Healing and Hypnotherapy Special Mega Annual Issue 21 June 2017 | Page 20

Obesity and the Mental Field
Like a snowflake, the mind field of every client is unique and every case
distinctive . Even though the presenting issues in a case may appear
very similar, the causative factors can often be vastly different.
Usually the thing that needs resolution at a therapy session presents
itself as a dialogue that unfolds spontaneously in the opening
conversation, or a feeling that begets the client as they enter into the
safe space offered by the therapist.
This lady sought assistance to overcome her excess weight . As the
dialogue unfolded , she found herself sharing a recurring experience of
irritation with her in-laws. Intrigued, she asked what the issue with her in
laws had to do with her excess weight. Almost everything, I replied with
a reassuring smile on my face, and we proceeded to delve deeper into
her mind field.
We started with her intense dislike for authority figures (in laws ),
because they curtailed her freedom (her complaint ), and she was
compelled to please them , (where she found herself stuck ). Upon
magnifying her emotional and somatic energies , a series of intense
experiences unfolded where she had been sexually abused as a young
child.
Interestingly, it wasn't the expected trauma of the abuse that highlighted
these experiences , but rather , a complex entanglement of guilt , (the
feeling that she invited it and brought it upon herself ), fear, emanating
from the need to be accepted (I won't be accepted if I don't do as I am
told ), curiosity & desire (I want to experience this ) and an overriding
belief that she simply HAD to do this. Another interesting facet was the
marked absence of pleasure that usually constitutes the double bind of
guilt, shame & pleasure in such cases.
The search for the origin of the belief that she simply had to do this
(allow sexual tresspass), took us into a past life of hers in which she
found herself to be a devdaasi.
She was the King's favoured pleasure provider and she secretly coveted
his love, wanting to have him to herself exclusively , which remained an
unfulfilled desire in that life and she eventually died with the wish that he
would pine for her like she did for him.