Product reviews for The Hypnotic Use of Waking Dreams

Dr Schenk is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Working in hypnosis for more than 25 years, he is an approved consultant with the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis. He is obviously a very skilled therapist and his style of writing is pleasant and easy to read. The title of the book, however, is slightly misleading because it is more about past-life work than near-death experiences; but that in no way detracts from it contents. It is well written, skillful and huge relief from yet another book on therapy by numbers.

What the book is really about is personal narrative transformation through a cross between past-life work and hypnotic dream therapy. The author is without doubt a master of narrative and reframing, taking clients through past-life journeys that lead them to greater understandings and resource release in their present life path. Clients can undergo anything from an epiphany to slow conversion of self-realisation. Although the book does not tell us about Schenk's background, he can obviously be lusciously Jungian with touches of Erickson which hangs on the peg of Moody.

So many hypnotherapists are afraid of past-life work because they don't want to appear left of Zelda The Crystal Ball Gazer. Schenk, however, shows us the pure depth and power of such work that can motivate great change within the client in a direct an indirect manipulation of physical development. His case examples are illustrative and instructive, showing his very high level of rapport with his clients while facilitating the multiple persona integration.

The book also shows us that the art of past-life work requires creativity on the part of the therapist and how that pays off, not only for the client, but in hugely rewarding ways for the therapist. His analysis and integration skills can give us all lessons in how to work the story and underlying therapeutic techniques, out of the client's conscious awareness.

I think almost all hypnotherapists will like this book because it clearly shows the skillful workings of a clinician who is unreservedly passionate about the way he uses hypnosis. Furthermore, reading through it is an exercise in itself of metaphor construction and deconstruction.

Whether you believe in past lives or not, there is certainly is lot to commend that way of working in these pages. Having used past-life work for many years myself, I greatly enjoyed Schenk's skilled use of creative imagery to get the client to utilise whatever they needed from the past life and in between life experiences.