Gift wrapping: An element of Hypnotically Informed Psychotherapy.

Abstract

Crafting clinical interventions that are effective is of paramount importance in the therapeutic endeavor. How one conceptualizes people, intra and interpersonal factors, and the interplay between mind, body, and spirit, informs, and influences how one intervenes. In this journal paper, the concept of "gift wrapping" is employed to convey a way of conceptualizing aspects of the therapeutic encounter and the presentation of therapeutic interventions. It is rooted in Hypnotically Informed Psychotherapy (HIP) (Staffin, 2024a, in press). With HIP, the conscious mind is depotentiated, thus freeing up the unconscious mind. This movement from what Alldredge and Elkins (2023) refer to as the rational system to the experiential system is a central pillar of Hypnotically Informed Psychotherapy. HIP is an approach that relies on the associative manner in which the unconscious mind "thinks." It is a blending and integration of the microdynamics of induction outlined by Erickson etal. (1976), and the "Principles and core competencies of Ericksonian therapy" - Tailoring, Utilization, Strategic, Destabilization, Experiential, and Naturalistic - articulated by Short (2019). Gift wrapping is a naturalistic approach that relies on the core competencies of utilization and tailoring. As there are often engaging and enigmatic elements to the content that is gift wrapped, it further serves to fixate attention and depotentiate conscious sets. Gift wrapping is just one of many ways that this transition from the rational system to the experiential system can be fostered. The intent is to provide fertile ground upon which the seeds of interventions can be sown.