Excerpt: The Case of Ciara- Combining Hypnotherapy & EMDR (Ch. 10)
Ciara, a young woman from a working-class family, entered treatment in her mid-twenties to deal with chronic low-grade depression (dysthymia) that seemed to trace back to years of childhood bullying endured because of Ciara’s awkward appearance, shyness, and weight. Ciara’s goals for treatment were to alleviate depressive symptoms that lowered her quality of life (e.g., low energy, chronic sadness, hopelessness) and to lose approximately 50 pounds. Although Ciara seemed to make some gains by building rapport with her counselor, it was clear that CBT would not be optimal for her, as she was always “fighting” the irrational beliefs that her counselor tried to confront. Ciara was open to EMDR, but that did not go well at the onset, mainly because she did not have a healthy amount of positive material to which the negative material could link up. (See “Frontloading” in Chapter 5.)
Ciara’s therapist then made the decision to try a few sessions of hypnotherapy, specifically the Rational Living Hypnotherapy protocol developed by Aldo Pucci (www.nacbt.org). Using this strategy, Ciara’s therapist was able to suggest several positive, edifying beliefs while Ciara was in a state of hypnosis. Ciara was able to work on clearing out most of her negative cognitive material. While Ciara was in a state of hypnosis, the therapist also made some suggestions about healthy lifestyle strategies that she could adopt for weight loss.
Following 3 sessions of hypnotherapy (which included making a self-hypnosis tape for Ciara to use at home), Ciara was willing to try the EMDR again. This time, the negative charge behind her memory and cognition targets cleared out effectively in 3 to 4 sessions. Her case was a clear example of needing to utilize another approach to therapy to frontload positive material. Once that occurred, the EMDR helped Ciara come full circle in reaching her goals by connecting the emotional work with the cognitive work. At termination, Ciara was free of depressive symptoms and had shed 30 of the 50 pounds she set out to lose.
(c) Jamie Marich, 2011
Ciara’s therapist then made the decision to try a few sessions of hypnotherapy, specifically the Rational Living Hypnotherapy protocol developed by Aldo Pucci (www.nacbt.org). Using this strategy, Ciara’s therapist was able to suggest several positive, edifying beliefs while Ciara was in a state of hypnosis. Ciara was able to work on clearing out most of her negative cognitive material. While Ciara was in a state of hypnosis, the therapist also made some suggestions about healthy lifestyle strategies that she could adopt for weight loss.
Following 3 sessions of hypnotherapy (which included making a self-hypnosis tape for Ciara to use at home), Ciara was willing to try the EMDR again. This time, the negative charge behind her memory and cognition targets cleared out effectively in 3 to 4 sessions. Her case was a clear example of needing to utilize another approach to therapy to frontload positive material. Once that occurred, the EMDR helped Ciara come full circle in reaching her goals by connecting the emotional work with the cognitive work. At termination, Ciara was free of depressive symptoms and had shed 30 of the 50 pounds she set out to lose.
(c) Jamie Marich, 2011
