Therapist's Office

This is a location that is referred to frequently in the book as the background environment of events. Erickson's office is never described in great detail. Readers are informed that it has two chairs on the patient side of the desk. There is a desk and a chair that are his; the desk has drawers which are referred to in at least one case. He refers to the door of his office in at least one excerpt, as a patient is intentionally seated near the door. In other cases, when Erickson intentionally lured in a patient, two chairs are used on the client side of the desk so he can hypnotize one actively and subtly influence the other at the same time.

Many of the case studies contained in the book include information about events that take place outside the therapist's office. At the same time...