Anchors
Lastly, let's talk about the term “ANCHORAGE”: An anchor is any stimulus that we perceive with our senses and that makes us remember in full detail something from the past. Anchoring is natural in humans. For example, when listening to a certain song that in our memories was heard on a notable occasion in the past, it seems that we return to the fact and relive all the emotions and sensations of that moment. Couples often have “our music” that, when heard, reminds them of their youth, when they were very much in love.
Anchors can refer to an image, which is called imaginative, or to any sensory channel: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile and olfactory. Thus, we have verbal and non-verbal anchors. Sometimes, a perfume can take us straight to an event from the past.
The therapist can use this knowledge and create anchors in the patient in order to have access to a useful resource to help them with their problems. Regression Therapy uses anchors extensively to access the unconscious and recover facts from memory.
When we ask the patient about their feeling, where they feel this feeling in their body and ask them to expand these sensations, we are using anchors. The anchor is known to traditional hypnologists as the sign sign. It can be used by the patient to help them access an internal resource when they need it.
EXAMPLE OF AN ERICKSONIAN INDUCTION
In this example, the induction is done in a way similar to an informal conversation, using the concepts above, starting from presuppositions (“I don't know if you have ever been hypnotized before”) which presupposes that the subject will be hypnotized, division (unconscious and conscious), evocations (“you’ve been in hypnotic states before and didn’t know”), intercalations (interspersing words like “relaxation, comfortable”), permission (with the words you can, and/or, while) and use of words that refer to the visual, auditory and kinesthetic sensory channels. If possible, knowing which sensory channel the subject prefers, one can start with this channel and then move on to the others that are not used much by them. This simple maneuver can already cause an altered state of consciousness. It is changed precisely because it is not the customer's usual practice:
"- Very good. I don't know if you've ever been hypnotized before, but I must tell you that hypnosis is something very natural for human beings. It's likely that you've been in hypnotic states before and didn't know that it was hypnosis, such as when you watch a movie you like, read an interesting book, or pay attention to a class. These are states of focused attention in which your conscious side is involved in something while your unconscious takes care of all the other functions of your body. Thus, you have a conscious side, focused on what you are paying attention to from moment to moment, and an unconscious side, which takes care of the other Anchors functions of your body very well, such as breathing and heartbeat. He can take care of making your heart work at the right rate, maintaining your blood pressure, and taking care of your health. You know you can trust your unconscious to take care of you.
Many people have doubts about what hypnosis is. I can inform you that hypnosis, being a habitual state of man, does not require anything in particular. You can choose to be in any position, lying down, sitting or even standing. With eyes open or closed. This will not influence your relaxation. You can keep your eyes fixed on some point or leave them free. Even noises near or far may be helping you feel more comfortable and curious to know when you will enter a trance. Most people have an easier time going into a trance with their eyes closed. If you prefer, you can now close your eyes. Now that you have them closed, you may be seeing something through your eyelids, such as colors that transform into other colors, images of your memories that pass by, or perhaps you are not seeing anything at all. I don't know, but you know. And your unconscious knows it too. You don't need to fixate on any of this to achieve your trance. And while you are there with your eyes closed, feeling your breathing, listening to the different sounds in the room and others more distant, feeling your weight making your body sink into the chair, you may also be noticing the difference between the temperature you feel in the parts of your body. body that are covered and the parts uncovered and all of this can be making you more and more relaxed. I can see now how you are already going into a trance. Go deeper. Go as far as you feel safe to go. As far as is most comfortable, etc.”
At this point, the subject is generally already in a light trance, and can then accept suggestions to deepen the trance. If this has not happened yet, we continue the induction. We have to be patient and take small steps. It is preferable to risking giving a suggestion that clashes with the patient's experience and thus taking him out of his trance.
We then proceed to make suggestions for resolving the customer's specific complaint, or make
suggestions to go back in time and space to the origin of their problems.
With Ericksonian hypnosis, you can achieve any degree of depth that is achieved with traditional hypnosis, in addition to trance phenomena: anesthesia, positive or negative hallucinations, time distortion, hand levitation, catalepsy, post-hypnotic suggestions, etc.
Bibliography:
GRINDER, J. and Bandler, R. “Crossing – passages in psychotherapy”. Presentation by Lívio Túlio
Pincherle. São Paulo: Summus Editorial, 1984.
O'HANLON, William H, and MARTIN, M. “Hypnosis focused on problem solving”. Campinas:
Editorial Psy II, 1995.
O'HANLON, William H. “DEEP ROOTS – Fundamentals of therapy and hypnosis by Milton
Erickson”. Campinas: Editorial Psy II, 1994.