ABSTRACT
The Ericksonian practitioner appreciates the problem as the solution, realizing that the same structures expressed in diverse fashions with biological rapport in self-valuing contexts can be generative. The hypnotherapist uses cooperation principles to create a self-valuing context in which a person is receptive to the environment and to new ideas, depotentiate conscious frames, and reunite information patterns with biological rhythms. This chapter discusses how verbal and nonverbal techniques of pacing and leading can absorb and direct the client's ongoing awareness. It explores how to observe and utilize the minimal behavior cues indicative of a person's internal experience. The chapter illustrates ways to "cooperate" with idiosyncratic patterns such as symptom phenomena, expressive style, general metaphors in thinking, skills and assets, and the structure of the behavioral problem. It also explores three aspects central to hypnotic work: level of trance, emotional state, and cognitive strategies.
