Ericksonian psychotherapy is a practical process of providing tailored, dramatic, real-life experiences that activate responsiveness and dormant resources in patients. The therapist creates situations whereby patients, to their own credit, realize hidden strengths and bring them to the foreground to solve the problems that brought them to therapy. For example, depressed patients are not instructed in ways to alter their mood, thinking, and behavior; rather, they are helped to access ways they already know of doing so.
In Ericksonian therapy, patients are viewed as complete human beings who have temporarily lost access to their resources; customarily, they are not viewed in terms of their pathology. For this reason, diagnosis and history taking are deemphasized. Assessment is instead focused on styles of communication (e.g., verbal and nonverbal patterns); values of clients and strengths in their social systems are emphasized, particularly as they influence setting and meeting therapeutic goals and overcoming resistance to change.
The practice of Ericksonian therapy is tailored to each patient's unique situation. There are, however, favored methods of accessing client's responsiveness and resources. These include hypnosis, indirect suggestion, symptom prescription, and concrete tasks. Techniques from hypnosis may be applied naturalistically (i.e., without the initiation of formal trance). Such indirect methods are used to enhance responsiveness to social influence.
Social influence processes used by the therapist include reframing, creating metaphors, using paradox, telling anecdotes and stories, and experimenting in and out of session. The therapist may set up situations in which others can have a positive social influence on the patient (e.g., getting the patient involved in community volunteer work with positive role models). Bibliotherapy, puzzles, riddles, and symbolic assignments are used as well.
While Ericksonian therapy is a form of therapy in itself, techniques derived from the approach can be incorporated into other models of treatment and across patient populations to enhance treatment effectiveness.
Dr. Zeig identifies his approach as "Ericksonian hypnotherapy." What does this imply to you? More specifically, what do you expect of him? Will Dr. Zeig be active or passive? Will the session be structured or unstructured? Directive or nondirective? Will it focus on the past or on the present? Will the session focus on behaviors, on thoughts, or on feelings? What do you expect to be the relative balance between attention to technique versus the interpersonal interaction?
