Clinical Essay
Rhythms of Trance
As a student of Stephen Gilligan, my first formal training in hypnosis was primarily influenced by Ericksonian methodology. As a practicing artist and registered art psychotherapist, my earliest hypnotic experiences were fostered and nourished through immersion in the creative process. Over the past 16 years as a clinical therapist, I have sought to blend the wisdom of Erickson's legacy with the depth of creative communications. When, about eight years ago, Dr. Gilligan gave birth to his Self Relations model of psychotherapy (The Courage to Love, 1997) I had found my home in the psychotherapeutic community. This is a model of relational connection in multiple fields. There is a clear effort to allow for creative process to inform both client and therapist in non-linear language that also parallels the various stages of the creative/life cycle: quiet, quickening, gestation, birth, living, death, descent, re-birth.
Students of the model are encouraged to develop skillful means by which they can drop judgments, connect in body-mind, and allow life energies to flow through them. These practices are strikingly similar to the techniques that any artist learns to develop in order to allow creative spirit to move through their being. Ultimately, this process may give birth to inspirational imagery of word, form, color, and/or melody. A wide range of hypnotic skills are utilized in both Self Relations (SR) therapeutic work and artistic process. In essay, I hope to convey the beautiful dance that took place in just a short period of time. The art therapy technique (Drawing Transformation) utilized is one that any clinician might adapt to their work. The intentions of curiosity, respect, and safety are held in conscious awareness. The creative process is, in essence, interactive and clinicians are encouraged to be respectful of the importance of "not knowing"...that is, that you not affix any singular meaning to any image produced. As Shaun McNiff, a master art therapist writes: "...the medicinal agent is art itself, which releases and contains psyche's therapeutic forces." (Art as Medicine: Creating a Therapy of the Imagination, p.3)
In both hypnotic and art therapy, transformations occur during process, often emerging out of deep psychic structure which become activated as the body-mind is allowed equal voice with conscious/cognitive mind.
Self Relations psychotherapy also asks the therapist to develop skills to relax into a felt sensing of that center of body/mind connection. The forces of alchemy always seem to emanate from and through that belly-mind rather than from purely cognitive responding. Yet both must be working in relationship, communicating with each other, to allow a full extension of those creative/healing forces through the psyche and out into the world. Hold also in your awareness as you read about the utilization of art and hypnosis in this essay, that these conversations/trances were not scripted, nor was the art technique pre-planned. The inspiration for the guided imagery, as well as the use of drawing transformations emanated from a shared field of energetic connection between client, therapist, and the collective. Here then is a glimpse into the hypnotic realms of art process, dancing with guided imagery, to the music of Self Relations psychotherapy.
I was referred a 13-year-old young lady from her pediatric GI specialist for her high stress level and long-term history of stomach pain/spasming to the point of incapacitation. She was on a moderate regimen of medications, some prophylactic and others in response to directly alleviate pain symptoms when they would occur. Cara (name changed for confidentiality of client) and her mom presented at our initial session with some trepidation, conveying that they had seen two previous therapists, with no resulting symptom relief, nor had she been shown any techniques for pain management or stress reduction. I liked them both right away, and there was an immediate comfort level appreciated as we entered my office from the waiting room. After the first session formalities, I met with her alone, and began by teaching her a self-hypnotic technique called "Three Point Attention". This is a favorite at SR workshops and supervisions, that Chuck Holton describes as having a "history in aikido as a technique for defending from multiple-attackers; hypnotic and relaxing, but maintains an alert, resilient awareness." (correspondence, 2/99).
Cara responded beautifully to this technique and softened her awareness of herself and her surroundings quite visibly. While in the lighter trance state of 3-point attention, I spoke to Cara about my understanding of pain symptoms. In SR a core principle might be stated as "the symptom is the solution." We are asked to hold in our awareness a de-pathologizing relationship between the presenting symptom and the client. In other words, the symptoms are messengers, carrying deep multiple meanings, and are not to be gotten rid of or killed off. Conversely, they are shown gratitude for being messengers of life's loving attempt to awaken each individual to their own unique beauty and place in the world. Thus, in SR, the heart of the therapy is not focused on eliminating symptoms, but finding ways to open to their deeper meanings and knowings. To be able to do this, one must suspend fundamentalist cognitive judgments (e.g., "all pain is bad") and be able to listen in curiosity for intention and direction from the psyche. This involves psychic and physical softening and a level of relaxation attained in trance states, as described.
Once Cara had settled into a slightly deeper trance state with her eyes closed and her body visibly relaxed, I asked her if she had any healing colors that felt good to her. She responded that blues and purples felt soothing to her. I then asked her, in her mind's eye, to bring these colors to any areas of her body where she might feel discomfort or pain. I next had her visualize these colors in the form of light energy, surrounding a symbol for pain. As she was able to do this, I asked her se see the pain symbol shrinking as the healing colors/lights filled the areas of discomfort. A guided imagery then evolved in which she explored the interiority of her physical being. She viewed each of her stomach lining cells, seeing them in spasm and out of spasm. A story emerged of a girl befriending a fire-breathing dragon, with an imaginary guide seen as an older, wiser self. Again, this was not a scripted story, but one which generated by the relational sensing of the imagery that was informing our shared consciousness in those moments. As the story reached its conclusion, I asked Cara to begin to be curious about the messages of the pain and to begin to develop understandings of her other brain, located in the stomach area (the enteric nervous system), while trusting her body/mind's wisdom to incorporate these knowings at their own pace. Lastly, I encouraged her to soften out of locked beliefs, such as no pain = good and pain = bad. She was asked to allow her belly-mind to share with her cognitive mind deeper and deeper questions without seeking answers. Cara left this initial session saying, "I can't wait to come back!"
Coming to our second session, Cara was experiencing severe stomach spasm. In fact, she had almost canceled her session due to the pain, but mom had encouraged her to come. She expressed a genuine desire to be at session and we went right to work. I spontaneously thanked her for helping me become more aware of her experience by bringing her symptom into session! I also congratulated her belly-mind for knowing that this could be helpful and useful. We began with my request that Cara use oil pastels. The art media chosen is itself significant in the process. Oil pastels were chosen for their bold color (emotional) quality and their tactile (oily/smooth) feel. Smooth body movements are thus reinforced with oil pastel strokes on the paper. I asked her to draw her stomach in spasm. Cara easily and quickly drew an image of her stomach with some effort to convey the spasming motion. I encouraged her to draw symbols of all of the different kinds of pain she was experiencing. She again, easily drew in sharp pains, rhythmic pains, constrictive pain, acidic pain, and blockage pain, each represented by a different line form, shape and color. When she felt finished, I gave her a new sheet of paper and asked her to draw her stomach when it felt good (no spasming). She complied easily with some enthusiasm, and produced a smoother image of her stomach, absorbing food easily and filled with healing pink color. When this picture was completed, Cara expressed feeling better (less pain, more relaxed) already!
The "drawing transformation" technique came to mind as a way to facilitate healing with experiential connection to deeper psyche process as well as fostering a sense of personal agency in her healing process.
Cara was asked to choose the order of pain relief (personal agency) and to develop further her personal symbolic understandings. I folded a new sheet of paper into six boxes, like a cartoon strip, and had Cara draw a smaller version of her spasming stomach in the top left-hand box, and the calm stomach in the bottom right-hand box. I then explained to her that in each successive box, she would draw her stomach with one symbol of pain leaving the whole image of the stomach at a time. The areas left open by the absence of pain would be filled in with the healing pink light. In following these directives, Cara was able to choose to let go of one type of pain sensation at a time, using her symbolic imagery and free choice. Pink color began to infuse the stomach image and blend with the pain symbols still present as she drew from box to box. With each successive box filled in, Cara's art sponsored an internal healing and guidance to knowing a pathway. When the journey of transformation, as we named it, was complete, I had Cara relax into a deeper trance state (doing the art project had already facilitated a light trance state) where I again utilized guided imagery to reinforce the wisdom of the body-mind/stomach muscles, as well as her symptoms as messengers. The words that emerged spoke to her cells, asking each to remember its song (see The Heart's Code, by Paul Pearsall) and be able to sing together with all of the other cells, singing once again in harmony. I asked the pink light to flow internally with the healing energies of their blue and purple light and thanked the images of the journey for appearing and taking form. Cara awoke from a deepened trance refreshed and with markedly less stomach pain, no spasming and feeling relaxed.
At her next session, one week later, Cara and her mother proudly reported that she had experienced a week free of any spasming! It was the first time that she had experienced that many consecutive days of body calmness, ever. Yet, more profound than the symptom relief was the lightness in her step as she practically floated into the office. The thought that came to mind was "Oh, she's waking up!" This transformation, seen physically by a softening into her body-self, was quite beautiful and moving. This beginning of the awakening of the Self seemed deeply connected to a step in reclaiming her body wisdom and a new spirit of hope that seemed to glow from her eyes. Her mom, too, seemed infused with a new energy and brighter affect.
Our work together will continue to open up avenues for life to flow through. We will continue to utilize creative process and hypnotic states, held in a relational frame, to infuse light and transformative energies to the self waking up to life. Cara will be sponsored into a knowing of her uniqueness in the world through her unique symbols and forms in her art and by the guidance of her internal wisdoms which are informed by the vastness of life's spiral. What a dance!