When you are first starting out and trying to build a successful Hypnosis practice, it can be difficult to find people to practice your skills development on, so here are some tips to help you get practice for your skills, so that you build the competence and confidence to build your hypnosis practice.

1. Hypnotize your pillow – If you can’t find someone to practice with, then practice with your pillow, or a stuffed animal or any inanimate object. The key is to work on getting comfortable with your language patterns, so that the words flow smoothly.

2. Work on Memorizing Your Boilerplates – Remember to practice and memorize your boilerplate language. You know, the things you always say at the begning of a session (Noises around you; My voice; Safety) and the things you say at the end of the session (Counting up; Good work; Self-Esteem boosters). This will allow you to become more fluent in your sessions and then you can focus most of your time on the work the client came in for. Sample boilerplates can be found in the files section of this group site, or in the appendix of my book.

3. Practice your dynamic scripting techniques – If you have my book or have gone through my “Foundations in Hypnosis” training, then you know what I’m talking about. If not, then do one of those two things or just come to the meetings and ask about it, I’ll be happy to cover it during a meeting. The basic prinicple is to gather some information in a pre-session interview with the client about how they want to feel, when they have accomplished their goal, and what they believe the proof will be when they

have achieved it. You will be gathering “their” hot words as “resources” and “results” to echo back to them during the session, using your linguistic bridges.

4. Experiment on yourself – Create recordings of sessions for things you want to work on yourself. Record it as if you were the subject in the session. Then play back the recording and allow yourself to go through the session via the playback. Once the session is over, then critique yourself and make adjustments/improvements in the areas where you feel you need to.

5. Ask friends and family to allow you to practice your inductions and techniques. Ask them to “pretend” as if it is working (the act of pretending will lead to a trance state) and to just let you practice your language and fluidity. This gives you some live subjects to work with and gives them the benefit of hypnosis…a definite win/win. Remember not to work with friends and family on heavy things like childhood traumas, stick to the light stuff, like confidence, and sleeping better, just to name a few.

6. Come to the meetup meetings – If you are looking for a safe and friendly environment to develop your skills, conpetence and confidence, then there is no better place than the weekly meetings we host for this meetup group. You will find a number of willing and eager subjects to develop your skills with.

Well, that’s all for this month. I hope this newsletter serves you and until next time keep up the good work.

Michael C. White, C.Ht.