A caveat

Dr. Flint wrote a caveat to his first book on the Process Healing Method which you can find below.
You can also read the original post on the Way Back Machine here

N.B. There can be some confusion over the terms ‘hypnotic’ or ‘hypnosis’ in the following caveat.

In the link below, Dr. Flint describes his course on the PHM as ‘hypnosis-like’. However it is important to note that this does not correlate to heightened suggestibility or losing consciousness in any way.

In the article below, these descriptive terms ‘hypnotic’ and ‘hypnosis’ are used in the context of how the method uses finger responses – a tool for communication with Parts, which Dr. Flint gleaned from hypnosis literature, (not to be confused with ‘Muscle Testing’ which is slightly different).

It is false to think of the PHM as hypnosis itself. But it is true to say that the method developed from Dr. Flint’s prior knowledge and usage of tools taken from hypnosis.

In practice, the patient/client is not required to undergo actual hypnosis. There is no need to induce a trance state. The therapist does not count back from 10 or swing a watch etc.

As stated in PHM Book 1 (Flint 2011), Chapter 3 section 8, “The subconscious will learn how to treat using an internal treatment process. No hypnosis, trance, or any other indirect means is necessary. I want you to be alert and aware of what you are reading. Read it with curiosity.”

Furthermore, on his Process-Healing.com website, he writes the following, whilst also providing a link to further info on hypnosis:

“This is not a hypnotic healing technique. With hypnosis, the use of metaphors in healing is not precise and direct suggestions can cause conflicts, both of which undermine the effectiveness of hypnosis.”

This is a new approach to therapy
– a new treatment method

This book is written as a self-help book for the general public and may seem unusual to the reader. Readers will understand that it describes a treatment strategy that is different from the usual treatments of dissociative disorders and other psychopathologies. It is a conscious, hypnotic treatment process learned by some people by simply reading the first three chapters of the book offered on my website. It can be that simple.

Here is a caveat. The theory and treatment of the personality presented in this book will challenge all your beliefs and understandings about diagnosis and the use of diagnosis in treatment, not to mention your understanding of how the personality develops and works. It is basically a simple learning theory model of the development of the personality based on the amassing of memory structures that are created with each response. It uses no hard science, neuropsychological, or psychoanalytic concepts as usually understood. The subconscious is defined as independent from the conscious and unconscious (active memories), and, therefore has no distortion of his or her perception of history.

Flint believes that all symptoms are caused by memory structures. Treatment of the memory structure of any symptom, whether a belief or trauma memory, is the common goal of all interventions. The therapist focuses on the constellation of symptoms that are shown by the patient and treats them one after the other. This may continue over sessions.

The theory and treatment strategies work for most patients, but all patients are unique, which may require problem-solving to treat unique symptom structures. The patient’s subconscious serves as a treatment agent and as an ally to help with problem-solving difficult symptoms. Finger responses described in hypnosis literature are used to communicate with the patient’s parts, memories, and subconscious. For convenience, Flint treats all symptoms as “parts.”

The important features of this therapeutic approach for the patient is that the treatment of trauma is painless and old traumas do not have to be remembered or experienced to be treated; it is respectful to all parts of the patient, thereby gaining cooperation and the desire for treatment with all active parts in the first session; the constructs used when describing the development of the personality are used later in treatment to provide the patient with a coherent understanding of the entire treatment process. The subconscious can independently treat issues between sessions.