Dave Elman was an entertainer and radio broadcaster before becoming fully involved with Hypnosis. As a small boy he was deeply impressed when a visiting stage hypnotist helped his terminally ill father achieve sufficient pain relief to permit Dave to visit and play with him.This might also explain why even today Elman’s pain management techniques are widely taught.
Dave Elman helped the upswing in the medical community by the middle of the 20th century by teaching hypnosis to many in the medical profession. He perfected a more direct approach to hypnotize his clients. In later years he chiefly taught hypnosis to medical doctors and dentists for pain relief and removal of conditions with an emotional component such as allergies, stuttering and obesity.
Even by today’s standards his book Hypnotherapy (1964) (first published as Findings in Hypnosis) is a remarkable piece of work. Elman was a remarkable hypnotist, due to his great observations and experiments with hypnosis. I highly recommend his book for Hypnotists of all levels.
Elman has a strong following and several schools have opened up that specialize in the Elman techniques. I personally consider Elman more of a authoritarian hypnotist which would also explain his success in teaching the medical field this approach.We naturally think of doctors as an authority so we do not normally question their knowledge. If they say relax you relax and if they say you can not do something then chances are you will accept their suggestions more readily because of their position.
In reading Hypnotherapy by Elman you will find that in the book he says how he realizes it is not the ability to have a client go into trance that leads a client to success but the belief that the client possesses. Just like Benjamin Franklin stated before when presenting his summary of Mesmer. I have no doubt in another 100 years they will be saying the same thing again.
My personal opinion of Elman’s techniques are that they limit how successful a hypnotist can be with a client. That is why I recommend that Hypnotherapists should learn as many techniques and ways of working with clients as they can.
