Using Trance States in Psychotherapy : A Seminar For Psychotherapists

All of us are endowed with an innate ability to renew and heal ourselves in mind, body,
and spirit. We can gain access to our inner healing resources by entering a concentrated state of being called "trance."

Our inner resources include both wisdom about what is needed and the power to effect
change. Trance states help us tap that wisdom.

Trance state also provide access to hidden regions of the inner mind that some-times hold secrets that need to be revealed in order for emotional healing to occur. Therapeutic trances are a powerful means of carrying out this delicate therapeutic work.

For these reasons, trance states are tremendous tools for maximizing psychotherapy or counselling techniques. Although these altered states of consciousness have always been part of human experience, it is only in the past two hundred years that we have found ways to develop workable trances in controlled therapeutic situations. Surprisingly, even though trances can now be regularly employed for therapeutic or healing purposes, it seems that few therapists or counsellors make extensive use of them.

This thirty-hour seminar is designed to give practitioners the practical knowledge needed to induce trance states and use them to the greatest advantage with their clients. It is based on the belief that trances occur commonly in our lives and that therapeutic trances are not magical or mystical states, but powerful naturally-based aids for freeing the potentials of those who seek our aid.

This seminar is offered each year in the fall and occasionally in the spring.

My book Trance Zero: The Psychology of Maximum Experience is companion reading for the seminar.

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Seminar Outline

• The Four Trances
  • Relational
  • Situational
  • Inner Mind
  • Group-Mind
• Inner Mind Trance with Rapport
  • (IMTR)--(sometimes called hypnotism, fascination, mesmerism, etc.)
  • Therapeutic use
  • IMTR induction
  • The experience of automatisms
• Demonstrations of Trance Induction
  • By workshop leader
  • By workshop participants
• The Inner Mind
  • Inner Mind vs. Outer Mind
  • Reality of the inner mind
  • The inner world
  • Phenomena of the inner world
  • Qualities of the Inner Mind
  • Knowledge
  • Healing
  • Wisdom
• Using the finger signals
  • The mode of questioning
  • Discovering hidden information
  • Bringing the information to light
• Converting daily-life trances to Inner-Mind trances with rapport IMTR)
• Memory work
• Conflict resolution
  • With persons active in one's life
  • With absent persons, living or dead
• Dream interpretation
  • The dream as self-interpreting
  • Approaches to self-interpretation
• Self-induction of trance states