instruction on issues such as sleep improvement, marriage enrich- ment, and adjustment to multiple sclerosis. Recently, clients and tl surance companies have pressed for briefer treatment. This presents me with a challenge, as I want therapy to be a learning experience for the individual and not just an exercise in temporary symptom relief. Thave addressed the challenge of providing rapid treatment while increasing the client’s self-understanding by using The Monroe Institute Hemi-Sync tapes. This article gives a few examples of how this method has worked over the last three years. Names and circum- stances have been modified to guard confidentiality. Ann was referred for hypnosis. It was essential that she have a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) test as soon as possible to check for a brain tumor. She had already failed to complete the test three times, even with calming medications. The MRI involves the person remaining motionless inside a very cramped tube for hours as the machine noisily takes pictures of the brain. Many people who have no difficulty with small spaces have intense anxiety reactions in the MRI. It is not desirable to anesthetize the person for the procedure because it interferes with their being monitored well while in the tube. The MRI team reported that, in their experience, no one who was even moderately claustrophobic had ever completed the test. ‘When Ann was a child, her father had held her head underwater,
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Hemi-Sync® Journal 1991-2 (Spring) · 1 Hemi-Sync® Journal 1991-2 Spring.pdf
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in the toilet, as punishment. Her mother was extremely anxious and critical. Ann had also been trapped in two fires. During a school fire, she had hidden in a locker. She could not get out and was not found until the locker was filled with smoke. In the second fire she had been unable to leave a skyscraper for hours, until a fire below was con- tained. As a result of these and other experiences, Ann had been extremely claustrophobic for thirty years. She had not been able to enter an elevator, or to fly in an airplane. Ann was motivated for change but naturally frightened about the MRI and the possible results of the test. She was pessimistic about ever tolerating a space as small as an elevator for five minutes, even with other people there to comfort her. The thought of remaining motionless and alone for hours in the coffin-like MRI filled her with dread. We met for twelve one-hour sessions in three weeks. She was immediately given the H-PLUS tapes Relax, Let Go, and Off-Loading, and the MIND FOOD tapes Energy Walk and Morning Exercise. She practiced with them diligently. After a week, we began to use the H- PLUS tape format to enter a relaxed, light hypnotic state during alternating sessions. Here we explored in more detail the origins of her fear of being trapped, and used imagery to rehearse successful completion of the MRI test. The images of being surrounded by protective white light, and of mentally expanding the space seemed particularly useful.
Throughout her adult life, Ann had not dared to dance or laugh because such acts were too spontaneous and could bring ridicule. The interpretation that she had actually trapped herself every day by being so careful to please everyone seemed to make sense to her and helped shift the emphasis away. from the dimensions of physical space and to claustrophobia as a symbol of her internal state—trapped and fearing loss of control. She became determined to conquer this self- imposed restriction. Three weeks after meeting Ann, I accompanied her to the MRI ata hospital forty miles from her home. The test was delayed two hours. The roads outside were icing over, yet she remained only moderately anxious. When the test began she used the H-PLUS Function Com- mands to “relax” and “let go,” and visibly relaxed, feeling confident that she would make it. We let her know that the test could be terminated anytime she asked. She entered the machine. At her request, I read to her to link her with the outside world and to give her something positive to focus upon. Ann was successful this time and without medication. She re- ported feeling two minutes of initial ill-ease, then entered into a very relaxed state and eventually went to sleep during the three-hour procedure. She, the staff, and I were amazed at her accomplishment. She went on to conquer elevators shortly thereafter with the feeling that “I can now conquer any fear.” « « « ‘Ican now conquer any fear.”