the personal, teaching tales can transmit cultural, ethical and moral values. Thus, for the therapist himself, the tales can act as palatable and enjoyable sermons in which he is encouraged to be vigilant in his ethical and moral behavior. Moreover, to the extent that the hypnotherapist is himself a "patient" (which is to say that he has life conflicts and problems to handle), these tales can affect him in the same way they affect his clients; that is the tales can assist him to think in a manner that facilitates conflict and problem resolution.
On a professional level, teaching tales can assist the hypnotherapist with his practice because they provide a technique which increases the likelihood of successful patient outcome. Because people can easily become "entranced" (enter at least a light trance state) while listening to teaching tales, their unconscious becomes more open and accessible.
The hypnotherapist can thread his teaching tales with therapeutic suggestions which are then quickly absorbed into the patient's unconscious mind becoming part of his strategies for dealing with life. It is this factor which increases the efficacy of therapy.
3) Explain Erickson's term "unconscious learning."
Erickson, at least in part, viewed the unconscious mind as a repository of unutilized knowledge (learnings). These learnings were said to be unutilized because of the difficulties involved in accessing the unconscious mind.
As Erickson conceived of it, part of therapy (whether or not teaching tales were used as therapeutic input) was to attain the objective of accessing and utilizing the knowledge buried within the patient's own unconscious. This utilization, in turn, was said to facilitate more constructive and self-reinforcing behavior.
Erickson viewed the psychoemotional and behavioral changes occurring as a result of access to unconscious learning as permanent--and this for two reasons. The first reason was that ...