Hypnotherapy shows you what you already have within YOU!

When I put down the telephone, having spoken to potential clients, I am often drawn to consider the three characters in the film the Wizard of Oz, and in particular the three companions to Dorothy: the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion.  What follows is a case study that illustrates that, just as those characters found what they were seeking inside themselves, so hypno­therapy can often reveal what you already possess.  Each of those three characters is asking for a quality ? an aptitude, or gift, call it what you may.  You will surely recall that the Scare­crow wishes to have a brain, the Tin Man wishes to have a heart and hence to have an emotional life, and the Lion longs for courage and to be brave.  In the course of the film evidence mounts to the con­clusion that each of the three holds within himself, the very qualities and aptitudes for which he was off to see the wizard.   I do wonder whether when the three arrive back at the Emerald city the belligerence and blustering frustration of The Wizard is in great part triggered by his incomprehension.  Incomprehen­sion that the three companions still do not get it!  They do not yet grasp the truth of the matter ? that within them already reside the very qualities they continue to seek ? and which they believe only the sup­posed magical powers of the wizard can bestow upon them. 

?Dorothy?, a bright and generous professional with many fans in the law firm in which she worked, telephoned to say her request for interactive hypnotherapy related to work.  Where there might have been celebration in her voice there was worry and fear. ?I am being proposed for partnership.  I have to say what it is that will make me an asset as a partner.  At the moment I can only focus on what it is that won?t make me an asset as a partner.  I think I need to change my mind around.? 

The truth of the matter began to unfold during our initial face-to-face conversation.  As I had suspected we were not alone.  The Scarecrow, the Tin Woman and the Lion were an influencing presence.  ?I find it really, really painful to write about myself and say how good I am,? said Dorothy (unwittingly enacting the Tin Man). 

?I have huge self-doubt,? said Dorothy (now as the Lion).  ?I think this is when they finally see through me and realise I?m a fraud.? 

?They?ll realise I don?t have a clue about anything?, quickly chipped in Dorothy (now as the Scarecrow). 

?I?ve always hidden the fact that she is clever,? confided Dorothy the Tin Man to the shock and chagrin of Dorothy the Scare­crow. This was to protect younger Dorothy from being hurt by other boys and girls in her class at school.

Happily, unlike our three friends from the film this real-life Dorothy did immediately get it!  The three interactive hypno­therapy sessions became a celebration of Dorothy?s gifts and talents.  She was able to confirm that the competencies and attri­butes required for her to really go for this opportunity were very much embedded within her ? that the very competencies and attributes she had perceived herself as lacking were simply in need of acknowledgement and a polish and shine ? having sat under a bushel for so long they were now ready to sing.   Many gifted ?inner players? emerged to play full out for Dorothy, and to reclaim her truth.

In hypnosis, together with her inner team, she practised declaring her truth and practised declaring it in preparation for the presentations and the interviews that were to come in the days and weeks ahead.  She practised declaring her cleverness and re­hearsing her cleverness, coached by a growing sense of emotional safety in standing tall, standing brave and standing successful.  Dorothy allowed herself to shine.  Some weeks after the last time we met Dorothy rang to say that the partnership honour had been con­firmed.  Like the Lion she had found the courage and the bravery to claim her kingdom and to wear the crown. 

There are many Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion characters amongst us and many Dorothy characters too.  Many of us exper­ience a certain sense of lack of an emotional something.  However, the words, the phrases and the sentences that each one of us uses to explain our experience of ?lack? will be different in each and every case.  Moreover, the words, the phrases, and the sentences that each one of us uses to describe how we want to experience the desired quality or behaviour will be different too.  Invariably, people have virtues and qualities to different depths and degrees and often more so in some and less so in other, different areas of our lives.  Some­times a person?s wish for a quality, a virtue or a behaviour may be specific to a situation or an environment or in relationship with a particular person. 

Your language, your choice of vocabulary and your special way of explaining makes your session unique and tailored indiv­id­ually for you ? the cut and the fit being shaped by how you choose to express yourself.  As you will discover language can be a revelation.  Some of us are predisposed to use ?organ lan­guage? for example.  We adopt expressions like ?knuckle under?, ?breaking my heart?, and the ?proverbial pain in the butt?.  Often these ex­press­ions hold portent to a ?feeling? resonating at a deeper sub­con­scious level.   The conscious mind provides us with some­thing like a print-out of what is going on ?downstairs? but until we wake-up and recognise it the print-out gets lost ¾ as the next thought follows ‘hot on the heels’ of the last.  Potent revelations can easily get missed.  Frankie?s reflections illustrate this point.

Case Study: Frankie

Frankie chose interactive hypnotherapy to help her stop picking her fingers.  On the initial session she had admitted, ?I chew and I pick [my fingers] all day long.  I?m embarrassed when I?m holding a cup of coffee.  It stops me doing so many things.  It is like a little hide­away.  When instinct takes over, I pick it up straight away.?      On that first session Frankie?s subconscious had taken her on a journey of discovering the roots of the picking behaviour.  Further insight had revealed why when instinct took over Frankie pick­[ed] it up straight away.  As we spoke on what was anticipated to be the final and the third session she said, ?I?m totally on my way. As the scenarios [when previously she picked] melt away, I become more focused.  I have found myself with so much more time on my hands.?  Frankie skipped forward saying, ?I used to do em­broid­ery, dress-making and design.  I would like to get back to it.?  At this point I gently prompted her to reflect upon the words she had spoken:  ?I have found myself with so much more time on my hands.?  How prophetic and revealing our words can be revealed to be when we begin to listen to ourselves.

Listening to ourselves can reveal a brighter side.  And aston­ishing though it may seem, there is always a brighter side. There may also be indications of the support to come perhaps em­bed­ded within your apparent sense of lack and your ?self-sentencing?. A very general illustration of this is the word ?imagine?.  Clients often say, ?I?ve always been like that and I cannot imagine being any other way.?   ?I think of myself as a smoker.  I cannot imagine myself as not.?  The thing is that what we tend to imagine day after day, week after week, tends to happen in reality.  We have effectively programmed ourselves for the inevitable.   Hypnotherapy is a way to begin to ?imagine? some­thing rather different.