Most of us have probably had a session where, at the end, the client tells you they don’t feel any different or that nothing has changed. Then, a week later, they tell you all about how things are starting to shift. That is latent learning, which shows that not all change is immediately obvious. Sometimes you have to wait for the right circumstances to trigger it. This month, we’ll have a look at how latent learning in hypnotherapy can be used to help your clients.
What is Latent Learning in Psychology?
Latent learning is an idea introduced by Edward Tolman (1948)
to explain how learning can happen without immediately showing itself. Behaviourist
theories were popular at the time, and they argued that, in order to learn, we
need direct reinforcement; broadly, if an action leads to an unpleasant outcome,
we avoid doing it again, and if it leads to a pleasant outcome, we’re likely to
repeat it. (There’s more to behaviourism, of course, but that's it in a
nutshell.)
However, Tolman showed that learning takes place all the
time, whether it’s reinforced or not, although it may only become apparent when
the circumstances are right.
How Latent Learning Happens
Tolman left rats in mazes to wander around and explore. Without
rewards, their movements were random, and they showed no preference for one
part of the maze over another. Then he started placing a food reward in the same place each time and found
that, while rats with no prior experience of the maze took time to find it by trial
and error, rats who had explored the maze before quickly learned to go straight
to it.
Tolman suggested that, even though they had not shown any
signs of purposeful exploration, they had learned their way around the maze anyway (he called
this forming a “cognitive map”). The learning just didn't show itself until the rats were
motivated to use it, i.e., a piece of cheese made an appearance!
Latent learning forms a kind of bridge between behaviourism
and cognitivism, as it allows for the presence of internal processes like thinking and learning, as well
as mechanistic stimulus-based responses.
Latent Learning in Hypnotherapy Practice
Early in my practice, I had a client who wanted to stop
smoking. She had tried various other methods and finally presented for
hypnotherapy, but despite my best attempts, she only quit for a short time. When
she re-presented for a follow-up session, more information came out (as it
sometimes does) about strong environmental secondary gains (a stressful
situation at work). She used smoking as a way to get out of the office for a break
and didn’t really want to give this up. She didn’t want to have more sessions
to address the stress, either, so I included a suggestion that she would know
when the time was right and easily discard the cigarettes when she was ready to
do so.
Some three months later, she dropped me a note to say that,
although she had only stopped smoking briefly after the second session, she had
woken up on Christmas Day to hear my voice in her head (weirdly!) saying she
would quit when the time was right. It felt right; she threw away all her
smoking paraphernalia and hadn’t smoked since that day. There were no side
effects or cravings.
This is an example of latent learning: she had accepted my
suggestions for change but didn’t put them into effect until readiness, context,
and motivation aligned.
This fits well with what we have thought and known for some
time. Even 20+ years ago, when I was training, it was accepted wisdom that
clients kept processing session content for some days after the session. And we
now know that’s accurate because modern research shows that the brain can
consolidate learning away from the context in which it took place, and that
sleep and rest can strengthen skills and associational learning. (Diekelmann
and Born, 2010; McGaugh, 2000).
Using Latent Learning in Hypnotherapy Sessions
Latent learning is something you can harness and use in your
hypnotherapy sessions in a variety of ways:
- Reassuring clients who say they don’t feel any
different at the end of the session; new associations are forming in the mind,
and the behaviour will catch up when the right circumstances occur.
- Using hypnosis as a learning context: by using attention,
imagery, expectation, and focus, you are creating conditions that support new
learning and reconsolidation - installing new responses which will be ready for
action when the client next meets the triggering situation. (Kirsch, 1985)
- Post-hypnotic responses: post-hypnotic
suggestions, anchoring, and future pacing/mental rehearsal can take advantage
of latent learning. The client learns the behaviour in the therapy session and
uses it when the right circumstances arise.
- Normalise delayed progress and deal with any unrealistic
expectations held by the client that might block progress or engagement.
- Evidence spotting; ask clients to notice small
changes rather than force them, with suggestions like “any moment you pause
instead of reacting counts as success”.
- Engage sleep consolidation: offer a short
recording or teach self-hypnosis for use just before sleep to encourage
repetition and strengthening of new ideas.
- Use metaphors about latency, for example, a seed waiting all winter until it’s the right time to grow.
Explaining Delayed Change to Therapy Clients
- If the client assumes that no immediate result equals failure, teach them about latent learning and encourage curiosity about how and when they will first notice the changes. Reinforce that delayed change is not failure, simply a part of how learning works.
- Include plenty of cues, future pacing and practice tasks in your sessions to encourage future change to happen.
- If clients confuse delayed success with “random luck” rather than a response to hypnotherapy, encourage them to track when they notice the changes, and what triggers bring them about.
Latent Learning and Hypnotherapy
Using latent learning in hypnotherapy sessions helps us to remember that success is not just a matter of what happens in the room; it’s also what happens afterwards, when the client is back in their everyday life. Even if they leave your room feeling no specific changes, it doesn’t mean that nothing happened.
The latent learning is simply waiting for the right cue to
show itself.
DOWNLOAD A FREE explanation of latent learning for clients, ready to add your practice details.
References
Diekelmann,
S. and Born, J. (2010) ‘The memory function of sleep’, Nature Reviews
Neuroscience, 11(2), pp. 114–126.
Kirsch, I.
(1985) ‘Response expectancy as a determinant of experience and behavior’, American
Psychologist, 40(11), pp. 1189–1202.
McGaugh, J.L.
(2000) ‘Memory—a century of consolidation’, Science, 287(5451), pp.
248–251.
Tolman, E.C.
(1948) ‘Cognitive maps in rats and men’, Psychological Review, 55(4),
pp. 189–208.
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Author: Debbie Waller is an experienced hypnotherapist and hypnotherapy trainer. She is the author of Anxiety to Calm: a Practical Guide to a Laid-Back Life, The Hypnotherapist's Companion, Their Worlds, Your Words, and The Metaphor Toolbox, all available from Amazon or direct from the author. Find out more about Debbie's services on
Yorkshire Hypnotherapy Training - multi-accredited hypnotherapy practitioner training, taster days and foundation levels.
CPD Expert - accredited CPD and other therapy training (online and workshops options), expert and qualified hypnotherapy supervision
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