Saturday, July 26, 2008

Milton Erickson: The Father of Modern Hypnotherapy

When I first began studying hypnosis, I quickly grabbed every book by Milton Erickson I could find. Reading these works was incredibly exciting. His methods and the results he achieved were nothing short of remarkable.

Anyone interested in hypnosis should take a little time and get to know who this man was. Without him, it's my opinion that hypnotherapy wouldn't be anywhere near as readily available (and it certainly wouldn't be as effective) as it is today.

Milton Henry Erickson, MD (1901 - 1980) was a psychiatrist and psychologist regarded by many as the foremost practitioner of medical hypnosis in his time.

He wrote "Hypnotic Realities" and many other books dedicated to the "Art of Hypnosis" and which document the many things he learned while treating the many patients he encountered.

He was a scientist and deeply gifted hypnotist.

He was founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, as well as a fellow of several APAs: The American Psychiatric Association, The American Psychological Association, and The American Psychopathological Association.

He was noted for his often unconventional approach to psychotherapy, such as described in the book “Uncommon Therapy” by Jay Haley; for his extensive use of therapeutic metaphor and story as well as hypnosis; and for coining the term Brief Therapy for his approach of addressing therapeutic changes in relatively few sessions, often only a single session.

Erickson’s work and techniques were 'modeled' by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, the co-founders of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

For a very in-depth look at Erickson, written by Jay Haley while Erickson was still alive, click here.

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