Neuro Linguistic Programming

252 Part IV: Using Words to Entrance

Discovering the Language of Trance – the Milton Model

Humans have an amazing capacity to make sense of what people say – even

when it’s utter gobbledygook. Sometimes, being artfully vague is valuable –

when you’re non-specific in the content of what you say you enable other

people to fill the gaps for themselves. When your language construction is

deliberately vague, people can take what they need from your words in a way

that’s most appropriate for them.

The Milton Model is a set of language patterns that you can use to take

somebody into a trance state, an altered state of consciousness, in which

they can access unconscious resources, make changes, and solve their own

problems. The Milton Model is named after Milton H Erickson, one of the most

influential of all hypnotherapists (read more about him in the earlier sidebar

‘Milton H Erickson – the master at work’).

The Milton Model uses all the same patterns as the Meta Model, except in

reverse (head to Chapter 15 for details on the Meta Model). Whereas the

Meta Model aims to gather more information, the Milton Model aims to

Milton H Erickson – the master at work

As a compelling teacher and therapist, Milton

H Erickson (1901–1980) inspired and fascinated

those who came to learn from him or be healed.

His mastery of therapeutic skills brought

positive results for many people and led him to

become the most influential hypnotherapist of

the 20th century.

He had a profound effect on John Grinder and

Richard Bandler, the founders of NLP. They

modelled Erickson in 1974 and then published

several books that demonstrated the language

patterns they noted. These patterns form

the basis of the Milton Model in NLP, which

deliberately adopts language in which the

meaning is vague. The Milton Model is in

contrast to the Meta Model, explained in

Chapter 15, which aims to elicit more specific

information.

Erickson excelled at inducing trances in his

patients and effecting real change that healed

people. He paced the existing reality of his

clients, patiently describing what they must be

experiencing before introducing suggestions

and leading them to new thinking. His therapeutic

style was much more permissive than earlier

hypnotherapists. By permissive, we mean that he

adopted a flexible approach that worked with the

existing map of his clients – always respecting

their reality and using it as the starting

point for his work. He gently took clients into a

trance by making general comments that they

couldn’t help but agree with, rather than saying

‘You will go into a trance now.’ He believed that

clients already had the necessary resources

and saw his role as the therapist as enabling

the client to access them.