Floats Like a Butterfly and Stings Like a Bee

The power of hypnotherapy coupled with EMDR coaching

When you start the process of mapping out what bothers you and ranking how much it bothers you, as previously described in the earlier blogs, sometimes things can surface that you weren’t quite expecting.

So something a little different for your insight, but clearly demonstrates how trauma can stay trapped in the body and be completely unbeknown to us. What this also really clearly demonstrates is the real power of working with an EMDR therapist who is also a clinical hypnotherapist! 

Whilst mapping things out my mind kept saying “Bee Sting” I had no idea what it was as a memory and I could not recollect it. However, when we rated them as to how much it was bothering me it said 10 out of 10….still I was none the wiser. I fully subscribe to the fact that the subconscious mind knows everything so I trust that.

Consciously, I could not remember anything about a bee sting, but when I did try to remember it, there was an agitation in my body. I really wanted to know what the memory was though. So we embarked on a hypnotic regression, to find what lay beneath this. 

Simply put, hypnosis turns off the thinking mind and allows us to be guided to past events that have caused us to hold onto old memories, and more importantly feelings. The great filing cabinet that is the subconscious mind stores all of our long-term memory, so hypnosis is the best way I know how to access the database. A hypnotic regression does just that and enables us to reach this subconscious database, and with this understanding we can change the perspective and therefore the feelings attached to old memories. 

So, off into trance I went…my therapist counted down from 5 to take me to the significant event that was linked to the now famed “bee sting”, the memory suddenly flashed up as if I was watching a movie and there it was. This memory started with me aged 2, in a pushchair outside the greengrocers in the village, and you guessed it, I got stung by a bee and it hurt like hell and as any two year old would I screamed like hell.

At that moment though, and here is the real power of EMDR coaching, my 40 something body also went into trauma and spasmed, it was like I had been electrocuted and boy was the pain a 10 out of 10. The magic of EMDR soon put that memory to rest. While still in trance I was told to open my eyes, as I stayed in that memory we processed all the old feelings attached to it, then went back into a trance. Finally there was no feeling attached to it at all and I could completely calmly watch the memory.

Just for good measure I had an internal conversation with my two year old self, made sure they were calm and happy…we even had a little hug and that memory became history and that trauma had been released.

Suffice to say the word trauma often suggests massive incidents. Trauma is going through a very stressful, frightening, or distressing event, that can be either physical, emotional or indeed, both. In this case to a two year old it was exactly that, events are only ever perception and perspective...one person's trauma is very different to another. So never ignore the little things.

Uncovering memories is a domino effect

When I work with EMDR in practice today, quite often when we are working on one memory, other or prior memories will emerge quite naturally. We will be working and my clients will say, oh I’m getting something else as another memory or indeed another emotion appears, which is linked and helps us unravel the whole story to enable us to process things.

It’s unique and in my view if you want to process all of your emotions that are trapped there are few better places than a clinical hypnotherapist who can do EMDR coaching, because they can guide you to find the memories that you cannot access consciously and clear them out at the same time. Find the root cause and that can often collapse all that is sat on top of it

Call me today to start your EMDR coaching journey

So I hope this has given further insight into my journey, and remember every negative emotion is based in fear (anxiety) so as you let go of old emotions your fear responses get diminished.

I will continue with the other bombs next time, however if you want more information or to book an appointment to start changing you life, please call me…it really is that good!