At home for 35 years!
I received a phone call from a gentleman who enquired whether hypnotherapy could help his wife with her illness. He explained that his wife hadn’t been outside their home for the past 35 years, and had been diagnosed as an agoraphobic. I suggested that we set up an appointment for a consultation the following week. This was agreed upon and a date was arranged. As agoraphobia is a neurotic illness, it is usual for the therapist to conduct the first couple of sessions at the client’s home, for obvious reasons because of the very nature of the illness.
As agreed, the following week I attended the consultation. I was
welcomed by Alf who introduced me to his wife, Gwen; she appeared quite
nervous, which didn’t surprise me as this is a normal reaction. During
the consultation, Gwen gave me a very clear insight into her past. I
then gave an insight into the workings of the subconscious mind to both
Alf and Gwen, how hypnotherapy works and how it would work for them. I
explained that it would probably take up to eight sessions, and that
these sessions would be hourly and conducted weekly. Gwen, now an
enthusiastic 65-year-old lady, was eager to go ahead with therapy
immediately and Alf was keenly in agreement. It was agreed that during
the therapy sessions Alf would sit in another room; this was at Gwen’s
request. I went ahead and induced hypnosis, then encouraged Gwen to
speak to me about her life –how the fear of going out had affected her
life over the past 35 years, what she had been deprived of, and the
things she could have done had she not had this fear. Although this
seemed to be asking the obvious, the aim of the exercise was to alert
the subconscious of the life that Gwen had been deprived of. Recalling
your deprivation can be an emotional event and I wanted to provoke
this, as it encourages the subconscious to focus in on the cause of the
fear.
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Case Studies 
