Hypnosis and Brief Family Therapy

Many family therapists would be surprised to learn the extent to which hypnosis has influenced the theory and practice of our field. The primary source of this influence can be found in the work of the psychiatrist Milton H. Erickson (1901–1980), the most innovative clinical hypnotist of his time. Erickson used formal hypnosis only in about a fifth of the cases he worked on (Beahrs, 1971; cited in Zeig, 1985, p. 5); however, the techniques and logic of hypnosis (Flemons, 2002) are evident throughout his psychotherapeutic approach.