Direct Suggestion Hypnotherapy is associated with authoritarian techniques, which tend to employ direct suggestions, or explicit instructions with which the subject must comply.

• They make use of hypnosis ritual, and of the expectation of success.

• Stage hypnotists use direct suggestion techniques in their performances.

• Historically, hypnosis on subjects/patients was experimental and in some instances a last attempt to try and change the patient's disturbed behaviour. Also, many of these patients were in psychiatric hospitals and did not voluntarily seek hypnosis as a means of treatment. So they tended to be resistant in many cases. The hypnotist would have to display an authoritarian and powerful voice when dealing with these patients.

• Nowadays, direct suggestion and authoritarian approaches can be deployed if they are deemed necessary to help the patient/client enter trance, or if it forms part of the hypnotherapeutic intervention.

• Deep trance direct suggestion approaches are still very effective in treating smokers and other habitual conditioned response behavioural conditions.

The skill for the practitioner is to be able to mix all of the approaches to deliver the best solution for the patient/client. Throughout a course of client treatment over one to three, or more sessions, the skilled practitioner may need to integrate and deploy all of the different approaches in some way for the individual patient/client.

Do not reject direct approaches, they are very effective, even more so when combined with other approaches.

Note: The terms patient, client and/or subject may be referred to in the ICCHP training courses. Most practitioners refer to their clients, but some practitioners treating clinical based conditions like pain, symptoms of illness, etc. may prefer to refer to their patients. The term subject is usually used in experimental/research settings and is a more old fashioned direct authoritarian type stage hypnotist used term (it is rarely used in modern ethical practice).Throughout the ICCHP course content these terms may be used interchangably.