ABSTRACT
In this chapter I want to address the somewhat daunting question of how psychotherapy works. My thoughts on the subject have been inspired largely by my study of Milton Erickson's work. What has struck me about his therapy has been the enormous variety of things he did to help his patients. Jay Haley has raised the intriguing question of how Erickson came by the methods he used (see Chapter 1). Who were his teachers? What were his models? How was it that he developed approaches that were so different from those of his contemporaries?
