Therapeutic aQompaniments: Walking together in hypnotherapy—and ethnography

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Drawing on ethnographic data collected over 16 months of fieldwork with Indonesian hypnotherapists, this article investigates the suitability of different relationalities for providing therapeutic care. Clinical literature often advocates the merits of self‐hypnosis over hetero‐hypnosis, while anthropologists express skepticism regarding therapies that encourage individualized regimes of the self. Taking a less sweeping approach, this article develops the notion of “aQompaniment”—adapted from the liberation theology and activist concept of “accompaniment”—as a rubric under which to evaluate the provision of care and support. The rubric of aQompaniment encourages situated evaluations of whether hypnotherapeutic relations enable therapists and clients to successfully “walk together” toward their respective goals, encouraging nuanced judgments about what constitutes good care. Viewing psychotherapy as aQompaniment also affords new perspectives on the aQompaniment work that can be undertaken during ethnographic research.