EMBRACING A NEUROLOGICAL MODEL:
HYPNOTHERAPISTS CAN LEAD THE WAY AS PSYCHOLOGY EVOLVES

by Marilyn Michael

Part I of III

If we are lucky, theories and practices in the field of psychology, of which hypnotherapy is a part, will be looked back upon as the historical past long before the arrival of the next century. Why? Hopefully we will have developed far greater understanding of the mind-body conundrum and evolved less subjective and more holistic treatments for human emotional discomfort and the physical and behavioral problems emerging from it. To help move forward the knowledge and methods of psychology requires taking on the mental challenges of a theorist. In developing the new hypnotherapeutic method, NEUROTHERAPY Training, we stepped back and took a broader view of the field of psychology and its relation to other fluctuating systems of thought. *

With NEUROTHERAPY Training, one is exposed to dramatic differences and redefinitions of older psychological ways of thinking. Training reflects an emerging model in the field of psychology we call the Neurological Model. Previously all methods of practical psychology, within which hypnotherapy falls, can be shown to reflect three models, analytical, behavioral and cognitive (what we call the ABC's of psychology.) These models emerged from what we call the WAAWA (we are as we are) theories of psychology

The theory behind the analytical model and its methods is. ..we are as we are because of deep-seated problems and conflicts in the psyche. Behind the behavioral model and its methods is... we are as we are because of behaviors. Behind the cognitive model and its methods is. ..we are as we are because of our perceptions and how we communicate.

The hypnotherapeutic method, NEUROTHERAPY Training, is based on the most modern W AA W A Theory. ..we are as we are because of the interaction of the mind and body. Its mental training approach and other techniques are focused on teaching people to directly manage the process or physiology of emotion. It puts tools into people's hands that can directly dissipate damaging emotional reactions and that can keep a process of healthy reactions occurring.

NEUROTHERAPY Training moves out of the subjective discussion of emotions as positive or negative. Its methods are designed to give people ways of regularly restoring the previously innate, healthy balance from the time before the conscious interaction with the world

Systems of thought in many areas are changing which demands an enlargement of systems of psychotherapy. We see a two-track model for psychology emerging. It consists of a Learning Track (traditional reprogramming, reshaping, reframing etc. of the content of mental activity,) and Therapeutic Track (helping people more directly manage the physiology of mind, the process of thought and emotion.) With new understanding of the nature of emotion, the Therapeutic Track is necessary. It is indisputable that long-term emotional management is impossible without an ability to more directly affect the eruption of emotion in the body.

Hypnotherapists should be excited. NEUROTHERAPY Training offers an application of hypnotherapy that is a cornerstone for the emerging Therapeutic Track of psychology. Universities continue to train in and perpetuate the ABC models of psychology, the Learning Track, and do not offer knowledge of mental training techniques such as hypnosis. Hypnotherapists are well trained in the needed tool to facilitate the Therapeutic Track, use of an altered mental state, hypnosis. Most hypnotherapists have been primarily taught to use the altered mental state, though, for methods that are part of the Learning Track. Now they no longer have to merely compete with traditional practitioners. Extending their understanding of the applications and potentials of hypnosis, learning to use it in a way that more directly affects the physiology of mind, will set them apart. Hypnotherapists can become leaders in the evolution of psychology.

*Examples of broader thinking applied to the field of psychology can be found in Fritof Capra's The Turning Point and in Howard Gardner's The Mind's New Science A History of the Cognitive Revolution.

Go to Part II: NeuroTherapy Training: Removing the Emotion From the Thought

Marilyn Michael and her partner Henry Snyder developed NeuroTherapy Training and have trained practitioners in their method for fifteen years both regionally and via distance learning through The North American Institute of NeuroTherapy; 206.322.0633 www. TherapyoftheFuture.com