Utilization is using your client’s responses or any external phenomena in a positive way. For example, if your client challenges you after the hypnosis, and says to you, ‘I don’t think that this worked, because I don’t think that I was in trance’, you might respond, ‘Yes, that’s right. You were unable to feel that you were in trance at that particular moment when you were evaluating, consciously, your state of awareness. But this doesn’t mean that you were not processing stimuli on an unconscious level, too’. In clinical practice, it is important to utilise your client’s comments in any way that you feel appropriate. For example, if your client says that she feels trapped in a cage, one can deal with by asking her, in or out of hypnosis, ‘Who has the key to this cage?’, or ‘How can you plan your escape?’. Obviously, there might not be an easy solution to this problem, even as a metaphor; however, you can use trance logic in order to get the results that you need.
In a recent domiciliary appointment in an office, the air conditioner was slightly faulty and made a sound which resembled water flowing down a river. During the hypnosis, I utilised this fault as follows:
And as you continue to relax…just listening to the sounds around you…I wonder if you can embellish your scene…the scene of your special place…to incorporate the sounds around you…to help you to relax and realise your full potential…
Utilization is the key to being a good therapist. By utilising your clients’ words and experiences, you are helping them to discover their own resources in their own way. And, by using process suggestions, one can help them to create their own scenes during the hypnotherapy. Utilization, thus, is an essential approach in clinical practice. Therapists can take any stimulus – sound, thought, feeling, utterance, sentence, or sensation – and use it during the hypnosis or at other times during a treatment session.
About the Therapist
David Kraft is a successful psychotherapist and psychologist, and has a practice in Enfield and in Harley Street. He has published a number of papers in the academic literature and is actively involved in research. In order to make an enquiry, please ring his secretary, Hong, on 0207 467 8564.