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Presenter: Betty Alice Erickson, MS, LMFT

Milton H. Erickson has footprints within the whole title of this meeting?Theory, Research and certainly Practice. Many of his contributions have become so widely accepted that it?s difficult to remember he was the innovator.

This address will illustrate some of his lesser known research; his research was generally different than it is viewed today. His numbers were quite small and he had control groups. It was conducted with patients and co-workers at the psychiatric hospitals where he was employed until the late 1940?s, and later examining his work with various patients. He published many of his findings.

Research to him, was to expand knowledge and inspire others to examine, refine, use or explain his results. He taught hypnosis to a 6 year old girl to use for her amblyobia rather than a physical eye patch. He worked with Martin Orne in the 1950?s to define exactly what hypnosis was,

When he began, hypnosis was understood as something one person ?did to another.? Over time, Erickson totally redefined it as a co-created relationship, expanding the experiences of the subject. Later, he moved almost exclusively to naturalistic trance?which has no formal induction. This often involved story telling, both to fixate attention and to give directions that would be clearly understood by the subject?s unconscious, allowing that person to feel independence in changes that occurred.

Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1. Explore some of the many contributions Milton H. Erickson has made to the field of clinical hypnosis;
2. Explain how Erickson defined the relationship between facilitator and subject in his hypnotic work; and
3. Understand how Erickson conceptualized using the other person?s language in his use of hypnosis.

Betty Alice Erickson, MS, LMFT, is a practicing psychotherapist in Dallas, TX , an Approved Consultant for ASCH, her latest book is, ?Milton Erickson, An American Healer,? co-edited with Bradford Keeney. Betty Alice co- authored Hope and Resiliency: Understanding the Psychotherapeutic Strategies of Milton H. Erickson with Dan Short. She was editor of the Erickson Foundation Newsletter for over a decade. Recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Ministry of Education in Armenia, she has been a Keynote speaker as well as teaching workshops across the country and around the world at numerous international conferences for over twenty years.