Milton Erickson is best known for his principles of utilization and pacing & leading. Utilizing refers to the therapist’s task of “utilizing” whatever the patient brings him/her. His belief was that a person gives us the tools we need to help them, if we can watch closely enough for them. He/she carries with them a reservoir of unique, personal strengths. He preferred to focus on those strengths instead of the pathologies. He thought that looking at problems was a sure way to stay in them.

Pacing & Leading is simple  and is best explained by an example: Erickson had been presented with a man who could not stop pacing, literally walking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth in front of Dr. Erickson as he sat in his consultation room. He paced in front of his own chair, he paced in back of it, he paced to the door, he paced to the walls. Once again, Erickson tried a few different approaches, which, as the patient’s history affirmed, failed. Then one day, he paces with the patient.  He walks at the patient’s speed and, over the course of time, starts to slow down, until one day, they’re talking and standing instead of pacing. Finally, the patient sits. 

Ericksonian Psychotherapy and Hypnotherapy is a school of thought, an approach to psychotherapy and hypnosis that is based on these and other principles. He used hypnosis as a tool, probably more effectively than anyone before or since, but it was not his only tool. He was first and foremost a psychotherapist, although, as anyone who is familiar with his work will tell you, he was by no means an ordinary one.

Here’s one of the most illuminating case histories:
A young, very depressed woman went to Erickson for help. She was ashamed and upset about being so ugly and unattractive. She had a small gap in her front teeth that she thought was a disfigurement and she despaired of ever marrying or having children. She was planning to suicide, but decided to give Erickson a crack at it first.