By Kazem Sadeghiadl

At one of her doctor appointments, Karen was mistakenly told she might have a brain tumor or MS, a diagnosis that was later disproved. This misdiagnosis had a very bad effect on her emotionally due to her memories of the experience. She asked for help with this condition, and what follows is the procedure I used.

I started with the Changing Personal History:

First I anchored her for being safe and sound by touching her shoulder, just in case I needed that state. (Anchor #1)

I then asked her to think of the time when she had gone to that doctor, and to experience everything that happened that day, visualize the day, the doctor, the office, etc… and also I told her to experience everything she heard in that office, including any voices, what the doctor told her, etc. I also told her to experience how she felt when the doctor gave her the wrong diagnosis.

As she replayed all the scenes in her mind, I saw her face start to redden, her facial muscles tense, while her shoulders dropped. At that time, I anchored her by touching her right wrist. (Anchor #2) Then, I broke the state, and told her to return her focus to the present.

After that, I asked her what kind of resources she would have liked to have had, that could have helped her better deal with the situation. She replied she wished she had more knowledge then, and wished she knew then what she knew now. She also expressed a wish for better self-confidence.

I then asked her, “Can you remember a time when you had all those resources? Plus the resources when the next doctor told you that you are fine and had nothing to worry about?” She said yes. Then I asked her to access all those resources and let me know when she had them all by nodding her head. She did that, and I anchored by touching her left wrist. (Anchor # 3)

Then I asked her to come to the here and now. Next, I told her to imagine she had all those resources (I fired anchor # 3.) at the time she saw the doctor who gave her the wrong opinion (I fired anchor #2 ) and see how she would feel knowing she had all these new resources available to her at that time. She did. I asked her how she felt? She told me, "It feels much better, actually it feels good, and I am very relieved.”

I noticed her face was no longer red, and her facial muscles seemed relaxed. She sat up straight and her shoulders were up and back.

I again asked her how she now felt about the whole experience. She said, “It does not bother me anymore, but I still see the doctor's face.” I asked her how she felt about that. She said, “That still bothers me a little bit." I said okay, let's do something else to see how you feel. She agreed.

I then applied the swish pattern technique, attempting to remove the memory of the doctor's face so it would not bother her anymore. I asked her to make a very large, dissociated picture of herself, an image of herself happy, healthy, feeling great and having all the best resources she could have. Very big and colorful, even adding sound if she so wished. She complied.

Next, I asked her to imagine a small picture of the doctor in black and white (associated picture). I asked her to put the black and white picture of the doctor in front of her best image that she made earlier. I had her place a dot on the doctor's picture, and then make that dot open so she could only see the best image of herself, saying swish when she did.

She complied. I asked her to do this 5 times and she did. After that, I asked what she saw. She said, “I see a picture of myself.” I asked if she saw the doctor's face. She said, "Not any more." I asked her how she felt about the entire event. She said, “It does not bother me at all,” and she thanked me and said, “That was amazing!”