Hypnotherapy and Trauma

Several years ago, I worked with a client who was traumatized by a workplace shooting.

(She survived because the shooter’s gun, aimed directly at her, jammed.) The experience, which included helping to drag a coworker to safety, left her terrified of the dark and loud noises. She was unable to visit public places, including church, and the very idea of going back to work made her physically ill. Her body shook constantly. She couldn’t sleep.

It took a lot of work on both our parts to reduce the fear and reframe the experience. In time she began to sleep normally, was able to think rationally again, and regained the ability to leave her house without fear. Eventually she went back to work full time, once again able to enjoy her job and her coworkers. The last time I saw her, she was happy, brimming with plans, and enjoying her life, her marriage, her friends and family, in a way that she felt was even more rewarding than it had been prior to the incident.

Fortunately, I’ve been privileged to work with many unusual cases such as this. One was a mountain climber who fell while descending a 14K mountain in Colorado. He nearly died, first from the accident, then from extenuating circumstances. After a series of sessions he regained his confidence and, a year later, sent me a picture of himself and his climbing partner on top of another 14K footer. His smile said it all. Another client was a former military sniper who saw a monster every time he looked in the mirror. After his first session, much to his relief, he could see himself as he really was. And a psychiatric nurse, who’d been brutally attacked by an inmate a year before, was able to go back to work after three sessions.

Many forms of trauma, such as emotional and/or sexual abuse, can be shrouded in secrecy through habit or even a sense of shame. People we may think we know well, who look like they never had a bad day in their life, can be the very people who come to me exhausted from coping, tired of carrying the burden, afraid that the pain will never go away. I welcome them all.

It’s important to remember a person’s story, however traumatic, isn’t necessarily the endgame. To me it’s a reference point, a snarled ball of thread that, together, we unravel and rewind to recreate something that is resourceful and whole. Hypnotherapy isn’t magic, it’s work, no doubt about it, but a happier life is always, always something worth working for.