In part one of Seeding a Theme - A Teaching Seminar with Milton Erickson, you will witness Erickson seamlessly planting a seed, connecting the dots, developing a theme, and closing the loop in one class period. You will learn how Erickson conducted dissociation through the tempo, content and tone of his words.

This training tool contains segments of hypnotherapy conducted by Erickson, with the same subject, on two consecutive days in 1978. Erickson demonstrates how symbols may be used as metaphoric forms of communication to foster new ideas and understandings. Zeig discusses Erickson’s technique.

This video involves a therapy session with two clients: Monde and Nick. Monde is a 32-year-old women who is married with three children. Monde has had three therapy sessions with Dr. Erickson and has been exposed to hypnosis in prior sessions. Monde is seeing Dr. Erickson because she is feeling insecure about herself as a person, mother, and wife. The other client, Nick, is a 20-year-old sophomore in college who has had no previous experience with hypnosis or psychotherapy. In addition, Nick is an acquaintance of Monde and her husband. The therapy session is conducted in two parts: part one involves Monde as the primary patient while Nick is the secondary patient and part two involves Nick as the primary patient and Monde as the secondary patient.

The Process of Hypnotic Induction features Erickson in 1964, working with several different subjects. He demonstrates how to individualize the method of induction to fit the unique characteristics of the individual. Jeffrey Zeig discusses the microdynamics of teachnique that Erickson used in his 1964 inductions. Comments are aimed at clinicians experienced in hypnosis looking to refine their skills.

For this one-hour video, we reached backed into the Erickson archives, circa 1973 to 1978, to Milton Erickson’s teaching seminars. Erickson conducted these teaching seminars in the comfort and intimacy of his own home. In this video, we encounter three cases – each dealing primarily with trauma. And in each of these cases, there is hidden meaning. Erickson demonstrates how to take “extraneous” information provided by the client, understand the context relevant to the client’s problem, and insightfully extrapolate the true meaning for therapeutic effect.