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
LISTEN HERE
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.
Behind the One-way Mirror 
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