(PDF) Hypno-coaching: Application of Ericksonian Hypnosis in Coaching

Hypno-coaching:

Application of Ericksonian

Hypnosis in Coaching

Artem Arakcheev

2023

Warsaw-Zurich

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COLLEGIUM HUMANUM

WARSAW MANAGEMENT UNIVERSITY

Doctor of Business Administration

DISSERTATION

Artem Arakcheev

2023

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Abstract

Pure and blended coaching are gaining popularity because they are effective in helping

individuals and teams to solve problems, achieve goals, improve performance, and develop

skills. Nevertheless, often coaching remains inefficient in dealing with incongruent clients

because leaders and coaches mostly coach grievously limited conscious minds. Hypnosis is

not widespread in business yet but enables utilizing wise unconscious minds to solve problems

more congruently, effectively, and efficiently. Researchers discuss adapting temporary

progression, age regression, and only a few other hypnotic techniques. This research advances

“Hypno-coaching” by applying qualitative patterns, concepts, methods, and values from

Ericksonian hypnotherapy to coaching and by discussing the phenomenology of trance states.

The author conducted online Hypno-coaching sessions with directors, managers, leaders,

workers, and professionals. Quantitative data obtained from surveys of coachees about their

experience after the sessions helped to infer: a) hypnosis is consistent with the core coaching

competencies; b) hypnosis improves the effectiveness of coaching. Other findings support the

‘special state’ theory for the nature of hypnosis. Coachees became highly motivated, deeply

relaxed, and likely to recommend Hypno-coaching to friends and colleagues.

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Dedication

To you

since

you read this text,

and you recognize symbols and spaces,

and you know the alphabet,

and your conscious mind may focus on something interesting in this research

while your unconscious mind makes your life better,

or

maybe your unconscious mind finds something interesting in this research

while your conscious mind makes your life better.

To those individuals and groups

who discover

the power of the conscious mind and

the wisdom of the unconscious mind.

To all people who love changes.

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Acknowledgments

Words could not express my appreciation to our dean Márta Kreidlmayer for teaching

us and consulting me during the preparation of this dissertation.

I highly value all the knowledge given to us by lecturer Adrian Arlett, especially for

lectures on topics of coaching.

Our studies would have not been possible without the faculty and administration of the

Alfred Nobel Open Business School and Collegium Humanum Warsaw Management

University who made our studies possible.

The work is based on ideas given by Milton H. Erickson, Mikhail Ginzburg, Andrey

Pligin, Jeffrey Zeig, Brent Geary, Ernest L. Rossi, Sheila I. Rossi, and other brilliant people.

I am highly thankful to my parents Aleksey Arakcheev and Marina Arakcheeva for

their love, and care, for helping me to grow personally and professionally, and for believing in

me and being the best parents.

Other acknowledgments are to Dmitry Arakcheev, Elena Tarasova, Dulce Labastida,

Evgeniy Sedykh, Sergey Kuznetsov, Olesya Klenina, Natalya Daneshvar, Aigul Valeeva,

Ruslan Zhuravlev, Andrey Kislyakov, Valeria Vyatchanina, Natali Strelskaya, David Zepeda,

Alberto Cerro, Andrey Nazarenko, Sergei Pavlov, Yulia Schurova, Mau Herrera, Vitaly

Stashkevich, and to other beautiful people. I acknowledge all my family and friends even if

your name is not on the list.

Thanks, God.

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Table of Contents 
Abstract   ................................................................................................................................3
Dedication   ............................................................................................................................4
Acknowledgments   ...............................................................................................................5
Table of Contents   .................................................................................................................6
List of Tables   .......................................................................................................................13
List of Figures   ......................................................................................................................14
Foundation of the Study   ..................................................................................................15
1. Background of the Problem   .....................................................................................15
2. Problem Statement   ...................................................................................................16
3. Purpose Statement   ....................................................................................................17
4. Nature of the Study   ..................................................................................................17
4.1. Defining Study   .................................................................................................18
4.2. Defining Culture   ...............................................................................................18
5. Research Question   ...................................................................................................19
5.1. Research Objectives   .........................................................................................19
5.2. Measuring the Helpfulness of Hypnosis   ..........................................................19
6. Theoretical or Conceptual Framework   ....................................................................20
7. Operational Definitions   ............................................................................................20
8. Assumptions and Limitations   ...................................................................................20
8.1. Limitations   .......................................................................................................20
8.2. Delimitations   ....................................................................................................21
8.3. Assumptions   .....................................................................................................21
Literature Review   ............................................................................................................22
1. Selection of Review Literature   ................................................................................22
1.1. What is Coaching?   ...........................................................................................22
1.2. What is Hypnosis?   ............................................................................................22
1.3. Why Integrate Hypnosis in Coaching?   .............................................................22
1.4. Coaching vs Hypnotherapy   ..............................................................................23
1.5. Debates and Controversies   ...............................................................................24
1.6. What Hypnosis Techniques Do Coaches Apply?   .............................................25

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1.7. What Techniques Do Hypnotherapists Apply?   ................................................25
1.8. Conclusion   ........................................................................................................26
2. Conceptual Frameworks   ..........................................................................................26
2.1. Core Competencies of a Coach   ........................................................................26
2.2. GROW Model   ..................................................................................................27
2.3. SCORE Model   .................................................................................................27
2.4. Depotentiating Conscious Set   ..........................................................................28
3. Business Modeling   ...................................................................................................28
3.1. Usual Hypno-Coaching Startup   .......................................................................29
3.2. Hypno-coaching Education Business   ...............................................................29
3.3. Hypno-coaching AI   ..........................................................................................29
3.4. Mission   .............................................................................................................29
3.5. Vision   ...............................................................................................................30
3.6. Business Model Canvas   ...................................................................................30
3.7. Roadmap   ..........................................................................................................32
Research Method   .............................................................................................................35
1. Research Methods   ....................................................................................................35
1.1. Applied Research   .............................................................................................35
1.2. Phenomenological Research   ............................................................................35
1.3. Deductive Research   ..........................................................................................36
1.4. Research Activities   ...........................................................................................36
2. Research Questions   ..................................................................................................37
3. Data Collection Methods and Analysis   ....................................................................38
3.1. Analysis of Collected Papers by Milton Erickson   ............................................38
3.2. Individual Hypno-coaching Sessions   ...............................................................38
3.3. Hypno-coaching Survey   ...................................................................................40
4. Case Examples   .........................................................................................................41
4.1. Improving Team Work   .....................................................................................41
4.2. Handling Job Burnout   ......................................................................................42
4.3. Hypno-coaching by Aigul Valeeva   ...................................................................47
5. Data Collection   ........................................................................................................50

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5.1. Types of Research Data   ....................................................................................50
5.2. Timescale and Location   ....................................................................................50
5.3. Flexibility of the Research   ...............................................................................51
5.4. Non-Probability Sampling   ...............................................................................52
Findings and Discussion   ..................................................................................................53
1. Core 1: Demonstrate Ethical Practice   ......................................................................53
1.1. Ethics of Milton Erickson   ................................................................................53
1.2. Getting Permission from Conscious Ethically   .................................................54
2. Core 2: Embody a Coaching Mindset   ......................................................................55
2.1. Developing Hypno-coaching Mindset   .............................................................55
2.2. Hypnosis   ...........................................................................................................56
2.3. Hypno-coach and Hypno-coachee   ...................................................................56
2.4. Conscious   .........................................................................................................56
2.5. Unconscious   .....................................................................................................57
2.6. Hypnotic Suggestions   .......................................................................................57
2.7. Self-Hypnosis   ...................................................................................................57
3. Core 3: Establish and Maintains Agreements   ..........................................................59
3.1. Agreement between Conscious and Unconscious   ............................................60
3.2. Asking Unconscious Mind   ...............................................................................60
3.3. Expectancy and SMART goals   ........................................................................62
4. Core 4: Cultivate Trust and Safety   ...........................................................................63
4.1. Trusting to Client’s Intuition instead of Judging   ..............................................63
4.2. Rapport   .............................................................................................................64
4.3. Attunement and Mimicry   .................................................................................64
4.4. Protecting Conscious from Unconscious   .........................................................65
4.5. Protecting Client from Unpleasant Trance Experience   ....................................66
4.6. Thank Conscious and Unconscious   ..................................................................67
5. Core 5: Maintain Presence   .......................................................................................67
5.1. Cooperation and Adaptation   .............................................................................68
5.2. Hypnosis Increases Cooperation   ......................................................................68
5.3. What Level of Trance Is Necessary for Coaching?   ..........................................68

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5.4. Mutual Trance Induction   ..................................................................................69
6. Core 6: Listen Actively   ............................................................................................70
6.1. Follow the Client’s Intuition and Avoid Judging   .............................................70
6.2. Observation   ......................................................................................................71
7. Core 7: Evoke Awareness   ........................................................................................72
7.1. Conscious and Unconscious Awareness   ...........................................................74
7.2. Analogies and Literalness   ................................................................................74
7.3. Receptiveness of Ideas   .....................................................................................75
7.4. Use of Anecdotes   ..............................................................................................76
7.5. Perform in Trance   .............................................................................................77
8. Core 8: Facilitate Client Growth   ..............................................................................78
8.1. Posthypnotic Suggestion   ..................................................................................78
8.2. Power of Double Binds   ....................................................................................79
8.3. Using Amnesia   .................................................................................................81
9. Survey Analysis   .......................................................................................................82
9.1. Q1 Consent   .......................................................................................................82
9.2. Q2 Age   .............................................................................................................83
9.3. Q3 Occupation   .................................................................................................84
9.4. Q4 Sex   ..............................................................................................................84
9.5. Q5 Experience   ..................................................................................................85
9.6. Q6 Expectations   ...............................................................................................86
9.7 Q7-14 Core Competencies   ................................................................................86
9.8. Q15 Effects of Hypnosis   ..................................................................................87
9.9. Q16 Effectiveness of Hypno-coaching   ............................................................88
9.10. Q17 Nature of Hypnosis   .................................................................................90
9.11. Q18 Motivation   ..............................................................................................91
9.12. Q19 Relaxation   ...............................................................................................92
9.13. Q20 Recommendation   ....................................................................................92
9.14. Q21 Comments   ...............................................................................................94
10. Implication for Theory   ...........................................................................................95
11. Implication for Managers   .......................................................................................96

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4.12. Limitations of the Study   .........................................................................................96
4.13. Recommendations for Future Study   ......................................................................97
5. Conclusion   .......................................................................................................................98
5.1. Development of Hypno-coaching   ............................................................................98
5.2. Significance   ..............................................................................................................99
5.3. Answers   ....................................................................................................................99
5.4. Hypnosis Applied in Coaching   ................................................................................100
5.5. Experience with Hypno-coaching   ............................................................................105
5.6. Evidence of Higher Effectiveness   ............................................................................106
5.7. Final Thoughts   .........................................................................................................108
Reference List   ......................................................................................................................109
Appendices   ..........................................................................................................................116
Appendix A. The Microdynamics of Trance   ...................................................................116
Appendix B. Right and Left Hemispheric Functioning in Trance   ..................................117
Appendix C. Indicators of Trance Development   ............................................................118
Appendix D. ICF Core Competencies   ............................................................................119
D1. Demonstrates Ethical Practice  Definition: Understands and consistently applies 
coaching ethics and standards of coaching.   .........................................................................119
D2. Embodies a Coaching Mindset   ............................................................................119
D3. Establishes and Maintains Agreements   ...............................................................120
D4. Cultivates Trust and Safety   .................................................................................120
D5. Maintains Presence   ..............................................................................................121
D6. Listens Actively   ...................................................................................................121
D7. Evokes Awareness   ...............................................................................................122
D8. Facilitates Client Growth   ....................................................................................122
Appendix E. Sample Hypno-coaching Agreement   .........................................................124
1. Hypno-coach—Client Relationship   .......................................................................124
2. Services   ..................................................................................................................125
3. Schedule and Fees   ..................................................................................................125
4. Procedure   ...............................................................................................................125
5. Confidentiality   .......................................................................................................126
6. Release of Information (Optional, based upon the specific situation)   ...................127

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7. Cancellation Policy   ................................................................................................127
8. Record Retention Policy (Optional, if the Coach has adopted such a policy)   .......127
9. Termination   ............................................................................................................127
10.Limited Liability   ...................................................................................................127
11.Entire Agreement   ...................................................................................................128
12.Dispute Resolution   ................................................................................................128
13.Severability   ...........................................................................................................128
14.Waiver   ...................................................................................................................128
15.Applicable Law   .....................................................................................................129
16.Binding Effect   .......................................................................................................129
Notice and Disclaimer   ................................................................................................129
Appendix F. Hypno-coaching Research Questionnaire   ..................................................131
Q1. Informed Consent Form   ......................................................................................131
Q2. Age   ......................................................................................................................132
Q3. Occupation   ..........................................................................................................132
Q4. Sex   .......................................................................................................................132
Q5. Experience   ...........................................................................................................133
Q6. Expectations   ........................................................................................................133
Q7. Core 1: Ethical Practice   .......................................................................................133
Q8. Core 2: Coaching Mindset   ...................................................................................133
Q9. Core 3: Agreements   .............................................................................................134
Q10. Core 4: Trust and Safety   ....................................................................................134
Q11. Core 5: Presence   ................................................................................................134
Q12. Core 6: Active Listening   ...................................................................................135
Q13. Core 7: Awareness   .............................................................................................135
Q14. Core 8: Growth Facilitation   ...............................................................................135
Q15. Hypnosis Effects   ................................................................................................135
Q16. Effectiveness of Hypno-coaching   .....................................................................136
Q17. Nature of Hypnosis   ............................................................................................136
Q18. Motivation   .........................................................................................................136
Q19. Relaxation   ..........................................................................................................137

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Q20. Net Promoter Score ...........................................................................................137

Q21. Comments ..........................................................................................................137

Appendix G. Data Matrix ...............................................................................................138

Appendix H. Statistical Analysis of Survey ....................................................................144

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List of Tables

Table 1. Trance Induction Speech and Comments __________________________________43

Table A1. The Microdynamics of Trance Induction and Suggestion ___________________116

Table B1. A Summary of Differences between Awake and Trance Experience ___________117

Table G1. Data Matrix Q1-5 _________________________________________________138

Table G2. Data Matrix Q6 ___________________________________________________139

Table G3. Data Matrix Q7-14 ________________________________________________140

Table G4. Data Matrix Q15-20 _______________________________________________141

Table G5. Data Matrix Q21 __________________________________________________142

Table H1. Statistical Analysis of Survey ________________________________________144

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List of Figures

Figure 1. Q1 Informed Consent Form ___________________________________________82

Figure 2. Q2 Age Groups _____________________________________________________83

Figure 3. Q3 Occupation Word Cloud ___________________________________________84

Figure 4. Q4 Sex Groups _____________________________________________________85

Figure 5. Q5 Experience _____________________________________________________85

Figure 6. Q6 Expectations Word Cloud __________________________________________86

Figure 7. Q7-14 Coaching Core Competencies ____________________________________87

Figure 8. Q15 Participants Believe that Hypnosis Improves Coaching Results ___________88

Figure 9. Q16 Participants Believe that Hypno-coaching is More Effective than Pure Coaching

in Utilizing the Unconscious Mind _____________________________________________89

Figure 10. Q17 What Do Participants Think about the Nature of Hypnosis ______________90

Figure 11. Q18 Motivation in Implementing Changes Successfully ____________________91

Figure 14. Q21 Comments Word Cloud __________________________________________94

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1. Foundation of the Study

1.1. Background of the Problem

The author did not have a Hypno-coach when he was about 20 years. He approached

some social and psychological problems that he needed to solve to become less shy and more

confident, social, and successful. He approached his problems by learning hundreds of books,

tens of training, and multiple practices on psychology, hypnotherapy, coaching, body, religion,

spirituality, etc. He tried to find a working solution for himself investing about 9 years in

learning methods to change. One of the most effective and efficient methods for him was

Ericksonian hypnosis. The author worked as a software engineer who learned programming

using 19 programming languages. The author was searching for a “programming language” to

change his own brain and body. The Ericksonian Hypnosis turned out to be the most efficient

and effective programming language of “biocomputers” (human minds) and “bio-robotics”

(human bodies). The author believes that integrating the Ericksonian hypnosis may benefit the

whole coaching community with briefer results of coaching and a more creative, comfortable,

and secure process. To help coaches in the world, the author is willing to conduct a literature

review, experimental coaching sessions with hypnosis, analysis of survey data, and writing the

dissertation.

What is Hypno-coaching? During an online meeting, you can be hypnotized to help

solve a very complex business problem utilizing your unconscious mind. In the state of

hypnosis, you can sit on a chair in a relaxed manner, and you can dream that, instead of sitting

on the chair, you are walking through the office or you are talking to a client who is working

in the yard. You can smell flowers, listen to the birds, feel the breeze, and enjoy conversation

with your client. Everything is utterly perfect and real because your unconscious mind allows

this elaboration in a dream. The real truth is that you are in a chair near a laptop with a web

camera. During the dream, after you got excited by the excellent feedback of your client on an

achieved business solution, you may lie down in the garden hammock. At that particular

moment, you probably turned over and rested your back against the chair back. That was the

time when in your dream you leaned against the hammock so it started to wiggle. The great

secret here is that the unconscious mind can deal with the reality of the chair in an online

meeting and blend with it the reality of eye memories or mental images of any kind.

(Erickson, 1959)

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Despite all the advantages of using hypnosis, the hypnotic method is not widespread in

the business environment yet. Leaders, managers, and coaches prefer to use simpler methods

such as active listening or powerful questioning. The problem with the questions is that the

followers, workforce, and coachees mostly use their conscious minds to answer those

questions and therefore their choices are limited to mostly ideas that come to mind almost

immediately. Coachees can be incongruent and often change the goals that they want to

achieve. Such an outcome happens because the conscious mind does not take into

consideration all the experiences, beliefs, values, skills, learnings, and knowledge that is

available to unconsciousness. Utilizing the unconscious mind by hypnotizing people in the

business environment would allow businesses for finding more creative, effective, and

efficient solutions more rapidly. This research is aimed at understanding how and why

hypnosis can be applied in coaching and leadership. The author deeply believes that

developing the utilization of the unconscious mind would evolve the business of humankind.

1.2. Problem Statement

It often takes a long time to find a good coach and the quality of the coaching is

uncertain. It is harder to find a coach who can apply Ericksonian Hypnosis. Although the

application of Ericksonian Hypnosis is proven to be effective in brief psychotherapy, the usage

of hypnosis in coaching is not well understood and has not been widely studied. Ericksonian

hypnosis is a complex skill; not many coaches learn hypnosis for business coaching.

The problem affects business coaches and their clients. It has always been a problem

that coaches are not able to apply the variety of techniques from Ericksonian hypnosis because

of the lack of literature on the topic and the absence of developed methods. A lot of research

on hypnosis was done in clinical settings (health, psychology, and psychotherapy). Some

leaders induct trance states without their awareness that they do hypnosis. Armatas (2009)

proposes using only a few techniques of Ericksonian hypnosis in coaching (suggestion, self-

hypnosis, age progression, age regression, and metaphors). There is an ongoing debate on the

nature of hypnosis and on the necessity of relaxation. I want to focus on leadership and teams

in organizations with limitations on the business environment. If the problem will not get

resolved, management may struggle with the long process of traditional coaching to reach

results, low performance, and lack of motivation. Business coaches and their clients may

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benefit from the application of trance states to develop brief coaching, higher performance,

and levels of motivation.

Hypnosis is used to develop quick changes in the life of a patient through Solution-

Focused Brief Therapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and other methods. Often changes

(cultural, managerial, adaptability, and others) are needed in organizations. Coaches need to

know how to apply hypnosis in organizations and with what effects. I want to integrate the

states of trance from hypnotherapy to coaching to help executives, managers, and workers

with conducting literature research, hypnotic experiments in coaching sessions, and related

data analysis.

1.3. Purpose Statement

This research is purposed to:

• Develop “Hypno-coaching” by integrating techniques from hypnosis and hypnotherapy in

coaching and mentoring.

• Motivate leaders in applying a trance state in the business context to improve the

performance of the organization, lead organizational changes more successfully, establish a

better culture, and help employees to develop their personal careers and lives.

• Measure the effectiveness of Hypno-coaching.

• Answer some open questions about the nature of hypnosis.

1.4. Nature of the Study

As Arlett (2022a) stated, “There is a growing trend towards blended coaching”. The

difference between pure and blended coaching is that, in pure coaching, a coach actively

listens to the coachee and asks powerful questions. In blended coaching, a coach asks and

listens to the coachee but also can suggest and educate the coachee. There are occasions when

clients are looking for blended coaching. And then a coach can clarify that this session will be

pure coaching and in the next session, he will share more information. In both types of

coaching, it is always a client who is taking the lead and making the choices. (Arlett 2022b)

This study aims to explore new topics regarding the application of hypnosis in blended

coaching. We collect data from the papers on hypnosis to generate new ideas about advancing

blended coaching. We experiment with the ideas and techniques of hypnosis and gather

feedback from the participants through the questionnaires. The analysis of the survey includes

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qualitative and quantitative studies. This study focuses on understanding the beliefs and

experiences of individuals. The study also focuses on measuring and analyzing numerical

data.

1.4.1. Defining Study

A professional business coach has the skillset to work with his clients. Then more

flexible and adaptable to the client's needs the coach is, then more successful and helpful can

be coaching work. It is important to know about the core competencies of a coach for the

purpose of our research to see how Hypno-coaching skills can augment the skill set of the

professional coach and help with developing his adaptability to the needs of his/her coachees.

To discuss the nature of the study, the researcher wants to start by listing the core

competencies of a coach in a pure coaching setting, then find out how the core competencies

might be developed by applying the work of Milton Erickson on hypnosis. This development

may contribute to the advanced coaching skillset of a Hypno-coach. Finally, we can define a

culture in which the researcher can conduct experiments to confirm that the application of

hypnotic techniques and principles in coaching works with the coachees in the real world.

We aimed to evaluate how effective would be an enhancement of the core

competencies of a coach by competencies possessed by hypnotherapists and Hypno-coaches.

The hypnotherapists also demonstrate ethical practice, maintain an open and client-centered

mindset, cultivate trust and safety, actively listen, maintain a presence through contact with

consciousness and unconsciousness, evoke awareness, use metaphors, and analogy, and

facilitate client growth. Furthermore, we look at the advanced competencies of coaches

through the prism of competencies of Hypno-therapists, mainly Milton H. Erickson. Milton

Erickson and his students released a big collection of papers and books that aimed to teach

about the nature of hypnosis and hypnotherapy. As a result of the analysis of the collected

papers, we highlight how the competencies of coaches can be developed through hypnosis.

1.4.2. Defining Culture

I define the culture as innovative and creative with an accent on quick learning and

new experiences, obsession with customers, inclusion, Agile methodologies, and exploration

of own boundaries and states (including states of trance) for reaching the highest potential.

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Every person is unique, has a unique experience, and speaks a unique language. When

helping people to reach their goals, a professional coach can apply a personal approach and

create new methods for every client that they work with. Solutions that work for one client

may not work for another client. Zeig (2012) cited Margaret Mead who wrote a tribute to

Milton Erickson, “One of the distinguishing characteristics of Dr. Erickson was that he

invented a new therapy for every patient. Erickson added hundreds of cases to the literature.

Each case is unique and it's different and it's uniquely tailored to the individual.”

1.5. Research Question

1.5.1. Research Objectives

The research objectives are:

• Contribute to the knowledge of using states of trance (Ericksonian hypnosis) in business

administration, and management. Integrate hypnotic techniques into coaching and

mentoring.

• Measure the effect of using Ericksonian hypnosis on people of different professions in the

business setting.

• Enhance the performance of individual team members on different levels of the

organization (executives, directors, managers, engineers, etc.), and teams in general.

• Motivate leaders to apply hypnosis in the business and spend more time in a state of

trance.

• Find how to improve the performance of coaching by developing core competencies

through techniques of hypnosis.

• Utilizing the power of your unconsciousness for solving your business/life problems or

achieving your goals.

• Helping to advance coaching practices.

• Having a better mood, harmony, calmness, relaxation, and motivation.

1.5.2. Measuring the Helpfulness of Hypnosis

On the question “How do you measure the level of helpfulness of hypnosis to a

patient?”, Geary (2023) answered that you can ask the patient, “How is the hypnosis for you?”

When they come back the next week, you say “Did you listen to the recording of hypnosis that

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was made for you? Is anything different than when we met last week?” Or you can scale it and

if it is anxiety in the first session, they say, “When I go into a meeting and everybody's there

my anxiety is 9” You start to work with them hypnotically and after five weeks you ask “Did

you have a meeting this week?” And they say, “I went and it is not like the anxiety was gone,

but it is only a 4 now.” For the purpose of this research, we can do quantitative methods when

we can do scaling and qualitative methods when we can ask the person about their feedback,

“Are you feeling better? Do you feel like the hypnosis is helpful for you?”

To more effectively measure the helpfulness of hypnosis in a group that consists of

many coachees, the researcher can use interviews or surveys after conducting the individual or

group hypno-coaching sessions.

1.6. Theoretical or Conceptual Framework

The research can utilize the theoretical and conceptual frameworks for pure coaching,

assessing core coaching competencies, gathering information during the coaching sessions,

using hypnosis, and evaluating the effectiveness of applying the hypnosis in coaching settings.

We will explain the frameworks in more detail in the next chapter after conducting the

literature review.

1.7. Operational Definitions

Hypnosis. When using the term Hypnosis, I generally mean Ericksonian hypnosis, a method

of indirect hypnosis created by Milton H. Erickson, MD, and that was named according to the

name of the author.

Q. Question of the questionnaire used for the survey in this research. Q1 means question 1.

Q2-6 means questions from 2 to 6.

1.8. Assumptions and Limitations

1.8.1. Limitations

We see the following limitations:

• Acceptance of participants to apply Ericksonian hypnosis for their coaching.

• Coaching adults mostly in business and life in general.

• Teaching Ericksonian hypnosis is out of the scope of this research.

• We do not use psychotherapy or mentoring.

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1.8.2. Delimitations

There are the following delimitations:

• We will show applicable techniques of Ericksonian hypnosis.

1.8.3. Assumptions

We made such assumptions as:

• Attitudes of participants and coach are the same during the coaching with and without

Ericksonian hypnosis.

• The sample size is a good representation of the population of similar age groups, sex,

occupation, experience, and expectations.

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2. Literature Review

2.1. Selection of Review Literature

In this section, you can read what is known about the application of hypnosis in

coaching. The author critically overviews papers, ongoing debates, controversies, and gaps in

the literature. He explains how the dissertation can contribute to the knowledge of coaching.

2.1.1. What is Coaching?

Whitmore (2002) gave 2 definitions, “Coaching is an activity designed to improve

performance.” and “Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own

performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” Arnold (2009) defines

coaching as “Coaching is a way of encouraging and supporting someone to achieve a goal or

to develop or acquire skills.“ Another definition is by Everen & Selman (n.d.), “Coaching is a

comprehensive and distinctive way of being related to others in an enterprise. The source of

accomplishment in coaching derives from the particular kind of relationship that constitutes

coaching.”

2.1.2. What is Hypnosis?

“Milton Erickson defined hypnosis simply as ‘communication,’ and as ‘concentrating

exclusively on your own thoughts, values, memories, and beliefs about life.’ He said that the

‘trance state is active unconscious learning’” (“Nyseph” n.d.) The goal of hypnosis is to exert

influence on feelings, thoughts, and behaviors (O’Neill et al. 1999). Heap & Aravind stated

(2002): “The term ‘hypnosis’ is used to denote an interaction between people in which one of

them, the hypnotist, by means of verbal communication, encourages the other, the subject or

subjects, to focus their attention away from their immediate realities and concerns and on

inner experiences such as thoughts, feelings, and imagery. The hypnotist further attempts to

create alterations in the subjects’ sensations, perceptions, feelings, thoughts, and behavior by

directing them to imagine various events or situations that, were they to occur in reality, would

evoke the intended changes.”

2.1.3. Why Integrate Hypnosis in Coaching?

Hypnosis facilitates access to information of which one might not be fully aware along

with an increased sense of safety when dealing with personal issues (Gruzelier, 2000) – a

potential benefit to developmental coaching. Hypnosis has been used for decades in a variety

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of settings to facilitate therapeutic results or to enhance performance. Since other

psychotherapeutic strategies have been successfully transitioned to coaching and are

commonly practiced by coaches and coaching psychologists, hypnotic techniques and

principles may also be successfully transitioned to meet coaching objectives (Armatas 2009).

Arnold (2009) mentions that “The coaches may hold qualifications and experiences in

the following areas: personality assessment, setting up 360 degrees feedback, managing

change, Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)”. The NLP includes the Milton model that was

created based on the work of Milton Erickson who created a new approach to hypnosis called

with his name Ericksonian hypnosis. Some NLP Coaches use Ericksonian hypnosis. In his

book “How to coach with NLP”, Steinhouse (2011) highlighted: “In fact, hypnosis is a

common form of communication: story-tellers, advertisers, salespeople, politicians, and

religious leaders all use hypnosis as part of their repertoire (usually, they do this without

knowing that they are so doing, and have learned the techniques simply by trial and error).

Trance is also a common state, and not only when mesmerized by one of the above. Holding a

remote control in mid-air while watching TV, going into a quiet space in a lift and

daydreaming are all forms of trance.”

Some coaches use hypnosis in addition to their regular techniques of coaching because

the state of trance allows for getting better results from the coaching sessions. Armatas (2009)

stated, “Coaching hypnosis may be defined as the deliberate use of hypnotic strategies and

principles as an adjunct to accepted coaching processes. Just as with other therapy practices

adapted to coaching, a distinct term will help to separate links with therapy (specifically with

hypnotherapy) and give it an identity of its own. Coaching hypnosis is results-oriented and

solution-focused. It is present and future-focused (even when dealing with the past). As with

hypnosis in therapy, it is not an approach but an adjunct to accepted coaching processes.”

2.1.4. Coaching vs Hypnotherapy

Hypnosis is often used in hypnotherapy. In general, therapy influences coaching.

According to Arnold (2009), “Some coaches may be trained in psychology, psychotherapy, or

counseling. In this case, they may draw on their skills and knowledge in a coaching situation.

However, it is important that they clarify with their coachee when they are moving into a

therapeutic area and gain their coachee’s agreement before proceeding in this direction.”

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There are similarities and differences between Coaching and Therapy. A reader can

learn from “The similarities between Therapy, Coaching, and Counseling” (n.d.) about

common aspects: “Coaches, Therapists, and Counselors focus on helping people by using

similar interpersonal communication skills to build rapport and connect with their clients. The

three are all aimed at helping people become a better version of themselves and improve their

quality of life. They all involve listening, talking, giving exercises, and unearthing the root

cause of the client’s problem.”

Skiffington & Zeus (1998) found in what aspects coaching is different from therapy:

“Coaching is about achievement; therapy is about healing. Coaching is about transformation;

therapy is about change. Coaching is about momentum; therapy is about safety. Coaching is

about performance; therapy is about progress. Coaching is about creating; therapy is about

resolving”.

Coaching is not appropriate when a client has any of the following: • Experience of

trauma, or physical, mental, or sexual abuse. • Addictions, dependencies, or misuse (alcohol,

drugs, gambling, etc.). • Serious health issues, such as anorexia. • Indications of mental illness,

such as severe depression or phobias (Arnold 2009).

2.1.5. Debates and Controversies

Scientists agree that hypnosis exists as a phenomenon but cannot come to a common

conclusion why hypnosis occurs. There has been an age-old debate on whether hypnosis is a

special state or whether hypnotic responding can be explained in terms of psychosocial and

cognitive factors. This debate has yet to be resolved (Lynn & O’Hagen 2009). The ‘special-

state’ and ‘non-state’ theories attempt to explain the nature of hypnosis. ‘Special-state’

theorists assert that the participant’s self-reports and appearance would indicate that a trance

state exists whereas ‘non-state’ theorists would argue that hypnosis behavior is due to the

participant’s expectancy, motivation, and the interaction between the participant and

practitioner (Chapman 2006; Heap & Aravind, 2003).

Another controversy is if relaxation is necessary for hypnosis. Although, Knight (2005)

gives a definition of hypnosis through relaxation, “Hypnosis is like daydreaming: a form of

relaxed concentration.” Other researchers such as Wark (2006) found that sometimes

relaxation is not a required factor, “Hypnosis can be carried out with the individual being

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physically active, open-eyed, focusing on the external environment and with no suggestions of

relaxation”.

2.1.6. What Hypnosis Techniques Do Coaches Apply?

In his paper “Coaching Hypnosis”, Armatas mainly discusses adapting temporary

progression and age regression to fit coaching needs; the use of indirect suggestions in the

coaching dialogue to enhance coachee receptivity, and the use of self-hypnosis for the

coachee.

Self-hypnosis is a form of hypnosis in which a client inducts a state of trance and

utilizes the state himself. Knight (2005) wrote that “All hypnosis is self-hypnosis because it is

you who uses your abilities, including concentration and imagination, to produce what we

recognize as ‘hypnotic’ effects.”

2.1.7. What Techniques Do Hypnotherapists Apply?

There are gaps in existing knowledge of coaches because hypnotherapists use many

more techniques from hypnosis that could also be useful for the coaching sessions as listed by

Ginzburg & Yakovleva (2008):

• Basic techniques (trance guidance and maintenance, hydrodynamic phenomena, ratification,

dissociation, relativization, harmonization of relations, finger ideomotor signaling, etc.);

• Suggestions (direct/indirect/open suggestions, sequence of acceptance, implication, double

bind, truism, absence of mentioning, allusion, nonverbal, hand catalepsy);

• Metaphor (microdynamics of trance, levitation of the hand, therapeutic metaphor, contact

unconscious, early learning, thematic metaphors, tale, change, non-verbal metaphor);

• Hypnotic change in perceptual and cognitive processes (confusion, breaking template,

handshake trance, sensory overload, time/space disorientation, built-in metaphor, triple

loop);

• Hypno-analysis (visual scale, symptom visualization, wisdom of unconsciousness, journey

to body, automatic drawing, automatic letter, drawing techniques);

• Developmental therapy (age regression, temporal progression, revision, two-level

dissociated age regression, The February Man, Hall of Fame, pseudo-orientation in time);

• and others.

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2.1.8. Conclusion

From the definitions of coaching and hypnosis and reviewing key concepts, we moved

to debates between ‘special-state’ and ‘non-state’ explanations of the nature of hypnosis, and

controversies if the relaxation is necessary to induct the hypnotic state. Coaches integrate

hypnosis into the coaching process because hypnosis facilitates access to information,

facilitates results, and enhances performance. With similarities and differences between

coaching and therapy, many psychotherapeutic strategies have been successfully transitioned

into coaching. A variety of hypnotic techniques are still missing in coaching. My dissertation

is aimed at adding knowledge and flexibility in practicing hypnosis for coaching.

2.2. Conceptual Frameworks

2.2.1. Core Competencies of a Coach

The ICF Team (n.d.) defined the coaching itself as well as skills, and approaches

within today’s coaching profession, “ICF defines coaching as partnering with clients in a

thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and

professional potential.” The ICF Core Competencies are organized into four domains based on

commonalities and interdependencies between competencies within each domain: (a)

foundation; (b) co-creating relationship; (c) communicating effectively; (d) cultivating

learning and growth. A coach needs to have the following core competencies:

1. Demonstrate ethical practice by understanding and consistently applying coaching ethics

and standards of coaching.

2. Embody a coaching mindset by developing and maintaining a mindset that is open,

curious, flexible, and client-centered.

3. Establish and maintains agreements by partnering with the client and relevant stakeholders

to create clear agreements about the coaching relationship, process, plans, and goals, for

the overall coaching engagement and for each coaching session.

4. Cultivate trust and safety by partnering with the client to create a safe, supportive

environment that allows the client to share freely, and by maintaining a relationship of

mutual respect and trust.

5. Maintain presence by being fully conscious and present with the client, employing a style

that is open, flexible, grounded, and confident.

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6. Listen actively by focusing on what the client is and is not saying to fully understand what

is being communicated in the context of the client systems and to support the client's self-

expression.

7. Evoke awareness by facilitating client insight and learning by using tools and techniques

such as powerful questioning, silence, metaphor, or analogy.

8. Facilitate client growth by partnering with the client to transform learning and insight into

action, and by promoting client autonomy in the coaching process.

You can see the full description of the ICF Core Competencies in Appendix D.

2.2.2. GROW Model

The GROW model can be used for gathering information during the Hypno-coaching

session about the problem that the coachee wants to solve or a goal that the coachee wants to

achieve. GROW consists of such questions as

•Goal. What do you want to achieve from this hypno-coaching session?

•Reality. What have you tried? What is the biggest challenge?

•Options. What options are available for you to meet your goal? What is the most

challenging part? Do you know someone with a similar challenge? Have you ever tackled a

situation like this before?

•Will. How will you know that you have been successful? What is the likelihood of being

successful on a scale of 1-10 and how to make it 10? What is the first step? What resources

could help you?

More similar questions can be added to the model about goals, reality, options, and

will. The coach can adapt this model to the needs of the customer and the situation.

2.2.3. SCORE Model

The SCORE model is an alternative to the GROW model described in the section

above. The coach can use this model for gathering information. The coach can also augment

the GROW model with questions from the SCORE model if necessary. The SCORE models

consist of such questions as:

•Symptoms. What’s not working? What do you want to change?

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•Causes. What are the underlying causes? What’s stopping you from fixing this? Who or

what is benefiting from not fixing this?

•Outcomes. What do you want instead of the problem? Where do you want to get to?

•Effects. What will it do for you/your team/your organization/society for you to attain your

goal? How will reaching your outcome change things? What will you learn from it?

•Resources. What skills, money, equipment, contacts, etc. do you have that will help you to

solve your problem? Have you faced a problem like this before? How did you solve it?

2.2.4. Depotentiating Conscious Set

Answering powerful questions allows the creation of a new set of associations through

a search for possible answers. In coaching that search is mostly on the level of consciousness

and limited by habitual frames of reference. Hypno-therapy higher the power of powerful

questions even further. Sometimes, Erickson used questions to fixate and focus a patient’s

attention to “depotentiate conscious set” (depotentiate facets of personal limitations), alter

some of the ego habitual frames of reference, and open up the possibility that new

combination of associations and mental skills evolve for creative problem solving within an

individual. “Erickson's approaches to depotentiating consciousness are so subtle and pervasive

in the manner with which they are interwoven with the actual process of induction and

suggestion that they are usually unrecognized even when studying a written transcript of his

words.” (Erickson et al n.d.) The fixating of attention helps to cause an automatic search on

the unconscious level for finding new associations, then get a hypnotic response. Some of the

most interesting approaches to facilitate hypnotic response are outlined as the micro-dynamics

of trance induction and suggestion in Table A1 of Appendix 1 as (a) fixation of attention; (b)

depotentiating conscious sets; (c) unconscious search; (d) unconscious processes; and (e)

hypnotic response.

2.3. Business Modeling

The results of this research can be taken by professional business, executive, and life

coaches. The coaching business modeling may start with a startup or a coaching center that

helps business professionals to acquire and maintain Hypno-coaching relationships. The

business may grow into a Hypno-coaching education center that releases all the necessary

educational training and materials. The growth might continue by creating a platform that

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matches coaches and coachees and developing further with AI that can automate coaching

relationships at a high scale with reducing costs.

2.3.1. Usual Hypno-Coaching Startup

Business development may start with the usual coaching of individuals and a growing

base of clients by influencing and advertising through social media and platforms for coaches

and mentors (e.g., Momentor, etc.) By partnering with other coaches interested in applying

hypnosis in their practice, we can open a Hypno-coaching center that provides different

coaching services to individuals and organizations.

2.3.2. Hypno-coaching Education Business

The possible growth might be in opening a Hypno-coaching education center or

association. The creation of educational materials such as video courses, books, and articles

may follow. The education for Hypno-coaching students can be conducted online and/or

offline. The Hypno-coaching Institute may educate new coaching professionals, leaders,

executives, managers, etc., and advocate the popularity of Hypno-coaching in the world. The

number of available Hypno-coaches will grow with an increased number of applications of

hypnosis in the business context.

2.3.3. Hypno-coaching AI

Further development of Hypno-coaching might be in creating an innovative Hypno-

coaching AI. We can call it “Uber for Hypno-coaching”. The Hypno-coaching AI can be based

on Conversational AI. Language models for coaching can be developed with technologies of

deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), and natural language understanding (NLU).

The language model is an algorithm that can automate coaching people, businessmen, working

professionals, and others. Using the machine for coaching would automate coaching simple

cases. The current level of technologies still does not allow automation of the whole coaching

relationship but allows to automate of some parts of the individual coaching sessions. Many

coachees have similar problems, voice similar problems, and have similar intents. That

similarity can be recognized and response can be automated by using cloud computing

software and hardware.

2.3.4. Mission

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Make all the people of the World successful and happy through affordable Hypno-

coaching.

2.3.5. Vision

Our strategy to implement the mission would include the establishment of the

following operations:

• Conducting research and development in the field of Hypno-coaching.

• Conducting education based on the Hypo-coaching research.

• Technological development and operating Coaching AI Software-as-a-Service.

• Organizing coaching customer support (tango) with human Hypno-coaches.

• Public relationship to advocate for the effectiveness and efficiency of Hypno-coaching.

• Legal development of coaching agreements with smart contracts.

• Regulation development of the Hypno-coaching industry if necessary.

2.3.6. Business Model Canvas

The business model canvas is a tool for discussing the business model. (Strategizer

n.d.) Using the canvas model, the business of Hypno-coaching AI can be described with the

following building blocks:

Key Partners. Hypno-coaches, coachees, coaching centers, coaching federations, and

associations. Infrastructure providers. Providers of AI and Conversational AI services.

Researchers and educators in the fields of coaching, hypnosis, psychology, psychotherapy, and

business. Organizations that are interested in employee performance development.

Key Activities. Hypno-coaching online, education, research & development,

marketing & sales, customer support, and public relations.

Key Resources. The virtual company, brand, intellectual property (Hypno-coaching AI

technologies, educational materials), human resources (coaches Hypno-coaches, AI

development team, and attorneys), digital (big data, smart contracts), and financial (funding).

Value Propositions. The smartest assistance in solving any business and life problems

and challenges. It is customer-focused, trusted, supportive, safe, highly effective, brief, and

affordable. Facilitates learning and growth.

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Customer Relationships. It is a tango of humans and virtual Hypno-coaches

providing personal assistance and automated services. The customers build short and long-

term coaching relationships with human coaches and AI. The human coaches can maintain

their customer base on the platform. Hypno-coach—client relationships are legally binding

through the use of smart contracts. The coaches receive compensation from the customers.

Channels. Coaching centers, federations, associations. Psychological and

psychotherapy, hypnotherapy associations. Hypnosis associations. Social network groups.

After potential customers become aware of Hypno-coaching AI, they may text the number in

WhatsApp or any other popular messenger. The virtual Hypno-coach will reply and maintain

the dialog. The customer may switch to the human Hypno-coach when he is ready. The

customer may optionally install the Hypno-coaching app for better coaching relationships. The

customer can always use the Omni channel to continue coaching dialog through his any of the

popular messenger apps or through the native Hypno-coaching app.

Customer Segments. Hypno-coaching AI is a multi-sided platform with the following

segments: (a) it matches professional Hypno-coaches, coaches, mentors, and advisers with (b)

clients seeking help in solving challenges and achieving business and personal growth; (c)

business customers (data analysts, researchers, etc.) who are licensees of big anonymized

customer data. The customers may optionally agree that their data may be licensed through the

smart contracts by receiving an award (additional features, discounts, access to better coaches,

etc.) or compensation for it.

Cost Structure. The Hypno-coaching AI is cost driven and aimed to provide services

at a low price to as many people in the World as possible since most people may need

coaching in some form in different areas of life (including business, education, sports,

housekeeping, etc.) We utilize economies of scale. Variable costs for infrastructure depends on

the load. Fixed costs are research and technology development, marketing and sales,

operations, salaries, legal, etc.

Revenue Streams. The revenue streams will be from (a) subscription fees to

automated long-term Hypno-coaching AI services; (b) commissions as a small percentage

from the coaching relationships with human Hypno-coaches; (c) commissions from awards

through smart contracts in the case of big financial gains as a result of smart contracts; (d) big

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data licensing. The short-term automated Hypno-coaching service is freemium and purposed

to trial and sell other coaching services.

2.3.7. Roadmap

An actual technological roadmap might be determined by coaching customers’ needs

and product-market fit. An existing vision for such a Hypno-coaching AI may consist of the

following stages:

1. Messaging to humans. In the simplest case, the development of Hypno-coaching AI may

start with a channel in any popular messenger that has an application programming

interface (API) such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, etc. In the beginning, all text

responses can be made by one of the available human Hypno-coaches. The coach would

text messages about his problem to the number/channel for Hypno-coaching and receive

text responses from the Human coach. The Hypno-coach and coachee may agree to have an

online audio call or video meeting to handle the problem.

2. Messaging to AI. In the next state, the coaching prototype of the Hypno-Coaching AI may

be added to the messenger. An NLU algorithm that can recognize an intent of a coachee can

be added. The most popular intents can be classified based on the database of past dialogs

between Hypno-coaches and coaches through messaging. The most reasonable Hypno-

coaching responses can be found for the most popular intents. Such an algorithm would

allow the initial automation of a coaching dialog. Such AI automation would significantly

reduce the costs of coaching relationships.

3. Tango of humans and AI. Further development may happen with the tango of Hypno-

coaching humans and AI. The coachee starts a dialog with the AI. In the first stages of

development, the machine with smart AI algorithms would not be able to automate 100% of

a dialog with the coachees. When AI cannot recognize any particular intent of a coachee,

the cloud software will transfer the dialog of the coachee to the human Hypno-coach. The

human will coach the client on complex issues that cannot be automated yet. If the

complexity of the coaching comes back to the simple coaching issues that can be

automated, then the Hypno-coach would transfer the coachee back to talking to the

machine. More dialogs with humans allow for further automation of the coaching with AI.

The classification of the possible coaching intents and related contexts will continue until

100% of all the coaching dialogs can be automated with the machine.

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4. Adding Voice AI. Then, we can add voice recognition and speech synthesis to enable

coaching clients to talk to the Hypno-coaching AI. Voice would make the coaching sessions

more natural since the speed of voice communication is much faster than the speed of text

communication. The audio recording from the coachee’s microphone would be transcribed

into a text for the client. Then the text request will be recognized as the intent with

generating the text reply. The text response will be synthesized into a speech. The audio

recording of the synthesized speech will be played to the Hypno-coachee.

5. Creating Applications. To enable further invention of the Hypno-coaching AI technology,

we may need to create our own mobile, web, watch, VR/AR, apps. Those apps may need to

transfer text messages, live audio and video, and live drawings between the Hypno-coachee

and Hypno-coach AI. The messengers might have a limited amount of features. For the

most realistic engagement of clients, we may need to advance digital communication

technology by adding app features that will make the online and virtual Hypno-coaching

sessions the most realistic as the offline coaching session with a real Hypno-coaching

doctor.

6. Adding Computer Vision. Further development of the platform might be with recognizing

the Hypno-coachee on the video from the web camera. Computer vision allows recognition

of the face and body of the Hypno-coachee. The emotions can be recognized on the face,

the breathing rhythm can be recognized by moving the chest up and down. Human Hypno-

coaches induce trance by talking when the Hypno-coachee exhales because the client trust

that speech as if it was their own words. We all speak when we breathe out. And Hypno-

coaching AI can be developed to master most of the skills of Milton Erickson related to

hypnosis. When the Hypno-coaching AI would recognize some emotion on the face or in

the voice of the client, the machine can say about it to attune and build better rapport. The

indicators of the trance development can be recognized by computer vision algorithms. The

AI will receive non-verbal feedback about the hypnosis processes of the coachees to

facilitate more appropriate, brief, and deep hypnosis.

7. Adding Face Generation. The faces of virtual Hypno-coaches can be generated on live

videos that clients watch to make the Hypno-coaching AI more engaging and similar to an

online session with a human coach. The virtual lips may move to reflect the speech based

on the pronounced synthesized text. The emotions of the virtual coaches may mimic at

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some comfortable level the emotions of the clients to cause a higher sense of rapport

between the coachee and the machine building trust and providing safety. The generated

faces, bodies, hands, etc. may send non-verbal communication messages to the client that

would allow communication directly to the unconscious minds of the customers. The virtual

Hypno-coach AI might seem and feel indistinguishable from a real human coach with

advancements in the technological level of AI. The faces might be generated from the faces

of the real coaches who provide services on the platform.

8. Adding Smart Contract. Hypno-coaching relationships might be legally binding by using

smart contracts. After an initial free coaching session to try out the Hypno-coach, the

coachee might decide to engage in short or long-term coaching relationships. The

relationships might be established legally by smart contracts. Such smart contracts might be

approached personally and customized based on the goals of the coaching. In some cases,

the human or/and virtual Hypno-coach might receive an award as a small percent of the

financial gains made by the coachee as a result of Hypno-coaching relationships. Adding

smart contracts may require using a blockchain.

9. Develop a Virtual Hypno-influencer. Allow the Hypno-influencer AI based on the Hypno-

coach AI to reach out to the people in the world through social networks and messengers.

The influencer would talk to people engaging them in meaningful conversations about

learning, and growth, demonstrating hypnosis and Hypno-coaching, creating thoughtful

touches with potential customers, and attracting people to try out the Hypno-coaching

services. The Hypno-influencer may start with a personality similar to the personality of

Milton Erickson that may evolve into his own unique personality over time.

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3. Research Method

3.1. Research Methods

According to McCombes (2019), there are many ways to categorize different types of

research, and the form of research design is shaped by: (a) the type of knowledge a researcher

aims to produce; (b) the type of data that a researcher collects and analyzes; (c) the sampling

methods, timescale, and location of the research. The author categorized this research as

applied, and deductive research.

3.1.1. Applied Research

Applied research develops techniques of Hypno-coaching and procedures to solve

practical problems improving the effectiveness of coaching. One of the practical problems that

we solve is that the coachee often answers powerful questions using his conscious mind that

often cannot find an optimal solution because of its limitations. The client may find a solution

and then figure out that the solution does not fit certain criteria. The client needs to rethink the

solution. Sometimes he/she rethinks the solution multiple times which may take a long period

of time. The unconscious mind is more effective with its ability to search through all the

experiences, memories, skills, and unique characteristics of the individual and find a solution

that absolutely fits. We read papers written by Milton H. Erickson and his students to find

techniques that we can apply in coaching.

When we find some patterns in hypnotherapy that could be used in the coaching, we

conduct Hypno-coaching sessions to see the applicability of those patterns. We explore how

our findings from the papers written by Milton Erickson and collected and edited by his

students help to develop the performance of individuals in the business environment. It also

provides the best method to test our theory.

3.1.2. Phenomenological Research

Phenomenological research is a qualitative research approach that involves

investigating phenomena through the first-person lived experiences of individuals with

Hypno-coaching. We explore and understand the meaning of human experiences of the state of

trance in a coaching setting. The experience is perceived and interpreted by individuals who

have lived the Ericksonian hypnosis.

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In phenomenological research, the researcher seeks to understand the subjective

experiences of individuals and to describe the structure and essence of these experiences. This

approach involves conducting conversations with individuals who have experienced the

phenomenon of interest that is hypnosis in coaching and analyzing the survey data to identify

common themes and patterns that reveal the underlying structure and meaning of these

experiences. Phenomenological research is often used in psychology to explore the subjective

experiences of individuals in relation to a business or life. The research can provide rich,

detailed insights into the complexity and diversity of human experiences.

Each time after the Hypnosis was conducted, the research asks about the experience of

the state of the trance. The volunteer can explain certain effects that he had such as differences

in perception, changes in the state of comfort and relaxation, changes in concentration,

indicators of trance, dissociation, amnesia, etc. The researcher can ask about the feedback of

high quality what was good, and what can be done better. Often people can describe what

helped them to absorb into the state of trance, and what made them go out of the trance. A

Hypno-coach can ask the described above questions about the phenomenology of hypnosis for

improving technique in general and adapt the future sessions with the client to be more

effective.

3.1.3. Deductive Research

Deductive research aims to test a theory. Erickson discovered many techniques to work

with traumas and successfully applied those techniques in psychotherapy for improving the

lives of many people in clinical settings. The theory is that many techniques used by Erickson

can also be used by modern coaches in the business environment. This study is deductive

research aimed to test a theory that the application of Ericksonian hypnosis improves the

effectiveness of coaching. Deductive reasoning is a top-down approach, in which we start with

a general idea of the usefulness of hypnosis in coaching and then we work toward specific

conclusions through inferences. We form a hypothesis using inferential statistics and form a

conclusion. (Bhandari 2022) Using quantitative data obtained from surveys of coachees, we

are aimed to infer if the following conditions are true or not:

• Hypnosis fits the core coaching competencies.

• Hypnosis improves the effectiveness of coaching.

3.1.4. Research Activities

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In this research, I conduct the following activities:

•Reviewing the literature on coaching and hypnosis. In coaching materials, I look for

answers to what existing coaching techniques can help induce a state of trance. In the

materials on hypnotherapy, we look at what techniques from the Ericksonian hypnosis are

applicable to the coaching process. If some techniques require changes, we adapt the

existing techniques.

•Recruiting volunteers to participate in the Hypno-coaching research.

•Conducting individual Hypno-coaching sessions with volunteers. The sessions consist

of two parts: a) coaching the conscious mind using pure coaching method with powerful

questions and active listening; b) coaching the unconscious mind using Ericksonian

hypnosis.

•Discussing the phenomenology of hypnosis with the research participants and getting

feedback from them to improve the hypnotic technique.

•Surveying volunteers for collecting qualitative and quantitative data about the experience

of Hypno-coaching. The survey is used to test hypotheses. Then we analyze the

quantitative data using statistical methods to determine whether the hypotheses are

supported or not.

3.2. Research Questions

I challenge myself to answer the following questions as a result of current research:

• Is Ericksonian hypnosis applicable in the coaching? Can hypnosis develop the core or

advanced competencies of a coach, and improve the flexibility and adaptability of a coach

with a coachee?

• Does the Ericksonian hypnosis fit the coaching core competency model?

• What techniques of the Ericksonian hypnosis can be applied in the context of business or

life coaching?

• What is a set of problems that Hypno-coaching is effective at solving?

• Does the hypnosis improve coaching results?

• Is Hypno-coaching more effective than pure coaching in utilizing the power of the

unconscious mind?

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• What is the nature of hypnosis (‘state’ versus ‘non-state’)?

• How motivated are the coachees in implementing changes successfully?

• Measuring the relaxation during the Hypno-coaching. Is relaxation necessary for hypnosis?

• How likely clients will recommend Hypno-coaching to a friend or colleague?

3.3. Data Collection Methods and Analysis

I collect the data from articles and books by Milton Erickson, conducted coaching and

hypnosis experiments during the Hypno-coaching sessions, and surveys given to the

participants of the Hypno-coaching.

3.3.1. Analysis of Collected Papers by Milton Erickson

I use the results of experiments and observations made by Milton Erickson. Since the

dissertation is aimed to find applications of Ericksonian hypnosis in coaching, we use direct

sources by the author of the method. I analyze the perspective, findings, and techniques of this

medical doctor who made a huge work experimenting with hypnotic sessions in

psychotherapy. There is a book called Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson on Hypnosis

edited by Ernest L. Rossi (Erickson n.d.). The collection consists of 4 parts:

• Hypnotic Realities. The induction of Clinical Hypnosis and Forms of Indirect Suggestion

(Erickson, Rossi & Rossi 1976);

• Hypnotherapy. An exploratory Casebook (Erickson & Rossi 1979);

• Experiencing Hypnosis: Therapeutic Approaches to Altered States (Erickson & Rossi 1981);

• Various Other Papers by Milton H. Erickson (n.d.)

Milton Erickson has many other works which can be used in this or in other similar

research. We use the observations of Milton Erickson and his students to understand the nature

of hypnosis, its effects, techniques, and methods.

3.3.2. Individual Hypno-coaching Sessions

The author conducts experimental Hypno-coaching sessions. The author look for

volunteers to participate in this research on Hypno-coaching for writing a dissertation. A

Hypno-coaching session is aimed at solving a problem/challenge easily or achieving a goal

successfully. A volunteer can select a business task preferably, although it can also be a

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general task in life. A session would take 60–90 minutes. The Hypno-coach and Hypno-

coachee would meet online over a video call on WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, or Zoom.

The session would consist of 2 parts. The first part is for gathering information and coaching

the conscious mind of a person. The second part is for activating the power and potential of a

wise unconscious mind by applying Ericksonian hypnosis. After the session, the researcher

gives a questionnaire to fill out about the obtained experience. The purpose of the research is

to evaluate the effectiveness of the application of Ericksonian hypnosis in coaching.

During the hypno-coaching session, the author used the following checklist:

๏Tell about the research. Explain its purpose and the session structure.

๏Conduct pure coaching. Gather information about the problem or goal using GROW or

SCORE frameworks. Take notes.

๏Record audio. Ask, “Would you be comfortable if I record the hypno-coaching session on

audio?”

๏Conduct Ericksonian hypnosis. Use Ericksonian hypnosis. Use notes. Pay attention to the

following aspects: relaxation, motivation, and recommendation.

๏Ask about experience. “How was your experience?”

๏Get feedback. Prefer the feedback high quality, “Did I tell you something that was not

appropriate for you or pulled you out of a trance? What could I do better?”

๏Promote. “Feel free to invite someone who would like to be a volunteer in this Hypno-

coaching research.”

๏Send the questionnaire link. The link depends on the language of the participant.

๏Send an audio recording. I will send you the audio recording so that you can listen to it

again, you can self-hypnotize every time you wish, and allow the unconscious mind to

work further on your solution.

The Hypno-coach takes notes on his laptop or notebook with the collected information

about the goal or task during the pure coaching part. Then, the Hypno-coach uses the taken

notes during the hypnosis part. Often the hypnotist can say things during hypnosis that the

client mentioned during describing the coaching task. Such a procedure helps the coachee to

imagine future success more vividly by visualizing, hearing, feelings, tasting, and smelling

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criteria of the success. The such vividness and a high level of concentration may not be

possible in the awakened state but possible in the state of trance. It helps to evoke proper

reactions that help the coachee to achieve the goal more easily, comfortably, and automatically

using the full potential of the unconscious mind.

3.3.3. Hypno-coaching Survey

The researcher designed a questionnaire with 21 questions (see Appendix F). The

survey is aimed to answer the research question. It consists of a few open-ended questions,

many multiple-choice questions, and several scales. The questionnaire can take 10–15 minutes

to fill out. The Hypno-coach was sending a link to the questionnaire immediately after each

Hypno-coaching session. Most of the responses passed in an hour or two after receiving the

questionnaire link. Some of the respondents filled up the survey the next day. Few of the

respondents forgot and the author remained to complete the survey in several days.

The questionnaire contains the following sections:

•Question 1 (Q1) is an informed consent form. The form describes basic information about

the research, dates of the research, purpose of the study, the research benefits, methods used,

contact information, audio recording, possible withdrawal from the study, anonymity data,

and who has access to the survey data analysis. A survey respondent who gives consent by

answering “Yes” can access the rest of the questionnaire. A respondent who does consent by

answering “No” will move to the end of the survey without the possibility to answer Q 2-21.

•Q2-5 are aimed to get demographic information such as age group, profession/title, sex, and

experience of working with coaching or psychology professionals.

•Q6 asks about how the purpose of the Hypno-coaching session for the coachee, his/her

problems to solve or goals to achieve, expectations, and criteria for achieving successful

results from the session.

•Q7-14 evaluate pure coaching competencies of a Hypno-coach by the Hypno-coachee. The

respondents access ethical principles, coaching mindset, agreements, trust and safety,

presence, active listening, awareness, and growth facilitation. The questions use the Likert

Scale that contains multiple choice questions with such options that range from strongly

agree to strongly disagree.

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•Q15-16 helps to access beliefs about the results and effectiveness of Hypno-coaching. Both

questions use the Likert scale but the scales are slightly different. In the case of beliefs in the

possibility that hypnosis improves pure coaching results, the 5 options range from extremely

believable to extremely unbelievable. In the case of the effectiveness of using Hypno-

coaching to utilize the power of the unconscious mind in comparison with pure coaching.

the 5 choices range from extremely effective to not effective at all.

•Q17 helps to understand the opinions of the respondents about the nature of hypnosis. Either

they believe that in the ‘special-state’ theory that hypnosis is a unique state of

consciousness, or in the 'non-state', rather a set of social and cognitive factors that influence

behavior. Then may also choose not to answer that question.

•Q18-20 use scales from 0 to 10 to measure such results of the Hypno-coaching session as

motivation to implement changes successfully, relaxation during the hypnosis part of a

session, and the net promoter score.

•Q21 is an open question that allows the Hypno-coachee to share any additional information

that he/she wants.

As you can see, most of the questions use the Likert Scale. The Likert scale consists of

a question followed by a series of five statements. People who answer can select an option that

best fits their feeling about the question. The possible options are, for example, strongly agree,

somewhat agree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree. With the

range of possible answers, the Likert Scale can capture the level of agreement or belief

regarding the topic in a nuanced way. (Bhandari & Nikolopoulou 2020)

3.4. Case Examples

3.4.1. Improving Team Work

A woman, a jewelry seller told me that she has a difficult atmosphere in her work and

she wants to higher her salary. She works in a jewelry store at a famous hotel. All the sellers

compete for customers because they get commissions from their sellers. That is why there is a

tough relationship between the sellers who work at the same store.

I offered the woman a Hypno-coaching session. During the absorption into a state of

trance, I seed ideas about the optimization of teamwork. One such idea was from system

thinking, and it was the notion that the whole system benefits the most when each part of the

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system is aimed to improve the work of the whole system. The speed of the system depends

on the bottlenecks and is equal to the speed of the slowest element. I sent messages to the

unconscious mind about optimizing the performance of the whole system instead of

optimizing the performance of its components.

At the end of the hypnosis, I applied amnesia techniques so the woman can forget what

is being said during the trance. I suggested imagining how the sea waves erase the words

written on the sand of the beach, and when the wave goes back, there is nothing written on the

sand left. So that her consciousness does not remember the content of my speech after she

returned from the trance state to the normal state.

A few weeks later, she told me that she feel much better working in her team. She said

that her manager promoted her and increased her salary.

3.4.2. Handling Job Burnout

I conducted a trance induction for a software engineer. The software engineer had a

burnout. He felt like he spent energy on his project and did not get a return on that energy

investment. The company he worked for reduced the number of team members. When new

clients came from Qatar, his strength began to fade. He needed to join meetings but he did not

have enough time. He felt like that project is killing him. He had no engine inside.

We met virtually over a Google Meet video call. I conducted the Hypno-coaching

session in 2 parts: a) coaching of the conscious mind through GROW model; b) coaching on

of unconscious mind through hypnosis.

Pure Coaching Part

I asked the questions from GROW model listed by Gates (2022):

•Goals. I asked, “What would you like to achieve?” He wanted to acquire the same

productive state as he had a few months ago when he controlled most of his time. When he

was waking up and wanted to go to work. He wanted to boost his willpower, manage his

food well and acquire more strength.

•Realities question was “When and how often does this happen?” He remembered that he

was in a burnout state like this before, it was pressing and very hard. He said that more

concentration was needed there. He delegated some tasks and managed to recover in a

month. I noticed that he may need to apply the same solution or find a new one.

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•Options. I questioned, “What possibilities for action do you see?” He said: (a) form a team

for the project and connect more people; (b) he was offered to go to the project with lively

and cheerful people; (c) he could go on a vacation for a week at least; (d) he can think about

what to do for professional growth that would give him new energy; (e) he mentioned the

importance of developing his speech.

•Will question was “What are your next steps?” He found (a) the importance of writing some

affirmations; (b) quitting smoking; (c) making tea and eating. He said about the fruit with a

very positive smile. I mentioned that this “fruit” step is very important for him.

Hypno-coaching Part

Then we moved to the second part of the session to work with the burnout on the level

of unconsciousness. The software engineer did not have any prior experience with Hypno-

coaching. I said to him that my research is purposed to find the applicability of the techniques

of hypnosis in coaching.

Table 1.

Trance Induction Speech and Comments

Trance Induction Speech

Comments

Now we can do a session of hypnosis. You can check you

body if it will be comfortable sitting in this position for a

longer time. If he will want to close his eyes or open them, he

can do it at any time. Also at any time, he can stop the session

of hypnosis.

It is a standard beginning to

find the comfortable pose.

There is no need to do anything. There is no need to think of

anything. There is no need to listen to my speech because

there is a difference between the verbs listen and hear. And,

everything that some part of you will want to hear, can be

utilized by your unconsciousness for solving the current

problem.

I started the trance

induction with not-knowing,

not-doing technique. He

closed his eyes at the

beginning of the trance

induction.

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I focused my sight on his

chest and attuned myself to

the same pattern of

breathing as he had. I was

speaking only when his

chest was moving down

(breath out). Milton

Erickson used that

technique to cause higher

rapport and trust in the

speech because people

speak only when they

breathe out.

There are two parts of you — your consciousness and your

unconsciousness. While your consciousness observes your

feelings, the sounds, the images, your consciousness controls

processing inside your body, your breathing, blood pressure,

digestion, and other things happening automatically. And

while your consciousness might be busy with observing your

feelings and sounds, you may notice how your voice can

transform into the sounds happening in your memories and

your imagination. You can feel what happens in your body

and in your muscles.

He stopped to move,

relaxed, and got deeper

breaths that signaled the

development of his trance

state.

Trance Induction Speech

Comments

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A problem means that learning might be needed. There are

two complex skills in the life of people. Those skills are

speech and walking. In childhood, when we learn letters, it

was so hard to find a difference between the symbols “a” and

“o”, and find how the sounds “m” and “n” are different one

from another. And we learned all the multiple rules of

writing. Another complex skill is walking with an upright

posture. A baby tries to stand on the legs, and tries to make

his first step but falls down, then he tries again, and falls

down again, and again, and again until he learns to make his

first step, and after the step is done successfully, he falls

down one more time. It was very hard to learn how to walk.

And now, every adult is walking. We all learn those complex

skills at a very early age of our life. The rest of the skills are

much easier to acquire.

Reminded about the past

skills of learning to reuse

those skills in the context to

learn better how to solve the

burnout.

You can relax, and you can go deeper into the trance. Your

unconsciousness can select a proper level of the trance while

I am counting from 10 to 1. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five,

four, seven, twenty-one, thirty-two, nighty nine, thirty-three,

twelve, three, two, one. And your unconsciousness may have

selected the level of the trance that is appropriate to work

with the current task.

Then I applied a confusion

technique by breaking the

pattern of counting down.

Imagine your vacation when you feel better, relax, and allow

energy to come. And you can imagine yourself from outside.

And you can look onto your body from outside of your body.

See your face. Maybe it is relaxed, maybe it is smiling,

maybe it looks somehow else.

I suggested dissociation.

Trance Induction Speech

Comments

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And you can enjoy your vacation, relax, be calm, be happy, in

harmony with yourself and the world. On your vacation, you

can move from one place to another. Be where you want to

be, see what you want to see, and hear what you like to hear.

And go deeper and deeper into a state full of energy, pleasant

feelings, calmness, and relaxation. So that you can get full

rest during your vacation.

I suggested he imagine his

vacation because he

mentioned that he could go

on a vacation for a week at

least as one of the possible

actions to deal with the

burnout.

About 9 years ago, I suggested hypnosis to a person Evgeni

who said that he want to quit smoking. The person was

interested to try hypnosis. And we made a double trance

induction with another student. Then I told him a story about

a father who noticed that his son smokes a cigarette. He

pushed him to smoke two packages of cigarettes so that his

son feel disgusted with smoking. His son never smoked

again. Then Evgeni exited trance. Few weeks later I learned

the Evgeni quit smoking

I remembered another

action that he mentioned to

quitting smoking. And I told

him a story inside of story

from my past experience. I

described this story to quit

smoking in this dissertation

in more detail.

Image of the source of water that is full of water. There is so

much water and so much energy that it can freely flow over.

The source was not always so full, recently something

happened to the stream of water and the water stopped

coming in. The freshwater streamed down from the mounting

until a stone fall down to the stream. And the water was not

able to flow. It was so hard for the water to find a path, a

solution to a problem. And the source became empty. And the

tree near the empty source of the water stopped growing, and

the leaves became yellow, and the leaves fell down from the

tree. One day, the water near the stone learned that it can flow

over the stone and find out a new path. And as soon as the

water learned, the source became full and energized again.

And the tree continued to grow and the tree spread its green

leaves.

I send information on the

language of

unconsciousness in the form

of a metaphor full of

symbols. This was a

metaphoric solution on how

to overcome burnout. After

the trance ended we spoke

about Vitaly’s experience,

he mentioned that he saw an

image of himself trying to

jump over the stone.

Trance Induction Speech

Comments

47

After the trance, he said he was very sleepy because he relaxed. The muscles of his

mouth and throat were very relaxed, and I told him that he do not need to talk right now, but

rather, can enjoy a state of relaxation. In a few minutes, he started to talk initially very quietly

but then more loudly. We discussed the state of the trance. He looked surprised by the

experience of the trance state. He said it reminds him of the state similar to when he wakes up

but still sees the dreams. I gave him the idea that that state of waking up or going to sleep is

also the state of trance, and he can use it as an interface between consciousness and

unconsciousness. He said he imagined that he needs to jump over a stone (that was similar to a

stone that does not allow water to fill up a source). I told him that his unconsciousness speaks

in the language of metaphors and symbols. Sometimes, it is better to know was in a trance

state and sometimes it is good to forget what happened in the trance because now his

unconsciousness can work on the problem itself.

Vitaly wrote feedback, “After communication, thoughts came in order, it became

calmer to think and reason, part of the stress was gone, self-discipline became better, well, it

became a little easier to feel calmer.”

3.4.3. Hypno-coaching by Aigul Valeeva

At this moment, your unconsciousness may have solved some

part of your task while your ears were hearing my speech,

and your consciousness was observing what is happening in

the imagination. And your unconsciousness may keep solving

the problem after the trance ends when you are relaxed or

distracted by something, or thinking about something, or

doing your daily routines.

At some point, you may want to come back from the state of

the trance to a normal state. I will be counting from 10 to 10,

and while I counting, you get back to the normal state. Ten,

eleven, twelve, three, six, sixty night, nighty night, seven,

eight, nine, ten. And when you are ready to exit the trance,

you can open your eyes and your body can make deep

involuntary sigh.

Vitaly took some time

before he opened his eyes.

Trance Induction Speech

Comments

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I spoke with Aigul Valeeva (Hypno-coach who lives in Turkey, personal

communication, December 2022). She has experience as a nurse, doctor, hypnologist,

hypnotherapist, and human design therapist. Aigul offers hypo-coaching to her clients. She

uses hypnosis techniques created by Dave Elman. From her point of view, the techniques of

Elman are much simpler than the techniques of Milton Erickson which might be complex to

understand for a person without special knowledge. She read many books from which she

chooses techniques and combines them.

She also uses human design to get information about a client and keys for achieving

productivity in the business. Often customers may face trauma. She used to heal psycho

traumas in a traditional way but found it ineffective. Hypnosis allowed her to heal traumas in a

rapid manner because it is a direct way into the center of the trauma that needs to be healed.

Aigul remembered a few of her teachers in Vladimir Levchenko who conducted a 2-month

training on hypnosis Aigul and Pavel Dmitriev (Dmitriev n.d.), from whom she learned the

Hypno-coaching approach.

Hypno-coaching of an Entry-level Entrepreneur

Aigul described a case of Hypno-caching for an entrepreneur who founded his

business. He had 4 employees and the business growth was stuck. He did not know what to do

with the business and was deciding whether he should quit or not. Aigul explored possible

psycho-traumas. She found that the entrepreneur studied music. He was so passionate about

music that he forgot about studying at school. He was kicked out of school. He was doing

everything because he must, but without creativity. The creative flow was blocked. He had no

trust in his employees. It was better to pretend that nothing is happening.

Aigul described the structure of the Hypno-coaching work. First, she diagnosed the

entrepreneur. She asked questions from pure coaching. And entrepreneur explained that he

becomes angry when people do not do what he wants. She did superficial hypnosis using

Elman's method when understood that his mind resists the coaching and changes. She used

hypnosis through the breathing technique according to David Hawkins and worked through

the trauma. By age regression, the entrepreneur returned to the past at the ages of 20, 12, and 5

years. It was ages when similar problematic situations occurred. At the time of 5 years, he

decided to hide, run away, attack, or freeze. He decided to be alone because it was safer that

way. He concluded to avoid such situations. These conclusions protected him before, but now

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they interfere with business development. She asked him, “How would you like to react

further?” He wanted to have new positive feelings. They determine if he had any negative

feelings about his problematic situation. Found a secondary benefit. He took responsibility for

feelings, reactions, and future changes. They tested his reactions and made sure that he

observes peace and positive feelings in such situations. They tried time progression to the

future for a year ahead. He reacted calmly and positively. An amount of energy is released.

They jotted down the goal that he wants. They approached a balance wheel that is divided into

8 parts with different aspects of life to determine what contexts need further improvements. It

helps to develop in different directions at the same time by determining what is enough and

what is missing. They did an exercise in expanding thinking with different questions.

Something triggered his fear to be left without money. There were 6 sessions total, which is

enough for the next year of life. They did a session once a week. Coaching took 6 weeks.

Instead of choosing to suffer, he chose to enjoy. His motivation has changed. A person

consciously decided to develop himself and prioritized different tasks in self-development.

Aigul noticed that some coaches do not understand that trauma matters.

He had a lack of self-esteem when trying to prove something. During the session, his

unity was raised with the help of emotions. The client had the following insights. Each

member of the team can pump personal potential and acquire maturity. By expanding his

personal potential, he gained personal integrity. A couple appears when they are not afraid to

let a partner come in, then the potential appears to form a team. Then a persona can build a

close relationship with the person. There is the ability to expand the team. Then he can take

even more people to come to a state of wholeness depending on the energy potential. There is

a basic energy potential (which is during life from birth) and there is an optimal potential

(which can be controlled) after a person rests and replenishes the energy. Aigul recalled a story

of Ilya Muromets, who accumulated energy for 33 years while relaxing and then won back his

homeland. Mental potential pumps intellect.

After the hypo-coaching session, he began to play music again and connected music

and business. Signed up for drums. Worked on creativity. Expanded the team to 20 people, and

learned to trust. The business has reached a new level. Childhood trauma affected growth.

Compensatory functions were useful in childhood, but over time they can begin to interfere

with the business.

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3.5. Data Collection

I want to discuss the types of research data and types of sampling, and flexibility of the

research in the following sections below.

3.5.1. Types of Research Data

With reference to Streefkerk (2018), the types of collected research data are primary

and secondary sources of data.

•Primary sources give us data collected directly by the researcher through the survey after

conducting Hypno-coaching coaching sessions.

•Secondary sources are data collected by Milton H. Erickson and his students. The data was

described in their papers and books.

I want to explain each type of data used (McCombes 2019):

•Quantitative data focus on numbers and statistics obtained with the survey from primary

sources. Most of the questions of the questionnaire are designed to collect quantitative data

using close-ended multiple-choice questions with Likert Scales or scales from 0 to 10.

• Qualitative data focuses on words and meaning. A few questions of the questionnaire are

designed to collect qualitative data from the primary sources. We also collect qualitative

data from secondary sources by Milton H. Erickson and his students.

3.5.2. Timescale and Location

The study is mainly cross-sectional. The cross-sectional study means that we gather

data over a single period of time during various Hypno-coaching sessions. Most of the

sessions were conducted in March and April of 2023. I conducted one, two, or three individual

Hypno-coaching sessions per day.

Most of the sessions were conducted online over the video call. Two sessions were

done offline. The offline sessions were easier to conduct since more non-verbal information

was available for the hypnotist. The participants are from different countries such as the US,

Mexico, Turkey, Ukraine, Germany, and Russia. The questionnaires were filled out always

online. The Hypno-coaching sessions and survey were conducted in 2 languages: English and

Russian. The data from surveys in different languages were consolidated before analyzing

them.

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As field research, our study takes place in a natural or real-world setting. There is no

need for a controlled or constructed setting for this research since coaching and hypnosis can

be conducted almost anywhere. For the purpose of hypnosis, the only required thing is the

hypno-coach, coachee, a chair for each person, and a smartphone/computer to meet over an

internet video call for communication. Hypno-coaching can be held in a real or virtual setting.

The setting is very simple. The field research has lower internal validity but higher external

validity. Internal validity refers to the extent of confidence in the casual relationship tested in a

trustworthy environment and not influenced by other variables and factors. When doing a

video call with a coachee, each coachee can be in a room with a different amount of noise,

distractions, space, memories about past events that happened in the place, etc. The different

rooms cause lower internal validity. If we would ask any coach to have coaching in the same

room with the same level of noise, temperature smell, etc. then it would higher the internal

validity. External validity refers to the extent to which the study results can be applied to other

situations, groups, and events. And since we know, that all the clients of the Hypno-coaching

are in different places, and if we can get successful and reproducible results of the Hypno-

coaching independently of the place, then we know that the Hypno-coaching might be applied

in a broader variety of situations, groups, and events with success. (McCombes 2019)

3.5.3. Flexibility of the Research

The collection procedures are flexible which means the subjects, timescale, and

location are not set before the data collection begins. The design is not fixed. Rather, we

develop the design through the data collection process. It also allows us to understand the best

next step in the design development after getting intermediate study results from the current

step. For example, I may try certain techniques of Ericksonian hypnosis with one coachee.

Some of the techniques can be applied successfully with a certain person but some other

techniques would not work with this person. Then I may decide to try those unsuccessful

techniques again to see if these techniques would have a better effect on another person. As

Ginzburg & Yakovleva (2008) wrote and thought on webinars,“In one of his works, Ernest

Rossi wrote: ‘When I watched the work of Milton Erickson, it sometimes seemed to me that I

was watching the work of an intelligent cracker. He is about to try one master key, another, a

third - until he finds one that fits.’ That is, he tries one trance induction technique, another, a

third, and so on until he finds one that suits that particular subject.” From the quote above, we

can infer that it makes sense to keep trying a hypno-technique that did not work in the past on

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other coachees until we can find a person for whom that technique might work successfully.

After the technique works successfully for at least one person, we can report this observation

in our dissertation. (McCombes 2019)

3.5.4. Non-Probability Sampling

Even though probability sampling allows to generalize of the fining to a broader

population, it takes additional time and costs to create a generalizable sample. For the purpose

of the research, we decided to select the non-probability type of sampling that nevertheless

would allow a demonstration of the positive effects of hypnosis in coaching. The author used a

personal network of contacts to look for volunteers among friends, friends of friends, and

participants of groups in which the author is a member. Non-probability sampling allows for

drawing conclusions about the specific subjects of the research. Convenience sampling

includes persons who are the most accessible. Convenience sampling was selected as an easy

and inexpensive way to gather initial data. This type of sampling is at risk of sampling bias

and selection bias. Another used sampling is snowball sampling when volunteers helped to

recruit other participants. A few friends who participated posted messages on social networks

inviting people from their networks to participate in the Hypno-coaching research.

The author had a goal to select at least 20 participants. He actually recruited 25

volunteers, more than planned. The author was looking for working professionals between 16

and 75 years old, men and women. The volunteers may have different professions. The main

criteria are: a) volunteers have a problem to solve or a goal to achieve either in business or in

life in general; b) they are ready to talk about their problem; c) they are willing to be

hypnotized using Ericksonian hypnosis; d) volunteers need to agree with informed consent

form at the beginning of the questionnaire to pass to the questions. There were 2 exceptions to

the rule c. One of the volunteers agreed to replace the Ericksonian hypnosis with the

relaxation technique. Another volunteer stopped the hypnotist during the hypnotic induction

and asked to explain to him the steps of doing self-hypnosis so that he can hypnotize himself

later. The relaxation technique and instruction for self-hypnosis worked in a way similar to

real hypnosis. Both volunteers went into a state of trance.

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4. Findings and Discussion

4.1. Core 1: Demonstrate Ethical Practice

According to ICF (2022), its code of ethics is based on its core values. The

organization values professionalism, collaboration, humanity, and equity. All the ethical

principles are aspirational to uphold these universal values. Their values serve to unite coaches

around the globe. As professionals, the ICF coaches use the ‘coaching mindset’ of being open

and non-judging in all interactions. They accept their duty to speak up when they witness any

behavior that goes against their core values and the code of ethics. The description of the core

values are:

•Professionalism means a commitment to a coaching mindset and professional quality that

encompasses responsibility, respect, integrity, competence, and excellence.

•Collaboration signifies a commitment to developing social connections and building

community.

•Humanity comes with a commitment to being humane, kind, compassionate, and respectful.

•Equity from commitment to exploring the needs of others to practice equitable processes at

all times that create equality for all.

4.1.1. Ethics of Milton Erickson

When Milton H. Erickson spoke (1962) about a request to him to make a recording of

a trance induction technique, he said that he “can be of much greater service in another way.”

Instead of disclosing techniques for hypnosis, he actually talked about crucial ethical values

that any Hypno-coachee might consider inducing a state of trance. Erickson continued, “My

own induction techniques are expressive of me, of my timing, my rhythm, my personality, my

emotional feeling, my attitude toward my patient. So it is with anybody else.”

The trance induction technique is not a series of words, phrases, suggestions,

intonations, inflections, etc. but rather a communication of ideas and attitudes. Erickson

(1962) presented his understanding of how the doctor should feel inducing a trance (most

important goes first):

•A client seeks help. The hypnotist needs to be aware that the client is seeking his help

because the client does not understand or cannot help himself in his needful condition. The

client honestly believes that the doctor can be helpful to him. “Not to be continuously aware

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of this aspect of the interpersonal relationship renders defective the very foundation of any

induction technique.”

•Establishing good interpersonal relationships. The hypnotist needs to be continuously aware

of the client’s need to say, tell, ask, advise, request, verbalize or communicate by facial

expression, gesture, hesitancy, bated breath, etc. something important to a client, and

therefore to the doctor. And the client needs to know whatever form the communication may

take, it will be noted and respected, and examined carefully. So that the client can feel

completely secure.

•Hypnotist’s self-awareness. The awareness of own ability, knowledge, and skill. Honesty

will lead him to call in others available if the doctor himself lacks any special knowledge.

Every hypnotist needs an intense feeling of “This I can do. And this other I can have done.

And all the rest, if there is any more, lies in the hands of fate aided by all the good that I can

do.” No matter who the client is, the hypnotist is fully aware that he still knows more, is

better prepared, is more confident, and is entitled rightly, justly, and properly to have full

and ready confidence that will inspire a patient.

•Understanding hypnosis as a phenomenon. Hypnosis is a phenomenon common to all

people (old/young, sick/well, etc.) as an induced and spontaneous development. Any client

can accomplish being in a hypnotic state since the trance state is inevitable. The client needs

not the words or tones but an understanding of hypnosis as a state of learning and being.

•Expectation and confidence. “To induce a trance, one needs to communicate by words,

bearing, manner, emotional attitude, intellectual awareness that the patient is really and truly

expected, confidently expected, to be as able to learn how to develop a trance as readily and

as well as any of his fellows.“ A doctor hypnotist expects and wants the client to develop a

trance. Words are the only means of communicating this expectation and confidence.

The ethical principles discussed above might be applied to Hypno-coaching

relationships. Any Hypno-coach will benefit from the principles of seeking help from a client,

establishing good interpersonal relationships, self-awareness of hypnotist, understanding

hypnosis as a phenomenon, expectation, and confidence.

4.1.2. Getting Permission from Conscious Ethically

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The ethical principles of pure coaching can be extended in Hypno-coaching by

providing additional protection to the Hypno-coachee when he/she is in a state of trance. One

such ethical principle is that Hypno-coach needs to maintain the trust of a client and protect

the integrity of the client’s personality. The Hypno-coach can only ask for permission for the

activities in the trance while the client is awake. If the Hypno-coach does not abide by this

ethical principle, it may become harder for the Hypno-coach to work with the client since the

client may become more resistant to the trance induction. Hypno-coach is interested in sharing

a sense of safety and deep trust.

According to Erickson et al. (1976), when after Erickson demonstrated some hypnotic

phenomena with a woman, Rossi asked Erickson if he would like to demonstrate more

phenomena. Erickson answered that he might like to, but he did not discuss it with her

consciously. Therefore, he must first wake her up and ask her permission because the

unconscious always protects the conscious. Later, Erickson commented that he cannot ask for

permission to do something in a trance while she is in trance. Asking for permission belongs

to the normal state of awareness, and we must ask while the client is awake. A hypnotist must

be careful to protect the integrity of the personality and not exploit the trance state. Otherwise,

that would break trust and cause resistance.

4.2. Core 2: Embody a Coaching Mindset

According to ICF (2020c), by embodying a coaching mindset, a coach "develops and

maintains a mindset that is open, curious, flexible and client-centered”. This core competency

is about the coach himself, his role, culture, and system with the coachee. A coach has to be

skilled in managing his own emotions and using intuition for the benefit of the client.

Something in the speech of a client might be difficult for a coach to listen to, or even, some

clients might be difficult for the coach, then the coach needs to solve this issue using the

coaching mindset. The coach also may seek help or advice from another coach. It is crucial for

a coach to let the client’s intuition speak and listen to the client without insisting. Reflecting

practice on how was the session for the client and for the coach himself is vital for continuing

learning.

4.2.1. Developing Hypno-coaching Mindset

On top of the pure coaching mindset, the Hypno-coaching mindset can be developed

by adding definitions of hypnosis and Hypno-coach. The Hypno-coaching mindset might also

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be developed by adding concepts of conscious and unconscious. Erickson emphasizes the

relationships between the conscious and unconscious and utilizes them for therapeutic

purposes. Hypno-coach may utilize the concepts of conscious and unconscious for business

development and leadership purposes. The conscious mind is most active in the awake

experience while the unconscious mind prevails in the state of a trance. A summary of the

differences between awake and trance experiences can be found in table B1.

4.2.2. Hypnosis

Milton Erickson (1950s) defined hypnosis as, “It is a state of consciousness— not

unconsciousness or sleep — a state or consciousness or awareness in which there is a marked

receptiveness to ideas and understandings and an increased willingness to respond either

positively or negatively to those ideas.” His second definition is “Hypnosis is not some

mystical procedure, but rather a systematic utilization of experiential learnings—that is, the

extensive learnings acquired through the process of living itself.” Erickson discusses that we

all have generally unrecognized psychological learning, for example, “everyone has developed

an anesthesia for the sensation of shoes on the feet, glasses on the face, and a collar around the

neck” or “experience of losing a painful headache during a suspense movie without

medication”. Now we can use these learnings intelligently as hypnosis. You can find indicators

of hypnosis or trance development in Appendix C.

4.2.3. Hypno-coach and Hypno-coachee

Erickson (1950s) also defined a role of an operator or a hypnotist, or, in our case, a

Hypno-coach, “The operator is merely someone who can offer intelligent advice and

instruction to the patient and thus elicit from the patient the behavioral responses best fitted to

the situation.”, where the patient can be read as a Hypno-coachee.

4.2.4. Conscious

Erickson et al. (1976) wrote, “We believe that consciousness, programmed by the

typical attitudes and beliefs of modern rationalistic man, is grievously limited. It has been

estimated that, at best, most people do not utilize more than l0 percent of their mental

capacity.” The Hypno-coach can use techniques for ‘depotentiating the conscious sets’

described in Table A1 to overcome the limited mental capacity. “Patients have problems

because their conscious programming has too severely limited their capacities. The solution is

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to help them break through the limitations of their conscious attitudes to free their unconscious

potential for problem-solving.”

4.2.5. Unconscious

Erickson et al. (1976) can say, "It is very important for people to know their

unconscious is smarter than they are. There is a greater wealth of stored material in the

unconscious." The unconscious is smart, it has access to all the memory, experience,

imagination, senses of an individual, etc. The unconscious controls breathing, digestion,

metabolism, blood circulation, brain processes, associations, etc. As Erickson so clearly states,

"You build your technique around instructions that allow their conscious mind to withdraw

from the task, and leave it all up to the unconscious.” Erickson developed a variety of indirect

approaches for the purpose of freeing unconscious potentials from the limitations of

consciousness. Nevertheless, the indirect approaches to hypnosis are a relatively new field and

can be developed through further research.

4.2.6. Hypnotic Suggestions

According to Geary (2022), Milton Erickson was stricken by polio at the age of 17. All

of his muscles were paralyzed. His parents worked on the farm and could not spend much

time with Milton. The parents put Milton on the chair near a window so that he can look at the

tree on the street behind the window. Erickson rehabilitated himself by remembering how he

would climb the tree. He translated his memory of how to climb the tree into the activity of

muscles. He would say, “I wonder what would happen if one of my fingers starts to move”,

and then he gets movement of the paralyzed finger. After spending many hundreds of hours

trying to send signals to different parts of his body, he almost fully rehabilitated his paralyzed

body.

A Hypno-coach can use hypnotic suggestions to activate associations with behavior

learned earlier so that the associations would produce the desired behavioral changes in the

context in which the changes are desired.

4.2.7. Self-Hypnosis

Zeig (1980) wrote about how a woman student asked Erickson if he can talk about

self-hypnosis. Erickson answered with a story:

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I was lecturing on hypnosis, I think somewhere in Indiana. And a man, six-feet,

six-inches tall, all bone and muscle and very proud of it, came up to me to shake

hands. I saw that bone- crusher hand approaching me, so I got hold of it first.

Then he told me his neck name was “Bulldog” and whenever he got an idea he

held onto it and nobody could take it away from him. He said, “Not a single man in the

whole world could put me in a trance.” I said, “Would you like to find out the contrary

He said, “There is not a single man — nobody can hypnotize me.”

I said, “I would like to prove it to you, and have you meet the man who can

hypnotize you.” He said, “You are on. Bring him on.” I said, “Now, tonight when you

go to bed in your hotel room, take an hour at seven or eight o’clock. Get into your

pajamas and sit down in a chair in front of your mirror, and look at the man who is

going to put you into a trance.”

The next day he said, “I awakened at eight o’clock this morning still sitting in

that damn chair.” (Laughter.) “I sat there all night long. I admit that I can put myself in

a trance.”

A Hypno-coach can be sure that every client can go into a trance since the trance is a

natural state in which we spend a lot of time every day. The Hypno-coach also knows that

every client can do a self-hypnosis. At the time, the same way of doing self-hypnosis may not

work for everyone. Nevertheless, everyone can find a method of self-hypnosis that works for

him/her best. We all are in the natural self-hypnosis state when (a) just before sleep when we

already start seeing images but know that we do not sleep yet; and (b) just after sleep when we

are about to wake up, and we still see the dreams but know that we are waking up.

Erickson explained that a good self-hypnosis technique should be conducted not by the

conscious mind but rather by the unconscious mind (Zeig 1980):

A patient I had in 1950 called me up and said, “I’ve been reading a book on

autohypnosis for the past year. I spend two or three hours a day studying that book and

following the directions completely. I can’t put myself in a trance.”

I said, “Joan, you were my patient in 1950. Your contact with me then should

have told you to have enough sense to call me again. The book you have been reading

is probably by (Erickson names a lay hypnotist).” She said, “That’s right.” I said, “All

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his books on self-hypnosis are nothing but trash. What you have been trying to do is

consciously tell yourself what to do and how to do it. You are making the whole thing

conscious. Now if you want to go into an auto-hypnotic trance, set your alarm clock to

ring in 20 minutes. Set it on your dresser, and sit down and look at your image in the

mirror.”

I got a call the next day. She said, “I wound the alarm clock and set it. I sat

down and looked at my image and the alarm rang. I thought I had made a mistake. This

time, I very carefully set it to ring in 20 minutes. I put it on the dresser, sat down, and

looked at myself in the mirror and the alarm rang. And this time, the clock showed that

20 minutes had gone by.”

In other words, you don’t tell yourself what you are going to do in a trance

state. Your unconscious mind knows an awful lot more than you do. If you trust your

unconscious mind, it will do the autohypnosis that you want to do. And maybe it has a

better idea than you have.

A Hypno-coach may trust the unconscious mind that led him to go into a trance state.

The Hypno-coach can also teach his clients how to do self-hypnosis using the power of their

unconsciousness.

4.3. Core 3: Establish and Maintains Agreements

According to ICF (2020), for the coaching experience to be very rewarding for a

coachee, the coach and coachee have to agree on what will be successful coaching at the start

of the coaching relationship or a coaching session. The coach has mastered this competency of

establishing and maintaining agreements when the coach has covered all the criteria defined

by the OCF for this competency (see Appendix D). ICF Coaching Core Competency Model

states that a coach partners with a client and stakeholders and creates agreement about

coaching relationships, processes, plans, goals, logistics, fees, schedule, confidentiality, etc.

The coach also defines client-coach compatibility, measures of success, and termination of

coaching relationships in an honorable way. (ICF, 2021)

It is vital to establish an agreement during the contracting stage for overall coaching

engagement and maintain the agreement during each coaching session:

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•During the contracting. When the coach is able to facilitate the process with the aligned

objective with the coachee and his sponsor, and other possible stakeholders. It is crucial that

the coach can explain all the terms of the coaching relationships and agreement in his own

words without taking a look at a checklist. A Sample Hypno-coaching Agreement can be

found in Appendix E.

•During the coaching session. When the coach helps the coachee to gain clarity on his real

issue. With this clarity, the coachee is able to determine what he wants to achieve. The

outcome that the coach wants may change during the conversation, and the coach needs to

catch the goals change and help with the new goals by being present and listening to

assumptions, aspirations, values, beliefs, and emotions to reflect it back to the coachee and

get awareness. (ICF, 2020)

4.3.1. Agreement between Conscious and Unconscious

When developing Hypno-coaching, we can take into consideration that the conscious

and unconscious minds of a coachee can be in agreement or disagreement. Erickson (1961)

explained that, “thinking can be done separately and independently by both the conscious and

unconscious mind, but that such thinking need not necessarily be in agreement.”

In pure coaching, a coach mostly communicates to the conscious mind of a coachee

during the contracting stage. That’s why the coach may face multiple changes in the goals

during the individual session. While the unconscious mind does not agree with the conscious

mind, the coach will keep changing the goals until both the conscious and unconscious minds

will get satisfied by the establishing goals. The conscious mind keeps changing its goals just

because it does not have access to all the information right away. Conversely, the unconscious

mind has access to all the information, and to access it, the coach needs to go into a trance.

This process of coaching by communicating to only the conscious mind might be less

effective than the Hypno-coaching process by communicating to both the conscious and

unconscious minds of a coachee. Such inclusion of both minds would allow similar or better

effects with fewer coaching sessions. The Hypno-coach may ask what the conscious mind

wants, and what the unconscious mind wants, and then let both minds agree on the desired

outcomes. In such a process, a coachee will be fully congruent and confident about what he

wants to achieve.

4.3.2. Asking Unconscious Mind

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Erickson (1964) noticed, “Sometimes when we listen to a person we may be nodding

or shaking our head not knowing it in either agreement or disagreement.” Such yer or no

nodding is non-verbal communication. The non-verbal is mostly conducted by the

unconscious mind. An astute communicator may notice that sometimes while a person says

“yes” verbally, he may also nod “no” non-verbally. That incongruence simply means that the

conscious and unconscious are not agree. The same yes or no signal can be given by fingers,

arms, or another part of a coachee’s body. Erickson used a technique of ideo-motor signaling

in which a movement of the client's finger is a signal from the unconscious mind (typically, a

yes or no response). In the following example, Erickson (1965) gives a choice for the

unconscious mind of a resistant patient to answer by nod or by lifting finger, or lifting a hand:

Now I would like to ask your unconscious mind a question that can be answered with a

simple yes or no. It’s a question that only your unconscious mind can answer. Neither

your conscious mind nor my conscious mind, nor, for that matter, even my

unconscious mind knows the answers. Only your unconscious mind knows which

answer can be communicated, and it will have to think of either a yes or a no answer. It

could be by a nod or a shake of the head, a lifting of the index finger — let us say the

right index finger for the yes answer, the left index for a no since that is usually the

case for the right-handed person, and vice versa for the left-handed person. Or the

right hand could lift or the left hand could lift. But only your unconscious mind knows

what the answer will be when I ask for that yes or no answer. And not even your

unconscious mind will know when the question is asked, whether it will answer with a

head movement, or a finger movement, and your unconscious mind will have to think

through that question and decide after it has formulated its own answer, just how it

will answer.

By using the ideo-motor finger signals, a Hypno-coach can get information directly

from the unconscious mind of a client, the client may or may not understand consciously the

answer, depending on the deepness of the state of trance, and interest of the unconscious. The

conscious mind may tell true or false. If the coachee wants, he can trick the coach by telling

him false information. The unconscious of the coach always tells true. Since the unconscious

is sincere, the coach can get true information using the finger ideo-motor signal. An ethical

aspect is to use obtained true information in the best interests of the coachee.

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4.3.3. Expectancy and SMART goals

Expectancy is what people expect to happen in hypnosis. The expectations should be

realistic about the hypnosis. It is not realistic when people ask “I want you to hypnotize me so

that I never think of chocolates again”, “I want to be hypnotized so that my boyfriend stops

using drugs.” or “I want never think about cigarettes after the hypnosis”, etc. People who have

realistic expectations are good candidates in hypnosis. Expectations of the people should

match what can be attained by the hypnosis. (Geary 2022)

A Hypno-coach can use the SMART model for goal setting used in natural-language

programming (NLP). The SMART model allows checking that the client has realistic

expectations that can be achieved by hypnosis. A goal set should satisfy the criteria according

to the SMART acronym (Hamilton-Kuby 2017). The creator of the SMART model, Doran

(1981) defined its criteria:

•specific (S) — targets a specific area for improvement;

•measurable (M) — quantifies or at least suggests an indicator of progress;

•assignable/achievable (A) — specifies who will do it (or, as defined later, if it is possible to

achieve the goal if not assignable);

•realistic (R) — what results can realistically be achieved given available resources;

•time-bound (T) — when the results can be achieved.

It is important to educate about what hypnosis is and what is not. Good question is to

ask “What is going to happen in hypnosis?” If a person answers something unrealistic, the

Hypno-coach could help the client set a realistic goal. Otherwise, the client will be

disappointed when, for example, the first thought about “chocolate” comes to the mind again

after the hypnosis. To get satisfied, the client needs to have realistic expectations about the

goals of hypnosis. A hypnotist can explain control, that the hypnotist is not going to do

anything against the will of the client. Everything is under the control of a client and he can do

everything at his will. Hypnosis is not anesthesia, and people are going to hear and remember

most of what the hypnotist says. A client will be aware, can change position, keep himself

comfortable, etc. Some people may think irrational thoughts about hypnosis without knowing

what hypnosis actually is and with no prior experience with it. When all the questions of the

client about hypnosis get answered, then the hypnotist and client can proceed with the trance

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induction, observing the person's awareness in hypnosis, utilizing hypnosis, doing a post-

hypnotic suggestion (related to the rest of the person’s life), and reorientation (or bringing the

person back from hypnosis). A hypnotist can record a hypnotic session and give it to the client

so that he can listen to it over and over again. And then the client can go into a trance again

while listening to the recording, he can ask questions about the hypnosis that has arisen from

the recording. Clients are often thankful for the recording. (Geary 2022)

4.4. Core 4: Cultivate Trust and Safety

According to ICF (2020d), by cultivating trust and safety, a coach “partners with the

client to create a safe, supportive environment that allows the client to share freely. Maintains

a relationship of mutual respect and trust.” Psychological safety helps a client to be sure that

the relationship has a positive impact on him. When the coach can create a safe risk-free

atmosphere, then he becomes a real partner for the coachee. The power of coaching is in the

supportive environment that helps to reflect, think, and check and improve the behavior and

value system. The coach has to show respect to the client independently of the client’s

background. The coach is interested in empowering the client by cultivating safety and trust.

4.4.1. Trusting to Client’s Intuition instead of Judging

Newby (2019), wrote “To maintain an open, welcoming curiosity we need to be non-

judgmental. Being non-judgmental means we allow ourselves to ‘be with’ the coachee, with

the coachee’s thinking and experience, rather than being stuck in our own reactions to that

thinking and experience.” The writer of this text personally noticed when he has an opinion

about the coachee’s perspective, it may reduce the rapport even without telling about it but just

thinking about it. To maintain a high rapport, it is better to focus on the coachee’s perspective

without judging but with facilitating the thinking and self-insight of our coachees.

Not judging also helps in personal achievements. McCulla (2015) who had a problem

with her weight explains a personal example of why non-judging is so important, “I decided to

take one action every day in the direction of healthy. One day I would ride a bike ten miles.

The next day, I would eat an apple. Maybe I would read the chapter of a self-help book or

walk to the end of my driveway. I decided not to judge the action or the immediate result of

the action committing to that change over the next six years. I lost over 175 pounds. McCulla

also noticed that high trust in her intuition and collaboration with her unconscious yields much

better results, “Suddenly, today it becomes more about intuition, I trust my unconscious and

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let whatever wants to come out happen.” From the standpoint of ethics, the unconscious of the

Hypno-coachee might know much more about the possible and appropriate solutions than

Hypno-coach or anyone else.

4.4.2. Rapport

Coaches are interested to build trust as a foundation to make the coaching relationship

successful. Interest in clients and curiosity about their problems helps to build not only trust

but a good relationship in general. Erickson & Rossi (1981) said, “Now in hypnotizing the

psychiatric patient I think one of the important things to do first is to establish a good

conscious rapport. Let him know that you are definitely interested in him and his problems,

and definitely interested in using hypnosis if in your judgment you think it will help“.

Sometimes, Erickson had new patients who demanded to be hypnotized. He usually stated that

it is better for the doctor to prescribe than for the patient to prescribe. And if they can benefit

from hypnosis, he will ask their permission to hypnotize them in the most helpful to way.

As is with hypnotherapy, this is also the case with Hypno-coaching. Hypnosis is a tool

to utilize the power of the unconscious mind. Hypnosis is not always necessary. Sometimes,

all the coaching work can be done in a pure coaching way or through blended coaching of any

type. The Hypno-coach decides what tools he can utilize to help the coachee reach his goals

and solve his problems. A Hypno-coach may hear from coachees that they want to be

hypnotized. Interest in coachee problems would not only help to build good conscious rapport

but also help in determining the best coaching tool to use in each case.

4.4.3. Attunement and Mimicry

Attunement is a quick way to build trust. Attuning helps to achieve rapport and start

relationships, it creates trust unconsciously. “It is just part of our social design. Attune means a

way to begin a relationship. If you are a parent talking to a child, if you are a teacher talking to

a student, or if you are a businessman talking with a colleague, one of the ways that you can

start is to resonate with the person that you are talking to.” (Zeig 2018) Attunement can be

considered as a social, physiological, and psychological basis from which empathy happens.

Coaches as well as therapists learn how to be empathic. When the coachee says “what a

beautiful day” at the beginning of the session, Hypno-coach may reply, “you are feeling good

today”. When the coachee says, “I am sad”, the coach may show empty by replying, “you are

feeling down today”. Such emotional attunement would help the coachee explore the problem

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at deeper emotional levels. If you do social mimicry, you can increase responsiveness,

likability, and rapport.

According to Lakin & Chartrand (2003), “Nonconscious behavioral mimicry occurs

when a person unwittingly imitates the behaviors of another person. This mimicry has been

attributed to a direct link between perceiving a behavior and performing that same behavior.”

Results of their experimental research suggest that behavioral mimicry may be part of a

person’s repertoire of behaviors, used non-consciously when there is a desire to create rapport.

People can also consciously mimic the behaviors of others. But, if the mimicry gets noticed

(e.g., because of its excessiveness), people become consciously aware of being mimicked and

rapport may decrease.

Rossi asked Erickson, “Could we develop a hypnotic dictionary — words and phrases

that you know will evoke certain predictable responses (the actual hypnotic suggestion) in the

subject?”, Erickson answered, “Such a hypnotic dictionary would probably have only limited

application because you must attune your vocabulary to the individuality of each listener.”

(Erickson & Rossi 1981)

A Hypno-coach is interested to attune rhythms, postures, gestures, vocabulary, and

other physiological parameters. Such mimicry allows us to understand the experience of a

client on a deeper level — how he feels, how he thinks, how he behaves, etc. At the same

time, Hypno-coach relies on his unconscious mind for attunement to avoid the risk of

alienating the coachee. A good unconscious attunement may come after conscious self-training

of mimicry with low intensity. For example, a coach may attune the rhythm of a speech first,

and after some sufficient period of time he may put his arms in the same position as for

coachee, then he may start breathing with the same rhythm and deepen. After sufficient

conscious mimicry training, a coach may forget to think about the mimicry, because

attunement will start to happen as an automatic unconscious skill.

4.4.4. Protecting Conscious from Unconscious

Erickson et al. (1976) had a dialog in which they explained the task of a hypnotist to

protect his client so that he does not get alarmed at what he discovers:

When patients came in to stop smoking, they may say when in trance,

‘I don't really want to stop smoking.’

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The therapist then sees physical alarm; they now know the truth about themselves. So

you say to them,

‘I don't think you should know that when you're awake yet.’

You protect your patient. You're protecting the conscious mind by keeping that self-

understanding unconscious.

The conscious mind should not have the mindset shattered too rapidly unless the

patient has the strength to endure it. A similar situation may happen in the context of Hypno-

coaching when a conscious mind of a coachee wants something while his unconscious mind

does not want it. For instance, a coachee may want to target a new market consciously, while

his unconscious wants to come up with a different product for his current market. A task of a

Hypno-coachee is to protect his conscious from the intention of his unconscious, for example

by techniques of amnesia or dissociation. A Hypno-coach may decide to integrate both minds

and resolve a conflict between them.

4.4.5. Protecting Client from Unpleasant Trance Experience

The imagined or remembered experience in a deep trance might be very similar to the

real experience happening with a person. The trance experience might be pleasant or

unpleasant depending on what situation the person imagined. If the client remembered some

unpleasant event from the past in a deep trance, the client will feel the same negative feelings

as he felt for the first time when the event happened. Hence, it is very important for a Hypno-

coach to use positive language that creates positive associations and recall the situations

associated with pleasant emotions. Erickson was very careful with his clients who experienced

the state of trance. The less stress and strain the hypnotizer puts on the client, the better. The

hypnotist needs to protect the client in imagined or remembered situations. Dr. Erickson

(1960) wrote in regard to projecting patients (from a dialog with Dr. Roy Dorcus):

If you can specify the situations for your patients, if you know something about their

own background, then it is much easier to bring about the changes in behavior. If you

happen to use some situation that is unfavorable for them, for example, in the situation

where you might ask an individual to project himself into a very relaxed situation on

the beach, you will find that occasionally you run into an individual who, because of

sensitivity to sunlight, won’t tolerate this sort of a projection.

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It might be easier to allow the Hypno-coachee to select the situation that he/she wants

to experience in a state of a trance because the person most likely will select an appropriate or

pleasant situation.

A Hypno-coach can use the voice as a vehicle for protection. Erickson suggested a

hypnotist learn to hear his voice only as a meaningful sound to which a client would give an

interpretation. That is, the content of Erickson's words could be ignored. The sound of his

voice could become a vehicle carrying the hypnotist’s own projections. Frequently Erickson

will suggest or imply that what he says is not important. Only the patient's interpretation of

what he says is important. Because of this, he will use words with multiple meanings, puns,

incomplete sentences, and dangling phrases, so that the patient's unconscious can project

meanings that are important to itself.

4.4.6. Thank Conscious and Unconscious

Erickson told a story in his teaching seminar to his students about how he did

hypnotherapy for a woman who was about to die in 3 months as doctors examined her because

of her cancer. He asked her daughter to participate in the session of therapy against the pain

that her mom experienced. He put the daughter into a trance. In the end, he said, “I want to

thank you very much for helping me with your mother. You can wake up now, feeling fine,

and go back to the kitchen and prepare your mother’s evening meal.” When she awakened,

Erickson thanked her again, because “it is very important to thank the patient’s unconscious

mind as well as the conscious mind.” Putting her daughter into a state of trance allowed her to

induct trance on the mother. Erickson suggested a dissociation when she can leave her body

and go watch imaginary TV every time she feels pain. Instead of 3 months, she lived 11

months in comfort. Then, in his seminar, Erickson told his students about a few similar cases.

(Zeig 1980)

It is crucial for a Hypno-coach to thank both conscious and unconscious minds in a

way similar to how Milton Erickson did. A good Hypno-coach can build relationships with

both the consciousness and unconsciousness of an individual client.

4.5. Core 5: Maintain Presence

When maintaining presence a coach is “fully conscious and present with the client,

employing a style that is open, flexible, grounded, and confident.” (ICF 2021) Coaching

presence is the ability to be with another human with being confident, open, flexible,

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engaging, compassionate, and without attachment. Coach is aimed to notice what happens

with the coachee with the quality of care. Comfort in not knowing and

Hypno-coaching: Application of Ericksonian Hypnosis in Coaching

Abstract and Figures