Gloria Díaz Arnal: Terapeuta matrimonial y familiar, California, USA.
Participating in this gathering on Therapeutic Communication has been a special experience-not only because of the relevance of the topic but also because, as the only female speaker on the International Women´s day, I was reminded of the extra effort we still face to balance professional and family life. For that reason, my gratitude is twofold: to those who organized the event and to those who support me every day.
Up to this point in the Summit, most presentations have focused on traditional hypnosis centered on trance. My proposal is to explore a different path: conversational hypnosis, also known as Ericksonian hypnosis or hypnosis without trance. This approach uses communication and suggestion to promote changes in perception and behaviour without the need to induce a deep trance.
Imagine, for a moment, the scene in the United States around 1950: Gregory Bateson, encouraged by Margaret Mead and alongside Milton Erickson, participates in the first interdisciplinary Macy Conferences. These meetings were decisive for the birth of cybernetics and General Systems Theory, laying the foundation for a new paradigm in understanding human behaviour. Since then, symptoms ceased to be seen as simple linear effects and began to be understood as part of a feedback system, where each element plays a circular and dynamic role.
The Bateson Project, started in 1952, brought together key figures such as John Weakland, Jay Haley, and William Fry, who began investigating paradoxes in communication and their impact on behaviour. In 1958, Weakland and Haley published a fundamental article integrating communication theory with hypnotic procedures, opening the way to an interactional view of hypnosis.
Milton Erickson, a pioneer of modern hypnosis, is also considered one of the fathers of strategic family therapy and brief problem-focused therapy, alongside Don Jackson and Gregory Bateson. In 1959, the Mental Research Institute (MRI) was founded in Palo Alto, California, becoming a world reference for systemic psychotherapy.
In 1967, the MRI’s Brief Therapy Center (BTC) opened its doors, betting on brief interventions in contrast to the long, analytic therapies of the time. Teamwork, observation behind the one-way mirror, and session recordings allowed the development of an experimental model where brevity and efficacy were priorities.
Over the years, the MRI became a pilgrimage site for professionals worldwide, preserving a valuable archive of recordings, manuscripts, and research.
One key learning from this model is that 80% of Erickson’s work was strategic and did not depend on trance. Effective therapeutic communication is based on establishing genuine collaboration with the patient, so they feel motivated and capable of completing the suggested tasks to achieve change.
As therapists, our role is to identify the patient’s resources and strengths, steering them away from attempted solutions that perpetuate the problem. There are no universal recipes: each intervention is tailored, observing the communication and dynamics unique to each case.
The MRI model is neither normative nor pathologizing; it starts from the client’s complaint and experience, seeking to understand how the problem is maintained rather than its origin.
The interactional view proposes a cybernetic approach to causality, where the key is to break vicious cycles of ineffective solutions. As Watzlawick said, “we don’t work with problems, but with attempted solutions”. The challenge is to help the patient identify and modify those solutions, proposing alternatives that may seem unconventional but open the door to real change.
Using the client’s language, beliefs, and values is fundamental to creating a solid therapeutic alliance. Only then can we design interventions truly tailored to their needs, using the hypno-strategies described by Jay Haley. Ultimately, in this model, the problem is the solution, and the entire intervention is structured from there.
This pragmatic and strategic approach invites us to see therapy as a collaborative and creative process, where communication and flexibility are key tools to accompany people on their path to change and well-being.
Uncommon interventions: the art of the paradox with the hypno-strategies
The magic of this approach lies in inviting the client to do the opposite of their attempted solutions, using hypnotic communication without trance. How? By matching their rhythm, calibrating their gestures, voice, and unique way of perceiving the world. Here, the therapist becomes a choreographer of words guiding unexpected changes.
Paradoxes- cracks in reason
Phrases like “forbidden to forbid!” or “be spontaneous!” reveal an uncomfortable truth: we cannot control what demands freedom. These paradoxes, explained in The Language of Change, are the Achilles’ heel of our rational mind.
Techniques that break patterns
- Strategic confusion:
- For analytical minds that rationalize everything.
- Example: “Your anxiety acts like a broken traffic light… what would you say if I proposed decoding its secret message?”
- Illusion of alternatives:
- “Would you like to enter trance now or later?” (Erickson)
- “It’s better not to rush, and now you need to overprotect your daughter. How much longer do you think you need to keep doing this?”
- Origin: Weakland and Jackson identified this in families of schizophrenics.
- Symptom prescription:
- “Spend 20 minutes a day focusing on your most catastrophic worries” (MRI technique).
- Effect: By ordering chaos, its power is neutralized.
- Paradoxical intention:
- “Don’t talk about this until next week” (for inhibited patients).
- Result: The prohibition generates curiosity and openness.
- Go Slow directive:
- “Take only a small step this week, please, no more” (to curb destructive self-demand).
- Metaphors and rituals:
- Example: “Your depression is like an internal winter. What do you need to prepare for spring?”
- Mara Selvini used these meticulously in family therapy: rituals as symbolic acts that restructure realities.
- Reframing:
- Is it a 6 or a 9? It depends on the perspective.
- Real case: A wife constantly asked for reassurance of love. The husband, instead of denying it, said, “Of course I don’t love you, and I’ll leave tomorrow.” The shared laughter broke the cycle of insecurity.
Why do they work?
These interventions block the left hemisphere (critical and analytical) and activate the right (creative). They bridge the rational and symbolic, the symptom and its hidden meaning.
Continuing the legacy:
At the Brief Therapy Center (BTC), we keep alive the tradition of training, residencies, and summer courses started by Virginia Satir, up until the MRI’s physical closure in 2019. Today, the MRI functions as an online foundation offering research scholarships, while the BTC continues with online trainings and physical centers in Mexico City and Paraguay.
The closing of the original building was a collective loss –like witnessing the burning of Notre Dame, but without the possibility of rebuilding. That space, where revolutionary ideas were forged, no longer exists physically. Yet what truly matters endures.
After eight years working with the MRI team, I brought back to Barcelona more than knowledge: Watzlawick’s phone. A humble object, a symbol that serves as a bridge to keep speaking about that revolution we now take for granted. The past may not sell, but I feel compelled to share this legacy, especially with those just starting their journey.
To the young people reading this: may the footprints of those who paved the way never fade. What today seems ordinary was once a brave leap that transformed psychotherapy forever.