Expectations

In doing hypnotherapy it's always important to manage expectations. This was brought home to me this week when I had an ideal candidate for a stopping smoking. I had a great session with him, and then the very next week an e-mail to say that he had returned to smoking the day after the session. I was baffled. Normally people who go back to smoking after hypnotherapy didn't really want to stop smoking (often persuaded by someone else to try it), were in an unusual situation (like in a nightclub when they almost never go clubbing and the scenario wasn't covered in the session), or in the event of a major stress (like bereavement).

On questioning my patient he had expected to go to sleep in the session for an hour, and wake up to find he had no thoughts of cigarettes. I had given him the usual explanation that: 'hypnotherapy isn't sleep,' 'it isn't magic,' and 'you'll hear every word I say.' However, his prior beliefs were so strong he hadn't really heard all that.

After a further discussion of how hypnosis can be experienced and further discussion of what cigarettes mean in his life; we had another really good session where the patient really engaged with the subject of the role of cigarettes in his life. It's always really useful when things don't really go to plan. As a therapist you learn a lot.

Whilst managing expectations is always necessary; most patient know it's not some sort of magic sleep, it's good to be reminded from time to time that most people are not informed about the subject.

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