Product reviews for The Art of Therapeutic Communication

HYPNOTHERAPIST and dentist Kay Thompson, one of the renowned Milton Erickson's foremost students, clearly inspired much admiration, affection and awe from the many she mentored in her turn, as is shown in the fulsome tributes interlaced in this first print version of the teachings she delivered at lectures and workshops.

Thompson, who became the first female president of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis in 1972, first met Erickson when, as a dentist, she wanted to find better ways to help anxious patients. She went on to use her considerable therapeutic skills in many settings, always working to extend the boundaries of possibility (which she did in her personal life too, as an enthusiastic mountain climber and canoeist). Although she was always pleased when some of her clinical experiences became verified by scientific research, lack of verifiable evidence never held her back in what she believed was possible. A story of Thompson's that one of the editors, Saralee Kane, recalls elegantly makes that point. Thompson told how a young female dental student who had been acting as patient during student practice of a dental procedure suffered an unintended mechanical exposure of the nerve with the drill. While the girl was in trance, Thompson told her to deposit secondary dentin around the opening into the nerve, to keep it from becoming infected, telling the girl she knew she could do it. "Six weeks later we took an X-ray of that particular tooth and the calcification had taken place over that exposed nerve. You can't do that, but you see she didn't know you couldn't do that, and she did it, and they didn't need to do a root canal in that tooth." However out of reach such an intervention might seem to most of us, what Thompson teaches is in fact highly attainable - with practice and commitment. The 500-plus pages of this book, distilled from her life's work, are filled with case stories, examples of practical techniques, demonstrations, explanations and teaching metaphors that show how to make the best therapeutic use of hypnosis.

All hypnosis is autohypnosis, she believes: "In my opinion, when the patient is learning to induce hypnosis, the doctor should explain to him that hypnosis is a normal, natural human capacity, that learning it is a process that is curious and interesting, and can even be fun, so that while an individual is in trance, he can do all the things he normally does, but that he gains certain controls over himself. The patient's active participation must be acknowledged."

This is, in effect, a practitioner's handbook but one that also conveys power and passion. There are discussions and examples of the use of word play, of which Thompson was an acknowledged master ("Pay attention to the tension", "That private time in that secret place ... will suffice to let you get the rest the rest of the time that you have arrested yourself from getting"), language to effect change, conversational and other kinds of hypnotic induction, clinical post-hypnotic suggestion, strategies of hypnotic utilisation, pain control and healing enhancement, and lots more. Also included at the back of the book is a CD containing recordings of some of her most memorable teaching sessions.)

Thompson acknowledges her huge debt to Milton Erickson but also demythologises him: he did not come up with a new story for every patient and what seemed effortless was often the result of painstaking prior preparation. Slavishly trying to follow his techniques is not the way to emulate him: "We can only do what Erickson did if we do it in our own way".

She certainly does it in her own way. What particularly interested her was the power of motivation and the therapeutic use - and delivery - of language: "When I put on my wide-eyed sincere look, it says that what I am saying is eminently reasonable. As the authority figure, I expect that my patient is going to do it. When I do that, it usually involves telling my patient to stop bleeding or to turn off pain. For me, that is eminently reasonable. My expression says that they will do it."

Those who want to know more about the craft and potential of hypnosis as a therapeutic tool, and enjoy the process of learning it, should definitely buy this book.