International Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis - E-Lib FK UWKS

INJUNCTIVE COMMUNICATION 93
THE THERAPIST'S ROLE
One of the therapist's main goals is to induce more effective roles. As a result, it is
important to diagnose rigid power dynamic styles, keeping in mind the power
dynamics of the clinician±patient relationship itself. To induce change, the
therapist must be one-up. If the patient is one-up, the therapy will not be successful.
`Right hemisphere' techniques are valuable for this because they work to unexpectedly
disconnect habitual sets. The therapist can cripple his or her therapeutic
effectiveness by adhering to in¯exible, preordained expectations for change which
can concede the one-up position to the patient. If the patient is consistently one-up,
therapy should be terminated since there will be no leverage for change.
I am not promoting a Machiavellian stance for the therapist. The job of the
therapist is to work on the patient's behalf to elicit change. This can only be
accomplished when the therapist controls, de®nes and induces different roles by
assuming the one-up position.
CONCLUSION
Keep in mind that it is the injunctive nature of the communication, not the actual
words and actions of the therapist, that provides the pivotal stimulus for patient
change. The therapist must work to develop an understanding of the covert
messages to which the patient will respond.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Brent Geary, PhD, and Jean M. Emery,
MA, MFA, in the preparation of this chapter.
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