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  #1  
Old May 26th, 2005, 10:11 PM
trancenow trancenow is offline
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Smile How To Utilize Client Resistance

Greetings!

I work with a client for pain control (physical pain management for chronic arthritis) who finds letting go and relaxing very hard amidst the pain and he also says that he is a “control freak” and very resistant.

I have found that using direct suggestions or permissive suggestions still yield little results as he tends to stay out of trance.

I spend time establishing rapport, but he tends to want to control the situation consciously, even though I attempted to dissociate conscious/unconscious communication in the induction.

Does anyone have some tips on how to utilize the resistance in deepening a trance in a situation like this with an over controlling conscious mind and a body suffering severe pain?

Many thanks,

Adam
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  #2  
Old May 29th, 2005, 04:14 PM
A. Karimi A. Karimi is offline
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Default Re: How To Utilize Client Resistance

To my knowledge, traditional Ericksonian techniques are not of any use in the relief of Arthritis pains... and am not sure Erickson himself worked with any such cases...
In such cases, the threshold of pain increases with movement... so, even if u succeed in removing such pains, it will be very temporary...
Too bad Hypnosis came to a halt a quarter of a century ago... and what u see in this site is just the same old techniques... in a little while u will discover there is nothing new...
Too bad, the Administrators are not "Cripples"... though I wish they were...
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  #3  
Old May 30th, 2005, 03:12 AM
trancenow trancenow is offline
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Default Re: How To Utilize Client Resistance

My understanding is that Erickson worked extensively with pain control.
My challenge is in the deepening of the trance, despite the pain and the resistance: conscious activity.
I think techniques like time distortion and the like will be useful in these sorts of cases where pain increases with mobility.
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  #4  
Old June 14th, 2005, 06:50 PM
Stuart Moore Stuart Moore is offline
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Default Re: How To Utilize Client Resistance

No I don't have experience in using resistance to deepen a trance. To my way of thinking (or given my skill set), the resistance needs to be dealt with prior to doing trancework. I don't work with pain myself, but I assume that you do and that you have tried and tested techniques for doing so. In that case, if you have a self described control freak in your office, then I wonder if you truly have a client.

I might start with asking him (directly) so what do you get out of resistance, in what way is this behavior helpful to you (the client)? If he can see that it's not helpful then you set up a goal to deal with the resistance. Positively stated that might be something like, "client x will have more control over his resistance behaviors" (so he can choose when to resist and when not to resist). Then you could develop a series of interventions to help with this (maybe you could even have him climb squaw peak). Or it might involve him setting out on a search to conceive of an alternative to resistance.

If he resists you on this, in other words if he states that there is no problem being a control freak then I'm not sure I could help him. Sometimes I think it is important to educate a person about their problem. "You're telling me that being a control freak is not a problem for you, but you obviously can't control your pain and I can give you techniques that will help to alleviate that pain but I can't do it if your not willing to give up some control."

My two cents worth.
Good luck.

Stuart Moore
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  #5  
Old June 24th, 2005, 09:37 AM
Carl Chang Carl Chang is offline
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Default Re: How To Utilize Client Resistance

What I will do are double binds and confusion techniques.And maybe some "implications".
I always talks to my clients: you could decide how deep you are in this trance...
You could go into a deep trance later or noo.....w ....
I found that the Ericksonian techniques are really useful in hypnosis and therapy.
I hope it is hopeful for you. Good luck!
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  #6  
Old January 9th, 2006, 03:37 PM
bongo_john_uk bongo_john_uk is offline
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Default Re: How To Utilize Client Resistance

It is much easier for someone to cooperate if you first take them in a direction they are used to until you are sure they are following, then intersperse contradictory suggestions as if they were hypothetically possible or happened to someone else they can identify along with lots of truisms to keep up the sense of agreement.

An obvious example is getting an axious person more anxious is relatively easy but if you began with "now i am going to relax you" they would be saying to themselves things like "don't be stupid you know I can't relax, that's why I'm here.." etc.

As far as pain is concerned there is a wealth of other sensations within and aspects to pain that the person has probably never noticed or even considered before due to trying to avoid something unpleasant.. I haven't done pain control for a while but when I was working in a field where I encountered more I had a lot of success by inducing trance through the pain itself by continous differentiation rather than let them view it as some nasty "fog"..

Next time you have a pain, really examine your own experience in great detail. You will be surprised how much more there is to it than at first you thought.. some, surprisingly are even quite pleasant (maybe they can find some buzzy electric sensations etc).. I think erickson had a lot of experience with his own pain and that lead to some very interesting ways of dealing with it.. I found I could get a large degree of subjective pain loss simply by means such as this..

I seem to remember an erickson case that began something like "I am going to hurt you.. and you won't like it one little bit..". This sounds like agreeing with the persons mindset while using the symptom to focus attention to me..

There is no reason why you have to start or expect relaxation.. hypnosis is not relaxation as far as I can see (but obviously more pleasant if you take it there eventually!).. You can use tension or anything to get focus and cooperation..
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