ABSTRACT
Sometimes people wonder what would happen if the hypnotist had to leave, or suddenly became ill. The therapeutic practices have rested on the assumption that the older patient was sufficiently hypnotizable for the hypnotic condition to be relied upon in therapy. Individual differences in hypnotizability need to be recognized and accounted for in the design of treatment so that the full range of patients from highly hypnotizable to barely hypnotizable can profit from treatment by hypnotic procedures. The initial steps the therapist undertakes with any patient are based on the assumption that some hypnotic talent is present. When the standard procedures for inducing hypnosis in older children were tried with younger ones, differences soon became evident. A distinction can be made between a capable hypnotist and a capable hypnotherapist. A hypnotist is skilled in adapting induction procedures to achieve as extensive a hypnotic involvement as a subject is capable of.
