ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on pattern alterations, even a small change in perspective can make a major shift in clients’ perceptions of their problem. Milton H. Erickson’s use of metaphors, stories, riddles, and analogies is often considered one of his most considerable offerings to the world of counselling. Erickson found that talking to both the conscious and unconscious in a form of multilevel communication made it more likely that the client would accept the information being presented, than would methods that only used conscious instruction. Erickson used these methods of multilevel communication as an indirect way to allow clients to create their own meanings and as a result to solve their own problems. Practitioners from the Ericksonian perspective strongly believe that the involvement of the unconscious mind is extremely important for generative change to occur in therapy. An Ericksonian therapist acknowledges that the unconscious is involved in the process of therapeutic change.
