What is this glossary for?
Curious about what happens in an Ericksonian hypnotherapy session? This Ericksonian hypnosis glossary is for you. There is absolutely no need to read it before we meet — everything will be explained simply when we sit down together. But if you enjoy knowing what words mean before you encounter them, consider this a gentle introduction to the language of the unconscious.
Read it at your own pace, return to it whenever you like, and allow the definitions to settle in their own time.
The unconscious, as you will soon discover, has a remarkable talent for knowing exactly what it needs.
States of Mind
Trance
Trance is a naturally occurring state of focused inner attention in which the conscious mind becomes quieter and the unconscious mind becomes more accessible. It is not sleep, and it is not loss of consciousness or control. Most people describe it as a pleasant, inward alertness — something close to the absorbed, half-dreaming quality of the moment just before sleep. Or from being completely lost in a piece of music.
The Unconscious Mind
The unconscious mind is the part of the mental life that operates beneath conscious awareness. It stores memories, runs automatic processes, holds emotional patterns, and — crucially — is the source of lasting change. In Ericksonian hypnotherapy, it is not treated as something dark or hidden — quite the opposite. It is regarded as a wise, creative, and essentially benevolent inner resource, one that is always working on a person’s behalf, even when they are entirely unaware of it.
The Conscious Mind
The conscious mind is the rational, analytical, decision-making part of the mental life. In everyday life it acts as a kind of gatekeeper — evaluating, filtering, and organising experience. During trance, it steps aside — not disappearing, but becoming quieter — allowing the unconscious to be reached more directly. This is why hypnotherapy can access patterns and memories that ordinary conversation rarely touches.
Trance Depth
Trance depth refers to the degree to which conscious activity recedes and unconscious responsiveness increases during a session. Depth is not a measure of success — a light trance can be profoundly effective. What matters is not how deep a client goes, but how receptive and absorbed they become. Some of the most meaningful therapeutic work happens in states that feel no deeper than calm, relaxed daydreaming.
The Therapeutic Process
Unconscious Work
Once a session has ended, the processing does not stop. The unconscious mind continues to process, reorganise, and integrate the material from a session — often long after the session has ended. Change in Ericksonian work frequently happens gradually, in the hours, days, or even weeks following a session, without the client consciously directing it. A dream. A different response to an old situation. A thought that arrives unexpectedly. These are often the unconscious mind doing its work.
Letting Go
Letting go is the core experiential skill of hypnotic work. It is not a loss of self, but a voluntary release of the need to control, monitor, or analyse the experience as it unfolds. The capacity to let go is directly related to how deeply and effectively a client can work in trance. Interestingly, it is often the same capacity that the therapeutic work itself is designed to cultivate.
Post-Hypnotic Suggestion
A post-hypnotic suggestion is one that is offered during trance, with the intention of continuing to operate gently after the session has ended — influencing thoughts, feelings, behaviours, or responses in everyday life. These are not commands but seeds, planted in the unconscious and allowed to grow in their own time and in their own way. A client might find, days later, that a habitual response simply did not arise — without having made any conscious effort to change it.
Generalisation
A generalisation occurs when one or more past experiences have been unconsciously expanded into a permanent, absolute truth. “I’m bad at that”, “I always do this”, “I could never…” are typical examples. To the person saying it, this feels entirely factual, not dramatic. In Ericksonian work, a generalisation is never challenged directly. Instead, a single small exception is gently invited — because one exception, once acknowledged, is enough to begin quietly unravelling the absolute.
Related terms
Limiting Belief — A generalisation that has solidified into a core assumption about what is possible for the self — not just a habitual thought, but an invisible ceiling on experience.
Reframing — The process of offering a different context or meaning for the same experience, so that a generalisation begins to loosen without being directly challenged. The facts remain the same; what shifts is the frame through which they are seen.
Deletion — The companion process to generalisation. In forming an absolute statement, contradictory evidence is automatically filtered out. Part of the therapeutic work involves gently recovering what has been deleted — the small moments, however quiet, that tell a different story.
Anchoring
An anchor is created when a resourceful state experienced during trance becomes linked to a specific cue — a word, a breath, a gesture, a physical sensation. It works as a kind of shortcut back to that inner state. With practice, a single slow breath can begin to recreate the calm of a deep trance experience, even outside the session itself.
A final note before your first session
None of these terms need to be memorised or understood perfectly before you arrive. The unconscious mind does not require a prior knowledge of its own workings in order to do its work. What it does require — and what this glossary is simply an invitation toward — is a quiet willingness to be curious.
Curiosity, in Ericksonian hypnotherapy, is perhaps the most therapeutic state of all. It keeps the conscious mind gently occupied while something deeper and wiser begins to move.