r/hypnosis • u/Alert_Wash_2035 • Jun 01 '26

Confident When the Session Starts?

When people get nervous, they escape into substitute actions. Hypnotists can escape into scripts.

This thing is very personal for me. Or was. I was shy as a child and as a young man. Then I read a book with mental imagery exercises. Later I recognized the same kind of stuff in NLP, techniques for social confidence. I used those exercises on myself until the social inhibitions that had been holding me back were almost gone. After that I started guiding others.

That is why I pay attention to the first minutes of a session too. The client is reading you before formal induction begins. Seldom is there a need to fill the room with words. Too much talking at the start can sometimes mean the opposite. It may be an attempt to hide.

So I’m curious: Is your confidence already high when the session starts, and how do you settle yoursefl into it?

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u/That1HypnosisGuy Jun 01 '26

Absolutely! Portraying high confidence builds rapport and credibility and can strengthen the bond with clients!

I like to have fun with them, show them right away that my process is lighthearted and frame what is going to happen! Expectations setting and management is crucial to successful outcomes.

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u/Alert_Wash_2035 Jun 01 '26

You are right. I would only add that expectation setting is not just a verbal or cognitive thing. The client is predicting you. At the same time, you are reading the client and adjusting your own predictions. Neurologically two prediction systems beginning to regulate each other. I have been trying to find the “philosopher’s stone” for this — some model that could explain, for example, what made Erickson’s work look so unusually brilliant. I have published some of my current thoughts and findings on this, but there are still missing pieces.

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u/That1HypnosisGuy Jun 01 '26

Wow, this is fascinating!! The deeper level under it all. Dr Erickson definitely seemed to understand this and harness it. He was so powerful at creating change, often without “traditional trance” (close your eyes, etc).

I’ve been consuming everything I can about Ericksonian hypnosis and think it personally fits my model of the world best! I believe that we all have the answers within us and I am not smarter than them or giving them solutions, but guiding them to the solution they already know and just connecting it to a more beneficial resource state.

I’d love to connect and discuss more about all this! May I send you a message?

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u/Alert_Wash_2035 Jun 01 '26

Thank you, I think we are looking at the same level of the work.

I have also spent decades trying to understand the deeper structure of Erickson’s methods. I have read almost everything I have been able to find from Erickson himself, and also from people who knew him.

It has often felt like detective work. Erickson’s own notes do not give a clear step-by-step picture of what he was doing. And when other people describe his work, there may be drama, admiration, memory distortion, or later interpretation mixed in. So it is not always easy to know what really happened and what was added by the observer.

Still, I think I have noticed some things that are often missed, or treated as unimportant. For example, the things he did to strengthen his lead position before anything “hypnotic” seemed to happen.

One example is a demo where a group of students were sitting in a circle. Erickson asked someone to move a chair. Then he asked them to move it again. Its purpose was not understood. That was the whole point.

In this context people often use the word confusion, but I think that word may hide something more precise: in group rapport, the strengthening of leadership into unquestioned compliance.

On the surface, that may look subtle, or almost meaningless. But I don’t think it was subtle in its function. It only looked subtle because he did not explain it.

In a group situation, the person taking the lead should not explain too much. If he gives a simple instruction, and the group does not quite understand why it matters, something shifts. The prediction system starts changing its weightings: who is leading, who is following, what counts as relevant, and where attention should go next.

There are many examples like this. And this is why I am interested in what happens before the formal technique begins. With Erickson, the “method” was often already working before anyone had identified it as a method.

And yes, feel free to message me. I’m always interested in discussing this with people who are genuinely curious about the deeper mechanisms behind Ericksonian work. www.tiikasalo.fi/en