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by C. Roy Hunter, M.S., FAPHP
Before answering the
question in the title of this article, let me present another important
question: how often do people experience inner conflicts that inhibit
successful attainment of important goals?
Hypnotherapists often use proven techniques to help
clients change undesired habits and/or to achieve desired personal and
professional goals. Yet, in spite of the best efforts of both client and
therapist, unresolved inner conflicts often inhibit clients from attaining
their ideal empowerment. Parts therapy
may provide the answer!
Charles Tebbetts is often
given credit for originating parts therapy, yet he was a parts therapy pioneer
who actually borrowed this
technique from Paul Federn and modified it. While my late mentor
openly gave credit to Federn, Tebbetts
evolved parts therapy into a much more client-centered technique. I've updated
Charlie's work over the years since his passing, but I consider my late mentor
to be the grandfather of client-centered parts therapy.
Now let's explore the question first posed by
providing a simple definition of parts therapy, followed by the explanation I
give to clients.
The Simple
Definition
Parts
therapy is based on the concept that our personality is composed of a number of
various parts. Our personality parts are aspects of the subconscious, each with
their respective jobs or functions of the inner mind. In other words, we tend
to wear many different hats as we walk through the path of life. I also give a
simple definition to clients prior to employing parts therapy.
To reduce the risk of client discomfort, I use myself
as an example. I tell clients about my inner child that desires to go to a
movie at evening rates, while my inner "CPA" motivates me to consider
an afternoon matinee or bargain show in order to pay less. While my conscious
mind normally makes the decision, I am still aware of both conflicting desires
originating from these two parts of myself.
Many dieters are aware of the desire to reduce, yet
often feel temporarily overpowered by a conflicting desire to indulge in junk
food. Smokers often make another promise to quit, only finding that one more
promise literally goes up in smoke. I tell clients that we can be aware of our
own conflicting desires, emanating from our personality parts, and can call
them out in hypnosis. For example, I might tell a smoker before starting the
hypnosis: "There is a part of you that wants to quit, or you would not be
investing the time and money for these sessions. But there is another part of
you that wants to keep on smoking, otherwise you would
not need professional help, would you?"
We may invest only two or three minutes to provide
the above explanation and examples, but this explanation will make a great
difference in his/her comfort level if you choose to use parts therapy during
the session.
My new parts therapy book from
Crown House Publishing explores parts therapy in depth. For now, let's briefly
discuss additional important information.
When Is
Parts Therapy Appropriate?
The most obvious time to employ parts therapy or one
of its variations is when there an obvious inner conflict prevents a client
from achieving an important goal, such as quitting smoking. For example, suppose a client says: "A part of me wants to quit smoking, but another part keeps sabotaging every
effort I make to quit!" Such a comment during the preinduction
discussion would be a good clue to consider parts therapy. This inner conflict
may also be evident if a client fails to respond to the positive suggestions
and imagery I employ in the first two visits.
Note that I do NOT employ parts therapy during a
client's first session. Rather, I use suggestion and imagery to provide an
enjoyable first trance journey, and then wait until a subsequent session before
employing any advanced hypnotic technique. I want my client’s first trance trip
with me to be enjoyable, as first impressions are lasting.
If it is not clear whether to choose parts therapy,
then I use finger response questions to discover one or more subconscious
causes. This is also explained in The Art
Of Hypnotherapy (2nd Edition,
Kendall/Hunt, 2000) as well as Hypnosis
for Inner Conflict Resolution: Introducing Parts Therapy (Crown House
Publishing, 2005).
Who Will
Most Likely Respond?
My
22+ years of professional experience demonstrates that a deeply hypnotized client is more likely to respond to parts
therapy. Someone experiencing little or no hypnosis may easily resist the
entire process (or one of its variations), whether or not such resistance is
apparent to the facilitator. Some therapists who use variations of parts
therapy work with a client who is quite conscious. While many of their clients
might respond with favorable results, a more analytical person might experience
interference or resistance to the process, with some or most benefits being
only temporary.
I
myself have been on the receiving end of parts therapy more than once when the
therapist failed to deepen me sufficiently, and my own analytical mind
prevented the results from being permanent because of insufficient hypnotic
depth.
In addition to guiding the
client into deep hypnotic states, the best way to create a more permanent
resolution is to practice what I call client-centered
parts therapy. This means that the answers and solutions to the client's
concerns emerge from the client's own
mind rather than from the mind of the therapist.
Why Is
Parts Therapy Effective?
Rather than the client
giving away his or her power to someone else who implants the solutions in the
form of suggestions, the client discovers the best resolution to an inner conflict
by answering questions asked by the facilitator at appropriate times. Even as the parts therapy process begins, I set
the client-centered tone by allowing each part that emerges to disclose its
name (or title) and primary purpose. My entire approach involves asking
questions that motivate each part to disclose its purpose, and to find the
resolution to the presenting problem. When facilitated in a
client-centered manner, parts therapy empowers
the client!
Several years ago a
psychologist asked me to use parts therapy to help her resolve an inner
conflict. Upon emerging from hypnosis, her first words were, "That
solution was so simple, I wish I'd thought of it myself!" I quickly
reminded her that the resolution had indeed come from her own mind, and not mine.
She smiled and agreed, and acknowledged the value of parts therapy.
Client-centered parts therapy helps clients attain
greater empowerment, because the power to change truly lies within the client rather than in the
therapist. Our job is to help the client discover those answers by asking the
right questions. Then, when the answers come from the client's own inner mind
(instead of from someone else), the client often has greater confidence and
greater self-esteem as side benefits to a successful resolution of the primary
concern.
Variations
Therapists have employed
variations of parts therapy for decades. Let me briefly discuss several of
them, starting with my favorite variation: ego
state therapy.
Pioneered by Dr. John
Watkins and Helen Watkins, ego state therapy has gained popularity over the
years. Gordon Emmerson, Ph.D., takes ego state
therapy into the 21st Century at warp speed with his important book,
Ego State Therapy (Crown House
Publishing, 2003), which is now required reading for my hypnotherapy students. Emmerson believes that we use five to fifteen ego states
throughout a normal week, and we have more available when needed. Emmerson also believes that hypnosis makes ego state
therapy more powerful, providing further validation of the teachings of Charles
Tebbetts.
Anyone seriously searching
for new ways of working with the inner mind will discover books about voice
dialogue, another variation of
parts therapy (mentioned above). Voice dialogue is based on the work of Hal
Stone, Ph.D., and Sidra Stone, Ph.D. They label the ego parts as selves or subpersonalities, and provide
labels for the various other subpersonalities such as
the protector/controller, the pleaser, the perfectionist, etc. The client, in a
manner that could compare with Gestalt therapy, plays the role of each part by
changing chairs or positions (although changing chairs is optional). The
therapist facilitates the dialogue and proceeds accordingly. My primary concern
about voice dialogue is the absence of a formal induction into hypnosis. With
little or no trance state, the conscious mind is more easily able to allow
analytical resistance. One of my own ineffective sessions as client took place
when another therapist thought he facilitated a successful voice dialogue
session with me. The absence of trance resulted in the "resolution"
lasting only a few weeks.
John
Bradshaw practices his own version, although he praises the work of Hal and
Sidra Stone. He facilitates a group exercise where he encourages his clients to
meditate with inner imagery, and to love the inner child. He then takes his
clients through all the "developmental stages" to find out whether
the needs were met in each stage. Suggestions for positive change are given to
each stage (or part of the inner child), and he gets results. You decide
whether or not this is a variation of parts therapy.
John
Rowan presented the concept of subpersonalities in
his book, Discover Your Subpersonalities (Routledge,
1993). He supposes that our minds may be naturally divided into portions and
phases, with earlier and later historical levels. Various zones and
developmental strata might lead to many internal figures. Like most authors of
similar books, he labels the various subpersonalities
(or parts). Although somewhat analytical, his book is written for the novice.
It is easy to read, with much useful information. It contains numerous
exercises, along with some questionnaires for self-awareness.
Nancy J. Napier, a nationally known
marriage and family therapist, also works with a variation of parts therapy.
Her book, Recreating Your SELF: Help for
Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families (Norton, 1990) also gives examples of the origins of various personality parts.
She calls them "protector" parts and "resource" parts, and
provides some self‑hypnosis scripts for identifying, cleansing and
healing our various parts.
Some
therapists use a variation of parts therapy called conference room therapy. Although similar to parts therapy in many
ways, they use the imagery of a conference room. My concern here is that the
imagery is directed by the therapist rather than by the client. What if the
client was terminated or demoted, and received such news in a conference room?
I advise my students to avoid the use of any imagery during parts therapy except when such imagery originates from
the client. One person's peaceful place may be another person's phobia.
During
a hypnosis convention some time ago, I spoke with a hypnotist who uses a
variation that involves talking to physical
parts. Clients role‑play (like Gestalt therapy) being the heart, the
brain, the liver, the foot, the ear, etc. Apparently he gets results. David
Quigley, founder of Alchemical Hypnotherapy Institute, teaches a variation of
parts therapy that is similar to that of Charles Tebbetts,
but he seeks out specific parts that do specific jobs. Our two approaches are
both different and compatible. Also, Kevin Hogan, Ph.D., FAPHP, employs and
teaches a variation of parts therapy that is similar to what I teach. He
discusses this in his book, The New
Hypnotherapy Handbook (Network 3000, 2001).
Although
other variations of parts therapy may be effective for some people, I prefer to
practice and teach this valuable hypnotherapeutic technique similar to the way Tebbetts taught it; but over my years of practice, I've
updated my mentor’s work to keep up with changing times.
If you currently employ parts therapy or any of its variations, you may wish to consider purchasing my new book from Crown House Publishing. If you are not yet trained in parts therapy or one of its variations, please consider referring a client with inner conflicts to someone who has received parts therapy training. You will be doing both the client and our profession a service by referring when appropriate.
You might also wish to read Roy's longer article: "Client-Centered Parts Therapy."
* * * * *
Click
here to order your copy now!
* * * * *
Roy Hunter, M.S., FAPHP, practices hypnotherapy near
For more info, visit:
http://www.royhunter.com/consulting.htm
You may
purchase
http://www.royhunter.com/hypnosis_books.htm
Last updated:
December 21, 2009
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Originally posted: May 11, 2007