We already have all the resources...

• Welcome to a Dialogue on Ericksonian Therapy with Jeffrey Zeig by John Grohol, 8/15/97
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    • We already have all the resources ... by Andrew Bradbury, 7/30/98
      
      

Dear Oscar

What an interesting twist on the rationale behind Ericksonian therapy (i.e. as practised by Dr Milton Erickson himself).

Where you are suggesting that the client first learn self-worth in order to become their own (internal) physician, it occurs to me that Dr Erickson may have preferred the notion that we already have all the necessary resources to become our own physician and to learn how to foster self-respect (the nurse with "the huge fanny", the very obese young woman instructed to read the National Geographic magazines, etc.).

Dr Erickson developed his own version of 'brief therapy' (which did not necessarily involve any trance work at all, and I just wonder how long therapy might take for some clients if they have to learn to love themselves before they can be fully 'theraped'.

I also note that you suggest that the therapist should "give" the client the tools they need. From the previous comments I think it follows that Dr Erickson more probably believed that therapy is more a question of helping the client to learn the optimum use of *the tools they already have* . A bit like the distinction between education as a process of "pouring in" or of "drawing out", don't you think?

• Certainly correct by Stephen Lankton, 8/4/98