A Story about a Psychologist
Time for another Ellie Client Story.
She walked in, not really seemingly nervous, just really tired. This is was to be expected, though. It was only a few days before she had to defend her psychology dissertation. Not really junking out on stress, she was most fearful of catching a cold. The long nights, coffee, and wine (whine) had made her feel as though illness was lurking right behind her, ready to mug her in the next dark alley of susceptibility. The problem it seemed is that her schedule was so out of whack, she could no longer sleep.
Her aunt had come to see me for help getting past insomnia and had become a devotee to hypnosis. Her niece was skeptical (what are they teaching in those high-fluent colleges out there?), but desperate times mean desperate measures (so she said as a greeting). I gave her a choice between traditional hypnosis or client-based methods. Her frown deepened. She struggled with the choice even after several minutes of dissecting them with her analytics.
“You are doing therapy,” she finally said, not hiding the indignation she was experiencing. Who was she? The hypnosis police?
“I most certainly am not. I am not licensed,” I said in my calmest voice. Smiling a her (doing my best not to be condescending - I hate condescension), I continued, “Any therapeutic benefits you get out of this will come from within you, your own doing. I just guided you around the landscape of your mind to help you make inner changes.”
Ah, enter the philosophical debate.
“Isn’t that what therapist do?”
“You tell me.”
And she sputtered around a bit. A childlike expression began to twitch on the surface of her cultured and intelligent face.
Before she completely crumpled, I explained, “Hypnosis is all about suggestion. In traditional hypnosis, we tend to make a cognitive choice before the session begins about what suggestion we will induce. In client-based systems, all the suggestions come from your subconscious mind, you create them and we put those to work for you.”
This lightened her mood substantially.
“Let’s do client-based, then.”
So, the session passed by and before either of us knew it, we had come to a close. She looked somehow lighter, as though our hour together in the session had taken much weight off of her mental backpack.
“Wow,” said she,”that was amazing. It is like cutting to the chase with therapy. It gets to the heart of the issue and opens it right up.”
I smiled indulgently, “Your words, not mine.”
“Tou ché,” she answered.
My budding psychologist just emailed me this morning. She has had four nights of restful sleep.
May 21st, 2008 at 5:18 am
and so you remain my hero!