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Molly, a 66-year-old widow, presented with a phobia of lightning storms.
The fear was so intense that she confined herself to the house whenever the weather forecast was bad, and had to have a family member keep her company until the storm was over.
She had suffered from the phobia for as long as she could remember. She still carried the memory of a particularly frightening storm she had witnessed as a child where a nearby house had been damaged.
Previous treatment included tranquillizers from her GP and some sessions of hypnosis, but she still had the problem.
Her voice and general appearance indicated a smoking habit. In fact she smoked sixty a day!
SUD before treatment was 9 at the prospect of a storm that was forecast for the following day.
The Treatment
Because of her childhood trauma involving a lightning storm (SUD=10), I treated this first using the Complex Trauma algorithm: eb, e, a, c. The SUD lowered to 7 after the majors, to 4 after the 9-g, to 2 after the repeat sequence and to 1 after the eye-roll (on a scale from 1-10).
We then addressed the upcoming storm (SUD=9) using the standard fear algorithm: e, a, c with a similar result.
Such a rapid result would not be expected in a heavy smoker, so I warned her that the problem was likely to return when she next had a cigarette. Half joking, I asked how much she craved a cigarette at that moment (SUD = 7) – so we eliminated the craving (e, a, c, 9-g, sq) and, slightly dazed, she sailed off with a copy of the smoking cessation protocol, promising to let me know how she had fared the following day.
Six Weeks Later
Fairly typically, there was no contact from the client for about six weeks, and I assumed the phobia had been reactivated by toxins in the cigarettes. So, when she phoned saying she had been doing well ever since the session but was “a little nervous” that morning (SUD = 4). I wanted to know when she had smoked her last cigarette. The answer came: “I haven’t smoked since I was with you!” So, recovering from my astonishment, I talked her through the fear algorithm over the phone with the same rapid result.
The next contact I had was through a client she had referred to me for smoking. He said she was still smoke-free, but wasn’t able to update me about the phobia!
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