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Vol.11 No.1 In this paper the author outlines those areas of Neuro linguistic programming that have been adapted to analytical hypnotherapy and appear to have enhanced its effectiveness in practice. In spite of the divergent philosophies underlying these therapies the author finds that they have much in common and sometimes appear to travel along very similar pathways. It is emphasised that although Neuro linguistic programming appears to wish to avoid being classed as a hypnotherapy much of it employs hypnosis in a manner so that it may not be recognised as such by either the therapist or the client. Such techniques as anchoring and reframing make direct communication with the unconscious mind and the memories retained therein. Such communication must be regarded as hypnosis although formal induction of hypnosis is not an essential feature of Neuro linguistic programming. Some of the more recent advances associated with Neuro linguistic programming and pioneered mainly by Richard Bandler appear to hold great promise for promoting rapid change. In this regard The Rapid Phobia Cure and the Swish Technique are likely to become adopted in modified form by hypnotherapists and it is suggested that the gap between analytical hypnotherapy and Neuro linguistic programme will perceptibly narrow and that the well informed therapist will avail himself of the advantages of both disciplines. INTRODUCTION My main interest in therapy has always been in analytical hypnotherapy. This has been the main thrust of my writings. Nevertheless I must admit that there have been many other therapeutic approaches that have had a significant impact on my thinking and of that of others working in my field. Not least of these is that of Neuro linguistic Programming (NLP). I propose today to detail and amplify some of these impacts since I believe that they apply not only to the practice of analytical hypnotherapy but to all aspects of hypnotherapy. In fact I believe that any comparison of effective but differing therapeutic modalities leads to a deeper understanding of both. History First let me briefly outline the origin of these apparently widely divergent therapies. a) Analytical Hypnotherapy Analytical hypnotherapy has developed from the clinical work of such people as Erickson, David Cheek and Le Cron who discovered that unconscious processes could be accurately monitored by the use of the ideomotor signal. Erickson employed the movements of the arms to signal yes and no; Le Cron used the Chevreul pendulum to signal "yes", "no" and "I don't want to answer" and Cheek relied mainly upon the fingers of ideomoter signals. They discovered that this signal if used wisely could with astute questioning facilitate the uncovering, re-evaluation and resolution of unconscious conflicts. Credit must of course be accorded to Freud who was the first to write of the presence in each of us of extra conscious thinking and first formulated the idea of the unconscious. Other therapists like Wolberg who used hypnosis to facilitate their work as psychoanalysts also played an essential part in the development of analytical hypnotherapy as it is being practised today. They confined the use of hypnosis to the uncovering of unconscious thought processes that proved to be inaccessible to the free association procedure of psychoanalysis. b) NLP Originated from Bandler and Grinder who had spent much time with Erickson studying his hypnotherapy techniques at close quarters. They has determined that it was possible to translate what he did into a systematic approach. It was their objective to make his brand of hypnotherapy accessible to other therapists since although he was an acclaimed expert at what he did he found it difficult to teach it. In practice his pupils learned intuitively from him by watching him in action and by working with him. They too were usually unable to directly teach all that they had learned from Erickson. NLP originally set out to formulate and clarify the processes by which Erickson and other successful therapists promote useful therapeutic changes. They have, in fact, evolved a modality that is, in some respects, very un-Ericsonian. It was in 1976 that I first met John Grinder and Richard Bandler. I was the workshop chairman for the Ontario Society of Clinical Hypnosis that year and had arranged for our society to hear them. I must admit that my initial impression was one of genuine alarm since I could not imagine how we could learn anything from these very unconventional "characters". However it was not long after they began their workshop that they managed to pin our ears firmly back with their claims to be able to promote change even more effectively than Erickson. What is more they were able to demonstrate to us how he had accomplished his seeming magic. They have also explained this in their books entitled "The Structure of Magic". 2. Theoretical Background Let us next look at the theoretical backgrounds of these two modalities. When we compare them we find that: a) The fundamental theoretical background for analytical hypnotherapy derives from the Transactional Analysis model where the personality is considered to comprise three main ego states, the Parent, the Child and the Adult. It is postulated that each of these ego states has unconscious components that interact and sometimes come into conflict. The Child ego state is postulated to be the original ego state, an ego state being understood to be a coherent system of feelings motivating a specific set of behavioural patterns. The Child ego state contains the primitive impulses, the survival instincts, the natural feelings, curiosity, imagination and potential for creativity. The Parent ego state contains the history, tradition, and values of the real parents and parent surrogates since it is modelled on them. It includes a composite record of external events and especially messages and values presented by authority figures accepted without question or modification. The Adult ego state deals with the external reality in a dispassionate and objective manner collecting data, estimating probabilities, developing options and making decisions. When these unconscious components are in conflict produces symptoms and behaviour disorders. The theoretical basis of analytical hypnotherapy presumes that the usual conflict is between the Child and the Parent ego states as they mirror the real life conflicts between parent figures and the individual. It is further postulated that therapy accesses the burgeoning resources of the Adult ego state for the purpose of discovering and presenting useful solutions to these conflicts. b) NLP uses the linguistic understandings of John Grinder to determine the unconsciously perceived meaning of the words used in Erickson's induction of hypnosis and his subsequent therapy. In "The Structure of Magic" Bandler and Grinder detail how language can communicate at both surface and deeper levels of consciousness and that instructions can be given to the unconscious mind which remain totally unperceived by the conscious mind. They also showed how understanding the client's language enables the therapist to determine where he has become restricted in his range of alternative behaviours. NLP attempts to analyse the strategies that individuals use to produce symptoms and unwanted behaviour patterns. Therapy is directed at interrupting these strategies with alternative responses so that improved behaviour results. 3. Objectives It is obvious that the therapeutic objectives for both modalities are similar and like that of most psychotherapies are the reduction, alteration or eradication of unwanted symptoms and uncomfortable behaviour patterns. 4. Therapeutic approaches It is the area of the therapeutic approaches where the greatest contribution and influence of NLP on AH has been felt. It is also in this area where the similarities and differences become apparent. PRINCIPLES OF ANALYTICAL HYPNOTHERAPY Before we review some of these, I wish to clarify for those of you who are not familiar with the procedures adopted in analytical hypnotherapy, the principles underlying the modality. The cornerstones of most insight oriented therapies are: 1. The recovery of repressed material, 2. the reliving of associated affect, 3. the attenuation of that affect and 4. the relearning how to cope and in this regard, analytical hypnotherapy is no exception. 1. The first principle in analytical hypnotherapy is that of establishing good hypnotic communication and the greater this is the more effective therapeutic suggestions are likely to be. 2. Identification of the critical experience usually at an unconscious level is the next step. The critical experience is that experience which is responsible for the repressed emotions. The critical experience is an experience of crisis in which the emotional defences have been overwhelmed. The appropriate normal emotion has been repressed at this time simply because it was not possible to express it. 3. At this third stage the understanding of the Adult ego state is accessed and applied to the critical experience. This enables the critical experience to be exposed to an updated re-evaluation by the Adult ego state. Attenuation of affect 4. Frequently it is discovered that the repressed emotions are no longer relevant and can be readily and entirely relinquished. Alternatively they can either be modified or other more comfortable means of dealing with the underlying needs can be discovered. In any case reduction in unconscious affect is usually achieved. Smile test 5. Determining that these tensions have indeed been modified or eliminated is an essential part of therapy and when in doubt I have found that the smile test remains an invaluable check on progress since only ego states that have relinquished old tensions can smile, (e.g. "Can 4 year old Jane now smile?") Rehabilitation 6. Suggestions for ego strengthening ("You are just as good and just as important as any other human being") and assertiveness training ("You will not allow yourself to be put down") which ensures that the individual can cope with life without resorting to previous unwanted symptoms or behaviour patterns. Therapy may be complete in some cases with only one critical experience requiring to be dealt with. In most cases, however, more than one critical experience in one or several sessions will be necessary. In making the comparison with NLP we find that NLP makes no attempt to uncover and deal with original causation or underlying emotion. It is a behavioural therapy concerned only with modifying responses. The Induction of Hypnosis As we consider the first principle, the induction of hypnosis, we can immediately benefit from some of the tenets of NLP: Rapport Webster defines "rapport" as relation of harmony, conformity, accord, or affinity especially as "in rapport" - in an intimate or harmonious relation. All psychotherapeutic modalities require that a good rapport between therapist and client be established in order to be maximally effective. Rapport can also be understood to be that line of communication via which ideas are transmitted from one individual to another. Thus the better the rapport the better the communication. Much of the rapport occurring in analytical hypnotherapy is through the acknowledged medium of hypnosis but all hypnotherapists agree that hypnosis itself is impossible to establish in the absence of some rapport. Perhaps rapport is in fact really hypnosis. At any rate NLP certainly makes some extremely valuable contributions in this matter of rapport. Let me now examine some of these: Representational systems The authors of NLP immediately recognised that Erickson intuitively and rapidly perceived and understood the orientation from which his patients approached their own world. Bandler and Grinder discovered that the language that the patient used was a strong clue to his orientation. They defined this orientation as the individual's representational system. For example those who have a visual representational system use language that is obviously pictorial. Similarly and auditory representational system is indicated by a sound language and a kinaesthetic by a feeling language. Some examples: "This looks bright and clear to me". (visual); "This sounds really good to me", (auditory); "This feels really good to me", (kinaesthetic) The therapist whose own language does not match with that of the client's favoured representational system will find it difficult to establish early rapport. A good therapist is flexible and no matter what modality he is using he, consciously or unconsciously, moves into his client's representational system. It is logical to assume that through the use of correct language - the one that is familiar to the client - that good rapport can be established. This is a useful contribution from NLP. 1. Mirroring We all recognise that body language is an important tool for communication and rapport. However matching the client by relating to him by using the same representational system is one method but mirroring and by using a similar body posture and movements is another that will also enhance rapport. This mirroring, for example breathing in unison with the client, should of course be sufficiently subtle that there is no conscious recognition of the mirroring which appears to induce a comfort that is conducive to the production of excellent rapport. In addition the utilisation of the favoured representational system by the therapist facilitates improved access to the other representational systems which are presumed to be more unconscious, (e.g. visual -> kinaesthetic). 2. Nominalisation Nominalisation is the use of a noun to describe a process that frequently impedes a client's understanding of that process by appearing to make it appear to be complete and beyond his control. This is because the client's understanding of the meaning of the word can differ markedly from the therapist's. It is wise to clearly define what is meant by the word used. Even words such as "anxious", "depressed" and "addiction" may have a different meaning for the client than for the therapist and be the reason for failure to establish or maintain adequate rapport. 3. Eye Accessing Cues Eye accessing cues play an essential role in NLP. They are eye movements that can indicate the route used to access unconscious information and strategies the client uses to deal with this information. They are much more valuable when using the NLP process than they are in analytical hypnotherapy. This is because a knowledge of the strategy used by an individual to process unconscious material is essential to the NLP therapeutic process. Nevertheless these cues are of immense interest to the analytical hypnotherapist although they are seldom of clinical value to him. An exception to this statement occurs when the client is seen to be accessing highly traumatic material. A knowledge of which system used, whether visual, auditory or kinaesthetic, can enable the therapist to amplify the experience in a therapeutically favourable way by remaining in that representational system. For example a patient of mine began to see relevant traumatic material in a Constable painting on my office wall and she was led to describe other visual memories by remaining in her visual representational system. 4. Process vs. Content Throughout NLP there is a concentration on the process rather than the content and NLP frequently asserts that adequate therapy can be success fully conducted without either the therapist or the client being consciously aware of the nature of the material being dealt with. I believe that most analytical Hypnotherapists would agree with this statement since much effective clinical work has been accomplished using the analytical procedure without any conscious knowledge of the material being unconsciously processed. The NLP practitioner relies upon the accessing cues along with other unconscious Reponses to monitor his process whereas the analytical Hypnotherapist uses the ideomotor signal also in conjunction with other unconscious responses such as blushing, changes in the respiratory rate and involuntary movements to guide him through his procedure. Both NLP and AH acknowledge that much of the useful communication that takes place during any therapy probably occurs outside both the client's and the therapist's conscious awareness. 5. The induction of hypnosis It is hard to define hypnosis but it is a tenet of analytical hypnotherapy that all unconscious communication that produces an unconscious response is hypnosis since much excellent therapy can be conducted without any overt evidence of traditional hypnosis such as immobility or eye closure. When watching NLP in progress there is always considerable unconscious communication present without any prior formal induction of hypnosis. One of the commonest directions made to a client in NLP is to "go inside and ….". As you observe the client's response to this direction to "go inside" it is evident that he or she has temporarily entered hypnosis sometimes profoundly. The therapist may or may not be aware of this and it is rare for the client to recognise this. Both NLP and AH agree that it is really not important for the subject to know that he is using hypnosis so long as he makes the changes that he wishes to make. In fact the dissociation of hypnosis plays a prominent role in NLP. I suppose that this is hardly surprising since it originated from a study of Erickson's work. The analytical hypnotherapist has learned from this that some of the techniques of NLP might be acceptable to subjects who cannot accept the idea of formal hypnosis. NLP teaches that the induction of hypnosis is immeasurably facilitated by matching behaviours such as gauging the tempo of the voice to the rate of breathing, or nodding at the same rate that the client is nodding, or blinking at the same rate as he is nodding or blinking. These all increase the rapport that facilitates the induction of hypnosis. These are all useful procedures for any Hypnotherapist to use. 6. Anchoring The principle of anchors is one of the corner stones of NLP and when we fully understand this principle we realise its importance in all psychotherapy. It has been discovered that any auditory, visual or kinaesthetic signal administered during a complex experience is rapidly but unconsciously assimilated as part of that experience. By merely readministering that signal the newly associated experience is readily and rapidly recalled. Repeated reintroduction of the signal reinforces its effect. All hypnotherapists will agree that the repetition of a suggestion increases its effectiveness and we have all used this knowledge for the rapid reinduction of hypnosis. NLP has emphasised the universality of the phenomenon of anchoring as it occurs in nature. It is probably responsible for much of our learning as well as much of our behaviour. For example, much compulsive and phobic behaviour can be understood from this viewpoint since they are complex responses triggered by simple signals. An anchor can be defined as a stimulus that reliably produces a specific response. An anchor can therefore become a handle on the client's world and a means of summoning forth experience or behaviour. Much of NLP is devoted to using old anchors to produce improved behaviours or new anchors to replace old unwelcome behaviour patterns. For example uncomfortable feelings can be anchored and then accessed and modified by other anchored positive feelings. I believe that anchoring and the integration that occurs with anchoring is in fact a strategy used by every successful therapist. The analytical hypnotherapist for the most part uses words as anchors to recall memories and to access resources for dealing with the negative feelings and behaviours associated with them. However we must credit NLP's extensive promotion of the use of anchors for an increased awareness of how powerful these anchors can be. In one approach to therapy the NLP practitioner anchors an uncomfortable behaviour or symptom with one anchor and then anchors an unconscious resource with another. When both anchors are presented simultaneously the problem and the resource appear together. The individual is then able to use that resource for dealing with his problem. Evaluation of the effect of this procedure is obtained by reapplying the original anchor for the unwanted behaviour and observing what changes have occurred since its original presentation. Usually there is considerable modification in the original uncomfortable behaviour. Incidentally imagery, a common feature of hypnosis, is a very powerful form of anchor and is often responsible for triggering complex behaviour and feelings. 7. Multiple Personalities/Ego states/Parts NLP holds the view that we are all multiple personalities, and that officially diagnosed multiple personalities are so called only because they have amnesia for different contexts whereas non multiples like you and I can remember from one context to another. Analytical hypnotherapists also hold the view that we are not as homogenous as we had thought ourselves to be. We believe that each of us is composed of different parts that we refer to as ego states. We believe that it is only when these ego states act independently from each other and are separated by strong amnesic barriers that we need call them multiple personalities. We have listened to and gained rapport with these sometimes very verbal separate ego states that we call multiple personalities. As a result we have gained a deeper understanding of the nature of many symptoms and behaviour patterns in clients whose ego states are in conflict. Ego states It is probably wise at this juncture to more clearly define the term ego state. Berne used it to describe the primary ego states, the Child, the Parent and the Adult. However in practice it has been discovered that few of us are limited to these three. Much of analytical hypnotherapy is devoted to working with unconscious ego states which are usually a portion of either the Child ego state or of the Parent ego state. Ego states It is probably wise at this juncture to more clearly define the term ego state. Berne used it to describe the primary ego states, the Child, the Parent and the Adult. However in practice it has been discovered that few of us are limited to these three. Much of analytical hypnotherapy is devoted to working with unconscious ego states which are usually a portion of either the Child ego state or of the Parent ego state. Nature of ego states An ego state is considered to be a part of the personality that is partially or completely separate form the central personality. Each ego state has a coherent complex of feelings and beliefs which motivates a separate behaviour pattern frequently responsible for symptoms. An ego state usually remains outside the normal stream of conscious awareness unless it becomes an executive personality as in MPD. MPD is a disorder in which the ego states are completely dissociated and are able to gain executive power for recognisable periods of time. This power usually accrues from the reinforcing dissociation of repeated exposure to great emotional trauma such as sexual abuse. Origin of ego states We believe that these ego states originate at the time of a critical experience - a time of crisis when the available resources are overwhelmed. The function of ego states The function of an ego state is to aid in the survival or protection of the individual. Within the limits of its own available resources it seeks to deal with the fears, pain, anger and/or guilt with which it finds itself charged. An ego state creates symptoms which, no matter how destructive they may appear, always have an unconscious positive intention. Fortunately this intention has usually lost all of its relevance at the time of therapy and therefore permits useful re-editing. Symptoms are therefore the therapist's best means of locating the original experience and the ego state responsible for maintaining the associated symptoms. An ego state frequently has discovered reinforcing secondary gains from its activities. These secondary gains may be responsible for the need to retain symptoms long after the primary conflict has been dealt with.
8. Guilt NLP describes guilt as a response to a mental picture of someone's face expressing disapproval. The analytical Hypnotherapist agrees that this is part of the mechanism of guilt and believes that guilt is the means whereby the Parent ego state exerts control over the Child ego state. It accomplishes this by reminding the individual of the disapproval of the real parent or parent surrogate. It can do this in a variety of ways including the presentation of a picture of parental disapproval, the sound of disapproval or the feeling of being abandoned or rejected in some way. It is the fear that is associated with these imageries that is responsible for the feeling of guilt. It is this fear that the analytical Hypnotherapist attempts to eradicate with the help of the resources to the Adult ego state. The ego state complex that originates at the time of the critical experience results from the conflict between the Parent and the Child ego states and always contains an element of guilt. 9. NLP assumptions There are four organizing assumptions of NLP. These are all shared by the analytical Hypnotherapist. (i) It is better to have choice than no choice. The analytical Hypnotherapist accepts this viewpoint without reservation and uses the resources of the Adult ego state to discover new choices in dealing with old problems including the choice of discarding the problem altogether as being currently irrelevant. (ii) The idea of unconscious choice. This idea is one that the analytical Hypnotherapist also embraces wholeheartedly. He recognises that he frequently remains unaware of the nature of the choices that are unconsciously made. (iii) People already have the resources necessary for change. Perhaps the most important discovery by any Hypnotherapist is that each individual has the ability to locate satisfactory alternatives when given specific encouragement to do so. It is rare that failure of therapy is due to an inability to discover alternatives. Rather is it more likely that these alternatives are unacceptable to a part of the personality and are rejected by that part because that part has a vested interest in maintaining symptoms. (iv) Each and every single piece of behaviour has a positive function in some context. We analytical Hypnotherapists also believe that the pattern of behaviour displayed is deemed to be the most appropriate response available in that context no matter how bizarre it might appear to be. By accepting this precept the analytical Hypnotherapist prevents alienation of the ego state responsible for the unwanted behaviour. Therapy is then directed to discovering acceptable alternatives. 10. Reframing Reframing is a procedure designed by the originators of NLP and is intended to reframe or modify symptoms or unwanted behaviour patterns. It sets out to accomplish this by making contact with that part of the personality responsible for certain behaviour and reframe that intent into an improved and more appropriate behaviour. Similarly in analytical hypnotherapy communication is made in hypnosis with unconscious ego states responsible for symptoms and unwanted behaviour patterns. It is usually discovered that this ego state is dealing with repressed discomfort that is no longer relevant since there are now adult resources that can assume the responsibility inherent in the intent of the behaviour or symptoms. For example, many obese women have a part that is keeping them fat to prevent them from being sexually attractive particularly if they have been subjected to sexual abuse in childhood. That part might be persuaded to recognise that the person of whom they were originally afraid is no longer a threat so that the fear causing the overeating can be relinquished. Stages of Reframing In NLP reframing is accomplished in a series of steps: i) The symptoms or behaviour to be changed must be identified but need not be verbalised. In the initial interview with the client the analytical hypnotherapist usually agree on the objectives of therapy and the outcomes that they expect from it. ii) The client is directed to "go inside" and ask the part that is responsible for the symptoms or behaviour whether it will communicate with the conscious mind. All hypnotherapists whether or not they confine their approach to the analytical can benefit from learning that when good rapport has been established an induction of hypnosis can rapidly be accomplished in many cases by this simple direction: "go inside". In fact one has frequently noticed that when we ask patients merely to close their eyes they appear to spontaneously enter hypnosis - sometimes very deeply. The NLP practitioner has to acquire a special skill at this point since he has to determine what unconscious signals indicate "yes" and which indicate "no". These signals are often ideosensory in nature rather than ideomotor. That is to say, they are subjective and may or not have any readily observable corollary and the yes/no meaning is not usually immediately discernible. On the other hand the analytical Hypnotherapists sill is directed to establishing ideomotor signals for "yes" and "no". He similarly uses various methods e.g. ideomotor questioning, to identify and contact the part responsible for symptoms. The analytical Hypnotherapist no only relies upon the ideomotor signal to enable him to locate the ego state responsible for the persistence of symptoms but also uses the affect bridge which logically provides a bridge from the affect and symptoms of the present to the origin of these feelings in the past in which resides the ego state in question. iii) Distinguish between the behaviour and the intention. This is accomplished by asking the part responsible for the pattern whether it will let the conscious mind know what it is trying to do for the individual by its behaviour. When the answer to this question is "yes" and the intention is consciously communicated and approved then: iv) The creative part of the unconscious mind is asked to create improved alternative behaviours which will satisfy the intention desired by the symptom producing part, and when one or more such alternatives are presented: v) The part with the problem is asked whether it will accept this new behaviour and undertake responsibility for this new behaviour in place of the previous one. vi) Other parts are asked if there is any objection to this new behaviour being instituted. If so other more acceptable solutions must be sought. This process can proceed without conscious knowledge of what is being accomplished unconsciously and the procedure is monitored by the "yes/no" ideosensory signals in a similar manner it ideomotor questioning in analytical hypnotherapy. This description of the reframing procedure has been greatly shortened and simplified by assuming that the answers have been clearly affirmative. There are however clearly defined courses of action for dealing with negative answers. Much of analytical hypnotherapy can be considered as reframing. The main difference is that emphasis is also placed upon relinquishing feelings that re discovered to be no longer relevant or necessary. As a result in many cases the behaviour can be terminated rather than modified. However when these feelings continue to have some accepted relevance improved and more appropriate methods of expressing them must be discovered. This is typical reframing. In analytical hypnotherapy the ego state responsible for the behaviour pattern is accessed and anchored by identification by its age (and sometimes its name). The Adult ego state is then asked to review and understand the problem and seek solutions to it. In analytical hypnotherapy however greater emphasis is placed upon the concealed, repressed feelings that have made the symptoms and behaviour necessary. It is the Adult ego state (the creative part of NLP?) that can demonstrate that these feelings need no longer be retained so that the consequent behaviour is rendered unnecessary. The Adult ego state discovers means whereby old tensions can be rapidly relinquished when finally accepted as being unnecessary by the distressed ego state. Ecological Check Ego strengthening and assertive training suggestions provided by the Hypnotherapist and presumably implemented by the Adult ego state are an essential part of analytical hypnotherapy and perhaps equate with the ecological check that NLP reframing makes in determining that the new behaviours will work. In the process of reframing NLP recommends that no changes in behaviour should be instituted until the part responsible for the original pattern agrees to the changes. Furthermore the ecological check, in which all other parts of the personality are consulted, is regarded as extremely important since should there be any part objecting to such a change it is unlikely to remain permanent. The analytical Hypnotherapist will agree that such changes are only temporary if there is any part objecting to it. Much of modern analytical hypnotherapy is directed at discovering and dealing with those hidden ego states that have a vested interest in maintaining symptoms and pathological behaviour for one reason or another. NLP asserts that effective reframing is ideal for dealing with psychosomatic problems and analytical Hypnotherapists who are accustomed to using reframing procedures would probably agree. Future pacing By connecting the reframed response to future contexts the NLP practitioner ensures that these contexts will now have access to these new resources. This process is called future pacing. It consists of encouraging the individual to test the effect of the reframing process by imaging himself in the future in a similar context to that which produced the symptoms or unwanted responses in the past. If the new strategy appears to adequately deal with the situation reframing can be presumed to have been successful. To my mind this principled of always testing the individual's response to new solutions is an extremely valuable contribution to psychotherapy. The analytical Hypnotherapist has similarly learned to future pace his therapy by having the individual visualise himself in future contexts and behaving therein in improved and more comfortable ways. An overall philosophy in NLP is to accept every response that is offered. All responses are accepted and can be utilised. The Analytical Hypnotherapist completely shares this philosophy since every response is believed to be motivated by some part of the client and any rejection of such a response is a rejection of that part of the client and will guarantee its opposition to the therapist. Conversely, verbal assurance of alliance with unconscious parts will usually diminish the likelihood of such resistance. An unconscious part may not want the conscious mind to know what is going on within it because it perhaps considers that the conscious mind is unable to handle it. Good therapy does not require that the conscious mind knows either the intentions or the choices made by the unconscious mind in this process. This is true for both NLP and AH. 11. Dissociation Dissociation is an integral part of NLP and is advocated whenever traumatic experiences such as rape or phobic producing memories are to be reviewed. This is a valuable use of dissociation which is remarkable easy to produce even in the absence of any formal induction procedure. Regression The analytical Hypnotherapist, as of course is any Hypnotherapist, is constantly employing dissociation, throughout therapy, through the medium of hypnosis. Conversely whenever there is therapeutic dissociation there is hypnosis since in order to dissociate unconscious parts must be accessed and part of an experience such as a feeling is the anchor that recalls the remainder of that experience. This reminds us that the Affect Bridge technique is constantly being employed by analytical hypnotherapy in this manner. CONCLUSION Many clinical Hypnotherapists, both analytical and non analytical, also agree with the statement sometimes made by NLP-ers that there is really no level in hypnosis and that each individual simply uses as much of the natural unconscious activity we call hypnosis as is necessary to meet his needs and expedite the required changes. |