Question:

Can untrained people use hypnosis on others?

Answer:

Possibly, it all comes down to how you define ‘untrained’ Obviously somebody that doesn’t know anything at all about hypnosis is not going to be very successful, so I’ll take it to mean ‘formally trained’.

Yes. As long as you have learnt an induction, and have a vague idea of what to do, you can put somebody into hypnosis. Most beginners use the progressive relaxation induction (often referred to by professionals as the boredom induction), it’s much slower than other methods, but very easy to do. Just follow the script and you’re done. For stuff like relaxation and the like this is fine. I would advise you to keep well away from hypnotherapy without specific training though, or you may quickly find yourself out of your depth. Like anything though, the more training you have, the better you will be at it, and practice is essential too. With training, you will also move away from reading scripts at the hypnotee and working with them, which will greatly increase their responsiveness to the induction. Even in casual hypnosis, it’s essential to respect boundaries and always have the participant’s consent, especially if they’re unfamiliar with hypnosis.

So yes, for basic stuff, those without formal training can indeed put people into hypnosis.

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