As a professionally trained and certified hypnotherapist, I find using various techniques to help clients reach their desired outcomes very rewarding. However, I’m also aware that our terminology with clients plays a key role in their openness and mindset coming into our sessions.

This was highlighted to me recently when a prospective client contacted me with hesitations about “hypnotherapy.” She was unsure about trying it based on her perspective and associations with that term. We had a thoughtful discussion about her concerns, which revealed a language and perception gap between us.

This experience reminded me again of the importance of “language games” from our old friend, Ludwig Wittgenstein (I told you I love this topic). According to Wittgenstein (and many others), the same word can mean very different things to many people based on their unique contexts and life experiences. The word forms part of their particular “language game”. See my previous post about this in detail.

For some clients, calling myself a “hypnotherapist” conveys my professional training and qualifications. But for others, like my recent prospective client, it triggers unhelpful assumptions about what hypnosis involves. The mystical associations with hypnosis being able to “control” people persist in some people’s minds.

I have strong opinions about the word “therapy”. In too many language games, “therapy” carries connotations of an arduous process of uncovering and analysing problems from one’s past and figuring out what’s “wrong” with the person. For many people, there is an assumption that “therapy” must involve a lot of painful emotional work, and if you don’t suffer every minute, you don’t do the work correctly, and it’s inefficient.

Disclaimer: I would never say it won’t be hard work and won’t contain some serious work sometimes. However, from the very first moment of “therapy,” if I approach a client with the mindset of “this will take you years to achieve, and you will go through enormous hardships”, it will certainly impact how I conduct a session, and this is not how we see the change process in a solution focused setting.

With this awareness, I’ve started gently introducing the option of referring to myself as a “practitioner” rather than a “hypnotherapist” with some clients. While I’m always fully transparent about my hypnotherapy expertise and services, using alternative neutral terms can provide a more open starting point with certain clients. Removing any preconceived notions or stigma that the words “hypnotherapist” or “therapy” may carry for them allows us to build rapport with less guardedness.

As a Solution Focused Practitioner, I take an approach of “not knowing” what will be the best for my clients and what they need to realise/work through/do to achieve what they came for. What I definitely know is that they have the resources to figure out what’s best for them, and my “job” is to ask smart solution focused questions so they can figure this out themselves. I also know the benefits of a hypnotic trance (which, in a different language game, can be seen as a specific type of meditation – watch this space for a blog about this in the future!), hence why I’m using this technique.

My goal remains meeting clients where they are and constructing our work in a language we both feel comfortable with. My specific terminology is far less important than creating a new narrative and discovering new possibilities or resources.

Whether we call my work hypnotherapy, therapy, or practice, I’m committed to facilitating positive transformation for my clients. These are just some of my thoughts about this vast and complicated topic. I’m sure my understanding of this will develop in the next years, thank you for coming along on this journey! Please feel free to leave a comment/ask a question if you like to do that sort of thing.