As research in the domain of hypnosis has already suggested, what makes an induction effective is the client believing it is effective. That is why the number of different types of inductions is virtually unlimited, and they all have the potential to work well with someone. In the same way a food awareness exercise can be understood from a

there are many right ways to do therapy.

permissive. One form involves the narrowing of attention to a specific stimulus (e.g., perhaps an idea or image) and another is expansive and parallels the mindfulness concept of an open awareness. Self-hypnosis is practiced as a solo exercise, and clinical hypnosis is typically structured as a guided experience. Hypnosis necessarily involves

Mindfulness meditations can take more than one form. Interestingly, psychologist Marsha Linehan, who has had a great impact on the field of psychotherapy by integrating mindfulness into her dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) model of treatment for borderline personality disorder, makes a distinction between what she calls “two versions of

the more skillfully an approach employed the power of suggestion, the better it performed.

it is not mindfulness that is therapeutic; rather, it is what happens during mindfulness that has potential therapeutic value. The new, helpful associations made during mindful experiences are what matter.

The purpose of hypnosis is to create a context in which the client can become absorbed and explore new awareness and new possibilities for transforming his or her experience, usually without judgment but always with a direction. Isn’t this immediately relevant to the effective use of mindfulness? In mindfulness, we strive to create a context in

asparagus spear, or a piece of saltwater taffy. Just focusing on the various sensations associated with keeping something edible in your mouth without simply chewing and swallowing it as quickly as usual will have a noticeable and probably therapeutic effect. Is it the increased sensory awareness that is therapeutic, or the interruption of a usual

The specific irony of mindfulness, though, is that it is an approach that largely emphasizes being, not doing. As proponents of mindfulness consistently advocate, mindfulness isn’t about doing something or striving to achieve something. Rather, it is about cultivating awareness through stillness, an openness to just being present without having to