Wherever you are working, there will be occasional distractions and you will have to deal with these without disturbing your client's level of trance.

• As your client has their eyes closed, they may be particularly sensitive to sounds, especially during the early part of the session.

• It is vital that you prepare your client for distractions, and that when they occur; you work with the distraction, incorporating it into the trance.

• Remember that anything that disturbs you is likely to disturb your client.

After you have induced trance and before you begin to deepen the trance you should make suggestions to the client that any distractions during the trance session will not disturb them.

• You can use a general script at this stage and then be prepared to address specific distractions when they arise.

• Also, if some distraction does arise at any time during the trance process, you will need to be able to manipulate these so as not to interfere in the trance depth of the client.

• A general script can be used in any situation and may mention sounds normally heard inside and outside the room, and if they hear any they can just ignore them and go deeper in to trance.

• It is a good idea to have some suggestions prepared for dealing with specific distractions. Common ones to prepare for include:

Talking, singing, shouting, etc.

Doors slamming, furniture being moved, phones etc.

Building works, cars, sirens etc.

• Can you think of any other examples?

Once you have manipulated distractions you can move on to the trance deepening process.

• Common deepening techniques are listed in the lesson on deepening.