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Ep. 33: How Playfulness Helps Get Great Hypnosis Results
146 Plays3 years ago
Show Notes
Having fun opens up our curiosity and spirit of discovery. Find out how you can weave fun into your hypnosis experience for easier learning & communication and better client results.
In this episode, you will learn:
- About the important role that playfulness has in learning.
- Ideas for having fun while learning hypnotically.
- How to identify fun activities that different types of people may enjoy.
Marge Perry is a fun loving hypnotist. These days she is mostly enjoying her retirement in the mountains of Colorado. She sees a small number of clients for the love of it.
Discover more about how hypnosis training can help you reach your goals and help others at www.hypnosistrainingcanada.com.
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Transcript
Introduction to Hypnosis and Guest Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
I think play just is a great way of learning and an easier way of learning than pushing a point and putting someone under pressure if they don't get it right away.
00:00:12
Speaker
You want to transform yourself and improve your life. You long to help people. You wish to become healthier, happier, and more successful. This show is your opportunity to learn how to use hypnosis to make your life better. Each week, hypnotist Robbie Spear Miller interviews people who have already changed their lives in amazing ways with hypnosis.
00:00:35
Speaker
These models can help you discover your path to making the most of your life. If you want to learn how hypnosis can help you reach your goals, this show is for you.
00:00:48
Speaker
Hello, everybody. I'm Robbie Spear-Miller, your host for the Hypnosis Show podcast. Today, we have a really fun topic, which is how to have fun while you're learning and growing and changing with hypnosis. And I have with me one of my very old longtime colleagues, Marge Perry. She was actually on the first episode of the podcast. And so she's really awesome at making life
00:01:12
Speaker
fun and really laid back.
Marge's Fun Approach to Hypnosis
00:01:15
Speaker
Marge is actually now retired. She does hypnosis now as a hobby. She lives in Colorado and has lots of fun hiking and being in nature. When she had a busy clinic, she was really great at helping clients get into that really
00:01:34
Speaker
fun mood and really curious mood that comes with having fun. So I thought that Marge would be a great person to share with us how we can add that to our work with clients. Or if you're a person who wants to use hypnosis to change yourself, how can you bring that fun to learning what you need to learn and discovering what you need to discover? So welcome Marge.
00:01:57
Speaker
Well, thank you, Robbie. I'm glad to be here today. Yeah, it's great to have you here again. Yes. So this is a fun topic. I'm excited about it because in my clinic, one of my favorite things to do is to get into the state of mind, the mood that I felt would be helpful for the client to make the changes they wanted to make.
Overcoming Dyslexia with Creativity
00:02:24
Speaker
And so before I even entered the room, I would get into that state of curiosity, that state of actually confidence and calmness. And then I would basically, by me getting into the right state of mind, I could get my client in the state of mind for learning. And I know you do that too.
00:02:47
Speaker
So it's really, to me, it's all about the client or the clients. So once my focus is on them and my world is behind me, because when I step into the room, everything else goes away. And I'm just there looking at what they need, hearing what they say a bit and really examining where we're going to go that day and what sort of processes we'll do that'll be fun and get the person moving in the right direction.
00:03:17
Speaker
And from my own personal experience growing up, I guess I'm more of an inferred learner. When I was in elementary school, I was able to fake my way all the way to sixth grade and not learn how to read.
Power of Playful Learning Techniques
00:03:33
Speaker
My mom was a teacher, my dad was on the school board, and I'm sure they were shocked when my sixth grade teacher said, Margie can't read. Yeah, wow, that's impressive.
00:03:44
Speaker
that you managed to not let anybody know to us. Right, because basically I looked at the pictures, I listened to what other people said and sort of agreed or whatever. I don't know how I got through. Maybe it was the number of kids in the class. But I really wasn't interested in reading. I was much more interested in playing, playing outside. I was on a swim team. Book learning wasn't for me at the time.
00:04:10
Speaker
But I found myself that summer, my parents enrolled me in a reading specialist program, and I kicked and screamed, and I was really upset about it. And I guess, you know, what they say, our only real learning is against our will, and this certainly was for me. And I remember going there the first day because it was ruining my whole summer that I'd have to go to this reading specialist.
00:04:36
Speaker
And there were two other kids, they were from different schools. And my teacher was amazing. He made the whole idea of reading fun. He'd flash words on the screen and he'd give us little games to put together, because it was a perceptual thing, because I was dyslexic, I guess. And over a period of six weeks, I not only learned to read at grade level, but about grade level.
00:05:04
Speaker
through all of his techniques and keeping us engaged and focused and interested. And those learnings are carried through my whole life. I mean, reading is one of my favorite things to do in a pastime. So I think, you know, as far as a lot of people learn well, and I think you did with regular school and the learning we get traditionally in school,
00:05:32
Speaker
But for me, I learned best from having fun and seeing how to engage people with different ways of getting information across. That's why I love hypnosis and NLP, because it's really more inductive learning than deductive. But it's both. Would you agree? Well, it's more real world learning.
00:06:01
Speaker
Yeah, we're engaging all our senses. And, you know, I think even people who are good at academics, if they're given a choice and they're and they're laid back enough to be and curious enough to be open to the choice, I think just about everybody would rather learn what they were having fun if you had a choice.
Engaging Clients with Interactive Methods
00:06:20
Speaker
Oh, well, I agree with that. Yes. If you have a choice. But
00:06:25
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Oftentimes, we don't get a choice in school, and that's why as we get older, we get to learn all these other things through NLP, hypnosis, and all these other different spokes of the wheel.
00:06:45
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The beauty of NLP and hypnosis and helping people learn more about themselves and getting over blocks in their life is through actually doing it, changing their physiology. And often that happens when you're doing something fun.
00:07:05
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So getting people up and moving, if someone's in their head throwing a ball at them and having them catch it and throw it back to you, getting them more external. Any of the processes with NLP are really great in getting people into fun and learning. In my way of thinking, I think about how would you like to learn a strategy about getting over stress? Would you like to go to a lecture?
00:07:35
Speaker
and learn it, or would you like to engage with someone and have them have you teach them how you go into stress through what you see and hear and feel and make it a game. So, you know, what happens first, what happens second, you know, and go through the whole process until they're in that state. And I step into that state as well. So I understand it.
00:08:01
Speaker
And then it's a game of, you know, once you know the sequence, teaching them that and then having them see the game is how fast can you catch it? Can you catch it before you hold your breath? And then how do you signal yourself to stop and then focus on what you really want or whatever that.
00:08:21
Speaker
So you're teaching them how to interrupt themselves or how to notice the steps that they go through to create a problem, and then how can they do it differently in a fun way? Yeah, and find out what that pattern is.
00:08:38
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And, you know, the same thing with anchoring, you know, there's, you know, just quick little processes, but you're getting people engaged and doing it and seeing that it really works. If they want to be confident and they get into that state of mind and, you know, bring their thumb and finger together or whatever enough times, all they need to do is bring their thumb and finger together and voila, they have that
00:09:04
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State of mind so it's it's Playing those games, you know, and there's so many different games you can you can do
Physical Activities in Learning
00:09:14
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So one of the areas that I found really like super helpful with clients is sometimes clients take themselves super seriously and they get into judgment of themselves if they're not performing the way they think they should or changing as fast or as easy as they think they should and that they can really sabotage things because they're really hard on themselves or they get really intense about things or
00:09:40
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They have a very limited scope. They kind of put in a box what's supposed to happen, and if it doesn't fit in that box, then it's either greater or it's terrible. And so I found it really helpful to teach people playfulness around this. And it could happen in all kinds of ways, but if we can give them, like, even crack a joke or have them do something different,
00:10:04
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physically with their body, then it can really help to give them perspective on learning.
00:10:13
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And I think even though you're in a small office oftentimes, getting people up and moving is really helpful. And also, it's important to me when I work with people to be able to laugh at myself so they can laugh at themselves. And telling them stories about how I did something that
00:10:35
Speaker
you know, was actually now funny to me, but at the time seemed tragic so that they can see that they actually lived through it. Right. So we're giving them other people's experiences and stories about other people. So they see like, hey, life doesn't have to have to be the way that I thought it had to be. Exactly.
00:10:55
Speaker
And, you know, and again, back to getting up and moving like with a weight client, you know, if they have an exercise all week, getting them up and, you know, having them follow you out the door and they're walking. And maybe you play games as you go, you go fast, go slow. Sometimes I'll walk along and if it's
00:11:17
Speaker
a street with not much traffic. I'll have them walk the yellow line and then I'll say, okay, now pretend like this is 20 feet higher and are you going to walk across it? And they'll say, oh no, or whatever. And then I'll say, yeah, sort of interesting perceptions. You know, you had this perception, it was so hard to walk and actually it was just simply walking out the door.
00:11:41
Speaker
giving them information as we walk and being playful along the way and asking them questions and getting them into being playful and maybe you take one umbrella step as you're walking across the street or whatever you choose to do but yeah definitely I think play the power there is a power of play and
00:12:06
Speaker
It certainly works well in hypnosis and NLP. Yeah, and you're reminding me of when you talk about the yellow line. As a kid, I remember playing the game of where you didn't want to step on the crack in the sidewalk. Remember that game? Break your mother's back. Yeah, and remembering that experience from being a kid makes you feel more kid-like and playful.
Childlike Playfulness for Stress Relief
00:12:30
Speaker
So helping people access that innocent eye, the childlike experience can be really helpful too. Right. And then coming back, they've learned that, hey, this is no big deal, and I can do this. And I think that's important. The idea of doing as much as we can, I think, is really, really good. And teaching lessons, if they're
00:12:58
Speaker
You know, like if people are in a group, I might do an activity where they have to interact with each other and see who's the one that's outgoing and who's the shy one and who's the one that's helping bring people together and, you know, like a people scavenger hunt or something like that. We've talked before about how actually the value of, you know, juggling with, you know, plastic sacks and what you learn about your
00:13:26
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your people and what they learn just by playing that game. I think about Erickson's My Voice Goes With You and there's a story in there.
00:13:39
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about how many ways can you get out of this room? And the person isn't using their imagination very well. And so I would do that with different people who just were sort of stuck. When you get to a point and say, okay, Ronnie, tell me five ways you can get out of this room and you can't walk.
00:14:03
Speaker
And usually they'll get stressed because they're already overwhelmed with their situation maybe. And I'll be playful and joke with them a bit. And then they'll think, oh, well, I guess I could somersault out or I could skip out or come up things like that. And then I might say, okay, let's just say that
00:14:21
Speaker
The door is padlocked shut. How are you going to get out? And they'll look around and think, well, I can get up on the chair and go through the ceiling and go, you know, and they start using their imaginations. And then I'll say, OK, so let's just talk about your situation. Let's think of.
00:14:37
Speaker
Yeah, some creative ways you could move forward here and be playful about it. And oftentimes they come up with great ideas of what's next and keeping them focused on the outcome, of course.
00:14:52
Speaker
And I've even, you know, with a ball played where I throw the ball back and forth to someone. I remember this one woman, I was throwing it back and forth to her and I was asking her questions and she came up with this answer and I repeated it and she says, that's brilliant. And I said, you just said it. You know, it's just like they're out of their,
00:15:13
Speaker
you know conscious mind and they have that information it's just that they're not accessing it sometimes so you know just simple things can uh really make a difference sometimes. Yeah so it helps people make connections in a different way and they also get more confident because they see hey if I can think of these ways to escape this room what else could I do and and they're in that frame of mind.
00:15:38
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I remember having one guy who was pretty grumpy all the time, and I brought a joke book to the waiting room, and his assignment was that he had to find a good joke and come and tell it to me before a session. And we'd laugh,
Using Humor and Music in Therapy
00:15:58
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we'd have a good time, and it would just really change that pattern in him.
00:16:02
Speaker
And he started buying joke books, you know, but, you know, just doing different things just to, you know, look at who is this person and what's going to get them more comfortable in making a change.
00:16:17
Speaker
So there's hundreds of ideas. I have had some clients who, let's say they're stuck, maybe they feel really stressed out and overwhelmed, and they feel really bogged down in that. I'll have them get out their phone and find online. They can just find their favorite music, or maybe it's in their playlist. So I'll have them put on their favorite music and dance to it.
00:16:41
Speaker
And if they're not comfortable dancing in front of me, I'll just leave the room and I'll say, okay, you go ahead, have your dance party. And they see how when they do that, it feels better.
00:16:52
Speaker
Right? Yeah, they have to move. Yeah. And sometimes I have clients who are into singing and music and so I'll have them sing for me and it makes them feel better. So I tend to utilize whatever they are into. That's what I, you know, the direction I've gone. But I love some of your ideas. I'm gonna steal those, Marge. Yeah, I like yours too. So it's just,
00:17:18
Speaker
I think play is a great way of learning and easier than pushing a point and putting someone under pressure if they don't get it right away.
00:17:34
Speaker
That's the other thing I like to do, and I'm sure you do it too, is I love to give homework. You know, I always give people homework. Like a woman I'm working with now, she's a nurse in upper state New York. She's on disability right now because she hurt her arms.
00:17:52
Speaker
And she was a former client of mine in California and she was stressed out and bored and unhappy with herself. And so anyway, I said, you know, what do you like to do? What are you missing? And she had never finished her bachelor's degree and she wasn't that far off. And so I challenged her to start working on her bachelor's degree and she just got it like a week ago. And it was only a matter of
00:18:21
Speaker
six weeks or something, but she had the time.
00:18:25
Speaker
And then I talked to her about, well, what other things do you like? And she says, I like fiber arts. And I said, okay, this week I want you, I know you've hurt your arms. So, you know, talk to your physical therapist or your doctor, but can you go ahead and do some knitting? And so she started doing it and she, over the period of a week, she was able to make this cool hat. And she got really excited about that. And it actually helped her with her arms.
00:18:52
Speaker
So, you know, it's just giving people homework assignments, moving them towards what they really want that they've stopped doing is powerful, I think. And just reminding people of the extraordinary people they are and all the cool
00:19:10
Speaker
things they already know or that they can integrate into the next stage of their life.
Active Engagement through 'Home Play'
00:19:15
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, my very first NLP teachers, their names were Janet and Jonathan Kramer, and they used to call it home play, not homework. Oh, good idea. I like it. But it is fun. And it's also giving them accountability that they're going to bring it back and show it to you or whatever that is. And
00:19:38
Speaker
And helping them move in that direction, actually in any program they have, I think it's good to have some home play. Yeah, for sure. And so sometimes we're drawing on what they're already interested in. And sometimes we need to give them an experience where they realize, hey, I can have fun. Or like the guy who was all grumpy, all of a sudden he was like, hey, I love reading jokes.
00:20:03
Speaker
And it feels good to laugh. And so there's a lot of discovery of like what mood feels good and that they can actually get into that mood. Right. Exactly. Another really fun thing I find to do is to get people to remember like maybe a movie they really love. Oh, where a TV show they really love. And when they tell you about it or what they love about it, they get in the mood they're in when they're watching it.
00:20:30
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, that's good. That's good. Yeah, and also just the art of modeling or the importance of modeling people that already have that skill is playful in itself, you know? And I remember, I don't know if I told you this, I had a woman who I worked with years ago, and she always reminded me of someone that I couldn't put my finger on.
00:20:58
Speaker
And she was actually a school nurse, and she sat and stood so erect, and she was slender, and she had these different mannerisms. And even her voice was distinct.
00:21:16
Speaker
And then I watched a movie, it was desk set with Katherine Hepburn. And I went back the next Monday and I said, you know, Pat, you remind me of Katherine Hepburn. And she goes, she's my hero or something like that. And she had the mannerisms of voice. And, you know, it's funny how we model even
00:21:39
Speaker
Subconsciously, but how modeling people that already have a skill. Helps a lot in moving in the direction of your dreams because you start doing things that you wouldn't do normally you're getting yourself out of your regular patterns.
00:21:58
Speaker
I think there's so many great ideas here.
Embracing Curiosity and Fun
00:22:01
Speaker
So whether you're brand new to hypnosis and you want to change yourself, start with getting into your really fun, curious mood. And that will help you learn whatever you want to learn next.
00:22:14
Speaker
And just that is hypnotic. And if you are a hypnotist, there's some great ideas here for you. And if you want to learn more about how hypnosis training can help you, go to hypnosistrainingcanada.com. We have lots of free resources there, and you can also set up a time for a free consultation to see if this training is a good fit for you. So thanks so much, Marge. Yeah, it was fun talking with you, Robbie.
00:22:39
Speaker
We are now bringing you a new podcast every two weeks. Next time we are welcoming a mystery guest. Join us to learn more about how hypnosis can help you make your life better.
00:22:49
Speaker
Remember to click the buttons to subscribe, share the podcast with a friend, and we would love for you to leave us a review so you can help others benefit from the podcast too. Until next time. You've been listening to The Hypnosis Show with Robbie Spear Miller. Tune in next time to learn more about how you can change your life with hypnosis. And if you are interested in learning more about training opportunities, go to hypnosistrainingcanada.com and schedule a free consultation.