◗ THE DAY I WAS NOT TOLD I WAS GOING TO QUACK LIKE A DUCK
IF asked, I would characterise myself as a rubber duck. Not perpetually optimistic or cheery, but the kind of person who, when sinking, rights herself no matter what and pops back up again. But the past 18 months… good grief and deep breath… have been an assault on my robust self-confidence. Gone is my notion of indestructible resilience and the perception that all, no matter how difficult right now, will eventually turn out okay. Of course, this unsteadiness has not affected me alone. All of us are wobbling.
Like many others, I’ve scrambled to put in place a mental health scaffolding to hold me and my battered resilience in place. The one method I hadn’t really considered as a tool was hypnosis. Actually, that’s not quite true: I did consider hypnosis every time I opened my fridge to selfmedicate with calories. Every time I saw a passionfruit chiffon cake, followed by my unforgiving scale, I wondered whether there was a way to hypnotise me to stop loving second helpings.
One of the first things Philip Mouton told me when we met to chat about hypnosis as a therapeutic tool was that he would not be waving a magic wand that would make chiffon cake, roast potatoes and second helpings taste like sewage. (I was sad about that.) Philip, who used to be a risk management specialist in the banking sector, recently decided to follow his true passion and qualify as a hypnotherapist with the International Medical & Dental Hypnotherapy Association in the US. He’s also a member of the South African Institute of Hypnotism.
Of course, I had arranged to see Philip initially for mostly shallow, selfish reasons like passionfruit chiffon cake, but always at the back of my mind is the wellbeing of our offspring. ‘Kids,’ he says, ‘especially teenagers, need increasing emotional support. They’re growing up in demanding times, under pressure from media stereotypes and our high-performance culture. Additional factors like bullying or divorce can cause a lot of stress in periods of vulnerability, which can cause anxiety, depression, eating disorders and selfharm. Hypnotherapy can be very effective in uncovering the root cause, clearing the unresolved emotions and reframing it in the subconscious processes.’
The best way to be convinced is to try it yourself. And, of course, I did.
We decided just to do an intro that would take stressed 2020/21 me to a relaxed and happy place. After one session, I’m a convert. Was it dramatic? No. Was it scary? No. Was I unconscious of everything around me? No.
Philip suggested I lie back and count backwards. He told me to imagine heavy-lidded eyes. Using his superpowers (a restful, deep voice, and slightly mesmerising aubergine velskoene), he took me, in my imagination, down some steps into safe and happy places I remembered from years back. These memories were all related to nature and escape: beaches, ski slopes, rivers, mountains… While I never felt asleep or out of control at any point, the time I spent ‘under’ just flew past.
When Philip counted me back, I would have sworn the whole experience had lasted 5 minutes, not the 20 that it had, in fact, taken. He mentioned that time distortion is actually a sign of hypnosis.
I sat up and rubbed my eyes, and felt rested, refreshed and extremely relaxed. Imagine the happy feeling when you’ve spent a few hours doing all the things you love doing on a glorious summer’s day. That feeling.
A qualified hypnotherapist can help you deal with past traumatic events. Philip likened the process to unpeeling the onion of our life-long survival strategies and, in a safe environment, dismantling them. Built as they were by younger, more fearful versions of ourselves, they can be rebuilt from a place of adult power.
Would I trust my own trauma and unresolved grief to a hypnotherapist? Yes. I’d take my time to ensure the person was accredited, educated, ethical and equipped – and then I would. ❖
Contact details
Dr Sherin Bickrum, marriage, family and child psychotherapist: 021 671 6399 Jeanie Cavé, clinical psychologist: info@impacttherapy.co.za
Philip Mouton, certified non-medical hypnotherapist: findyourspark.online