Re: hypnosis

Dear Udo,

You wondered about the connection between hypnosis and EMDR. As I see it,
there's a huge difference, but there are also some similarities.

It all depends on how one defines hypnosis. The broader its
conceptualisation, the more similarities will be found. I like to define
hypnosis as attention turned inward, which is a very broad definition. This
makes nearly every therapy or exercise where the client is asked to stand
still and explore what is happening inside, a hypnotic experience. Hypnosis
becomes hypnotherapy when that attention turned inward is used to alleviate
problems by using all sorts of suggestions, direct or indirect, to achieve a
therapeutic goal.
In EMDR there's a delicate balance between attention turned inward
(accessing the past experience in all its modalities) and attention turned
outward (the bilateral stimulation). This is a totally different situation.
Instead of the "mono-ideism" (the fixating of the attention on one point
(Braid)), the client is 'forced' to keep a connection with the outside
world. Some believe it's precisely this dual attention that might be the
working ingredient of EMDR.

Another big difference is that while processing in EMDR the therapist keeps
'out of the way'. He allows the clients associations to unfold and believes
that by using the protocol, the client will follow his or her own unique
way to health using the bilateral stimulation to mobilize the self-healing
mechanisms that were apparently blocked by the trauma. In hypnosis however
it's usually the therapist who leads the client to where he (or the both of
them) believe the solution can be found. There's a lot of guidance by the
therapist, even when the unconscious mind is accessed, whether this is done
in a direct or indirect way. Even the most permissive, indirect forms of
hypnosis à la Erickson originate a great deal from the therapist.

I would say that EMDR uses a lot of elements from different therapies, and
making use of attention turned inward is one of them, but it's not the whole
picture.

With best regards,

Ludwig Cornil

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