Erickson and Hypnotherapy
This weekend is one of my favourite weekends to teach, I will be taking an eager group of students through the life and times of Milton H Erickson. For those of you who do not know who he is, for our modality he is considered to be the father of the field. His novel approach to therapy not only influenced hypnotherapy which of course it would, but also brief psychotherapy and solution focuseed psychotherapy.
Erickson was a traditionally trainined psychiatrist who also took a masters degree in psychology so he was qualified as both a medic and a psychologist. He was not a believer in the schoolist approach to therapy. This basically means there is no one school of psychotherapy that answers all questions.
Effective therapy employs the use of all types of therapeutic interventions and philosophies in order to be successful. The most successful therapist is the person who steals from the most sources. Erickson was a master of language and flexibility and he really put his silks to help people in whatever way he possibly could. Methods that in today’s litigious culture would not be acceptable today. The world needs Mavericks and to my mind in my world Erickison was also the master Maverick.
