Unless you see a lot of hypnosis clients, you may not come in contact with someone like this. I was in business for almost five years before this guy walked into my office to quit smoking with hypnosis.

Before I accept someone as a hypnosis client, they must go through a screening process. You see, not everyone qualifies to be my client. (The reason is that I may not want to work with a person if I see they may be a problem client.)

So, this guy quickly fills in the Intake Sheet and sits down and proceeds to demonstrate how brilliant and smart and knowledgeable and smart (did I say that again?) he is. In short, he told me, he is “a genius”.

Wow. A real genius. In my very own office. Pinch me.

Well, I accepted this guy as a client, set an appointment and when he came back for his first smoking cessation session, that’s when I knew I may have made a mistake in taking him as a client.

You see, many hypnotists think that if your IQ is over 70 that they can be hypnotized. However, if someone is a smarty-pants and is very “critical thinking” and likes to break things down and analyze them, they are also very difficult to hypnotize.

Surprised? Well, think about it. Hypnosis depends on trust and rapport. If someone is spending their time thinking, “Why did he just say that? Am I hypnotized, yet?” and other such thoughts, their critical thinking will keep them from going into a trance.

So, for the smoking program’s initial session, I do a Progressive Relaxation induction and the client is hypnotized. Then, he’s put on an audio program for a bit to listen to an automated program. Later, I come back and do personalized suggestions.

Well, throughout the PR induction, he’s opening his eyes, squirming, asking me questions… I should have just refunded his money and been done with him. Instead, I considered this a challenge. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

By the way, during the induction I do at least eight “convincers” (eye catalepsy, arm catalepsy, saliva flow, glove analgesia, etc.) so they know they are hypnotized. Mr. Analysis experienced all of them.

After doing the induction and putting him on the audio program, I left to attend to another client who was doing wonderfully with her weight loss hypnosis program.

After doing the suggestions, placing him back on the automated program, I returned later to wrap things up. I went over the convincers and we set up his second appointment, I gave him his “Stop Smoking” CD and he was off.

Three days later…

Mr. Know-It-All comes back, sits down in the chair and said it, “Well, I quit smoking, but it wasn’t the hypnosis.”

Amazing, huh? In 30 years, he couldn’t even stop smoking for a day, and one session with me, he quit smoking.

But, according to him, it wasn’t the hypnosis. (It won’t take a genius to figure out that it was.)

He needed to feel as if he was the one who mastered smoking.

What do I care? I did my job.

“Next…!”

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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 9th, 2007 at 4:14 pm and is filed under The Hypnosis Business, Hypnotism, Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.