Case Studies

Beliefs create our life. “Learning how to harness your mind to promote growth is the secret of life.” Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. author of The Biology of Belief.   

At our core each of us holds certain ideas to be true. This inner knowing relates to love, happiness, belonging, honesty, freedom, learning, harmony and others. Our care providers impose their beliefs which often conflict with ours. Some examples are: children should be seen and not heard, its ok to ignore, abuse, or make-fun of children, and many others. This undermines our sense of self and leads to life-long feelings of inadequacy. Since children can’t escape we develop alternative views to match our experience such as, “I’m a bad person, its all my fault, there’s something basically wrong with me, I don’t deserve, and many others. This accommodation to our experience creates an inner conflict that upsets our peace of mind and frequently leads to unhealthy behaviors i.e., addictions, obsessions, self negation, anxiety, depression, etc.

Destructive behaviors rob us of our energy leaving us feeling depleted. Eventually this unsatisfactory accommodation to our less than ideal early life experiences creates physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual problems. We feel exhausted, unhappy and out of balance. Energy is to humans what water is to fish. It’s everywhere yet so subtle we take it for granted. Richard Petty, MD talks about energy as an “Informational Matrix,” that permeates and animates the Universe…and this fundamental animating force also has many other names: the Inner Light, Mind, Love...”  

Discover how you use this subtle force and how to bring more into your life. See Energy Questionnaire

Holistic psychotherapy works with the whole person and guides you to self discovery. You go beyond the obvious problem, whether physical, emotional, relationship or other and neutralize the source of the distress. You practice methods that create results which are energizing and restorative. You will feel better, gain new insights, feel calm and empowered to make choices that match your chosen lifestyle.

The following situations describe the experiences of those who used these easily learned, practical methods that create results.

Body

Your Actions Become Your Habits

Joanne, a recently divorced mom developed the habit of having a glass of wine after work to “steel myself” for dealing with the demands of hungry kids, helping with homework and all the other responsibilities of a single mom. The wine habit created inner conflict which she consciously ignored.

Your Habits Become Your Values

Her belief was “I need something to get me through. I’m angry I have all this to do on my own.” Her core value of “I deserve a healthy, loving relationship” was replaced by “I can nurture myself with this wine even though my husband failed me.  She uncovered a hidden belief that “I don’t deserve love” based on childhood experiences of abuse and neglect. She understood how this belief contributed to her failed marriage.

Habits: Merriam-Webster defines habits as a behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition and has become nearly or completely involuntary. The underlying motivation for our behavior lies hidden from our conscious mind and is driven by the desire to feel good, and to avoid feeling bad. Just as the tip of the iceberg signals the presence of unseen forces so too does our behavior. Our behavior either supplies or depletes our energy supply.

Emotions

Your Thoughts Become Your Words

John believed he was a failure and obsessed on all the ways he thought he failed. He told his wife that she might as well leave as he could never make her happy. 

Your Words Become Your Actions

John’s wife became weary hearing him repeat these statements and she eventually left the marriage.

Anxiety is a major driver of our behavior. Unhealthy activities directed towards anxiety relief deplete our energy and lead to addiction. We replace our core values of deserving love, belonging, success, freedom, harmony etc. with those learned in childhood that helped us survive disappointments, loss and abuse. Learned behaviors, rooted in negative experiences create a disempowered false self and we believe this is our real self. Uncovering our true self and returning to our own core values releases the energy of inner peace, harmony and joy. Self-love is a prerequisite for having healthy loving relationships.

Mind/Beliefs

Your Beliefs Become Your Thoughts

Rachael believed “there’s something terribly wrong with me. All my life I’ve lived with crazy people and thought it was me. I keep protecting and defending them thinking that’s my job. My life is a confused mess and now I have cancer!”    

Your Values Become Your Destiny

As a child, Rachael assumed the role of protecting her “crazy” family from criticism. She ignored her own feelings of confusion and embarrassment and defended their odd behavior. At 40 her life was in chaos. She realized she was still operating from the childhood beliefs and they were still creating confusion and embarrassment. She uncovered her core value of “I am ok and I took on the responsibility of making others seem ok even at the expense of myself, thinking there was something wrong with me.” Rediscovering her core value released her from her acquired childhood belief and freed her to joyfully engage in life!