What Is Ericksonian Hypnosis?

Many people are unaware that, in addition to classical hypnosis—where a hypnotherapist authoritatively tells you what to do and feel—there are now other, more modern and effective methods of hypnosis. Ericksonian hypnosis is named after its creator, Milton Erickson (1901–1980), who gained worldwide recognition as a practicing psychotherapist. His approach to altered states of consciousness laid the foundation for both Ericksonian hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Both methods are forms of suggestive psychotherapy that deliver rapid, strategic results.

“Most of our life is determined by the unconscious.”
— Milton Erickson

Milton Erickson was a medical doctor, the founder and first president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, and an adjunct professor at Wayne State University. He also led the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychopathological Association, and was a member of the American Association of Psychiatrists. His name is associated with the founding of the Foundation for Training and Research at the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis.

Milton Erickson’s Personal Story

At age seventeen, Erickson contracted polio. The illness was so severe that doctors feared he would not survive. On the night his illness peaked, Milton experienced what he called an “autohypnotic experience.”

Erickson: “While I was lying in bed that night, I heard three doctors tell my parents in the next room that their boy might be dead by morning. I felt intense anger that someone would say that to a mother. My mother then came in with the most serene face. I asked her to move the dresser to the side of the bed and angle it a certain way. She didn’t understand why, thinking I was delirious. It was hard for me to speak. But at that angle, using the mirror on the dresser, I could see through the doorway to the west window in the other room. I was determined not to die without seeing one more sunset. If I could draw, I could have sketched that sunset.”

Rossi: “Your anger and anticipation of another sunrise—was that your way of keeping yourself alive that critical day, despite the doctors’ predictions? But why do you call it an autohypnotic experience?”

Erickson: “I saw the endless sunset coloring the whole sky. I knew there was a tree outside the window, but I blocked it out.”

Rossi: “You blocked it out? Is that the selective perception that lets you say you were in an altered state of consciousness?”

Erickson: “Yes, I did it unconsciously. I saw the entire sunset, but not the fence or the large boulder that were there. I blocked out everything except the sunset. After seeing it, I lost consciousness for three days. When I finally woke up, I asked my father why they had removed the fence, tree, and boulder. I didn’t realize I had blocked them out by focusing so intensely on the sunset. Later, as I recovered and realized I had lost some abilities, I wondered how I would make a living. I had already published an article in a national agricultural magazine, ‘Why Youth Leave Farms.’ I no longer had the strength to be a farmer, but maybe I could become a doctor.”

Due to polio, Erickson was paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. As a result, he developed his own method to cope with the effects of this severe illness and remained socially active throughout his life. Erickson continued to see patients and teach into old age, and had a large, close-knit family. His personal triumph over illness helped him create a new direction in psychotherapy, based on using hypnotic trance combined with a special hypnotic language. In this approach, suggestions are made gently, bypassing the patient’s conscious mind without force. This hypnotic language is vivid, metaphorical, and multi-layered, allowing words to have different meanings on both conscious and unconscious levels.

Ericksonian hypnosis is characterized by respect for the patient’s wishes—the patient is always given a choice and can accept or ignore suggestions. Working in a trance state greatly enhances the effectiveness of psychotherapy, as it allows direct access to the unconscious mind, bypassing the conscious mind’s control, which can inhibit or block change.

The Nature of Therapeutic Trance in Ericksonian Hypnosis

Erickson’s approach to hypnosis was fundamentally anti-theoretical, individual, and pragmatic. He relied primarily on practical knowledge rather than theory, and never formulated a single theory of hypnosis. Nevertheless, he left many books expressing his views on hypnotic trance.

• Trance as an inwardly directed state: In Ericksonian hypnosis, trance is a state where the subject’s attention turns inward, guided by the hypnotist’s voice. This narrows the focus of attention, making learning in trance more intense.
• Trance as a highly motivated state: The patient’s personal psychodynamics and motivation are used to induce and deepen trance, avoiding standardized approaches and respecting individuality.
• Trance as active unconscious learning: Erickson believed patients’ problems stem from acquired limitations. The goal of trance is to soften these limitations, allowing the patient to access a wide range of unconscious possibilities and learn on an unconscious level.
• Trance as an altered state of consciousness: Trance is neither wakefulness nor sleep. Once this altered state is created, it can be re-induced by symbolic associations (a color, sound, or memory). People who have experienced deep therapeutic trance often report sensations of time distortion or changes in body perception.
• Subjective experience of trance: Everyone experiences trance differently, depending on their personality and life history. A common feature is that things seem to happen “by themselves,” such as spontaneous hand levitation. This highlights the contrast between what we control and what happens unconsciously.

The Unconscious in Ericksonian Hypnosis

Ericksonian hypnosis uses the concepts of “conscious” and “unconscious.” Imagine your mind as two parts: the conscious mind, which analyzes, criticizes, thinks logically, and directs attention; and the unconscious mind, which manages bodily functions, stores all memories, desires, fantasies, and life experiences. The right hemisphere of the brain (for right-handed people) is responsible for creativity, intuition, kinesthetic sensations, and unconscious processes. The unconscious is also where the sources of our problems, fears, and illnesses reside.

Accessing the unconscious through trance allows for rapid and effective resolution of problems and the discovery of new creative solutions. Unlike other forms of psychotherapy, Ericksonian hypnosis focuses on engaging the creative unconscious and unconscious learning in trance. While Freud saw the unconscious mainly as a source of problems, Erickson viewed it as a vast reservoir of resources and potential—health, well-being, achievements, and happiness. Although this reservoir is usually inaccessible in daily life, hypnosis can unlock and activate these resources for personal benefit.

Modern brain research shows that trance balances the activity of the brain’s hemispheres, producing alpha rhythms that have a healing effect on the body and mind. Working with negative experiences in trance allows you to relive situations safely and, with the therapist’s help, find new solutions. The new positive experiences are recorded in the unconscious, restructuring the psyche and leaving problems and illnesses in the past. Hypnosis, therefore, is a way for the therapist to help the patient enter trance, turn attention inward, and activate unconscious mechanisms for problem-solving.

Unconscious Learning and Bypassing Conscious Limitations

According to Erickson, hypnosis facilitates learning and makes openness to change more likely. It is not about a drowsy, suggestible state. In Ericksonian hypnosis, the therapist does not “put patients under,” nor do patients lose self-control or become subject to another’s will. Trance is a natural state everyone has experienced, such as daydreaming, meditation, prayer, or repetitive physical activity (“moving meditation”). In these states, internal sensations are more vivid than external stimuli.

Under hypnosis, patients often intuitively understand the meaning of dreams, symbols, and other unconscious expressions. Suggestions are received less critically, but if they conflict with the patient’s values, they may be partially or wholly rejected. When suggestions are accepted, lasting changes in behavior and relationships occur, as hypnosis awakens unconscious learning abilities. Remembering forgotten skills allows you to integrate them into your behavior, making it more constructive and strengthening your personality. Ericksonian hypnosis leads to stable, self-sustaining internal changes, fostering personal growth and self-acceptance.

Differences Between Classical and Ericksonian Hypnosis

It’s important to understand that classical and Ericksonian hypnosis are not two different types of hypnosis, but two very different approaches. Classical hypnosis uses an authoritarian approach, with the hypnotist employing a “magnetic gaze” and commanding voice, believing in their own special power over others.

Ericksonian hypnosis uses a permissive approach—the subject feels that “everything is allowed.” The hypnotist acts as a guide, helping the subject navigate the hypnotic process, emphasizing a partnership between hypnotist and patient. While traditional hypnosis seeks to implant specific ideas and feelings through direct suggestions, Ericksonian hypnosis aims to unlock and utilize the patient’s existing positive experiences, knowledge, and skills. The main goal is to help you fully use your own resources to achieve your goals.

Suggestions in Ericksonian Hypnosis

Scientists estimate that most people use no more than 10% of their mental potential. Our consciousness is narrow and limited by learned prejudices about our abilities. Education and upbringing have given us skills and knowledge, but also imposed rigid beliefs about what we can and cannot do. Many times, you’ve probably been so absorbed in something that you didn’t notice anything around you—this is a natural trance state. However, if asked to “not hear” or “not feel” something on command, you might not know how, even though you do it unconsciously in certain situations.

Ericksonian hypnosis uses indirect suggestions, allowing people to perform actions they find difficult consciously, but can do unconsciously. These suggestions help patients control and direct reactions usually managed by the unconscious. Erickson developed many unique forms of indirect suggestion to momentarily bypass conscious limitations and access inner potential. A well-trained Ericksonian hypnotherapist is a keen observer, skilled at identifying what holds each patient back, and provides tools for personal growth—the rest is up to the patient.

Using Teaching Stories in Ericksonian Hypnosis

Milton Erickson often skillfully wove teaching stories—personal anecdotes, family stories, and parables—into his trance work. These stories, known as therapeutic metaphors, are a hallmark of Ericksonian hypnosis and greatly enhance its effectiveness. Told in trance, these stories can influence the unconscious and spark lasting positive changes in behavior. Patients often identify with the characters, absorbing the qualities and skills needed to solve their own problems, which then transfer into real life.

For example, in addressing sexual issues like premature ejaculation, if a patient in trance experiences the sensations of a successful sexual encounter, the therapist has added a sense of success and expectation of future success to the patient’s memories.

Here’s a teaching story from Erickson’s book, “My Voice Will Go With You,” called “How to Get from One Room to Another”:

I asked a student, “How do you get from this room to another?”
He replied, “First you stand up. Then you take a step…”
I stopped him and said, “Name all the ways you can get from one room to another.”
He said, “You can run, walk, hop on one foot or two, do a somersault. You can go outside, walk around the building, and enter through another door. If you want, you can climb in through a window…”
I said, “You promised to think big, but you made a serious mistake. When I give this example, I usually say: if I needed to get from this room to that one, I’d go out this door, take a taxi to the airport, fly to Chicago, then to New York, London, Rome, Athens, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Honolulu, Chicago, Dallas, then back to Phoenix, take a limousine home, enter through the backyard, the back door, and into this room. And you only thought about moving forward! You didn’t consider going backward, did you? And you forgot you could crawl.”
The student added, “Or, with a running start, slide on your stomach.”
How much we limit ourselves in our thinking!

Conclusion

Ericksonian hypnosis is a gentle, respectful, and highly effective approach to psychotherapy. By working with the unconscious mind and using indirect suggestions and therapeutic stories, it helps people unlock their inner resources, overcome limitations, and achieve lasting positive change.