Case Studies

Dealing with Anxiety

Chris, aged 30 was suffering high anxiety and had developed a generalised fear of transport. He was also experiencing claustrophobia, IBS, panic attacks and anxiety related to social engagements.

Effects:

Interfering completely with his quality of life & ability to work Chris was also using alcohol to reduce anxiety in social situations and was unable to fly. His last flight prior to our work ended up with him having to leave the aeroplane as it sat on the runway before take-off.

Results:

We completed 3 sessions together.

Session 1:

Firstly we dealt with the anxiety to reduce the adrenal arousal. After this session Chris went on a road and boat trip with his best friend to visit relatives in Ireland for the first time in years. I taught him some techniques to remain calm and relaxed. We also did some mind body hypnotic work to help alleviate his IBS symptoms. On the way back from Ireland the car blew a tyre on the motorway which in the past would have sent Chris spiraling out of control. He remained calm and dealt with the situation. His IBS symptoms have also diminished and alcohol consumption has been vastly reduced.

Session 2:

Chris was feeling much more positive and was now seeking some help with motivational issues as he wanted to get fit and join a gym having been too anxious to do this in the past. He was also wanting to go on a train journey so we worked on his feelings about this and how he could feel calm and in control. He made the journey that week which lead to improved work prospects for him. Chris has now joined a gym which he attends several times a week.

IEMT was invaluable in reducing Chris’s negative emotional associations and enabling him to motivate himself.

Session 3:

We worked on his fear of flying. Chris was very keen to be able to fly to Ireland to see his relatives and to actually take a holiday abroad with his girlfriend for the first time in 10 years.

The session was IEMT driven to change his response to his previous flying experience and move him beyond the loopback to this event. It helped to break the cycle which was similar to PTSD revealing the lynch pin that kept him looping back and released him to move beyond this event.

Flying Success!

Chris has now flown to Ireland three time in 6 months and has also booked a holiday to Spain with his girlfriend. In his testimonial he states: “I would even say that I enjoy flying now! I never thought that this was possible until I came to see you.”

Stop Smoking for Good

All clients are asked to complete an assessment prior to the first session which includes some medical questions so that I can establish that the client has no contraindications for this therapeutic approach.

Session1 - Preparation session

Client has been smoking for over 40 years has made several attempts over the years to give up including hypnotherapy, meditation, psychotherapy and other approaches. Client has a very bad cough and possibly early emphysema. Client had consulted their GP who gave the all clear for the session.

Started out with dealing with how they felt about certain things from the past that had been mentioned in the assessment form. With IEMT if there are negative emotions that are scoring high we deal with this first otherwise they can get in the way of the process of change. We got the strong negative feelings down quickly from 10/10 to 2/10 the client was happy to stop at this level.

We worked on fear and anger. The images had faded along with the feelings associated. The client was very calm and happy about this.

On the questionnaire I noticed some referential indices were at odds and thus we explored this using the IEMT Identity Model. This client’s view of “self” was very interesting. When asked where was self, they said self was out of the body and when asked how old was self, it was about 2000 years old and very wise, the self was crossed legged but floating and all life was happening around them. This is often a sign that the client is searching for some meaning to their life, they are not happy with themselves in the here and now so they are looking to a future self that will have all of the answers. Thus the person is not grounded in the present and unlikely to have the right inner resources to deal with whatever it is they want to change.

I said that it was very interesting because in 2000 years this vey wise person still hadn’t found out how to stop themselves smoking. I saw an instant change in the person’s expression here almost like a light bulb being switched on. I also went on to describe a pattern of chronicity that is often present with smokers, although not necessarily in this case. People often come to sessions “At Effect”. In other words they looking for the Practitioner to change their effect i.e. the habit, anxiety, overeating etc, rather than looking to the cause and how they need to change their feelings and response to this. Again we had an “Aha” moment, especially when I said that there is no magic wand that could make problem suddenly change. However IEMT can often seem like this because real neurological change can be so instant for people as seen above with the emotional state.

After elicitation of the identity personal pronouns I decide to work with self and used the IEMT Identity eye movement pattern. After one pass of the basic pattern I asked again where self was and how old it was? Self was back to the current age of the person and self was now inside the body. When I asked what was happening around self now? The answer was - “self has stopped smoking”. This was a huge revelation to this person that in order to stop smoking for good that all of what we terms the inner self, ego or inner representation of who we are needs to be in agreement and operating as a whole otherwise there will always be a part of themselves in conflict which weakens their ability to deal with things.

We finished the session with a bit of relaxation and I gave the client my Stop Smoking for Good booklet. This is full of things to do to prepare over the next week or so, looking at ways to start to change habits around smoking e.g collecting all butts into a jar, delaying the first cigarette, noting down how much they actually wanted that cigarette. Plus I gave a CD of positive affirmations and a relaxation track. We made an appointment for the “Stop Smoking” session.

Session 2 - Stop Smoking for Good Session

When the client arrived I noticed the cough was much less pronounced. I asked how things had gone and if they had followed the instructions from the booklet and listened to the tracks. They had and the person then announced that they had in fact not smoked now for nearly 2 weeks. This is exactly what I suspected would happen as often once the inner mind makes the connection that smoking is not actually achieving what they had thought it was i.e. a way to destress and relax, the mind finds other ways to achieve this.

We talked about what the habitual changes and how they were now feeling about being a non-smoker. I reiterated the importance of keeping up with his affirmations and gave them another relaxation track about being a Non-Smoker and to maintain being a Non-Smoker. We did a little bit more IEMT about the feelings they were having toward family and colleagues who where not respecting their decision to stop smoking so that they could deal with this ongoing. I taught them how to use IEMT for themselves in such situations. We finished again with some relaxation and positive imagery and word to reinforce the positive changes so they would be maintained for good.

As always I offered a third session as a follow-up in 6-8 weeks to see how things were going.

Session 3 - Follow-up

8 weeks later the client arrived not coughing and very happy they were not smoking and cigarettes just did not even enter their thoughts. This was a very short session I asked if there was anything that they would like to work on emotion wise but here was not.

Long term follow-up:

1 year later the client is a non-smoker and has referred other people to me.