ABSTRACT
If you were to ask the clinicians at this center about the “best” environmental conditions for performing hypnosis, they’d likely say the hi-tech environment they created is ideal. I would disagree. (Apparently, their clients disagreed as well, for they are no longer in business.) From my perspective, forming a warm, goal-directed relationship with clients is a necessary precursor to making worthwhile therapeutic interventions. The importance of the therapeutic alliance, involving acknowledgment, acceptance, openness, trust, responsiveness, mutual respect, a shared effort, and feedback, cannot be overemphasized. Everything else, including the physical environment in which you conduct your hypnosis sessions, is secondary-secondary, yes, but not unimportant. There aren’t any studies I am aware of to suggest that any one environmental condition, such as type of furniture or quality of lighting, is more likely to increase hypnotic responsiveness than another. In the real world, clinicians use hypnosis in all kinds of environments, ranging from sterile laboratories with fluorescent lighting and uncomfortable chairs apparently chosen by someone who was having a bad day, to hospital emergency rooms or clinics where noisy monitors are beeping and someone in the next bed is moaning in pain, to cavernous lecture halls where every chair seems to creak at 90 decibels, to private offices that look more like living rooms, with fireplaces, couches, soft lighting, and New Age music playing in the background. Not surprisingly, successful hypnosis has been performed in all of these environments. Certain environmental conditions are desirable for doing hypnosis, but they are clearly not essential.
