Guided Imagery Therapy Approach, Expectation, Introduction to the Series & RB

Rubin Battino - Matter Class Outline 

January 8, 2024.   5 PM EST

A. Introduction

1. Been a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) in Ohio since 1978.

2. Check out bona fides and CV and publications in www.rubinbattino.com

3. Love to do training and teaching.

4. Been evolving ways to do single-session therapy using hypnosis via eliciting effective change  information from clients. Most of theses classes will illustrate ways to do this in an experiential manner. That is, before going into details I will do a group induction (of those who are willing) so that you can experience the particular way of working I am presenting.

5. After this experience, I will go over the details of how to use this approach. 

6. My style of presentation is to be systematic, but if an interesting idea or thought enters my mind, I wander off in that direction for while. 

B. Expectation

My clients know that I expect to see them only once (they also know that they can ask for additional sessions). This expectation means that they know that we will be working  immediately. I am not interested in histories (long of short). They write briefly about their concerns on my simple intake form, and also what their expectation is for the session. That is all that I need. Expectation is the essence of the Placebo Effect.

C. Guided Imagery Therapy (GIT) Approach Background

1. Guided Imagery was developed by Carl and Stephanie Simonton (an oncologist and his psychotherapist wife) to work with patients who had cancer.

2. I have adapted the guided imagery approach to doing psychotherapy. It is quite simple, needing only four bits of information from a client. 

D. Group Induction for Guided Imagery Therapy (for all who are willing).

Before beginning the GIT experience (and all of my sessions with clients) I use Mary Goulding’s opening question, “What are you willing to change today? Just let that question rattle around in the back of your mind during this session.” (I do not refer to that query later.)

E. Details on What Attendees Have experienced and How to Do GIT

1. Secret Therapy - I obtain little biographical or historical information from my clients about what bothers them. I see them for 60 to 90 minutes, so why spend time on obtaining histories? All I need to know is that they are troubled, bothered, or have concerns. They might give me someone’s diagnosis like depression or anxiety or OCD. (I never do a diagnosis - if I had to, I would just say that my client is temporarily troubled.) So, their description of what bothers them is not needed. (Besides, who wants to listen to all of their miseries? JOKE HERE) At the beginning it is useful to ask the client to give a symbol or a short descriptive or just a word about what had been troubling them (notice the change to “had been).”

2. Being a Guide - I believe that what we do as therapists is to be guides. That is, we guide clients into finding their own ways to realistic changes. Clients know what is possible in their lives—we do not. In single-session therapy I spend 60-90 minutes with them while in any given week they are awake and alert over 100 hours! My goal in recent years is to elicit from clients their realistic solutions to their concerns, and then “install” those solutions using hypnosis. I believe that many (if not most therapists) understand that their clients know or can figure out what will realistically work for them. So, we are doing a kind of psychological “judo” using the client’s strengths and knowledge to help them. (Frequently, an appropriate reframing will accomplish this.) 

3. First Two Steps in GIT - The first is to ask the client if she or he has a preferred way of relaxing or meditating. I generally steer them towards paying attentions to their breathing. I then ask them if they have a place they can go to within their mind where they feel safe and protected and at ease, even a learning place. The client then gives me details about that place which I then use when they are in a trance state. [Please note that my working definition of trance is that any time a person is so focused on something that the world around them retreats or disappears—they are then in a trance state.] Step one gets the client into a relaxed state where suggestions are heard, and the second step puts them in a place (of their choice) for the rest of the session—this is where they feel safe and protected. It is important to protect a client in this way.

4. Third Step: Healing Power or Entity - I then ask my client if they can think of a healing power or entity who can eliminate completely and permanently and realistically what has been bothering them. This Healer is knowledgeable and powerful and knows exactly how to help them, i.e., where within them and how to make the needed changes. What is their Healer’s name?  It is convenient to assign the Healer an abbreviation or shorter name. For example, the “Universal Healing Power” would become UHP for ease of talking. Using abbreviations also reifies the Healer.

5. Fourth Step - The client is put into a trance state using their method of relaxation (or simply breathing), they are then guided into their Safe Haven, and  while they are there the Healer approaches, makes gentle physical contact with them, and then carries out the needed changes. 

6. Closure - Within the client’s mind s/he thanks the Healer who then moves away having completed his/her/its work. The client is thanked for his/her attention and trust and confidence and then brought back to the here and now. The client is also told that if needed in the future, s/he can go to a quiet place, pay attention to breathing, drift off to their safe haven within their mind, and recall and relive what has occurred during the session. Finally, the client is offered a gift of a small smooth stone to take with them to remind them of what has occurred in that session. (This is a concrete talisman for the session.) Always “Thank” the client at the end.

Attendees Comments and Questions

F. Some Further Comments

1. Pause Power - Clients need time to process what is going on in the hypnosis portion of the session. Add many pauses so that they can do this internal work. In essence, they drift off when a particular suggestion is significant to them, and then return to hearing you. 

2. Special Words or Phrases - The “magic” word that I like to use when doing hypnosis is “somehow.” That is, somehow these changes will occur, and the client then fills in how this happens! Other good word are “and,” “when,” and “then.” In Michael Yapko’s 5^th edition of “Trancework” he emphasizes how the query “how” initiates change. That is, “How do you or did you do that.” 

3. Expectation and the Placebo Effect - My expectation and thus that of my clients is that we will be able to resolve what troubles them in one session. Also, note that the Placebo Effect is in the background in ALL therapy sessions, i.e., clients and we expect change!

4. Mary Goulding’s Opening Query is “What are you willing to change today?” Followed by “Just let that question rattle around the back of your mind during this session.” This is a wonderful way to start a session. Elaborated on Goulding’s language earlier in the session.

5. Importance of being passionate about being a therapist, and giving your clients your complete attention.

6. Importance of smiling and occasional humor.

7. “If what you are doing is not working, then do something different.” Steve DeShazer.

8. “If what you are doing is not working, then do something different that is  unusual or unexpected or surprising.” Rubin Battino

9. RB website: www.rubinbattino.com

G. Next Session: Exorcisms using hypnosis for “addictions” ands other concerns. Comments on Narrative Therapy. May read some quotes from the play I wrote about Viktor Frankl. And, I certainly will read extracts of some of Erickson’s classic case studies in some future classes.

Thank Rob and Attendees

Closing Healing Meditation

Addendum: I would like to apologize to the attendee who asked me about talking to a client during the GIT approach as I may have been rude. She asked about something that I had never thought about since I believe that GIT and exorcisms (ands some other approaches) work best without any interruptions. I will mention this in the next master class. There are approaches using hypnosis like Cheek’s ideodynamic finger signaling where talking to the client during the approach is part of the procedure. (Cheek’s approach will be part of a later master class.)