Therapeutic aQompaniments: Walking together in hypnotherapy—and ethnography
Ethos March 17, 2025 Nicholas J. Long 1 citation
Hypnotherapeutic care is best evaluated by whether therapist and client can successfully 'walk together' toward their goals, rather than by blanket preferences for self-hypnosis over hetero-hypnosis. Based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork with Indonesian hypnotherapists, the article introduces the concept of 'aQompaniment'—adapted from liberation theology and activist ideas of accompaniment—as a rubric for situated judgments about what constitutes good care. This approach also offers new perspectives on the relational work ethnographers themselves undertake during research.