Part 3 of 3
We are now two sessions later when I welcome Agnes back to my practice room.
She started immediately. ‘I’m doing well,’ she says proudly. ‘Two weeks ago I started a program with a dietician for a low-carb diet. The advantage of this diet is that it is not actually a diet, but a change in your eating habits. Just what I need,’ she says with a laugh. ‘The first pounds have already come off. You can’t see it, but I can feel it. It makes me feel so happy.’
‘I know all about it, Agnes, because I’ve been eating low-carb for over 10 years. Never hungry, able to eat a lot, without gaining weight. What else do you want?’ I say with a big smile.
She continues: ‘Recently, I was in the car with my mother, and suddenly, she says: Agnes, you’re singing!’ That was such a beautiful moment. Yes, I am much better’.
‘What are we going to work on?’ I ask her.
‘Soon, I will have to give a presentation to a group of colleagues. I think it’s so exciting. In 1-on-1 contact, I can present the same information very relaxed, but with all of those eyes are on me… brrrr… I don’t want to think about it.’ Agnes reaches for her throat.
I propose working with EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques). The advantage of this method is that you can do it yourself at home, as often as you want. EFT assumes that all negative emotions are caused by an imbalance in our energy system. Like EMDR, EFT is also a proven technique that helps you process trauma and leave negative thoughts and fears behind.
Agnes quickly picks up on applying EFT. At the end of the session, I give her a few more tips on how to practice at home. A month later, when we meet again, I ask her if she has already done the presentation for that group.
‘It was last night, and it went very well. In the beginning, it was a bit tense, but that was really nothing,’ she says happily. ‘To be honest, I wasn’t concerned that I couldn’t do it. I just realized that now. It was simply a fun night. What I do find difficult in applying EFT is which sentence I should start with.’
‘We are going to pay extra attention to that today,’ I suggest. We decide to do EFT for breaking free from her former partner. ‘EMDR works just as well, but you can immediately practice with the starting sentence, so that you can apply it yourself at home for all situations in which you want to experience more relaxation,’ I explain.
When we finish the session, Agnes says: ‘It has become clear to me that it is important to include my feelings in the starting sentence. I’m going to practice with it.’
‘What a wonderful job I have,’ I think to myself when Agnes walks out the door, and I think back to her enthusiasm about the presentation she gave with so much pleasure.