Combining the power of hypnosis and the wisdom of philosophy

While the discipline and practice of philosophy are important elements in my work, my sessions are not discussions about the great philosophers like Plato, Aristotle or Nietzsche, unless that’s what you want! The underlying themes and approaches of philosophical reasoning may not even be named in discussions, but their goals are universal: better self-understanding and mental clarity that break through mental barriers, bad habits, negative thinking and all barricades that hold us back. The result of this process is greater personal freedom and self-overcoming. It may be fairly said that this is a description of your authentic self.

Philosophical counseling  merges with philosophical hypnotherapy.  There is a natural boundary of sorts between the conscious and subconscious minds, but they can clash and can become complex. What happens when inadequately analyzed belief conflicts with positive change? The philosophical enterprise of resolving and dissolving confusion is highly complementary with hypnotherapy. Pragmatism and analytic philosophy, as well as other philosophical disciplines, help work through intellectual and philosophical confusion. Greater conceptual clarity is then reinforced during the hypnotic session, in which philosophic and hypnotic technique merge.

Hypnosis is itself a very Tao-like process. Taoism provides a nearly perfect metaphor for hypnosis. Hypnosis is a sort of non-doing that contains the germ of great change and self-realization. Hypnosis is sometimes described as “allowing oneself to go with the flow.” It is a nearly perfect description of living in the Tao! But, of course, there are many philosophical traditions and practices, and by my remark about Taoism we get to what is perhaps my most basic principle of philosophy. During the course of writing for my book, Ethical Empowerment: Virtue Beyond the Paradigms, I developed a term called “plural perspectivism.” In a nutshell, the term combines the term ‘perspectivism’ that emphasizes the uniqueness of one’s own truth or perspective, with ‘pluralism’ that respects or least tolerates a universe of perspectives. Plural perspectivism eagerly invites the examination of a multitude of perspectives that, actually, facilitates consensus and reconciliation because each perspective may be entertained without dogma or rigid ideology. In the technique of “reframing,” pioneered by the great psychiatrist and hypnotherapist Milton Erickson, hypnotherapy has its own version of perspectivism. Erickson would talk to his patients and put things in a different frame of reference with remarkable skill and success. Probably the simplest and most common example of this is “Is the glass half full or half empty?” It’s pretty simple, but the outcome of the perspective can make a world of difference. So, back to Taoism: it is only one type or philosophical perspective, and in my hypnotherapy and philosophical counseling practice we use reframing or find philosophic perspectives when appropriate.