Milton H Erickson M D

Milton H. Erickson, M.D. is generally acknowledged to have been the world's leading practitioner of medical hypnosis. His "strategic therapy," using hypnotic techniques with or without actually inducing trance, allows him to get directly to the core of a problem and prescribe a course of action that can lead to rapid recovery. This book provides a comprehensive look at Dr. Erickson's theories in practice, through a series of case studies covering the kinds of problems that are likely to occur at various stages of the human life cycle. The results Dr. Erickson achieves sometimes seem to border on the miraculous, but they are brought about by a finely honed technique used by a wise, intuitive, highly trained psychiatrist-hypnotist whose work is recognized as a major contribution to the field.

Milton H Erickson is one of the most studied people in the field of hypnosis and psychotherapy. Hundreds of thousands of words have been written analyzing his therapeutic methods and words with miles and miles of film, audio and videotapes. In Milton H Erickson MD: An American Healer read about the man Milton H Erickson, rather than his psychotherapeutic techniques. Told from the perspective of three of his children, this book uniquely explores the personal side of this world-famous psychiatrist. It is a remarkable spiritual journey. As a part of his life-long struggle to overcome the physical effects of polio, Erickson acquired prodigious observational and interactional skills, as well as a powerfully calm healing presence. With photographs, stories and a DVD of one of his clinical sessions, this book brings to light the quiet spirituality of an extraordinary healer.

Presents over one hundred "teaching tales" of the hypnotherapist Milton Erickson, which he uses to influence his patients on conscious and unconscious levels, and discusses his approaches to hypnosis and psychotherapy.

Erickson was the most influential hypnotherapist in the 20th century. This reference has been endorsed by Erickson's daughter Roxanna Erickson Klein, Ph.D., R.N., and his widow, Elizabeth.

The first chapter provides a succinct biography of this extraodinary man, describing how Erickson overcame numerous adversities in early life, and how these events shaped his development as a highly innovative thinker. Commentaries on Milton Erickson, M.D. examines the practical and theoretical aspects of Erickson's methods, including his therapeutic posture, expectation of change, emphasis on the positive, acknowledgement of more than one solution to a problem, blocking of symptomatic behavior, change in relation to the therapist, use of anectodes, and willingness to "let go" of patients. A Review of Ordeal Therapy focuses on a controversial therapeutic technique successfully used by Erickson. Haley cautions the reader, however, of the care with which this powerful technique should be exercised. A fascinating dialogue between Jay Haley and John Weakland,