Hypnosis to Overcome a Fear of Water

Photo by Rick Hustead

Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., once worked with a client to help her overcome her irrational fear of water. She told the hypnotherapist that she even felt anxious just thinking about water and always tried to wipe the fluid off her face as quickly as possible. This anxiety was a legitimate fear versus a phobia because the client had nearly drowned in a river as a young child and was subsequently involved in a car crash where the vehicle went over a bridge. However, she also manifested 27 symptoms consistent with having low blood sugar. 

When working with someone who has an irrational fear of water, start by advising the person to change her eating habits to normalize the blood-sugar level, Dr. Kappas advised. It is also necessary to modify her suggestibility to decrease this fear and susceptibility to suggestions about it. Once the client is in hypnosis, work with the individual to separate her anxiety of water and the sensation of it making contact with her face.

Use circle therapy to desensitize the person to the fear reaction by repeatedly having her bring up the fear and then relax, the hypnotherapist said. This process will help the individual associate relaxation with the originally threatening stimulus. As the client disassociates her fear of water from the fear of her physical reaction, she will gradually be able to think about this stimulus without associating it to a fear response.

Finally, use a double bind to lock in her sense of relaxation, Dr. Kappas said: “The harder you try to feel the fear of water, the more difficult it will become.”

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

The Ultimate Venting Dream

Image courtesy of Flickr

The Wizard of Oz is the ultimate venting dream.

Readers who are familiar with this story know that it features a myriad of fantastic images. In addition to those magical ruby slippers, there is an army of flying monkeys, the constant threat of a vindictive witch intent on exacting revenge for her sister and a city made entirely of emerald. Dorothy Gale’s new friends are not even human but a scarecrow, a tin man and a lion that not only walk and talk but are also in search of something important to them: a brain, a heart and courage, respectively. Fortunately, the entire Land of Oz is in Technicolor—Dorothy’s home in Kansas was symbolically in black and white—which should make it all the easier for the group to find their symbolic treasures.

Of course, the final portion of their journey to the Emerald City is fraught with new dangers, including having to cross a field of sleep-inducing poppies that seduce Dorothy into much-needed slumber—actually a temporary escape—from her worries. When she awakes, her beloved dog is in the clutches of the Wicked Witch. Dorothy accidentally dispatches the witch by throwing a bucket of water on her, rescues her dog and runs back to meet her friends to find the Wizard. When Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal a little man manipulating various levers and controls to simulate the mystical “Wizard,” Dorothy and her friends are immediately disheartened and disappointed. How could their dreams possibly come true, now?

Fortunately, like the charlatan who correctly warned Dorothy about the storm in Kansas, this wizard can still help Dorothy by spiriting her home to Kansas in his hot-air balloon. But when he accidentally launches the balloon and takes off without her. Glinda the Good Witch makes another appearance at this point. She points out that the Scarecrow obviously has a brain; how else could he have helped his friends find the Emerald City? The Tin Man already has a heart, or he wouldn’t have been able to feel sad and cry when he thought of Dorothy going away. As for the Cowardly Lion, he had so bravely faced every danger with his friends as they made their way to find the Wizard. Of course, he was very brave indeed. And Dorothy only needed to click her heels together three times repeating the heartfelt sentiment, “There’s no place like home” and she would be reunited with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry on the family farm.

When Dorothy next opens her eyes she is in her own bed, surrounded by everyone she knows and loves, the film returned to its original black-and-white from its Technicolor dreamscape. There is no telling how long she has slept, but the pseudo-realistic/symbolic experiences she had in Oz are compelling evidence that she had one doozy of a venting dream.

The concept of the Gales’ home being picked up by the wind and being symbolically dropped in Oz could easily have been triggered by a physical stimulus: the tornado that hit the property and likely knocked Dorothy out in the first place. The similarities between Miss Gulch’s physical appearance and Dorothy’s perception of the woman’s personality as being a witch are very strong to the Wicked Witch. Indeed, Dorothy called the woman a “witch” when Miss Gulch packed Toto into the basket on her bicycle because the dog chased her cats. When the tornado hits, the girl looks out her bedroom window to see her nemesis riding her bicycle as it transforms into a witch riding a broomstick on the swirling wind.

Other people in Dorothy’s daily life were also represented in her dream, including several of her uncle’s farm hands who showed up as the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion, respectively. Furthermore, the things these characters wanted to find in Oz—a brain (intelligence), heart and courage were traits that Dorothy would have needed to run away from home and, more important, find her way back. As for the ruby (red) slippers and Emerald (green) City, these might have symbolically represented what and the people whom Dorothy loved, and the fantastic, trouble-free, “grass is always greener” land she imagined running to before the storm hit. Even the fortune-teller she met before the storm had shown up in her dream as the Wizard of Oz.

Finally, the biggest “tell” that her experience was a venting dream was the representation of Dorothy’s subconscious mind as Glinda, the Good Witch. Although Glinda is only seen a few times, always arriving in a bubble of golden light (Dorothy’s higher self), her gentle counsel and advice are felt throughout. Glinda is the one who sets Dorothy down that Yellow Brick Road to find the way home; which the girl does, even though she really has no idea where this road will truly lead. The love and protective instinct Dorothy has for her dog has her reach for the nearest weapon to hand—a seemingly innocuous bucket of water—to ultimately defeat the Wicked Witch and rescue her Toto. Finally, it is Glinda who reminds Dorothy that she always had the power to go home when she wanted to, all she needed to do was click the heels of those magical ruby slippers together three times and say “There’s no place like home.”

Fortunately, Dorothy ultimately, gratefully understood.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2016

A Day with the Wolves

“Damu” with his handler, Kimmi Kraus

Photo by Sara Fogan

Many, many years ago, my family spent part of each summer at a cabin in Lake Arrowhead, California. This became one of my favorite places to visit. The temperature was always about 10 to 20 degrees cooler up there, the air was clear and heavily scented with pine, and being in the mountains was an entirely different world from the hustle-and-bustle of a city. It was like time stopped and the opportunity to experience the “wild” of the wilderness. Of course, wildlife in Lake Arrowhead consisted mostly of squirrels (a lot of squirrels), blue jays and crazy-big spiders. There was also a wolf.

Whitey was actually a wolf-dog hybrid. He belonged to the people who owned the cabin next door and spent most of his time outside. He was a fairly big animal, as I recall; his long white fur was coarse and his head and face seemed larger than most dogs I had ever seen. I can’t remember if Whitey’s eyes were amber like his lupine relatives, or if his teeth were larger than a typical dog’s. But the moment I found out that this canine was part wolf, I couldn’t spend enough time with him. I wasn’t afraid of him. He was always gentle and affectionate, although I probably should have been a little more cautious around him. (His daughter, Tia, was another story and I was much more wary and aware around her.) But my first experience with a wolf—or part-wolf—was definitely positive. As I write this blog I can only wonder if those interactions with Whitey created a subconscious known/subconscious mental script that formed my lifelong interest in and passion for these animals.

Yesterday I had an opportunity to attend a presentation about wolves at the Placerita Canyon Nature Center. Despite the heat, at least 100 people came out to see the animals, Damu and Cael, from Project Wildsong. You could hear the collected intake of breath as the organization’s executive director, Kimmi Kraus, and one of her colleagues brought the wolves out. She explained that they were actually wolf-dog hybrids, with 90 percent wolf DNA and 10 percent domestic dog. That was initially disappointing—I expected to see true wolves—but I agreed with her explanation that it would be counter-intuitive and counterproductive to remove a wolf from the wild to teach people about these endangered animals. Damu and Cael certainly looked like true wolves with their long, long legs, large feet and sharp facial features. (In fact, one of Cael’s cousins reportedly had a starring role as a Dire Wolf in Game of Thrones on HBO.) They certainly had many lupine behaviors, Kraus reassured, which Damu promptly demonstrated when he easily jumped onto a picnic table and looked back at—watched—everyone staring, awe-struck, at him.

Ms. Kraus described the history of wolves as being alternately reviled and beloved animals, explaining their role as a keystone species like bears and mountain lions that help to maintain a healthy balance between predator and prey species. She pointed out the wolves’ physical features and showed Damu’s paws. At one point, she had him open his mouth so we could look at his teeth: FYI, they are much bigger than the average domestic dog’s.

For me, the highlight of the event happened at the very end, after the presentation had concluded and audience members were starting to leave. Damu was sitting on the picnic table again—he switched spots with Cael earlier—and I found myself in front of him waiting to ask Ms. Kraus a question. For a moment, we were face to face, and Damu leaned forward and licked me a few times. Many people were petting him or scratching his back, but until that moment I hadn’t tried to touch him. Of course, once he licked me I inferred the gesture was an invitation for contact (emotional suggestibility); I only barely restrained my urge to give him a hug and settled for stroking his left shoulder and back.

When I finally stepped back and started to make my way back to my car, I checked over my shoulder and saw that the wolf still looking for me. It was like a blast from the past, reminding me how I used to cuddle and play with Whitey, the first wolf I ever met. All I can say about both experiences is that nothing compares to the way a wolf looks at you, through you. I still have goose-bumps.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2016