Chapter 15 Counseling Approaches I Find Most Useful There are so many powerful approaches that work quickly. In this chapter I shall discuss the approaches I find most useful. This does not mean that I never use other approaches but these are the approaches I use most often. Ericksonian Hypnosis Hypnosis is not a cure-all. It will not solve all the world’s problems, but it is an effective tool to assist you and others in resolving many of the issues that you face. I find it especially useful in assisting with problems that are unconsciously based; problems that are not conscious choices. People do not choose to have phobias, panic attacks, anxiety, depression or chronic pain. These are the types of issues where, I find, hypnosis works most effectively. Hypnosis also works quickly in resolving the problem. I seldom see a person more than four sessions. An effective therapist has as many tools in her tool chest as possible. If she can only use one theory or one technique, she will be ineffective many times. Hypnosis is one of many tools that I use. I highly recommend that you add this tool to your set of skills. There are a number of phenomena that can occur when one is in trance. I shall briefly discuss the ones that I find most useful. According to Zeig (2001, p. 21) there are two aspects to dissociation. One aspect is being “part of and apart from” an experience. The second aspect is the sensation of automaticity, where an experience “just happens”. I use dissociation with clients suffering from anxiety, depression, phobias, panic attacks and chronic pain. An example might be that I suggest to the individual suffering from anxiety that she is sitting in a movie theater feeling relaxed and healthy while watching a movie of the person who suffers from the anxiety. I suggest that she can notice the differences in how the person thinks, looks, acts and feels differently than she does, as she sits in her seat feeling calm and relaxed. R. Reid Wilson (2001, p. 220) wrote that time distortion can be used to decrease the length of discomfort and increase the length of comfort. I suggest to the individual examples of how she speeds time up and slows time down. An example might be, “We have all had experiences of being involved in an activity and thinking that only 5 minutes had passed, but were amazed when we looked at the time to learn that 20 minutes had passed; or, we thought 30 minutes had passed, but were amazed when we looked at the time to learn that only 7 minutes had passed.” Lankton & Lankton (1983, p. 218) wrote that amnesia can be elicited with anecdotes and indirect suggestions. I suggest to the individual examples of amnesia such as meeting someone in a store and forgetting the person’s name or experiencing a physical sensation and forgetting about it because something else has caught her attention. An example might be, “I was driving home from work recently and developed an awful headache. I planned to take a pain reliever as soon as I ...

1. Chapter 15
Counseling Approaches I Find Most Useful
There are so many powerful approaches that work quickly. In
this chapter I shall discuss the
approaches I find most useful. This does not mean that I never
use other approaches but these
are the approaches I use most often.
Ericksonian Hypnosis
Hypnosis is not a cure-all. It will not solve all the world’s
problems, but it is an effective
tool to assist you and others in resolving many of the issues that
you face. I find it especially
useful in assisting with problems that are unconsciously based;
problems that are not conscious
choices. People do not choose to have phobias, panic attacks,
anxiety, depression or chronic
pain. These are the types of issues where, I find, hypnosis
works most effectively. Hypnosis
also works quickly in resolving the problem. I seldom see a
person more than four sessions.
An effective therapist has as many tools in her tool chest as
possible. If she can only use
one theory or one technique, she will be ineffective many times.
Hypnosis is one of many tools
that I use. I highly recommend that you add this tool to your set
of skills.
There are a number of phenomena that can occur when one is in
trance. I shall briefly
discuss the ones that I find most useful.
According to Zeig (2001, p. 21) there are two aspects to
dissociation. One aspect is being
“part of and apart from” an experience. The second aspect is the
sensation of automaticity,
where an experience “just happens”. I use dissociation with

2. clients suffering from anxiety,
depression, phobias, panic attacks and chronic pain. An example
might be that I suggest to the
individual suffering from anxiety that she is sitting in a movie
theater feeling relaxed and healthy
while watching a movie of the person who suffers from the
anxiety. I suggest that she can notice
the differences in how the person thinks, looks, acts and feels
differently than she does, as she
sits in her seat feeling calm and relaxed.
R. Reid Wilson (2001, p. 220) wrote that time distortion can be
used to decrease the length
of discomfort and increase the length of comfort. I suggest to
the individual examples of how
she speeds time up and slows time down. An example might be,
“We have all had experiences
of being involved in an activity and thinking that only 5 minutes
had passed, but were amazed
when we looked at the time to learn that 20 minutes had passed;
or, we thought 30 minutes had
passed, but were amazed when we looked at the time to learn
that only 7 minutes had passed.”
Lankton & Lankton (1983, p. 218) wrote that amnesia can be
elicited with anecdotes and
indirect suggestions. I suggest to the individual examples of
amnesia such as meeting someone
in a store and forgetting the person’s name or experiencing a
physical sensation and forgetting
about it because something else has caught her attention. An
example might be, “I was driving
home from work recently and developed an awful headache. I
planned to take a pain reliever as
soon as I arrived at home; but, when I walked into the house,
my wife met me to discuss a
dilemma she was in. About 30 minutes later, I realized that I
had never taken anything for my

3. headache. I had become so consumed with the conversation that
I had totally forgotten about my
headache.”
According to Yapko (2003, pp. 333-334) age regression is an
“intensified absorption in and
utilization of memory.” It involves guiding the individual back
to an earlier time to either relive
it or to remember it. I usually use age regression to take the
individual to a time prior to the
onset of the discomfort. I will suggest that she remember a time
when she felt happy and
healthy. I suggest that she put herself back into that experience
and to experience the feelings of
that experience in the present. I then suggest that she intensify
the feeling and make it twice as
strong and then to memorize it so that she can experience it
anytime she needs to.
The final phenomenon, which I find most useful, is age
progression. According to Yapko
(2003, p. 345) age progression is guiding the individual into the
future, “where he or she may
have the opportunity to imagine and experience the
consequences of current or new choices,
integrate meanings at deeper levels, rehearse new patterns of
thought, feeling or behavior, and, in
general, obtain more of an overview of his or her life than a
narrow focus on day-to-day living
typically affords.” I suggest that the individual go into the
future six months from now and look
back at six months of successfully having achieved her goal. I
suggest that she might feel a
sense of pride, knowing that she is the one who has achieved
this. I also suggest that she might
feel a sense of gratitude, realizing that she has been created
with incredible skills and abilities.
This gives you a brief view of hypnosis and some of the

4. phenomena that can be used to help
individuals overcome physical or psychological pains. I hope
this has whetted your appetite to
learn more and to be trained in this approach to helping people.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming
“Neuro-Linguistic Programming is the newest and most
powerful technology in human
communication. The word “Neuro” indicates that NLP includes
the latest knowledge of how the
human brain actually works. “Linguistic” refers to both the
verbal and non-verbal elements of
communication. “Programming” refers to the recognition and
control of patterns in human
thought, communication and behavior.” (Jacobson, 1994).
I have found NLP techniques to create immediate changes in
people that endure over time.
There are many powerful phenomena in this approach. The
phenomenon that I find most useful
involves the changing of sub-modalities to eliminate the pain of
traumatic experiences. Bandler
(1985, pp. 21-26) discusses changing the sub-modalities of
visual images to increase or decrease
the power of the image. The same can be done with the audio or
kinesthetic senses.
Recently I worked with a lady whose teenage daughter had been
killed in a car wreck. This
lady was in the car directly behind the car in which her daughter
was killed and witnessed the
wreck. She could not get the image of the wreck out of her
mind, even though it had been five
years since the daughter’s death. She changed the sub-
modalities one at a time to learn which
ones would decrease or eliminate the power of the picture. She
discovered that color, size and
location were the sub-modalities that gave the picture power.
The picture was in color, life-size

5. and just a few inches from her face. She practiced changing it to
black and white, shrinking it to
an 8X10 and moving it out into the distance. Then I asked her to
see the original picture and
then to make the changes all at once. Finally, I asked her to do
this five times as fast as she
could by seeing the original picture, changing the sub-
modalities, erasing it and seeing a white
screen, then seeing the original picture, changing it, etc. On the
fourth time of seeing the original
picture, she jerked and had a different look on her face,
signifying that something significant had
occurred. The same thing happened on her fifth time. When she
finished the exercise, I asked
her what had happened and she told me that on the fourth and
fifth times, she could not see the
original picture. I asked her to try really hard to produce the
original picture and she could not.
She cured herself of the trauma by changing the sub-modalities
of the picture.
This gives you a brief view of NLP and one of the powerful
phenomena in this approach. I
hope this has motivated you to learn more and to be trained in
this approach to helping people.
Positive Psychology
Positive psychology complements traditional psychotherapy and
focuses on values,
strengths, virtues, and talents. Seligman (2011) stated that
Positive Psychology makes people
happier. Learning that you can have a flourishing future is life
changing. He also wrote that
Positive Psychology is about well-being which has five
elements - positive emotion,
engagement, meaning, positive relationships and
accomplishment.
I find Positive Psychology to be especially useful with people

6. who are depressed. Johnson
(2011) indicated three differences, among others, between
people who are happy and people who
are depressed. These differences include the following: (1)
happy people are more grateful, (2)
happy people are more optimistic, and (3) happy people are
more self-confident. The following
exercises can be used to address these:
Exercise for gratitude. Choose someone still alive who did or
said something that changed
your life for the better, but whom you never properly thanked.
This person needs to live close
enough for you to pay a visit. Write a letter of gratitude, stating
specifically what this person did
for you. Limit the letter to three hundred words. Call the person
and make an appointment
without telling the person the purpose of the visit. On the visit,
read the letter to the person and
then discuss the content and your feelings for each other
(Seligman, 2011). I use a variation of
Seligman’s idea. I ask the person to make a list of 10 people to
whom she is grateful and then
rank these from 1 to 10 in terms of accessibility. She will write
the first letter to the person who
is most accessible. We continue down the list until the person is
no longer depressed.
Exercise for optimism. Seligman (2011) wrote that optimists
believe that the causes of
setbacks in their lives are temporary, changeable, and local.
They bounce back quickly from
setbacks. I point this out to the individual and we write the
words “temporary, changeable and
local” on a 3X5 card for the individual to carry with them.
Every time the individual has a
setback, she refers to her card and approaches the setback as an
optimist.

7. Exercise for self-confidence. As one discovers her strengths,
she becomes more selfconfident.
Seligman (2011) discussed signature strengths and the
characteristics of a signature
strength which includes: a sense of authenticity, excitement
while exhibiting it, a yearning to find
new ways to use it, a sense of inevitability, invigoration, and
joy while using it. I discuss this
with the individual and then ask the person to list those traits
that she possesses about which
these characteristics are true. We focus on new ways that she
can use these strengths.
We begin the process of these three exercises in our first
session and the client is
simultaneously doing all three exercises. It is amazing how
quickly the individual begins to feel
better. I have never made it past the third name on the gratitude
list.
Mindfulness
Enhancement of attention is a defining characteristic of
mindfulness. The therapist asks the
person to focus on his or her body and to pay attention to the
physical manifestations. The client
is not trying to change the physical symptoms but just to pay
attention to them and notice
feelings, thoughts, and physical sensations. The therapist
instructs the client that if her mind
wanders, to gently nudge it back to the manifestations. Rather
than fighting the manifestations,
she is cooperating with them and realizing that by cooperating
with them, they change. This
shows the individual that the feelings and thoughts are
temporary rather than permanent and have
no lasting power. Young (2008) pointed out the importance of
assisting the client to recognize
the impermanence of negative experiences.

8. Bien (2006) discussed a mindfulness technique called “changing
the peg”. He pointed out
that one way to change the peg is to practice walking meditation
outdoors. As one walks, she
notices the positive things around her in nature. As one walks,
she can time her breath with her
steps, being aware of each step. When thoughts, feelings, and
bodily sensations arise, they are
noticed but there is no attempt to alter them. After noticing
them, the individual returns to the
beauty around her and/or the act of walking and breathing.
I have used Mindfulness mainly with anxiety and chronic pain. I
begin the process by
asking the individual to focus on her breathing, noticing the air
as she breathes in and out. Then
I move to her paying attention to external sensations such as the
weight of her hands in her lap,
the pressure of her back on the chair, etc. From this I move to
internal sensations such as
noticing a sense of warmth or coolness in her body or any
sensations such as tingling, burning, or
throbbing. From this, I ask her to notice the place where the
pain (or anxiety) is physically
located. I suggest that she notice the sensation of the pain, the
intensity, the shape of the pain
and even the color. I suggest that she is not trying to change it
or eliminate it but just noticing it.
I ask her to tell me when a significant change takes place such
as the pain moves, or the intensity
level changes, or the shape of the pain changes or the sensation
changes (from ache to tingle, for
example) or the color changes. Changes begin to occur in a
rather brief period of time and soon
the pain is significantly reduced if not totally gone. The beauty
of this is that if the pain returns,
the person now knows what to do to treat it. Change occurs by

9. observing the pain, not by trying
to change it.
Energy Psychology (Emotional Freedom Technique)
Emotional Freedom Technique, a form of Energy Psychology, is
a form of psychological
acupressure using the tapping of energy meridians to clear
emotional blockages. Rate your
discomfort on a scale of one to ten with ten being “unbearable”
and one being “not at all.” Tap
the sides of your hands, under your eyes, on your sides under
your armpits, and over your heart,
seven to ten times each. As you tap think the word that best
describes your discomfort (for
example, “anxiety”). Rate your discomfort again to determine if
it is improved. Repeat the
exercise if needed. If after the second time, your discomfort is
not reduced to an acceptable level,
do the following. Close your eyes; open your eyes and look
down and to the right, then down and
to the left. Rotate your eyes and then rotate them in the opposite
direction. Hum for two seconds,
count to ten and then hum again. Then go through the tapping
routine again. Rate your anxiety
to determine if it is improved (Seferlis, 2009). Craig (2008) and
Callahan (2001) give more
elaborate and specific instructions for tapping to eliminate
specific discomforts and discuss the
science behind tapping.
I use the Emotional Freedom Technique primarily for anxiety. I
have found that it is
effective a high percentage of the time. The beauty of this
approach is that the person can learn
this routine and use it on her own without the assistance of the
therapist.
In closing this chapter, I want to show you how I use these in
conjunction with each other.

10. Let’s suppose that an individual comes to see me who suffers
from anxiety. I want to teach her
three exercises she can use to lower or eliminate the anxiety. I
might teach her the Emotional
Freedom technique, the Mindfulness exercise and how to change
the sub-modalities of the
picture or sound that is causing the anxiety. We test these to be
certain that they are effective.
When the person leaves, she has three means of controlling her
anxiety. She probably will not
need to see me again.