• Humanist Hypnosis is a therapeutic and coaching technique.
• Humanist Hypnosis is a type of Hypnosis, suitable for all people and situations, and applies to children, adolescents and adults without any particular conditions.
• Humanist Hypnosis is most effective for very logical, rational, Cartesian people or those in fear of letting go.
• Humanist Hypnosis may be the only type of psychotherapy whose foundations are scientific and can be demonstrated experimentally.
• Humanist Hypnosis is a way of accessing the Unconscious, but also the Higher Consciousness in terms of a global information field.
• No one loses consciousness in Humanist Hypnosis, quite the contrary.
• There is no hypnotic suggestions in Humanist Hypnosis, no subliminal technics or manipulation of the Unconscious by the hypnotherapist.
• Humanist hypnotic inductions seek to “raise consciousness” instead of further “put the person to sleep”.
• Understandings are important in Humanist Hypnosis, and meaning is therapeutic. In this way, Humanist Hypnosis is an equally pedagogical approach.
• The therapist in Humanist Hypnosis is a guide and the patient acts on themselves independently with the help of the therapist.
• Humanist Hypnosis provides a logical structure for understanding the phenomena that individuals may experience during their hypnosis experiences and in their lives.

~oOo~

MILLENIALS BASELINES
American therapeutic approaches allow rapid changes through the use of mechanical techniques that do not require an understanding (or even knowledge) of psychology. “Whatever the whys and wherefores, only the how interests us” say Ericksonian and NLP practitioners.
It is clear that although it facilitates the process of learning, which explains their popularity, such a shallow approach cannot address the underlying problems that many people experience ( in relation to their education, the structure of their Unconscious, which is tied to their life history, “family loyalties”, etc.).

Although it preserves the rapid response of “brief therapies”, Humanist Hypnosis is deeply rooted in European tradition (Freud, Jung, etc.), which is imbued with a profound and existential meaning and significance.

It also reflects the millenary experience of the first philosopher-therapists, most notably those from ancient Greece, who already depicted Consciousness (Thales, Pythagoras, Plato, Xenocrat, etc.).

And more recently, the fundamentals of Humanist cosmology can be traced back to Leibniz and Pierre Janet and to Quantum Physics discoveries made over the last century.

It is, however, the first time since a new form of Hypnosis incorporates all these aspects in a therapy-friendly way.

REUNIFYING THE PERSON WITHIN THE SELF
Humanist Hypnosis, as hypnotherapy, addresses both emotional health and support during physical illnesses – and it does so by considering many of the person’s psychological criteria, most commonly found in psychology or psychoanalysis.
It is also the only type of Hypnosis that is applied by unifying the person (and not dissociating them), and that is crucial:
“For mental stability and even physiological health to be safeguarded, the consciousness and the unconscious must be fully connected, in order to develop in parallel. Cutting them off or dissociating them from each other results in psychological disorders,” said Carl G. Jung.

Yet, the former Hypnosis operates precisely by increasing the gap between the conscious and the Unconscious! The person literally “falls asleep” as one would disconnect the puppeteer from their puppet. It is indeed an easy and effective method to reach an altered state of consciousness – one that allows access to the Unconscious, and therefore to healing – but this happens by fostering dissociation, which also contributes to the person’s problems: you remove a thorn, but you do not change the situation!
Another weak point is that accessing the unconscious through dissociation transfers the keys of change to the hands of the therapist alone and leads to the unavoidable passivity of the person, whose “free will” can only be reduced to agreeing to let it happen.

The person heals but remains the same. A relapse may occur if the problem originated from “what they are” (from the “field” as Pastor would have said) because the thorn has been removed but the person has not changed. They still have no understanding of their situation or of the therapy procedure. Nothing has changed in them…
This is not important when it comes to allergy treatment or anesthesia, but this “non-evolution” is extremely harmful when dealing with severe disorders that are linked to the person’s own substrate.

The techniques of Humanist Hypnosis, on the contrary, therefore, tend towards a greater unity, both inward and outward, a greater “consciousness-Unconscious” reunification, with a consequent greater self-awareness for the person, who can thereby uncover the causes and reasons of their uneasiness and do whatever is necessary to address it.
It is probably a real personal journey that can be more difficult at times – although one that has proven to be essential to the person’s own health and emotional well-being over the long term.

It is also a type of Hypnosis that would suit Freud and Jung: no personal projection on the part of the therapist, no manipulation (even therapeutic), no transfer (the therapist is only a guide, without authority or influence) and most importantly: no dissociation of consciousness, the primary cause of unwellness.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
The hypnotic induction in dissociative Hypnosis (classic, Ericksonian) stimulates the unconscious functioning and causes the person to fall into a state of unconsciousness, from which they will have to be brought out at the end of the session. The hypnotherapist is in charge of ” acting on ” the person’s unconscious, who stays passive.

For Humanist Hypnosis (as for Noetics, Hinduism and Buddhism), a person’s Ordinary State of Consciousness is considered to be a state of illusion (Māyā) – in other words, we will act as though the person had not really “awakened”, as though there were ” asleep ” on a daily basis… caught up in the flow of suggestions coming from family and society, along with their own self-suggestions, often negative (inner dialogue)… we will, therefore, implement the same technique used to get someone out of a hypnotic trance! We will literally wake them up to themselves.

You would think that trying to wake someone already awake would not be effective. Well, it becomes clear that, as a result of the Humanist induction “in opening”, the person exits their usual state of consciousness: a certain enlargement of their perception occurs, which puts them in a Modified State of Consciousness (MSC), ” under Hypnosis “, because they are not used to it and their little conscious mind is not able to manage such a state… That is the Heightened State of Consciousness in Humanist Hypnosis.

Of course, as with any hypnotic state, this state is temporary. As a result, the person largely regains their normal perception at the end of the experience.The Heightened State of Consciousness is only used for therapy purposes (like any HSC in hypnotherapy). It makes it possible to obtain all the well known hypnotic phenomena (anesthesia, arm levitation or catalepsy, etc.), but induced by the person themselves, “in consciousness”.

As is understandable, this experience can sometimes upset a person’s existential conceptions. This is what allows the spectacular therapeutic results of Humanist Hypnosis. At the same time, it can be unsettling…
This is why Humanist Hypnosis also advocates and proposes a “philosophy” of life: an intellectual and life reference framework that takes into account the person’s new awareness (see “Creators of Reality”).

~oOo~

THE ALLIANCE of the “Why” and “How”
Humanist Hypnosis unites the sphere of Meaning, with a capital letter, the one that makes people grow, heal and prevent relapses – the “Why” alone able to foster the most radical transformations in life, and the sphere of the “How”, with its easily assimilable technical structures, accessible to all, and which allow fast changes as a result.

Given the wealth of psychological understanding of a Freud or a Jung, we can easily understand the reluctance of traditional psychologists to accept the superficial and mechanical techniques of Ericksonian Hypnosis, TA or NLP…Practitioners of these American approaches seem to play with deep, fundamental and powerful cogs, whose they know nothing about (which is often true!). There is a reason to be really scared!

Moreover, practitioners of Brief Therapies blame traditional therapists for their lack of tangible actions: understanding is good, but it leads nowhere if you only know to do only in that way… Which is just as true.

Humanist Hypnosis combines these two worlds. First, a deep and structured understanding of the human mind and life, based on a thousand-year-old knowledge, including Jung, Patricia d’Angeli and Olivier Lockert’s breakthroughs in the field of the psyche, and the discoveries of quantum physics, string theory and the “new physics”.

The Meaning of life, symbolic and fundamental, archetypal as much as that of daily life, is essential to Humanist Hypnosis.

The keys to using this new understanding come next: simple tools and practices that will allow you to heal, grow, evolve, towards peace and harmony, individual, loving, relational, in a practical way, in everyday life – for you, in family life and at work.

Therapy in Humanist Hypnosis can be “brief”, in that many simple problems will be solved in 1 to 3 sessions (phobia, quitting smoking, weight loss, stress, etc.), although some requests will presuppose a deep unwellness requiring many new understandings and the step-by-step implementation of a completely new way of life…

In such cases, the therapy will obviously entail a change of consciousness and a maturing of mind that will take time, several months or several years. The Humanist therapist will then be there for the person when needed.

Humanist Hypnosis is a path to the opening of consciousness, autonomy and inner unity
The best way to really grasp all the benefits of this new hypnosis is to read the founding works of Humanist Hypnosis:

– “Humanist Hypnosis for beginners” will get you started with your first steps.
– If you wish to practice Humanist Hypnosis with others or to move further yourself, you may want to consider more advanced books such as “Humanist Hypnosis” and “Psychotherapy” (course books).
– Read the novel “Creators of Reality” for some practical examples and philosophy.
For those who simply want to practice on themselves, you can train with “Self-hypnosis for beginners” or read healing stories in the book “Daily Miracles“.

~oOo~

Some technical points of reference, in a nutshell:

• Ordinary hypnosis addresses the unconscious, the person in a state of hypnosis lets it happen…
  > Humanist Hypnosis addresses the capital Consciousness, the person must imperatively participate in the hypnotic intervention.
• The ordinary hypnotist “hypnotizes” you…
  > While your guide in Humanist Hypnosis will help you to be conscious, they somehow “deshypnotize” you.
• Ordinary hypnosis uses Altered States of Consciousness (unconsciousness).                                                                  > Humanist Hypnosis takes you to a “State of Heightened Consciousness” (over-consciousness) that is conducive to change.
• Ordinary hypnosis is based on a medical model: repairing what is broken; the therapist is the one intervening on the person…               > Humanist Hypnosis operates on an educational mode: the person changes, evolves, and that is what heals them; the person is the one working on them, under the guidance of the therapist.
• Ordinary hypnosis is an individual, materialistic approach.
  > Humanist Hypnosis is called “transpersonal” for it surpasses and transcends individuality; it reintegrates the person into the collective (family, society, nature…)
• Ordinary hypnosis works through the conscious / unconscious dichotomy and amplifies it.
  > Humanist Hypnosis helps the person to reunite, to become “Un-Conscious” (conscious of their Unconscious).
• Ordinary hypnosis is an indoor practice, of therapeutic counseling…
  > Humanist Hypnosis is used both in therapeutic counseling (Advanced Symbolic Therapy) and in daily life (Simple Symbolic Therapy), by everyone, in the family, and at work.

Going further…

Read also : Scope of Applications in Humanist Hypnosis and Questions & Answers.

• Trainings: Institut Français d’Hypnose Humaniste & Ericksonienne (IFHE)