by cardigan » September 25th, 2008, 10:22 am
I use Skype, Microsoft Messenger or Yahoo Messenger all the time for hypnosis. Actually I've had more paying clients over the net than in real life. And it's ideal, because it's actually almost as good as the real thing. The only 2 things you miss as a hypnotist is a) the possibility of grabbing hold of the client at certain times as a physical means of misdirection/diversion and using certain physical things as a means of deepening and b) you rely entirely on your hearing to grasp the state the client is in.
In the Elman Induction, for instance, with live clients, I use lifting the client's arm and then dropping it as partly a measure of the physical relaxation and partly as a means of getting them deeper "When I let go of your arm and it drops back in your lap, this is a signal to your subconscious to double your relaxation". With an online client I obviously can't use that, but I use another deepening techique instead.
When I'm performing hypnotherapy and relieving stressful events in the client's past it's very useful to study the face and body. But I find that listening closely to the breathing works just as well, actually.
I've lost count of the number of people I've hypnotized via a messenger service. It really rocks! :)