In a study published by Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers discovered that feedback given earlier in learning sessions tend to bring about better grades over the long haul and improve students’ performance overall.
I’ve found this same phenomenon in hypnotherapy and Rapid Eye Technology sessions. When clients discovered early on that the process I was using was working, they tended to get better results overall – achieving therapeutic goals quicker and with far less effort. When clients believed it would take several sessions to show improvement, they tended to go slower and often struggled to make progress. Conversely, when clients felt immediate results (positive feedback) they tended to feel more successful and confident with the processes we used.
In hypnotherapy we call it a “convincer” – that is, a sort of “test” in which the subject feels that what they are doing they are doing successfully (“you’ll notice now that you cannot open your eyes no matter how hard you try…”). The end result of a successful convincer is deeper somnambulism and more effective hypnotherapy. In effect, the subject invokes the placebo effect and makes the therapy work better overall.
I’ve believed all along (and is borne out by years of experience) that clients who believe their therapy is working are more likely to succeed with the therapy. I’ve also experienced the phenomenon that clients who believe early on that the therapy is working will make the most dramatic strides toward their therapeutic goals.
My goal in the first session was to do like fire fighters do with large blazes – knock down the “big stuff” – and then mop up afterward. That way, the client quickly builds belief in the process through early success – and then sticks with it to “clean up”. In the process, the client gets to enjoy rapid change in the direction of their choice – while belief in the therapeutic process gives them added value and power later during the “clean up” phase.
If you are a therapist, even in a socialized environment where you get paid the same regardless of client outcome, I recommend rapidly building client belief in whatever system you’re using. The overall length of therapy can be years – yet if the client/patient believes the system works for them, they will feel successful throughout their time of treatment/therapy.
If you’re a client/patient, wouldn’t you want your therapy to work for you? Of course you would! That’s why you sought therapy in the first place. And wouldn’t you want that therapy to work FASTER rather than SLOWER? Yes! And in most of my cases as a therapist, clients preferred the “knock down then clean up” method better than the “you’ll see results after 12 sessions” approach.
Rapid Eye Technicians, especially, if they follow the outline taught by the Rapid Eye Institute will generally see rapid results. However, since Rapid Eye Technology is not designed to be a “knock down clean up afterward” kind of model, you may have to invoke some convincers early on to accomplish the early positive feedback model. NO CHANGE in practice of the RET process is necessary to achieve this – just a slight change to how you address the client during their first session. Here’s how I did it when I was in practice:
- Within seconds of the wand moving and the eyes blinking, I’d give feedback – “Very good. I can see by your rapidly pulsing pupils that this is definitely working for you…” or “Good! You’re reacting to the process even more rapidly than I expected…” or “Excellent! I can feel the difference in your energy already…” etc. VERY positive feedback VERY early on.
- Make ALL observations invoke the placebo effect by attributing physical changes to successful therapy – “See? Your face is smoothing out… this (RET) is working VERY well for you…” etc.
- Invoke a convincer. This works best AFTER the client has released something heavy – “Now, just TRY to bring back that feeling of fear you just told me about before we started doing RET on it…” When they can’t recall the feeling, their convinced the process works – and will work even better now that they are convinced.
- Make the first session the BEST session. Of course they will have even better sessions later because clients tend to get better at RET the more they use it – but in this case I’m talking about PERCEPTION rather than reality. At the close of their first session you could say something like, “Now that you’ve knocked down the major emotional load of all this, I look forward to cleaning up the little pockets of ‘stuff’ that we didn’t quite get to today…” (giving the PERCEPTION that you took the majority of the load off in that first session – and sending them home even more hopeful and excited about their next few sessions with you)
If you are a client/patient, I recommend that you let yourself BELIEVE that you’ve knocked down the major emotional load in your first session. Reward yourself for your success early on by focusing on and noticing how WELL the therapy is working for you.
Knock the blaze down in the first session and mop up afterward – easy and effective.
Study Source: Barbara Isanski, Association for Psychological Science