Milton Erickson Is considered the father of modern hypnotherapy. The model of therapy he created was called Ericksonian Hypnosis , A set of techniques that were of great influence in thousands of therapists.
He was a very clever strategic psychotherapist with a great capacity for observation, which allowed him to create therapeutic and therapeutic techniques and procedures. Hypnotic Very effective.
Erickson, was born on December 5, 1901 in the town of Aurum, Nevada, USA, and died on March 25, 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona. He was a psychiatrist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy.
Erickson revolutionized Western psychotherapy thanks to his unorthodox techniques. His work with hypnosis allowed this technique to stop being seen as a superstition.
It made it a valid and sensitive approach capable of adapting to the needs of the patient. Today hypnosis is recognized as one of the most powerful tools for change. Although it is worth noting that this was not the only contribution that the psychiatrist made to the world of therapy.
Erickson's immediate objective was to alleviate the symptoms and to solve the problems of the people who came to him and to identify the best method of work was based on the personality and the particular conditions of his patients.
Although the physician refused to identify with one of the recognized schools of therapy, he often used methodologies such as cognitive, behavioral and analytical, among others, to carry out his interventions. And of course, he also used hypnosis when he considered its usefulness in the process of accelerating therapy.
Erickson was the first president of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. He was also the founder and editor of the organization's magazine. The psychiatrist had an impressive clinical record, thanks to the large number of cases he was able to successfully treat.
The first challenges of Milton Erickson
Milton Erickson was born into a poor farming community. From an early age he had to face several challenges. He could not speak until he was four years old and later diagnosed with dyslexia , As well as with Tonal deafness Y Colour blindness .
In addition to these problems, when he turned 17 he suffered his first poliomyelitis . It was a very serious infection, so he was not expected to survive. He went into a coma, and when he awoke three days later he was completely paralyzed. He could only move his eyes and could barely speak.
Because Erickson could not know where his legs or arms were in bed, he spent hours trying to locate his limbs. He did so by paying the most attention to the slightest sensation he had, whether in a hand, a foot or even a finger.
This technique made him particularly attentive to the movements, which he tried to amplify in some way. The young man, not being able to do anything else, began to observe in detail the people around him and thus managed to understand the importance of nonverbal and corporal language.
In the next two years, Erickson learned to walk again (aided by the observation of one of his sisters who was just beginning to walk). Thanks to your observations I can also understand how humans communicated and how their mind worked.
The beginning of his career
Despite his limitations, Erickson managed to graduate as a psychologist and physician at the University of Wisconsin. His first contact with hypnosis occurred when he participated in research on suggestibility, performed by Dr. Clark L. Hull . Erickson was fascinated by the practice of hypnotic techniques, so he practiced and studied as much as he could about the method. The following year, he attended a seminar with Hull, where the specialist spent most of his time analyzing his experiences.
However, in spite of having had these experiences and of having discovered somehow the hypnosis of hand of Dr. Hull, later Erickson was one of its critics, since the specialist - driver of the conductismo - it tried to define objective methods of hypnosis ignoring The opinion of the subject.
To Erickson's criticism, they were also joined by personalities such as Carl Rogers Y George Kelly . On the other hand, Erickson also criticized the psychoanalysis Because it attempted to establish universal truths and a standardized therapeutic method.
Following these experiences, Erickson focused on finding a more"naturalistic"way of doing hypnosis. The specialist posed a concept of the unconscious different from that of Freud .
Unlike the father of psychoanalysis, Erickson was more inclined towards modern cognitive conceptions, so he was interested in the unique reality of the individual. However, his frequent work with families made him one of the Systemic and family therapies .
Erickson, creator of a new vision of hypnosis
Erickson was the impeller of a new way of applying therapeutic hypnosis. The specialist did not postulate any explicit theory of personality, because he was convinced that doing so would put limits on psychotherapy. When theories are established, professionals tend to act more rigidly because they try to pigeonhole people.
Its therapeutic action was defined as a novel and different clinical exercise that did not fit with anything that existed until then, that is, psychoanalytic therapy or behavioral therapy. Erickson was not limited to a theoretical model and based his methods of therapy on creativity, novelty, a deep understanding of the other and especially the importance of change.
Thus, Erickson created a new vision of hypnosis. For him, each individual was unique, so psychotherapy instead of seeking to mold the person to fit a theory of human behavior, had to be formulated in a way that would allow us to find the peculiarity of the needs of each individual.
Erickson was a promoter of flexibility, uniqueness and above all individuality. His way of doing therapy was eccentric and even filled with some mystery that few could understand. So much so, it was called from guru and mad genius to a wizard of hypnosis.
Many say that the genius of their work was due to the use of the unconscious resources of each person as a way to creatively face their problems to find the cause and the solution to these.
For the specialist, the important thing was not the technique itself, but the philosophy that was behind the methods and the way of approaching patients.
Erickson varied his intervention with each patient, because it was important for him to underline the originality of each individual. According to their thinking, individuals, being motivated by particular personal needs and idiosyncratic defenses, required original approaches.
Erickson was interested in action and not in theories. That is why his techniques depended on the patient. In other words, they were tailored to the demands of the situation. To best explain their methods, it is best to narrate one of their most known therapeutic processes. This is an example from one of the texts written by the psychotherapist Jay Haley.
"In this case, a woman came to Erickson to tell her that her teenage daughter had been cut off from the world, that she did not leave the house or go to school because she thought her feet were too big.
At that time, the rule dictated that a therapist could only see patients in the consultation, but that did not stop Erickson. The doctor came to the house for two reasons: first because the girl would not go to her office and second because she wanted to see the size of her feet.
Erickson put as an excuse that the mother did not feel well and that as a doctor made a home visit. When he arrived he looked at the girl's feet and they were of normal size. He prepared to examine the mother and asked the daughter to help him by holding some towels just behind him.
In a moment he stepped back and stepped on it as hard as he could. The girl screamed in pain. Erickson turned around and told him in a bad way that if his feet were big enough to see them, he would not have stepped on it. The doctor continued to examine the mother, but the girl was thoughtful. Later, the woman called Erickson to tell her that her daughter had finally asked to leave. He had overcome the problem."
With this story you can clearly see that Erickson's therapeutic strategies were neither orthodox nor traditional, much less something that could be expected from a doctor. Therefore, the only way to classify or understand this therapeutic style is based on the basis that Erickson's method was completely original for his time.
For the specialist the key to solving the conflicts was not in the past, since in his own words, this can not be changed. While it is possible to explain the past, the only thing that can be lived is today, tomorrow or next week and for Erickson that was what counted.
But although this psychiatrist was able to create his own strategy of action from hypnosis, he can not reduce his therapeutic work to this technique. As time went by, Erickson increasingly declined his use and gave prominence to other aspects such as metaphor and imperative language.
However, it can be concluded that for Erickson, hypnosis was mainly a process that included observing the other, understanding his vision of the world and following in his footsteps to be able to use all the available information to help him behave differently. That means that hypnosis was simply a tool for bringing about change in people through interpersonal influence.
Toward the end of his life
As your career progresses, specialists often decide between working on a practical or theoretical approach. Erickson was one of those specialists who ignored theories to become a clinician. He created a new form of therapy that had nothing to do with what already existed, so none of his techniques could be typecast in a protocol. His methods emerged while he knew the problems and these are adapted to each patient.
Throughout his life, Erickson carried out much research on hypnosis, at the same time that he was director of several hospitals in the United States. In addition to applying therapies, he also devoted himself to teaching others how to do hypnosis.
In order not to suffer the consequences of his illness, he was recommended to move to a place where the weather was dry. In 1948 he settled in Phoenix, Arizona, and because he could not move as before, many moved to his new home to continue learning from him.
Unfortunately, after 50 years, Erickson suffered a second attack of polio. But even though this illness had caused him great physical pain, the doctor assured him that this situation had given him the opportunity to learn to alleviate the pain and appreciate the small things of life.
Thanks to his incredible willpower and courage, he was able to transform a situation as difficult as that into an opportunity of learning. In fact, Erickson described some of his approaches to pain management and sensory impairment in his work Hypnotic Alteration of Sensory, Perceptual and Psychological Processes.
From the age of 63, Erickson had to use a wheelchair, but even so, nothing stopped him to continue with his work and to continue enjoying his eight children and his wife Elizabeth. The doctor died at age 78 leaving a great legacy for the world of psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy and pedagogy.