An abreaction is an extremely rare event that can occur during a therapy session, when the client is in trance. The client re-lives a past traumatic experience, as if it was actually occurring. This can be quite frightening for both the client and the therapist.
It can happen spontaneously for no apparent reason. It may also occur when the client actually feels safe with the therapist. Their subconscious mind may feel it is the right time to look at this past trauma to address it now. Some therapists may actually induce an abreaction, although ethically I don’t agree with this.
How likely is an abreaction likely to occur?
A spontaneous abreaction will happen very rarely. You may actually never experience one. I have never had one and the principal of the Hypnotherapy school I learned at, only had two in his whole career.
Having said that it is important to consider what might happen if one does occur early in your hypnotherapy career.
Before the therapy
Before an abreaction occurs, anticipate the abreaction happening. Allow time in between clients just in case. The last thing you want is to be rushing a client who is abreacting, because you have another client waiting.
If you charge by the session, not the hour, you can allow for 2 hours just in case an abreaction occurs.
Global Abreaction Reframe
Keep the following script handy. It is a global reframe script designed to resolve whatever caused the abreaction in the first place. Feel free to copy this one. You could print off and laminate. If a client abreacts, you don’t need to think about what to say. Just read the script.
“Whatever just happened there is just your imagination and is totally safe. Your subconscious mind simply took this opportunity to release a highly charged emotion from your past. I am now going to give you a direct suggestion that your subconscious will fully and completely understand. I am now instructing your subconscious to deal with what just happened there in a safe and natural way. When you have done that, in your own time, nod you head so that I know.”
Ignore the fluff
Ignore the narrative of the client during the first five-minutes of the session. If you don’t, you may add your own subjective interpretation and come up with the wrong conclusion. What they say might not be right.
The sensitising incident might not be what they say it is. This means that whatever they came to you for, may not actually be what sets off the abreaction. You have no idea what the traumatic event was so don’t guess.
During the abreaction
1. The Start
Reassure them say “Its ok, just stay with me and listen to my voice”
2. The Peak
This is where the reaction is at its most strong. It is important for you to carry on reassuring the client and don’t panic yourself. It will pass.
3. The abreaction will start to subside
The reactions may still be strong and seem to come in waves, but they are dissipating.
4. The abreaction has subsided
Now reframe what happened, using the Global Reframe Script above or something similar.
So an abreaction probably may never occur to you in your career but just remember the following.
Don’t panic it is perfectly natural. Nothing bad will happen.
There will be tears and it may get emotional, but it is something that the subconscious mind is now ready to throw out. Always trust that the client’s subconscious mind is doing exactly what it needs to help the client to move forward in their life.
If you are just starting out in your Hypnotherapy or NLP practise and are not sure about how to structure your first initial therapy consultation session, I will walk you through the process in this post.
Before you start to market your hypnotherpy business, decide whether your first consultation will be a Free Session or whether you will Charge. It is a common practice for the first session to be a free consultation, although not always. I will leave this up to your discretion there are pros and cons to charging and giving for free.
Rapport
The first stage in your initial consultation will always be to establish rapport, without exception. This is where you discuss pleasantries, if the client is willing. If the client wishes to dive straight into the issue, then fine. You can still establish rapport, using your listening skills, matching and mirroring.
When allowing the client to speak, always remember the Five Minute Golden Rule. This is where you allow them to vent off their feelings without interruption. You do not judge, but you can maybe ask for clarification.
Subjective Interpretation
When allowing the client to describe their unwanted behaviours or results beware of their subjective interpretation. For instance, they may complain that they were passed over for promotion at work because they are clearly not well thought of. This is a subjective interpretation of an event. Do not buy into this. Stay objective.
Is it real? People exaggerate and lie, so again do not buy into it. Commonly, what a client presents to you is not what needs addressing. The client’s subconscious mind knows what needs addressing. However, the client will consciously dress this up as something else. It is not for you to try to find out what this issue is. Acknowledge it but move on. Your therapy will allow the client to go inside and get their subconscious to heal itself.
Ask them if the have they seen other therapists about this issue. If you’re the fifth person they have seen, then there is obviously something else that needs addressing. Above all, don’t buy into their subjective interpretation.
What about your subjective Interpretation? You should obviously leave your own baggage at the door. You mind map will be different from the clients. Stay objective and neutral.
Resources
Once the client has vented their feelings, you can then begin to question them further. Your aim here is to access resources you can later use in their therapy. Find them and feed them back into the therapy. Ask about their work, hobbies, and interests and note these. Establish further rapport by establishing common ground. Perhaps you or someone you know closely has the same interests. If you can’t find any, then lie. Remember the purpose here is to help the client get better, so a little white lie is fine.
Harvest Positive Emotions
Allow time to shift their headspace from negative to positive. You can do this be exploring what they say and steering it to something positive. Harvest as many of these positive resources as possible. Ask what was good about the situation? Jump on anything positive they say and expand on it.
Subjective Unit of Discomfort
Check their SUD (Subjective Unit of Discomfort Here you can ask them on a scale of 0-10 (10 being bad), what is the emotional or physical pain. Then ask them what level of discomfort would they be happy to live with. For instance, they may say they’re currently at a level 9 but would be happy to live with a level 3. You will use this in later sessions to check on their progress.
Secondary Gains
Always beware of secondary gains when involved in therapy. These can be an obstacle, for example, a smoker actually wants to stay slim or someone with a bad back doesn’t want to mow the lawn. Now these could be at a subconscious level. During your therapy, you may need to take account of these. You could put in some suggestions to the effect that you will easily maintain your slim physique when you are a non-smoker.
Use Clean Language
Use clean language, I don’t mean don’t swear, but use language which is unambiguous and doesn’t have negative undertones. Talk about unwanted behaviours, thoughts and effects, not problems. Your client may present themselves with a problem, but from then on, you will refer to it as an unwanted effect. You can also go one better than this by then flipping it to its positive. So for example, a client may present to you asking to stop her fingernail biting habit. You could start by asking her why she wants to stop. She may say she is getting married later that year and wants long fingernails, to decorate. That is what you will then focus on – the outcome itself.
There are no problems only unwanted behaviours, thoughts or feelings.
Cut out the word try. Let’s say you ask me to go to your party. Perhaps I might say I’ll try to get there. You know I’ll likely not arrive. So don’t ask you client to try to do something. Give them suggestions, directives and orders if you have to.
This also works for you. Don’t say you are trying to do something. Instead, say “My aim is …”, or “My goal is…”, or “I am in the process of…”.
The proper use of language has a profound effect on how you perceive the world. As a therapist, you are in a privileged position of being able to affect people’s lives for the better, just by how you speak.
Questions
I keep six honest serving men they taught me all I knew, there names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who. Rudyard Kipling.
My very first Sales Manager taught me this and he suggested to me that the most critical skill I could learn in Selling and Life was Questioning and Listening. Practice the open questions using the honest serving men from above. They will affect the clients mind by making them go inside to search for the answer. This in itself is hypnotic in nature. You can then begin to access their subconscious better than asking closed and leading questions.
To illustrate this, the question “Is your fear of spiders serious?” is such a lousy question on so many levels. A better question is “How do you feel when I mention the word spider?” continue to ask open questions to get a full understanding. “When does this occur exactly”. “Who are you with?”.
We are not necessarily asking these questions because of the answers. We are asking these to access eye cues and the client’s suggestibility. Ask as many questions as possible.
Sell the benefits of them changing
In a way, therapy is very similar to the sales process. You ask questions, you listen, then you sell the benefits of them changing. The client already wants to change, that’s why they came to you in the first instance. Part of you your job as the therapist is to reinforce the benefits that they will get from changing. This is done in the therapy sessions as well as the consultation. You therefore provide a benefit, then the therapy, then another benefit.
You can uncover some of the benefits that are unique to them by finding out what outcome they want. A great question to ask is, if I could click my fingers and you were instantly better or cured, then how would you know? What would you feel, see and hear?
Listen attentively to the answers. Feed them back into the therapy. You may uncover some powerful emotional benefits here. For instance, they may tell you they want to lose weight to be in great shape for their wedding.
If you uncover these benefits properly, signing them up for the paid therapy should therefore be a formality.
If you would like a free copy of my first consultation template contact me and let me know.
