My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson

My therapeutic toolbox has been greatly enhanced and enriched by the writings of several students of Milton H. Erickson, who was, by general consensus one of the most innovative hypnotherapists the world has known. Sidney Rosen has further enhanced my appreciations and understanding of Erickson’s work.Rosen was a long-time student and colleague of Erickson, and as such, brings us a wonderful collection of anecdotes, clinical and personal observations of this master of hypnotherapeutic transformations. As with every other book about Erickson, I savored the unusual perspectives, startling interventions, and deep wisdom of this wonderful teacher.Erickson possessed an extraordinarily sharp gift for what I call pattern recognition. He was able to rapidly grasp, engage and manipulate the conscious and unconscious belief (and disbelief) systems, habit patterns and self-image of a person. He used his own words and behaviors to bring about changes in people that were rapid, deep and enormously therapeutic. Often they involved light hypnotic trance, but many times they were direct suggestions for behaviors that led to changes.One of his vehicles for these interventions was to tell stories that illustrated his patients’ problems, demonstrated his appreciation of where they were stuck in life, acknowledged their strengths as well as their weaknesses. He then invited them to change some aspect of their perceptions and behaviors that then led to significant improvements in the problems for which they were seeking help.Some of his interventions were very simple.A man from Philadelphia, whose headaches I cured, sent his aunt and uncle out to see me. He said, “These two have quarreled every day of their married life. They’ve been married over thirty years.”They came out to see me. I said, “Haven’t you had enough of quarreling? Why not start enjoying life?” And they had a very pleasant life. And the man’s aunt tried to persuade her sister to come out, because his mother was very unhappy. (p. 55)So here is a story from Erickson, told to therapists, illustrating his suggestions that brought about rapid and deep changes. Almost certainly there were many more pieces of his interactions with this couple that he did not mention. But the essence of his message about creating change is memorably presented, framed and reinforced by the reports of the observations of various relatives of the patients.Rosen quotes further notes from Erickson about this intervention:Too many therapists think that they must direct the change and help the patient to change.Therapy is like starting a snowball rolling at the top of a mountain. As it rolls down, it grows larger and larger and becomes an avalanche that fits the shape of the mountain.”Rosen gives the example of Erickson’s prescribing the presenting symptom of a fifteen year-old girl whose parents and school and school bus driver and fellow students were all sick of her loudly slurping as she sucked her thumb. Erickson got her parents to agree they would say nothing more about this behavior. He then prescribed the following behaviors: Her parents agreed to say nothing more about these behaviors. She was to suck her thumb with loud, slurping noises while her father read the newspaper and while her mother did her sewing. She was to suck her thumb selectively at school, particularly in front of other students and teachers whom who disliked. Within a month she had stopped her thumb sucking.Particularly endearing are stories of how Erickson used these approaches with his own children, and how they learned to use them with others.For an enjoyable and highly instructive read, this book is highly recommended.

Nothing to complain

This book recounts how the legendary Dr Erickson healed his patients' minds, as well as other stories he used in his treatments. The target audience of this book is obviously hypnotists, and while I won't get into the debate of whether hypnosis exists as something separate from persuasion in general, you don't need to be putting people in trance to use the strategies in the book. This book is on my shortlist of books I would recommend to anyone; I don't know if I've ever seen so much wisdom in just 250 short pages. I would give this 6 stars if I could.

I'm not into the medical field or have any type of experience in psycho therapy on a professional level. So that makes some of the terminology in Erickson's other books a bit difficult for me to grasp. I'm a fan of hypnosis and have been intrigued by Ericksonian tales to help his patients and how they can help me in my writing. I bought this book along with Therapeutic Metaphors by David Gordon, which is a more in-depth book on how to create your own teaching tales. I find Therapeutic Metaphors to be a great value however at times difficult to digest for the layman such as myself due to the terms used which I think any psychology people would easily get.My Voice Will Go With You is easy to understand and digest the messages of the story. Each chapter starts out with a brief explanation of the topic and then there are different stories that Erickson used with his patients. There were many instances where I had to really ponder the meaning of the story, re-read the story, and think deeply about it. Other times the lesson or solution jumps out right at you.My guess is that you're not really supposed to think too hard on it because the stories are meant to work beneath your active, thinking brain. I also suggest to not read through this book quickly as I did the first time. The second time around I'm reading just a couple to a few stories per session before bed and I'm finding new perspectives this way.I think this book is a great read if you're looking to see examples of the stories in a lighthearted and non-technical manner. If you're looking for something that has more "nuts and bolts" to the metaphors/tales then I'd recommend Therapeutic Metaphors as that book teaches you how to construct your own. It was a bit too in-depth for me the first time I tried to read through it and I haven't been able to grasp it fully, yet. But I do like "My Voice Will Go With You" and find it a good value. It's too bad we don't have recordings of good quality with Erickson so you can hear and see how he tells these tales. I wish I could hear his voice changes and see how he used body language to engage with his patients. There are some old footage and audio but the quality is not too great.

Será muito útil pra praticar a língua inglesa.

This book offers great laughs, eyebrow raises, and opens your mind to paradoxal ways to break out of your "problems". Absolutely loved it, great for therapists and anyone interetsed in psychology.

For people that practise hypnosis, this book is a great learning tool. It really made me think outside the box. I have read it through once and skimmed through it a second time. And will probably be reading it for years to come. Definitely one of my better book purchases thus far. Totally worth it for me as a consulting hypnotist. I have recommended and lent it out to others outside the field, as a unique look into the way humans tend to think. A great deal is “all in our minds”.

It is a Great book, I will recommend it to any one who wants to learn a little bit more about Erickson

This story telling is pure gold. The methods used and arranged by Erickson in the healings and curings of his patients both amused and astounded me.By using shocks, humour, distractions, mirroring or whatever prop appealed Erickson secured success upon success without the use of drugs or their possible side effects.This book highlights the amazing capabilities of the human unconscious to correct imbalances of many of our internal systems. Erickson found the secret of how to get each patient to work out their own resolutions by encouraging a change in their thinking.