The Hawthorne Effect and Doing What's Right for Your Clients

Here's a phenomenon you may not be familiar with, but you should be. The Hawthorne effect occurs when an intervention of some kind appears to work but then the change seems to disappear or wear off soon (hours, months) afterward. In other words, it "works" because we want it to work, but it doesn't create a real change. Contrast this with the placebo effect, which makes a real change resulting from brain reprogramming (we believe it will work and reconstruct our relevant brain structure to make that change). Hypno and NLP can be seen as using the placebo effect to make permanent changes, but without the deception usually involved in placebo situations (e.g., you take a pill that you've been told will reduce your pain, but it's actually a sugar pill).

With all of the cool techniques, supplements, apparatus, etc., out there for us to use ourselves or include in our toolboxes to help our clients (which clients and colleagues ask me about often), we want to make sure what we're using is actually making a difference. Many (but not all) hypnotherapy and NLP techniques have been shown in research and/or in practice to create permanent changes. Consider what other tools are in your toolbox, though.

Just because a technique hasn't been studied scientifically doesn't mean it doesn't create a real change. It's always good to check on the research behind a protocol you are thinking of using (or perhaps already using) in your practice to see if the science is there. In my practice, if the science isn't there, I don't use it. But that's just me. I'm a scientist by training.

Practitioners make up their own protocols all the time, and almost none are ever studied for efficacy, though with good marketing and credible proponents they can sound amazing. Make sure someone's invention is built on solid science, though, then try it out with your clients to see how well it creates permanent results for them. One of my favorite tools is one I made up myself and hasn't been scientifically studied, but it's based on rock-solid scientific principles that have a lot of research behind them, and the results from case studies in my practice have been nothing but positive, so I feel like I'm on solid ground using it with my clients.

I got a call from a prospective client one time asking if I did muscle testing. I told him I did not because the science isn't there (it's based on inaccurate facts) and too many people report only temporary impact from it - a good example of the Hawthorne Effect. I lost him as a client, which was fine with me. The day I prioritize making money from someone over doing what's best for them is the day I need to stop doing this work.

And just because a scientist, doctor or other seemingly credible individual touts a technique doesn't make it a good bet. Polyvagal theory is a good example of this. Hypothesized by a psychiatrist and really popular in clinical circles these days, it sounds really impressive until you break it down and realize that every part of it has fatal flaws with respect to what we know about how the nervous system actually works.

What you really want to stay away from is any tool that has research showing it doesn't work long-term or that it is based on principles or facts that have been shown empirically to be false. For example, anything astrology-related would be a no-go because there is plenty of research showing astrology to be inaccurate factually and has no predictive value. The entire complex and intricate structure of the astrology world that is so popular with so many people is a house of cards.

Just because we want to believe something is true does not make it true. We are all entitled to our opinions, of course, but when you are promoting yourself as a facilitator for people to make real change in their lives, you owe it to your clients to use techniques that are built on a solid footing. And as coaches, our opinions and beliefs should never enter into our sessions.

There are some ways you can tell if a technique you're thinking about using passes the sniff test. Any protocols with the following characteristics should be avoided for ethical and professional reasons:

• If you are providing any answers to your client in any way, it is not coaching and is opening a can of worms regarding the veracity of the information you're giving them and the conclusions that come out of the session.
• If the client has to adopt a philosophical view (e.g., that angels exist) in order to participate in your protocol (guided imagery aside - get as imaginative as you want with this, as it's just a story that clients can buy into or not, like watching a movie), you're imposing your agenda onto your client rather than facilitating your client finding her own answers and moving forward with her own agenda.
• If a technique you use with a client results in a good outcome but only temporarily, investigate the negative feeling that's left or that returns to see if it's the same as what you worked on before or if it's a little different. It may be that a session on a past event that you have to revisit resolved one of the causes but there's at least one more left, or it got rid of a fight-or-flight response but not a limiting belief, or got rid of one limiting belief but there's another one to address, etc. (all of these causes will feel a little different). Or it could be that the protocol you used did not create a permanent change, so you would want to seriously question using that technique in the future because it's not the most helpful service that you can provide to your clients. You should never, ever, have to work on the exact same issue more than once. If you do, there's something inferior about the method you used. Find a better one.

It all comes down to doing what's right for your clients. It's not only an ethical issue, but also a practical business issue. You won't keep as many clients over the years if your work with them doesn't really help them change permanently. So beware of the shiny squirrels and keep yourself grounded. Your clients will thank you.