Description

Ryan and I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Douglas Flemons. A wonderful therapist and a personal mentor we’ve been talking about hypnosis and change for some time now. A brief therapist in practice in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Douglas specializes in hypnosis, sex, and suicide.

In this episode we talk about:

• How his approach is a mix of Gregory Bateson’s theory of mind and Daoism
• Why he doesn’t let clients set the goals of therapy (sort of)
• Why Flemons doesn’t encourage clients to use hypnosis
• How he thinks about brief therapy
• The wisdom he took from Olga Silverstein, one of the lost gems of therapy
• Where he and Jack Kornfield agree, and where they disagree
• A case where he deals with a kid’s fear with art therapy, but not really
• Why he doesn’t believe in mentors
• And why he recommends Shunryū Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginners Mind 

Check out his book Of One Mind. It’s one of the books which changed my life so much I talk about it in my manifesto. If you want a brief summary of his brief approach I recommend his article “Making Symptoms Vanish.”

P.S. If you enjoyed this episode check out this blog post. I think you’d enjoy it.