In a traditional approach to hypnosis, there is an expectation of some "induction", "deepening" and then comes the "hypnosis".

When we start from the assumption that hypnosis is merely an extension of the common everyday trance, as Erickson called it, we can observe the way anyone who becomes focused and absorbed in any experience is demonstrating the ingredients of a hypnotic experience.

This allows us, in an ordinary conversation, to become more sensitive in our observations and notice these subtle, or sometimes not so subtle, changes, and then without the need for any sort of formal process, we can begin to encourage the focus, the absorption, comment on observable changes and define the experience as hypnosis - or - we can simply continue without needing to mention the "h" word.

This can create a naturalistic experience, an ordinary experience, and create all the benefits of "hypnosis" without requiring anything special.

When we observe a shift in a client's experience where they become more focused and absorbed, we can shift our mood towards our self experience of trance, perhaps soften our voice, slow our speaking, maybe slow our own breathing and blinking to create a mood for the client to "catch".

I've included an audio recording of such an experience, and I have overacted to make the point more obvious.

I invite you to play with this, and leave a comment about what you discovered.

Here's an example where an 11 year old boy was brought by his mother because of his violent outbursts at school where he was kicking rubbish bins and threatened a teacher with a knife.

I picked up [eventually] on the mother's comment that people were "pushing his buttons" and this led to a conversation about his "bionical" - a toy I'd never heard of, but soon became familiar with as the boy taught me. 

I'm not sure which of us was more focused and absorbed, but there was no formal trance process and yet all...