To Use or Not Use Scripts

Question

          Do you use scripts after all the years you’ve been doing this? When I was originally trained using scripts was frowned upon. I didn't have that gift of gab or the confidence to easily come up with metaphors, stories or suggestions on the spot, so scripts were more comfortable for me. I think some of the top hypnotists, or at least I like to believe, use scripts. It's kind of like cooking. I'm a fabulous cook....I've been given a gift in this life. I use recipes. I play around with them all the time but I'm not the kind of chef that just thinks up these wildly creative recipes. What’s your feeling about this?

Answer

     I still use scripts, especially my own.  I now have a lot to choose from (around 500), because I created them out my own experience with so many clients in the nearly twenty-five years I’ve been using hypnotic methods. Also, I continue to use certain scripts written by other therapists, if I feel they answer a need not covered by my own, especially if they are in areas I haven’t worked with much. 

     Personally, if I don’t at least follow an outline, I find I may not be quite as careful with the words I use, nor as comprehensive in what I want to make clear to the subconscious mind. A script helps guide me, even if I don’t use the words as written. I adapt scripts (my own and others) to the particular client; and I create new scripts that emerge in the midst of a session out of my intuition. In other words, whether relying on a script or creating out of “thin air”, I respond to a client’s need, creating and adapting accordingly.  

       There will be those who disagree with me, but I feel that teachers who insist you not use scripts are doing a disservice to their students. They are setting them up to think they are failures if they can’t come up with the right suggestions “off the cuff”.  Basically, I believe script-reading and creating to be important, provided they are excellent scripts. Especially for the newer hypnotherapist, good scripts become part of the unconscious mind’s memory bank, and makes it easier to create “new” scripts or sessions.

     When using a written script, it’s important to go over every suggestion carefully, thinking through what a “literal-minded” subconscious/unconscious mind will receive from that suggestion.

     Caution is that one not become totally reliant on scripts, but keep their intuition sharp by paying close attention to how their client communicates and the data given in any intake or session that gives clues to directions best taken  for the needs of the client.

      In some of my books, I have a page on “7 Reasons to Use Scripts”; also, it is on my web site, in case you haven’t seen it. Best to you and much success in your work.