As a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist, it’s vital to understand and have a background knowledge of the differing approaches to therapy available today. Although I follow the SFH brief, there may be times when my methods would benefit from additional intervention, influenced by other forms of therapy.
It may be agreed with a client that a task is to be completed by the next session, this method is a favorite within CBT, where CBT would check that the task was completed, we would not mention it and allow the client to bring it up when we ask “what’s been good?” We discuss ways to make things better, we trust the clients to know how to solve their problems, but there may be times where we may indirectly suggest the better path to take. Tasks, goals and homework are set in CBT, elements we can choose to use if thought appropriate. A goal is key to any client and any therapist to allow us to work towards the clients’ best hopes
An area where we most definitely step outside of the usual SFH process is when it is evident that the clients progress would be encourage with the use of NLP. Rewind, Reframing and Swish are methods used very successfully when combined with SFH. In practice we may use the Swish method to allow clients to see their preferred outcome of a situation, or a preferred view of themselves. The joy with this method is that it can be done by the client whist at home at any time and doesn’t require Hypnosis. I have used this with clients who need help with weight loss and motivation at the gym. We use rewind to assist with Phobia and trauma. It is a non-threatening method which detaches the client from the emotional feelings attached to a memory or a trigger. I have used Rewind successfully on a number of Dog and spider phobia and most recently a fear of flying. We use reframe continually to allow clients to see things from a different perspective to the one that see now.
When discussing preferred futures with clients, we may from time to time think back and use the “My friend John” metaphor, used by Erickson, but as we don’t all have friends called John, we may suggest that “many clients have said that they have benefited from doing that” or using the powers of indirect suggestion to gently nudge the client in the right direction.
We have to be continually looking to ensure we are providing the best level of support to our clients, they are all different, but our process is the same. So, careful use of language is vital to make the session unique to our individual. Some clients will not enjoy being told what to do, this is great if you have mastered indirect suggestion, some clients want to discuss the past, we do this, but it’s the positive past that we are interested in. Clients that want to give up smoking may feel they have a part of themselves that wants to keep smoking and dieters that want to subconsciously eat cake, we can help that using parts therapy. As long as the alternative methods we use are fundamentally positive, we should seek to use what ever we think is more appropriate.
Having the knowledge of many different aspects of other therapies, allows us to develop our techniques to allow choice as to the best possible solution for the client, which operating in the solution focused therapist brief.
