Hypnosis For Kids - Process Suggestions

Process Hypnotic Suggestions

In contrast to the detailed content suggestions, process suggestions are quite sparse on detail, leaving the person free to attend to whatever details he or she has associated to the suggested experience.

Process suggestions give people the opportunity to use their own experience and details in the process, and therefore make what seems at first glance to be too general to be effective become a highly individualized approach.

The following are examples of process suggestions:

You can have a particular memory from childhood, one that you haven't thought about in a long, long time.

You might notice a certain pleasant sensation in your body as you sit there comfortably.

You may become aware of a specific sound in the room.

Can you remember that special time when you felt so good about yourself?

None of the above suggestions specifies anything - they do not say which memory, sensation, sound, or event. The listener chooses that aspect of the experience.

Notice, though, that the use of qualifiers such as "particular", "certain", "specific", and "special" can be employed to have the client sift all of his or her experience down to one to focus on. Which one the person chooses is a product of the interaction between conscious and unconscious choices.

ref. Erickson & Rossi