Look deep into my scurrilous credentials.

June 7, 2013 7:59 PM

I am interested in getting some training in hypnotism. I am not seeking any certification for professional reasons. There are several places that offer training in the Portland area. The problem is that I am unable to tell if these people are full of it or not. What names and affiliations should I trust to avoid stepping in a pile of woo?

Should I trust members of the National Guild of Hypnotists, the Oregon Hypnotherapy Association, the American Hypnosis Association, or others?

How wary should I be of the likes of Erickson, Bandler and Grinder?

If you are a hypnotherapist or casual hypnotist, what resources should I look at to further self-study if no reliable organization is available near by?

Please hypnosis me!

posted by munchingzombie to Education (10 answers total)

The bottom of the Hypnosis page on Wikipedia lists some modern researchers - maybe you'll get some leads after reading about all of those people (both on and off Wikipedia) for a few hours?
posted by oceanjesse at 8:50 PM on June 7, 2013

The National Guild of Hypnotists is reputable. A training sponsored by them is likely to lead to a reasonable degree of competence, though it will overlook most new developments in the field from the last fifty years or so. Note "sponsored by them"; a training run by some random person who happens to be a Guild member might or might not be any good.

Bandler and Grinder teach something that isn't really hypnosis. They teach a series of useful techniques that can be done in a hypnotic context or outside of one (but work a lot better in). I consider their work a useful supplement to hypnosis training. Ericksonian hypnosis is a subset of hypnosis that is also useful but not, in my opinion, the best place to start.

The single best self-study resources I know of are the materials at trucor.com. The proprietor of that site has an association with the seduction community that some may find distasteful; however, I have known him for a number of years and consider him to be a person of enormous integrity. Also good are the materials at the Omni Hypnosis Training Center. Both are largely woo-free. I have no affiliation with either other than as a student.

Memail me if you want me to opine about a particular program or trainer you're considering.
posted by bac at 10:15 PM on June 7, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'd avoid Erickson, Bandler, and Grinder.

The two best-respected hypnosis organizations are the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, and the former is more selective in its membership and attention to science than the latter.

There's also a handy referral search for clinical hypnotists here. I plugged in Oregon, and this is what I got. You can click on each one and see which societies they are members of.

So I'd consider picking some of the Portland people in the list who look promising and ask them for training options... There's also high-quality training available at the conferences of the SCEH and ASCH.
posted by shivohum at 10:17 PM on June 7, 2013

I'm personally not weary of Milton Ericson partly on account of his being dead a few decades but also because I think he really was about helping people. It has been said that Ericson called Grinder & Bandler, Bandit & Swindler when they were modeling him to create NLP. Don't know it to be true but I've liked repeating it anyways.

Some NLP training offshoots probably do offer a lot of useful skills but NLP is often in the certification and credentials don't matter zone. The quality and integrity of instructors and groups under this banner is going to be quite variable.

I think Patterns 1 & 2 by Grinder and Bandler really aren't bad. Its a breakdown of what Ericson was doing that worked well. Ericson was not a formal induction kind of hypnotist most of the time.

I think I'd try to find commentary and reviews on the web from people who already participated in whatever training your contemplating.

Amateur hypnotism can run into some real problems. Some people are somnubalists and can go into a very deep trance. Its possible that in a deep trance some stuff can get come to the surface that neither the hypnotist or the hypnotized are ready to deal with. Something like that happened when I was hypnotizing people for fun when I was in high school. Since then I haven't done any formal inductions and if I do trance work with someone I call it guided imagery. Part of the Ericsonian way of looking at things is that its not important that hypnosis be called a hypnosis and its also not usually important that hypnosis be deep.

Ericson was very much of the opinion that the unconscious is helpful and ready to generate solutions. A lot of times the Ericsonian approach is to ask some questions and tell people some anecdotes which set up some options for the person to solve the problem.

I think if you want to get good at the usual kind of hypnosis, with a formal induction and a defined trance state Ericson's approach might go beyond what your looking for.

There are a fair number of videos of Ericson and his admirers out there. They might help you decide if Ericsonianism is something your interested in. There is still a sort of personality cult about him.

Here's two videos for you to sample. here http://vimeo.com/31048981 and here
posted by logonym at 10:50 PM on June 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

I got certified years ago, but quickly figured out this wasn't something I really wanted to pursue professionally. I think this book will tell you everything you really need to know, especially if you're not interested in doing this professionally. There are all sorts of schools and books and online modules and associations, and frankly a lot of it is just fluff and cruft.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 12:18 AM on June 8, 2013

If you are interested in the science and theory, check out Irving Kirsch and Amir Raz.

Also, I wouldn't lump Erickson in with the NLP guys.

It would be easier to answer the rest of your question if I better understood what you are looking for. A weekend seminar in the theory of hypnosis? A multi week training in self hypnosis for a specific purpose?
posted by feets at 1:41 AM on June 8, 2013

I've also heard The National Guild of Hypnotists can help you.

And...

stepping in a pile of woo is now a phrase I'm going to work into every possible conversation.
posted by kinetic at 3:27 AM on June 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

My Dad worked with Ericson and has done a lot of good work employing his methods.

The Milton Erickson Foundation will have information on training and conferences.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 7:32 AM on June 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: It would be easier to answer the rest of your question if I better understood what you are looking for.

My interest is mainly in self hypnosis for self improvement and a non-clinical use of hypnosis to help others. So, I wouldn't try to tackle someone's life long problems, as that should be done by a professional. But, if someone wante to improve their concentration I would try that with them.
posted by munchingzombie at 9:26 AM on June 8, 2013

I have dabbled in hypnosis on and off for a number of years. The best hypnotist I have ever seen up close by an order of magnitude or more was trained by Bandler. At one point the man was an amazingly great hypnotist. Modern Neurolinguistic Programming in my zip code is all about marketing, as in when I run into them they are all into making sales, big sales, like real estate and fancy car and diamond sales. Since I am into hynotherapy, not marketing, they are utterly useless to me. The local Erickson folks are O.K., but they are professional therapists. Their training courses are mostly for continuing education credits which licensed therapists in my state are required to renew. They really do not want people who are not licensed therapists in their courses and they suspect neurolinguistic programmers as being largely a bunch of con artists.

I am sure there are some really great people in Neurolinguistic Programming but I have not met many of them yet.
posted by bukvich at 8:58 AM on June 9, 2013