Many of us believe that we need more knowledge, better frameworks, new systems, and sharper concepts in order to be able finally to transform ourselves into the people we truly want to be. Because we long for sustainable, deep change, we always look for the latest productivity hacks, personal development trends, and therapy buzz words, in the hope that they will finally offer us the key to mastery in our inner house.

It is true that self-knowledge and insights into our own patterns and their origins are prerequisites for any growth and learning. It is also true that new frameworks and perspectives can be powerful aids for our inner sense-making, and that diagnoses can make us feel heard, seen, and less alone.

But solution-oriented therapy and coaching interventions, and clinical hypnotherapy approaches, assume something that seems paradoxical: They are based on the firm belief that we already know all that we need to know, and have all the skills and capabilities we need in order to thrive.

This firm belief in our own fundamental self-efficacy – that we are already equipped, already capable, already knowing – is deeply anchored in ancient wisdom traditions and the stories we have told across cultures and across ages.

The Wizard of Oz is a powerful example. It directly challenges one of the toxic self-story scripts I discuss in my book The Story Solution: Change Your Toxic Self-Stories and........

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