My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson

I had read about Erickson as the pioneer of NLP, and his work in hypnosis and psychotherapy and was intrigued. This book is a great introduction to Erickson. These stories are case studies, people with all sorts of problems, and very interesting solutions, and great stories. This guy is a genius. From bedwetting to alcoholism, to repression, I was particularly inspired by a very short story about the Turmahara Indians, and how knowing and thinking about their special abilities can increase your energy levels. If it works for me, it might work for you. There was one story about how he treated one woman who was sexually unresponsive, and through using his storytelling method caused her to have an orgasm in his office without touching her! Before reading this book I had not realised how easily influenced we can be by indirect suggestion, and how powerful his techniques are. Essentially this is a book of anecdotes, with the author who is himself a psychiatrist giving an explanation of the methods and techniques being used by Erickson. Apart from the therapeutic benefits, if you read this book you can really improve your communication and storytelling skills if you follow the principles used here, so I would recommend this book to aspiring story tellers. Think of Erickson as someone who was a master of effecting life altering personal change by being able to communicate on a deeper level. Applied to yourself you can most likely imagine the effect you can have on yourself and others and how you can win friends and influence people by learning this skill. For more case studies, check out Conversations with Milton H. Erickson Vol 1 by Jay Haley. You might find situations in there that relate to issues in your own life. In fact, use the look inside feature and check out the index. I found the chapter on public speaking and performance anxiety quite helpful. Also, check out the Patterns of... Erickson book by Richard Bandler, which gives a a complete analysis of Erickson's induction methods. Hope you found this helpful.

Milton Erickson was not only the greatest hypnotist that ever lived, but was also the greatest therapist. He could hypnotize someone by simply telling a story, or shaking their hand. He could change a person's life with a single sentence. In the book there is the example of how he cured a man who was an alcoholic and came from a family of alcoholics by simply telling him to go to the botanical gardens and contemplate the cacti, which he said could live for three years without any water.An event that had a significant impact on the development of his skills occurred when he was a teenager and became paralyzed for a time, unable to move anything except his eyes. During this time, in order to avoid extreme boredom, he studied the most minute details of the body language and speech patterns of the people around him. This led him to a deep understanding of how unconscious processes affect behavior, and how change almost always occurs at the unconscious or subconscious level.The reader should take particular note of the anecdotes involving his own children, which indicate that like Erickson, they turned out to be remarkable individuals. Some of the anecdotes that involve how he dealt with his own children's behavior illustrate what a remarkable parent he was, and how being such a parent does in fact produce amazing children. For example, it is discussed in the book how it was only necessary to discipline one of his daughters three times in her life.This book is required reading for any psychologist, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, hypnotist, parent, or anyone who has an interest in human behavior and the most effective way to institute change in such behavior.

"If you going to tell yourself stories, you may as well make them good ones" is a sound piece of advice and "My voice will go with you" fills the bill nicely.It's not hard to imagine some of these tales being included in popular anthologies of folk wisdom, yeah even unto Reader's Digest. Some might regard such a prospect with distaste, what with Erickson being so revered by many really smart people including writer Aldous Huxley. But it's actually an indication of his all-embracing humanity that so many of the tales make great points in ways that could easily please a very wide audience.Sidney Rosen's commentaries uncover some of the principles underlying what Erickson was up to in these stories, thereby adding to the wealth of learning. His commentaries are mostly short and anyone wanting more extensive "under the hood" insights might care to check out Bandler & Grinder's "Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson". "My voice will go with you" is an easy read, but no less worthwhile for that. A few stories run to several pages, many are just a page or so and some are even shorter. You can dip into it or zip through it in any direction with equal pleasure and edification.