George Gafner – författare

A separate chapter provides inductions appropriate for use with children.The Handbook of Hypnotic Inductions includes numerous clinical vignettes and addresses treatment of depression, anxiety disorders (including PTSD), chronic pain, adjustment disorders, and other problems commonly seen in the office setting. It teaches vital principles and concepts in hypnosis, such as hypnotic language, seeding, amnesia, ideomotor signaling, and Ericksonian utilization. Rich in metaphor and therapeutic stories, this book includes helpful notes for practice and the creation of individually tailored inductions. Without a good induction, there can be no good hypnotherapy. With this ready-to-use manual, therapists can build their confidence and creativity and ensure good hypnotic experiences for their clients.

These "bread and butter" applications are the core of every successful therapeutic practice that employs hypnosis. By means of explanation, anecdote, and case study, readers are instructed in how best to address the basis needs of the clients and how best to put the fundamental concepts of unconscious process and ego-strengthening into action. Clinical Applications of Hypnosis is also a treasure trove of techniques, stories, and suggestions basic to successful hypnosis. Therapists new to the art will appreciate Gafner's clear description and thoughtful introduction to the use of hypnosis in therapeutic practice. Seasoned practitioners will appreciate find a fund of effective and carefully described techniques to be used to help to treat anxiety, depression and related disorders.

Whether you're fairly new to therapy or you've practiced for many years, no doubt at times you've found yourself stumped with certain clients who leave you feeling perplexed and discouraged with that I-just-don't-know-what-to-do-next feeling. George Gafner has been there and that's precisely why he wrote this book. The reality is that today's cookie-cutter treatment mentality presupposes that all people with, say, depression, can be treated essentially the same way, which virtually ignores the established fact that a good deal of a person's mental functioning is governed not by conscious choice but instead by automatic, or unconscious, forces that lie outside voluntary control.The author believes that all therapeutic approaches should be adapted to the unique needs of the individual client, and that the unconscious needs to be heavily considered in any therapy approach. Centred around two fascinating case studies, Gafner discusses concepts and techniques seldom addressed, including the therapist's use of voice, subtle vocal shifts, the pause, the strategic interval of silence and seeding as well as the application of hypnotic techniques within standard talk therapy. He makes the case for integrating ego-strengthening in therapy, advocates ego-strengthening as a shovel-ready project" and incorporates the use of healing metaphors in therapy. As a strong supporter of evidence-based treatments, he believes that in much of real world mental health treatment we can't simply follow a manual. We must adapt treatment to the unique needs of the individual, and the more skills and tools we can bring to bear, the better for both us and our clients.

Written with a minimum of jargon, this book will be of use to clinicians who practice standard psychotherapy and those who have more thoroughly integrated hypnosis into their practice. Hypnotic Techniques, the companion volume to the acclaimed Handbook of Hypnotic Inductions, introduces the wealth of hypnotic applications for dissolving resistance and moving ahead in therapy. Broad in scope and flexible with respect to theoretical bases, this new work by Gafner and Benson assists clinicians in bringing the power of hypnotic techniques to bear in an extensive variety of therapeutic contexts.How do therapists establish a directive in traditional psychotherapy? In the first section of Hypnotic Techniques, the authors explain how to set up a task for a client by the skillful use of hypnotic language, supported by 'seeding' the intended target ahead of time and buttressing it afterward with metaphor, story, or anecdote. Story construction, embedded suggestion, metaphor development, mindfulness-based group anger treatment, ego-strengthening, and combining direct and indirect techniques are among the many topics addressed that borrow from hypnosis and are widely applicable in standard psychotherapy. Therapists are encouraged to 'think hypnotically'—to look for junctures in therapeutic sessions where hypnotic techniques are applicable, to select the most appropriate technique, and to discern and understand the client's response to the applied technique. The aim is not to make clinicians into hypnotic therapists but to show all clinicians the efficacy of specific hypnotic techniques in the context of their current practice.In the second half of Hypnotic Techniques, the authors address formal hypnosis in depth. Beginning with an examination of the limitations of evidence-based treatments for clinical problems such as anxiety and mood disorders, relational problems, and anger, as well as for medical problems, chronic pain, and habit control, Gafner and Benson propose a collection of alternate, hypnotic means. Many of these techniques can be used in isolation from standard evidence-based treatments, while others are designed to augment standard treatment. Weaving dozens of stories and therapeutic anecdotes into rich clinical vignettes, the authors demonstrate such techniques as 'short-burst' and metaphorical ego-strengthening, the uses of amnesia and other hypnotic phenomena, alternating stories, unconscious problem solving, and exposure-based and indirect hypnotic applications in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Hypnosis and hypnotic techniques are strong tools for assisting clients in moving beyond their resistance to therapy. In the hurry-up world of managed care, Gafner and Benson find that hypnotic techniques are particularly valuable because they require a slower pace in initial sessions when creating connections to both the conscious and unconscious minds of clients. Somewhat paradoxically, by moving slower and establishing bonds to the conscious and unconscious, resistance is more effectively overcome and both therapist and client move ahead more steadily toward the therapeutic goal.