Presenting problem: feels sad when she wakes up in the morning
One session only
She had been having fertility treatment. Nothing's wrong with either her or her husband, but still she can't conceive. She's very aware of 'something big there' and, although she does meditation and is in touch with her unconscious, she can't get in touch with it.
I asked her to focus on the sadness and get some of it back. It was a feeling running from the middle of her stomach to her neck. What was it saying to her? She just got a sense of barriers. What were the barriers doing? Protecting her. What from? In response to this question she became upset and frightened. She said she was frightened of being very upset. I explained that it was good that she was being protected, and that if it wasn't something her conscious mind would find difficult, there would be no reason for her unconscious to express it as sadness. We acknowledged the importance of that part of her.
I learned that Mary wasn't very happy in her job; but she couldn't give it up while she was trying to get pregnant, because her husband only had part-time work, and they needed the financial security.
Then we negotiated with the barriers. The sadness said to her: Get out of London. She didn't understand consciously what this meant. Further questioning revealed that she was Canadian and London life did not let her express her identity. What did her unconscious want for her? Again: to leave London. That seemed as far as we could go.
So I set up finger signals (yes, no, I don't know) and induced her into hypnosis.
She discovered that her wanting to get out of London was a desire to get away from her friends, who all seemed to have babies and talked incessantly about them. She also wanted to write. Most of all, she wanted to do things for herself. Her father had several years before and, until 18 months ago, she had lived according to his agenda. Then she'd had a 'minor breakdown' (also had 'severe' IBS and candida), got help, and sorted things out.
But the fertility treatment she was undergoing, which had prevented her from changing her job, was preventing her from doing what she really wants to do. She thought she wanted a baby because her friends had them, her husband and mother wanted her to and, in her early thirties, her biological clock is ticking. But, really, she told me, she doesn't want to. Not before she sorts out what she wants for herself. This wouldn't be easy – with the demands of husband and exigencies of work and finance. But she agreed to acknowledge all needs, parts and feelings, and was able to appreciate what the morning sadness was saying to her.
Postscript: Mary rang me two months later to say that she was pregnant! She told me the session had been excellent in sorting things out in her mind and removing blocks. She said she realized it was okay to have the time for herself later, and that she did want to get pregnant now. She had become pregnant very quickly.