Future-Focused Therapeutic Strategies for Integrative Health

Future projection therapy: Techniques and case examples

As noted by some recent authors, psychotherapy has traditionally focused primarily on how the past affects present functioning. For example, in the hypnosis literature, there is much written about age regression and more recently there has been a focus on the future. In the 1950's there was discussions about embodying expectancy and pseudo-orientation-in-time, but there was not much in the literature again until the 1980's and thereafter about the importance of future focus. Some authors refer to future work as age progression. This article summarizes a "future projection" approach including why this terminology appears more suited for the approach. Techniques and strategies are described. Six case examples are presented covering varied clinical issues in which there was evidence of positive change.

Age progression in hypnosis for pain and fatigue in individuals with disabilities

The purpose of this paper is to describe in detail a specific age progression approach that we use in our clinical practice and clinical trials in interventions including hypnosis for chronic pain and fatigue in individuals with disabilities. Moreover, we present preliminary evidence regarding the effects of the hypnosis sessions that use age progression suggestions compared to hypnosis sessions that provide different suggestions, as well as to sessions that did not include hypnotic procedures. Findings indicate that age progression suggestions for pain management with individuals participating in hypnosis treatment resulted in substantial immediate reductions in pain intensity, which were greater than pain reductions associated with treatments sessions providing pain education or cognitive therapy. In addition, age progression sessions provided to individuals receiving online hypnosis treatment for fatigue resulted in immediate large reductions in fatigue severity. Although the design of these two studies does not allow to report specific or long-term effects of the age progression techniques, findings indicate that including age progression suggestions to hypnosis protocols for pain and fatigue management is effective for reducing the immediate level of both symptoms. The development and continued evaluation of hypnotic interventions that increase or restore hope in, and optimism, for the future has the potential for enhancing the psychosocial well-being and quality of life of individuals with pain and fatigue.

Encouraging hindsight in advance: Age progression in therapy - and life

Each person forms a relationship to the dimension of time, called a "temporal orientation." How that relationship is defined and prioritized, whether consciously or non-consciously, plays a huge role in the way people go about living their lives. In psychotherapy, the quality of one's expectations plays a pivotal role in virtually every phase of treatment. As a class of hypnotic interventions, age progression treatment strategies are intricately connected to expectancy since they typically involve guiding the client experientially, i.e., subjectively, into the future. While absorbed in this suggested projection, clients may have the opportunity to imagine and experience the consequences of current or new choices, integrate suggestions at deeper levels for eventual activation, rehearse new patterns of thought, feeling or behavior, and, in general, obtain a greater overview of his or her life than a narrower focus on day-to-day living typically affords. To paraphrase Milton Erickson, one can think of it as encouraging hindsight while it is still foresight.

The Roots and Evolution of Ego-State Theory and Therapy

The purpose of this article is to elucidate the origins of ego-state theory and therapy and to discuss the concept of human personality as a structure comprising numerous ego states. The historical roots of ego-state theory and therapy are reviewed. Also, the evolution of ego-state therapy from classic hypnotherapy to modern methods is identified. The article notes that these methods of ego-state therapy have been described by different authors and under different names. It is suggested that core concepts related to ego-state theory and therapy of guided hypnotic dissociation may underlie the core of clinical effectiveness in many contemporary psychotherapeutic methods.