Stephen Lankton, LCSW, DAHB, FASCH

Editor-in-Chief - American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis

Diplomate - American Hypnosis Board for Clinical Social Work
Fellow & Approved Consultant - American Society of Clinical Hypnosis
Emeritus Clinical Member - International Transactional Analysis Association
steve@lankton .com

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 “And the faculty of voluntarily bringing back

 They are a set of protocols that explicitly
a wandering attention, over and over again,
describe the way people can use their
is the very root of judgment, character, and
thinking and experiencing in order to:
will. No one is compos sui if he have it not.
An education which should improve this
◦ Solve problems (effectively or ineffectively)
faculty would be the education par
◦ Create feelings (desirable or undesirable)
excellence. But it is easier to define this
◦ Create self-image(s) (empowering or defeating)
ideal than to give practical directions for ◦ Guide behavior (congruent or incongruent)
bringing it about.” ◦ Reinforce or rewrite life script decisions
-Willian James ◦ Support mental health or support pathology
The Principles of Psychology, 1890

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 We want to move resource-
 Following a decision, intention is a retrieval from being just a Little
determination to act in a certain way;
to exercise resolve. Professor (LP) event - to being
 It is attention directed to accomplish a an Adult initiated and Adult
goal using free unbound psychic supervised event.
energy.
Then make them into habits
 That is, it is attention which is
directed to carrying out a decision.
that can again become
unconscious or LP events.

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 It may be that NO socializing unit, institution, or  Psychosocial training invites us to recall

process teaches children to: negative (more than positive) experiences
◦ Monitor what they experience  We choose labels for experiences: usually
◦ Consider their context and what they need in that making the negative large (and positive small)
context
 We obsess about a few specific undesirable
◦ Retrieve needed/desired experiences
past events until we define ourselves by them
◦ Develop ways of thinking to use their experience
◦ Make habit-patterns out of the useful mental protocols  We think about the future while we feel
unpleasant, scared, hurt, angry, weak, etc.
 Without that, people are attempting to make  We reverse engineer catastrophic day dreams
life-changing decisions with accidently learned  We mindlessly associate experiences to (or
old tools (or no tools at all). entirely ignore) our body

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 Cure = having the required
People use those common neg. mental
experiential resources

practices to “solve” problems all day/every
day available in the context in
People limit experiences as these fail to solve

our problems which they are
 Eventually, people develop presuppositions needed…and having the
about their limited talents, and capabilities
mechanisms to create
Life experiences confirm our presuppositions.
them.

 People’s lives are primarily self-fulfilling
prophecies due to neg. mental practices.

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 Placing flag in the

mountain our hero gets a
dust in his eyes!

 Chunking “+” Big:______.

 Chunking “+” Small:____.
 Chunking “-”Big: ______.
 Chunking “-” Small: ____.

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  Large experience-chunking (pos. or neg.):  Chunking positive experience ‘large’
◦ Inhibits the ability to change
 Chunking negative experience ‘small’
◦ Creates self-images
◦ Creates philosophies
◦ Creates Life Script decisions  Recognize, re-chunk and re-organize
when discovering large negative chunks
 Small experience-chunking (pos. or neg.):
◦ Leads easily toward tactics or strategies for change
◦ Leads easily to an ability to control the experiences
◦ Leads easily to an integration of experiences

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 Teach clients the rationale of “chunking logic”

 Ask for homework from clients re: reports on

the results of gathering positive experiences
and chunking them large.

 Ask for homework results from clients to

report how they had potentially ‘negative’
experiences and chunked them small or
found a way to chunk them ‘positive.’

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  Purposefully collect positive experiences
throughout the day and chunk them large.

 Take time to ‘savor’ the collected positive

experiences throughout the day.

 Use these “magic markers” for desired

feelings during brief rehearsals of (various)
future events until this becomes a habit.

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 Decide on needed recourses for a coming task

 Create a visual image of your self
 Retrieve the resource-experiences one at a
time
 Use feelings to change the image so as to
observe your self with these experiences
 Rehearse a future scene with the ‘self’ having
them – realize what you would say, etc.
 Change the scenario to include both the best-
and worst-case scenarios while maintaining
the desired resources.

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 1. Identify an approaching task or event.
2. Make a list of the desired resources that seem
to be needed.
3. Have the client visualize an image of their
‘self’ to be used in the exercise.
4. Retrieve each desired resources one at a time
by revivifying memories that contain them.
5. Add each feeling resource to the picture one
at a time (so the image reflects each feeling)
while the client continues to feel them.
6. Make the image ‘supportive’ by adding a
supportive other person to it (optional).

Copyright © 1979-2017 Stephen Lankton

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• Create a “Central Self-image” (CSI)

1. Make a list the desired resource that seem to be needed
2. Make an image of your self to be used in the exercise
3. Retrieve the desired resources 1 at a time by revivifying
memories that contain them
4. Add each feeling resource to the picture one at a time (so the
image reflects it) as you continue to feel them
5. Make the image ‘interpersonally supported’ by adding a
supportive person to it (optional)
• Create and play “Scenarios”
1. Let the background of the CSI fade into a scene
2. Rehearse it through the scene beginning to end
3. Keep feeling resource in your body
4. Keep desired resources in CSI image of your self
5. Run a gradient of easy to hard (if necessary)
6. Add any additional resources that may be found essential
7. Add dialogue or narration as you watch the rehearsal

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  Become mindful of your breathing – balanced
through both nostrils (okay to deepen)
 Retrieve a feeling of pleasure, appreciation,
love, or caring (hold this in awareness)
 Become mindful of your heart rhythm
 Keep these 3 resources constant in awareness
for 5 to ten minutes.


1 2 3

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 Reduction of stress hormones in 4 seconds

 Increase in immune system (IgA) in 1 second
 Practicing this in awareness for 5-10 minutes
◦ Reduces heart rate irregularity
◦ Increases heart rate variability
 Results in more resistance to stress
responses
 Results in more rapid return to normal heart
rate after stress incident stops

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  Ask the client to imagine a “perfect” future.
 Help them to feel how good that future feels.
 Help them break down and imagine the steps
they would have had to have taken to get
from the (old) present to the (new) future.
◦ Intimately: With partner/spouse
2021 (this
becomes the ◦ Family: With parents/in-laws/children
“now”) ◦ Socially: Friends and neighbors
2019 (the real ◦ Economically: Employer/marketing/investments
now) ◦ Risks: Home/location/venues
◦ False steps: Set-backs/errors/disappointments

Copyright © 1979-2017 Stephen Lankton Copyright © 1979-2017 Stephen Lankton

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1. Identify a desired goal 6. Help them break down and imagine the
2. Presuppose the goal has been accomplished steps they would have had to have taken to get
3. Presuppose all additional aspects are intact from the (old) present to the (new) future.
4. Time distort to (imaging being in) the future ◦ Intimately: With partner/spouse
5. Emotionally enjoy the success and other ◦ Family: With parents/in-laws/children
aspects of this imagined future ◦ Socially: Friends and neighbors
6. Help them break down and imagine the ◦ Economically: Employer/marketing/investments
steps they would have had to have taken to ◦ Risks: Home/location/venues
get from the (old) present to the (new) ◦ False steps: Set-backs/errors/disappointments
future. (See next slide).  7. Return to the present time
7. Return to the present time

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  I'm proud of you  You've learned a lot
 You're a great kid  I love you
 You do wonderful  I'll be right here for
things you
 You work so hard  I won't leave you
 It's okay to have your  I'll help
feelings  Do what you can
 You're smart  You're
 I understand handsome/beautiful
 You can do it  I like you
 You're fun to be with

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 Imagine perfect parenting entities on each side

 Hear their nurturing & supportive comments
 Rotate 90 degrees and keep the voices going
 Continue as an entire rotation around the body
 Move the circulating comments down to
shoulder, chest, waist, hips, legs, feet
 Move it upward via each location keeping all
previous locations
 Move it overhead and continue higher until they
are eventually out of sight

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  Recall an incident that represents a desired
 Presuppositions determine punctuated trait. (Ultimately do this for 3 traits).
moments during life’s ups and downs  Isolate a single image in that memory that best
+
symbolizes it.
 Hold your hands and arms in reaching posture.
<+
 Visualize the symbolic image between your
0 hands until you acquire the associated feeling.
>1  Repeat for a few minutes daily until it becomes
-
a 1) memory, 2) an available feeling, 3) a part
of the self image

Copyright © 1979-2017 Stephen Lankton

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 This is not positive thinking

Apply Chunking Logic to ongoing experience
This is experience retrieval, linking, and


 Experience, label, and collect desirable experiences
throughout the day: Magic Markers conditioning using specific protocols
 Obsess on valued experiences: Vivid Symbolic ◦ For attention,
Imagery ◦ experience recall,
 Anticipate with desired experiences: Self-Image ◦ memory storage,
Thinking ◦ experiential association,
 Reverse engineer desired day dreams: Emanated
Imaging
◦ anticipation,
 Mindfully associate experiences to your body: Heart ◦ presupposition,
Joy ◦ and planning.

Copyright © 1979-2017 Stephen Lankton

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