Ise

[pinktrance]

i wonder if you guys can help me? im working on someone with arachnophobia, is it always necessary to try and uncover the initial sensitizing event to rid the client of the phobia, i am not allowed to do regression to cause yet as im not fully qualified. in your opinion what do you think is the best way to deal with this type of phobia, not done this one before and i dont want to mess it up as its part of my case study!!!:confused: any help would be greatly appreciated
cheers pinky

[skip]

Pinktrance,

Regressing to cause is often successful, and almost invarably successful if you install successful behavior to use instead of the unwanted behavior. By 'successful' I mean a new behavior that satisfies the unconscious outcome for the old behavior, as well as the conscious outcome for the new behavior.

It is almost never NECESSARY to regress to cause.

While the ISE may have initiated the unwanted behavior, the ISE isnt what continues to drive it.

What drives it, is the conviction in the mind that the behavior is achieving something the unconscious believes is important. These are esoteric things like, safety, security, love, acceptance, etc.

If you make a change, and it fails to satisfy this unconscious outcome, the new behavior will not be sustained, and the client will most likely revert back to the old behavior, irregardless of whether you uncovered the ISE or not.

If you secure with the unconscious an agreement to use an alternative consciously acceptable behavior, to satisfy both the conscious outcome and the unconscious outcome, then the behavior will change, and it will not revert back.

If you ask the unconscious what its purpose in the behavior is, and you secure an agreement with it, that if some other behavior can be found that satisfies that purpose and is also acceptable to the conscious outcome, then it would use that behavior instead, there is no need to regress to cause.

With arachnophobia, it would be easy to assume that the unconscious outcome is to keep safe. Although most reasonable people dont believe blind panic, or paralysis is ever safe. But just for the sake of argument lets say the unconscious' aim is to keep safe.

So how difficult would it be, under hypnosis, for this persons imagination to come up with a new behavior that the unconscious could agree would ensure a reasonable degree of safety, and would also be behavior that is acceptable to the conscious?

Now I assumed safety. To learn the unconscious' purpose is simple, just ask. Sometimes you might want to go up the criteria a bit, to get a more generalized answer, one that gives you some wiggle room in which to work.

skip

[pinktrance]

thanks skip, will print that out and read a few times to get my head round it, thank you very much mate:D

[Jack]

Very little to add to Skip's erudite piece, except to say that much of therapy happens internally and unseen by the therapist. Even though formal regression to cause is not done, it will happen spontaneously in a successful phobia treatment, so that as you ask the subconscious for reasons for unwanted behaviour the subconscious will trawl the memories to find the prime causal event and will access the emotion attached to it. So you may get an abreaction anyway, which you should be prepared for.

Even just asking what the reason is for the behaviour may access several parts of the subconscious all of which have different reasons for wanting particular behaviours.

Personally, I rarely use formal hypnotherapy for phobias unless the phobia is complex and linked to other issues.

Jack

[pinktrance]

what do you do for phobias then jack?

[skip]

NLP's phobia 'cure' or something of similar design works very well.

EFT's (Created by Gary Craig) tapping will reduce the intensity of the response down to whatever level the person wants. Can be obtained free at www.emofree.com (http://www.emofree.com/)

EMDR would work for this, it is used successfully on PTSD

just to name a few,

skip

ps pinktrance, feel free to ask for explanation or expansion on any of the points I made in my other post.

[pinktrance]

i didnt understand what you meant by saying: you may want to up the criteria a bit to give more wiggle room, even when i read it really slowly (lol):)

still got loads to get my head round. the thing is i need to use hypnotherapy on this arachnophobia beause its for my case study, i have to show all limits and flaws, and i dont necessarily need to be succsessful in what i do, as long as i say why and what i would have done differently. I have to see the client tommorro for the initial consultation, we have had to make up our own client notation forms asking the questions of our choice, can you think of a specific question that might take me to the root of the problem and in the right direction.
thanks for being so helpful
cheers pinky:confused:

[Merlin]

Hi,

There are schools of thought on all 3 sides of this issue ;-)

I personally seek the ISE for matters like cancer or ALS, but not phobias.

-Always Find the ISE
-Never bother with the ISE
-Do it when you're not getting success using other methods

For phobias, I can usually just say 'you know, spiders are kinda cute, aren't they'?
that's usually enough.

[pinktrance]

cheers merlin, will give it a go!:) trial and error what works for me and individual client i guess

[skip]

Pinktrance,

"i didnt understand what you meant by saying: you may want to up the criteria a bit to give more wiggle room, even when i read it really slowly (lol) "

Criteria is the 'underneath' why you do something.

For example you work to make money. Making money allows you to live on your own. Living on your own, gives you freedom to make your own choices. Making your own choices ...

Now most people wouldnt consciously equate 'working' with 'freedom to make your own choices' but unconsciously these connections are made. And the higher you go, up the criteria scale, the more important things become. And the more esoteric, as I described in my earlier post.

So lets imagine a conversation between you and your client's unconscious.

Q. What does having this phobic response accomplish (do for you)?

A. Keeps me from touching spiders.

Q. What does keeping you from touching spiders accomplsih (do for you).

A. Prevents me from being bitten.

Q. What does preventing you from being bitten do for you?

A. Keeps me safe.

Notice I always use exactly their words to ask the questions, because I dont know what those words mean exactly to them, so I want to be sure and not synthesize it into what it meant to me. If I do that we will be off on a tangent and will not have realized it.

OK so now you are 3 levels up the criteria scale, and you have discovered that the phobic response has little to do with spiders, and a lot to do with staying safe. You could go on up, until they become restless, or cannot vocalize what they are trying to accomplish, but generally when someone gets to something like loved, safe, accepted, etc, you have a very powerful criteria to satisfy.

So then you would perhaps point out that panic reactions can be unsafe, that paralysis in the face of something dangerous is definately unsafe, etc. That in fact what they are doing behaviorally is likely to achieve exacltly the opposite of what they are wanting to achieve.

Then you could ask the unconscious to come up with alternative behaviors that will ensure keeping them safe, while at the same time being more consciously acceptable.

Once a course of action is agreed on by both conscious and unconscious, then do an ecology check, if still acceptable, then future pace it, and ensure that it is operating, and you are done.

"I still got loads to get my head round. the thing is i need to use hypnotherapy on this arachnophobia beause its for my case study, i have to show all limits and flaws, and i dont necessarily need to be succsessful in what i do, as long as i say why and what i would have done differently."

OK

"I have to see the client tommorro for the initial consultation, we have had to make up our own client notation forms asking the questions of our choice, can you think of a specific question that might take me to the root of the problem and in the right direction."

My orientation would tend to be different, "What would you like to do instead of panicking?"

You might ask if they have always been afraid of spiders. Can they remember a time when they were unafraid? We certainly arent born with this fear, so there will be some point in this lifetime. Were they afraid when they first learned to drive? When they were 8? When they first entered school? If you are wanting to get back to the ISE.

Some people will have difficulty recalling, they might say they have always been afraid when actually they havent. And be careful that you dont install anything.

I was re-reading Elman the other day, and I couldnt help but be struck by how much he might have installed instead of elicited. He would say things like, "I know there is something else. You were afraid, was it the ether smell? Was it something someone said?"

Wow, Elman didnt know about 'clean language', and that isnt his fault, it wasnt considered important until long after his death.

hope that helps,

skip

[pinktrance]

thats such a help skip, thanks ever so ! :) :) :)