case x

 

We met 8th June 2018. She came to my home for appointment, in a beautiful, sunny day. We discussed about her situation and we went back to that time when the pain began. We went through her life and experiences of that time. And at some point I heard her say the words that I now know that are like gold. "I have never ever before said this out loud but..." When completing the sentence she accepted her past with compassion and love, from the heart.. 

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I started to see the big picture and I decided what kind of a rehearsal I will proceed with. I told her that we might do several rehearsals, since she was my first client with a pain disorder. I had not that many inductions yet to choose of, so I chose to give her a very deep relaxation. Relaxing is anyway a great induction for first-timers to reach a trance if theta was needed. 

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The first rehearsal worked great. We created her a meter measuring her pain. I asked her to look at the meter to see - what number is it pointing for the state of her pain right then. The scale on that meter was from 1 - no pain at all to 10 -the strongest pain she ever felt. She replied 8. This rehearsal goes like, I ask the client to move the pointer down in her mind and feel the pain to grow smaller along the pointer. And to my surprise, she then was able to move the pointer down, until number 3. One number at a time. Then she stopped. She could not make it to number 2. I figured, that maybe she don´t remember anymore, what it feels like if there is only a little of pain. She had been really painful already almost 10 Years. So, I gave her a visualisation of a very tiny pain. Like, falling as a child and hitting her knee on green, soft grass. And she made it. My breath almost stopped. I was not surprised when she was not able to turn the pointer down to 1 - no pain at all. I then gave her an image of a beautiful summer day, so warm and happy. Swimming and floating in a lake, eyes in the bright blue sky and wandering clouds. And I looked at her, and there it was. She gave me a sign. Her pointer was now on number 1 - no pain at all. 

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I was very clearly aware that in hypnosis I was not allowed to remove the pain totally. You see, if the client has something badly wrong, like a surgical wound, that condition might get worse if there was no pain as a warning. Pain is relevant for us when we need a reminder of our condition.

 

I then told her that I´d now allow her to enjoy this wonderful feeling for a few minutes. This way I also received a few minutes to think it over. What to do now? I looked at her. She was so beautiful there. Tranquility was on her face. Skin so smooth and even. All the signs of pain were gone. I thought, "Maybe this is the first time in ten years, without pain. How could I ever put some of that pain back to her..?" There was no point in doing other rehearsals now. But this client was someone I knew from before, I could call her the next day, I figured. I could ask her to come back if needed. I could call her every day, watch her. And I gathered all my courage and just brought her up from the trance. 

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Well, it is pretty much clear that this experience was really strong for her. She had never experienced anything like this. She had been somewhere else, in a different state. It had been kind of a bit scary too. She was sweating and she was a bit breathless. Her sore hand was shaking, it was almost uncontrollable if she tried to lift it. But the pain had not yet come back. She told me how grateful she had been back there when I gave her those minutes to enjoy of that painless moment. She had been convinced that the pain would come back when I´d bring her up from the trance. But - it didn't come back right then. We talked a few moments then and made another appointment. 

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Before I had time to call her the next day, I received a message from her. She had slept the whole night without any painkillers since there is only a little bit of pain. I was so happy. Her hand hurts (great!) a bit (luckily only a bit!) - meaning, everything was great. I instructed her to be careful and not to stress the hand now, but instead let the healing to continue. She was happy too. She had received her life back. The pain never came back.

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What about me then? I started hunting answers. What the hell just happened..???