December 2015
The Dance of Focus
and Relaxation in Hypnosis by Dr Elizabeth McCardell, M. Couns., PhD
I remember, years ago, studying qi gong and being taken by the rhythm of
yin and yang. In this Chinese practice, each strong movement is followed by a
gentle one and every movement comes from a state of relaxation and focus, with
a strong sense of balance and harmony and a centre point felt within. I realized that this pattern was very
powerful and set about employing in everything I do. It is there in my
counselling and it is there in my clinical hypnotherapy work. As a conscious
practice, I discovered that I don’t get tired when working with someone. Enter the dance of challenge, support,
challenge, support and it flows.
What comes to mind right now is that wonderful scene in the film
“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” where fighting goes on in a field of swaying
bamboo. Each action is followed by an allowing, a swaying, a challenge, a
swaying, challenge and a block, and a swaying; it’s hypnotic and very
beautiful.
The rhythm of relaxation and focus
is similar to what occurs in exercises of mindfulness. This is very relevant
for clinical hypnotherapy, as certain mindfulness techniques are employed in
hypnosis. Mindfulness might be identified as putting a focus on what’s
happening right now. After all, when
you’re in the moment you’re not ruminating about the past, not in the future, not caught
up in memories, nor thinking about other things, judging anything, or making decisions about
anything. You are noticing what
you’ve overlooked before and in bringing such awareness to mind, you are
reprogramming yourself, or even repriming yourself, to noticing things
(solutions, delights, insights) that you had previously been unconscious of.
Mindfulness is a tool, but so is hypnosis. You can use mindfulness in
meditational practices and your purpose there might be enlightenment. Using
mindfulness in hypnosis (and counselling, for that matter), however, and the
purpose is much more ordinary. You are doing it to dispel problem thinking.
This is a solution focused exercise.
Fundamental to both mindfulness for meditation and mindfulness for
therapy is that it provides a means of dissociating oneself from everything
extraneous to what is brought to one’s attention by your own choice and guided
suggestions of the hypnotherapist; suggestions which I invite you to ignore, if
you wish. The process of offering choice is critical for a person to feel they
are not being manipulated (and I’m certainly uninterested in manipulating
anybody) and for them to choose which course of action sits best with them.
Choices made like this are most enduring and likely to be employed later on in
ordinary life.
Dissociation is a very useful, and very human, ability. It allows us to
focus on whatever we are choosing to do, like, say, sewing a piece of tapestry
and ignoring the lawn mowing going on next door. Focus is a tool of awareness. If we lack focus it is hard to
do, or change anything. The act of being mindful narrows down what we are
experiencing and thus allows us to identify what is important to us and gives
us the skills to go for it.
Hypnosis is a relaxed and yet focussed state. I invariably tell my
clients this at the start of a hypnosis session. I often tie this observation
to the very act and awareness of
breathing: an inhalation is an inspiration and an exhalation naturally an act
of letting go and feeling the wonderful spread of a deeply relaxed state. When
we are inspired we can achieve
much, when we let go of the
problems that we used to have, we
can allow ourselves to feel nourished and supported. Both become a dance of yin
and yang and a dance that sustains us throughout life.
