When you first see a client there are a number of things you need to do before you treat them.

• You may have had a conversation with them on the telephone when they made the appointment with you or maybe you have no information or idea what they want to see you about.

• Some clients may tell you on the phone that they want to see you for a particular issue, however, when they see you face to face they may tell you something totally different.

• Some clients may not be able to be hypnotised because of a contraindication, or you may need to understand specific issues a client has, so that you can determine if a particular induction, deepening or therapeutic intervention needs to be avoided or altered in order to compensate for any potential contraindication or safety issue identified.

• You will need to explain hypnosis and how you work with the client.

• You will need to understand and discuss their goals for therapy and assess their reality of achieving these goals.

From your initial contact, whether it starts on the phone or in the clinic your goal will be to establish rapport and maintain rapport with the client through out your therapeutic relationship with them.

• Any lack of rapport will prevent success with the therapy.

• The more information you can gather about your client and their problem, the more likely you are to be able to identify the required resources to use in the therapeutic intervention.

• All clients are different.

• You may see two separate clients for say nail biting, but treat them differently.

• The techniques and therapeutic intervention you choose to use with a client must be tailored specifically to the client and their needs.

• Students of hypnotherapy often find it difficult to understand why standard treatment approaches are not assigned to specific problems.

They want to be able to know what to use for each symptom presented.

Unfortunately, hypnotherapy is not a prescriptive practice like it is with a medical doctor, where you go to the doctor for a certain problem and they give you medicine to treat that problem.

• In hypnotherapy you will need to understand the processes and methods, learn the techniques available and then evaluate the client sat in front of you and decide how best to approach helping that individual client.

• This is why hypnotherapists who only use a single or few approaches can be limited in their ability to treat some clients.

When you are ready to begin with the client you will start by gathering information from the client. So what sort of information do you need to gather from the client?

Here is some of the basic information you will need to know:

Personal Details

• Name

• Address

• Telephone

• Date of Birth or Age

• Marital status

• Occupation

• Doctor’s name and address

• Leisure interests

• Other notes

Case Details

Description of the problem

• History and medication

• Client’s expectations for the experience and results of therapy

• Resources required

• Therapy required

• Additional information will be needed specific to the presenting problem or symptom.

(In subsequent modules when you learn about specific symptoms and conditions you will also learn what additional information is needed for those specific conditions.)

• This information is gathered on the first session.

• Once you have gathered the information and explained hypnosis and how you will be working with your client, and the client is happy to continue and has had all of their questions answered, you can begin to prepare the client for the hypnotic induction.

Hypnotising the Patient

Before you can hypnotise the client you will need to make sure that they understand what you will be doing and have all of their questions about hypnosis answered.

• You will want to make sure that there are no issues that might prevent them from going in to trance.

• There are a number of hypnotic inductions and deepening listed in later lessons for you to explore. You will use these to direct your client in to trance.

• Once the client is in trance you can then deliver the therapeutic intervention (therapy), that will help the client to overcome their issue.

• Once the therapy has been delivered you will awaken the client in a safe manner and then discuss homework with the client.

After the First Session

In subsequent sessions your initial discussions with the client will be on getting feedback as to how they progressed with their homework and if they have made any progress with their treatment.

You will then proceed with the induction, deepening and therapeutic intervention as before, again finishing with a safe awakening and homework discussion.