Welcome to the Nagoya Hypnosis Workshop webpage. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a safe and comfortable space for participants to develop their skills in hypnosis in a spirit of exploration and sharing.
Below, you can download the handouts for each session. The course is loosely based on Dylan Morgan’s wonderful book, Hypnosis for Beginners which the author kindly made available freely on the Internet. I recommend that you read the book completely before the sessions, or at least the relevant chapters. We have also made summaries of each chapter which contain the exercises that will be used in each session.
Session 1
In this session, we explore some basic facts about the way in which the brain and the body work. Specifically the participant is encouraged to discover by actual experience how words and images can activate other systems in the brain which relate to feelings, muscles, senses, sense of balance, etc. These are compared with “tests of hypnotisability” and “hypnotic inductions”. They are also linked to our common experience of learning a variety of other things.
Download Handout for Session 1
Session 2
In this session, we explore various ways in which muscular relaxation can be induced. The main systems used to do this include the verbal, visual, emotional, musical, and humorous. These are designed to allow you to develop flexibility with all types of clients.
Download Handout for Session 2
Session 3
In this session, we will explore the visual imagination, which is enormously rich and varied. This is a tool much used in hypnosis and so it is valuable to explore its natural processes in many people, including yourself.
Download Handout for Session 3
Session 4
In this session, we will examine how the visual imagination can not only be used for exploration–it can be guided and directed. This session provides exercises to develop this ability. This session should teach you how much can be done with the imagination in many people without any “induction” or other hypnotic techniques.
Download Handout for Session 4
Session 5
In this session, we will meet some processes which have been passed down the years as being ways of producing some dramatic changes in the functioning of people. These are what have been called “hypnotic inductions”. There are a few themes running through these approaches: Eye fixation, Eye closure, Suggestion, Arm catalepsy, and Sleep or total relaxation.
Download Handout for Session 5
Session 6
In this session, we will be practicing post-hypnotic suggestions.
Download Handout for Session 6
Session 7
In this session, we will be looking at the reasons for Focussing Attention in hypnosis. Focus on one thing can be achieved either by increasing attention to it or by reducing attention to other things. The relaxational approaches to hypnosis tend to use the second path. In this chapter we look more at the advantages and disadvantages of the former. The more of the subject’s attention you have, the greater the effect.
Download Handout for Session 7
Session 8
In this session, we will focus on high-order mental systems: those which determine whether to accept or reject statements made by another. The ability to reduce resistance and increase rapport is a very important part of hypnosis. This session gives exercises in the form of two-person games which may be used to increase your skills in this way. We run through making impersonal statements in an everyday setting: statements about yourself and then personal statements about another person. Then, in a more “hypnotic” setting, we practice making every statement of an induction totally acceptable and then a series of personal positive suggestions acceptable: a central goal of so much hypnotherapy.
