Product Description
Detailing the life and work of a major innovator and leader of contemporary therapeutic hypnosis, this biography of Milton H. Erickson highlights the work that endures through the practice of thousands of Ericksonian psychologists and the transformative treatment of thousands of patients. Placing Erickson in the larger circle of shamanistic healers and practitioners of alternative medicine worldwide, this account by his children and colleagues provides a vivid portrait of his teaching, reputation as the archetypal "good father," interactions with other psychologists, and unique accomplishments as a healer. The volume contains biographical essays by his daughter, a well-known therapist, and his other children, appreciations by colleagues, a dialogue with Aldous Huxley, and a never-before-seen film of a therapy demonstration on the accompanying DVD.
From Booklist
A creative genius at his profession often has a tattered personal life. Likewise, a great man is supposedly never a hero to his family. Erickson, the "father" of medical hypnosis, seems to have been an exception to both rules. In this warmly affectionate tribute by family and friends, he stands out as a man who used his own experience as the conscious inspiration for many of his professional coups. For example, shortly after being stricken with polio as a teenager, he undertook a two-month-long recuperative canoe trip. His journal of the trip reveals a person who believed that healing comes from within. This person would later become founding president of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and set trends in tapping the curative power of the mind. Chockablock with Erickson's humor, personal notes, and family photographs, as well as a transcript of a clinical consultation, this book is more memoir-cum-scrapbook than biography, which the unconventional psychotherapist well might have relished. Donna Chavez
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Review
"A welcome bulwark against the slide into dogmatism or formula that attends so many approaches to psychotherapy." —Mary Catherine Bateson, author, Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery
"A perfect book for therapists, doctors, teachers, and parents, showing them how to see deeply and find words to heal." —Thomas Moore, author, Care of the Soul and Dark Nights of the Soul
"Readers will find themselves reconsidering the nature of healing, the psychotherapeutic endeavor, and even their approach to living life." —Yvonne Dolan, author, Resolving Sexual Abuse and One Small Step
"Salutes the creativity and spirit of this healer, who reminded many of the shamans...of past eras." —Spirituality & Health
"An extraordinarily rich book." —Anthony Robbins, author, Unlimited Power
"One of the most exquisite collections of pictures and prose in print." —Body & Soul
"Some revealing vistas that provide a sense of who Erickson was and how he lived out relationships instead of expectations." —PsychCRITIQUES
About the Author
Betty Alice Erickson, MS, is a licensed professional counselor, a marriage and family therapist in private practice, and an international teacher of Ericksonian psychotherapy and hypnosis. Bradford Keeney, PhD, is the former director of several family therapy doctoral programs. He is the author of Aesthetics of Change, Improvisational Therapy, and Mind in Therapy, and the editor of the Profiles of Healing series.
