From Darkness to Light

The story I would love to tell you, if I may, is one of desperation, despair, determination and ultimate joy.

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I have chosen this particular story, which is one of many that I have gratefully gathered over the inspirational years that I have had the life changing science and technology of NLP, Time Line Therapy® and Hypnosis in my life, as it holds so much emotional resonance for me that I adore sharing it. I still draw tremendous amounts of inspiration and motivation from the story I am about to narrate and I really hope that you take some really positive messages from reading it and imagining the scenario for yourself.

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It was 2009 and a wonderfully bright and warm day about half way through my NLP Trainer’s Training experience. I had had a challenging and deeply rewarding day, learning how to become an excellent presenter and trainer of NLP. As I sat in my comfortable hotel room, reflecting on the days learning, my phone rang.  As I answered in a cheery voice, my greeting was met initially by silence and then by a soft, shaky and breathy voice which clearly belonged to someone who was feeling a lot of emotion, right now.

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In response to my gentle enquiry as to how I could help, a very desperate and deeply concerning story began to emerge, punctuated by deep breaths and painful sobs. The lady on the other end of the line who I shall name Julie to protect her confidentiality and identity, told me about her reason for calling. Julie was in the deepest of depressive states. She explained to me that following the birth of her first child, her character, behaviour and view of the world had changed so dramatically that she no longer knew how to function on a daily basis. She found it almost impossible to even raise herself out of bed each morning and the majority of her waking hours were spent relentlessly weeping whilst curled up in a foetal ball. She had been absent from work for a long time and was in danger of losing her job.

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Julie was incredibly sad. She described how a metaphorical black blanket descended over her during every waking hour and no matter what she did she found it impossible to emerge from beneath it.  The sadness was surrounded by anger and hurt and a massive amount of guilt. After all, she had a beautiful child and a wonderful, loving husband and a close and supportive family. She really couldn’t understand why she felt this way and try as she might, she couldn’t stop. The pharmaceuticals prescribed by her GP just made her feel sick. The desperation in her voice was palpable and then I asked how old her son was. Imagine how surprised I was when she replied that he was 7 years old. Julie had been living with this for 7 years!

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What I heard next in all honesty made me go cold all over. She told me that she felt that she had come to the end, she was terrified of what she would do next and that I was her last hope.  I have to be completely honest here. For the next few seconds my head spun as I frantically searched for the words that would create my response. In that very moment I had a ‘use the force’ experience! In my clearing mind I heard the supportive voices of the great teachers of NLP, encouraging me to ‘trust the process, trust your unconscious mind and trust yourself.’

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The appointment was made for the first day that I would be back in the UK and I reassured Julie that there was a highly effective way for her to change the way she felt and to re-connect with all the valuable resources that she had buried deep inside which would allow her to live the life she wants and to be the person she really wanted to be. I was going to assist her in shedding the black blanket so that she could once again emerge into the light.

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By the time Julie entered my coaching room her desperation and despair had transformed into determination to succeed. She attributed her motivation to transform her thinking to the simple task I has given her to complete. I asked her to create a journal which she had religiously populated with emotional content, details of self-talk and internal imagery on a daily basis. Just by taking this action, she felt that she had taken a hugely positive step forward and a bright crack had emerged from within the darkness of her life.

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I had designed a bespoke four hour session for Julie. A powerful tapestry with threads from NLP, Time Line Therapy®, NLP Coaching and Hypnosis. Julie moved through the blended coaching with a great deal of motivation and by the time the session was ended, a very different lady sat before me. She was flushed with colour, smiling and laughing and basking in the bright light that had been discovered when the blanket disappeared. Imagine that for a moment, seven years of darkness exploded out of existence in the space of just four relaxed and trauma free hours. Her negative emotions were gone as had all of her limiting beliefs, she had got rid of her internal conflicts and now had highly effective coping strategies in place. She had developed some rich and exciting new goals and placed them firmly into her future.

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The Julie that left my office that day was so full of joy that I thought she may burst! That moment was one of the most personally rewarding in my entire life, imagine that! Soon after, I received an email from her husband which simply read, “Thankyou for giving me my wife back.” It wasn’t long before Julie’s Aunt and Mother recognised me in the street and came over to give me a hug! I explained that Julie had done all the work and that I had simply guided her, their gratitude was really humbling.

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I hope that my story has given you cause to pause and reflect and perhaps inspired you to think about the things that are not working in your life that you would like to change. Imagine what taking action, releasing your negative emotion and learning to think differently with NLP could create in your life so that it becomes filled with joy, just like Julie!

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Julie now has two lovely boys and she has recently landed a great promotion at work, moved to a different part of the country and is living in her dream home with her family. I continue to work with clients, who never fail to delight me as they transform before my eyes and to train others in NLP, Time Line Therapy®, NLP Coaching and Hypnosis so that they may go out into the world and help our ongoing quest of transforming lives.

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Go ahead, be inspired, transform yourself, transform lives.

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