Hypnosis Glossary of Terms - S
- Secondary Gain
- A reason, primarily subconscious, why a person continues to perform a certain behavior.
- Self-Hypnosis - Hetero-Hypnosis
- Self-Hypnosis
- A hypnotic state that is self-created.
- Hetero-Hypnosis
- A hypnotic state that is created by another person, including the listening to of tapes or CDs.
- Shock Induction
- A very rapid conversion into hypnosis. Shock inductions are primarily used only in emergencies or possibly to “jar” a client when in therapy.
- Somnambulism
- A situation where a person responds equally well to all suggestions, both direct and indirect, affecting both the body and emotions. This person would have a 50/50 Suggestibility (50% Physical Suggestible and 50% Emotional Suggestible).
- Stages of Amnesia
- There are 3 stages of Amnesia (found at the Somnambulism Depth)
- First Stage
- The individual will exhibit between 20% to 40% spontaneous amnesia.
- Second Stage
- The individual will exhibit approximately 60% spontaneous amnesia.
- Third Stage
- The individual will respond to all types of suggestions. This person will exhibit 80% or more spontaneous amnesia, remembering almost nothing that occurred while in hypnosis.
- Stages of Loss
- There are five stages a person must go through to completely deal with a loss. Not every individual will display all the symptoms nor in the same time or manner. The stages are 1). Denial, 2). Anger, 3). Bargaining, 4). Grief, 5). Resolution.
- Stop Mechanism
- A technique used in hypnosis to call attention to a behavior or thought a client may do or have in the future. When this thought or behavior arises they will hear in their mind “NO!” The Hypnotherapist reinforces this suggestion by stating the thought or behavior the client may have, snapping their fingers and saying “NO!” to the client. This is reinforced several times with the client repeating it to themselves silently but strongly. An example would be if the client thought about lighting up a cigarette when they were trying to or had already quit.
- Subconscious
- The 88% of our mind that is mostly below the level of our awareness. The part of our mind responsible for reflexive action, ideomotor responses, and contains the positive and negative associations we've made throughout our life.
- Suggestibility (Emotional/Physical/Intellectual)
- Emotional Suggestibility
- A suggestible behavior characterized by a high degree of responsiveness to inferred suggestions affecting emotions and restriction of physical body responses; usually associated with hypnoidal depth. Thus, the Emotional person learns more by inference than by direct, literal suggestions.
- Physical Suggestibility
- A suggestible behavior characterized by a high degree of responsiveness to literal suggestions affecting the body, and restriction of emotional responses; usually associated with cataleptic stages or deeper.
- Intellectual Suggestibility
- The type of hypnotic suggestibility in which a subject fears being controlled by the operator and is constantly trying to analyze, reject, or rationalize everything the operator says. With this type of subject the operator must give logical explanations for every suggestion and must allow the subject to feel that he is doing the hypnotizing himself.
- Sympathetic - Parasympathetic
- The two divisions of the Autonomic Nervous System.
- Sympathetic
- When activated causes physiological changes to occur, preparing the body for fight/flight.
- Parasympathetic
- A self-regulating, stabilizing system that brings a person back to a state of balance, or homeostasis.
- Systematic Desensitization
- The process of inducing a relaxed state in the client and then having him/her visualize or imagine an event that was traumatic to him or her in the past. The relaxation then becomes the dominant force, and as the client begins to relate to being relaxed and calm while relating to the trauma area, he/she allows for removal or desensitization of the trauma.