José Penrose

Case Studies

Weight Loss

V came to see me for weight loss. She was a very attractive woman in her fifties, but clearly obese and also suffering from MS. Encouraged by her daughter, V had made up her mind to take responsibility for her health and make a determined effort to lose weight.

As we talked it was clear she had had much sadness in her life and was carrying a great deal of guilt. I took her into deep relaxation and allowed her, in trance, to leave the past in the past and to let go of her guilt, sadness and regrets. I also worked with her to increase her motivation to lose weight. At the end of the session V said she felt wonderfully relaxed and positive.

Ten weeks later, and after just this one session, I received a note from V saying that she has lost more than three stone, is still counting down the pounds and is feeling wonderful.

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Depression

I visited J in her own home, as she was too ill go out. She was very depressed and suffering from chronic reflux. She had lost a great deal of weight, her eyesight was deteriorating and she could find nothing positive to look forward to in her life.

We had three sessions together and J was able to come to my practice for the third of these. As she was not keen to try hypnosis, we concentrated on breathing and progressive relaxation of the muscles, including the oesophageal sphincter, and I encouraged her to visualise cooling, calming enzymes assisting her digestion. I discovered her great love was walking her two dogs and that she was also looking forward to being able to play bowls when she was better.

At the end of the first session J asked if I would give her a hug. It was clear she desperately needed physical contact with others and so we ended that and subsequent sessions with about 20 minutes gentle head and shoulders massage. This greatly increased J’s sense of well-being.

Six months later J is getting out and about again, enjoying walking her dogs, meeting friends and playing bowls regularly.

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Panic Attacks

W contacted me because she was suffering severe panic attacks which were seriously restricting her life. Her doctor had recommended antidepressants and counselling. She was reluctant to take medication, although she had accepted beta blockers as an emergency measure. She had attended two counselling sessions (each with a different counsellor) but had come away feeling even more disturbed and depressed. She turned to hypnotherapy in desperation to find a solution, despite an earlier bad experience of this therapy.

W arrived for her first session in a state of great agitation. I asked her to focus on her breathing and she gradually became calmer. Together we explored the origins of the attacks, the pressures she felt from her relationships with parents, children and husband and the many difficulties she had experienced throughout her life, during which she had remained strong and in control. I helped her to reframe some of her beliefs, enabling her to see both current and past situations in a different light. We ended the session with W visualising a time when she felt strong, confident, in control and really good about herself.

W had four sessions and felt much better. She has had just one “wobble” during a particularly stressful situation at home, but generally feels much more confident and relaxed. She is now ready to try a session of deep hypnotic relaxation as the final aid to her complete recovery.

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Confidence

A is in his early 30’s and came to see me because he had reached a stage in his career where he was being asked to make presentations to colleagues and customers on the software products he had been developing. Throughout his life to date he had successfully avoided making any kind of public speech, despite having achieved a university degree.

A is a keen football player and could easily visualise a time when he felt full of confidence about himself and his performance. Under hypnosis I enabled him to anchor this good feeling (by pressing his thumb and forefinger together) and then use the anchor to recreate the same feeling in situations where he needed to feel confident and in control. I also asked him to visualise himself in as much detail as possible making a perfect presentation, noticing how confident he looked and how easily he was able to remember all the details of his speech.

A’s first presentation went well, which further increased his belief in his own abilities. After three sessions, A no longer feels nervous about making presentations and is making good progress in his career.

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Working with children

Children are particularly good hypnotic subjects and therapy can be very effective for a range of disorders – behavioural and eating problems, thumb sucking, bed wetting. Below are two case studies:

Following an extremely effective treatment for a spider phobia on his mother, 10 year old P asked if he thought I could help him with his eating problem. Although he ate a wide variety of foods as a small child, P had developed a dislike of everything except a very narrow range of foods – pasta, fish fingers, cucumber and carrot – and at one stage had stopped eating all together. He was small for his age and lacking in energy. He longed to be able to eat normally but found many foods repellent. He was keen to overcome his problem and his ambition was to sit down and enjoy a roast dinner with his family. After just one session of hypnosis and positive suggestion, P began to try a range of foods and had actually eaten a roast dinner at a friend’s house. After two treatments, he was trying a wide variety of foods and feeling very proud of himself.

F is 15 and still habitually sucks his thumb. Thumb sucking had become a completely unconscious habit, he had a sore and unsightly blister on his thumb and longed to be able to stop. F responded well and went into trance almost immediately. Again, after just one session his thumb sucking habit had become a thing of the past.