Hope & Resiliency: Understanding the Psychotherapeutic Strategies of Milton H. Erickson

Milton H. Erickson is known as the father of modern hypnosis as well as the source for many modern forms of family therapy and brief therapy (including the increasingly popular solution focused therapy). This seminal book examines the major core strategies that are woven throughout Milton H. Erickson's work. Each strategic principle is broken down into several techniques that share a common function. To help bring to life these clinical strategies, this book contains numerous clinical examples from Erickson (many of these never before published) and others. In addition, the overarching concepts have been paired with simple analogies, folk wisdom, and illustrations from other schools of psychotherapy. This framework not only helps the reader better understand the interventions and strategies employed by Erickson but more importantly points beyond the finite limits of Erickson's achievements to an ever expanding tradition of exploratory and innovative work by which he was characterized. Because flexibility is an important hallmark of Erickson's approach to healing, it is clinical understanding rather than rigid rules that must drive the decision-making process. The idea that several different techniques can serve the same function, and the belief that every intervention should be carried out with careful intention comes directly from the teaching of Milton Erickson. In reading Part I, Foundations of Healing and Health, the reader will be able to recognize fundamental dynamics of healing and of the clinical relationship. Part II, Clinical Strategies, provides a description of each strategy.These are introduced in a broad and simplistic manner, followed by a more elaborate and complex examination of the clinical techniques derived from a given strategy. Erickson understood how to provide hope to those who no longer felt they could help themselves. He fostered resiliency in his patients through the strategic activation of latent abilities. He believed that all people have within them the answer to whatever challenges they face. Building on a framework of small successes, he reinforced resiliency within the individual by engaging immediate successes that reach into the future. Milton H. Erickson will continue to be remembered for his determination, patient perseverance, humanity, and unending love of learning. From these he benefited personally while at the same time creating a broader spectrum for the field of psychotherapy and benefiting people around the world, decades after his death. This book will help others follow in his footsteps.