Questioning skills for IMR Hypnosis and the Swan Protocol

Some hypnotists work directly in an authoritative approach and just demand the subconscious what to do. Sometimes I will do this and it can work. However asking questions and talking WITH the subconscious works much better most of the time for myself. With this approach you can assist the subconscious to get a result, find out what it can do and will do, it also helps to find out where its getting stuck. The other advantage of this approach is building rapport with that part inside the person. The subconscious has only had the ability to talk to your client in the past, and often they have not paid attention. So it’s begging to be heard, responded to and thanked or forgiven for what’s happened in the past.

When I started my hypnotherapy I was using an authoritative approach, and I was getting Ideomotor responses (IMR) from the subconscious to agree it would do this. The client would arrive to the next appointment with having had either some change, no change, or great change that lasted only so long. Sometimes I wouldn't see that client again to know, I just presumed it worked and we got a result so they didn't need to come back. I am smart enough now to know I was likely quite possibly wrong and had failed the client.

I varied up my practice within this and got some better results. Sometimes within the conscious chat with the client before the session I could work out by guessing or using intuition what got in the way of this change and adapt the way I asked. I got better results over time, but not exactly what I wanted. Sometimes it was also obvious I was getting compliance from the client with finger signals rather than IMR.

This all changed in August 2016 when I heard about Bob Burns and the Swan Protocol. It’s all about questioning and feedback. When I first learnt this process I did it on everyone who would let me, often just for five or ten minutes of questioning. Until I took it into the therapy room and had deep chats for thirty to sixty minutes with the subconscious. This really amplified my questioning skills, finding how to ask the right closed questions to get a result, and when to use open questions when you have direct voice or automatic writing.

In classes that I have taught hypnosis the main thing students have wanted more of was the questioning skills to get change. The common thing I hear is “I’ve got the swan working… now what do I say?” I aim to deliver what I know and use in this book, as I feel it is one of the most useful skills a hypnotist can have, but unfortunately for some can be the most difficult.