Case Study: An Emetophobia Recovery Journey
With Jane Pendry at Sense-Ability
Joanne is a 45 year old wife, mother, and very energetic grandmother. She has lived with emetophobia since she was 6 years old. When she came to see Jane at Sense-Ability Hypnotherapy & Coaching, she was really struggling with her emetophobia, some deep-rooted childhood trauma and ADHD. She has written this very articulate and moving account for the Sense-Ability website in the hope it will help and inspire others. Thank you Joanne.
Photo (C) Adobe. This is an illustrative photo, and not the client.
I have no idea what started my emetophobia. All I know is that I was petrified of any and every aspect of myself or others getting sick.
I tried every therapy you can think of. Nothing worked until I met Jane at Sense-Ability.
Affecting every part of my life
Any sufferer will understand how debilitating Emetophobia can be. My emetophobia affected every aspect of my life, through school and adulthood. I cried over school trips, never had a sleepover, and my diet was restricted.
Family life and my phobia
Fast forward, and and I married and became a mum….. eventually to four beautiful children. And WOW did this make my phobia even worse. I spent every minute of every day on edge, ready for the “inevitable” to happen (which in reality happened twice in 18 years, and I myself haven’t vomited in 37 years). I didn’t sleep, became depressed, developed an eating disorder, stopped going out to to certain places, missed out on so many events with my children over the years.
Unable to comfort my children
If my children were sick, I ran …and I mean ran. Left them with their dad or my mum and left the house. Never once was I able to comfort them when they were ill.
It broke my heart.
Spiralling and Hopeless
“Last year, my 21 year old son who lives at home got sick and I spiralled. I made him leave the house and booked him into a hotel, I made my daughter and four month old grandson leave as well, just Incase they already had it. I locked myself away, didn’t eat for nearly 2 weeks and frankly life felt hopeless. ”
Last year, my 21 year old son who lives at home got sick and I spiralled.
I made him leave the house and booked him into a hotel, I made my daughter and four month old grandson leave as well, just Incase they already had it. I locked myself away, didn’t eat for nearly 2 weeks and frankly life felt hopeless. This is when I reached out to Jane.
I tried everything
Don’t get me wrong, over the years I have tried everything you can imagine, CBT, Exposure and Response Prevention therapy, group therapy, counsellors, standard hypnosis and EMDR, which for many can be helpful but for me they weren’t. Hence I was sceptical but desperate.
Getting my Life Back
I have had staggered sessions with Jane over the 10 months. In total I think I may have had around 10 sessions with Jane.
These involved building a tool kit of simple, but surprisingly effective somatic tools to manage my dysregulated nervous system. There was some deep-rooted root-case and parts hypnotherapy to address related trauma and abandonment issues. And dedicated, soothing and tailored hypnotherapy that included inner-child work, psycho-education and reframing and embedding new daily and weekly challenges. Slowly, I started to respond differently. It felt a bit strange to find I wasn’t over-thinking, or ruminating, and that I was reacting much more calmly to the old triggers.
Committing to Daily Practice
The key was committing to daily practice, a diary that encouraged me to identify and notice moments that were better. Jane explained that this was a gentle way of building new neural connections, and changing the way I thought, acted and reacted. I believe it was the combination of techniques, which included NLP, breathing exercises, bi-lateral tapping and affirmations, combined with tailored hypnotherapy and trauma techniques has moved my life forward.
“Now, I don’t think about getting sick on a daily basis; I don’t lay awake at night waiting to hear someone getting up; I don’t get triggered by hearing someone say they’ve had a bug. I even held my grandson why he was sick, cleaned him up and gave him a cuddle. ”
Resetting my Nervous System
I can honestly say for the first time in almost 40 years I have my life back. Jane’s technique of hypnosis combined with our solution focused conversations and strategies to enable my to reset my nervous system, have been my lifesaver. Understanding how my body works, using daily techniques to reset my way of thinking, learning how to relax and bring myself down when I panic, along with hypnosis have given me a sense of freedom I never thought possible.
How my life changed day to day
Now, I don’t think about getting sick on a daily basis; I don’t lay awake at night waiting to hear someone getting up; I don’t get triggered by hearing someone say they’ve had a bug. I even held my grandson why he was sick, cleaned him up and gave him a cuddle.
I absolutely know how this fear can take over and unless you live it, it’s very hard to explain to anyone how it makes you feel.
There is hope
But… there is hope … and after over three decades of trying, I found my hope.
I am finally forgiving myself for not being able to be the mum I wanted to be and for not always being present. I have dealt with many other traumas over the years which I have come to realise are probably the root cause of my emetephobia, so working on these with Jane had also aided my recovery.
Photo (c) Adobe
Now I can be the grandmother I want to be.
Does it take work? Yes.
Does this take work, consistency and commitment yes!!! Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!
From a lady who was desperate, sad and felt hopeless I can say, hand on heart … signficiant improvement, even recovery, is possible.
Don’t lose hope and remember your not alone.
Jane Pendry
BA Hons (London), PGCE (Cantab), DSFH, HPD, AfSFH, ABNLP, ABH, CNCH, IARTT
Sense-Ability Hypnotherapy & Coaching
jane@sense-ability.co.uk
07843 813883
www.sense-ability.co.uk
Wheatley, Oxford, United Kingdom Online across the U.K. and Europe