Debbie made an appointment for driving test nerves. Her
next exam was due in less than a week and because I didn't have time to arrange
more sessions with her, I suggested that we arranged her session for the
afternoon before her exam (which was scheduled for about 8:30 a.m. the next
morning).
Debbie seemed a fairly confident woman. She wanted to
pass her test mainly because her husband worked away most of the time and she
had two young children and felt it would be nice to be free to take them places
and also to shop without the hassle of having to take buses or taxis.
She told me that she had already taken her test 11 times and
failed, not because she was not a competent driver, but because she panicked
each time at the slightest mistake.
After her first couple of failures she began to have panic
attacks several days prior to her next forthcoming test. She couldn't
sleep the night before and was even physically sick on several occasions.
Debbie had already 300 hours of driving experience and knew
all the examiners (including the ones who'd left or died) and they all told her
that they were sorry they had to fail her for mounting that kerb so many times
(and other things) and they knew she was a good driver but they simply couldn't
pass her.
I think I was her last hope and I really believed that she
was going to pass this time. Maybe it would have happened without hypnosis
but Debbie had already decided that she was going to panic yet once more.
On taking her history she told me that she'd been hypnotized
on stage once and was a good subject. She was intelligent enough to know
that she wouldn't be doing anything to make herself look ridiculous and she also
had a wonderful imagination and an interest in spiritual matters (which is often
an indicator that someone has a degree of 'higher intelligence')
I used my favourite induction, which rarely fails - (always
adapted slightly though to suit the client of course) - and took her down a
beautiful stairway and through the door of time - the door to tomorrow - the day
of her driving exam.
We went through an imaginary journey of her (forthcoming)
test where she felt so confident and competent - she was given several anchors
to reinforce this confidence and projected to the end of her test to enjoy the
experience of knowing that she had now earned her license to freedom.
When the session was over I asked Debbie how she felt.
She reported that she KNEW she was going to pass this time. I really
wanted to wish her luck but didn't because I thought that might seem as though
it was leaving things to chance so I simply asked her to phone me after the exam
and let me know how it went. She said - "I'll phone you to let you know
that I've passed".
At exactly one o'clock the following day the phone rang.
It was Debbie - she said - "I've passed - thank you so much".
It certainly made me feel good - not because I want to chalk
up points on the successes that I've had but Debbie had already spent a couple
of thousand pounds on driving lessons (she could have earned a pilots licence in
the time that she'd spent trying to pass her driving test) - it's just so nice
to feel that you have really made a difference to someone's life (albeit - even
though they do it themselves - they get by with a little help from their
Hypnotic World friends).
