To celebrate my Hypnotherapy in Practice diploma (NCH) I wanted to share with you one of my favourite stories. It beautifully describes how easily we can move beyond our limitations. How we can regain our potential, once we have a perspective on what is keeping us back.

Story of a Baby elephant and Potential

This is a story about elephants and their owners. If you look at an adult elephant; it can easily uproot huge trees with its trunk.
However when an baby elephant lives in captivity, it is tied to a tree with a strong rope or a chain every night. Because it is the nature of elephants to roam free, the baby elephant instinctively tries with all its might to break the rope. But it isn’t yet strong enough to do so. Realising its efforts are of no use, it finally gives up and stops struggling. The baby elephant tries and fails many times until it gives up, and will never try again for the rest of its life. 
Later, when the elephant is fully grown, it can be tied to a small tree with a thin rope. It could then easily free itself by uprooting the tree or breaking the rope. However its conditioning stops it breaking free not even making an attempt to break its chains. The powerful elephant has limited its present abilities by the limitations of the past.  

Human beings are exactly like the elephant except for one thing choice. We can CHOOSE not to accept the false boundaries and limitations created by the past… 

To break the bonds of past programming we sometimes need help to see our way out of it. This is because the negative mindset can be quite entrancing. This is where Solution Focused Hypnotherapy (SFHT) comes in to help.

The SFHT strategy focuses the client’s (your) awareness on their potential, away from the limiting effects of anxiety, depression and anger and their corresponding behaviours. For more information see Solution Focused Hypnotherapy.

In addition to the strategy employed by solution focused hypnotherapy the other benefit of the process is that you are working with a therapist. The therapists provides a dissociated perspective. Often we can not see for ourselves what is going on because we are lost in the effects of our thoughts, our memories and our reactions. The trained therapist is able to dissociate from what is going on for the client and so act as a dispassionate observer. In essence the therapist acts as a mirror for the client. The therapist also brings into the client therapist relationship strategies for effective change. These strategies are unknown to the client.

In addition the therapists holds a belief in the capability of the client and their ability to change. The therapists sees beyond the client’s limitations. This belief creates an environment of hope and positive expectation which translates to the client through mirroring and raises their willingness to enter into the therapeutic endeavour.

Additional Material: See Ted talk: “Activate your potential for Greatness: Fabienne Fredrickson”