Using “informal” hypnotherapy in career counselling : blending Savickas and Erickson to “free the angel”

Abstract

This article describes the concept “informal hypnotherapy” and the overlap between aspects of Ericksonian hypnotherapy and facets of the career construction interview. The participant was a purposefully selected white Afrikaans-speaking woman who had an Honours degree in Educational Psychology. A case study is discussed in which the three anecdotes technique was used to augment the career construction interviewing process during career construction counselling. The intervention incorporated postmodern career facilitation techniques to enhance the involvement of the participant in her career construction process and to facilitate co-constructive conversation. Following the intervention, the client revealed heightened self-awareness, was empowered to use her story to negotiate transitions and to serve as a holding environment whenever life imposed changes on her, and appeared ready to engage with the world more adaptively. The use of the career construction interview (in combination with the three anecdotes technique) together with the use of basic Ericksonian strategies presents psychologists with an innovative, exciting and non-intrusive way of administering informal hypnotherapy.