Re:Milton Erickson and Brief Therapy

The confusion may lie with your background concerning hypnosis. There were (roughly) two differing directions that hypnotherapy took as it developed. One direction followed the analytic line and there is, in fact, an approach called hypnoanalysis. All approaches that are cousins of this angle sought/seek the uncover 'deep' 'truths' an in so doing also build insight, ego strength, (often) catharsis, and corrective emotional experiences and integration during the time the subject is in trance. This is lengthy.

The other direction hypnosis went is perhaps best represented by Dr. Erickson. He briefly dabbled with hypnoanalysis but far more of his work concerned a brief approach. Here, hypnosis is not seen a tool for digging out the 'truth' but rather as a special relationship in which a heightened fixation of attention intensified the retrieval of experiences. Erickson's approach to change was to help clients quickly retrieve feelings or attitude, etc., needed to get into action as soon as possible. He work *usually* centered on helping them creatively adjust to their developmentally current demands. In so doing, he found their symptoms vanished. I am simplifying for brevity, but it may now be more obvious as to why Erickson earned the title of the father or grandfather of brief therapy. (And too, how he used hypnosis as one of the tools to that end).

Replies:

Re:Milton Erickson and Brief Therapy, by Nannette Serra, 02/04/01 Clinical Hypnosis, by Steve Lankton, 02/05/01

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