I met John last week again, after not being in contact with him for over a year. He came in to see me and to show me how he had progressed.  The changes were AMAZING.

When we first started working together, John was 47 years old. By this time he had spent the majority of his life in and out of the prison system starting from age 12.

• John was nervous and jittery.

• His body language showed a heightened flight-fight state.

• He was as skinny as a rake, displayed nervous tics and tremors on his face and limbs and his eyes seemed ready to pop out of their sockets.

• It was difficult for him to make and maintain eye contact.

• He certainly did not want to talk about himself.

My first step was to build rapport with him and I used all my NLP rapport building skills to do that. I explained to him that I did a different type of therapy, which he would not have experienced before, and that I would also teach him skills if he was willing to learn them which would help bring down his anxiety levels.

Over the sessions I got a detailed life history of John. He was adopted into his family when he was a baby. His biological parents are unknown to him.

His childhood was a living hell, fraught with abuse, violence and fear. At the age of 3 he was sexually violated by his stepfather, and this abuse continued almost on a daily basis until the age of 12 (when he was able to stand up to the abuser).

After every sexual assault (where he was brutally sodomized), he was also beaten unmercifully and threatened with death. Finally at age 12 John left home and began a life of drug and alcohol usage, which led to criminal activities.

I used several interventions with John, including EFT and NLP. In addition we did time lining and future pacing (DHE) so he could design a future for himself. This allowed him to feel he had some degree of control over what could happen in the future.

During our weekly sessions John used all the techniques frequently and kept a daily journal. The changes he was making to his thoughts and behaviors were evident immediately. He told me that in all his years of therapy and counseling he had never been given any self-help tools. The counselling he had received previously was purely Cognitive (talk therapy).

When I saw John last week, it was a sight for sore eyes! 

I was amazed at the difference in his demeanour.

• He has put on weight which suits him well.

• Tics and tremors disappeared

• He is oozing confidence.

• Makes full eye contact now

• Has been in a full-time relationship for over a year and plans to marry

• And, is going on an over-seas trip shortly

All the above were part of his hopes and dreams in his inner work.

I feel privileged and proud to have worked with John.

"I'd like to express my gratitude to Richard Bandler for introducing NLP and DHE to the world, and to Gary Craig for developing EFT". -Rehana