Recommended Reading

There are so many books available on the subject I teach these days. As a student, where does one go to make a good investment in time and money? I only ever recommend books that I have personally read and found useful either in the work I do with my clients and students or the work I do on myself. Here is a list of the books I most often recommend and a brief synopsis of each one. Enjoy!

Hypnosis

James

My good friend Tad's latest book. This is a fantastic introduction to NLP. It's so good I wrote the forward! It's also required reading for all of my hypnosis certification training programmes from Practitioner to Trainer. It covers hypnosis from three perspectives: Erickson, Estabrookes and Elman - the three masters of the field. This book is so easy to read its easy to not realize how much information is held in these pages. The forward's not bad either! If you're into hypnosis - buy it!

Ericksonian Approaches

Battino & South

I'm asked to review many books on my specialist subjects - this one was a major revelation for me. If you only want to have one book about Erickson's work, this is the one to get. It's a real compendium of the most useful stuff (technical term!) from Erickson's books. No matter what you want to know about Ericksonian hypnosis, you'll find at least an introduction and where to find more detail in this book.

The following books by Erickson and Rossi are for the dedicated student who really wants be able to step into the world of Erickson and find out how he thought. They are advanced books.

Hypnotic Realities

Erickson & Rossi

This book covers various Ericksonian trance inductions including the infamous handshake induction. It then concentrates on the use of trance to facilitate learning.

Experiencing Hypnosis

Erickson & Rossi

This book covers indirect approaches to hypnosis as well as the induction and use of catalepsy and ideomotor signals.

Hypnotherapy - A case book

Erickson & Rossi

A very comprehensive book that covers Erickson's utilization approach to hypnotherapy, indirect suggestion, posthypnotic suggestion, altering perceptual awareness, resolving symptoms and the use of hypnotherapy for personal change.

Hypnotherapy

Elman

Dave Elman's approach to hypnosis is completely unique in the field. It is client-centred and very rapid. This is because Elman places the responsibility for trance firmly on the shoulders of the client. Going into a trance is merely a matter of following the instructions Elman gives. I teach this on my Master Hypnotist training programmes and my students love it. The method is a great way of achieving deep trance very rapidly, either with a client or on oneself.

My Voice Will Go With You

Rosen

Erickson has become a legend in regard to his use of metaphors to assist his clients in achieving the breakthroughs they wanted in their lives. In this book you get a collection of Erickson's "Teaching Tales" and an explanation by Rosen with regard to what Erickson was doing and how each metaphor worked at the unconscious level. If you want to become an excellent storyteller, this is the book for you.

The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing

Rossi

One of my favourite research subjects is using NLP and Hypnosis for physiological healing. This book has one of the widest range of case studies I know of. An absolute must read for anyone interested in working with clients around health issues and also anyone who wants to believe they can heal themselves by working with their unconscious mind.