Conversing for a Change: The Principles and Practice of Conversational Hypnosis (Dr. David Alter)

Organization: Dr. David Alter 

Website: drdavidalter.com 

Event Title: Conversing for a Change: The Principles and Practice of Conversational Hypnosis 

Agenda:  Conversing_for_a_Change_Webinar_Timing (1)

Dates: 02/20/2026 & 02/21/2026 

Location: Virtual 

CE: 10 

Contact : Dr. David Alter, drdavidalter@gmail.com 

Description: Gestures, facial expressions, uttered sounds, formal words, full sentences, and the ideas they convey are all elements of language. Hypnosis utilizes language. However, hypnosis is not reducible to language and words, nor can it be optimally expressed through formulaic inductions and suggestions. In this ten-hour online course, set to run on Friday and Saturday, February 20 & 21, 2026, from 9:00 AM-5:00 PM CST each day, participants will be exposed to an immersive, expansive, and clinically enriching experience as together we explore the underlying principles and practical applications of conversational hypnosis. The course highlights the neuropsychological underpinnings of language, the utility of emergent potentials as innate client resources, the role of narrative and evocative storytelling, and the importance of uncertainty and disorientation as a core context for positive change. The course includes active Q&A time, in-session demonstrations modeling and utilizing a slew of applied hypnotic practices that can be used in the course of dynamic, relationally-based hypnotically-oriented conversations with clients. 

Learning Objectives:  

• Identify six dimensions of language and their relevance to cultivating increased client suggestibility. 
• Define and learn to utilize the eight neuropsychological underpinnings of dynamic and interpersonal conversation as foundations of client change promotion. 
• Contrast the legacy model of clinical hypnosis (induction, deeping, suggestion, realerting, and debriefing) with the seven core elements of conversational hypnosis model of interaction that the webinar will feature. 
• Model a set of seven practical applications of conversational hypnotic interaction practices. 
• Practice utilizing conversational prompts modeled in the webinar with scenarios drawn from participants’ clinical practices during the webinar’s practice sessions. 

Speaker info: David S. Alter, PhD, LP, ABPP, ABPH, FASCH, FAACHP Bio_Sketch