As hypnosis trainers, we always aim to turn our students into GREAT hypnotists. And most of the time, we succeed.
From our understanding, a truly GREAT hypnotist has been trained to have flexibility in his work, and not to rely on reading hypnosis scripts. That’s why we teach principles, not rules. Our goal isn’t for you to mechanically repeat what you saw us do in class. Instead, we want you to understand WHY and HOW these techniques work.
That was the essence of our friend and colleague Scott Sandland’s guest training, recently held for our online hypnosis students, in the Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy.
Here's a Youtube video where we discuss his presentation.
The Hypnosis Learning Curve
Scott describes a hypnotist’s journey towards excellence in terms of stages. First, there is the stage where people can only work with a script in hand (that’s not a good place to be stuck). Then after some time, they’ll develop some limited flexibility, and look for outlined protocols instead.
Lastly, after becoming so confident in their abilities to readily assess what the situation requires, they’ll be able to go into a session with no plan in place, and still come out successful. That’s where we want to take you.
We emphasize that there is no problem with using scripts or outlined protocols when you’re just starting. But we warn you to not become dependent on them. Watch yourself. Do not allow these training wheels to become a hindrance to your learning curve. Use them if you need to, and drop them as soon as you can.
Always observe the patterns the scripts have in common and replicate them in your own words, and in your own way. With repetition, these principles will eventually become second nature. That’s when you’ll realize you’ve become the GREAT hypnotist you aimed to be.
It’s worth noting you don’t necessarily have to go through all these steps. At MMHA, we don’t offer scripts at all. Should you decide to study with us, you’ll learn Ericksonian language patterns upfront, to ensure you have a hypnotic language generator in place, before moving on to direct style hypnosis.
The goal, as we said before, is to make you a master of both hypnosis styles, so you’ll understand the principles and gain flexibility. To get you acquainted with these terms, we have written a few other blog posts you should definitely read.
Always Be Learning
Being a great hypnotist doesn’t mean you should shut your eyes and ears to more knowledge. Mike and Chris, who have been doing and teaching hypnosis for decades, are still learning every day. Our community of hypnosis students is filled with awesome professionals from all walks of life, and they all have something to add to their peers’ knowledge base, and to ours as well.
Remember: Hypnosis is a neverending discovery.
What’s Next?
We train professional therapists, and everyday people, to become confident, skilled hypnotists, while having a total blast learning. Come join us at the Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy. It’s super easy to get started with our free trial. It’s an awesome community, with world class training and we never charge extra for certification.