare moment where some of that old feeling pops. Distance dissociate diminish. There’s your formula. Even in the rare chance that you feel some trace of what you used to have called a craving, you’ll immediately take a deep breath and find that single cleansing breath of air becomes so much more satisfying than the old behavior ever was.

Do you see how we can make this better? Distance dissociate diminish? Here’s another one from Heartland on anxiety. As soon as you start to notice your heart beating, the thought of that relaxing scene will come to mind. Now we have to. Maybe the client said they feel like their heart is beating outta their chest and he’s done some bit of a safe place mechanism.

Again, distance dissociate diminish. Even if there is the rare moment where some of that old feeling in your chest arises, you may surprise yourself as without even having to suggest it. That’s a hypnotic phrase. I overuse that without even having to suggest it. The thought of that relaxing scene comes to your.

Well, that was a safe place mechanism. Remember, Hartland was a psychiatrist and maybe he saw clients with some more colorful issues than what most of us would see because yes, there’s an example in his book, Dude, buy the book just for this one. Working with a client for exhibitionism, you know, exposing yourself in public.

Well, here’s Hartland suggestion for that client. Each and every time you feel the urge to expose yourself, the image of that terrible scene will come to mind. Paint some pictures now, doesn’t it? Even if there is the rarest chance, again, you can look at the rest of Heartland’s work specifically around ego or anything, and understand even he didn’t tend to go in that direction that often he was lead with the positives.

Build up the individual first. So then you can take down the issue. And that negated in his experience and my testing as well, the need for deep emotional hypno analysis because we’ve built up the individual. It’s never about the event. It’s never about where they’ve come from. Experience plus emotion equals perception.

All hypnotic change is about perception. So even as someone who will occasionally make use of hypnotic regression to here come the air quotes, cause it’s not about the. It’s not about the event. It’s about instead the perception of it. So keeping that going. Here’s another suggestion from Heartland, which would be, here’s one on compulsive hair pulling.

As you reach to pull your hair, do you hear the unintended embedded command inside of that? You want a distance dissociate diminish, There’s a formula. Even in the rare chance you notice a feeling that you might have previously labeled as being a need to pull, you’ll immediately allow your hands to make another choice.

So do you see some of the formula? It’s always a cause and effect, and this is not No. The only thing that we do, But it’s a major element of it. But then again, I love this one. The idea of what Heartland introduces is psychodynamic therapy. Between now and when I see you again, you will have a dream at night that will help you to understand your problem.

I love that. Let’s maybe make it slightly better, though. You’ll have a dream at night that will help you to understand the mini solutions you already have in your own. So cause and effect relationship as well as my take on it, distance dissociate and diminish. So the rest of Heartland’s legacy was that of, again, you don’t have to do a root canal to do a teeth cleaning.

I say that as I’ve anecdotally talked to three dental hygienists this morning who wanna sign up for hypnosis training courses There. Concerned about distance. Also, their hands are tired after all these years and that’s been a character type many times in our trainings. So go back to the previous episode on Heartland that I did on ego strengthening.

I believe it is episode number four off the top of my head. And then you’ll hear the rest of the story that building up the individual, building up confidence, building up ego. And I’ll tell you the strength of this becomes, this builds a more positive approach to change. Do you see how it’s not just fancy talk on my websites that this is a process that’s not about what’s wrong with you.

It’s instead about what’s great with you and how are we gonna harness that and put that into use so that you can resolve this issue eventually on your own? That’s the selling point for my clients. That’s what I teach to my students and offer what, unfortunately is a rare thing in our. To actually learn what’s working right now in my business.

So take everything today in terms of, again, seeing where to point your hypnotic change, where to improve the work that you do. If this is resonating with you, head over to work smart hypnosis live.com. We got even more stuff like this to head again, if you’re brand new, refine what you’re doing in such a way that you’re learning the right methods at the right time, or if you’re already well seasoned.

Chances are, and a bit of a historical lesson going back to a book from the 1950s and sixties in terms of the source material, seeing how we can, again, apply a new filter on classic context to make it even more effective. And once you do that, that’s when we all become even more effective in helping our clients.

Jason, Lynette here once again, and as always, thank you so much for interacting with this program, for sharing it in your ongoing conversations of advancing this incredible profession. Once again, the show notes. For this episode, we’ll pull some of those quotes out for you. Head over to work smart hypnosis.com/ 3 2 3.

That’s the number episode that this is this week. That’ll just redirect over. We can find that material, and again, if this has been helpful to you. We got a whole lot more for you. We’d love to have you there at the next work. Smart Hypnosis Live and online event. The one coming up in June of 2021, bringing in a guest instructor, once again myself, as well as Richard non guard.

Two heists for the price of one. How about that? Love to have you there. A whole library of content for me, A whole library of content from Richard practicing with other practitioners all around the world, because if you want to be effective at doing hypnosis, It kind of makes sense to learn how to do it online.

That and the strategies to get out there. Get your first or your next 50 to a hundred clients and learn universal structures for change to make you even more effective at helping your clients. Check that out. Work Smart hypnosis live.com. We’ll see you there. Thanks for listening to the Work Smart Hypnosis podcast and work smart hypnosis.com.