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ASSEN ALLADIN AND ALISHA ALIBHAI
the patient could relax), (b) somatosensory changes (to reinforce the
idea that the patient could experience different feelings and sensa-
tions), (c) demonstration of the power of the mind (via induction of eye
and body catalepsy), and (d) increasing the patient’s confidence in self-
hypnosis.
Ego-strengthening.
While in “trance,” the patients were offered a
modified version of Hartland’s (1971) ego-strengthening suggestions.
To ensure credibility and acceptance, the ego-strengthening sugges-
tions were crafted to sound logical to the patients, and they were
offered after the induction of positive feeling. For example, rather than
stating, “every day you will feel better,” it was suggested, “as a result
of this treatment and as a result of you listening to your tape every
day, you will begin to feel better” (see Alladin, 2006a).
Expansion of awareness.
Brown and Fromm’s (1990) procedure of
“Enhancing Positive Affective Experience” was utilized to expand
awareness and to amplify experiences of well-being. This procedure
expands and intensifies positive feelings by (a) bringing underlying
emotions into awareness, (b) creating awareness of various feelings, (c)
intensifying positive affect, (d) enhancing “discovered” affect, (e)
inducing positive moods, and (f) increasing motivation.
Positive mood induction.
Alladin (2006a) and Schwartz (1984) have
argued that if depressive pathways can be developed through con-
scious negative focusing, then it would be possible to develop antide-
pressive or happy pathways by focusing on positive imagery. To
achieve this, the patient was taught the Positive Mood Induction Tech-
nique, which involved making a list of 10 to 15 pleasant life experi-
ences, and to “practice holding each experience in your mind for about
30 seconds.” The patient was encouraged to practice with the list four
or five times a day and to get into the habit of switching off from rumi-
native negative thoughts or experience and to “replace them with one
of the pleasant items from your list.” This procedure provided a tech-
nique for weakening depressive pathways and strengthening “happy
pathways.” In other words, the patients learned to substitute negative
cognitions (negative self-hypnosis, NSH) through positive self-hypnosis.
Yapko (1992) has argued that since depressives utilize NSH to create
the experience of depressive reality, they can equally learn to use posi-
tive self-hypnosis to create experience of antidepressive reality.
Posthypnotic suggestions.
Before terminating the hypnotic session,
the patient was offered several posthypnotic suggestions. Depressives
tend to constantly focus on NSH, especially after a negative affective
experience (e.g., “I will not be able to cope”). Such posthypnotic sug-
gestions can become part of the depressive cycle and reengage the
depressive activities. To break the depressive cycle, it is very important
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