09/16/2026
We see this at the Academy all the time. A student joins us from a school that taught hypnosis from scripts, and one of the first things they ask for is a script. One for confidence, or for whatever the client walks in with.
It makes sense, because that's how they were taught. But think about what happens in the room. A client sits down and says she's been "a bit down lately." Out comes the confidence script. The induction goes fine and she relaxes. And the suggestions slide right past her, because not one of those words was hers.
The fix happens before the hypnosis starts. It's a short interview, six example questions, with one rule running underneath all of them. Here's the order I run them in.
Say the person across from you tells you she can't get motivated to work out.
1. "What would you like to work on today?" With a paying client I'll often just say, "What are you in here for?" Keep it open and let them name it.
2. "Tell me more about that lack of motivation." Use whatever phrase they just gave you, word for word, and ask for more. Now you have the everyday version of the problem, in their language.
3. "How do you know that you need to work out?" It sounds like an odd question. Ask it anyway, because the answer tells you where the feeling lives: "I look in the mirror and I just feel upset."
4. "So that's what you don't want. What do you want instead?" Most people answer with another thing they don't want: "I just don't want to feel stuck anymore." Ask again, gently, until they say it in the positive. Take away what they don't want, and you have to give them something to move toward.
5. "And how do you want to feel?" Now you have their emotional words for where they're headed, and not just where they've been.
6. "How will you know when you have it? What will you see, hear, and feel?" Keep asking until the answer is something they could actually see, hear, or feel. "I'll just know" doesn't count yet.
Here's the rule underneath all six. Write down their exact words, and don't paraphrase or clean them up. If she says "a bit down lately," that's what goes on your page. You don't write "depressed." You write "a bit down lately," because those words resonate with her. She's the one who chose them.
Then, when you get to the hypnosis, you feed those words back to her. One exception: if she hands you something heavy, like "a nightmare" or "agony," turn it down to "that discomfort" when you give it back. Her mind still knows exactly what you mean.
The suggestions stop sounding like a script and start sounding like they were built for her. Which they were.
Your task before your next session: write these six questions on an index card, and keep a pen in your hand the whole time you ask them. In the hypnosis, use at least three of the phrases you wrote down, exactly the way they said them.
I put all six questions on one page, with what each one is listening for and how to hand the words back: The Mini-Session Intake Question Card. Want it? Drop WORDS in the comments below and I'll get it to you.
