First, understand what is expectation theory and what it means. Expectancy theory suggests that a person will act or feel in a certain manner because they feel that they need to choose a certain behavior over other options because of what they believe the outcome of that chosen behavior will be. For example, if a client has a negative attitude toward someone who is trying to make him/her feel better, the client will likely act in a negative way as well. This is simply because the client’s perception of the person is based on the expectations that he/she holds for that person.
However, you do not want your client to act or feel this way. In fact, you want your client to be as positive as possible. Instead of giving your client a negative attitude because you don’t think the client deserves it, offer your client a different method of dealing with the problem in order to solve it. If the client continues to be negative about the person you are dealing with, tell your client that he/she needs to realize that not everything in the world will be positive and that they need to learn to adjust their expectations accordingly. When you are working with clients who have unrealistic expectations, remember that you are not going to convince your client to change their behavior or expect that the behavior will change in the future.
Once you have given your client’s expectations some realistic consideration, you can begin to help them overcome those expectations. If your client believes that he/she should have more control over his/her life but does not actually have any control, this may require that the client find some other way to achieve that control. Your client may believe that he/she has been treated unfairly by a company or may be looking at problems in his/her personal life and feel as if they cannot change the situation. Your job is to provide your client with the necessary tools so that he/she can determine whether he/she is truly capable of changing the situation, or simply making some changes in the way they behave so that they will no longer have to endure unfair treatment. or even if they can change their current situation.
On the other hand, when your client is not satisfied with their current situation, they may not have much control over their own expectations. Perhaps they do not have control over how they feel about themselves, the way they act or even the decisions that they make. There may be no real reason for your client to have any expectations because there are no clear-cut reasons that they are dissatisfied with their current circumstances. They may simply feel like there is no way that they can achieve anything without experiencing negative outcomes, or that their current choices are not working out for them. In these cases, your job is to give your client a way to make changes in order to achieve the goals that they want to reach.
Finally, once you help your client understand that their expectations should be reasonable, you can begin to show them examples of situations where they could use their expectations to create a successful outcome. This is not to discourage them from trying to accomplish something that they believe they can not, but rather to help them understand that their expectations are unreasonable and that they should seek out a better way to make an attempt. Of course, you will not show them the best way for them to create this situation if they cannot see it for themselves, but simply to show them that there are other ways that may not necessarily be in their best interest.
When you work with clients, you must realize that you are the client and not the client’s parent or guardian. It is up to you to explain to them what their expectations are and why they should have them. While you can’t tell them exactly what they should do, you can give them a reason to believe that their needs are important and that they should be willing to invest some time, energy and money in trying to achieve those goals. This is important because in some cases you need to show your client that you are the expert and not the employee, and you are responsible for what happens to them.
As you can see, your job as a hypnotherapist is to help clients realize their goals and to provide them with a way to live up to those expectations. Hypnosis can also help you make a client’s expectations a reality and help them achieve their goals.
