Xtraordinary Women Magazine July 2015 | Page 62

The Answer is Within Us One of the privileges of being a client-centred hypnotherapist is that, through my sessions with clients, I am constantly and repeatedly reminded of how resourceful each one of us can be. These encounters strengthen my belief that the answers we seek to resolve our life challenges lie within ourselves. Through our upbringing and the various societal norms and expectations we are exposed to, we seem to have developed a belief that we are powerless over the experiences in our lives, let alone over our fate. As a result, many of us have assumed an attitude of passivity to proactively take full ownership of our lives. I have encountered those with an over-dependence on excess medication or external opinions in various forms to “fix” themselves, as if an answer to their inner pain could only be found externally. Many of us believe that we have to be told what is wrong with us and how we should fix it, instead of trusting our inner resourcefulness and unleashing our innate healing ability first. Yet time and time again, I witness people in my private practice connecting to their inner wisdom and resourcefulness to take back control and reclaim ownership of their lives. There was a lady, for example, who came to see me to work on her self-hatred and a feeling of worthlessness. Through a hypnotic journey, she identified the cause of her limiting belief about herself which had not been in her conscious awareness up to then. She was then able to apply her adult wisdom to reassess the event, and understand why it had happened the way it did. This allowed her to forgive those involved, including and most importantly herself. She gained profound learning from the experience in light of the positive attributes she has developed as a result of the event, and she reviewed and reinterpreted her life journey with the new insights obtained. What I would like to stress is … that all the information, both consciously recallable and subconsciously stored, came from her, that all the learning and wisdom she gained through the event came from her, that all the profound understanding about how it positively impacted who she is today came from her, and that the answer she had so desperately needed came from WITNIN. How empowering is it to truly own the experience which used to limit her. To put it where it rightfully belongs: in the past, and shatter its power over her present. The fact that she engaged her own subconscious mind, the reservoir of her infinite resourcefulness, to work through something that previously caused her to feel helpless serves as a powerful proof as well as a reminder of her inner wisdom and resilience in and of itself. * The specific hypnotherapy technique mentioned here should be facilitated only by properly trained therapists.