One of the quintessential questions in the field of hypnotherapy is “How do you know when a client is hypnotised or has entered the trance state?” At first glance, the answer to this question may seem rather obvious: “Just ask the client!” The difficulty, though, is that the client’s subjective experience of hypnosis is not necessarily consistent with the behaviour he or she displays. This is especially the case, for example, when a client, who has a particularly narrow or limited perception of hypnosis, actually experiences the phenomenon without recognising or identifying it as such. In this instance, although the client entered the trance state, he or she has no knowledge of this and, as a result, has doubts about the nature and validity of his or her said hypnotic experience. The secret to answering this question, however, lies in the therapist’s observational skills…