Colin’s triumph over multiple phobias
Colin was in his early 60’s when he first came to see me. He was suffering from multiple phobias, which, although they originated early in childhood, did not manifest until he was in his late 30’s. He had tried many different routes to wellness (hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, acupuncture and counselling) to little avail, and came to me in desperation, as he wanted to regain control over his life.
After initially having a panic attack on a ferry, the fear spread to other forms of transport and situations. These included a fear of travelling by coach, boat, train and a fear of flying. In addition, Colin had an intense fear of travelling over bridges, crowded places and heights, with a general feeling of not being in control. He felt he was unable to live life to the full, being unable to travel to many places, and he felt living with the constant fear of having another panic attack reduced his quality of life. This obviously limited his life immensely and he was worried that if he could not overcome these fears, he would develop more, and therefore his quality of life would decrease even further.
I gently resolved the underlying causes using Kinesiology, NLP and EFT, neutralising any negative emotions associated with either the original event or the phobias. I also gave Colin some homeopathic and flower remedies to support him through the change in his emotions, which allowed a swift transition with minimal psychological pain.
I also gave Colin self-help techniques to practice at home, which he used if he thought he was beginning to panic. These quelled any anxiety before it got out of control and he has not suffered a panic attack since.
I addressed Colin’s phobias one at a time, rather like peeling the layers off an onion. Initially he had an intense fear of travelling over the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford, but gradually as his fears were released he could be driven over as a passenger. The first time he had to keep his eyes closed, but by using some of the self-help techniques I’d taught him, he was able to keep his anxiety at a manageable level. Since that initial time Colin has travelled over the bridge with increasing confidence and no longer needs the anti-panic techniques to do so. He is quite happy to sit back and enjoy the view.
At the same time as conquering the bridge phobia Colin started to travel by train. Initially he could only travel for a couple of stations on the main line, but was rapidly able to travel up to London, and have the confidence to ride on the Underground by himself.
Soon after this he was able to enjoy a 12-hour coach trip to Scotland for a well-deserved holiday with his wife. During our next session he revealed to me that, while on holiday he had gone out on a speedboat ride and they had become stuck on some sands for 40mins. While relating this story he was laughing at himself, and didn’t realise until I pointed it out to him. A few weeks earlier he would have been thrown into a major panic. Since then Colin went onto enjoying concerts and plays in crowded theatres without problems.
Finally Colin had the confidence to fly to Italy realising a lifelong ambition to see Rome and visit relatives there. Although he felt a little nervous beforehand, once on the plane, he managed to quite enjoy the experience. Since that time in 2001 Colin has flown several times including taking a trip to Australia.
Freedom from fear gives a new lease of life
Sandra came to see me suffering from anxiety and panic attacks and was feeling generally unwell and sluggish. Despite this she couldn’t relax, needing to keep busy in case ‘something bad happened’.
She kept having repeated thoughts about going into somewhere and being unable to get out. This had grown from a time when she experienced her first panic attack on a coach trip to London when the coach was unexpectedly diverted through a tunnel. Sandra had felt trapped as she couldn’t see a way to get out. Since then, this feeling had extended to anywhere enclosed, such as theatres, trains, planes and crowded stores.
The source of the problem was revealed using EFT in conjunction with Kinesiology. It originated at a time when Sandra had been involved in a car accident at the age of seventeen. She had refused to wear a seat belt, although her boyfriend at the time insisted she do so. Although no one was hurt in the accident Sandra was still carrying feelings of guilt in her body and deep down, felt responsible for the accident. I gradually released these hidden feelings of guilt using NLP, homeopathy, flower remedies, counselling and affirmation work.
Sandra also had low blood sugar problems, which were caused by her eating lots of sugary foods to comfort these guilty feelings. However, instead of helping her, this only exacerbated the problem making her feel low in general. It had upset the delicate balance of her adrenal glands which were having to work hard to regulate the sugar in her blood, and this extra load had made them much more sensitive to any emotional stress she encountered, creating a vicious circle. I recommended she follow a nutritional plan, which included some supplements, and gave her acupressure to balance her system. The following week she was feeling much more relaxed and was beginning to take time for herself without feeling guilty. Sandra’s ‘fear of fear’ was still an issue and it took another few sessions to resolve these feelings.
Today Sandra is much happier and is able to cope with her life. She realises that she is responsible for her own health and now watches what she eats, without being obsessive about it. EFT helped her to release any association of eating in excess to feeling secure, and she rarely gets the same cravings for sugary food. When she does eat sugar, she does so in moderation and has no urge to binge eat anymore. She feels that removing sugar from her diet and balancing her blood sugar was a major step to her having more energy and feeling less stressed in general. Sandra now feels that she has her ‘life back’ again and has returned to feeling how she used to feel before the panic attacks started.
From a bundle of nerves to a bundle of joy
Karen was suffering from stress when she first came to see me although she was happily married and in a secure job, which she loved. She wasn’t really sure of the reasons why she was so stressed, but her symptoms included palpitations, breathlessness, headaches, insomnia and a general feeling of being out of control. She also had a recurrent neck problem and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
When I checked her body it was apparent that, although consciously Karen wanted to deal with any emotions that might surface, deep down she didn’t want to do this so I worked to allow her subconscious to feel comfortable about that. After that first session Karen’s IBS, breathlessness and palpitations had all disappeared as these symptoms were closely linked to her feelings. I then focused on some her other issues.
Karen had a general feeling of anxiety that she was running out of time. The underlying source of her problem became apparent by using Kinesiology, NLP and EFT to probe a little deeper. She had tried unsuccessfully for many years to get pregnant, and then she and her partner had resolved that they would be content as they were. Subconsciously she was thinking at 40, her childbearing days were over, and her chance of having a family lost altogether. Karen had not realised that she was carrying so much of an emotional charge around the situation, and had honestly thought she had dealt with it, before these methods delved more deeply. I used EFT and specific Kinesiology techniques to help Karen’s subconscious overcome any negativity, and supported her with flower remedies. In doing so several other issues surfaced, one being the fact that she had had a pregnancy terminated as an attempt to try and save a previous marriage. She had held massive amounts of guilt over this, but as we worked through the layers she began to feel less stressed and was able to forgive both her ex-husband and herself. This took three sessions.
As Karen’s energy rose she felt increasingly better about herself and her existing relationship and I didn’t see her for several months. When I next heard from her it was to see if I could do anything for her morning sickness.
Karen gave birth to a healthy baby girl in March 2002. She was absolutely elated and was a lot less stressed although she still visited periodically for sessions as and when any other issues cropped prior to my move to Mallorca.
Why Rosemary couldn’t stomach her past
Rosemary came to see me suffering from chronic stomach pains, especially an acute burning between her navel and breastbone whenever she ate a meal. She’d had many hospital tests that had showed nothing, and she had also tried taking proprietary over the counter medicines, but nothing had relieved her pain.
Rosemary was also suffering from a lot of stress about her daughter, and her friend had died only two weeks previously. She was also still carrying a lot of emotion (mainly anger) surrounding her break-up with her long-term boyfriend two years earlier.
The first thing I noticed when testing her was that Rosemary was deficient in stomach acid, which meant that she was not digesting her food properly, and was consequently suffering from chronic indigestion and its intense pain after most meals. This was linked very closely to her emotions and the fact that she felt that she couldn’t have a new relationship, even though she dearly wanted one. This was because she still felt so strongly about her ex-boyfriend. She had met a man with whom she was a friend, but she was afraid of getting any closer to him because of these feelings. I gave her a flower remedy for this and for her fear of not being who she wanted to be.
Rosemary also had a couple of food sensitivities and I found she was intolerant to red pepper and strawberries. She also needed zinc and tablets to help her produce stomach acid.
Interestingly Rosemary did not buy the tablets to restore her stomach acid immediately, but took the zinc and flower remedies. Five days later I received an ecstatic phone call from her asking me what was in the drops (flower remedies), as her stomach pains had not troubled her for four days. In addition she had masses of energy, had resolved many of her emotions about her ex-boyfriend and was going out to dinner with her man friend that night. She has not been troubled with her stomach pains since and her new relationship is flourishing.
I would like to point out here that sometimes we carry tensions in our bodies in such a way that the main symptom is a physical one. Sometimes relieving the emotional problem alone can have widespread physical results.
Fast relief from fast food
Jake was ten years old when I first saw him. He was suffering from stomach pains and constipation, and eating too much or too little led to him having bad headaches and feeling very bloated. He could partially relieve his headaches by lying down with a cool flannel over his head, but the bloating was far too frequent for his comfort.
Jake’s diet was terrible. He only ate convenience, highly processed foods and would eat sweets and chocolates until he was virtually sick. He rarely ate fruit or vegetables.
He was also sensitive to many of the foods he gorged himself on and also had low blood sugar, caused by excessive and frequent consumption of sugars. This had lead to his body repeatedly producing insulin to lower the high sugar in his blood, leading to a slump in sugar (thus energy), which then produced a further craving for sweet foods in a vicious cycle. Interestingly the corresponding emotion was over-enthusiasm and this was reflected in all areas of his life.
Jake needed some nutritional supplements to help balance his blood sugar. I also advised a drastic modification of his diet to include foods that were more slowly absorbed so that the sugar was more slowly released into his system. I also gave him some flower essences to counter his over-enthusiasm.
He came back twice more for some fine-tuning of his system and for some affirmation work and flower remedies to help him control his sweet tooth, although this had improved significantly after the first session.
Removing suspect foods brings rapid relief
Thomas was thirteen when his mum first bought him to me. He was suffering from wind, felt bloated most of the time, and was very constipated. Even if he only ate a little he felt full. Emotionally he was very sensitive and he was struggling at school, especially since his father had left three years earlier.
Thomas’s diet was less than ideal as he was a typical teenager. He did however eat some fruit and vegetables in addition to all the snacks he consumed.
The first thing that became apparent was that Thomas’s Ileo-caecal valve (ICV) was out of balance. This is a valve between the small and large intestine that regulates the passage of food from the small to the large intestine. If the valve is too closed food passage is restricted and constipation and bloating can occur, if it is too open, diarrhoea can result. The cause of this was due to sensitivity to dairy and eggs, that I recommended he avoid as much as possible. He was also sensitive to wheat to which I desensitised him as it is in so many foods and is difficult to avoid completely. I did recommend that he avoid this wherever possible as the large sticky wheat gluten protein can hinder efficient digestion in large amounts. I also helped Thomas’s valve to open using some reflexology and by massaging specific points on his body to balance his digestive system, especially the large and small intestines. I also put him on a special diet for two weeks to soothe his ICV after the correction.
Thomas was also suffering from low stomach acid, so his food was not being efficiently digested. This was related to his holding tension about the future, especially at school. This anxiety was released using affirmations and flower remedies.
In our next session two weeks later Thomas was feeling a lot better emotionally as well as physically, although he still had issues surrounding his school performance. Again this was linked emotionally to him having little self- worth, which had unbalanced his subtle energies. Once these were balanced using acupressure, flower remedies and specific Kinesiology techniques Thomas felt a sense of relief. Since that treatment Thomas has felt much more relaxed about school, even though he is under some pressure there. His relaxed attitude has helped improve his concentration (and his digestion), and he has only been troubled by his previous stomach complaints if he eats too many of the wrong foods, but this is occurring much less frequently now that he is happier in himself.
Controlling Candida naturally
Elizabeth was severely bloated, had wind and persistent vaginal thrush when she came to see me. Other symptoms included headaches, ‘brain fog’, listlessness and symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. She ate a good whole food diet, plenty of vegetables and tried to exercise regularly, but still had no energy. She also had a history of using antibiotics for many years, some of which had been prescribed for her vaginal discharge when it did not respond to conventional thrush medication. She had also been on the pill for many years.
Elizabeth was presenting typical signs of having Candida Albicans, a yeast overgrowth, which was confirmed by testing her body for it. This was exacerbated by several foods that were inappropriate for her, which were aggravating her sensitive digestive tract. She also required several supplements to re-balance her system that had been upset by the overgrowth of Candida.
I then looked at her lifestyle and found her to be really stressed. This had weakened her adrenal glands (that produce adrenalin, the fight or flight hormone), which in turn had contributed to her having low blood sugar problems. I gave Elizabeth acupressure, homeopathic and flower remedies in addition to special stress busting exercises to practise at home.
I dealt with other contributory factors over several more sessions. One of these was a heavy metal intolerance, which was weakening her system. Detoxification involved the use of homeopathic remedies and mineral supplements. Elizabeth had also decided to finish her long-term relationship that had been emotionally dead for years and I used several methods to support her as she made a readjustment to her life. This took a couple more sessions and Elizabeth is mostly symptom-free now unless she overindulges in the wrong kinds of foods for too long or becomes stressed. I deal with these issues periodically whenever she needs.