How to Increase Clarity to Get Results

by Erika Flint, BA, BCH, A+CPHI

Imagine that there’s something you could do with every client in addition to hypnosis that is flexible, simple, and powerful enough to bring them real change week after week. Now imagine that this same thing could be used to increase client success, confidence, and the ability for your clients to become self-reliant.

Are you interested? Good! Because there is something just like that - and it’s likely something you’re already using and with a few tweaks can become even more powerful.

What I’m talking about is clarity of outcome and using the Benefits Form to bring massive repeatable results for you and your clients.

Clarity of outcome – or goals, allows our clients to know where they’re going and how they’re going to get there. By knowing where they’re going, they’re activating the part of their brain that is looking for success. When Our clients are achieving some level of success week after week they feel more confident in their ability to change, more confident in the process of hypnosis, and more confident in their ability to achieve anything they want in life.

Clear Goals → Measurable Success → Belief in Hypnosis and in You → Client’s Achieving Anything!

The Power of the Benefits Form

As 5-PATHers we have the Benefits Form. It asks the client to list the benefits of the change they want to make. It seems simple and straight forward doesn’t it? Yes, it is, and that’s why it’s so beautiful in its simplicity – but it’s so much more than that.

When I first started my hypnosis practice I took the benefits form at face value – whatever the client had listed down was what I helped the client to achieve. I do things much differently now.

The Benefits Form is Only a Starting Point to Understanding Your Client’s Goals

I want you to think of the Benefits Form as only the beginning of understanding what our clients really want - because clients don’t always know what they want from hypnosis. Often they’re in a place of desperation, and all they know is that they DON’T want something – to be too stressed, to be overweight, or to smoke anymore. So the first thing to realize is that the Benefits Form often requires modification and clarification.

Clarify Goals on the Benefits Form to Increase Results

Take the time to clarify goals with clients or their results will be fuzzy as well. This point can’t be stressed enough, if you don’t take the time to clarify the goals of your clients, you may do great work with them but they may not realize it because their goals weren’t clearly defined and success wasn’t recognized.

Make sure every benefit is written in the positive and there is a clear “win”. For example, if your client listed “I want to sleep better”, what does that mean? Clarify what sleeping better looks like - Is it falling asleep faster, sleeping for a certain duration every night, or the ability to fall back asleep if they wake up?

Clarifying Client Goals Makes Them More Achievable

One principle of the mind is that whatever we focus on grows, and with clearly defined goals, our clients now know exactly what success looks like and therefore they’re much more likely to achieve it. Vague or ambiguous goals are hard for our clients to achieve because they are simply not defined.

Clarifying Client Goals Makes Future Progression in Hypnosis Easier
When our clients have clearly defined goals, it makes doing Age Progression (into the probable future) with them in hypnosis easier. And guess what – if some goals were challenging to define outside of hypnosis, then use the hypnosis session to help clarify what those goals should be.

Revisit the Benefits Form Week After Week and Refine

Part of the pre-hypnosis interview should be checking in with clients to see how they’re doing. I revisit the benefits form and do a “check in” to see where we’re at with achieving the goals and to see if any need to be modified or refined.

Part of clarifying goals is to continue refining them until they’re exactly right. Don’t expect to get the exact right goals for your client in the first session, sometimes they change entirely or need modification as smaller wins are achieved during the hypnosis process.

Revisit the Benefits Form on the Last Session

One of my favorite things to do with clients is on the last session, go through the revised benefits form in the pre-hypnosis interview with them to ensure they’ve achieved everything listed on the form. This doesn’t mean they’re “done” with those items, but I do want to see some progress on each item. This is beneficial to your clients as they see true benefit from your work together, and now they know all their goals are achievable.

At the end of that last hypnosis session, I like to take clients on a journey in their minds during hypnosis and review where they started – how they felt when they first walked into my office or called me on the phone, to where they are now and use the Benefits Form and their weekly progress to highlight checkpoints along the way of their success. If you’ve used The Universal Patter Script with your clients, also known as the High Road / Low Road, you can easily have your clients travel along that path week after week highlighting their success.

By the end of that last session, I’m able to confidently ask my clients “Did you get everything you came in here for?” and get a resounding ‘Yes’, often followed by ‘and much more!’ which of course, I ask them to clarify.

When we help our clients clarify their goals, they will be more likely to achieve them and get everything and more out of the hypnosis work. This is great for them, and a wonderful feeling for you as you know you’ve done great work with them and are likely to get referrals from that client.