Past Lives and all that....

Understanding:

Past life regression is a form of hypnosis which can be used to access the memories of an individual’s previous lifetimes.

The details uncovered from deep within the unconscious mind can explain how we can rediscover our former experiences which continue to have impact on our present situations. It offers a unique blend of meditation and hypnosis and therapy, taking participants on an exciting journey into the past, often explaining present day fears and phobias and clearing current blockages.

Participants are gently led into a beautifully calm state of mind using visualisation and relaxation techniques.

They won't fall asleep and will remain in control and fully aware of what is happening. It is a perfectly safe natural state of mind, similar to daydreaming. They will be able to experience their past in their mind’s eye as if they were actually there as it happened.

Sessions are also available privately. ______________________________________________________________

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Past Lives

There has been many possible explanations put forward as to what past life experiences may be, and you are free to choose whichever theory feels comfortable with your beliefs.

 

REINCARNATION: The belief that we return to this world many times in order to experience and evolve. I personally believe that this is the only concept that can explain all the experiences that I have dealt with during many hours of regression therapy.

 

GENETIC MEMORY: A theory suggesting that our memories are passed on from one generation to another through the cell structure or DNA. This can’t explain why most people regress back to many different cultural backgrounds.

 

FANTASY: Are we just making it all up? I do get asked this occasionally. There are many cases that can be documented through historical research, which can prove the accuracy of the information, far beyond the chances of random imagination.

 

SOUL MEMORY: The idea that people can access the memory of another soul, through the ‘Akashic’ records - the spiritual record of everything that has ever happened. This can be quite acceptable to some, but it doesn’t account for the continuity of character traits which seem to pass from on life to another.

 Regardless of personal beliefs, past life regression can work for everyone, so the important thing is to accept it and enjoy the benefits that it brings.

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Reasons for having Past Life Regression

People come for Past Life Regression for many different reasons. The main ones are:

THERAPY - Our character today represents a culmination of all the experiences we have had over numerous lifetimes. These past life events affect many aspects of our behaviour, and in some cases, past deeply emotional traumas can cause psychological problems which can not be cured with ordinary psychotherapy. Past life therapy can release these repressed thoughts and bring about a beneficial change.

UNDERSTANDING - Exploring your past lives offers a whole new dimension to the understanding of your own character. You suddenly realise for the first time why you are drawn to certain places or have a particular interest in something.

INTEREST - Many enjoy the experience of tracing their past lives purely from the point of curiosity. Certain past existences in particular can be pieced together with great detail, producing names, dates and places. Many of these details have been researched and authenticated, resulting in some fascinating literature on the subject.

RELATIONSHIPS - Quite often, groups of interacting souls reincarnate together and take on the roles of relations, friends or even rivals. Many believe this happens to balance the laws of karma - the harmony or disharmony caused by people’s behaviour towards each other. Have you ever met someone for the first time, yet feel you have known them all your life?

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Do you and your probable selves actualize the same events?

You do not ever meet a parallel lifetime, and you tend not to run into your overlapping lifetimes, because the trauma would be just too disconcerting. No, you don't run into them, and they don't have the same events.

Overlapping lifetimes are lifetimes where the previous one has not quite ended when the next one begins. The end of one overlaps the beginning of another. Sometimes your favourite television shows overlap, or two movies that you want to see on the same night overlap. It is disconcerting, isn't it?

Well, you do sometimes experience the same phenomenon in lifetimes since they are all simultaneous. One begins before the other ends, except with lifetimes you generally aren't aware of the overlap because it would be too confusing. It would be too confusing for a 5-year-old child to encounter or confront the 80-year-old man they are/were/are in a previous lifetime. It would be really disconcerting. They'd lock you up -- either as the old man realizing "I'm a 5-year-old child," or as a 5-year-old child realizing, "I'm an old man!" Either way, you're in trouble!

So therefore, you bury even the intuition or remembrance of such things. Shhhh! Don't even talk about that stuff, you know? Anyway, even if you did have an intuitive "hit," by the time you're six or seven you forget about it anyway, so we would suggest you aren't aware of probable selves like that. No, you don't run into them, and they don't have the same events.

With love and peace,

Lazaris

Getting Ready

Sometimes, it is good to have a kind of shorthand communication with your client.

The usual is a finger signal for yes and for no. EG. Which finger will you raise for a yes response? Thank you. Which finger will you raise for a no response? Thank you. That's good.

Suggestion to state to client:

“Stored deeply in your unconscious mind are memories of other times and other places. You are able to retrieve those memories. At this time, you will be able to gain access to the record of the soul's journey. By looking deeply into your unconscious mind, you can see, hear, feel, or sense --- perceive in some way --- scenes from the past. Those memories can be processed to provide you with new understanding and insight.

Later, you can apply your insights to understand yourself better. Now, you are going to begin a process of recalling some memories. Whatever you recall will be just what you need at this time. “

Questions that can be useful for debriefing

A. In what way were the issues of that other life related to your present concern?

B. What behaviours in that past life were similar to the some actions in your current life?

C. What patterns are you observing?

D. What insight or understanding did you gain that can help you at present?

E. How can those insights and understandings be applied, in a realistic manner, to make some changes in your projected future?

F. What specific changes are you making in your life?

IS PAST LIFE REGRESSION “REAL”?

In the frequently heated debate about whether past lives are "real", there is one question that is rarely asked: is PLR as effective in helping people to solve their everyday problems and improve their lives as other short-term interventions? This article will concern itself largely with this critical question, which is perhaps more important in the long run for PLR to become a proven therapeutic system than proving the "reality" of past lives.

Are Past Lives Real?

First, however, I'd like to address the question of whether or not "past lives" are real. In my years of both academic research and experiments with PLR, I have found huge volumes of data that would prove to any legitimate scientist that many "past life" memories are based on real historic people and events. I refer the reader to Helen Wambach's seminal research work (Reliving Past Lives), Marge Rieder's extraordinary and well-researched Mission to Marlboro, and Ian Stevenson's exhaustively scientific 30 Cases Suggestive of Re-incarnation written by a sceptical scientist. It seems to me that books like these (all of which are available from the Association for Past Lives Research and Therapy at 909-784-1570) are sufficient to prove to any objective scientific analyst that past life memories have been documented as accurate for a significant number of test subjects. Those who continue to deny this may present themselves as scientific. In reality, they are trapped in an irrational dogma comparable to the beliefs of those church "scholars" in the 16th Century who maintained their belief in an earth centred solar system in the face of Galileo's telescopes. ("My mind is made up! Don't confuse me with the facts!") These hardened dogmatists are in charge of much of the research funding and training of therapists today, just as the Catholic Church had a stranglehold on science in the 16th Century.

In any event, I have no particular desire to "prove" the existence of past life recall to the fanatical sceptic, since I feel the literature on the subject is replete with such proof. However, I will happily grant that most past life memories recalled by client's are essentially unprovable, and may indeed often be figments of the client's subconscious imagination. (Example: the client sees himself as Sir Lancelot approaching Camelot in shining armor and mounted upon a white charger. Historically, King Arthur's knights, if they existed at all, wore leather armour, were incapable of fighting on horseback, and lived in primitive wooden forts circa 600 AD)

Does it Work?

My point, however, is that when therapists inquire into the "reality" of PLR, they are asking the wrong question. The important question in my view is not whether PLR is "real" but whether it works in solving the client's problems. This question, alas, is very difficult to answer. Although some authors focus on the stories of client's who have benefited from PLR, many are still writing about PLR as a kind of therapeutic circus show ("Wow! Wasn't that a fascinating story!") rather than researching the long-term benefits, if any, that the client experienced. A further complication is that most PLR therapists have received very little formal training in the field. Most trainings offer only a few hours of brief and disorganized instruction, without adequate supervised practice, and with little emphasis on the specific therapeutic issues that respond best to PLR. Many other trainings in hypnotherapy and psychotherapy simply dismiss the whole concept of PLR as "unproved" and therefore beneath their need to teach or explain. The results? Even the most enthusiastic of PLR therapists may have a hard time documenting any benefits achieved by PLR. We may compare the relative success or failure of modern PLR therapists to the clumsy chopping of "surgeons" in the 15th century, whose training was completed without any understanding of surgical cleanliness, or even the most basic fundamentals of anatomy. Surely, if we judged "surgery" by the success rate of these practitioners, it would be found to be mere quackery by any modern analysis.

Anonymous therapist, internet source.

Inside my therapy studio. Come sit with me.

Practising Hypnosis

Let’s begin with a typical client session focussed on weight issues. I comment to you throughout, so that you can recognise important facets in what can seem like merely an inconsequential conversation to the uninitiated. You already have a fascination with the phenomena of the human mind and a fascination of hypnosis, by reading this article, so join me now as we apply hypnotic techniques from the moment the client is walking through the door of the Practice.

Session transcript

Client Focus: Weight Issues

Italicised text is conversation exchanges and trancework: plain text added to bring attention to important points, or to indicate non-verbal communication. Jennie = Therapist and C = Client.

Session begins with the exchange of pleasantries about the weather and the journey to the practice.

Jennie	I’m just wondering how you came to hear about the practice.
Client C	I was just passing one day. You know, I must have walked past here for years; it was only the other day that I noticed the sign.
Jennie	That’s great. You know, we like to think that your unconscious mind notices these kinds of things only when it is ready to change.
It’s good to establish how the client has come to know of your skills particularly, or hypnosis generally, word of mouth etc. I am repeating the phrase, ‘you know’ together with voice tone and body posture (slight shrug), to gain rapport (this will be used throughout session). Seeding a response, in ‘…your unconscious mind…. is ready to change’.
Jennie	Apart from the sign outside, we don’t advertise. So, most often clients come to see us because they know of someone who has already been helped tremendously by coming here. Though you came just because you noticed the sign?
Client	Yes.
Jennie	Do you know anything about hypnosis or how much it can help you with weight control?
Client	No, nothing really.
Jennie	So, really this is blind hope we are talking about, yes? Or is it ‘the last thing on the list’?
Client	[laughter] Well, yes, I’ve tried everything else!
Seeding response ‘…someone has already been helped tremendously by coming here.’ And “…can help you with weight control’. Also, introducing humour and realisation of desperation, wanting it to work without yet knowing evidence of effectiveness.
Jennie	As we talked about on the ‘phone, you know a lot of our challenges to do with eating and exercise are in the mind. It is usually because we have been through the process of deprivation-based dieting, where weight reduction will work as long as we ‘suffer’, as long as we are ‘good’. The unconscious will only allow us to do that up to a certain point. Maybe 5 or 6 weeks on a very strict regime will mean that the next time we come to do it the mind is more guarded, because it knows what you went through last time.
Recollection and representation of information already given by client over the telephone to illicit the inner response of being with someone who understands. The brain likes what’s the same, (you are the same as me). Bringing the ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ perception into awareness in order to discount it.
Client	I did six months on Slimming World and then became a consultant. Yes, the feeling of deprivation was there even though I was having a kit kat every week. When you are used to having one every day, I suppose, the deprivation was still there, although compared to many, it was a very generous eating plan.
Client now processing more, validated by looking around and down to feelings. Notice the change from ‘I was having a kit kat…’ to ‘…when you are used to having one….’ This is an appeal to those outside of ourselves to hope they experience this too; also a deflection from one’s own plight being separate, perhaps unique and distinct. Also, it is association to dissociation and if now pointed out to client would prevent further admissions and hinder rapport. Clarify with own suggestion.
Jennie	I suppose it was like ‘I want a kit kat now, I don’t want to wait until Saturday!’
Client	Yes, it was!
Jennie	The unconscious can be likened to what some may call the ‘inner child’, you know sometimes we may just want a milk shake or something seemingly ridiculous to the consciousness, well chocolate is part of that, particularly if it was used as a reward in childhood – you have been ‘good’ so now we can go to the sweet shop and get you something. Some of these associations are so deeply rooted in the unconscious mind that although we would like to feel that we are in charge of what we do, if we were continually told to eat everything on our plate before we could go out to play or that there were children starving in other countries etc, if that was the case when we were at a very vulnerable age (with nothing against the people who with the best of intentions encouraged us to eat like that) these learnings settle deep within the mind as we grow older. If we find that we feel compelled to finish everything on our plate, or even find ourselves finishing what other family members leave rather than throwing it away, there is perhaps a remnant of that still within us. Even if those people who said these things to us may not be on the planet any more, we may still think it is the right thing to do, despite what our conscious mind says and all the well-meaning intentions of slimming clubs. It is our conscious mind that wants us to live the best life possible in its own terms, though it is our unconscious that still runs screaming away from a spider (or wants to!) though we would prefer to be more dignified and capable.
	In the beginning we had what might be referred to by some as the ‘one hit wonder’. People either smoke or they don’t though you do HAVE to eat. What you may perceive now as an addiction to chocolate, or crisps or bread, if you could say to me,’ Oh Jennie, if I could only stop eating such and such I know I would be fine. Can you make me not like pasta or whatever’. There is usually something.
These comments are references to information given by client on the telephone and also guiding the unconscious to think about what client could change in eating habits.
Jennie	In this initial session, maybe there is something we can do with that. The one session has been brilliant for about two weeks. After the two weeks, that’s when you know. That’s when the physical addiction is out of the system when you say things like, ‘oh I never knew how much chocolate I was eating or why I would want to do that’, or ‘crisps are just so salty and sharp I just don’t want to put them in my mouth now’. After two weeks that is when you know if the behaviour wants to re-establish itself, you know it is more deep rooted.
Client	Yes.
These comments are to prepare the client for more than just one session, as the expectation can be that all problems are ‘fixed’ in an hour (as perhaps it may appear in the stage hypnotism that may have been exposed to when behaviours are radically changed temporarily). This takes the pressure off client and off therapist.
Jennie	Physical addictions can be likened to smoking in a sense because the receptors in every single cell respond to certain substances. If you are having a lot of sugar for example, suddenly not having any sugar at all throws those receptors into a frenzy and almost compels you to dive into the sugar bowl even though there is no real need for you to have the sugar. After this session, any addictions will just go. Our clients have taught us that after two weeks it’s good to have something else, then two weeks on from that for more long term, lifetime changes. I’ll be giving you a cd to accompany every session. You will continue to do what you want to do - though what you do will be changing.
	I now hand over to you and ask what it is that you would like to be different now when you leave here today and as I ask that I am asking the question of your unconscious mind which is listening to me now, it is the part of you that is blinking your eyes, to stop your eyes drying out, it pumps the blood around the body and we are not always aware of what it does for us
I have given the command that ‘after this session, any addictions will just go’. I have offered the support of the cd to help between sessions too. Notice, also, I begin with the idea of asking the client what they would like to change, though, because this is so important and I want an unconscious response, I ‘leave it hanging’ awaiting completion, without the need for an answer to be offered right now. I follow with an explanation of the unconscious mind to acknowledge and honour it within the client, to request its contribution.
Jennie	The unconscious mind is completely in charge when you are fast asleep in bed at night. When you wake up in the morning, it is as if in that waking you get a download of information, of consciousness, as you become aware of where you are, who you are, who you are with (laughter). At that moment as you are waking, and many people wake up just before the alarm (nod of confirmation) … you may be wondering what the time is and there is a remnant of a dream somewhere, you know who you are, your name etc and that is your consciousness coming back in That does not mean that the unconsciousness goes somewhere when you are awake, it has far too many tasks to do for you like that blinking that you are doing as we said before. Your conscious mind certainly goes somewhere when you sleep, as we can tell now by all kinds of equipment measuring brain wave activity, though your unconscious remains. It stays with you the whole time. It still tries to tell you about that dream during the day when you are far too busy to listen! (confirmation and laughter).
Client	Oh yes, I know. I’ve just had a new car and I keep having dreams about it.
Jennie	Really?
When you get an offering from the unconscious mind of the client, it is a gift, use it. Many therapists I know will throw away comments like this, wanting to get back on track to the weight issue, rather than explore the seemingly unrelated unconscious contributions. This is confirmation that the unconscious is communicating into conscious awareness, and the client feels safe enough to tell you their dreams. You often find some useful connections here.
Client	It’s driving me mad. You know when you can’t quite grab a hold of the dream? I think I have been thinking of the same one for days. I can’t get it out of my head.
Jennie	What remnant of the dream remains?
Client	It was about the car and I have a feeling that something bad was happening to it. (laughter) I can feel that sort of atmosphere of the dream but that’s it. I love dreams.
Jennie	You will know that the car represents something important to you.
Client	It was very unexpected. It was a gift. I was driving around in a tatty car beforehand..
Jennie	So the car was unexpected and precious? You may worry about something untoward happening to it? Now this is about what the dream means to you, not what you would read about in a dream dictionary. Maybe that car represents a fear of loss, it’s so nice you don’t want it to lose it. Quite often, by the way, clients contact us wanting to lose weight and I find that word ‘lose’ to be a very interesting word. I could lecture for hours about this, though basically we are programmed in this country particularly to think in terms of ‘losing’ weight. This programming is often intentional by the providers of food substitutes or the diet industry at large because big business corporations certainly have access to the latest research on the workings of the human mind. When we lose something, if you think of anything that you have lost in the past, it always has negative associations. If you lose your keys, or lose a loved one, or even lose consciousness! If you lose anything at all you put yourself in a bad mood, which you may chose to change by eating to make yourself feel better.
Client	That reminds me of a book I read once about stopping smoking which said ‘don’t ever say you are giving up because you make yourself think you are depriving yourself’.
Jennie	Yes, because physically, by depriving yourself, you lose energy, you feel vulnerable, helpless and hey, says the adverts, we’ve got this product that will really help! Not only does it put your unconscious mind in a bad mood, your unconscious mind will do everything that it can in order to go and find it again. That is because losing your keys, losing your memory, losing your way: its duty, when you lose something, is to go and find it. All those well meaning individuals who run the diet clubs and give all the advice on losing weight are most usually innocent of the fact that the industry is employing psychologists and others to promote feelings of dissatisfaction in dieting endeavours so that the high priced product is bought. And if they worked, by the way, long term, these organisations would be out of business.
	So part of what I want to tell you is that although we live consciously and we are mostly in charge and in control of our faculties etc, unconsciously we are being programmed all the time. Programming takes place in the big supermarket, whilst watching television (as the sound now goes up dramatically when the adverts come on), when engaging in everyday conversation with other women (usually) and within the conversations taking place in our own head to try and make sense of it all.
	So, when you are watching the film which is full of quiet suspense and subtlety, when you are looking for the tiny eye movement or increased tension in the jaw of the actor to determine whether he has committed the crime or not as he is defending his life, then comes the commercial break and ‘Scrub it and BANG!’ fills your senses followed by the oh so sensual ‘this isn’t just chocolate…..’
Client	I get so cross at adverts that shout at me!
Jennie	And if they don’t shout they will employ some powerful visual to get your attention. You will catch yourself now, because as soon as you are introduced to these concepts you go, ‘oooh’ it may be days, hours or weeks and you will see right through them. Commercials are designed, when you think about it, to put you into a somewhat negative state, to create the need within you and then the answer is here ‘ding’!
This is to tell the unconscious mind, mainly, that ‘it is not your fault, you have been programmed’. Also, it is to gear up the defences of that part of the mind to make it more resilient to such effects in the future.
Jennie	There is a lot of information to take in here though it is going to more useful if it is tailored to you specifically. Though there are commonalities within all of our experiences, and in allowing your awareness to expand you can laugh at these things and you are no longer affected by them in the same way. The more inner work you do the more resistant you are against it.. you will not become a born again advert protester, though to begin with they will irritate you, when you begin to laugh at them you realise you are not going to be taken in any more.
Now taking personal details, name address, date of birth etc, filling in client form.
Jennie	And you heard about us just by walking past?
Client	Yes, you know I have walked past the front of this building for years and suddenly, as I say, something just made me look.
Jennie	Isn’t it strange? You know we like to think that the unconscious mind only seriously addresses these kinds of issues when it is ready. Now’s the time. Well done.
More personal information volunteered now, and has small child that she is concerned does not adopt unhelpful eating patterns from her.
Jennie	At school, what was the subject you were most interested in?
Client	Literature and Art
Jennie	Did that mean by any chance that you were not particularly interested in Maths?
Client	(sharp intake of breath) I HATED Maths! No didn’t like Maths at all. I was terrible at Maths.
Jennie	It usually follows!
Client	Yes, my ex, brilliant at Maths, but no imagination at all!
Jennie	You know, it’s almost as though we somehow want to learn what it would be like to experience that which is totally different from ourselves on occasion and we engage with that through our partner isn’t it?
Client	Can I just grab a tissue here Jennie because I forgot to have my hayfever tablet this morning.
Jennie	Oh, so even though it is damp outside today you are affected?
Client	Oh yes.
Jennie	Were you born with that or did it develop?
Just can’t help myself here, allergies are dealt with so quickly, it is an opportunity to point out to the unconscious mind it may be time to take its power back and be free of this too.
Client	It developed in my early twenties.
Jennie	Do you know what happened at the time, what was significant in your life back when it began?
Client	Gosh no, I had it for a few years and it was just an itchy pallet and I didn’t know that that was a symptom of hayfever and it wasn’t until I read it in a magazine that …..
Jennie	THAT THE SYMPTOMS FULLY DEVELOPED?
Client	AND they DID! Yes, Gosh, don’t!
Jennie	Well, if you ever want that addressed we’ll do that for you! (laughter) Though I suspect you’ll be doing that for yourself now. The first time I treated someone for that was when I was doing a seminar in a hotel and I thought the girl on reception was upset. She explained it was hayfever and I found myself saying, ‘have you always had that then?’ Anyway, I brought her into the course when she was able to get cover and, in front of a large audience, I did this hayfever treatment with her and from her eyes being really puffy and her nose running etc within a couple of hours there were no symptoms and it was fantastic. I just tell you that for your unconscious to play with, because you reading that women’s magazine is a little like reading a book on illnesses isn’t it? You begin to feel, with some relief it must be said, that you must indeed have some lurgy that explains all of your symptoms until you read that it is confined only to the pygmy population in outer Mongolia or something like that!
	Some people who have discovered they have high blood pressure may have had certain stresses at that time that elevated it beyond the norm, though chances are that as soon as someone says, ‘oh your blood pressure’s a little high’ that it will be high again the next time it is taken in those same circumstances because of the ‘anchoring’ effect.
Introducing ‘anchoring’ here is useful for later therapy.
Client	I had preclampsia when I was pregnant and it changed minute by minute!
Jennie	Your body is in a constant state of flux. Watch anything at all about the physicality of the human body on one of these brilliant tv documentaries and you can become completely enamoured by its intelligence. Get a scratch on the back of your hand one day and you may notice it and say, ‘oh look there’s a scratch on the back of my hand I wonder how that got there’ and with total confidence you will know that within days it will have healed completely and almost disappeared. In fact, we can take this innate healing so much for granted that someone else usually comments on it when they notice the improvement. If you have any minor damage to any part of the body that is not debilitating you have expected it to go quickly and before you are aware of it, it has gone. When you bring your attention to something it sensitises it. So when you bring your attention to your hayfever (sneeze!) the symptoms would get worse before they get better.
	Your body constantly recreates itself! You know it is marvellous, as soon as that scratch on the hand is acknowledged, the cells start dividing, the blood supply is increased in that area, you know even now you are making bone? How do you make bone? Do you really need to know?
Client	It’s a miracle isn’t it?
Jennie	You kind of accept that miracle more readily when you are pregnant don’t you? You are aware of the fact that you are actually growing a human being and when your baby is born you think, wow, did I do that, how did that happen then! (laughter). Though every day is a miracle, your hair is growing, your nails are growing, your body is constantly in a state of flux. And knowing that to be true, there is no reason why a particular method of eating or even exercise would work in the same way for you your whole life through. You know sometimes some method will work beautifully for you for a certain amount of time and years later you put the same method into operation saying to yourself, ‘I know exactly what to do to lose weight’ and it doesn’t work. Your body and your mind is always evolving, changing and it may be a simple fact that you deprived yourself so readily and expertly last time and was so entirely miserable in the process, that your unconscious mind will now do all that it can to prevent it happening again! Maybe you were more resilient then and could distract yourself more from the discomfort, maybe deep down you would like to be happier than you were then and if happiness was once equated with being free to eat what you like and particularly those choccies and sweets then you can work out the rest. So we need to find out now what will be the most helpful for you at this stage in your life.
Client	Right.
More details taken now, about job, GP and medication. Conversation follows about wanting to come off some medication originally prescribed for depression years ago, and her now imagining she would become anxious, should she decrease the dosage as recommended by her doctor. I state that being depressed and being anxious are two different states and it is impossible to experience two opposing states at the same time
Client	You know, I have had some terrible things happen to me over the last eight years and the times I have been to the doctors about depression it has always been to do with my weight. Like ‘I can’t go on like this’. Always to do with my weight.
Jennie	You know if we were being filmed, some therapists would be saying, ‘why is she going into a discussion about something else rather than focussing on what the client came for, her weight issues?’ and yet you have just proved the validity of doing just that as you have now connected the depression and anxiety to your weight issues without me having to say anything.
	It is far more important than people think you know, weight issues, particularly with a lady. Although we might want to be perceived by the outside world as an intellectual being, as a personality etc, the first thing any stranger notices about us is our physical self…
Client	And it is the first thing we notice about other people.
These comments are offered to judge responses to how important client perceives the presentation of one’s physical self to be, as judgements of others are reflected in the harsh judgements of self. Access and treat one and usually, the other is positively affected too.
Jennie	We know this, because this is how we ourselves judge the world. We get to know somebody and then perhaps think they are not as bad as we at first thought and put our judgments to one side, eventually. We cannot escape the absolute truth that for our own survival and for our own sanity, we have to make these snap judgments and pigeon hole people before we know how to respond to them. Our own perceptions of how we relate to a ‘fat person’ and what we perceive about their lifestyle are important; is fat this, is fat that, is fat happy, is fat a Dawn French happy? We then overlay that as soon as we meet another, as if we put ourselves in their position, judging ourselves in the way that we would judge others and that leads to our lack of confidence. And then some others may completely overcompensate and the confidence that they are trying to construct makes them appear arrogant. It is a male/female divide, and also a cultural one, I have seen men in Greece stroking their bellies to attract favourable attention, as if to say, I am so rich and powerful I can afford all of this food and rich living and if you are lucky today, I might share it with you! (laughter) Different cultures perceive the idea of ‘fat’ in different ways. Though I would imagine, and it is for you to tell me, that you don’t perceive the idea of fat in a good light.
Client	I will think negatively about someone who is overweight and then chastise myself for thinking that way because how can I make that judgement when I am overweight? Maybe it is because I didn’t have a weight problem until my thirties and so I still perceive myself as slim. Though in saying that, my very best friend my whole life has always been very overweight and I love her to bits and I have never thought badly of her.
Jennie	So you realise now you are fighting against the perceptions of yourself rather than of other people. Perhaps if fat means lazy then you could be trying to prove to the world that you are not lazy, though proving that mostly to yourself. (nods of confirmation).
Client	Yes, as the weight came on I know now that I was desperate to appear to be more active and I joined a gym and all sorts. I can see what you mean about that.
Jennie	Ultimately it is how we perceive ourselves which can be our most supportive ally or it could be our saboteur too.
Client	Also, you asked me about parents and my mom has always had a thing about weight. She is always making comments to me and I think that plays a part doesn’t it?
In filling out the client form, there was a section about parents, whether they were alive or dead. Some clients cloak trauma to themselves by measuring time in different ways. For example, saying their father died when they were ten years old. Then, later, when asked when a particular problem first occurred, the client will say it began in such and such a year, or so and so years ago, which exactly coincides with them being ten years old. I had only asked fleetingly whether the parents were still alive and yet some time later, the unconscious brings the mother into the therapy as relevant. This is why all questions on your client form are useful.
Jennie	Yes. What comments does she make?
Client	Oh God, it can range from, if I have a biscuit at her house she will say ‘I thought you were on a diet’. Though if I am ‘being good’ she will be the first to keep offering me ‘bad’ foods. And if I refer to seeing a cousin of mine the other day she will say something like, ‘oh and she has put on a lot of weight as well hasn’t she?’ I would think ‘why would you say that?’ Her conversation is littered with comments such as that.
Notice again the references to being good and bad which indicate that eating ‘bad’ foods is perceived as naughty, exciting even, or rebelling against mom, exerting her own power.
Jennie	What is the most hurtful?
Client	She said once that I looked a mess.
Jennie	Is a mess to do with weight or hair?
Client	She didn’t say so but I knew it was to do with my weight. She said ‘just look at you, you’re just a mess’ and it really upset me.
Jennie	Yes
Client	Especially as, I suppose, I consider myself to be quite stylish, I have always liked to wear make up and, you know, from time to time I have let myself go. I would never dream of saying something like that to my mom.
Jennie	Let’s give you an example here to illustrate what I would like to say next. Let’s say there is a lady outside of the front of this building now and from our point of view there is no way she needs to worry about her weight, we would look at her and would think, wouldn’t it be great to look like that, she looks fantastic. And there is an eight year old boy on a skateboard not paying any attention to where he is going. Suddenly he crashes into this lady. She is stunned and he picks up his skateboard and shouts ‘fat cow!’ as he disappears down the street. Now, she would probably, (stereo-types here) get upset. Maybe not there and then, though maybe when she gets home, or she might ring up a friend and tell them all about it. Perhaps just before she goes to sleep tonight she sheds a few tears. It would perhaps affect her adversely. You see, insults only upset us if on some level of our being we believe them to be true. ‘On some level of our being’ means it could be out of our awareness, that this may be a fear about becoming fat, having remembered being teased as being fat at school, or simply a reflection of our own judgements as that is as bad as it could be for us to be that which we so despise.
Using metaphor here and some dissociation for the upsetting comments from mom to ease processing.
Jennie	So regardless of what anybody says beyond that, you know, family and friends saying things like, ‘don’t be stupid, look at you, you are fine’ (So now she’s fat AND stupid right?). Fat is an issue. One way or another, it is an issue for her, that’s what causes the upset, why her unconscious carries it with her into other parts of her reality, instead of dismissing the comment as irrelevant.
	You could say nobody really MAKES us feel upset, it is our reaction to the comment that is disturbing. We only get upset if we take it on board and judge ourselves just as harshly as the outsider.
Jennie	How much do you know about how your mom perceived her body as a child and how she was brought up by her mom? Rather than interrogate you about that(!) I want you to almost unconsciously take that on board to balance what is happening with you, sometimes when she is saying these things to you just be curious about ….
Client	about where that came from….
It is absolutely great when the client finishes the sentence for you, and in the correct manner too!
Jennie	Yes, because these things tend to get filtered down through generations and probably, I know I cannot say this with absolute truth, though probably her attempts to make you the perfect physical specimen have been kind of misinterpreted in her own mind. Her endeavours to make you as healthy as possible and for you to be physically perfect have maybe come out in the wrong way. She may have had the best of intentions though it has not come out right. No mother would intentionally screw up their child!
Client	No, you are right.
Jennie	Well, you know, nobody teaches us to be a mother, we draw on whatever resources we have and sometimes we may overdo something because it was a big thing for us when we were young and we want to ‘save’ our child from the same torment, though who knows what other imbalances might be created along the way. We draw on our own experiences of being a child and we get to that point when we catch ourselves saying something that our mothers used to say to us…..
Client	Oh I know! I’ve done that! (laughter)
Genuine good humour is such a valuable tool, it disintegrates (literally) the negative energy and ‘breaks state’ when enough information has been processed on a particular subject.
Jennie	How well do you sleep. Do you relax well?
	How about exercise?
Client	I go through phases. I used to like walking. In February this year I joined a ladies’ cycling club. With all the rain we had I stopped going as regularly and then altogether.
Jennie	Did the group stop?
Client	No, they still went but I didn’t fancy going in the rain. And I am not good in the heat at all and being overweight it has been worse. It seems to have gone by the wayside … I am thinking of joining the gym now.
There is contradiction here, so is it the damp and cold that hinders the activity or the heat? No need to bring contradictions to the surface, the client’s mind is aware and that is enough. Notice my next comment, introducing the idea of enjoying a physical activity.
Jennie	What will you enjoy at the gym?
Client	Well I…… I don’t enjoy the gym. When I first started cycling I remember saying I had finally found the exercise that I enjoy. Jenniehough I think I have got some sort of mental block about it at the moment.
Switching modalities now, from feeling to visual. She knows she has a block and that’s good. Notice the eyes will lift from looking down to searching up into the visual field.
Jennie	What is your bike like?
Client	It’s an old one that was made up for me and it does the job. I was even wearing the clip on shoes. I did the Devon coast to coast in April and was doing 70 miles in one day. But again, I have got this attitude of being all or nothing. I either stick to a diet or pig out. I am either doing lots of exercise or no exercise. I do tend to push myself and then forget I am not the same as I used to be. I push myself to the boundaries and my mum will tell me not to overdo it. I think that’s where I trip up because I end up exhausted.
Recognising within herself now that mom does care!
Jennie	Have you always been this hard on yourself?
Client	I don’t know! (laughter) Yes, I think so!
Jennie	So, standing beside yourself now if you could just now see this situation in an objective way. If this were your daughter talking to you saying these things, what would be the advice you would give to her?
Doing some ‘gesalt’ work now to aid processing.
Client	Chill out!
Jennie	I do chill out! If I chill out too much mom I won’t do any cycling at all so don’t tell me to chill out!
Client	I know what I would say, but if someone were saying it to me I suppose I would say, well, ‘how do you do that?’ I would say ‘just take it slower, don’t charge in ….’
Jennie	So this is the time to be gentle on yourself. You see, I am not expecting an answer, in fact if there were an answer I would think I had got all of that wrong then! (laughter). The fact that there is not an answer means that it is not available to you through your conscious awareness. Your unconscious knows. It’s like your unconscious is sitting there saying, ‘I have known for years!’ (laughter) ‘You haven’t listened to me have you! You do know that there is a mechanism within you that will balance all of this out. You have realised that it’s all or nothing with yourself as you have described it. So let’s make it quite ridiculous for you now. Let’s suggest that instead of dieting religiously for six months and then having two years off (laughter), that, say, you experiment in your mind now with dieting for one day and having the next day off. Because, well, what is the difference?
Client	Yes. Ok.
Jennie	So, being the personality that you are at the moment, going on past strategies, on the first day you would have a couple of lettuce leaves (laughter), cycle 70 miles, (laughter), and wake up in the morning saying, ‘oh right, today’s my fat day, I can eat whatever I want!’. So, what is it, what is it that you would look forward to eating?
Client	ohhhh, chocolate. Sweets, cake, biscuits.
Important information now, establishing what, specifically, are the changes in eating habits that will be of most use and promote the most noticeable changes in behaviour.
Jennie	Particularly what chocolate?
Client	I like it all!
Jennie	And biscuits, what biscuits in particular?
Client	I like them all. If I can’t make my mind up I will just take everything.. You know, like the vending machine at work in the morning break, a packet of crisps, a chocolate bar and going back and having another chocolate bar.
Jennie	And would you have had your healthy sandwiches with you at work?
Client	Yes, I probably would have taken fruit with me. And yoghurts. I would be prepared, but would still want them.
Jennie	So how would that affect how you felt, from having the chocolate bar and the crisps and then returning for another chocolate bar?
Client	It’s almost like physically you feel better because you are giving yourself that buzz, you have satisfied that need, but mentally, I know I have kind of sat there and weighed up who is there in the room (God it’s terrible) because you don’t want everyone to know that you have had two bars of chocolate…
Client is admitting shame. Important for the therapist to realise that client will be using the term ‘you’ to dissociate and presume that everyone else shares same dilemma, therapist knows statements do not apply to them. Beware of being hypnotised by your client!
Jennie	So this is ‘shame’
	Do you remember the adverts presented by the celebrities of the time eating oozing fresh cream cakes seductively saying the slogan ‘naughty, but nice’? And how about the pretty young girl in the field eating the chocolate flake? So you can forgive yourself on this score, because you see you did not DECIDE on these actions. Consciously you planned to eat the healthy sandwiches and yoghurts you had prepared for yourself. Unconsciously, which became a habit at a certain point in time, what you were perhaps looking for was the excitement, the fulfilment of desire, the ‘getting away with it’ even. It wasn’t about the nutritional content of the foodstuffs though it is time for me now to draw my graph.
	You may know this though it is always good to bring it through to consciousness. When you wake up in the morning your blood sugar level will have stabilised.
I am now drawing a graph to illustrate the exaggerated peaks and troughs of blood sugar levels throughout the day of a sugar addict.
Client	Yes
Jennie	Everything you have learned in the past is useful; though now is a new time. I want you to begin to relate to your body as a biochemical machine. Which is what it is, and to understand now what happens physically within the body. After this session your mind is going to be back in control, after you now realise how your body has been affected chemically by these behaviours. To assist with that I shall draw the graph. Most times when you get up in the morning you have had something sweet. Cereal with sugar that you say you cannot eat without Anything sweet, marmalade, jam, sugar etc (and this is not saying that any food is ‘bad’ this is just for understanding what happens chemically to you) will shoot your blood sugar right up. This will feel good. You will have an abundance of energy, your physical self will have this increase in energy and your body will not need to break down any fat into glucose which is what happens when you break down fat, the fat turns into sugar. Even if you were a body builder and all you ate was protein, eggs and steak all the time, your very clever body would convert the excess protein into sugar. It would be a harder task for it to do, but it would. It is a survival mechanism. If you have freely available sugars just go into your bloodstream and elevates it dramatically. You know that your body is always aiming for balance, so if you have excess alcohol it would be striving to purify the system and stabilise it once again. Your body is always striving for balance and to be ‘normal’ so what it does here, is that it releases insulin to bring about that stability as quickly as it can. If you have a lot of sugar, hopefully there is going to be a lot of insulin unless you are heading towards being diabetic. Which then means you may experience a drop in that energy, it’s not really a drop, though compared to the elevated levels you have experienced it seems like an unpleasant place to be. This coincides with your mid morning break. There is memory within every cell, the latest scientific research by Candace Pert (discoverer of the opiate receptor) proves so. So it is as if your very body then remembers how good it felt when you had the chocolate bar last time and guess what?
Client	Wants it again!
Jennie	To begin the cycle again. Yes. The signals will be going back up into your brain to say we want to feel that energy again and your instinct will be to go back to the vending machine.
	There is also, coupled with this, a kind of wave permeating from way back when of all that deprivation coming flooding through you, that now you are a grown up, now your mom’s not here to watch, almost represented by those others around you, there is now a naughtiness that I can do what I want and it’s my money anyway…….. etc.
	Your experiment then would be, because don’t trust what anybody says, don’t believe everything I say, do this for yourself and find your evidence. Test it out for yourself, if you woke up tomorrow morning and had eggs instead of cereal you will not get the up and down of the blood sugar - nuts are good too. Then just see if your appetites are different. Relate to food as if it were friend or enemy, rather than blaming yourself for the cravings.
I am sensing now that I have enough from the client to work with, so now my voice is becoming more assertive, more commanding and the hidden commands are coming through, to benefit the client who is looking for direction. ‘… believe everything I say, do this for yourself’
Jennie	Tell me how different you feel your behaviour needs to be at this point in time in order for you to be the physical size and shape you want and what it is specifically you would want to be different from this moment onwards for you.
More commands, ‘.. your behaviour needs to be [different] … to be the physical size and shape you want…. You want to be different from this moment …. For you. Establishing need for change whilst empowering client to do this for herself. Requiring client to be specific as to what changes need to be in place.
Client	I want to be more in control. I feel I am at the mercy of my emotions or cravings or mixture of both. It is always such a big issue. Every time I am eating I am either feeling self righteous or guilty and I don’t want it to be such an issue for me anymore. I want to feel easy around food and make the right choices naturally.
Jennie	Can you remember a time when you did eat naturally?
Client	I went on my first diet when I was 18. Prior to 18 I didn’t have an issue with food
Jennie	… and you didn’t have an issue with weight?
Client	That’s right
	JK – so it began when you were 18 then. So for those years before there were times when you didn’t even want to come in for tea, or you wanted to stay outside on your bike, did you ride a bike when you were young?
Client bringing up the fact that pre dieting, everything was fine physically and emotionally with food. It begs the question as to why the first diet was embarked upon though we trust unconscious has spotted that one too…. Putting the client now into a suggested situation that she can challenge or agree upon, though main idea is to return to positives of pre diet experience and re-establish.
Client	Oh yes
Jennie	… and you just wanted to stay out there on your bike and somebody was running after you with a cardigan (laughter) and you didn’t even know it was cold?
Client	(laughter)No!
Jennie	So you will know, by watching your daughter, you will know and you will remember as you unconscious will enable this to happen, that once the obsession has stopped, or held in abeyance, even for half an hour, you will remember when you have taken her to school and watched children just run for the sake of running. They invent games so that they can run about.
Client	Yes, they do.
Jennie	Until they get perhaps to teenage years there is no child skulking in the background leaning against the wall, they are all running around.
Client	That’s right yes
Jennie	And there are those parents who are saying ‘just stay here, don’t you dare run off’ and by the way, the unconscious mind does not recognise a negative, so if you ever hear yourself or anyone else, saying to your child, ‘don’t you dare run’, or ‘now when we get to this place, I don’t want you to….’ And then we describe the very behaviour we don’t want them to do! In the same way, if you were saying to yourself repeatedly, ‘I mustn’t forget my keys in the morning, I mustn’t forget to post that letter, or in the morning I mustn’t forget to take something out of the freezer ready for dinner’, your unconscious has to make a picture in your mind of you NOT doing the thing that you want to do, in order to try and discount that possibility! (laughter) All it thinks about is forgetting the keys, finding the urgent bill still in your handbag after the last post has gone, or searching the cupboards for something to eat that doesn’t resemble a frozen brick. Much more useful to say, ‘in the morning I shall remember my keys, I shall remember my keys, remember my keys’. So, because children are operating at mostly an unconscious level, the worst thing that we can do really, again with all good intentions, is to say, ‘don’t you dare run’ or ‘when we there, don’t go running off like you did last time’, because they are imagining themselves, on your instruction, running off and then trying to negate it. It may never have occurred to them to do such a thing, but you put it right there in their visual cortex.
Client	Yes! (laughter)
Jennie	Much more effective to promote the positive rather than to install the negative, if you like. So, you would like things to be different. From what you have said to me and what you have said to your unconscious mind, you would like things to be different and you would like things to be more balanced. You would almost like to have the same attitude to food that you had when you were 18?
Client	Yes. But in saying that, I have got to lose weight, so I have got to take that into account too. Whereas then, I did not have a weight problem, so it would have been easier, does that make sense?
Client is now saying she began the first diet unnecessarily, because she didn’t have a weight problem at aged 18. Often in retrospect we can see ourselves without imbalance, having sympathy for the younger self and how harshly we judged ourselves back then. Speak to any pensioner, looking back at photographs of their smooth skin and glossy hair and they will tell you how they wished they had appreciated it at the time. Her present self perceives that she did not have a weight problem then, though her 18 year old self must have thought otherwise. She senses the contradiction, which is why she asks if it makes sense. I have been reframing the idea of exercise, to balance the emphasis on eating less in order to redress the balance. It may be, as some have demonstrated in the past, that client needs to eat more of the ideal foods at the ideal times for her metabolism to be more effective. Many ex-dieters have slowed down their bodily processes by deprivation and may indeed be overweight and undernourished. Every ‘body’ reacts differently to different foods, at different times. Therefore, I feel I need to present something to bring that fact into focus. Remember she has been a diet club leader for a long time and is programmed to ignore her body’s signals and look to charts and tables for answers. What we are aiming for here is to acknowledge the needs of the body (mid morning snacking) rather than to deny the hunger, and to use that opportunity for new behaviours. She is reaching out, as many do, for something to help her feel better, she will still do that, when her inner self has realised that what she is presently reaching out for is an inappropriate solution that makes life more difficult for herself.
Jennie	Well, does it make sense to you: what we are talking about here I think is energy in and energy out, which I know is a very valid equation and is deeply rooted in most of us. What I would like to point out to you now, and I am talking to your unconscious mind now, I have almost stopped talking to your consciousness, is, let’s say we have twins in front of us. One twin is most obviously fat and the other is more or less ‘normal’ whatever we perceive that ‘normal’ to be. Let’s also say that they ate the same foods. There are some people out there that seem to eat everything in sight and yet are as skinny as a rake.
Client	That’s true
Jennie	There are some people out there who seem to hardly eat anything and yet there are obese. Now become a little bit more scientific about it, because the energy in and energy out principle is important yes, though some people’s bodies, for their own internal reasoning, hold onto energy and other people burn it off or eliminate it. So if you and, who do you know who is slim?
Client	My friend Joanne..
Jennie	JK – so if you and your friend Joanne went out tonight and had a sumptuous feast and really overdid the eating thing, in the morning, she might spend more time on the toilet.
	Whereas, your body, for its own reasons, might react in terms of ‘oh, better hold onto that energy, you never know she may diet again soon and deprive us of what we need’. Your body might hold onto more energy than someone else’s body so it is not always merely to do with what you eat, but also to do with how your own particular body chooses to process that energy consumed. This has all been explored now in the new science that is out there, like this work by Candace Pert termed ‘Your body is your Subconscious Mind’ which is basically saying that your conscious brain is not in charge, as much as we might like to think it is. You have already proven this to yourself by consciously deciding on a course of action, like intending to eat healthy foods at work and spending time planning, buying, preparing those foods and taking them in to work and then finding yourself behaving differently when in particular circumstances.
	So your body might be wanting to hold onto energy. You are a very busy person and talk about being tired and wanting more energy, and what is fat after all but stored energy? If some excess fat were sucked out of you right now into a jar in front of you it would resemble a yellow liquid….
Client	I’ve had that done, on my legs, years ago.
Jennie	Successfully?
Client	Well it made me more in proportion, but I have put weight on again …
Jennie	So your body, being in this state of flux, reverts back?
Client	Yes
Jennie	So we are talking about this yellow liquid, this stored energy and for some reason when it is under the skin we begin to detest it because, being caught underneath the dermis, it is now part of us. Tell me what foods you really detest. What could you not stomach having in your mouth right now?
Client	Any meat, because I am a vegetarian. I’m not keen on olives and …mussels, or anything slimy.
Jennie	I like olives though I know many people do not. They tell me they are somewhat slimy and leave a coating on the roof of your mouth…
Client	Oh yeah….
I am now judging reactions; I want something repulsive to her to work with. I shall be overlaying these reactions to her stated uncontrollable desire for chocolate using physical and auditory anchors.
Jennie	Have you eaten an oyster?
Client	Oh now, I can imagine that would be like eating slugs….
Jennie	Cockles?
Client	Oh no. (gagging)
Jennie	Now I’m just going to do a little bit of NLP here with you. When you think about eating something slimy, whether it’s the olives, or oysters or, perhaps that floppy smoked salmon do you like that? (holding anchor point)
Client	Oh no! No.
Jennie	It’s so floppy, and sloppy, and slimy (laughter plus cringing)
Client	Ugh!
Jennie	I want you to think about the smell of it, and the smell of mussels, and the overwhelming fishy smell and close your eyes for second and imagine now that someone is going to pay you a million pounds if you can put this thing in your mouth and swallow it… .. so it’s coming towards your mouth now, even you can use this hand to pretend that you are holding a mussel and there’s a couple of olives in there too, those really soft, slimy ones that perhaps are past their best, and it is all wrapped up in a bit of smoked salmon. It is coming towards your mouth now and as it is coming nearer and nearer your mouth now (client moving hand towards mouth involuntarily) and the smell increases and it is just about to go into your mouth now (client grimacing) you are going to get a million pounds remember to pop it into your mouth now. In your mouth now and it’s all sloppy and slimy and you’ve got to bite it because you couldn’t possibly swallow it as it is and as you do so it’s all so slimy and slug-like in your mouth as the intensity of the flavours double and then double again and you try and get rid of it by swallowing it now and the intensity of what you are feeling you double it again now as you are aware of the slimy residue that’s left in the mouth that you can’t seem to be rid of, almost now you want to throw up because your body is rejecting it, no matter what your mind thinks like, ‘I’ve got to swallow it I’m going to get a million pounds!’, it is your body, your body is rejecting it, wanting to be rid of it, be rid of it now by bringing it back up again and out of your body, it’s coming back up (gagging sound) and back up (gagging)…… can you feel that?
Client	[Gagging]
Jennie	That residue on your tongue now, the roof of your mouth, the back of your throat, that salty, slug-like residue as if you are on the program ‘I’m a celebrity get me out of here’ and it is one of those whitatchity bugs or whatever and there are little eyes now at the back of your throat and they just won’t go down! Arghh. . You can always remember that slimy slug-like coating on the roof of your mouth, the back of your throat and your tongue to help you in the future. You know what it was like when you were a small child and you just wanted to bob your tongue out because you really don’t want that stuff in your body? Your tongue wants to protect that body of yours and remember when you cannot get the spoon into the toddler’s mouth because the tongue comes to the front and actually gets bigger…. That’s right! (tongue protruding) Gets bigger, engorges, to push all that stuff you don’t want out, pushing it out….ok you can open your eyes now. (releasing anchor) Wasn’t that lovely?
I have used the eyes from the bug to capitalise on client being a vegetarian (won’t eat anything with a face) and regressing to her own childhood and to her time spent weaning her daughter with the natural tongue autonomic behaviour, mixing up the tenses to convey that to the unconscious mind (remember when you cannot get… all that stuff you don’t want).
Client	(looking sick and a little pale) yeah. (laughter)
Jennie	So now, what I want you to do is to show me and to show yourself just how well you do this relaxing thing we spoke of.
Client	Alright.
Jennie	Show me the ultimate in how you relax your physical self.
Client	(sighs of relief)
Jennie	You can just listen to the music and allow your eyes to close and you probably realise right now that as relaxed as you now are there is still further to go. There is more that you can do right now to relax more and more. You are going to experience hypnosis which is a state of awareness, which is a different state to what you are in now. Formal trancework begins now. Notice repeatedly use of ‘now’ and ‘right now’ to bring attention to present moment and a breaking of state from what has gone before, which we will return to when appropriate. You will be aware of how deepy relaxed you are becoming right now. You may have thought of hypnosis as being some sort of sleep, now it is as if your body is asleep though your mind is active. And I might suppose that the mind may from time to time think well, I don’t know, is this hypnosis, what’s she going to do next? So all the ‘yamma yamma’ all the ‘yeh, but’ of the conscious mind can just go into the background… you will know that it will still be there and it carries on now without your attention Opportunity here to diffuse client’s internal dialogue and definitions of hypnosis and meet with what therapist presumes to be going on within the consciousness in order to discount such interferences. … you will not become completely unconscious and there will be changes. All that I want you to do now is just to listen to the sound of my voice and allow everything that we have discussed to be brought to the surface. It is time to now settle down into the deeper part of the mind, all of the curiosity, the wisdom and information you have about the past and about your own behaviour and what you want for you in the future is all there now being processed in the mind and all you have to do right now is to relax deeper and allow these ideas to turn over and over in your mind and yet they go now further and further into the background as it becomes more and more important now for you to just let go. You know that they are always there and take comfort now that thoughts feelings and perceptions are continually moving, changing and evolving just like all the noise that you can hear, when you bring your attention to it right now you will be able to hear the ticking of the clock just ticking away …. You may even be able to hear people passing by the front of this building, going about their busy lives, footsteps now and, cars somewhere in the distance, life at a distance. That’s right, you are doing so well. Important to assure client that they are doing well. So many (even other hypnotists) worry at this point that they are ‘not doing it right’ or that it is not working for them. Giving the permission for the mind to wander, as it will, whilst guiding all the time, together with assurances that everything is going according to some kind of plan, is vital. You can focus your attention now on whatever interests you, it may be the sound of my voice, it may be the music in the background, it may be the ticking of the clock because it is time now to just let go. Maybe you begin to notice now the hardness of the arms of the chair against your forearms or the softness of the cushion against your back, the back of your head, supporting your heels, your calves, it may be a child’s voice somewhere in the distance, a memory, or a projection into the future of how you want to be, wherever your focus is right now, my voice becomes the loudest sound you hear, everything else just washes over you and helps you to relax, because now is a good time for you to ;;;;; just ;;;;; relax. All you have to do is breathe. You know exactly where you are in time and space. You know exactly where I am. So much so now, as your awareness increases, that as I turn my head this way, you know, even with your eyes so comfortably closed, behind closed lids now, your perceptions are changing and evolving and you allow yourself to let it all slow right down. Client will usually have closed eyes by now. I want honest, unconscious, eye closure. Had eye closure been too early, I would have requested her to open them so that only when she was absolutely ready to go into a deeply relaxing trance would that happen, all by itself. If eye closure had not happened by this time, I would state how they are the tiniest muscles of the body and the easiest to relax, and perhaps related instances where typically one cannot keep them open (watching film late at night or safely relaxed on a long journey etc). It is important to give feelings of comfort and safety and assurances once eye closure has occurred. Notice again, the use of the word ‘now’ to encourage focus and the word ‘here’ which could be interpreted as ‘hear’ to bring attention to the ‘here and now’. Allowing now my voice to guide you, to help you and to empower you. As you are relaxed here right now, just like you are safely relaxed completely late at night in the privacy, the comfort and the safety of your own bed, you know your unconscious mind is always listening out for you, keeping you safe, so the traffic you hear, the birds, the sounds in the distance you allow those sounds to relax you deeper, and yet if there was a knock at the door, or if the telephone rang in the middle of the night your unconscious would allow you to wake, so your unconscious mind knows exactly when to wake you and when to allow you to relax completely. Just like now. Here. Your unconscious mind remembers all of those things that you have brought into your awareness about your self, your physical self, your emotional self, your attitudes, your beliefs about your weight and this body’s ability to store energy.
I am overlaying the state of being safe in her own bed, with what she is experiencing now, respecting the unconscious by assuring her it will ‘wake’ her if necessary (though she will not be asleep the physical relaxation is similar to the sleep state). By drawing attention to the noises she was hearing and is now hearing, I am suggesting she disregard them. By using the term ‘this body’ I am dissociating somewhat, referring to it now as something of a possession she has, something that she can do something with.
	I want you to think about energy now. And sense it, within your body now. Sense the beating of your own heart and wonder with fascination, with curiosity now how the engine of you (van starting its engine outside) is just purring away powerfully in your chest, wondering where that energy comes from and goes to, the energy that makes you, you. Let’s follow that energy, the life force, around the body. For as the blood gets pumped through every muscle nerve and fibre of your being I want you to follow it now, all the way to the tips of your fingers, the ends of your toes and feel it surging, tingling, pulsating, the energy, the life force as you take in a deeper breath now (deep breath together, checking pacing and leading) you can take it for granted and you will continue to take it for granted now that your breath brings you energy.
A good example here of ‘use what is there’. Someone started up a van directly outside of the practice window which could have been distracting, so I employed it within the trance experience. It may also then become an anchor for her in the future, whenever unconscious she hears an engine starting or revving up, it will remind her of her own engine. Also, every so often I am checking for pacing and leading, breathing a little deeper or shallower every so often to ensure she is still following my lead.
	You know, you can do without food for weeks, without water for hours and yet you cannot go for a moment with breathing. So this natural, easy and highly complex thing that you do every moment of every day brings you energy and comfort as it does right now. Breathe in the air from around you as your very clever lungs filter out the life giving oxygen and send it around this body carried by the blood through now to every muscle nerve and fibre of your being and feel it now, far quicker than I could ever say, feel your body releasing all the pollutants, the toxins, the carbon dioxide, all that stuff that you no longer need. Every moment of every day you take in that which you want and release that that is no longer useful and your very breath reminds you. Your breath reminds you to utilise the energy that is already there within you. How you utilise the energy from the foods that you eat and the drinks that you drink also becomes entirely fascinating to you, how much energy you use, how much you store and how much you just release, easily and effortlessly, your body becomes so interesting, so very curious to you, every cell vibrating with life, with energy, life flowing through your veins bringing pleasant sensations now. Think about your hands for a moment, all the little bones, the fibres of your hands, think about how you can now reach out for that which you want, just like you learned to do, just like your child learned to do at a very early age, that time when you realised that that was your hand, that that was your arm and you could use it, you could reach out for that which you wanted and you did. And with glee, with joy, you learned also that you could release and send that spoon or some fluffy toy bouncing on the floor, laughing and giggling whilst someone else picked it up for you. Oh the power! The power of being able to reach out for that which you want and releasing that that is no longer useful. You are reconnected now with this body of yours. It is always there and it is always striving for balance so the more that you realise of how you have treated your physical self in the past, exercising it too rigorously, depriving it of nutrition it needed, chastising yourself for eating the ‘wrong’ things or for not being ‘good’ enough and thereafter going to the other end of the spectrum and making up for that which you had deprived yourself from and consuming more than was necessary for this body, allow it just to balance out for you now you know exactly what to do for yourself now, you know where that balance is as you have experienced both extremes, you see yourself now as your own unique experiment .
I have become very passionate in my delivery now, taking the process of breathing in and out and developing it as the ultimate anchor for help in the future, and right now. I am generating a deep appreciation of bodily functions and what already works really well for her. Often, when one is dissatisfied with the body one overlooks the brilliance of its workings in other respects. I have regressed to her own babyhood and the recollections of her own child’s behaviour, by speaking of the first awareness of the physical self and operation of the limbs and bringing the past into present realisation to move on from that now.
	All the learnings of the past are there to help you now, though today is a new day and this is a new time and that hand, those arms, those hands that reach out for that which you want will continue to reach out for that which you want ….. though that which you want is changing.
This is a key point. “… that which you want is changing.” After a suitable pause, adding this phrase I have found to be truly illuminating for the client. It has legions of depth. We are saying here that we know the unconscious is doing whatever it is that it is presently doing because it wants to, regardless of the reasoning behind it, regardless of the behaviour being perceived as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ by the rest of the mind (remembering this was an issue for this client and for many). We are acknowledging that she is reaching out for what she wants and will still do so, though suggesting that there may be better choices, other ways, to fulfil that want. We are in the domain of the ‘new behaviour generator’, not suggesting what she should do to instead, just opening up the choice. Choice is only in the domain of the consciousness, which remember we still have access to; we are reminding the mind of that.
	I want you to sense them now reaching out for some chocolate. (holding anchor) you know how much you used to like chocolate, sense now going to that vending machine and sense now having all that chocolate at your disposal. You always reach out for that which you want and that which you want is changing. The chocolate that you have been programmed to believe from an early age would be helpful, would be exciting, would help you to feel better, now you are about to sense the truth.
	I want you to sense where this chocolate began. You are in a factory somewhere and there is a big steel vat containing the cocoa beans. Big cutters are grinding those bitter beans into a power. As the ancient Aztecs discovered, these cocoa beans can be ground up to make a very bitter drink, so this company that wants to make a lot of money from you, mixes into this big vat of cocoa beans that are being all ground up they put in lots and lots of sugar into it now. And oh, yes, milk, a glass and a half of full cream milk, we need lots of milk in this very big vat and what’s another term for full cream milk, yes, full FAT milk, litres and litres and full fat milk. Sense the machinery now all whirring away, the blades mixing it up, stirring it around and around, this big vat now of cocoa beans, all ground up with loads and loads of sugar and full fat milk, to make it taste nice, to take the bitterness away and yes, now what can we do to solidify it, to make it all into pretty shapes and put it into fancy packaging, very glitzy, shiny packaging to cover up such a dull brown substance, what can we do? They shall be choosing some bright purple shiny foil I should think to cover up such a dark brown substance to make it attractive to the general public. What can we do to make it into those shapes, to make it solidify. Oh yes. Fat. We have to add some fat now to congeal it, sense them adding the fat, the hydrogenated fat now to make it all stick together. They are having to heat it up now of course for the fat to melt, all those bars of hard fat now melting into the vat, swirling around, making the substance all glossy and thick …. And slimy. Sense it now cooling as it comes onto the conveyor belt now shaped into bars and strips and little chocolates filled with other sweet sugary substances, anything to make it taste nice to the public.
I am reframing her main addiction, chocolate, here. Voice tone is important, emphasis on the word ‘fat’ to highlight correlation between it’s fat content and her body’s fat content. I am transferring the hatred of her body’s fat onto the fat of the chocolate, always very successful. She had money issues too, so I am utilising that fact in this being a big company setting out to fool her into parting with her hard earned cash.
	Sense now the discussions that take place as the bars are being wrapped, of the morals and values of the staff, don’t we have an obligation now to all those children out there that are now becoming diabetic …. And there is a sister company somewhere else that decides to make the diabetic chocolate, and the diet food, as they address the public’s need to now buy all the diet stuff to try and slim their bodies down. Sense the struggle and … sense the lie. …. As these chocolate bars come off the conveyor, come off the production line now, all in their glitzy packaging, and somehow there they are, in a box, ready to be put into your vending machine now, sense someone filling it up now, hoping and knowing that you are going to buy them. And you and your children, and your children’s children will continue to think that these are such good things, that they make you so happy until you get to the point when you get so fat and unhappy that you stop eating it for a while and turn to all that diet food instead. All the clever marketing, all the adverts, the billboards, will get you back on track again, eating their products, eating the stuff from the vat. Imagine now that you are there, you have put your money into the machine, you have reached out your hand for the chocolate, it is coming towards you now. You have ripped off the packaging and it is going to bring you so much happiness, you used to think, it is in fact going to raise your blood sugar level and make you hungry as it now (holding anchor) touches your lips and you realise just how slimy it is. How the fat is now melting in your mouth and slipping down your throat and just like the mussels and the olives and the smoked salmon it almost tastes fishy now. As it slithers down your throat and slides its way down your oesophagus creating all that flem that now you realise where it come from, all that flem, that mucus and cloggy-ness in your throat and your throat wants to throw it back up again…
Client	[gagging]
The phrase, ‘..sense the lie’ is of great value here. The pauses […] accentuate those ideas you want to add emphasis to. We are honouring the unconscious and asking it to evaluate truth for itself. The suggesting is that she has been somewhat beguiled by past conditioning and by commercial exposure; now we are encouraging the mind to think for itself as to the usefulness of such actions. The anchor point is really useful here too. Remember, you are aiming for an extreme reaction; repulsion so heightened that you may think client could actually be sick. This is necessary for future encounters with addictive substance, reaction will not be as extreme, so the unconscious will remember the association and that will be enough to know it does not want to put it in the mouth. This always works well.
Also, suggesting ‘you, your children and your children’s children’ is encouraging her to make new choices for the benefit of future generations of offspring, to break the established pattern, giving her the power to stop her own child suffering too.
Jennie	And the intensity that you feel now with the olives and the smoked salmon all combines with that slimy-ness on the roof of your mouth and your tongue and the back of your throat - you know that you have just got to have a drink now to wash off the residue.
	To clear you now, to cleanse, to purify the insides of you. All that brown, slimy residue that was down your throat, clinging onto the sides of your intestines, is beginning to clear now with that clean fresh pure water. That that seemed so attractive once on the outside is now just a muddy pool of brown water in your stomach. It is not now the pretty promise wrapped up in shiny packaging, but a muddy, slimy pool of syrupy water that your body is trying to deal with. The sugar is absorbed through the intestinal wall straight into the bloodstream and it tricks you now into feeling you have had some sort of energy and you know it is false.
	Slimy, fatty, so prettily dressed up in the vending machine (funny) calling your name. You have a plan, your eggs, your nuts, things that sustain that balance as you see yourself as an experiment in your biochemical machine .
	H20 now, there is oxygen in water remember, energy, refreshing balancing this body, the internal organs purifying now, and if you think of ever eating anything that will harm this body or not bring it the health and vibrancy it deserves, you will laugh. You will smile when you think of something that is not good for the health and vitality of this body - the tongue grows bigger, sense it saying ‘don’t like don’t want’. Getting bigger and bigger now pressing against the back of the teeth protruding now through the lips, that’s right. This soft pink healthy tongue reminds you when you brush your teeth in the morning, it reminds you of the inside of you. Imagine it now coated in that brown slime and then refreshed by the clear water. And choose. You now see chocolate for what it is, something that makes you hungry! Your tongue craves healthy vibrant fresh food and water and now it can relax. When it is needed, when it is necessary it will be used again.
I will see the tongue protruding through the lips now, as confirmation of the effectiveness of this anchor. I shall now proceed to cross reference effectives with ideo motor signals.
	It only remains for me to ask this finger that I am touching now to respond to me from deep within the unconscious mind. Are you now willing to help you in your endeavours to bring about health and vitality to this body. Is the unconscious now willing and wanting to bring about the necessary changes ; does it have enough information to bring about these changes….. Good. I am now going to give you one minute of clock time to experience just how good life will be as you now make those new choices, implement these improved choices, experience now, hear the word ‘experience’ , … you will now experience the next two weeks, in your mind now, see what you would see, hear what you hear, feel all the feelings…
	See all of the foods, experience yourself behaving in a new way that brings about the changes that you want for you. You will be using new behaviours in place of the old un-useful ones.. That one minute of clock time begins NOW…..
I have been using the ideo motor responses of the forefinger to gain confirmation from the unconscious. I am looking for honest, unconscious responses and the client is always intrigued by this on emerging from trance. It is often one of the confirmatory indicators the ‘resistant client’ may need to know that hypnosis has taken place. I am now directing the client to ‘future pace’ the next two weeks, experimenting with new choices and behaviours. It is important that the client designs them for herself, being ‘suitably vague’ in your direction, the unconscious will rejoice in being given free reign to create its own behavioural set and then to experiment. I have witnessed other therapists look away at this crucial time, fiddling with papers, or merely having a break! It is so important to look now for eye movement under the lids, indicating that they are visualising scenes from this period, maybe also the shadow of a frown or slightest of smiles. I clarify these new behaviours when the time is completed by asking if they were accessible and acceptable to other parts of the mind and will she choose to use them in her reality during the next two weeks. I may also choose to get the unconscious to confirm further acceptance with the phrase, ‘are these behaviours acceptable to all the parts of the mind?’ Sometimes I leave the door wide open, so to speak, by inferring that this begins a process within the client where the creative part of the mind will continue to come up with new and positive ideas to experiment with in the client’s reality, so that all aspects of life improve.
Jennie	See yourself in this body now balancing and normalising. The chemicals and substances you were attracted to in the past you are now free from. Sense what it really means to be free, to choose, Choice. Real energy, real health, free of all the limitations of the past, free of all the comments, free all of the pain, free to begin anew to decide what works for this body. You are now in charge - your arm reaches out for that which is good healthy, nutritious and full of health and vitality for this body and you move this body easily in ways that you enjoy.
My voice tone will be one of relief, building to excitement, ending with a matter of fact tone. The idea here is to exaggerate the profound change that has taken place, with relief that the past is over, excitement at the experiments about to begin and then implying the client can take it all for granted now because the new ways of behaving are so normal and integrated into her being. I often use the word ‘free’ having found it to connect with some part of the client so profoundly. Free has a great impact on those who previous felt trapped by circumstance or behaviour. I end with the count up from one to five, increasing positivity and lightness of expression to bring back to full awareness with all good feelings in place.
Jennie	Now back to full conscious awareness with a big smile on your face! Well done, well done!

Session Transcript 2

Recreating the Problem

Came from Halesowen, discussion about travelling to practice.