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My Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson

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I had read about Erickson as the pioneer of NLP, and his work in hypnosis and psychotherapy and was intrigued. This book is a great introduction to Erickson.

These stories are case studies, people with all sorts of problems, and very interesting solutions, and great stories.

This guy is a genius. From bedwetting to alcoholism, to repression, I was particularly inspired by a very short story about the Turmahara Indians, and how knowing and thinking about their special abilities can increase your energy levels. If it works for me, it might work for you.

There was one story about how he treated one woman who was sexually unresponsive, and through using his storytelling method caused her to have an orgasm in his office without touching her! Before reading this book I had not realised how easily influenced we can be by indirect suggestion, and how powerful his techniques are.

Essentially this is a book of anecdotes, with the author who is himself a psychiatrist giving an explanation of the methods and techniques being used by Erickson.

Apart from the therapeutic benefits, if you read this book you can really improve your communication and storytelling skills if you follow the principles used here, so I would recommend this book to aspiring story tellers.

Think of Erickson as someone who was a master of effecting life altering personal change by being able to communicate on a deeper level. Applied to yourself you can most likely imagine the effect you can have on yourself and others and how you can win friends and influence people by learning this skill.

For more case studies, check out Conversations with Milton H. Erickson Vol 1 by Jay Haley. You might find situations in there that relate to issues in your own life. In fact, use the look inside feature and check out the index. I found the chapter on public speaking and performance anxiety quite helpful. Also, check out the Patterns of... Erickson book by Richard Bandler, which gives a a complete analysis of Erickson's induction methods.

Hope you found this helpful.

Taken at face value this book consists of nothing more than a few anecdotes drawn from Milton Erickson's long and distinguished career as a hypnotherapist and teacher. Plus a commentary from Sidney Rosen, the editor and also an experienced and well-respected hypnotherapist in his own right.

But Milton Erickson is renowned for have developed to a fine art the use of "vague language" and "conversational hypnosis". Which is another way of saying that he was a master of the skill of using words to bring his clients to whatever realisations they needed in order to be able to help themselves.

Not surprisingly, then, Erickson used those same skills when it came to teaching other doctors, psychiatrists, etc. to use the skills he had so carefully developed.
So whilst these appear to be descriptions of stories that therapists might tell to their clients, they are actually effective 'as YOU read them'.
Thus every reader gets teaching and therapy all in one!

This is possibly one of the most seemingly innocent, yet magnificently powerful books I have ever come across.
So get a copy, and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

This book is formatted as case studies. Many individual cases personally handled by Dr. Erickson are included in this volume. The best way to appreciate the value and effectiveness of conversational hypnosis is to experience Dr. Erickson's case studies. Dr. Milton Erickson has been called by many "the father of modern hypnotic therapy" and "the world's greatest hypnotist". If you take the time to review some of his case studies, it becomes obvious as to why he was regarded so highly in his field of expertise. I began my studies of Dr. Erickson's work when I noticed him being quoted so often in both self-improvement books and sales books. Of the many books by Dr. Erickson I have read, this one is by far the best one I have read. In the genres of self-improvement and human influence, this is by far one of the best books available.

My first copy was borrowed and never returned. As a result, I went to re-order this book, and discovered that my original supplier had discontinued this book. I have spent nearly two years attempting in vain to find another copy, and today, I was finally successful. After checking with more than 10 different local and nation-wide bookstores, and checking more than 15 online bookstores, I have finally located my first copy here at Amazon.com.

Great Book, and Great Bookseller.

"If you going to tell yourself stories, you may as well make them good ones" is a sound piece of advice and "My voice will go with you" fills the bill nicely.

It's not hard to imagine some of these tales being included in popular anthologies of folk wisdom, yeah even unto Reader's Digest. Some might regard such a prospect with distaste, what with Erickson being so revered by many really smart people including writer Aldous Huxley. But it's actually an indication of his all-embracing humanity that so many of the tales make great points in ways that could easily please a very wide audience.

Sidney Rosen's commentaries uncover some of the principles underlying what Erickson was up to in these stories, thereby adding to the wealth of learning. His commentaries are mostly short and anyone wanting more extensive "under the hood" insights might care to check out Bandler & Grinder's "Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson".

"My voice will go with you" is an easy read, but no less worthwhile for that. A few stories run to several pages, many are just a page or so and some are even shorter. You can dip into it or zip through it in any direction with equal pleasure and edification.

Milton Erickson was not only the greatest hypnotist that ever lived, but was also the greatest therapist. He could hypnotize someone by simply telling a story, or shaking their hand. He could change a person's life with a single sentence. In the book there is the example of how he cured a man who was an alcoholic and came from a family of alcoholics by simply telling him to go to the botanical gardens and contemplate the cacti, which he said could live for three years without any water.

An event that had a significant impact on the development of his skills occurred when he was a teenager and became paralyzed for a time, unable to move anything except his eyes. During this time, in order to avoid extreme boredom, he studied the most minute details of the body language and speech patterns of the people around him. This led him to a deep understanding of how unconscious processes affect behavior, and how change almost always occurs at the unconscious or subconscious level.

The reader should take particular note of the anecdotes involving his own children, which indicate that like Erickson, they turned out to be remarkable individuals. Some of the anecdotes that involve how he dealt with his own children's behavior illustrate what a remarkable parent he was, and how being such a parent does in fact produce amazing children. For example, it is discussed in the book how it was only necessary to discipline one of his daughters three times in her life.

This book is required reading for any psychologist, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, hypnotist, parent, or anyone who has an interest in human behavior and the most effective way to institute change in such behavior.

My interest, and fascination, with Milton Erickson's approach to psychological issues came about as a result of reading, "Uncommon Therapy" by Jay Haley. The many examples of Erickson's unconventional approach were an intellectual treat to read, consider, and extrapolate upon. In attempting to follow this train of interest, I purchased "My Voice Will Go With You - The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson" edited with commentary by Sidney Rosen. Rosen's examples of Erickson's therapy are not as numerous nor as pointed. And, to further dilute the adventure, Rosen offers lenghty analysis, sometimes quite strained in my opinion, of Erickson's motives and or thought processes in arriving at solutions or providing advice to patients. Whereas I would wholeheartedly recommend "Uncommon Therapy" I cannot do the same for "My Voice Will Go With You." It is more a pendantic study suitable for, perhaps, psychology students with a goal of ferreting out every last detail of Erickson's practice. For those of us fascinated, intrigued, surprised, and entertained by Erickson's unique take on people and behavior, we will have to look elsewhere for a good follow up to "Uncommon Therapy."

This book, in addition to the "teaching tales," contains a short biography of Dr. Erickson, which any student of hypnosis would do well to read, because it helps you to understand how his approach was developed.

The anecdotes are marvelous, absolutely alive with possibility, and deliberately not overly expanded upon - they mean what you want them to mean. The book is useful for the student of hypnotherapy as well as the potential patient, or just a casual student of the mind.

My only caveat regarding this book is that if you are a therapist, you must try to *learn* from Erickson: you must not try to *be* Erickson. Repeating these stories by rote will not be as effective therapeutically as using the *concepts* they teach to form your own suggestion metaphors.

I read this book prior to attending a course on Erickson hypno-

psychotherapy. I finished the book after the course. The book, in my opinion, attempts to demonstrate Milton's skills by reciting the stories of his case studies. The stories are wonderfully told and after each story the writer interprets Milton's stories in terms of the problem he was faced with and the process he choose to use to help the person. I was fasinated

by the stories and felt myself wandering into Milton's world, at times I felt that I was sitting beside him watching the process taking place. I loved the book. I admired the simplicity of the writing, the non technical language used by Sidney and most of all I enjoyed the use of stories/metaphors to illustrate the teaching. This is a book anybody could read and enjoy. I believe that its appeal is at two levels, one to the expert allowing them

understand the processes Milton used, and the other for the curious who could become captivated by the stories and want to know more.

This is a great introduction to skill, resourcefulness and versatility of Erikcson and the possibilities of Ericksonian hypnosis.

The stories are fun to read and they may also inspire solutions to problems presented by your own clients, but do remember that the essence of Ericksonian hypnosis is "utlization" of client's background, predispositions and preferences, rather than pick a script or a technique and use it on everyone indiscriminately.

It is not only techniques which are thought through NLP and Ericksonian hypnosis today that distinguished Erickson, but his respect for uniqueness of individual and the problem he was facing. Erickson was also open to using absolutely anything that may work, no matter how outrageous it would appear. And he was infinitely creative in his approach as you'll find out from the stories in this book.

This is a nice book about how Dr. Erickson healed his patients. Very good to learn from his thought patterns. It is very useful for therapists and for interested individuals as well. I would recommend this book to parents especially, because most of the stories tell you about how to bring up a child, what are the most rewarding behaviours and how you could influence your child in a way that is permanent without abusing him or her.