Deepeners

A 'deepener' is simply a second (or third or fourth...) induction the hypnotist uses after you have already entered into a hypnotic state. As its name suggests, the purpose is to lead you deeper into hypnosis.

Fractionation

Hypnotists discovered that their clients went deeper into trance each time they came for a session. They eventually realized they could achieve the same result much more quickly.

Here the hypnotist leads you into a hypnotic state. Then they get you to emerge for a millisecond, before they use a deepener to lead you back into an even deeper state of hypnosis. Then they get you to emerge again and immediately follow this with another deepener to lead you even deeper into a state of hypnosis.

Suggestions

Suggestions are the most basic hypnotic tool and all hypnotists, regardless of their level of skill and training, will utilize them in every session.

Direct Suggestions: These involve, as the name implies, simply suggesting something directly to you. For example: 'You feel safe and secure in this room.'

Indirect Suggestions: These involve a more circuitous route which makes it harder for your conscious mind to reject them. For example: 'There was a lady who came and sat in that chair you are sitting in right now and I said to her... [then slightly changing the tone of their voice] you feel safe and secure in this room... don't you?'

Self-Suggestions: The most powerful suggestions made during a hypnotic session are the suggestions you make to yourself. This is why hypnotists will often ask you to repeat certain phrases over and over again when you are deep in trance.

Compounding

The more a suggestion is repeated, both in one of your sessions and over a number of sessions, the more powerful it becomes. Hypnotists refer to this as the Law of Compounding. This is why hypnotic recordings, which are not really that effective if you only listen to them a few times, become more and more powerful the more you listen to them.

Metaphors

Metaphors are another way of bypassing the critical nature of your conscious mind. So rather than telling you that you are not taking good care of yourself (and have you possibly grow closed and defensive) the hypnotist might talk about: 'a man who was never taught how to take proper care of his car... he would let the battery run down until it just didn't feel like moving... he never gave it the right fuel and it grew heavy and sluggish. But then one day he met a mechanic who taught him how to care for it properly.'

Guided Imagery

Studies have shown that your subconscious does not really 'think' in words, but rather in pictures, images, emotions and sensations. So if a hypnotist suggests that 'you erase your pain' -- your subconscious is far less likely to comply then if they suggested: 'Image you see a blackboard. Now see your pain as jagged piercing lines harshly scratched in chalk on the surface. Then imagine you are holding an eraser in your hand. Now see and sense yourself step up to the board and use the eraser to erase you pain.'

Sensorial Imagination

Much is made of the power of Visualization. However, we are not all created the same. Some of us have a much easier time using the visual part of our imagination. Others may find it easier to use our tactile, auditory, olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste) or emotional imagination.

This means that the hypnotist might suggest that you: 'see and sense yourself putting your knife and fork down between bites. Now hear the sound they make as you place them on the table. And notice how you now become so much more aware of the satisfying aroma of the food and how you are now able to take your time and savour each delicious morsel in your mouth.'

Future Pacing

This is a technique for using your full sensorial imagination to rehearse some of the ways you will now change, by imagining yourself at some specific time and place in the future. Perhaps you might see and sense yourself sitting at your parent's dining room table on Thanksgiving and leaving a little food on your plate and effortlessly resisting your mother's attempt to get you to have a second helping.

Revivification

This is the process of revivifying a past event by getting you to remember it as completely as possible. This technique can even be used to induce a deep state of hypnosis by simply getting someone (who was previously hypnotized) to describe exactly what it was like when they were previously hypnotized.