Stephen Gilligan, PhD, is a psychologist in Encinitas, CA. He was one of the original Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) students at UC Santa Cruz; Milton Erickson and Gregory Bateson were his mentors. After receiving his psychology doctorate from Stanford University, he became one of the premier teachers and practitioners of Ericksonian hypnotherapy.

"Written thirty years ago, Dr. Gilligan’s Therapeutic Trances remains one of the few books that genuinely guides learners and practitioners to an understanding of the hypnotic approach taught by Milton Erickson. The key ideas of Erickson’s approach may be known to many, but the actual implementation of these ideas is still not apparent in many cases. Removing this gap between knowing and implementing has been the goal of Gilligan’s work throughout his career. This book has obviously been written from his heart with two goals: one is the desire to help therapists truly understand the paradigm Erickson created, and the other is to help therapists treat clients in the most positive and health-oriented manner."Stephen Lankton, MSW, DAHB, author, The Answer Within and Tools of Intention; editor-in-chief, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis

• Acknowledgements Introduction to the Classic Edition Foreword by Jeffrey K. Zeig. Introduction 1: The Ericksonian Approach to Hypnosis 2: The Experience of Trance 3: The General Approach of the Ericksonian Hypnotherapist 4: Cooperation Strategies 5: Creating a Context for Therapeutic Trance 6: Associational Strategies for Developing Therapeutic Trance 7: Depotentiating Conscious Processes: Confusion Techniques 8: Balancing Associational and Dissociational Strategies: Practical Issues Regarding Therapeutic Inductions Epilogue References Index