Direct Suggestions
Probably the simplest model of hypnotherapy. Common in its use and preferred practical method in self-hypnosis.
Direct self-suggestion gained notoriety with the dissemination of Émile Coué's method: “Every day, in every way, I improve more and more”.
This is the backbone of hypnosis, whatever it may be. Understanding verbal or non-verbal suggestion is the beginning of all hypnotic mechanics, whether generated by internal attributes (e.g.: reading, good memories) or external (e.g.: hypnotic ray of light, moonlight, etc.).
Strengths: Simplicity. Ease of application and adaptation.
Weaknesses: The absence of a therapeutic protocol makes it a strictly technical approach. It is easily confused with similar but distinct approaches, such as positive affirmations or any other type. It does not utilize the optimized mental state obtained by hypnotic anatomy, which induces, deepens and improves the absorption of suggestions.
Proponents: Émile Coué
Classical Hypnotherapy
Classical hypnotherapy defined the initial hypnotic procedures for transmitting health and well-being through hypnosis. Gaze fixation (pendulum, apple), progressive relaxation, direct suggestions, use of mentalization (imagination) to achieve results, mental work of belief and disbelief in problems and solutions, use of hypnosis for local and complete physical anesthesia, use of amnesia to obtain faster and more effective results are some of the procedures inherited from the classical model.
The way history has developed, what is considered classical can easily be qualified simply as pure hypnosis: an understanding of hypnosis as a conventional therapeutic state and practice without further creative attributions from specific authors regarding its application.
Strengths: Emphasis on the relevance of hypnotic depth. Therapeutic objectivity.
Weaknesses: The absence of a therapeutic protocol makes it a strictly technical approach. It limits its applications to a small spectrum of situations and therapeutic strategies, such as the requirement of a "deep" trance recognized at a physical level, its respective tests (Charcot) and verbal repetitions (Bernheim).
Proponents: Jean-Martin Charcot, Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault, Hippolyte Bernheim
Kappasinian Hypnotherapy
Formal system of using hypnosis. It removed hypnosis from the limitations and academic view of psychology and medicine on therapy.
John G. Kappas created his hypnotherapy system through inheritances from his experience as a professional in stage hypnosis. He discovered early on that all people could be hypnotized, however, that each one should follow a unique protocol, appropriate to their own reality; Here, Physical and Emotional Suggestibility and Sexuality were created.
The Kappasinian hypnotherapy system is a complete therapeutic approach that includes a graphology study to profile each individual, analysis of the sexuality and physical and emotional suggestibility of the hypnotized person. The Kappasinian hypnotic system understands lifestyle, habits, learning model, proprioception as naturally hypnotic items and advocates the application of the use of space, tone of voice, volume and intensity of use of words to obtain precise and effective results in psychotherapy.
Strengths:Defines hypnosis as a therapy and profession. Systematized protocol for care, therapy, diagnosis, prognosis, sophistication of therapeutic techniques, clarification of the relevance of the application of all other approaches at a technical and phenomenological level. Distinguishes physical phenomenology from emotional and intellectual phenomenology and governs the understanding of sleepwalking as a phenomenon that is not exclusively physical. The only hypnotic approach that, in addition to creating and determining, transcends individual hypnotic therapy itself and expands it to the conjugal and family environment. Kappasinian hypnosis clearly corrects the secular error of representing hypnosis as something irreverent or exclusive to academia, while at the same time establishing it in the scientific environment as a behavioral science, which does not make it distant, much less incomprehensible in the cultural exchange, which is nothing new, of behavioral therapies, cognitive behavioral therapies carried out by various researchers.
Weaknesses: None.
Proponents: John Kappas
Ericksonian Hypnotherapy
Informal system of using hypnosis. It combines the academic understanding of psychology and medicine with hypnosis.
Milton H. Erickson: master of indirect hypnosis and improvisation of circumstances. Also known as Dr. Hypnosis. Erickson is, without a doubt, one of the most talked about names in the history of hypnosis.
Ericksonian hypnotherapy has its own system of language patterns, specific protocols for use in cases of resistance from the hypnotized person, non-verbal hypnotic inductions, a particular indirect approach to the subconscious, metaphorical use of stories, tales and mental confusion.
Erickson's hypnotic philosophy was greatly strengthened by the fact that he contracted polio at the age of 17. Erickson suffered from chronic pain throughout his life and with his own hypnotic methodology he learned to control the discomfort caused by pain and also to live with the difficulties it provoked.
Strengths: Incredible technical applicability. Deconstructs the trance and highlights hypnosis as a daily spontaneous phenomenon capable of conversational, indirect use, and not exclusively technical, as occurs with other approaches. Recognizes and uses human emotional spontaneity perfectly as an unrestricted space for interventions of a hypnotic and naturalistic nature.
Weaknesses: The absence of a therapeutic protocol makes it a strictly technical approach, although easily applicable, extremely notorious and naturalistic; which in turn compromises therapeutic efficacy.
Proponents: Milton H. Erickson, Ernest Rossi
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
Created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, neuro-linguistic programming inherited much of its practical use from professionals who had the highest success rate in their psychotherapeutic practices in the 1970s. Milton H. Erickson, Virginia Satir and Gregory Bateson are some of these professionals and are generally listed in any and all literature on neuro-linguistic programming.
NLP makes a very peculiar and synergistic use of several concepts, among which we can mention: language pattern systems, representational systems (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory) and submodalities of these systems (whether these are pre-defined, created or recognized during interventions), timeline and its different interpretations, long-term goals, behavioral strategies and, above all, modeling of people and effective methods, known as modeling of excellence. This last field is well explored by Robert Dilts.
Strengths: Incredible effectiveness. Rich system of subjective interpersonal analysis.
Weaknesses: The absence of a therapeutic protocol makes it a strictly technical approach.
Proponents: Richard Bandler, John Grinder, Robert Dilts
Regressionist Hypnotherapy
Influenced by the Freudian psychoanalytic therapeutic school, its main objective is to regress the hypnotized person to the cause of the problem in order to solve it. Revival, remembrance or awareness are the same terms for the method that in its essence recognizes the interdependence of the past to change the present.
Although this is a very old school, it is the preferred therapeutic modality of many professionals around the world, in addition to being one of the most recognized by the public, as it has been popularly associated with modern hypnosis since very early on.
Strengths: Rawness and therapeutic intensity.
Weaknesses: Weak technical protocol. Efficacy restricted to a low percentage of therapeutic cases. Its use can cause emotional and physical damage.
Proponents: Dave Elman, Luiz Carlos Crozera