And what I’ve experienced since.
Getting that text message after waiting 24 hours to hear back from my client, was an incredible moment of confirmation for me, a surreal feeling of lights exploding in my brain and my heart pounding…! We’d done it!!!
For any kind of therapist, when you are able to help someone reach peace and calm, conclusion, ‘aha’ moments - those are the most beautiful moments that one can only begin to describe.
I agreed to try my hand at hypnotherapy with a new client, where I had recently graduated from my courses (that was more than 6 years ago). I wanted to try help where others hadn’t been able to, but I also really wanted to try and add the twist of a very special and particular technique I’d learnt in my Advanced Neuro-Linguistics training, so I was not only incredibly nervous, but also determined.
I knew, after session number 3 that we were finally close to breaking the 20 year cycle of sleepless nights, of nightmares and waking up screaming! Of walking around during the days trying to function, yet being on a constant high alert and living on red-bulls and coffee was the only way my 2nd client I’d taken on survived.
This was an ex-military client, coming from African wars in the past 2 decades, and still hadn’t been able to get 1 good nights’ sleep — without the help of heavy medication which he would wake up feeling like absolute rubbish after taking! After seeing countless psychologists over the years, and not being able to really build rapport with them or believing they could really help, he had heard about me through word-of-mouth and asked if I could give it a try with my hypnosis. Although he also knew that I hadn’t worked with any military clients before, he was desperate for help, and I couldn’t say no, so agreed to give it a go!
When you work with people who have gone through the worst trauma you only ever read about or imagine, many ask how I walk away not being completely drained and exhausted all the time, and my answer is; I learnt with my training that we are flies on the walls, and although being heavily empathetic runs in my DNA, I still manage to both feel yet separate my emotions from those times.
I also journal, meditate and I create Art, and that is how I process things and release my emotions and deal with difficulties. But being in a session with someone who has lived in another horrific time or memory.. it isn’t something that can really be put into words, although many can, for me it’s a space of trust — that is the key word here — trust, and making sure they understand that I am with them on that journey to begin healing.
After our 3rd session of attempting this technique the second time round, I waited impatiently to hear back from him the next day on how he slept, I even lost sleep that night — the irony right! But to see those words on my phone — I will never forget that moment. That epiphany of “YES! This is what I’m here for!”
He had finally slept a full 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep… for the first time in 20 years.
Beautiful. Just beautiful being able to help another person, another soul to heal…
That is why I do what I do :)
