Rapport is the basis for all hypnosis. If you don’t have good rapport with your subject you will never be able to hypnotise them.

So what is rapport and how do you create it?

Well the technical definition is a connection, usually of a “harmonious nature”. Basically it’s friendship. Well that sounds easy enough doesn’t it? I mean we have all made friends throughout our lives. Rapport is the way you communicate to other people, this is going to be the foundation for all your hypnosis. All your success as a hypnotist will depend on how good you are at creating a strong rapport.

How does hypnotic rapport vary from every day rapport.

When you are trying to induce a hypnotic trance you have much less time to create rapport than you would in a normal everyday situation. Hypnosis also requires a deeper level of trust. This is something that you are unlikely to create naturally on your first meeting. There have been lots of studies done into rapport which is good news for us because it means we don’t have to learn the hard way.

The first and easiest thing to do when you are creating rapport is to match your breathing to that of your clients. This can take a little practice before it comes naturally and subtly We all breath at different rates. If you can take a few minutes to become aware of the breathing of your subject you can mimic their actions. Inhale and exhale at the same rate and the same depth. If you do this properly your client won’t consciously realise that anything has changed but subconsciously they are already starting to think that since you breath the same way as them you must be like them. People prefer the company of others who are similar to them. Just like that you have already created the basis for a good solid rapport.

Once you can mimic your clients breathing you might want to try mirroring other aspects of their behaviour. Watch their hand gestures, then use these same gestures when you talk. Be aware of how they sit, of how they cross their legs. All of this helps you to become more “in-tune” with your client. After a while of doing this you may find that you both start to do things simultaneously like crossing your legs, or changing your position.

A word of warning here though, don’t over do your mirroring. If a client becomes aware of what you are doing it will instantly break your rapport. They begin to feel as though they are being manipulated, their resistance levels go up, and it becomes very difficult if not impossible to hypnotise them.

You can also mirror the way that someone talks. If they speak quietly then lower your voice to a similiar level. If they speak with a lot of emphasis or excitement then you should use more emphasis in your words. Your voice shouldn’t match exactly how the other person talks, just change it a fraction and your subject will become aware of it. If there is a phrase that your client uses regularly then try to slip this phrase naturally into your conversation. This immediately makes your client feel as though you are on the same wavelength as them.

Play around with your mimicry. Practice every chance you get. If you are watching TV with your family become aware of what they are doing and how they are doing it then try to mirror them. The more practice you get the easier it will be to spot movements that you can copy and use to create stronger rapport.

Visit www.temporal-systems.com/conversationalhypnosis/index.html for more information.

Most people don’t really understand hypnosis. We’ve all seen the stage shows were people do strange and unusual things under the power of hypnosis. Things that they would never do in real life. Have you ever stopped to think about what is happening to these people? Why do they behave this way under hypnosis?

Contrary to popular belief the hypnotic trance is not a sleep-like state. In fact it’s the exact opposite. When you are hypnotised you become fully aware of what is happening. It is a deep relaxation state where you become solely focused on the hypnotist’s voice. You are in complete control of your mind still, and would never do anything that would jeopardise your own well being or go against your own personal moral code.

Conversational hypnosis uses the power of suggestion to implant thoughts in the mind and can strongly encourage others to behave in the way that you would like them to behave. I’m going to tell you a secret here. You already have all the abilities needed to hypnotize others during conversation. In fact not only do you have these abilities, you have been using them every day of your life since you learned to speak. We all use the power of speech and conversation to influence others around to our way of thinking. We’ve all also had that power used upon us.

How many times have you agreed to do something that you didn’t want to do. You are having a perfectly normal conversation, when suddenly you agree to clean out the garage, or run an errand for someone. You seem perfectly happy to do it at the time. In fact you’d love to do it, then later, maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours you think “hey, wait a minute!”.

This is the power of conversational hypnosis at work. You often find that people who are well liked subconsciously use conversational hypnosis to make everyone around them feel better. When talking to them you feel a strong bond or an instant rapport. After talking to them everything seems lighter and easier to deal with.

As you might be beginning to notice conversational hypnosis isn’t really a situation where you can sit people down and swing a watch in front of their eyes. It has to be subtle and unobtrusive. It really consists of 3 main stages.

The first stage is rapport. You need to establish a good relationship with the person you are talking too. This can be done very easily and quickly by simply agreeing with what the person is saying. This isn’t necessarily the best way to gain rapport but it is the quickest. Essentially what you are trying to do is get the subject or person you are attempting to covertly hypnotize to trust you and open up to you as a friend.

The next stage is labelled commonly as “confusion” because basically what you are trying to do is sway the person away from their original mindset. You want to befuddle, bamboozle and baffle them so much that they aren’t quite sure what to think anymore. People are often quite stubborn, they get idea’s in their heads and they don’t want to let them go. If you attempt to simply suggest an alternative people will put up a lot of resistance. What you are trying to do is create the ideal situation to covertly slip your indirect manual suggestion in.

The final stage is the actual suggestion itself. This again will have to be done subtly. You are trying to say it with the least amount of resistance possible. The best way of doing that is to say it in a way that the person would like to hear. If you can end by making them feel good about themselves and happier than they were before you started talking then your suggestion will have greater effect.

Remember though you should never use covert hypnosis to trick or manipulate people into doing something that they don’t want to do.

If you are interested in conversational hypnosis then please check out some of the courses on my site. I’ve reviewed 2 and I consider them both to be very good.

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