Myths of NLP Hypnotherapy Life coaching- Phil Parker

Coaching, is all about assisting clients to make more informed choices in their lives. Their old patterns (like putting things off, or getting nervous before an interview) are unconscious patterns they learnt long ago- as you will see below this fits the definition of a trance state.

Coaching ( and NLP) uses language as it's primary tool- Hypnosis is the very precise use of language for change.

There is not a coach in the world working without the use of hypnotic language patterns- although they may not be aware using them. The most effective coaches will use the most advanced hypnotic language patterns.

Bearing in mind the modern definition of trance :

" being in a state of mind where you

feel very absorbed in what you are doing
have a specific and limited focus of attention
are often more aware of your internal world rather than the external one."

This modern definition allows to us to begin to recognise how many different trance states there are, in fact you could say everything is a trance experience.

This perspective changes our view on trance entirely, so that if for instance we look at feeling anxious before an interview, then it's clear that:

we feel very absorbed in what we're are doing-we're completely wrapped up in the anxiety of the situation, creating nasty movies inside our heads of how bad the interview is going to be.

we have a specific and limited focus of attention-we focus completely on the things that make us anxious.

We are often more aware of your internal world rather than the external one- so we exclude any information from the external world (like the interviewer isn't really a cold-blooded monster who can read our inner thoughts) that might calm us down and focus on horror movies of how bad it's going to be.

Any conversation will change your internal state of mind, even talking about your holiday to a friend will involve you remembering how it felt to be on the holiday whilst your friend will be imagining what it was like, and remembering holidays that they've been on that were similar in some way.

In our change work we will often just use normal conversation to help people sort out their issues. If people were expecting some hypnosis they will often say, "but you never put me in trance."