What are "Salami Tactics"? Well, let me explain it through a metaphor. Suppose your friend has a salami, and you want it for yourself because you love salami, but you know that your friend also loves salami, so if you ask him for it out right he will likely say "no way". So how do you get the salami?

The best way is to ask for a slice of salami. It's a simple request and easy for your friend to comply with, without feeling like he's giving everything away. But here is the key to this strategy. Once your friend has agreed to give up a slice of salami, he is more likely to agree to do it again, in order to remain congruent. So you wait a little while and ask for another slice, then another, and another. Before long you will have acquired the bulk of the salami with little or no resistance from your friend.

This strategy is used in military campaigns as well, but is more commonly referred to as "Divide and Conquer", but the principles are the same. In sales we call it "building a 'yes set' or 'yes ladder'".

So you may be asking, what does this have to do with hypnosis? In hypnosis we use similar tactics with our subjects. The small tests for compliance when setting up to perform an induction, for example. Also as an escalation technique in stage shows to build up our subjects to experience ever increasing deep trance phenomenon. If we go for hallucination right of the bat, we risk failure, because it's too much to soon. However, if we start off with smaller, easier to follow suggestions, like eye lock, arm lock, etc. and then slowly, "slice by slice" build up to increasingly more difficult suggestions, we increase our chance of success.

When working with hypnotherapy clients, the same tactics can be employed for dealing with deep seeded traumas, or self-limiting beliefs. By suggesting small changes in your client, with the goal of eventually achieving a larger change, you can help to guide them step-by-step toward the desired outcome.

That's all I have for now.

Michael C. White, C.Ht.