Biography of Milton Erickson

Dr. Milton Erickson was arguably the most significant hypnotherapist of the last century. Stricken with severe illness early in life, he learned to hypnotize himself to manage his pain. Throughout his life, he hypnotized thousands of people and achieved remarkable results.

Milton H. Erickson (1901–1980) is considered the most influential hypnotist of the 20th century. He used language in an artfully vague way, allowing clients to attach the meanings most appropriate to them. He induced trance states and made them therapeutically useful, enabling people to overcome problems and access their inner resources. His revolutionary views on effective communication marked a milestone in the development of psychotherapy and heavily influenced NLP. Many core NLP presuppositions are derived from his work. He also inspired the short-term therapy strategies later developed at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto. His life and therapeutic style were deeply intertwined.

In 1919, after finishing high school, Erickson contracted polio. He fell into a coma and initially seemed unlikely to survive. After three days of complete unconsciousness, he awoke, having survived the infection—but he was completely paralyzed and had lost all bodily sensation. He could still see and hear but could barely move his eyes and spoke only with great difficulty. Doctors predicted he would remain an invalid for the rest of his life. Having endless time on his hands, he began to train his remaining senses, focusing on the smallest possible nuances.

During his second year of college, Erickson was introduced to hypnosis and immediately began to hypnotize volunteers. Fascinated by its potential, he hypnotized everyone he could. He experimented with many techniques to influence human behavior. He began presenting his findings to physicians and professors and conducted laboratory experiments. While Clark Hull focused on standardized techniques, Erickson preferred individualized methods that enabled a good therapeutic relationship in each unique case. He demonstrated extraordinary willpower and intellectual courage.

Through various research projects, he became the lead psychiatrist at the Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts. At that time, hypnosis was frowned upon and even banned, yet Erickson continued to conduct intensive research within his department. He later changed positions and worked with thousands of patients.

After a serious accident in 1947, the next fifteen months were marked by severe joint and muscle pain as well as frequent collapses. He also developed a serious pollen allergy and had to be hospitalized several times. Eventually, the allergy forced him to move to a different climate—Phoenix, Arizona—where he opened a private practice.

In 1953, Erickson fell seriously ill again. At a friend’s suggestion, he went to Maryland to undergo extensive tests at Johns Hopkins Hospital. It took months before a neurologist correctly diagnosed him with polio once again—an extraordinarily rare recurrence. For the rest of his life, Erickson suffered from recurring relapses and increasing muscle loss.

In 1957, he founded the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis and became its first president. He also established and personally edited *The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis* for ten years.

In 1969—at age 68—Erickson stopped his extensive travels for health reasons. Five years later, he had to give up working with patients in private practice. By then, thanks to Jay Haley’s publications, Erickson’s approach to psychotherapy had become widely known, attracting students and practitioners from around the world. In the 1970s, he taught entire groups of students at his home, with seminars booked a year in advance. It was during these courses that Richard Bandler, John Grinder, and other NLP founders received their training in hypnotherapy.

Toward the end of his life, Erickson had become a frail old man. The recurring muscle atrophies and paralysis had advanced so far that he could barely speak, read, or write. Since 1976, he had been completely confined to a wheelchair. Each new illness led to further loss of physical function and increased pain. The cramps were sometimes so violent that muscles literally tore.

Despite his condition, Erickson co-authored five books and published over 130 papers, earning him the nickname *“Mr. Hypnosis.”* He estimated that he had hypnotized more than 30,000 people in his lifetime. Interestingly, no one ever managed to hypnotize him—though he was a master of self-hypnosis. In his later years, he spent many hours daily using it to manage his intense pain. Considering the magnitude of physical suffering he endured throughout his life, his perseverance in becoming one of the most influential clinicians of the 20th century is truly extraordinary.

Milton Erickson died on March 25, 1980.

Erickson’s Goals

Key objectives of Erickson’s hypnotic style:

• Meeting the patient at their level:
  The therapist always adjusts to the client’s verbal and non-verbal level of thinking and behavior. Erickson explained concepts to engineers through technical examples, and to gardeners through plants. This allowed him to meet clients where they were and build deep rapport. He fully entered the client’s model of the world rather than acting as a detached observer. Erickson believed he was personally responsible for therapeutic outcomes—if change didn’t occur, he considered it his own failure, not the client’s.
• Adopting the patient’s system:
  By deeply entering the client’s world, the therapist becomes part of their thinking and imagination system. This makes it possible to introduce unexpected actions, create mild confusion, and loosen rigid attitudes—laying the foundation for behavioral change.
• Utilization:
  The entire situation is structured so that arising changes can be used in ways consistent with the client’s wishes and intentions. Even the client’s belief systems, values, and resistance are incorporated and utilized.
• Protection:
  “A fundamental element of any therapy is to protect the patient and provide a sense of safety within the treatment.” (Kossak, 1989, p. 132)