Provocative Hypnosis
by Jorgen Rasmussen
Over Christmas, I had the pleasure of reading Provocative Hypnosis by Jorgen Rasmussen. In the foreword, one of the founders of NLP, John Grinder, says:
You reader are in for a treat – this is the stuff of genius. Take a young man, unencumbered with theory, with excellent sensory acuity and great flexibility and give him a set of patterns – some mix of the classic and New Code NLP patterning – and set him loose. Oh yeah, it helps enormously that he is fearless – that is, the issue of failure is not part of the baggage he brings to the game, and that he has a healthy disrespect for conventional treatments.
That’s a pretty good description of this excellent book. Rasmussen reminds me of Bandler in his audacity – his willingness to do whatever it takes to help his clients achieve change. He is highly critical of the labelling carried out within the mental health professions, labelling someone as having a ‘mental illness’ such as ‘depression’ or ‘anxiety’. Rasmussen doesn’t label, but instead jumps right in and assumes that the client has the resources to change somehow.
The title ‘provocative hypnosis’ is reminiscent of the work of Frank Farrelly in provocative therapy, and it is clear that he has been a strong influence on Rasmussen. Other strong influences are John Grinder (New Code NLP), Gerald Kein (Trainer of Elman style hypnosis techniques), and while he is hardly mentioned in the book, Richard Bandler’s provocative style must surely have been another strong influence.
Rasmussen deals with tough cases and sometimes gets great results – not always. He is very honest about his results – whether positive or negative – and this is very refreshing in the world of NLP where so many strong unsupported claims are often made. He uses a series of case studies to introduce the techniques that he uses. Most of these techniques are available elsewhere and he always credits his sources well. For example, he explains the hand drop induction and credits it to the Dave Elman/Gerald Kein schools of hypnosis. Similarly, he gives a very good account of how to use John Grinders’ New Code format in change work. For readers who are not already familiar with these techniques, this book will be very useful. For readers who already know them, the contextualization and use of these techniques in the fascinating case studies will be useful. Even in cases where Rasmussen has not been successful with a client, his descriptions of his efforts and the possible reasons for failure provide great insight and ideas for all practitioners.
This book is likely to offend some people with its frontal attack on much of traditional thought on the treatment of mental illness. The author is not scared of raising peoples’ shackles and his bravery and innovation are greatly appreciated.
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