How to write hypnosis induction scripts
It is a fact that effective induction is crucial to the overall success of a hypnotherapy session. You can make or break the entire session. To understand why this happens, it is important to know what an induction is and what we are trying to achieve by doing a hypnotic induction.
Induction is the part of hypnosis where the subject goes into a trance. Now, while there is such a thing as instant induction (handshake), what we will be talking about is a gradual induction. This is the type therapists use because it is more comfortable for clients and is done by gradually relaxing the subject. What we are effectively trying to do is bring the client from a state of alertness to one of selective attention in which their subject can concentrate closely on the hypnotic session. Our two key objectives then are to generate relaxation and focus our clients’ attention on the objectives of the session in question.
Without it or with an infectious version of it, your subject might be in a slight trance or none at all. This means that the unconscious mind of your subjects will not be open to your suggestions, decreasing the effectiveness of the treatment by a considerable amount.
So how do you carry out an effective induction?
There are effectively 4 steps. If you use each of these steps in the way I describe them, you will find that your subject falls into a deep trance in no time.
1. Relaxation
2. Create confusion
3. Vivid visualizations
4. Steps down
Let’s look at each step in turn.
1. Relaxation
We start by getting our client to relax. There are several ways to do this and some hypnotists will even do some relaxation before the hypnosis. This is where they have their client perform a series of actions so that he is in a more relaxed state for therapy. An effective way to do this is to instruct your client to tense and then relax the muscles in each part of their body. While this is effective, it’s really only necessary when dealing with clients who are more nervous.
When the hypnosis session begins, the easiest way to begin this relaxation process is to instruct the subject to take deep breaths. This is a highly effective technique and is used in a variety of medical fields to calm people down. In fact, it is taught to anxiety sufferers to help them stay calm when anxiety strikes. Tell them to take about 3-4 slow, deep breaths. If you want, you can also tell them to visualize the air flowing into their lungs like water flowing through a stream.
The second method to achieve this step is to have your client fixate on a particular object. Tell them to make out each part of the object, all the details, and how the texture would feel if they touched it. This calms the mind and begins to eliminate external stimuli.
The final form that I will explain is progressive relaxation. Begin by telling your client to pay special attention to each part of their body and feel the muscles in that area relax. You can start at the foot and work your way up the body. I could tell them to imagine a ball of light or a certain color moving through them and relaxing each body part it touches.
Regardless of which approach you choose, your client should now be relaxed and ready to move further into the process.
You’ll want to tell your client to close their eyes at this point, if they haven’t already. People love to be directed when they are relaxed. She also eliminates worry. People think you close your eyes when hypnotized, but if you don’t tell them, they’ll worry they’re doing it wrong and it won’t be effective. Your goal is to make them feel as relaxed and comfortable as possible.
2. Confusion
Next, we are going to create some confusion in your topic. This distracts them and allows us to access their unconscious so we can continue with the session. To do this, ask your client to start counting down from a high number like 300. As you do this, you’ll move on to the next step, giving you more instructions and causing you to lose focus on the task. It’s important to tell them not to worry about losing their place and to just continue from the last number they can remember.
3. Vivid display
Now you are going to set up a scene for your subject to imagine. You want a bright, calm scene that conveys calm, such as a beach, forest, park, or walk in the garden on a hot summer day. You want to tell them to imagine this scene in every vivid detail from the feel of the grass or sand under their feet, the smell of the flowers and the vastness of the ocean in front of them, the feel of the gentle breeze brushing them to the sound of the sea or the birds in the sky.
This is where your customer insight comes in handy. If you know of one, you can use an experience you’ve actually had to strengthen the process. If not, just use what you think works best based on the personality of the customers.
What we’re doing here is strengthening relaxation and focus before putting you into a trance.
4. go down
Next, it’s time to bring them into a trance. This is where we fix your attention in the session. This is where you tell them to imagine walking down some kind of path or stairway. Just make it relevant to the scene you created above. You can have them walk down the garden path ever deeper, more relaxed as they go. You will then begin to count backwards from 10 or even upwards from 1 to 10. With each counted second, you will tell them that they have taken another step and are sinking deeper and deeper into trance.
Summary
Let’s go through the process again. First, you will make your client relax and feel like you understand their problems and can help them through them. You will then go through each step of the 4-step method in order. This entire process should take around 5 minutes and will leave your subjects’ unconscious open to suggestions. If you write your script, keep in mind that you should rehearse it and make it sound natural instead of reading it out loud, otherwise it won’t be effective.
