Last updated: 22 June 2015
Hypnosis is a deep and complicated process where the hypnotist and subject must be in a state of intense rapport.
When you are conducting a hypnotic trance your unconscious will be opened to that of your subject.
Because of this it is important to have the experience you wish them to partake in at the forefront of your mind when starting the process.
Rapport is not a term generated just for use in hypnosis. It happens with everyone you come into conversational contact with. However, the rapport you develop with your subjects is instrumental in conducting successful conversational hypnosis.
Hypnosis is anything but a casual relationship between two people, it is a deep connection. Anything you feel will unconsciously be projected upon the person you are trying to hypnotize. Because of this it is paramount that you develop your rapport skills beyond that of the everyday norms.
Hypnotic rapport is a time tested relationship. It has been present since people have been in existence. It is not fully understood and may never be, but it is very powerful.
Rapport is powerful in the sense that anytime a person around you experiences a trance they will inevitably take on a deeper connection with you and your unconscious mind. This deepens the trust between the participants and offers a sense of comfort in your company.
Going first (referred to as ‘go first’) is an important concept to become familiar with. In ‘go first’ you as the conversational hypnotist must first enter the hypnotic environment, experiencing for yourself the outcome you wish to achieve.
The reason you need to enter the experience before your hypnotic subject is so they will pick up that experience from your subconscious as they are in trance. Because every time a person goes into trance around you they develop an unconscious connection with you. If you have the experience at the forefront of your mind they will take it away with them after the hypnosis session has concluded.
As you begin to make hypnotic connections with other people you will be unconsciously exploring their mind as they will be making a connection with your unconscious as well. This is a powerful part of hypnosis. It allows each person to explore thoughts and ideas they never knew they had until that precise moment.
We can all relate to examples of this in our everyday lives. We’ve all met people that we have a difficult time connecting with. You may have even had the same conversations over and over with little real connection. It may seem that there is some sort of barrier up between the two of you. You never quite get past the small talk because you are not comfortable enough to advance into a deeper relationship.
This relationship is skewed because on an unconscious level these people are sub-communicating their sense of distrust and non-ability to be comfortable around you. This state within a person you are trying to connect with will shut down your thoughts and ideas. This will happen even before those thoughts and ideas have even had a chance to develop and come to your conscious.
On the other hand you have probably met people that you seem to have an instant connection with. In these situations it can seem that the thoughts and ideas are flowing from you endlessly. Ideas suddenly emerge that you never even knew you had and they seamlessly carry your listener along with them. To these people you are charismatic, your ideas are good, and they come across clearly.
Does this mean we have multiple personalities?
No. We simply respond differently to different peoples’ characteristics and states of mind.
This is the way most people work. Those who are confident, comfortable and trusting in themselves often send out unconscious signals to others that produce the same effect in others. People who are not sure of themselves or are uncomfortable will unconsciously cut off successful communications before they even start an interaction.
In hypnosis you will need to avoid the second situation like the plague. If you have a good rapport with your subjects and they feel comfortable and trusting around you they will be able to open up to you easily, and the best way to kick-start this process is by making the interaction easier using the ‘go first’ method.
It is important to remember that conversational hypnosis is not a casual relationship. You want your hypnosis subjects, clients and the people around you to feel as if they have known you for years and can open up to you about anything.
Developing an instant rapport with a complete stranger is a skill that will define your success in conversational hypnosis.
Dear Igor, I agree upon this as I have listened/read it thousand of times during trainings and in many books written by Ericsson’s disciples. In many of my therapy session, there is no rapport since sometimes I am very provocative and it still works. My experience proved that even without any or few rapport, outcomes are still positive since therapy outcomes does not depend of rapport even if Harvard proved that it increased the pourcentage of positive results.
I think believes play a lot in this as in pretty everything in our lives and my believes are that rapport can come from the same rep system that we have with a person without doing anything and this happened to me at a cocktail 2 days ago with a person….and it can also comes from our past lives with certain people, Ericsson was esoteric, Rossi and others mentioned it many times, and my training teachers were too. That’s my believes, no in fact that’s my certainties 🙂 That’s why techniques don’t work in hypnosis : Out of 100 therapists using the same technique, only one of them will help clients to reach their outcomes, isn’t it? Hope to meet you in a close future, Frank Bleines
You may publish this if you wish so
Hi Frank
Thank you for your comments. I agree with you that belief systems (both those of the hypnotist and the subject) play a very important role in the therapeutic context. As far as your comments on Rapport & Provocative Therapy go, I do not think that they are mutually exclusive: when done well, Provocative Therapy still creates a tremendous amount of rapport (sometimes even deeper rapport than other methods can create). So rapport still plays a very important role, though I agree that real rapport does not always have to look the way most people imagine.
All the best
i
I think rapport is just a deeper level of respect rapport I believe is nothing to do with liking but respecting like context rapport think of to boxers who want to hurt each other before the fight toe to toe is very deep rapport in my view.
Hi Adrian! Thank you for your feedback. You’re right, rapport can be similar to respect. It does not always have to look the way most people imagine it to be.