Margaret: Director of National Cultural Organisation

The Problem

Margaret has enjoyed a successful career of over 35 years in cultural organisations. She is a leading figure in both the national and international field. 

She presented with a two year history of increasing anxiety, which was centered around making right turns on her bicycle whilst cycling home through busy city traffic. 

She had tried many different modalities to deal with the issue, including a general hypnosis approach. Unfortunately, nothing had worked. The problem had become so overwhelming that she had started having a small sherry to suppress her panic attacks, before leaving work for the day. 

Cycling is an important part of Margaret’s life. She enjoys it immensely, and it plays a major role in both fitness and her social life. As the problem progressed, her love of cycling had dissipated, and it was beginning to affect other areas of her life; it had even started to erode her confidence in her abilities to manage her director duties at work.

Clearly, something needed to change.

The Breakthrough

During the Breakthrough experience, it became apparent very quickly that there were clear reasons for the problems Margaret was experiencing. Unresolved emotions, and early childhood decisions were at the root of it all. 

Although she came to us with a very specific problem, the real issue was more complex. Margaret had lived a rollercoaster life, experiencing success-driven highs, and inexplicable lows throughout her whole adulthood.

The ‘lows’ that Margaret was experiencing stemmed from a perspective focussed on external, or world events that were out of her control. This was creating in Margaret an overwhelming sense of despair, that was combining with very stressful work targets, and a general feeling of lack of meaning in her life. All of these feelings had been translated into a sense of overwhelming anxiety, specifically focussed on her journey home from work. 

Once we had uncovered the real issues, we were able to use very specific language questioning and timeline techniques to reframe the problematic memories, whilst retaining the important lessons.

The Outcome

We were able to guide Margaret to a solid new generative perspective, and we agreed on tasks that she would undertake after the treatment, to continue her development . 

Within just a few days Margaret was back on her bike. She started by overcoming some of the smaller challenges that she had been facing, and within two short weeks, she had happily and confidently completed a ride round the city on a weekend day!

Perhaps more importantly, Margaret no longer believes that she needs the dips in mood, to justify her periods of happiness. 

She has felt the impact of this work in every area of her life, reporting a greater joy, connection and meaning. 

Her joyful confidence in cycling has returned.