Hypnosis Book Reviews...

Scripts and Strategies in Hypnotherapy, Volume II
by Roger Allen

After much cajoling on behalf of friends, therapists and from his publisher, Roger Allen has at last come up with the eagerly awaited follow-up volume to the successful ‘Scripts and Strategies in Hypnotherapy'. As was the case with the first volume, it is made abundantly clear from the outset that this is not a “how to” book, rather a collection of scripts that Mr Allen has found to be effective within his own practice; those that he either created himself or has borrowed from other therapists. The style of the scripts will appeal to all types of therapist and patient alike, ranging from the spiritual and metaphorical to more direct approaches.

The book commences with a few pleasant inductions, including one for those people who find the very task of delivering a confusion induction confusing: the Overload Induction, before moving on to its main emphasis of therapeutic interventions. The therapy scripts begin with those that can be applied within the realms of habit control and are introduced with a short, though interesting, discussion highlighting the differences between what could be considered a habit and what could be considered instinct, prior to providing some basic information about anchoring. This is a useful aside as many of the scripts presented throughout this volume use a combination of formal hypnosis and anchoring techniques.

The Generic Script for Habit Control is a gentle yet authoritarian approach designed to be adapted and used with a wide range of unwanted habits and behaviours. This is followed by a short, yet effective script that can be incorporated at the beginning of such interventions, utilising the feeling of guilt on behalf of the patient in order to reinforce the post-hypnotic suggestions that are to follow.

After discussing anxiety states, the scripts that follow are designed to be used with the many permutations of presenting symptoms that fall under this heading, including an interesting paradoxical approach to working with panic disorders, and a metaphor for working with premature ejaculation.

As many of our patients have a belief, religious or otherwise, in reincarnation, Past Life Regression has not been omitted from discussion or from the scripts. Valuable advice for anyone undertaking this approach is given before presenting a lengthy script that takes the patient through the past life experience and, importantly, it includes suggestions that cover the sometimes neglected area of what to do when a current life experience inhibits access to the past life. This is a comprehensive script ensuring the safety and comfort of the patient throughout, thus allowing the therapist to work with the death experience and beyond. The “beyond” is further explored in the script that follows as it is designed to work with and heal inter-life experiences: i.e. those experiences that occur between lives.

For those novice therapists who would like a lesson in combining various approaches within a single session then I would recommend reading the Script for Tension and Stress as this incorporates a progressive relaxation induction/deepener, ego boosting, creative visualisation and direct suggestion to great effect.

It is encouraging to see that Mr. Allen has included a selection of scripts that can be incorporated into the therapeutic process involved in the treatment of trauma based and intractable symptoms. Of course these scripts are only to be used by those therapists with the appropriate training and experience. They do not represent a one-session intervention and contraindications to treatment need to be adhered to.

The script for use with sexual assault covers all bases, utilising approaches that include event deconstruction whilst altering event submodalities, anger expression, forgiveness, desensitisation, ego boosting and reframing. This is followed by a very gentle script for use with those seriously ill or terminal care patients experiencing pain and discomfort for those therapists who work within the realms of palliative care.

Depression is not ignored. The script for use with the professionally diagnosed depressed patient is again a lesson in combining various approaches within one script, using relapse prediction, refocussing awareness from past to present events, suggestions for living in the here-and-now, whilst emphasising movement from negative to positive self-affirmation.

Recognising that smokers are the bread and butter for many a therapist' practice, the book concludes with a section dealing with a one-session intervention. Mr. Allen discusses in detail a variety of issues ranging from the importance of client education through to structuring the therapy session and beyond. Every aspect of the stop smoking therapy session from case history and induction, through to post-session advice is covered, including a very useful smoking questionnaire for use by the reader with their own patients. Other areas highlighted by the author encompass the effects experienced by the patient after their first cigarette, including the biological and psychological reasoning that lead those effects.

Those who remember the Diamond Stop Smoking script from the first volume will recall that due to its emphasis on aversion a strong stomach was required when it was used. Aversion is once again a theme of Mr. Allen's approach, but this time applied during the pre-trance period of patient education. The Stop Smoking script itself is much more gentle, less reliant on aversion whilst focussing on reframing and direct suggestion for cessation.

Smoking cessation provides an impressive culmination to a very worthwhile book. In fact this whole section feels like a book within a book, one that provides a sound and comprehensive approach to stop smoking therapy. The only subject area omitted is that dealing with the patient who relapses. Perhaps this will be covered in volume III?

Despite the fact that some of the more popular scripts have been reprinted from the first volume, this does not detract from the wealth of new material to be found within the pages of the current one and, hard as I tried, I found very little to criticise. My main areas of conflict centred around my personal style of therapy versus that of Mr. Allen, but as he repeatedly points out, the scripts are to be adapted to both the therapist and the patient,s style and reality. Obviously the scope of this review has only allowed me to focus on some of the many fine scripts that can be found within the pages of this book; essentially those that appealed to myself as both a reviewer and a therapist. ‘Scripts and Strategies in Hypnotherapy ,volume II', contains something for everyone and, like its predecessor, can be fully appreciated and used by both novice and experienced therapists alike. All in all, Roger Allen has contributed another excellent source of scripts and script ideas that sits comfortably with the first volume and consequently should find a place on every hypnotherapist's book shelf.

Reviewed by : Peter Mabbutt D.Hyp. (Dist.), FBSCH