Milton H. Erickson
SchoolEricksonian Hypnotherapy
Lived1901 – 1980
FromUnited States
Ericksonian Hypnotherapy

Milton H. Erickson

The father of modern clinical hypnotherapy.

A psychiatrist who reinvented therapeutic hypnosis — working with whatever a patient brings, using indirect suggestion and story to open the door to change.

My voice will go with you, and change into the voices of your parents, your teachers, your friends.
— Milton H. Erickson

Who they were

Milton H. Erickson was an American psychiatrist widely regarded as the father of modern clinical hypnotherapy and a seed influence on brief and strategic therapy. Rather than issuing direct commands, he met each patient where they were — "utilizing" their own behavior, beliefs and even resistance — and worked through indirect suggestion, therapeutic trance and teaching tales. His case-based, intuitive style was popularized by Jay Haley and inspired the strategic and solution-focused traditions, though it rests on clinical observation more than controlled trials.

Famous books

What they left on the shelf

Their big idea

Ericksonian Hypnosis

Change comes by working with the unconscious — utilizing the patient’s own world through indirect suggestion and trance.

The approach they founded

Ericksonian Hypnotherapy

Uses focused trance, indirect suggestion and story — meeting you exactly where you are to open new options.

Questions in their spirit

What they’d ask you

Sit with one. Answer online, or in the app.

All questions

Carry the idea forward

Erickson — What they’d ask you

Psipas asks you one small, honest question at a time — and builds the picture from your answers.