Example 7. Claustrophobia
At the international congress that took place in Ekaterenburg under the auspices of the Professional Psychotherapeutic League I managed to remove claustrophobia during just five minutes. This is how it happened Before the final meeting after which I had to immediately go to the airport, a colleague of mine came up to me and asked if I could receive her friend who very much hoped to get my help Only ten minutes were left before the beginning of the meeting
Arent you staying for two more days? What a pity, and we hoped
Invite your friend at once, sometimes you can say something important during ten minutes only
She ran and found her friend at another seminar. We took our seats on the center of a large hall, where different lessons were taking place in different parts of the hall.
It turned out that the young woman has been suffering from claustrophobia since her childhood. She is afraid to be in a lift, in a closed room, when there is no one near her. I asked her to imagine herself to be in the lift and to describe the symptoms of her fear. Being in an imagined situation she felt rapid heartbeat and breathing, fear bordering panic, and the coming fainting. I asked her to imagine these symptoms as an image sitting on the chai in front of her. The image was surprisingly calm, not aggressive and fear was not revealed in it. It was some furry creature looking like Winnie the Pooh that was looking at the client with some expectation. It became clear at once that it was a part of the clients personality that evidently felt a kind of emotional dependence and was waiting for something. And if so it could be the childhood state of the client [the Inner Child], it means that in her childhood the client had some emotional problems, connected, no doubt, with one of the parents, most probably with the mother. If this image is connected with the state of fear, then it is the childs fear. And what can be the fear of a child who is looking expectantly? Most likely this is the fear of being alone, the fear of being rejected! I pondered a little, and then the client offered:
Maybe I should send it away? [She didnt understand that it was the image of herself in her childhood]
By no means! [The experience shows that such offers express the hidden conflict attitude to the Inner Child]. On the contrary, tell it that you will never leave it never reject it. That you accept it totally as it is. This is for experiment. I will later explain.
It is getting smaller.
Repeat the same words one more time How are you feeling?
I am feeling better, the fear diminishes. Now it has turned into a wooden doll lying on the chair. [The image of a doll means regression to the age of a suckling baby.]
Keep on repeating the same
Oh! [She looked surprised.] For some reason it got into my breast and dissolved there! [It means that she accepted the Inner Child as a part of her personality and by doing so removed the conflict with her childhood part. If this conflict was really the phobias cause, then the feeling of fear must stop.]
Thats fine, l will explain it to you later. Imagine again that you are in the lift What are you feeling?
[She looks surprised even amazed, as she couldnt say a word]
Is there no fear?
No, there is the expectation of fear
This is just the habit, but there is no fear. Your problem has been solved. Your claustrophobia is your childhood fear of being alone. A closed-up space provokes your fears of being alone. Some time ago you probably had some injury. Did your mother do anything in the wrong way? If you wish you can tell me but it is not necessary.
Yes, I was always afraid to stay alone. If there is somebody near me I am not afraid. In my childhood I was always waiting for my mothers return from work [She was crying.]
Dont ever send away you Inner Child, he wouldnt feel alone anymore! Do you like this result?
Yes, I do! [She rushed to embrace me still crying.]
I wished her all the best in her life, hoping for a future meeting. Still a few minutes were left before the beginning of the meeting, I was not late
On the next day her friend called ne by cell phone, she confirmed that everything was all right.
These two examples are given to show how quickly and easily the analyses of a psychological problem and its correction can go on with the help of the EIT. As doctors say: The one who diagnoses well, treats well. These cases also illustrate the principle, that when you work with the EIT the cure happens here and now, if the correcting influence is used adequately. But to be able to get such results one must know a lot, quickly analyze problems and train ones intuition. The work of the doctor that we can see is only the above-water part of the iceberg, its effectiveness is determined by having and correct using of the under-water part. So not always things happen so easily and quickly, often the image analysis is long and hard. Not everything depends on the doctor, 80% of success is provided by honest and concerned work of the client.
1. Spontaneuos images
The EIT method is based on the certainty that something accidental doesnt really happen by accident, and spontaneous images created by the client, that express his feelings and his psychosomatic state, demonstrate exactly the problem which gave rise to this undesirable emotional and psychosomatic state. Every séance confirms this principle as well as all other projective psychological methods.
But the first question that is posed to me during seminars is: Are all people able to easily produce images?
Yes, certainly. All people are able to do it. If a person wasnt able to operate imagined images, he wouldnt have finished the primary school. There they asked him: If you have two apples and you give one to Vasja, how many apples are left? Visually imaginative and visually active thinking is more simple and easier to understand than abstract-verbal. We have already said that images are primary language of our psyche, created by nature itself.
All people have dreams, our psyche creates absolutely ingenious stories, makes movies about ourselves, and we must use these abilities. We try to use spontaneous images which are created by the subconsciousness, they are most truthful. For that reason we ask the client to tell us about the very first image that comes to his mind, proceeding from the principle what occurred will do.
Another thing is that not all people want to use the language of images. There are a few categories of inconvenient clients.
1. A highly intellectual man with a technical mindset. This type of people usually tries to speak at an abstract-logical level treating himself as a mechanism. He doesnt trust freely emerging images, he wants to logically substantiate everything, to work consciously, to discuss versions, to control the process. He is careful not to plunge in the world of emotions, his technical mindset made a comfortable niche where he can avoid any contact with the irrational part of his personality. The problem is that his problems are in the irrational world of emotions, and its right there that he doesnt want to go. According to Sigmund Freud, he is disposed to psychological defense called intellectualization. People with obtrusiveness are also disposed to such defense.
Sometimes it helps if you tell such an English anecdote and it is to the point:
A drunk man is looking for something in the park under a street lamp. A policeman comes up to him.