This is the support pack for my 'Rapid Cognitive Therapy' workshop. You will probably notice how this was originally developed from the 'Ancestral Memory' paper.

Back to shopping RAPID COGNITIVE THERAPY WORKSHOP NOTES


Rapid Cognitive Therapy – RCT – is a client-centred multi-faceted brief therapy. It is a toolbox for therapists that allows the rapid and effective resolution of all manner of psychological and emotional conflicts. The title derives from:
RAPID – the intent is to resolve problems in the quickest time possible.
COGNITIVE – it does not rely on your client accepting 'in good faith' a mysterious, half-understood mental process; instead, it allows him/her a full understanding at the beginning of therapy as to why they are the way they are. It does not leave a client wondering/worrying about how they will find that elusive 'forgotten traumatic event' nor, indeed, how they will search for anything that they do not already consciously know. It does not, therefore, leave an individual fearful of what they might find or anxious about false memory, or somebody 'meddling with their mind'. Because of this, resistance is minimal, right from the beginning. During the analysis, your client's increasing understanding of what ails them, and why, will inspire positive changes to the belief system, and allow them to assimilate those changes into their personality, which is the 'bottom line' aim of most therapies.
THERAPY – With RCT, you can often be effective without hypnosis if necessary, for instance. You can work easily with logical/analytically minded clients and deal with relationship problems more effectively. You can resolve many difficulties in only 1-3 sessions and can often completely remove a 'social phobia' in only 1 session. In addition, it is easy to improve motivation, personal confidence, deal with unresolved grief issues, and work effectively with regression to cause techniques.
Because of the 'instantly available' culture of our modern society, there is a growing requirement and expectation among the public that we should be able to provide an expert and immediately available 'cure' for whatever problem they present with. Not only that, the ever increasing belief that life should be fun – and that it is for everybody else – means that the problems they are bringing to us are becoming more wide-ranging than ever before. It is the therapist who can come closest to those client expectations who is destined to remain successful, far into the future!
When you learn how to use RCT, you'll be astonished at the way you suddenly become more effective, almost overnight!


PERSONALITY AND CONFLICT

One of the greatest attributes of RCT is that it allows us to help our clients to quickly discover their 'real' self. It is a fact that many people are simply not able to function in the mode in which they are 'designed', which can be the cause of great conflict; to gain a greater understanding of this, we will examine the concept of Ancestral Memory and its effect on our early life.

A potted history of our kind
One hundred thousand years ago, the human race lived in groups of twenty-five to fifty individuals, hunting and gathering their food from the land; they were already a developed race, having probably been around for some three hundred thousand years at least. But these were the first of the race that looked like us, and - in a primitive way - behaved like us.
For thousands of years, their way of life scarcely changed, so that instincts and response patterns were handed on from generation to generation, all within their own group in what amounted to a genetically pure chain. They would have had no qualms about incest or in-breeding – those concepts simply would not have entered the realms of thought. There would obviously have been aggressive tribes and peaceful tribes; and because their way of life was constant, the instincts to deal with that way of life became inborn, so that each successive generation was steadily more adapted to the environment in which they lived.
Tens of thousand of years passed… something like fifty times the passage of time we have experienced as a 'modern' race since the days of Jesus Christ and the Roman Empire. Then, something of extreme importance happened, something that was to affect the whole of the human race for ever more.
The first settlements were formed.

A golden opportunity
It does not sound particularly important but the effect on the wandering tribes was dramatic and polarising. For the peace-loving tribes it would have been an ideal situation; no need any more to wander the land in search of food – simply farm your own crops and livestock and share the work within the community. Instead of fighting the land, adapt to it and tame it, and use its resources for survival and comfort. They became the Settlers and discovered their evolutionary destiny.
        For others, those who had always simply taken whatever they wanted, this presented a golden opportunity of a different sort. They could wait until that settlement was formed and everything was nicely under control, then simply move in and take over. Any of the original occupants who protested too much could be either killed or kicked out, and the rest, observing this, would simply continue to maintain the place for the benefit of the newcomers. These Warrior types now had something REALLY worth fighting for, some of them taking over several settlements and controlling quite large areas of land as a result.
For yet others, all this would be too much. They had never had the stomach for fighting, nor any wish to do loads of hard work for the benefit of somebody else. And now they had no desire whatsoever to stand around getting caught up in the crossfire between the Settlers and a bunch of club-wielding roughnecks wearing strings of animal teeth about their person. So they retained the instinctive Nomadic urges of their earliest forefathers – keep on the move, do not get involved, and constantly look for someplace new and interesting. They also eventually developed skills like thieving, bartering and entertaining, since this was an effective way to earn their keep 'on the road'.

Civilisation
        This was the origin of what we now know as Civilisation and our inheritance is the in-built instincts of those early people. There has been much interbreeding ever since and there are no longer any pure specimens of any one tribe. But there were some ninety-thousand years at least of wandering savage, against relatively few years of civilisation, and evolution moves very slowly indeed. The original instincts still run high.
We each carry, as our parents did and their parents and grand-parents before them, the genes from each of those three major tribes of mankind; but one set will usually be dominant, giving rise to a behaviour pattern which governs how we are, where and how we will be successful, the way we conduct our lives… or would, if our way of being were not 'modified' by our early experiences. Because, since genetic selection appears to be a random process, so that, for example, Settler parents can produce child Nomads, it is more than likely that you could have been brought up by parents or others who may have a completely different set of values. And this is important, for it would obviously have a clouding effect upon your real personality, upon what is inherently right for you, diluting your inherited strengths and attributes.
Just imagine, for a moment, the implications of this. Let us assume that you have inherited a dominant set of Warrior genes, but both your parents are Settlers… They will try to teach you to be tolerant of others and adapt to situations, to 'go with the flow' and roll with the punch. They might even suggest that you attempt to make a friend of any adversary and always try to see the point of view of others. They will, perhaps, teach you that you should always give others the benefit of the doubt… But your every subconscious instinct insists that you should be dealing with life in a forthright, 'hands on' and extremely direct manner! That you should be leading, not following; giving the orders, not taking them.
Under those circumstances, there would be a continual conflict in the subconscious that might well lead to all sorts of frustrations and complexes. It certainly would not be conducive to success - and if you managed to over-ride that 'programming' eventually, you still may not be able to fully enjoy any success you found, because of an underlying feeling that you had achieved your aims in a way that was somehow not quite right, that did not match what you had been taught was the 'proper' way to do things.
We have all come across the circumstance where a child appears to be totally different from his/her parents, or brothers and sisters. The parents will perhaps say things like: “He probably takes after his great-grandfather…” Well, maybe that child has inherited the same set of dominant genes that powered great-grandfather but they would have powered a whole host of far more ancient ancestors first!

Reactions, not events
Ancestral memories would not be of actual events - don't get it confused with the idea of past life or reincarnation - but of instinctive behaviour patterns brought about by
the environment of those early tribes whose main way of life was subservience, aggression, nomadic urges, famine fear, etc. These environmental circumstances, via the process of natural selection, ensured that each generation became progressively more inclined to the predominating characteristic of their particular tribe. It seems likely that these Warriors, Nomads and Settlers are the origins of the quite well-known Anal, Hysteric and Oral personality groups. It makes a deal more sense if you look at the way each tribe would have been.
Obviously the Warrior tribes would have been physically powerful, but there was more to these people than brute force. The best amongst them became expert planners who prepared for every possibility, quick and perceptive thinkers who could foresee every pitfall and every danger to their plans and schemes. Their need to control and conquer others meant that they had little or no time for compassion or emotion; there was no room for compassion if you wanted to come out tops on the battlefield. In fact they would have been capable of being totally ruthless, completely unconcerned about the feelings of others. Self was what mattered, and what self wanted.
Sensitivity was not in the frame for these people, nor were any 'airy fairy' ideas; no-nonsense practicalities were what they needed – tools, plans, method, fool-proof strategy. A means to an end and as quick and forthright as possible. In the earliest days, they were true savages, but savages with a shrewd intelligence, who could be devious and manipulative when necessary.
The Settler types were a different kettle of fish altogether. These were peace-loving people who wanted nothing more than to be left to their own devices, to tend their land and rear their families to help them continue their calm existence. They were community-minded, recognising the worth of sharing tasks and keeping harmony within their group, so they developed an understanding of others and a high degree of tolerance to the differing opinions of those who shared their space. They were also adaptable and resourceful, using whatever nature provided them with to survive, and would use aggression only as a last resort, and then mainly in defence.
It is impossible to hurry the forces of nature, and this fact led to a patient approach to life and living, with an ability to tolerate discomfort in the knowledge that there were better times ahead. This discovery and the observation that if you performed a particular task, a particular event tended to happen led to them being optimists who enjoyed what was without worrying too much about what might have been.
The Nomads were following the very earliest instincts of the species. The whole race had been nomadic originally and when the first settlements started being formed, these individuals preferred to remain that way. Not for them the emotional attachments that the Settlers formed, or the hard work and disappointment involved in learning to tame the land; not for them, either, the meticulous planning of the Warrior. They did not want the risks of battle, or the necessity to constantly be on your guard lest those whom you had vanquished should suddenly rise up against you. And any who wavered soon made up their minds when the Warriors started making their presence felt.
Where the Warriors and Settlers were always in large groups, the Nomads would have travelled in much smaller bands, even sometimes as individuals. They would have been light-hearted people with little or no need to put down roots, enjoying wandering from one place to another, leaving behind any problems or difficulties that might accrue wherever they stopped for a while. Eventually, they became wandering minstrels, entertainers, tinkers and the like, always difficult to pin down, never staying in one guise or situation long enough to be saddled with responsibility. Relying on their wits to survive, they were probably far more independent and charismatic than the other two groups put together.
        The modern versions of these tribes bear most of their characteristics still, even though social requirements and our 'civilised' environment leads to much of their indigenous behaviour patterns being muted, or sublimated.

It is important to remember that almost nobody will be a 'pure' type; most people will exhibit characteristics from each group. In any one individual, the emotional responses tend to come from their Settler self, aggression from the Warrior, and personal presentation skills from the Nomad side of their personality. It is the degree of each which governs their overall 'way of being'. BUT both Warriors and Nomads will frequently adopt a Settler approach because it's what is required for them to integrate socially. The Nomad will act it; the Warrior will use it.

Although I often refer to these character groups as Warriors, Settlers and Nomads when talking to clients, I prefer what might be seen as the professional titles of (in order): Resolute/Organisational (or RO); Intuitive/Adaptable (IA); Charismatic/Evidential (CE)


PERSONALITY TEST – SHORT VERSION


This short test helps you to unobtrusively assess the basic personality group of your client, since the questions can be incorporated into conversation. If your client does not know they are being 'tested' the answers are likely to more honest. This will allow you to choose the best possible induction for your client and will also help in the understanding of causes and origins of their symptom pattern(s).

1. If you had to choose, would you rather be rich or popular?
   
2. And if you were rich, would you rather be quietly so, or evidently so?
   
3. And where do you actually 'live' in your body?
   

The answers to these three questions can tell you an astonishing amount about the individual. The one who chooses 'Popular' will usually say they live in their heart, thorax, or stomach. This is the Intuitive Adaptable (IA) personality, the responsive 'people person', governed by feelings, in touch with their emotions and easy to deal with in therapy, since they are usually quite suggestible and compliant. They tend to suffer emotional problems – low confidence, depressions, low self-esteem, etc. Their answer to question two may modify their personality a little as you will see later on, in the chart of possible combinations of answers. Almost any induction works well.
The one who chooses 'Rich, Quietly' is likely to tell you they live in their head. This is the Resolute Organisational (RO) personality, the intellectually orientated, logical and analytical individual, governed by their thoughts rather than their feelings. They can be difficult for the inexperienced therapist because they tend to question everything. Interestingly, they are often fear-based and tend to suffer guilt complexes and phobic-type conditions, and anxiety over control issues. Hypochondria is not uncommon, nor is IBS. Care is needed with inductions, which must really grab their imagination and/or intellect. An effective method is to access one of their own vivid memories.
The one who would be 'Rich, Evidently' will tend to live in his/her whole body, or maybe not know what on earth you mean. This is the Charismatic Evidential (CE) type; they tend to be lively and noisy, though are sometimes determinedly 'slob-like'. They can be Actors (with a capital 'A') all the time, and love attention. They are very likely to abreact in hypnosis and can be sobbing with evident anguish and then laughing 'like a drain' in the very next second. They are into self-gratification and pleasure, and tend to suffer from dramatic illnesses like spontaneous vomiting, violent rashes, severe diarrhoea, temper outbursts, frustration and the like. Alcohol dependence is common as are other forms of addiction. They usually go into hypnosis 'at the drop of a hat' and respond best to novel induction methods like imagining vividly that their fingers are like hollow tubes, and that they can breathe in through their fingertips and out through their feet (or the other way around).
        There are various combinations of answers:
        Popular, Quiet, Heart = IA
        Popular, Quiet, Head = IA, but restrained, maybe inhibited (Some RO)
        Popular, Quiet, Everywhere/Don't know = IA, but unstable
        Popular, Evident, Heart = IA, but outgoing (Some CE)
        Popular, Evident, Head = Combination (see later)
        Popular, Evident, Everywhere/Don't know = CE acting IA
        Rich, Quiet, Head = RO
        Rich, Quiet, Heart = RO with a 'soft centre' (Some IA)
        Rich, Quiet, Everywhere/Don't know = Expressive RO (some CE)
        Rich, Evident, Everywhere/Don't know = CE
        Rich, Evident, Head = CE, intellectually orientated (Some RO)
        Rich, Evident, Heart = CE, emotionally/pleasure orientated (Some IA)



PERSONALITY TEST – FULL VERSION

One of the 'cornerstones' of RCT is the ability to accurately and quickly obtain a detailed analysis of our client's personality type – or percentages of each personality group within the psyche – via a simple but effective questionnaire. Mark each question on a scale of 1-10. If your client struggles with any of them, then you can assist by enlarging on the theme presented by the question. The results have been shown over and again to be astonishingly accurate.

1. How good are you at 'sticking to your guns'?
2. How readily do you 'speak your mind'?
3. How good are you at taking charge?
4. How methodical or fussy are you?
--------------------------------------------------
5. How much do you like to be liked?
6. How much do you try to protect the feelings of others?
7. How easy-going or tolerant are you?
8. How flexible, or indecisive, can you be?
---------------------------------------------------
9. How much do you like to stand out from the crowd?
10. How good are you at being the centre of attention?
11. How expressively excitable or enthusiastic can you be?
12. How spontaneous or impulsive are you likely to be?

The first group of questions (1-4) assesses Resolute Organisational (RO) potentials; the second looks at the Intuitive Adaptable (IA) traits, while the third is concerned with the Charismatic Evidential (CE) personality. Add the 'scores' of each group together, giving 3 totals. Add them together and divide that total by 100, calling the answer: 'T'. Now, if you divide the total of each group in turn by 'T', you will find the percentage of each group in any one individual.

Quickly and accurately assessing your client's true personality allows you to:

1. Use the most suitable induction method.
   
2. More easily understand their behaviour during therapy.
   
3. More easily recognise the onset of the abreactive state.
   
4. Understand more readily the likely type of emotional work you will find.
   
5. See at a glance some areas that need 'working on'.
   

Now we will have a look at a detailed description of each personality group. A 'quick recognition guide' is also given.

THE INTUITIVE ADAPTABLE PERSONALITY
Personality Profile:
Sociable: Gets on well with almost anybody
Intuitive: A high level of instinct and general awareness.
Adaptable: Able to make the best of any situation.
Achilles heel: The need to be liked.
Areas of conflict: Concerned with emotional states, predominantly guilt, shame, and injustice issues.
Symptoms: Usually concerned with feelings – inadequacy, depression, inferiority, low self-esteem, fear of what others think, excessive regard for authority, guilt, shame, etc.
Abreaction type: Usually tearful and childlike. The approach of abreactive states will often be indicated by sudden quietness and an increase in hypnotic flush. A hand may be raised to the mouth, which may tremble or straighten. Within the abreaction, tears and weeping can be copious.
Personality: The IA personality, being able to fit in with almost any situation, is necessarily a kind of psychological chameleon. The most obvious traits are a pleasant and responsive attitude to others but sometimes with a tendency towards mood swings from happy to miserable – or the other way round – at the slightest provocation, the smallest event. There is also often an 'all or nothing' tendency, in which if they cannot have absolutely what they want, they will simply refuse to have any part of it at all and will 'cut off their nose to spite their face'. Excellent talkers and communicators, they are unrivalled when it comes to having an instinctive grasp of all that is going on around them. They are usually reliable and come over as 'nice' people, which they usually are.
Physical traits: Easy to recognise from their physiology, they are responsive during conversation, with active but not excessive body/head movements, nodding when they should, smiling when they should, any disagreement being expressed politely and tactfully. Their face expressions are reactive to the conversation and there is a tendency to smile often unless they are depressed. Any tension/anxiety present tends to speed up body movements and speech, and increases the visibility of any lines on the face, and there will then be a leaning towards a worried/anxious expression.
Positive attributes: Instinctive understanding of others; caring and compassionate; excellent communication skills; generally optimistic, cheerful and polite; tolerant and easy-going; powerful instinctive responses (it can seem as though they possess a genuine sixth-sense of the unadmitted attitudes or mood-shifts of others); flexible approach to the plans of others.
Negative attributes: There are many IA individuals who appear to show none – or very few – of the following traits. They are only tendencies and not necessarily present.
The complexity of this character can be exasperating to others if they once get into a negative mode of operation. They can be just on the brink of success when they will suddenly give up, claiming that they simply have not got what it takes, even if other people think they have; feelings of inferiority and inadequacy can lead to problems with decision making and displays of under-confidence or unassertiveness; and they can seem to take far too much notice of the opinions of others, an excessive need to be liked sometimes leading to difficulty in saying “No” when necessary. There are often feelings of failure or of being in some way fraudulent. They are prone to shyness, depression and/or bouts of debilitating melancholia/depression.

THE RESOLUTE ORGANISATIONAL CHARACTER
Personality Profile:
Forceful: Can always make their presence felt.
Resolute: High levels of tenacity and determination.
Organisational: Able to plan well and bring those plans to fruition.
Achilles heel: The need to always be in control.
Areas of conflict: Concerned with issues of loss of respect/dignity/integrity or any sort of 'attack' – being frightened, picked on, humiliated, punished, bullied, etc.
Symptoms: Usually based around phobic response patterns or control issues – body or mind. There are often physical manifestations of the digestive tract, including ulcers, IBS, constipation, etc.
Abreaction type: Sometimes almost invisible – any tears are likely to be sparse, though s/he will feel as if they have been laid totally bare. The approach of abreaction will often be indicated by fear or anger.
Personality: The RO personality tends to have a reputation for firmness and a no-nonsense attitude to life. Psychologically stronger than either the IA or CE personality types, they find no difficulty in taking charge of things and easily attain the respect of others. They are cautious yet rapid thinkers who are unsurpassed at finding and exploiting the flaw in any argument. On the negative side, there can sometimes be a problem with cynicism and jealousy and there is not the immediately friendly response generally found in the IA. Indeed, there will sometimes be a significant pause before answering any question that is put to them and even then, the answer will often be carefully phrased in such a way to leave as many options open as possible.
Physical traits: This type is the least physically animated of the three groups. There are few changes of face expression during conversation, and few changes of body position. The angle of the head, in particular, may remain unchanged for longish periods making them reminiscent of an excellent card player, giving away absolutely nothing about inner thought processes. They appear to be – and indeed are – watchful and perceptive, with a steady gaze which may be away from their conversation partner if they are nervous. Any tension or anxiety will show in a taut body shape and a set facial expression leaning towards irritability or hostility.
Positive attributes: Determined and tenacious; methodical and organisational; perceptive and easily able to spot the pitfalls in a plan/situation; sound but not necessarily fast decision making abilities; natural team leader and co-ordinator; quick thinker in discussion or argument, able to easily see and exploit loopholes or advantages; practical and logical; good at recalling/using facts and figures.
Negative attributes: As with the other two groups, these traits are only possible tendencies and are not necessarily evident in any one individual - indeed, it is unlikely that any one individual will show all these traits. The positive traits in this group are very decisive and specific, and this forthright attitude tends to also be reflected in the negative traits.
The RO character is inclined to force rather than subtlety and in negative mode is usually pedantic, domineering and impatient, and can appear rude and sarcastic. They have a driving need to be in control and can sometimes be quite ruthless in their determination to be so, being very good at manipulating people and events to their advantage – this, of course, may be viewed as positive trait under some circumstances. The two things they hate most are: not getting their own way, and having to admit that they are wrong. Underneath all these attempts to maintain power and control, there are often secret feelings of self-doubt, leading to cynicism and jealousy. They are prone to phobias, hypochondria and/or obsessive thought or behaviour patterns and sometimes actually take a considerable amount of actual pleasure in being bad-tempered or unreasonable.

THE CHARISMATIC EVIDENTIAL PERSONALITY
Personality Profile:
Restless: Must always have something 'going on'.
Charismatic: Naturally outgoing.
Evidential: What-you-see-is-what-you-get.
Achilles Heel: The need for constant stimulation.
Areas of conflict: Concerned with image issues and loss of freedom or things that they really did not want to do/face. These can seem to be quite minor events.
Symptoms: Anything dramatic. Hysterical blindness, paralysis, 'massive' panic attacks, spontaneous vomiting, 'phantom' illnesses of all kinds from 'blackouts' to crippling or catastrophic conditions.
Abreaction type: Noisy and often may include screaming and shouting, as well as thrashing arms and legs. Anything that dramatically illustrates how bad they are feeling. The approach of abreaction is usually rapid and almost indeterminable from the abreaction itself.
Personality: The CE personality in its purest form tends towards extremes in many things. They enjoy life to the full and can give much pleasure to a great many people along the way – except for the occasions when they get carried away with frivolity and excitement, loving to shock others with loud and embarrassing behaviour and being amazed when someone complains about their excesses. This exuberance tends to show itself quite often and can be quite exhausting/tiresome for their companions. Most of the time, though, this personality is tempered by more sensible traits from the other two groups, not unusually producing an individual who can quite often uplift others with their irrepressible sense of fun and enthusiasm.
Physical traits: Animated behaviour is the most obvious trait here but, as with most things in this group, it tends to be exaggerated. There are excessive movements of the head and face, the body, and especially the hands, and they can liven up any gathering with sparkling wit - as long as not too much serious stuff is expected from them. Often quite generous and outgoing, and almost exclusively extroverts, they are always on the search for something new and exciting to do. They adore telling jokes and stories with lots of noise and action and always do it well. Under any sort of pressure, they tend to become louder and more expansive in their gestures and movements.
Positive attributes: Enthusiasm for new projects; lively approach to life and work; inspirational in outlook and communication; exceptionally confident and outgoing; uninhibited in all areas of life; quick eye for creating an image; uncomplicated personality – what you see is what you get; good presentation skills; ready wit, especially in response to others.
Negative attributes: As with the IA and RO personalities, these negative traits will not necessarily be apparent.
The biggest problem for the CE personality is in maintaining application of effort and as a result they can appear unreliable or fickle. They themselves are unconcerned about this, however, relying on sheer force of personality/charisma to see them through and usually getting away with it; they may even boast about it. There is a childish need for instant gratification – they cannot abide waiting about for things to happen – and a distinct tendency to flamboyantly exaggerate their successes. Their relationships are usually distinctly one-sided and they are masters of tactlessness and bad taste. Under pressure, they are prone to dramatic illnesses like paralysis, apparent blindness, 'black-outs', memory-loss, etc., which may or may not be genuine.

QUICK RECOGNITION GUIDE
Now, here is a quick recognition guide for each group which, while it is not as accurate as the questionnaire, will give you a good idea of where anybody 'fits', just by watching them for a moment or two.

Intuitive adaptable
Physiology: Responsive body and head movements. Frequent smiles.
Positive: Caring, cheerful, pleasant, talkative and tolerant. 'People' people.
Negative: Depressive, indecisive, underconfident. Prone to mood swings.
Dress: Conservative, 'sensible', with a tendency to co-ordinating colours.

Resolute organisational
Physiology: Fairly straight-faced, few body response patterns, steady gaze.
Positive: Practical, tenacious and self-sufficient. Quick thinkers. Often personable.
Negative: Suspicious, dictatorial, manipulative. Cannot easily admit mistakes.
Dress: Plain, sometimes austere, sometimes tends towards dark-ish colours.

Charismatic evidential
Physiology: Often expansive in gestures. Can be animated/noisy. Laughs easily.
Positive: Fun-loving, enthusiastic, outgoing. Inspiring and optimistic.
Negative: Unreliable, childish, boastful. Prone to exaggerate mild success.
Dress: Individualistic, either 'designer' or deliberately downbeat. May be 'showy' with accessories.


Conflicts
        Now we will examine the individual conflicts as shown by the personality test; these are mostly between the IA part of self, which is mainly responsive to the idealistic dictates of the Superego, or conscience, and the RO and CE parts, both of which are 'driven' by the demands of the Id, or instinctive self. The RO is concerned with survival and control, while the CE is focussed upon pleasure and gratification.
In fact, it is not each individual conflict that is particularly important; the point of the questionnaire, in this respect, is to highlight incongruence between the different parts of personality – between the RO and IA parts of self, for instance. Those individual answers, though, serve as focal points to the overall conflict and allow us a fast way in to the psyche, which is especially useful for analytical or regression therapies.
Before we go further, we need to understand what is shown when we examine the difference between the answers for conflicting questions. The maximum difference would be 9, where there is a score of 10 on one question and 1 on its opposite. It follows that the lower the difference, the greater the conflict between the attributes; but when the total of the two scores is low, this will mean something quite different from when the total is somewhere near the maximum possible of 20. A healthy score is a total of 10 or more and a difference of at least 4; in that situation we can be fairly certain that there is no conflict revealed and we can move on to the next pair of questions.
A difference of more than 4 is not necessarily an indicator that there is no conflict involved with the concepts presented by those questions; when one of the scores is 3 or under, that can be an indicator of possible repression.
        Since conflict is centred around the IA/Superego responses, the questions are presented with that group first.


Question 5. How much do you like to be liked?
First conflict: Question 1. How good are you at sticking to your guns?
        These are the base questions for the IA and RO groups and any incongruence here may have a profound effect upon the personality, as comparing the concept of each question readily reveals. 'Sticking to your guns' when ideas, thoughts, etc. are being challenged is often not easy for an individual who has a profound need to be liked; on the other hand, a true Warrior personality is unlikely to be excessively anxious about being liked.
        Second conflict: Question 9. How much do you like to stand out from the crowd?
        This is the base question for the CE personality and any conflict here will be felt severely. For the IA personality, standing out too far from the crowd can be uncomfortable, whilst for the CE, feelings of needing to be liked can be restrictive to desired behaviour – which this personality hates. The CE personality is normally disinterested in whether or not s/he is liked, as long as others are impressed by his/her behaviour, presence, appearance, etc.

Question 6. How much do you try to protect the feelings of others?
        First conflict: Question 2. How readily do you 'speak your mind?'
        There is scarcely any need to enlarge here, since the attitudes are almost completely opposite. The true Settler tends to externalise a great deal and therefore seeks to protect others from hurt; the Warrior (question 2) is notoriously unconcerned about how others feel. Where similar answers are given to both questions, then it clearly indicates either incongruence or wishful thinking – many Settlers are prone to this, due to feelings of allowing others to take too much advantage.
        Second conflict: Question 10. How good are you at being the centre of attention?
        Not so much conflict revealed in this pairing, but still a somewhat incongruent situation. Somebody who protects the feelings of others is not very likely to enjoy being the centre of attention, lest it should make others feel left out, while the Nomad would just enjoy the limelight and not even be aware that anybody could feel left out of things. Similar answers here could well be due to the Nomad's tendency to sometimes say what sounds good.

Question 7. How easy-going or tolerant are you?
        First conflict: Question 3. How good are you at taking charge?
        If one situation exists in the psyche, it is going to be very uncomfortable with the other until past conflicts have been resolved. Generally, one of the situations will be nothing more than how that client believes s/he should be or would like to be. In general, a 'take charge' personality is unlikely to be truly easy-going, and vice versa. Conflict here will often be revealed in a tendency to continually find fault with the plans of others, including officialdom or other authority figures.
        Second conflict: Question 11. How expressively enthusiastic or excitable can you be?
        Someone who is easy-going will be unlikely to be particularly excitable, though enthusiasm is a possibility. Excitation arises out of the fact that an imminent event stimulates the nervous system into an anticipatory and appropriate behaviour pattern. An easy-going person is usually so because they tend not to possess the vividness of imagination that is needed to fire such excitement. Complaints about being taken advantage of is a one of the likely results of this sort of conflict.

Question 8. How flexible, or indecisive, can you be?
        First conflict: Question 4. How methodical or fussy are you?
        Indecisive people are not usually particularly fussy or methodical; fussy people are most unlikely to be flexible in their thought process. Methodical types find it nearly impossible to be flexible and flexible types tend to believe that being methodical equates to being boring. Fussy people are fussy because they know how they want things to be, so they are not likely to by indecisive. Irrational dissatisfaction with self and achievements of self is often manifest where this conflict is present.
        Second conflict: Question 12. How spontaneous or impulsive are you likely to be?
        Similar answers to question 8 and 4 are not particularly important, since it does not reveal a specific conflict; but similar scores for 4 and 12 is a different kettle of fish altogether! This is sometimes found in border-line psychosis but is more commonly a form of denial in excessively CE or RO personality groups. Feeling that other people do not take them seriously – sometimes justified – is a common manifestation here.

        There is a host of other information revealed by the test: some of it is shown here, with more being discussed during the second day of the workshop.

Indigenous shyness/introversion may be shown when there is a total 'raw' score (before conversion to percentages) of 65 or less. It can also indicate repression, under certain circumstances (see later). Introversion is indicated where the scores are low in each group – here, change is unlikely; shyness tends to produce one group with a noticeably lower score than the other two, and here, we can quite easily produce change. Shyness is often not immediately obvious.
Extroversion where there is a total 'raw' score of 90 or more. This does not mean that the individual will have few problems – just that those problems will be expressed more freely. Any abreactive state will appear more dramatic with this personality, though may well mean less.
Incongruent thought/behaviour can be illustrated by the fact that your client's behaviour pattern seems not to match the major group indicated by the test (the answers indicating IA but behaviour appearing more as RO, for instance.). This produces the uncomfortable situation where the individual cannot seem to 'fit in' anywhere, among other problems. There is another aspect of the test that can highlight this situation: Questions 1, 5, 9 are base questions testing for the major motivation of (in order) RO, IA, CE. These are apparently benign questions with a slant towards making the question a positive attribute, since there is an echo in all of them towards the basic personality traits of the type:
        The RO is asked about strength and resolve.
        The IA is asked about acceptance by their peers.
        The CE is asked if s/he has charisma.
As a result of this framing, the responses are likely to be fairly indicative of the true underlying personality, so the answers should be reflected in the test answers overall, i.e., if the outcome is IA, RO, CE, then question 5 should have a higher score than 1, which should have a higher score than 9. Where this is not the case, it is likely that we are looking at an imprinted version of whatever seems to be the personality shown – a learned behaviour pattern which is at odds with the true instincts. The answers to these questions can reveal the necessary direction for the resolution of conflict.
Complex personality type is indicated by equal, or nearly equal, scores for each group. Where the score is above 80 or so, this is a potentially confident and balanced personality who may well have only presented with a minor problem. Where it is 65 or lower, we are looking at someone with no direction in life, the vacillating individual who has no real idea of how s/he would like to be or should be; your main task here may well be to keep this person in therapy long enough for you to be of help.


FUNDAMENTAL BELIEFS

It is unlikely that analysis on its own can produce long term change to fundamental beliefs, because what analysis actually does is to release negative emotional responses. But at the time that belief system was being set up, there were no negative responses because everything was accepted as normal. There is nothing to be released. We are here looking at a fundamental belief that is as secure as the knowledge that we must eat to live. About an urge that is as normal as hunger. About something that the conscious critical faculty will protect most vigorously from change. So in these cases, it is necessary to bypass that conscious critical faculty and introduce a new fundamental belief system. Of course, what we introduce depends on the nature of the problem and is up to the ingenuity of the individual therapist, but it must be introduced at the right instant for maximum effectiveness.
And there is a moment in analytical therapy for such an introduction, a moment when the conscious critical faculty is naturally lowered, and that is when emotion that has been generated by some event that is directly linked to the fundamental belief system is being released. At that moment, we can help our client to make profound changes for themselves. We need another piece of information, though, before we can be certain that that moment has arrived.

Parent/child conflicts
It is the conflict between parent and child that is most likely to create damaging fundamental beliefs, and it is not too difficult for us to find out about such conflict. To get the best out of this exercise, it is important that you stress that there should be no allowances made for anybody, nor should their behaviour be justified in any way; explain to your client that s/he avoid their initial thoughts being tempered by the fact that they now recognise that things were not always as they seemed, or that there were circumstances which they were not able to fully appreciate. What is absolutely essential is that they tell you how things actually seemed at the time, because how they seemed is how they were as far as the developing mind is concerned. The fact that everything may look less uncomfortable in retrospect is simply an indication that the conflict that existed has had its negative effect – or to put it another way, they have given in.
Remember, we are not blaming anybody for anything; we are simply establishing the mode in which your client was taught to think and behave, then using that information to produce beneficial change for their life now. Some people feel uneasy about admitting negative parental influences because of feelings of loyalty. If this seems to be so, then ask them to consider this: if those parents do deserve such loyalty or if they did only have your client's best interests at heart, would they not now wish your client to do whatever is necessary to have the best life s/he can?
First of all, ask your client how they would describe their childhood in just a word or two. Then ask a few carefully 'aimed' questions to establish how they felt when they were small. Did they envy their friends, and if so why? How did they feel if they were naughty? And what would happen? What would happen if they hurt themselves – or hurt somebody else? What sort of pets did they have? Did they like their brothers/sisters, or did they like being an only child? Who was their favourite relative –and why? If there was one thing they could have changed about their childhood, what would it be? If they wanted to sum up mum and/or dad with a single phrase, what would that phrase be?
You don't need to ask all of those questions, though you could if you wished, of course. This type of question and answer session will soon give you a feel for the influences that were exerted upon your client, without asking them directly – which would possibly only receive a response that has been conditioned into their mind.

Imprints and instincts
We can quite easily assess the most likely problems that have been created by parental imprints upon the basic personality. The passages in Italics are to give guidance on the type of work that needs to be addressed, and could be used as interventions at the right moment as defined above. We will study the RO first. Throughout this section, the 'lay' terms, Warrior, Settler, Nomad are used since it gives a better 'feel' for the influences exerted.

WARRIOR PERSONALITY – Nomad Parent: The Warrior personality is based around fear and aggression, and Nomadic behaviour patterns being imprinted onto the Warrior instincts may create an individual who will have few inhibitions in using their naturally aggressive tendencies to safeguard their interests and get their own way as rapidly as possible. They will often trade on the fear of others and there can be a basic selfishness that may lead to behaviour that can seem totally outrageous to most. Generally speaking, this individual is likely to have the tenacity and determination to actually DO all the dramatic things s/he has heard the parent SAY they would do, or would like to do.
Work should be on control issues, introducing the ideas of (1) delaying gratification for greater end reward; and (2) restraint when dealing with others, to maintain more complete control of awkward situations.

WARRIOR PERSONALITY – Settler Parent: Settler traits of tolerance, adaptability and responsiveness to the needs of others being imprinted onto the Warrior instincts can lead to severe subconscious conflict between the Id and the Superego and excessive self-control. Subsequent attempts to suppress aggressive or dominant behaviour may result in a guilt complex; in this case there will be a need to find a benign way to discharge motor urges normally associated with aggression, which may result in obsessive behaviour patterns being developed. The fundamental belief that the Warrior's major facility – channelled aggression – should be kept in check can result in feelings of inadequacy/inability to cope. Numerous failed attempts to adapt to situations and the needs of others, along with tolerance enforced by the parent, create high levels of frustration; this, in turn, may be responsible for a quick temper and covert manipulation of situations, which can sometimes show as slyness or deceitfulness.
Work on controlled assertiveness and the idea that people in general respond well to those who can take decisions easily and keep control of situations. Learn to use inner resources for greater control generally.

WARRIOR PERSONALITY – Warrior Parent: This is the circumstance where the major influence being the same as the birth predisposition is not necessarily conducive to healthy emotional development. If the parent is a confident individual, then there should be no underlying problems here and the child will usually grow up to be confident and positive in manner. S/he will be straightforward and direct, though often with double standards – one rule for self and a different one for others. But if the parent finds the need to exert continual control, then the child may develop the typical Warrior selfishness, sly/crafty behaviour patterns, and/or a profoundly dogmatic, stubborn and dictatorial way of being. Either way, there will usually be a deep and unshakeable inner belief that s/he is quicker thinking than many others (a belief which is often correct).
Work needs to be centred around the idea that whilst tenacity is a positive and useful attribute, obstinacy or stubbornness invariably leads to failure. There is a need to recognise the manipulative worth of flexibility.

SETTLER PERSONALITY – Warrior Parent: The Settler personality is based on love and security, and interaction with others. The imprint of the parental tendencies to tackle adversity with a directly confrontational approach are in severe conflict with the Settler ancestral instincts for tolerance, adaptability and reconciliation, and deep feelings of inadequacy may result. Lack of emotional response from the parent can result in feelings of inferiority and lack of self-worth, which are exacerbated by lack of encouragement for endeavours. There will often be an almost totally negative, pre-defeated attitude to life which, coupled with unexpressed anger, may result in melancholia/depression. There will usually be great difficulty with assertiveness and saying 'no' when necessary, and there is also likely to be excessive subservience or regard extended towards authority figures. There is frequently a noticeable lack of initiative.
Work on self-worth, assertiveness, and positive thought processes, along with the idea that the opinions and actions of others are only a product of their own thoughts and are of no particular importance. Encourage the notion that a conscientious approach to life is wasted if it is not used in some way.

SETTLER PERSONALITY – Nomad Parent: Nomadic instincts and behaviour patterns, imprinted onto the homeloving and conscientious attitude of the Settler personality, tend to create the roots of deep insecurity; this is exacerbated as the child begins to perceive that the parent does not always do what s/he has suggested s/he will do and that there are other areas of unreliability. As the child attempts to emulate the imprinted behaviour set there is subconscious conflict between belief and instinct, the conscious mind often finding the need to loudly justify areas where this individual perceives he/she has exercised too little thought or consideration. When things go wrong, there will be a tendency to over-react and to exhibit the typical 'all or nothing' response along with deep concern over what other people may think. There is quite often excessive concern about even minor social 'gaffes' and an over-apologetic attitude to mistakes of any sort.
Work particularly on confidence, self-worth, and security issues and promote the idea that mistakes and errors are invaluable aids for learning and self-improvement. Use visualisation techniques to enhance physical self-image, which is almost always inaccurate in some way.

SETTLER PERSONALITY – Settler Parent: Usually among the happiest of people, there is frequently a high degree of tolerance towards others along with an easy, unassuming and usually modest manner. Typical problems can include a lack of ambition and/or tenacity, a tendency to be too trusting, and an inability to be able to understand or predict the actions of less pleasant personalities. Though self-confidence is usually quite good, there can be self-doubt in specific areas; usually this is based on experience rather than fear and creates a tendency towards underachievement.
Work on positive thought issues and the ability to learn from error and experience, with growth and improvement arising from the knowledge gained.

NOMAD PERSONALITY – Warrior Parent: The Nomad personality is based on the pleasure principle – self-gratification, novelty, and excitement/drama. The Warrior imprint can easily make for a bullying individual who is inclined to bluster and threaten in order to get his/her own way but has not the courage or resource to follow up, AND/OR the tendency to make many plans which are boasted airily about but are never actually implemented or brought to completion. The parent's tendency to emotional coolness may encourage the belief that it is necessary to exaggerate everything in order to receive acceptance, encouragement or attention. Eventually, telling the tale well may be more important than doing the deed at all. As a result, this individual may also be likely to claim special skills and powers, peculiar illnesses or bodily conditions, or indulge in the continual telling of outlandish 'tall tales'. There will usually be an urge to deny that any form of personality assessment is even partly accurate.
Work on the benefits of popularity, developing the idea that people are like best those who are fun to be with and who can be relied upon to present a cheerful front. Be ultra-aware that popularity and pleasure are easily gained by following through on plans and promises.

NOMAD PERSONALITY – Settler Parent: The ancestral memory traces of Nomadic instincts in the child, in conflict with the nurturing, homeloving and conciliatory attitudes of the parent, will tend to create feelings of boredom, a resultant low concentration threshold, and a feeling of being thwarted in their wish for excitement. Parental over-reaction to the resultant super-dramatic outburst may teach this individual that tantrums are rewarded by gratification as the parent strives to create happiness and security for their progeny; in this way, this personality is encouraged to expect that continual complaint/argument/demands will produce desirable results without having to be concerned about mundane issues such as discipline. As a result, this individual may exhibit extremely selfish behaviour patterns and have difficulty in conforming to social issues and/or accepting that they cannot simply just have what they want without earning it.
Work on self-sufficiency and the fact that this will impress others as well as the idea of becoming your own person, at least the equal of any other. Remember that creativity and inventiveness can easily be used for personal gain. Individuality and independence are enormously strong attributes.

NOMAD PERSONALITY – Nomad Parent: Here, the parental influences have exacerbated the birth predisposition, heightening the Nomad patterns to the point that the other two groups have little or no modifying effect. The result is a high-energy individual, usually with consummate acting skills which may occasionally be used to get his/her own way if all else fails. There is frequently a great deal of exuberance, and some difficulty in understanding that not everybody shares the same outrageous or boisterous sense of fun. There is a built in ability to switch rapidly between concepts, plans and ideas, though this may well irritate others who are involved with them.
        Benefit will be derived from working at enhancing the positive attributes of this client's second group. In this way, his/her natural energy levels will help to achieve much, via the resolve of the Warrior or the conscientiousness of the Settler, that would normally be unavailable to this individual.


ANOTHER WAY OF WORKING

A very powerful and effective way of working with the Warriors, Settlers and Nomads concept to produce a rapid change for your client is to have them find, with your help, a character in their mind for each of the personalities. The Warrior, for instance, might be Genhgis Khan, a Crusader from the middle ages, or even Boadicea; the Settler could be a farmer, a philosopher or a teacher; the Nomad could be a Bedouin or a Gypsy dancer, or maybe a famous adventurer – Christopher Columbus, maybe.
It is not necessary to be sex specific, so if your lady client finds a Black Night as her Warrior, let her be happy with that. Use hypnosis to create an anchor to the resources that belong to whichever 'archetype' is being developed, so that when your client needs those resources, all s/he has to do is vividly recall the image for a few seconds and absorb the feel of that personality. For example: an individual could access 'their' Warrior to help them be more assertive and confident – or stop blushing, perhaps (would a Warrior blush upon entering a room?), or is they needed more 'pep' in their personality, they could visualise the Nomad to help them be more outgoing (would a Gypsy dancer be retiring and quiet?). All you have to do is to assess which of the three would be best suited to dealing with the problem your client has presented. An extension of this method is to have your client imagining donning an invisible suit that belongs to the archetype.


INDUCTIONS
        
        Matching the induction to the personality type produces a better state of hypnosis, and does so more quickly.

RO type
With the Resolute Organisational personality - probably the most difficult - we are dealing with Warrior genetics. So, to be truly successful, your induction should not have even one statement that could be construed as dictatorial, not even: “Now I want you to relax as much as you can…” or anything like it. If there is, then you are going to place the psyche on alert status. They must feel that they are in control, so we work on their own inner states. I like to avoid too much imagery, too, to avoid the risk of jarring when you tell them about a softly lit situation and they're already seeing arc lights. This works well:

Ok, just make yourself comfortable now… if you want to close your eyes, that's a good idea, but if you don't, that's fine too… now you can just listen quietly to the sound of my voice… and of course you'll be aware of all those other sounds, too…. sounds inside the building, sounds from outside… but these won't disturb you… In fact they are going to help to relax you, because the only sound you need to think about is the sound of my voice… and while you're listening to the sound of my voice you can just simply allow yourself to be as lazy as you could ever want to be…. Just allow yourself to be as lazy as you could ever want to be…
Good… now, while you're relaxing there in the chair, you can just be aware of your body… aware of your hands where they rest on the arms of the chair… perhaps noticing the angle of your elbows and maybe sensing the weight of your head against the chair back… and, you know, that weight might seem to just gently increase as you allow yourself to relax more and more… just being aware of your ankles and feet now, on the footrest, and wondering if they will start to feel heavy too, as you… relax… thinking about your breathing for a few moments… noticing that your breathing is becoming slower and steadier as you relax more and more… slower and steadier… breathing so steadily and evenly… just as though you were pretending to be sound asleep… breathing so evenly, so steadily… you almost wouldn't disturb a feather placed immediately in front of you… breathing so easily and slowly, so gently, that you almost wouldn't disturb even a single strand of a feather placed right in front of you….
And as you allow yourself to relax even more now… I wonder if you can perhaps sense the beating of your own heart… sensing the beat of your own heart and just seeing whether you can use the power of your mind to slow that heartbeat down… just a touch… just seeing whether you can use the power of your mind to slow that heartbeat down just a little… so that you can then feel your whole body slowing down… becoming lazier and lazier… because you've got absolutely nothing whatsoever to do except to relax now… nobody wanting anything, nobody expecting anything… so you can allow your whole body to continue to relax and become steadier and easier until it's just ticking over… like a well maintained machine of some sort or another… just ticking over… smoothly… easily… quietly… comfortably… so that you can become gradually more aware of your whole self… aware of your hands and arms, just sensing how they are now… aware of your legs and feet, too… again just sensing how relaxed they might be, and wondering if it's possible to relax them even more… to be so in touch with yourself that you can actually get your whole body, perhaps, to relax even more… yet remaining totally alert… and noticing now how even your face muscles can begin to really relax… relaxing and letting go of the tensions that were there, almost, but not quite, completely unnoticed… just being vaguely aware of the skin and the muscles of your face settling… smoothing out… a good feeling… wondering just how long all that tension had been there… where it all came from in the first place… and then realising that you simply couldn't care less… because you can feel it draining away from you now… and that feels good… and as you continue to sense the beating of your heart and the absolute steadiness of your body's rhythm… you wonder at the fact that you are so absolutely relaxed and comfortable that you simply can't be bothered to even try to move even one single muscle… even though you know you easily could… if you wanted to… I know that you easily could, if you wanted to… but you simply can't be bothered to even try… allowing yourself to just be… relaxed and relaxing even more now… as lazy and relaxed as anyone could ever wish to be… and I wonder if you can now manage to relax even more… even though you are already as relaxed as it is possible for most people to ever be… just finding the last tiny traces of tension in your body and simply letting them go… with each easy, gentle, breath you breathe… allowing every muscle… every fibre… every cell of your entire body… to be as beautifully relaxed as anyone could ever wish to be…
Now use a deepener if necessary, preferably one which actively features the client.

CE type
The Charismatic Evidential personality responds well to unusual or novel ideas, like pretending to breath in through the finger tips and out through the feet, or drifting slowly downwards from the domed and richly carved ceiling of a large room. The room of course, represents their consciousness, the ceiling being that elusive moment of now, the floor the base of consciousness, and the door in the corner leading to a spiral staircase that descends to the infinitely vast, uncharted area of subconscious.

HAND BREATHING INDUCTION
Standard 'settling down' introduction, then:
Now I'm going to ask you to concentrate on your breathing for a few moments… but I wonder if you can imagine a very strange idea… a very strange idea indeed… I wonder if you can imagine that you can actually breathe… through your finger-tips… just imagine that rather strange idea that you can actually breathe in through your finger-tips… imagine that you can feel the air moving into your hands… quite slowly at first… just with a faint tingling sensation which you might feel on the back of your hands… or perhaps in your palms… and then just imagine that feeling moving slowly along your arms… through your elbows… just imagine that comforting flow of air moving through your elbows into your upper arms… and then into your shoulders… both arms… both shoulders… maybe finding again that faint tingling sensation… perhaps in your elbows or forearms this time… then moving down through the body… down into your legs… and through the thighs… through the knees into your shins and calves… and again, you might feel that faint tingling sensation, just there, just below your knees… then down through your ankles and into your feet… and out through the feet…
And you can find a great deal of calmness and easiness… in that rather strange idea that you can breathe in through your fingers… that you can actually feel the air moving through your whole body… in one single, warming, comforting… unidirectional flow… and because it is a unidirectional flow of air…. moving through your whole body in one single comforting flow… the calmness and relaxation you breathe in… simply doesn't get involved with the tensions and stresses that you breathe away from yourself… the calmness and relaxation that you breath in… simply doesn't get involved with the tensions and anxieties that you breath away from yourself… so that with each breath you take… with each word I speak… you find yourself becoming steadily more and more… relaxed… with each breath you take, with each word I speak… you become steadily more and more… relaxed… beginning now, perhaps, to notice the weight of your head against the back of the chair… wondering if that weight might seem to gently increase as you relax even more… the weight of your feet on the footrest… wondering if that weight, too, might seem to gently increase… and some people can find that sensation of total relaxation… that feels as if they are actually beginning to sink gently through the chair… actually beginning to sink gently through the chair… so that it seems almost as if the chair is beginning to envelop you… you are so relaxed… a good feeling… a feeling of great calmness and safety… great calmness… that increases with each breath you take, with each word I speak… as you continue to breathe in through your fingers… allowing that comforting, warming, relaxing flow of air… to move through your whole body and out through your feet…
And this is something you can do for yourself whenever you want to… simply settle yourself into a comfortable position… with your eyes closed… then simply imagine yourself breathing in through your fingers…. imagine that flow of air comforting and relaxing every part of your body…. then breathing out through your feet… and each time you breathe out just say to yourself: “Relax… now…”… just saying: “Relax… now…” to yourself with each breath you breath… will act as a trigger to your subconscious mind… and on the fourth time you say it… on the fourth time you say it… you'll find yourself to be more relaxed… than you've ever been before…
Now use any deepener which has powerful imagery.

IA type
        You can use almost any induction for the IA type of personality, but results tend to be better when based around a progressive relaxation method.

Relaxation
All right, you just make yourself comfortable and close your eyes now... just separate your hands and let them lie loosely in your lap... or by your sides if that's more comfortable... it's better if your legs are uncrossed... but it doesn't matter if you feel you need to move just slightly, now and again... you don't have to be absolutely still... just be comfortable and relax the whole body as much as you can... now I want you to take a deep breath and hold it for a moment before breathing out slowly... just allowing your whole body to relax as you do so... and I want you to keep your eyes closed now and just keep listening quietly to the sound of my voice... you'll be aware of those other sounds, too... sounds inside the building, sounds from outside, maybe passing traffic... but these won't disturb you... in fact, they'll help to relax you, because just for now the world outside is absolutely unimportant to you... the only sound you're interested in is the sound of my voice... and while you're listening to the sound of my voice, I want you to concentrate for a moment on your breathing... breathing slowly and steadily and evenly, just as if you were trying to convince somebody that you were absolutely sound asleep... and as you breathe out each time, just allowing your whole body to relax more and more... so that you gradually find yourself feeling as if your whole body was sinking further and further into the chair with each breath you breathe...
Now I want you to think about the top of your head... many people don't realise that tension often starts in the little muscles of the scalp, so I want you to think about those little muscles and the skin of your scalp and just allow them to let go and relax... now all the muscles of your face, just let them let go slack... your forehead and your eyes and eyelids... the cheeks, mouth and jaw muscles... it's a wonderful feeling when you let your face totally relax, because you can actually feel the skin settling, smoothing out... it might mean that your mouth opens slightly, but whatever's best to you, just let it happen... unclenching your teeth and relaxing your tongue, because the more you physically relax, the more you can mentally relax... you might find, as you relax, that your eyes flicker involuntarily from side to side, or you could feel your eyelids fluttering and quivering, even feeling as if they want to open… just a little… and these are all early signs of hypnosis but it doesn't matter if you don't experience any of those sensations because you'll enter hypnosis just as certainly and then you're going to find yourself more relaxed than you can ever remember…
Thinking about your neck and shoulder muscles now, and into the tops of your arms, letting all tensions drain away as you think on down through your elbows... into your forearms... down through your wrists and into your hands... right the way down into the very tips of your fingers and tips of your thumbs... just letting all those muscles let go and relax... and now think about your breathing, noticing that you're breathing even more steadily, even more slowly, as you relax more and more, so you can let any tension in the chest area simply drain away as you think on down to your stomach muscles, letting those muscles relax, too... think down into your back now, the long muscles either side of the spine, just let those muscles relax... and your waist... and your main thigh muscles, as you think on down through your knees, down through the shins and calves, just allowing all those areas to relax and let go, as you think on down through your ankles, through your feet, into the very tips of your toes... all the muscles of your body beautifully relaxed and easy... very lazy...
Follow this with an imagery based deepener, if necessary.

A 'Standard' deepener – the Tropical Island
In a moment I'm going to ask you to imagine certain things... but it doesn't matter if you find you can't imagine all the things I'm asking you to. You might even find your mind wandering quite a bit, so that my voice just fades into the background, but that doesn't matter either. the sound of my voice is going to continue to relax you and it really doesn't matter if you don't hear a word I say, because very soon now, you are going to be more relaxed than you have ever known... imagine yourself standing on the very top of a green hill on a tropical island... you can feel the warmth of the sun on your head and shoulders and can see the long grasses around you moving slightly in the gentlest of breezes... when you look down the hill you can see a narrow, winding path that disappears into a small forest.. and beyond the forest you can see the ocean... with sunlight from the clearest of blue skies glancing off the tops of the waves in the bay... so that the whole ocean seems to shimmer and sparkle... you begin to move lazily and easily down the path, with the ferns and grasses brushing gently against your legs as you pass... and you just catch the faint smell of salt borne in on the breeze... and become aware of the distant sound of the ocean on the shore... maybe hear seabirds calling faintly, from a long way off... you marvel at the deep sense of calmness and tranquillity that sweeps over you, as you move on down and down towards the forest... moving so easily, so effortlessly, you feel almost as though you're floating on air... and in no time at all you find yourself drifting through the trees, their leaves closing overhead to form a canopy... their branches making an irregular pattern against the clear blue of the sky... It's pleasantly cool in the forest and the gentle sound of birds singing, echoing faintly, and the scent of the trees and undergrowth relaxes you still further... as you move easily into the inviting depths, becoming lazier and lazier with each step you take...
You can hear a stream somewhere, its gurgling sound gradually mingling with the sound of the ocean... as you follow the winding path down and down towards the beach that you know is in front of you, weaving through the trees and brushing aside the occasional piece of foliage... until, quite suddenly... you feel the warmth of the sun on your head and shoulders again and you find yourself on a beautiful deserted beach... a beautiful golden shore line sweeping away in a gentle curve in front of you, to a distant point where the trees seem to come right down to the shoreline, so that their branches actually seem to overhang the ocean itself... you can feel the sand warm between your toes as you stroll lazily across the broad beach to the water's edge... the sand becomes a darker golden colour when you get there, and you enjoy the change to a moist, firm coolness beneath your feet as you wander along the shore, leaving a lazy trail of footprints in the sand behind you...
Every so often a larger than usual wave sends rivulets of water foaming around your feet... and as they recede, you notice how the sand is washed away from tiny coloured pebbles, glinting like jewels in the sun... the smell of the ocean, the sunlight on the waves, the sound of the water hissing over the sand... all these things seem to create a sense of timelessness for some unknown reason... and you find yourself a comfortable position, a grassy hollow maybe, to just sit and gaze out across the rolling depths to the horizon... trickling warm, golden sand idly through your fingers... there's a faint haze which makes it difficult for you to see exactly where the sky stops and the ocean starts... and as you try to fathom it out, you see a small white cloud appear from somewhere near the horizon... it comes towards the island quite quickly, growing larger as it approaches, until it's immediately overhead... the largest, fluffiest, whitest cloud you can ever remember... and you somehow know, just by instinct, that you can let all your worries, all your cares, all your fears, just drift up towards this large white cloud... you can actually see them drifting away from you in a long slow spiral... maybe like smoke from a bonfire... just spiralling away from you towards this large white cloud... the cloud absorbs all your worries into itself, swallowing up all your fears and anxieties and becoming steadily darker all the time, until, just as it reaches its darkest, just as the last part of that spiral of your worries and cares disappears inside it... the sun bursts through!... dispelling every one of your worries, every one of your fears and anxieties, to the edges of the universe... leaving you totally relaxed and perfectly at ease with yourself, without a single care in the World...
And now, all your troubles and cares having floated away from you, you settle yourself down into a comfortable position and just drift off into a deep and relaxing sleep... and while you sleep, you have a dream... you dream you're walking down a long corridor, stretching away in front of you in a long gentle curve... so long that you can't actually see the end of it... but you know that this corridor is in the very depths of your subconscious mind... in the part of your mind that knows just what to do and just how to do it... and as you begin to move along this beautiful corridor, becoming even more relaxed, even more lazy, you realise that time and space are beginning to lose their meaning... and slowly the walls of the corridor seem to dissolve, leaving you in a large room... the room is full of a gentle golden light that relaxes you still further and you suddenly realise, with a surge of inspiration and pleasure... that what you once saw as limits are merely stepping stones to greater success... it suddenly dawns on you, with a surge of joy and anticipation, that what once seemed to you to be the limits of your personality, of your skills and abilities, are nothing more than stepping stones to even greater success... one wall of this room is like a huge television screen with words and images flashing across it too fast for you to see... and you realise that this is information being transmitted to different parts of your mind and body... and you use your mind to will it to stop and as you do so, the screen clears and the word 'READY' appears in large flashing letters...

And now your mind is prepared and receptive to everything I am going to say to you... and everything I say will be accepted and acted upon by your subconscious... it will have a steadily increasing effect upon the way you think, the way you feel, and the way you behave over the coming days, and weeks, and months...

SUBCONSCIOUS PRIMER SCRIPT
        On the first hypnosis session with a client, the following script, which acts as a deepener, can be used as an extension of whatever induction is used. It has the advantage of 'gliding' imperceptibly into the real work of the session:

Now you're so beautifully relaxed… just allowing your thoughts to drift… all the way back…. all the way back to those childhood years… those years between when you were born and finally made it to maturity… and for some people, maturity is as early as fifteen or so, while for others it may be as late as seventeen or even eighteen… just letting your mind drift all the way back to those years, when there was you, and there were the others… things they didn't understand… things you didn't understand… that time of best friends and worst enemies and not always being sure just who was which… when everything was so very new… when everything was so very new and all for the first time… when you were still finding out and discovering all the things you could do… and the things you couldn't do… and the things you weren't supposed to do, but did anyway… just letting your mind drift all the way back to those years… not searching for anything in particular, not questioning what you find there… but just allowing your subconscious mind to go where it needs to go…
        And I don't know whether you'll see pictures in your mind's eye… pictures that can sometimes be so vivid, so real, that it's just as if you're looking out through your forehead, so that what you saw then you can see again now, and what you felt then, you can think again now… or maybe you'll just find yourself thinking thoughts, just remembering… or perhaps just feelings will come into your mind and body… feelings or pictures, or just thoughts and memories… or maybe even nothing at all, for some of the time… and whatever happens is right for you, because your subconscious, that powerful and all-knowing subconscious of yours, knows exactly what's right for you… so whatever happens, it's exactly what should happen… for you… exactly the right thing, without you searching for anything in particular, just allowing your mind to drift to wherever it wants to go… and because you have to do absolutely nothing at all, you simply cannot get it wrong… so you can be easy in your mind that whatever you find yourself thinking and feeling, it's the right thing to think and feel…
        And now I wonder if you can just let your mind drift around those early years, just remembering how things could sometimes seem so upsetting sometimes, back then… so upsetting that you can perhaps almost feel that same feeling again now… in your mind… or maybe even in your body… maybe sadness… or anger… or any of those other emotions that you could sometimes feel so sharply when you were just a child… in those years before maturity… jealousy, perhaps, or frustration… or feelings of being left out of things… and now I'd like you to gather a memory into your mind, one of those times from the past… and tell me what it is you find yourself thinking of, the very first thing you find yourself thinking of.

WAIT, URGE, GUIDE if necessary.

        Good, that's very good… now we're going to use a process called… free association… to let your subconscious mind link that memory up to any other memory that it knows is somehow connected… and all you have to do is just to allow that first memory to simply drift away… even push it away… and allow another thought to take its place or maybe reach down into wherever your memories are stored and grab the first thing you find… without consciously trying to make any connection at all… and again, I want you to tell me what you're thinking of…

WAIT, URGE, GUIDE if necessary.

        That's good… and all you have to do every time you come to see me is just that… just exactly what you did there, just then… and whatever you find yourself thinking is absolutely the right thing for you to think… whatever it is, however silly it seems to you, or however embarrassing it seems… and sometimes people suddenly find themselves thinking of something absolutely awful that happened to them… something absolutely awful… that upset them so much at the time, they thought their whole world would never be right again… back there, back then, in those childhood years (pause)… and, of course, it's all right to feel again the emotions that went with those things… all right to feel any emotion that's still there, in the subconscious, stuck there since those childhood days…
And there were so many things that could happen to a child… unpleasant things sometimes, things that the grown-ups maybe knew absolutely nothing about… things that other children did (pause)… things that other grown-ups did (pause)… some things that were games which went wrong (pause)… or just confusing things that you didn't quite understand (pause)… things that left you feeling uncomfortable or bewildered, or sometimes hopelessly lost or completely alone… and maybe even sometimes leaving you in an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar people all around you (pause)… and there's sometimes fear, too, back there in those childhood years… fear when it seemed there was something that was just too big to deal with all on your own (pause)…
        And just about now you might suddenly find yourself thinking about something that you really wish you had not thought about at all… a guilty secret… a guilty secret you've kept quiet about for years and years that suddenly seems to fill your mind so much that… there's nothing else there for a moment or two… fills your mind so much that it seems to you that I must surely realise exactly what you're thinking… a guilty secret that you'd give just about anything to keep quiet so that nobody found out…
        But all those things back there, in those childhood years, are just memories now… and it's safe to remember those things… because they are from a long time ago, when you were just a child… and I wonder if you can see yourself looking just as you did when you were a small child… just make a vivid picture in your mind of you as a small child… and now I want you to do a really clever, very special trick… I want you, as an adult, to reach back through time…

Which of the following you use depends on how well you feel your client can react. (2) is best, but some people, in particularly RO males, tend to 'freeze' on it. In those cases, start with (1) and observes their reaction – if it is evident, then go on to (2).

1. … and just be there with that small child for a few moments… just being there and offering comfort in any way you can… offering comfort so that that small child just knows that it's ok… that it's safe to remember now… that it's all right to tell now…
   

(2) …and give that small child a hug… just reach back through time with you as an adult and give that child a hug… and just say: “It's all right…” to that small child (pause)… just say: “Everything's all right… it's safe to remember, now… all right to tell, now…” (pause)
        
Be ready with the tissues at this point and allow enough time for your client to 'focus'. By far the vast majority will hit an emotional response which may well be profound.

And now you can let your mind drift away from the past… coming back to the here and now, coming back up to date, back to this room, to the here and now, with the speed of an express train so that all those memories and feelings are not only years behind, but thousands upon thousands of miles behind, too… so that you can leave behind any unpleasant feelings we disturbed today… just leaving them here with me, when you go… and next time you come to see me, it's going to be twice as easy to be twice as relaxed… easy to remember things… easy to tell me the things you remember… but in the meantime, you'll find yourself with all sorts of flashbacks to those childhood years… all sorts of little memories occurring to you, just when you least expect it… and sometimes in dreams, too… and you'll find that you remember your dreams and you can write those dreams down and bring them to me the next time you come to see me…
        Next time you come to see me, it's going to be twice as easy to be twice as relaxed, easy to remember things, easy to tell me things… but in the meantime, you're going to find yourself with a good feeling of being at ease within yourself… when you close my door behind you as you leave, you're going to find yourself with a good feeling, a feeling that it's all going to be all right… in fact, you're going to find that things that used to upset you are going to now just calm and relax you, and the more they could previously upset you, the more they're going to now just simply calm and simply relax you… so that all the things you used to have trouble in dealing with are going to seem so easy to you from now on, you'll find yourself wondering if they were ever truly a problem in the first place… so easy to you from now on, you'll find yourself being an inspiration to other people… and that feels good…
And next time you come to see me, it's going to be easier to relax, easy to remember things, easy to tell me things… just knowing within yourself that you're going to tell me everything you remember, and everything you tell me will lead you one step closer to the time when you can be… exactly as you wish to be… one step closer to you being… the best person you can be.

And now it's time for me to bring the session to an end….         Etc.

EXTRA INFORMATION FROM THE LONG PERSONALITY TEST

        Besides an awareness of your client's true personality type, you now have access to a mass of information about him/her which will allow you to:

1. Choose the best and most effective induction method.
   
2. Accurately assess the best therapy model.
   
3. Recognise the likely existence of repression.
   
4. Recognise the likely existence of cumulative trauma.
   
5. Recognise the likely existence of disavowal/denial.
   
6. During the analytical process, guide your client to likely conflict areas.
   
7. Anticipate the approach of abreaction.
   
8. Readily recognise recalls likely to be associated with conflict.
   
9. More readily create transference.
   
10. Deal with resistance issues more effectively.
    

We will look at each of these issues:

Inductions
        By selecting the best induction for the personality type, you will achieve a better state of hypnosis in a shorter time than otherwise. This is particularly important where the RO and CE individuals are concerned, and there are two sample scripts included here. As far as the IA is concerned, though, you can use just about any type of induction you prefer. Progressive relaxation works well. Scripts are included at the end of these notes.

Assessing the therapy model
        If you have an IA client, then unless s/he has presented for a simple matter (driving test fears, anxiety concerning an important occasion, stopping smoking, etc.) you will definitely need to find the cause of the presenting symptom in some way – the complexity of the type almost guarantees that there will be unresolved issues connected with it. Using RCT techniques will provide a more thorough and probably slightly faster therapy.
        It is with the RO type that RCT really comes into its own. The RO is not good usually good at any form of free association, and their conflicts tend to have a slightly more logical slant than those of the IA. When the symptom is relatively straightforward (Aerophobia, for example) then Regression, as opposed to analysis, may well be the way to go here. When the problem is complex – Aerophobia, but only when going on holiday, for example – then Analysis is indicated, though there will need to be interaction based around the answers to the questionnaire.
        CE individuals respond well to imaginative work, but tend to have a low boredom threshold, so Regression, because it is more interactive and tends to be faster, is indicated, even when the problem is complex. The CE tends not to have a complex emotional life and is 'me centred' so it is quite easy to excite their symptoms in order to make regression work effectively.

In all cases, free association should be encouraged when the presenting symptoms are of a Hysteric nature – even within the regression model. Hysterical illness is characterised by it's physical evidence, things like: spontaneous vomiting, sexual difficulties of all sorts, bowel problems, some asthma, some obesity, manias (Klepto-, Hypo-, Hyper-, Religious, Nympho-, etc.), in other words a noticeable physical manifestation of conflict. Non-hysteric illness includes depression, bad temper, phobias, and obsessive thought processes like Hypochondria, Jealousy, Hatred, etc.
Briefly, physiological symptoms are likely to be hysterical in origin (based on feelings and imagination with no logic), while emotion-based symptoms may have their origins in a behavioural response (and therefore be based on a logical thought process of sorts).
There is no black and white division here and some common symptoms – the panic attack, for example – may well fit into either or both categories.

Repression
Repressed memories are more likely to be of emotions than of events, though it is very likely that parts of event chains will have been 'buried' or forgotten. I often explain that repressed memories are like islands in our minds – they are isolated from other events because they were so different, but that we can approach them via our emotional states. Repression is strongly suggested where there is a score on any one question of 2 or less, the repression being obviously associated with the behaviour pattern in question.

Cumulative Trauma
This is brought about by a form of brainwashing, life or people teaching the individual that s/he is a failure/stupid/inferior/unimportant by continually insisting that this is the case. Once this belief system is established, the individual concerned will behave as if it is so because s/he will KNOW that they cannot do anything else. Thus they will continually strengthen the belief by confirmation. Usually, they will not even notice any 'evidence' to the contrary, or will ignore/deny it. Cumulative Trauma is indicated by any or all of: scattered scores, i.e. noticeable inconsistency; consistent low scores (3-5) in any one group (shyness often being the result); thought incongruence; low scores on base questions (1,5,9); denial.

Disavowal/denial
The individual has, in his/her early years, done what s/he perceived as a bad thing. The event has been all-but forgotten (though not repressed) and their behaviour pattern or symptom has been developed as a kind of justification, or as protection against repeating the transgression, or possibly to disguise the fact that they could ever have done such a thing. The process is consciously designed to protect integrity. Disavowal/denial is indicated by an excessively high percentage of any one personality group. Not many individuals achieve higher than 41%; 45% would be high and over 50% is excessive, probably leading to some form of obsession. The denial will be associated with the personality group generally; RO is probably denying that vulnerability ever existed, IA that s/he could ever be anything other than caring, respectable, nice or whatever, and CE that they ever needed the support of another. The effects of this situation are uncomfortable:
The RO character is overbearing, even menacing, and may seem, or even be, psychotic.
The IA will be weepy and melancholic with little or no personal resolve or 'moral fibre'.
The CE will be full of noise and bluster and is likely to exhibit an alarming lack of responsibility.

Guiding to conflict
        During analysis/regression, where our client is unable to 'focus' on anything, we can guide them by using one of the conflict situations they have revealed. Start by basing the questions around the responses in the IA section of the questionnaire, i.e. “When did you learn that it was important to you to be liked?” You can also ask How, Who taught you, Why, Where. Later, if necessary, take the conflict related to the major group (if that is IA, second major), i.e. “Where did you learn that you had to stick to your guns?” Used properly, this technique can often produce startling results.
        
Anticipating Abreaction
        The type of abreactive states listed in the personality analysis make it easy to know when to keep your client's mind just where it is, though you should say nothing unless they show signs of trying to 'shake it off' which they will sometimes do with a physical action.

Recognising Recalls
        The understanding of your client's personality type makes it easier to spot those recalls which need fuller exploration than might have been given. They are shown in the personality analysis against the heading: Areas of conflict.

Transference
        This is obviously easier when you understand your client's personality group; you start with the advantage of knowing more about the way they think than they believe you do. It is easy to create empathy with another when you know what they like!

Resistance
        Every client will show it at some point; knowing what they like in life can help you get them through it. Work towards: (a) the IA feeling how it will be when they are more comfortable with themselves; (b) the RO planning what to do once s/he has more control over his/her life; (c) the CE imagining how it will be when they can start doing things again.

PREPARING THE SUBCONSCIOUS FOR ANALYSIS

        The results we get in any form of regression therapy, whether we are using a rapid technique or a more 'standard' free association method, depend on how we prepare the subconscious. The initial consultation is very important, since this is where our client will gain insight into what we intend. The following notes will help.

1. Tell them that we are born with a personality already in place and give a potted version of the 100,000 year history of the human race.
   
2. Explain that the tribal types that were our ancestors, the Warriors, Settlers, and the Nomads, still exist today and outline the behaviour patterns of each group in their modern form.
   
3. Explain the concept of stacks (see below) of emotional responses in the mind and how they can be altered by the processes of living to a point where they simply don't match what we are designed to deal with.
   
4. Conduct the personality test that reveals the true underlying type. Before you tell your client what it shows, ask them what group they think they fit into. It is surprising how many will have assessed themselves incorrectly.
   
5. Explain that the subconscious automatically tends to focus on any unfinished business, since Homo Sapiens is a problem-solving animal.
   
6. Illustrate how unfinished business is quite often the result of childhood misconception, so that when the event is viewed with an adult perspective, understanding dawns and stress is instantaneously released. An example is given, below.
   

Stacks
        I use this concept to illustrate how our subconscious can become troubled. I ask the client to imagine that their subconscious mind contains stacks of each and every emotion or reaction that we can experience – fear, guilt, love, confidence, joy, anger, etc. I explain that when we are born our stacks are perfect for the way we really are, but that life soon makes changes. So when an IA, for instance, is confronted with a situation that should really be dealt with by a RO, part of his or her system of stacks goes into overload. The same thing happens if s/he is required to deal with a situation with a behaviour mode that is 'wrong' for them. If something frightens us more than we have the capacity to withstand, it draws upon what is, at the beginning, the biggest stack of all, the confidence stack. A child is not born with low confidence; they acquire it, or, more precisely, they start to lose confidence from the very moment that they enter the world.
This is probably the most important part of the setting up of the client for analysis. What I usually do is to tell them we'll take just one stack as an example, we'll say that FEAR stack. I ask them to imagine it as a pile of coins, and then I ask them to imagine a small child wandering away from mum for a moment and suddenly being confronted with the hugest dog he has ever seen in his life. The dog barks and the child knows, for a split second, that he is about to be eaten! For a moment he's rooted to the spot, can't speak, and his legs have turned to jelly. “Now, that's got to be worth at least five pounds on that fear stack, hasn't it?” is what I usually say at that point. So the little lad rushes off back to mum, buries his head in her skirts, and allows himself to feel safe. But because the subconscious remembers everything, that fear will be having some effect on him for the rest of his life, even if he doesn't realise it exactly. It will contribute to his expectations of what he will find in life and how he will react.
When that memory is recalled during free association, it is instantly viewed as an adult; the dog does not seem so ferocious and he realises he was not about to be eaten. The fear was unjustified and so the subconscious makes an instant adjustment, removing a whole stack of coins from that stack… but that clutch of fear is not thrown away. It is energy and it must be transferred somewhere. So it is returned to where it was taken from in the first place… that confidence stack.
I explain, too, that quite often, this transferring of energy happens at a subconscious level so that they may not actually be aware of it happening or why it has happened; therefore, it is absolutely vital that they tell me every single thing they remember, since every single thing they remember will have affected all of their emotional stacks in some way and it is necessary for the memory to be revealed in order for the subconscious to make its adjustments from child responses to adult confidence. In this way they quickly get the idea that every single thing they tell me is leading to their getting better. It is the best way I have ever found of persuading a client not to be selective with what they tell me. I remind them of this in the closing moments of each session: “… remembering that every single thing you tell me… leads you one step closer to that day when… you can be the best person you can be…”

FREE ASSOCIATION AND REGRESSION

Regression to cause

This does have certain limitations, but it can be very fast and effective far more times than you might imagine. You might actually have already used something like it before - it's been around for a while under various different disguises, the most common one being the Watkins Affect Bridge. This version of it works especially well after preparing the client with the 'Subconscious Primer' script given elsewhere in these notes.
It differs mainly from what we might call 'standard' analysis in that interaction is not only permissible, it is an essential part of it - still using clean language though. It's major advantage, other than speed, is that there is far less transference generated.
After the induction/deepener, continue with:
        “This feeling you have inside you has been stuck in your mind for a long, long time… you've tried ignoring it, you've tried denying it, you've even tried to run away from it sometimes… but now, it's time to face it. I'm going to count from one to five now and as I do so that feeling is going to increase in intensity until it's as real as it's ever been before.”
Count 1 - 5 slowly. Increase excitation, watching for signs of unease (you need as much of it as possible) and slowing the count down if necessary until you find it. A bio-feedback meter helps enormously, here. Hypnosis will, of course, increase quite dramatically. Then:
“Now just stay focussed on that feeling in your mind while I count from ten to one… as I count from ten back to one, your subconscious is going to take you back through time, all the way back through time, to a memory or a person or a place or maybe just a thought from way back then, that has absolutely everything to do with that feeling in your mind.”
Count 10 - 1 slowly.
Most of the time, at the count one, your client will offer you something and you work with it, exploring it until it's exhausted. Then use it to start the whole process again, if necessary, until it becomes obvious that you've hit the originating cause.
Sometimes, though, resistance kicks in and what you get is: “Nothing, sorry, nothing at all.” No problem! I just ask the client to answer what I ask them with the first thing that comes into their mind. What might follow is something like:
Therapist: “Ok, just give me your first impressions… is it light or dark?”
Client: “Light…”
Therapist: “Ok, and are you indoors or outdoors when it's light?”
Client: “Indoors…”
Therapist: “Good. And are you alone or are you with other people when you're indoors and it's light?”
Client: “My Mum's there.”
Therapist: “Good. Your Mum's there. And how old are you when your Mum's there and you're indoors and it's light?”
Client: “I'm seven.”
Therapist: “You're seven. And what else is there about that when you're seven and your Mum's there and you're indoors and it's light…?”
You get the idea. There are many other things you can ask, always feeding back as much of the information that your client has given you as you sensibly can.
The following are useful (not in any particular order):
WHAT CLOTHES ARE YOU WEARING?
ARE YOU HOT OR COLD?
IS IT SUNNY OR CLOUDY?
ARE YOU HAPPY OR SAD OR 'JUST THERE'?
HOW DOES MUM (OR WHOEVER) LOOK?
WHERE COULD YOU BE GOING?
WHERE COULD YOU BE?
WHAT COULD YOU BE DOING?
WHAT COULD BE HAPPENING THERE?
WHERE COULD MUM (OR WHOEVER) BE? (when 'My Mum's not there' has been volunteered.
It's not usually too long before you client will say something along the lines of: “Oh, I remember now, this was the time when…” Then, of course, you work with it, explore it and maybe free associate it if necessary.

Abreaction
What we are seeking to achieve is an abreaction to release the trapped emotion that is the cause of our client's ills. As for what abreaction actually is, it is the revivication of a traumatic experience that occurred in a moment of great trauma – usually, though not exclusively, during our formative years. In other words, the release of a repression. An adult repression can occur as a result of, say, a traumatic road accident, when we then tend to call it amnesia, instead.
There can be three separate, though intimately connected, memories involved with any form of repression. The perception of the event (usually visual); the physical sensations; and the emotional response. And, yes, they are entirely separate memories and each may 'surface' together or individually.
It is not unusual for a client to recall, in one session, a physical sensation of some sort so strongly that s/he can actually feel it, yet not discover the emotional response or the exact nature of the event until their next session or even the one after that. It is the emotional part of any abreaction (often unwarranted guilt, shame, or vulnerability) that is the most important and once this has been 'surfaced' and worked through, it is likely that the client will display little or no interest in further investigation of that particular memory. It is not uncommon, in fact, for the emotion to be released without ever discovering what was the cause of it; this appears to matter little, for catharsis will still be effected and symptoms still alleviated.
This revivication can be so realistic, as far as the client is concerned, that their body will actually reproduce the physical changes that occurred at the time of the event; if there was an element of suffocation, for example, your client may suddenly find great difficulty breathing – or may even stop breathing for a few moments. If they were physically abused in some way, then they may well feel that same abuse – or the results of it – whilst in your chair, just as if it were happening to them right at that very moment. It is even possible to see finger marks appear where a slap on the face has been recalled. There is no mystery here, simply the autonomic system perceiving pain and reacting by increasing blood supply to the area to heel effect any repair that is necessary. A client may scream, shout, sob, sweat, shake violently, curl up into a foetus, gag… it can be a truly unnerving experience for the unwary! But all the therapist has to do is make sure that they 'go for it' whole-heartedly. Urge them on through it, though being careful only to guide and not lead. Do not touch them – unless you want to become part of the trauma. Not only that, it may distract them from the job in hand and they need no comforting hand right now, anyway. Something wonderful is happening; they are setting themselves free from a prison of their mind's making and their life is going to change immeasurably for the better over the next few months.
It is not fair to say that all their symptoms will disappear overnight, but from that cathartic moment onwards, your client's symptomatic work will start to fade. Usually, you and your client will have an understanding of why the event that has been remembered should have caused their symptoms. If not, it always possible that there is something else to be released.
There is something of immense importance when working with abreactive states and that is to make absolutely certain that your client had accessed the emotional 'roots' of their psychological difficulty. It is the originating cause of trauma (sometimes called the Initial Sensitising Event, or ISE) that we are after and nothing else will do. It is actually quite easy to ascertain whether they have been to the right place or not… if the emotional response does not start to fade within a few minutes, or if it returns to its former strength each time the memory is accessed, then there is still work to do. Work backwards from that memory using either direct regression or free associative techniques to an earlier memory with the same or similar emotional qualities and work through that one in the same way. Keep going until the negative emotion has cleared and cannot be restored. The client is then well on the road to sound emotional health.

Free Association
        In many ways, this could be considered as the cream of therapeutic methods, since its effects are extraordinarily far-reaching and permanent. The only drawbacks are:

1. It can take longer than the Regression to Cause model (though does not necessarily do so)
   
2. There is not always an immediate improvement in the symptoms.
   

        Against that, the advantages of the method are:

1. Therapeutic effects are far wider-reaching.
   
2. It is not necessary for our client to follow a specific train of thought (in fact, there will quite often be three or four in evidence at any one time).
   
3. They will 'clear up' all sorts of unfinished childhood business during their therapy, in addition to resolving their main symptom and so reduce the potential to become psychologically ill again.
   
4. Useful 'side effects' of increased self-confidence, self worth/esteem, and generally lowered stress levels.
   

We seek the same end result as with direct regression work, hopefully releasing a repressed memory (which might be purely an emotion) allowing our client to let go of the psychological burden(s) that have beset them. The major differences with this method are that it is far less interactive and direct. The therapist's major contribution at the beginning is to teach the client how to free associate in the first place, encourage them in their early efforts, and to watch for resistance and attempts to evade issues (more about that later), gently leading them back on course should they do so. The main problem with this method, though, is that it is just too easy! In fact, it is so easy that it can sometimes be difficult to convince the client that they are actually doing the right thing.
        Free association simply means allowing the subconscious mind to make links between ideas and concepts with as little interference as possible from conscious thought processes. Once in hypnosis, we ask our client to cast their mind back to their earliest years (we work almost exclusively in the childhood years during free association) and tell us the first thing they think of, without analysing it, without questioning it in any way. Then, without trying to make any connection at all in the conscious mind, tell us the next thing that comes to mind. Then the next… and the next, and so on. As simple as that. Well, very nearly; we need to make sure that what we teach our client to do is not simply to tell us memories, but psychological experiences.
The difference between a memory and a psychological experience is that the former may well be just of the physical details of an event, whilst the latter will employ the emotional responses as well. The majority of people will do this automatically but some, especially those who have been subject to repeated abuse (not necessarily sexual), will seek to avoid confronting those emotional states. You will have to work a little harder with those individuals, maybe asking them to go back over something that seems as if there should be more of an emotional response than is apparent, and getting them to imagine that they were there right now, right this minute.
After one or two sessions of you reminding your client what you want him/her to do, you should find that they will be silent for no more than a few seconds between recalls – indeed they MUST NOT be silent for more than a few seconds, for this would mean they were being selective in relating their thoughts – the exact opposite of what is supposed to happen! We want the very first thought each time, if our work is to be effective.
Certain criteria are of importance:

1. Recalls need to be of actual events, rather than vague descriptions of the way things used to be, the daily journey to school, aimless wandering in the mind around the area where they lived, etc.
   
2. Sequential or chronological recalls are not free association and won't get your client to where they want to be. Example: “I remember a holiday… we're getting the car… now we're driving along the road… now we're stopping for a picnic… but dad wants us to get going again…” and so on.
   
3. Diversion along the lines of: “I thought this was where I lived when I was five but now I'm not certain, because I can remember a tree in the garden and we didn't have a tree in the garden of that house, so I'm not sure…”
   
4. Not admitting a memory. A bio-feedback meter will reveal this by a sudden sharp increase in the reading. Body language will often show it, too, in sudden 'waggling' movements of the feet (an urge to run away) or in other sudden movements, especially turning the head away from you.
   
5. Deletion. This is shown by disconnected statements like: “My father was a good man.” Why have they said that? Are they justifying something? Something is missing, deleted. Maybe there should be a “but…” at the end of that statement! Sometimes it can be this sort of thing: “I'd have loved to have piano lessons…” So why didn't they? Something missing again. The therapist needs to explore these areas. A good way to do this is to rephrase the statement if necessary and put a question at the end of it: “And you didn't have piano lessons, because…?” Always use 'because?' rather than 'why?' – it begs a far more direct answer.
   

As you may now realise, free association can be a more difficult discipline for the therapist than direct regression, but it is one well worth learning, and an extremely powerful healing tool.

Back to shopping

Back to top