Handbook of Hypnotic Suggestions and Metaphors

It isn't necessary to be a clinician to benefit from this book. Some of the suggestions are written for self-hypnosis and the rest seem to adapt trivially for use for self-hypnosis. Taping selected suggestions will help but if you study the long suggestions and got the gist of them, you can probably memorize enough to be useful. Reading thru these suggestions seems to provide a great sense of what effective hypnosis is really about. Self-hypnosis isn't taught in this book, but there are many inexpensive books that do teach it. I learned from Chapter 4 from Leslie LeCron's "Self-Hypnotism: The Technique and Its Use In Daily Living". Some people say hypnosis is a hoax and I don't have any experience to say whether advanced practices can work like using hypnotism to prepare for surgery. But if you consider inducing self-hypnosis to just be going into a quiet, "inwardly-focused" state and doing suggestions as just a form of self-talk, then it's certainly doable. The question remains whether it helps. I've found that my self-improvement efforts usually take a long time (months or years) to establish better habits, during which I review lists of goals often and also use suggestions during self-hypnosis (e.g. quiet self-talk). I very slowly see some improvement and I enjoy the self-hypnosis, so I've kept at it without being sure it's the self-hypnosis that is leading to the changes. But thinking of it just as talking to myself over and over until I gradually change, it does seem as if that self-talk has some impact. A subset of this book half or less its size (and half or less of its price) would have been adequate for me as a layperson. Sections like "Preparation for Surgery" or "Hypnosis for Obstetrics" I could do without. But so far I do feel this book is a good value for me. Just for the ego-strengthening material, it will probably take me more than a year to get reasonably acquainted with the appropriate suggestions.

The book contains brief introduction to Ericksonian hypnotic language patterns / how to formulate hypnotic and posthypnotic suggestions with 14 major sections of short hypnotherapy scripts for dealing with just about any issue a hypnotherapist may encounter in practice. Some of the sections are: pain management, self-esteem, anxiety, hypnosis for cancer patients, hypnosis for sleep disorders, hypnosis for addictions, weight loss, academic performance, and hypnosis for children. While I do not recommend that you necessarily use the scripts verbatim as they are written, this book may serve as an invaluable resource for ideas and possible suggestions to help you in your work as hypnotherapist.

I purchased this book several years ago, when I first entered private practice as a hypnotherapist. Nine years later, I still refer to it frequently. As a previous reviewer commented, many of the scripts can be used verbatim; however, I use them mostly as guides and personalize them to the client. It's a must-have book for every hypnotherapist's library.

A super rescource for the practitioner regardless of profession. Many, many helpful suggestions and hints to enable the appropriate therapy to reach target. The text gives scripts, "stories", and suggestions for you to utilize in your practice. This is a great source for ideas in framing suggestion. I have used this text extensively, for pain relief, distraction, and for post-op recuperation for my patients.

I discovered this book during my Clinical Hypnotherapy training and found it a wonderful tool. I've been in practice since 1992 and still refer to this manual for script ideas. Many of the suggestions can be used straight from the book, although I tend to modify and/or adapt them to suit my client's needs. It is an important part of my hypnotherapy library.