Can you Change

I do not accept the idea that people are not able to change and that this is just who we are and we need to accept it and move on. I also believe that we are too focused on putting people into categories and provide people reasons to fail.

In alternative healthcare we leave the categories and the labeling of clients to the licensed professionals. I love to focus on what you want to do and who you want to be. It is too easy to place the blame on others so the first goal is to accept responsibility for your own success.

I am reminded by my clients that have spent 20 or more years doing psycho-therapy on how they understand why, when and what their problem is. In most cases people come to me after they have spent thousands of dollars and several years going through our licensed healthcare systems. One client has worked on a fear of driving for over 25 years and came to me 2 days before wanting to take a trip with his wife to celebrate their wedding over 30 years ago. He planned a vacation driving up the coast and has not been able to drive comfortably and the family has had to drive him for years.

This is an extreme case but like I said people come to me as a last resort when everything else has failed. I told him that I wanted to spend a few hours with him driving and working actually in the vehicle he was going to be driving. When we started he would say negative things to himself creating this fear and used a lot of negative self talk. I quickly changed the subject and redirected his self talk to positive memories. I also anchored these memories on his shoulder while driving and he slowly started to make the changes. He drove on the highway through the mountains and along other areas that he was not able to drive before. Each success brought more success on the next challenge.

I set up one more session the next day and had him map out every place that caused him panic in the past including the initial place that the psychologist told him started these events. We spent 4 hours driving to every event and each time he completed the task and gained more confidence.

The next day he went on his vacation with his wife and I instructed her to sit right next to him and relive every positive memory of their marrage from the dates to the children and to place her hand on his shoulder along the trip.

He called me weeks later and told me that he did not know how to thank me. He extended his vacation and drove to Vegas and spent another week driving around on this great vacation. I would not recommend that my peers do what I do and at the same time I would recommend that success is thinking outside the normal box sometimes.

Dr. Michael Holt, NC, CHt-I http://www.docmagi.com http://www.venicenutritionsantaclarita.com