The Two Lies of Hypnotherapy

by Tim Brunson, PhD

Many hypnotherapists and others who claim to include hypnotherapy in their range of talents regularly unknowingly mislead their patients and subjects. Today I want to focus on a couple misstatements that have come to be part of our clinical tradition despite being disproven a very long time ago.

During my initial hypnotherapy training I was instructed to tell new clients two important "facts." The first one was that a person absolutely cannot be hypnotized against his or her will. Secondly, a person cannot be influenced by a hypnotic suggestion to do something that is against their morals or values. Indeed, these comments are echoed in just about every hypnotist's pre-talk, by prestigious authors, who are published by mainstream New York book companies, and in hypnotherapy schools and courses, which are recognized by international associations. Early in my career I repeated these rules countless times to people who trusted my expertise and education. Yet, since I first heard them in an Atlanta workshop over two decades ago, I have completed numerous courses – all of which have been sanctioned by one or more of the same organizations just mentioned – in which I was taught numerous ways to create hypnotic effects and get people to unwittingly comply with my instructions totally without their knowledge or prior consent.

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