Interesting Case Histories

The names and identifying information have been changed to protect client confidentiality.

An elderly woman I will refer to as Maxine called my office after watching a hypnotist on the Montel Williams show. She explained to me that she had stopped eating and was rapidly losing weight. As a matter of fact, she found eating repulsive and would start to gag when she watched other people enjoy their food. Her family was very concerned and brought her to doctors in several states to find out what was wrong. The last doctor told her that there was nothing wrong with her, scolded her harshly, and told her to go back to Florida and prepare to die because she was deliberately starving herself to death. She asked if I thought that I could help her.

I informed her that although there are no guarantees when dealing with human behavior, I felt her problem would probably respond well to hypnotherapy and agreed to see her the next day. When she arrived at my office, she was so nervous that she forgot to turn off her car. She was a beautifully groomed woman in her early 80's, but was very thin. Well under 90 pounds.

She explained to me that her husband had died a year ago, but she had no problems with eating until the last few months. In hypnosis, I found out that after her husband died, she had gotten into the habit of taking most of her meals with her friend and neighbor "Joan". Well, Joan had passed away four months earlier. Aha, I thought. Here is what we call our initial sensitizing event. The event that caused the problem. She used to enjoy eating with Joan, now Joan is deceased, here is our problem. The way hypnotherapy works is that once you get to the initial sensitizing event, the problem is cleared up with a small amount of additional release work. In hypnosis, Maxine said to Joan "that was a terrible thing you did to me. Leaving me that way." I felt we had found the thread that led to her present behavior. We did some clearing work and I felt sure that she would be fine from that time on. When I asked her to imagine eating an apple, she started to gag. Obviously there was more work to be done. Still in hypnosis, I asked her subconscious mind once again to take us back to the first event of significance to this problem. This time I found out that before her husband died, he was ill for a long time. His illness required that he eat six small meals a day which was up to her to prepare. Her husband was emotionally abusive to her for most of their many years together, but she never complained and hid how badly he treated her from everyone. And I do mean everyone. Her children, her friends, everyone. No one knew how nasty he was to her. Not just in the later years when he was ill, but even before. She resented having to prepare food for him six times a day especially since she never found food that interesting to begin with. Early in the marriage she had taught herself to be a good cook because they entertained frequently and her husband wanted her to do all of the food. She told me that when her husband died, she stood over his casket and said silently "free at last". She was so relieved to be out from under his control.

Since her neighbor Joan was a widow too, they started doing things together. Going to movies, shopping, sharing their meals. Maxine was really enjoying herself and then Joan died and Maxine missed her terribly.

Now that she was back to cooking without joy, she couldn't eat. Even if she went out with other friends or family to a restaurant, she couldn't eat. She would actually get nauseous watching someone else enjoy their food. Still in hypnosis, we explored the resentment of "having to be chained to the kitchen" during the husband's last days. Having to cater to her abusive husband around the clock was too much for her. When Joan died, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. She was eating alone again. It was a chore. Food represented despair to her. We eliminated the feelings of negativity attached to food. This all happened over four sessions. I am happy to report that Maxine started eating again without any problems and slowly got back to her normal weight.

Nick had a fear of being confined to small spaces. He refused to use elevators, couldn't sit in the back seat of a taxi, couldn't even take his children to Disney because he couldn't do the tram from the parking lot or even sit in the rides. He had been under a psychiatrist's care for years and still had not been able to beat this fear.

Nick explained that he had been getting steadily more claustrophobic as time went on. It hurt his career because he couldn't work in a tall building because of the elevator issue and taking the stairs in a narrow hallway was not an option either. He felt that he was claustrophobic since his early teens and that it kept growing worse. The only time he had relief from it was when he was in the army.

In hypnosis, we discovered that when he was ten years old, he was playing in an abandoned building with his cousins. He started fighting with one of them and was held down while they all took turns punching him. When he was finally able to break free, he ran to what he thought was the elevator only to find that behind the elevator door was a brick wall. The other kids laughed and laughed at his expense. He felt humiliated and scared. After that time, he felt more and more ill at ease in confined spaces until it grew into a full blown phobia. The reason he had relief from it when he was in the army was that it was drilled into him over and over that he could and needed to trust the other soldiers at his side. Obviously he accepted this suggestion.

One day shortly after he got out of the army, he was sitting in the back seat of a car with his wife to be. Another couple was in the front seat and they all shared a marijuana cigarette. He became paranoid from the high and all of that fear of being in small restricted spaces came right back to him and was worse than ever before. The fear kept growing worse from there.

So the way hypnotherapy works is we regress to the cause, that's following the negative feeling back from the present to the past, cut the cord to the unwanted behavior, give suggestions for wellness and empowerment, and he's no longer phobic. It's that simple.

Nick has told me that he now gets in an elevator with no problem and he has finally gone with his family to Disney and enjoyed the tram and the rides. Even flying is no longer a problem because he has no fear of confined spaces.

From Wallflower to WOW!

When I first met 32 year old Jackie she was a shy, depressed, overweight young woman. She sought out hypnosis to rid her social anxiety and build her self confidence. She had been treated for severe depression in her early twenties and had even tried to commit suicide at one point in her life. When she spoke, her voice was hushed and faint, almost like she was afraid to make too much noise. She blended into the background wherever she was. Although she had been at her job for several years, she had only one friend from work. She was finding it increasingly difficult to leave her home and started manifesting headaches whenever she anticipated doing something outside her normal routine.

Through regression therapy we were able to discover and release the origins of her low self esteem. Each session we worked on breaking through the barricades holding her back. We did Hypnosis, EFT and Motivational Training and then got her to the point where she was ready to go take a big bite out of life. It was amazing to see her go from a mousy little girl who tried to blend into the woodwork to a beautiful, confident young woman. She shed 30 pounds, got herself a new haircut with some highlights, a new wardrobe and a whole new attitude. Now when she spoke I didn't have to strain to hear her words. She was so different, so amazing - standing in her own power and proud of it. Her father and mother became clients of mine because they said that the Dynamic Changes series turned their daughter into a radiant being. Although I appreciate the accolades, the credit goes to Jackie. She took all of the tools I offered her and made them work. At her job, people started inviting her out with them, and much to her own amazement, she agreed to go and had a great time. She went from being someone nobody noticed to the belle of the ball. She even found the courage to ask for a promotion and became the head of her department.

It's so wonderful how the universe works. I found such happiness in doing the work with Jackie and enjoying her success. Soon after, many young people came to me for similar sessions without any advertising on my part.