Most likely you have heard about hypnosis and what it has done for people to help them lose weight or stop smoking. You may even have a friend or family member who went to therapy and experienced hypnosis in some way. You might not have heard about conversational hypnosis and what it does for you in building rapport with people.

According to Milton Erickson a psychotherapist who used hypnotherapy with his patients, we all go into a natural state of hypnosis all the time. We do this whenever we are sitting alone for a short time or when we are doing something that we enjoy. He did not feel that hypnosis was something that had to be induced in an individual but it was something that happened naturally.

Erickson’s Manipulation Techniques

Erickson believed that conversational hypnosis was created by the following actions:

Rapport

Central to the set up of conversational hypnosis was to build a rapport with an individual. Rapport builds trust quickly. The quickest way to do this is to agree with whatever the individual is saying. As an example, if you are sitting with someone and they say, “You know, today is a really bad day.” You would agree that today is a really bad day.

Confusion

In this step the individual would confuse the person with what they were thinking. Using our example, you might say, “But even though it’s a bad day, do you think it can possibly get better?” This confuses the individual’s focus for a moment and insures that they are going to think about this difference you have thrown in. This step is used to get the person to think about something more positive or more negative so they will see how silly what they were thinking is and do something to change it.

Suggestion

The last step in this process is to give the individual something more to think about. As an example, you might say in our example, “You’re feeling like the day can go better, aren’t you?” This means that the person has come through whatever the problem was and now they are able to move forward.

Although these steps are confusing they can be used to move someone away from one viewpoint and into another. This means that it can be used for good or for not so good things.

Practical Uses of Conversational Hypnosis

There are many places where conversational hypnosis can help if you understand the techniques. Sales people could produce more sales if they understood how to manipulate an individual into a sale. Managers can use this technique to get more out of their employees. We’ve always heard it was easier to get people to do what you want if you are nicer to them and this method will work with them to get them moving in the direction you want them to go.

Thinking about this technique really makes you wonder what Obi Wan Kenobi really knew in Star Wars when he used “The Force” to manipulate the guards in the city, doesn’t it?

Related posts:

1. Changing People’s Minds – Including Your Own – With Conversational Hypnosis
2. Conversational Hypnosis