Product reviews for The Art of Therapeutic Communication

Kay Thompson was a dentist, who trained with Milton Erickson from his very early days and who knew him and his methodologies better than most of the therapists who came to study with him in later years. In this book, which is taken from transcripts of the many talks and seminars she conducted during her career as a therapist and trainer, you will learn more about Erickson's techniques and the hypnotic language for which he became renowned. Indeed, you will find it difficult to avoid going into trance during the course of reading this book, as Kay had the enviable knack of dropping into hypnotic language without any warning during her talks and very adept at it she was too! The techniques and methods Kay used were many and varied and there are some excellent examples of her using some of them in the transcripts in this book. There are also many question and answer sessions, when she gave her students very full and detailed answers to their queries, about therapeutic language, about pain control and there is a very interesting section on the oral cavity and its importance as the emotional learning centre of the body, which may come as quite a surprise to some.

Included with the book is a CD containing recordings of some of her talks, which will give you a flavour of the wonderful way she had with words and will also allow you to learn of the wholehearted belief she had in mindbody healing, which she used for her dental patients and for herself throughout her career.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable, easy to read book which will prove invaluable to those wishing to learn more about Erickson's way of working and, at the very least, will be interesting to those of you who are already using Ericksonian techniques.