Dr. Milton Erickson, MD, the great hypnotist and psychiatrist, once said, “every human being is as unique as their own thumbprint.”

So, when people ask me what to expect from an NLP or Hypnosis session, I tell them the unvarnished truth – even though it is often not what they really want to hear.

What they want to hear is something like this, “This problem will be eliminated after the completion of our 5 step process.” Or maybe, “Oh, it’ll take one session of 30 minutes and then all your troubles will be permanently eliminated.” Or “It’s very simple, I put you into a trance and, although you won’t remember a thing, when you wake up your challenges will be gone forever.” 

I sincerely do wish it were that easy, but unvarnished truth is that there literally is no way of knowing for certain.

Sometimes a client’s issues CAN be rectified in one session but sometimes more sessions are required. Sometimes it takes two or three, or even more sessions to get thing the way we want them to be. Every case is unique. The fact of the matter is, that as apt a metaphor as it is that our minds are like computers, we are not computers and our patterns of behavior and ways of thinking cannot be simply reprogrammed.

So, since, as Milton Erickson observed, we are, all of us, unique, it is only right that results of a hypnosis or NLP session will vary between clients.

And HOW that session is conducted will vary between clients.

That is, in fact, a good thing.

One of the reasons NLP and Ericksonian hypnosis are so powerful is BECAUSE we can recognize and appreciate the differences between people and how to interface with those differences that we can claim such great results.

Think of it this way. Let’s go back to the metaphor that the brain is like a computer.

Say your computer acts up and you take it into the fix-it shop. If the technician thinks, “all computers are the same” and starts taking your apart and treating your 1998 Macintosh as if it were a 2010 HP PC, you’d be in trouble.

You want a technician who can properly diagnose that problem and figure out the best way of proceeding for your PARTICULAR circumstance.

It is the same with NLP and Hypnosis. You want a practitioner with the training and experience to notice and utilize who you are in all your uniqueness to help you get where you want to go. It make be an instant change, it may take a while, but 9 times out of 10, if it can be changed, a good NLP Practitioner or Ericksonian Hypnotherapist can help make it so.