“Consider the Pre-Talk like laying the foundation of a house. Without a good foundation, no matter how strong the framework of the house, the strength of the house is severely compromised and can be subject to weakening with a good push.” – Matt Sison
The pre-talk is one of the most important parts of a clinical hypnosis session. This is an education that we give someone, where we explain to them what hypnosis is, and what it isn’t, in a quick and effective manner. The main purpose of the hypnosis pre talk is to remove fear, and to build expectancy. The media for the most part has demonized hypnosis, and misconceptions thrive around the subject. The pre-talk is how we talk them out of that.
Some of the misconceptions include:
» Loss of consciousness
» Surrendering of the will and losing control
» That hypnosis is a sign of a weak mind
» Revealing secrets in hypnosis
» Getting “stuck” in hypnosis
» Getting addicted to hypnosis as you would to drugs
» Being hypnotized against their will, or
» Doing criminal or antisocial acts
No matter how illogical some of these misconceptions might seem, people may believe them when they come to see you for clinical sessions, which is why it’s important to do a pre-talk.
In addition to removing misconceptions, we also want to build positive expectation and anticipation in their mind of what is going to happen. Have your client feeling great about hypnosis, ready and excited about the changes they are about to go through. When you get people who very much want to be hypnotized, it’s easy to take them there.
I have different lengths of pre-talks. I have a very short one, a short one, a normal-length one, and then I have a very long pre-talk that can take sometimes as long as 30 minutes or more, for clients that I think might need it. Most people however get a 5-10 minute coaching on what hypnosis is, and they go along their way.
Do you have a great pre-talk that you use? Post it in the comments.