Ilze's Reviews > My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson

Dorian read out one of Erickson's tales at a workshop last year. It was about a woman who contacted Erickson and said she wanted to have him as therapist, but wouldn't come for therapy. Instead, she would drive up his drive and sit in her car working through her neuroses. The tale fascinated me - is something like this really possible? Perhaps if you hold onto the title of the book: "And my voice will go with you wherever you are". If this is true, then breaking off contact with someone you really care for is not so bad - especially if you needed that person in your life for guidance.
There were a few things which made me wish I understood more about psychology (or was a psychologist) so that I could make sense of the tales. Erickson was an observant man - to the nth degree! This, in addition to his positive attitude, which really wanted the best for anyone he came into contact with, makes the tales a worthwhile read. You get the feeling that any cul de sac in your life can be helped (how wonderful it would've been to meet this man!). For although he taught his techniques, I doubt if any psychologist out there can apply his therapies the way he did. How did he know that one person needed 'such and such' an approach, whereas another needed 'such'nsuch' an approach? The tales are a teaching in and of themselves and make you think of your own behaviour ... would I really be able to get out of this depression with these words alone? and then try them out.
But question one is, what exactly is the difference between a "trance state" and "hypnosis"? If you read the introductory pages, you'd think that anyone - from Dr Dorian Haarhoff, to a pastor at church, to a professor at 'varsity, can put his hearers into a "trance" and change the unconscious. So why was it necessary for Erickson to put some of his patients "into a trance" and others he "hypnotised"? Since Dorian was the one who introduced me to Milton Erickson (upto that date I'd only ever heard of Erick Erickson), perhaps he was applying these techniques during the workshop mentioned earlier. Because I can tell you that I experienced the workshop as "wonderful", but what exactly was done to make it so remains a mystery to me! Dorian linked "My voice will go with you" (that including the voice of Dorian) with the following poem (allowing me to feel less lost):

Lost

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.


©David Wagoner