New clients only bring their personal knowledge, its our job to educate and guide. I say guide because regardless of what we know will help them, our knowledge is bias, incomplete and not necessarily what the client really needs. What we know is based on what we've come to learn and accept. The same is true for our clients. Personally, as a life long learner, I can tell you that the things I learn exist for others before I arrive to the understanding. Furthermore, my understanding is limited to my current perceptions and to the same extent limited to the educators current understandings and perceptions of the newly learned concept.

What I'm saying is,... when a client comes to talk with us, we may sometimes feel that we know just what to do to help them. Consider however that it wasn't all that long ago that we were just learning hypnosis first time. We didn't simply know everything overnight. We individually don't know IT ALL now. Everyone has their own way of viewing the world. Our job is to do all that we can to help them with what they ask help.

The premise of my work goes something like this:  Clients arrive, they often have ideas about what hypnosis is. I provide information to dispel myths and educate about actual benefits and functional information. I do all that I can to hear what it is that they want,... I do all that I can to build anticipation and work with the issue they present. If they are able to make connections with other issues that I spot surrounding the issue they present, then I can work with that as well. When they don't see other issues, I don't suggest they have other issues and I don't make an attempt to work on stuff that they didn't bring. By providing service in this way, my clients are developing a deep understanding for the operations of emotions in their personal lives and making complementary behavioral change beyond the scope of the original session.

I don't always understand why some people use obviously self destructive coping skills, but it is a comfort to me to know that someone with a different body of knowledge could look at me a say the same thing. This understanding has brought me to a place where I can simply accept people right where they stand,... without any judgments,... in a place of equality I can be of assistance.

I love my job!
Douglas J Iverson