| Self Hypnosis Negative Suggestions: Hypnosis and The Potent Power of "No" by Forbes Robbins Blair Ever heard that hypnotic suggestions should never contain words like "no" or "can't" or "don't"? That's an increasingly popular proclamation from self-help gurus and enthusiasts. They say negative suggestions are bad. That's just not right. As a clinical hypnotherapist my experience has me convinced that negative suggestions do work and they have their place in therapeutic hypnotic suggestion. Examples of Effective "Negative" Suggestions These are actual real life case studies from my client files:
Real life positive result examples of "negative" hypnotic suggestions are common and have been used successfully for many decades. Classic hypnosis textbooks contain too many negative hypnosis suggestion examples to count. Still... negative suggestions have their place in clinical therapeutic hypnosis. Where did this idea that "negative suggestions are bad" come from? Some Law of Attraction and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) proponents have recently indicted hypnosis professionals who utilize negative suggestions in their daily practices. That's the new fad. Some of these new wave hypnotherapy critics seem to want to lump traditional direct suggestion hypnosis (like mine) with techniques from their supergeek-studies of hit-or-miss possibilities-of-hypnosis library files. Here's one idea I have for them: While hypnosis shares many things with NLP and the tenets and techniques of the Law of Attraction -- they are very different. The Law of Attraction and Hypnotherapy Law of Attraction advocates say we should not concentrate on conditions we do not want to manifest. They say we should focus on the new conditions we do wish to experience. But even well-known Law of Attraction gurus recognize the value of first acknowledging what it is you DON'T want (a Law of Attraction technique known as "contrast"). While it is true that the emphasis of post-hypnotic suggestion is to establish new positive behavioral patterns, the mind is clearly capable of understanding corrective suggestions (see examples 1-3 above). In fact, it is often necessary to include authoritarian suggestions to inform or teach the subconscious what behavior or belief would need to be discarded. Here's one more example: a former "alpha child" personality type usually would need a father-oriented (authoritarian) therapeutic approach to the pretalk, testing and hypnotic suggesting -- or -- they just usually wouldn't respond as strongly. NLP and Hypnosis In NLP, many would argue that negative words or suggestions are ineffective because the subconscious mind is supposedly incapable of picturing a negative state. For example, the NLP practitioner often suggests that because there is no such state as "not smoking," that trying to instruct a person's subconscious to "stop smoking" would be counterproductive to the process. Wow, how different this is from hypnotherapy! In all of the examples given above it is clear that under hypnosis the unconscious mind DOES understand the idea of what quitting smoking is -- regardless of the imagery evoked. Well-crafted posthypnotic suggestions would help here. Different Approaches Can Often Confuse the Hypnosis Enthusiast The NLP and the Law of Attraction movements produce great ideas that work well within their fields. But it's important that we not confuse them with hypnotherapy. There are times we need to use negative suggestions in hypnotherapy. The key is in knowing how and when to use them. And the hypnotherapist (or self-hypnotist) must know how to carefully balance them with POSITIVE and nurturing suggestions. +++ You may reprint this article if you include the resource box below... Visit his website and get a free hypnosis mp3 called "Healthy Choices, Healthy Body" by subscribing to his ISH Email Updates here: http://www.forbesrobbinsblair.com Forbes Robbins Blair is the author of three self-hypnosis books: the popular Instant Self-Hypnosis, The Self-Hypnosis Revolution and More Instant Self Hypnosis. He produces his own series of hypnosis audios. Mr. Blair works in private practice as a hypnotherapist and offers distance hypnosis (hypnosis-by-phone). |
copyright 2010 Forbes Robbins Blair |
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