Parts Therapy

WHAT IS Parts Therapy?
     Let me quote the actual words of the late Charles Tebbetts, taken from his text that is currently out of print, Miracles on Demand (2nd edition, page 31):

“In 1952, Federn described Freud’s ego states, id, ego and superego, as resembling separate personalities much like the multiple personalities illustrated in the celebrated case of The Three Faces of Eve, but differing in that no one of them exists without the awareness of the others. I find, however, that in many cases different parts take complete control while the total individual is in a trance state of which she is unaware. A bulimic will experience time distortion while bingeing, eating for over an hour and believing that only five minutes have elapsed... Both personalities know that the other exists, but the first is unaware of the other’s existence during the period of the deviant behavior.”

VARIATIONS of Parts Therapy
     Charles Tebbetts was not alone in his beliefs. Others, recognized and respected by many in my profession, have acknowledged the fact that we all have various personality parts. John Bradshaw considers them to be developmental stages that remain intact, as evidenced on page 217 of his book, The Family: A Revolutionary Way of Self-Discovery. Mr. Bradshaw facilitates a group exercise where he has a person close his/her eyes while others in the room give positive affirmations with gentle music playing in the background. Does this sound like hypnosis? It is! Nancy J. Napier, a nationally known marriage and family therapist, also works with a variation of parts therapy. Her book, Recreating Your SELF: Help for Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families, actually gives examples of the origins of various personality parts. She calls them “protector” parts and “resource” parts, and actually provides some self-hypnosis scripts for identifying, cleansing and healing our various parts. She has researched through extensive written resources to back up her work, including Unity and Multiplicity (John Beahrs) and The Theory and Practice of Ego State Therapy (Watkins and Watkins). There are other variations of parts therapy being used, such as voice dialogue.

WHEN to Use Parts Therapy
     A client experiencing an internal conflict is an excellent candidate, as might be evidenced by one who says, “A part of me wants to get rid of this weight while another part wants to keep on eating!” The personality part desiring to reduce is in conflict with another part wanting to overeat. This might be the result of one or more of several common causes: overwork, unresolved personal or family problems, past programming, unresolved past experience, secondary gain (such as protection from opposite sex), authority imprint, self-punishment, etc. Sometimes parts therapy is indicated after using ideomotor responses to questions to the subconscious about the cause(s) of a problem, especially if the responses indicate a “yes” for self-punishment, secondary gain and/or internal conflict.
     I very rarely use parts therapy during a client’s first visit, as I believe the first hypnotic encounter should be totally pleasant. Once rapport is enhanced through one or two more enjoyable sessions, then I’ll consider parts therapy for a client experiencing inner conflict with overcoming a problem. The exceptions to this are Hypnotherapists, or clients who have enjoyed previous success with hypnotherapy.
     Charles Tebbetts sometimes used parts therapy to uncover causes of problems, as it was his favorite technique. In so doing, however, he frequently found clients unresponsive initially until after other techniques were employed. There is no right or wrong here, only a matter of choice. Normally a client experiencing internal conflict is far more apt to respond to parts therapy than one who is suffering from an imprint or the hurt of a past experience.

WHY Is Parts Therapy Valuable?
     Appropriate use of parts therapy can help conflicting parts to achieve resolution. The process is much like conflict resolution, except that the client is role playing his/her various parts with the therapist remaining objective in order to facilitate inner dialogue. This process must be handled appropriately, as it is extremely important that such dialogue between the parts be client-centered rather than therapist-centered. Remember if you go looking for something, the subconscious is fully capable of making up a story to satisfy the therapist. (Example: please note that excessive weight does NOT normally indicate past sexual abuse!)
     Competent, client-centered parts therapy can help achieve three important hypnotherapy goals: (1) discovering causes of problems, (2) facilitating release, and (3) subconscious relearning.

WHAT Are the Benefits?
     Clients often learn things about themselves that they previously did not know consciously, as in the following examples:
Linda, a smoker, failed to respond to my usual benefits approach. One part of her wanted to live long and prosper, while another part felt compelled to make a statement of rebellion against a society which is manipulating her into quitting. She decided that it was time for her to make her own decisions instead of being ruled by other people’s prejudice against smokers.
Ron, an overweight client who was self-employed, had an inner child that felt he was working too hard, so excess junk food was his only pleasure. Ron’s inner child refused to give up evening snacks until Ron agreed to balance his life. Taking more time for personal fun and recreation was the solution.
     Randy was a Hypnotherapist who felt unworthy to be in this profession. His perfectionist part felt nothing was good enough unless it was done perfectly. He had to learn to forgive himself for not being perfect. This part learned to be professional instead of perfect, and that his best on one day might be better than his best on another day.
One of the most profound examples of a success is a former epileptic whom I know personally. He experienced two sessions with Charles Tebbetts in the late 1980’s. This person overcame both drinking and epilepsy. So dramatic are the results that I’ve devoted an entire chapter to his story in The Art of Hypnotherapy.

WHAT Are the Risks?
     The biggest risk with parts therapy is in using the technique without a thorough understanding of the steps, especially if you are trying to validate a preconceived opinion. For example, if you are trying to look for a “UFO abduction” or an “entity” then you may find such even if it is a fabrication of the subconscious.
     It is human nature to blame someone else for all of our problems rather than taking responsibility for our own actions. It’s all too easy for the subconscious to fantasize (or attract) a real or imagined entity because of the desire to say, “The devil made me do it!” While this article is not intended to discuss whether or not entities are real, it is my strong professional opinion that we must facilitate trance work in a client-centered manner. Let the client’s inner mind tell you that a part is an entity, not vice versa; and then you can deal with it appropriately. To do otherwise can hurt the client emotionally, as I have personally witnessed in three different cases. I’ll briefly discuss one such case:
     A hypnotherapy student went to a Ph.D., who used parts therapy to try to help her with a problem. He called out a “part” which had come into existence to protect her from men who abused their authority. When this “part” talked back to the Ph.D., he unwisely assumed that it was an “entity” and tried to destroy the part. How do you think that Ph.D. was now perceived? I was unable to persuade the woman to even allow me to hypnotize her, because her experience had caused her to mistrust all male therapists.
     In another case, a personal friend of mine volunteered for a session in front of her peers at a hypnosis convention, unaware of the fact that the facilitator was going on an entity hunt. The facilitator discharged two alleged entities. (…Or were they parts instead?) She carried a sense of shame for several weeks. The experience had a negative impact on her self-esteem and income, adding insult to injury, and it took over six months for her to recover from the so-called therapy. It can be very detrimental to a client if you mistakenly assume that a constructive part is an entity.
     Here are some other examples of problems created by improper use of the technique:
     A professional woman who became my client told me that she got angry at another Hypnotherapist for “trying to dominate” the session, so she failed to keep her next appointment and never told him why. If you have a need to dominate the parts, avoid the use of parts therapy.
     One of my own students in training criticized an uncooperative part during class, and got into a shouting match with the student who was in hypnosis. The part that was criticized during trance told the student-therapist to go take a hike. No real damage was done, but another session was necessary to regain rapport.
     Once when I personally experienced parts therapy for a personal issue, the therapist got sidetracked into a regression and awakened me without properly integrating my own parts. After several hours of strange emotions, I realized what she failed to do, and used self-hypnosis to integrate. Even if I had not known what to do, I don’t believe any permanent damage would have resulted; but most likely I might have experienced several days of strange thoughts before my mind integrated on its own. It turned out that the therapist had not received actual training in parts therapy; she was self-taught.
     So does this mean you should avoid a valuable technique? My message is simple: Get Trained! Some techniques are better avoided unless facilitated properly, and parts therapy is definitely one of them. Even if you are a hypnotism instructor, do not attempt to teach this technique to other Hypnotherapists or counselors until you have personally used it with clients for at least a year or two! Students frequently ask teachers questions that can only be adequately answered from the experience of having facilitated many such therapies themselves.

The Importance of TRAINING
     It is extremely important that you become totally familiar with parts therapy before attempting the technique. It has been said millions of times that fools rush in where wise men fear to tread; and the same can be said for anyone foolish enough to attempt parts therapy without knowing and using all of the vital steps! I’ve written them in detail in Chapter 8 of The Art of Hypnotherapy, available from the Hypnosis and Holistic Living Store at Infinity Institute. “Hands-on” training will be available at the IMDHA 1998 Conference, November 6-8.