I did not know what time it was when I came downstairs to finish our winter display — images and symbols communicating the holiday season, as observed and celebrated by various sacred traditions in anticipation of the coming of the light. All I knew was that it was cold and dark outside, and I was ready to head home. Just as I was hanging one of the last ornaments, I caught a glimpse of her in the corner of my eye — a student of mine, who I knew had an extremely long commute. And, I also knew she had cancer, as she asked our community to remember her in our prayers at a service she could not attend last year.

The “Erickson Family History” chapter of “An Epic Life II: Milton H. Erickson Personal Perspectives,“ by Jeffrey Zeig, Ph. D. documents Erickson’s entry into interviewing suspects and convicts and reporting results to the courts. While in medical school at the University of Wisconsin, one of his professors recommended that he examine subjects and write reports for the Wisconsin State Board of Control.

Judith was a 46-year-old woman who, for the first time in thirty years, was without a job. In the past, when she left a job, it was because someone contacted her with a better offer. Now, for the first time, she had to find a job for herself. She had been sending out resumes by the bushel but received no replies. Judith had been referred to me by someone who said I was practical and knew the ins-and-outs of the business world.

Twenty-six of Dr. Erickson’s former students are practicing psychiatry in army and navy hospitals and are among the steadily increasing number using hypnosis in treating fighting men who are suffering from those psychiatric breakdowns which cruel physical and mental torture bring to the best of men.

Anxious parents called, each in turn, about their 17-year-old daughter Bev, who for the past six months had obsessively washed her hands three to four hours a day. Both parents reported they had “tried everything.” including counseling and drugs. They were so desperate they were now exploring hypnosis, about which they were skeptical. Somewhat worn down by their forceful skepticism …

Dr. Erickson is 43 years old and became first interested in hypnotism when he was 12, growing up on a Wisconsin farm. Another boy bought for 10 cents a book called, How to Be a Hypnotist. In spite of the detailed instructions, neither boy could hypnotize anybody, and young Milton, looking at the picture, said, “Of course you couldn’t learn to do that for 10 cents. But wait till I grow up. I’m going to be a hypnotist.”

Mrs. Milton H. Erickson, of Eloise, Mich., has two fine children – Betty Alice, 7 years old, and Allan, 4. When they were born Mrs. Erickson says she felt no pain, since her husband, each time, put her in a hypnotic trance and told her the birth would be painless, and sure enough it was.

Erickson was living at 32 West Cypress in Phoenix. He traveled extensively that year, crisscrossing the country providing 55 lectures, seminars and trainings. He presented at universities, dental, medical, and clinical hypnosis conferences, and hospitals and for the United States Army. He lectured for Seminars on Hypnosis, a Chicago-based firm, that handled registration for the seminars. The three-day seminars cost $150.00 which included luncheons. “The instructors are recognized leaders in the field. All are experienced teachers and are engaged in clinical practice of medicine or dentistry.”

The human experience can be conceptualized as a series of separation experiences ending with death, the ultimate separation. Each successive separation or movement through life — separating from the mother’s body at birth and later from her breast, beginning to walk, talk, and develop a sense of self, going to school, dating, marrying, and becoming a parent and grandparent—predisposes an individual to anxiety. The basic tenet of my theoretical system is the concept of the fantasy bond: the core defense against separation, and later, death anxiety. The fantasy bond refers to the forming of a fantasy of connection or fusion, originally with the mother or primary caretaker, and later with other family members and romantic partners, in order to compensate for emotional pain and separation anxiety.

Tom, a young adult, has had a bipolar mental illness with episodes involving complex paranoid delusions. He had been hospitalized four times during the eight-year interval since his diagnosis and the time I saw him. Tom’s latest admission followed a trip, with his parents, in December 1991. Tom’s delusions intensified, on that trip, and he believed the name of a town where they had stopped (Winslow, Arizona) held a special message for him. He walked the streets through the nights, “circling around a U-turn exit and ending back at the hotel.” Tom said he could “…WIN the battle if he went SLOW.”

As told to the Ernest L. Rossi in 1976. On one occasion Erickson was lecturing to a group of doctors about hypnosis. He was interrupted when another doctor brought in two women volunteers who were interested in experiencing hypnosis and introduced them to Erickson. In the following he describes the situation as he understood it. Erickson: I began by telling them that they really didn’t know anything about me but I had at least an average education; I’d gone to grade school; I’d lectured to doctors; I had learned to count, I could count to twenty easily;

Juanita was a 31-year-old Marriage and Family Intern who had twice failed the oral examination for her license. She wanted hypnosis to reveal sabotaging herself so she could pass her orals. We would only have time for one session. Juanita had no prior experience with hypnosis. I asked to get in touch with the body sensations she experiences when she was in the oral exam. She was able to do this easily. I then had her focus all of her attention on this feeling.

I remember Dr. Erickson telling me that it was both important to trust the unconscious and at the same time to make sure that the unconscious was regularly fed with new and interesting learnings so it had even more with which to work. This became evident to me while I was showing some students how to use hypnosis to potentiate EMDR’s effectiveness. I had been demonstrating a metaphor of physical healing to stimulate emotional healing when a student interrupted asking how I got my ideas for my metaphors.

Edgar, a child of five, is the oldest son of a marriage that has lived with great economic and family pressures. The mother began going to therapy two years ago for her distress because of her pregnancy. She left treatment. A short while later, she asked for an emergency appointment. She told me by phone that she had just gotten Edgar out of the hospital, and he did not want to return home because he was afraid of his father who, in an attack of fury and impatience, had hit him against the wall, fracturing his cranium.

A shy, gap-toothed young woman arrives at the simple home of a doctor in Phoenix, Ariz. She says she is embarrassed about her teeth and bashful with men. Then, with sudden force and apparent malice, the doctor commands her to practice spurting water through her teeth until she is sure she can hit the young man who often meets her at the office watercooler. Soon after, the woman carries out her mission. The next day, the young man lies in wait for her with a water pistol. Eventually they marry. Her problem seems to have vanished magically.

The following is an excerpt from the Erickson biography. It was taken from a document Ron Alexander, Ph.D., sent to Jeff Zeig in 2015. In 1976, Alexander phoned Erickson at the beginning of the week, asking him if he would consult on a personal medical problem. The holistic treatments Alexander tried had not been successful. During that phone call, Erickson asked Alexander to call him back the next day, sharply at 9 a.m. The following days, Erickson asked Alexander to do ..

Recently, I was in Gent, Belgium talking about my father’s early career work. I was shocked by the myths and misconceptions that seem to have been perpetuated about my father. I was stunned to discover that my father is often viewed as physically feeble by a large percentage of his followers. From the perceptions expressed, it seems that most of the people who are writing books and giving talks about my father met him in the 1970s when he was confined to a wheelchair and had changed his practice

I have been asked to make a recording of an induction technique. After much thought on this matter, I believe I can be of much more service in another way. My own induction techniques are expressive to me, of my timing, of my rhythm, my personality, my emotional feeling, my attitude toward my patient. So it is with anybody else, and so it should be with anybody else. An induction technique is not a series of words, phrases, or sentences. Nor is it just a matter of suggestions, intentions, inflections,

Many people will experience anxiety at some point in their lives. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States that affects 40 million adults. Anxiety is a common response when we are going through big life changes, such as career changes, moving, or financial and health troubles. When the anxiety starts to become larger than the events themselves or your everyday life and routine are affected, it may be a sign of an anxiety disorder. Signs and symptoms of someone struggling with anxiety can range from excessive worrying, restlessness, agitation,

Cathy was a 55–year-old single client of a colleague. Her initial complaint was that, although she was very competent in her work, she repeatedly raged at her boss and at co-workers. It soon emerged that she had a history of sexual abuse from her father, and had a very difficult time separating her own experience from others. Hence, it was hard for her to know her own needs, and defend herself from the expectations and intrusions from others. She showed what is often called “co-dependence,” or “enmeshment.”