When Enough Is Sufficient

© H.Lesser
First published in AQCH Hypnotherapy Journal (issue 26 / Feb 1998)

A patient came for treatment. He told me how well read he was on the subject of hypnosis, and how many other hypnotherapists he had consulted, none of whom had been able to help him.

As he explained his previous treatment experiences to me, it became evident why it had been unsuccessful. This was due wholly to conscious interference. He said that he felt he would need to be more relaxed in order to be responding properly.

I told him that I could use all the best and most innovative techniques in the world (if I knew them!). I could spend several hours doing nothing but enabling him to relax more and more, but that the whole lot would be an utter waste of time. I don’t think he – or any other person – could reproduce the expression he had on his face to that comment. I continued by explaining the differences between the conscious and subconscious, how the subconscious works and how, therefore, a reaction/problem can be corrected.

He was amazed that, throughout all the many books on the subject he had read, and all the previous therapists he had consulted, the one thing that was repeated and agreed upon time and again was that depth of relaxation was all-important – when this clearly was not the case.

What truly astounded him though