Emanated imagery: Shaping presupposed success.

It is common for psychotherapy interventions used in the context of hypnosis to address events in the client's past or present including decisions, traumas, parataxic distortions (Sullivan, 1970), suppressed emotions and so on. Unlike conventional psychotherapy, hypnosis has a well-known and commonly referred to perceptual phenomenon called "future-orientation in time." While this feature has been used by various therapists, it does not appear to be routinely used as the foundation for crafted interventions. This paper briefly discusses the historical emergence and the progressive logic of using imagery in various hypnotic and non-hypnotic therapeutic approaches, how this progression from using past imagery to present imagery has currently culminated with future-to-past oriented imagery interventions and outlines the minimum necessary steps for conducting an intervention within hypnosis called Emanated Imagery. The rationale and step-by-step procedure for constructing Emanated Imagery, as well as a case example, is presented.

Training in Therapy-Induction Without Scripts.

Hypnotic induction for the purposes of psychotherapy is more than a collection of techniques. Instead, the induction process should be individualized to each client as Erickson (1958) explained years ago. Training professionals in hypnosis and induction then must avoid reading written scripts and healthcare professionals must understand that attention and personal contact are required in order to successfully participate in improvisational communication and the nuances of interpersonal entrainment of psychotherapy. And this all begins with the induction.

Hypnosis and Therapy for a Case of Vomiting, Nausea, and Pain.

In this case study the author illustrates the treatment of idiopathic gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms that practitioners sometimes encounter and for which none of the usual medical explanations apply. In this case, the symptoms have deeply personal and intricate causes that are explicated for the reader. A 20-year old female was vomiting six to eight times a day, accompanied with pain and nausea, for 2 years. She had medical intervention for almost that same duration. She had numerous uneventful medical tests, her gall bladder removed, and had exhausted hope for a medical cure. Working with a resource-building approach in therapy her vomiting was stopped within 6 weeks and her nausea in the following 7th week (or 13th session). Hypnosis was used during each session along with a protocol referred to as Self-Image Thinking (Lankton & Lankton, 1983/2008, 1986/2007; Lankton, 2008) to rehearse novel experiences and behaviors that she would implement in her social environment each week. She provided yearly follow-up phone contacts for 3 years and the latest contact was 1 month before this article was written. She remains symptom-free.