I have a client who is a young woman, single parent. She developed itchy hives 5-6 months ago after a treatment to remove an old tattoo. They are more frequent over her thighs and inner arms but appear anywhere on her body. They are worse when she is stressed but also happen when she is not stressed or anxious. I have done my best dermatologic interventions including anxiety reduction, Parts, NLP, a couple of sessions on psychophysiological release and a cellular cleanse. After the psycho-physiological sessions the hives got better for several hours. Unfortunately, they returned and nothing else has helped at all. I’m at a loss as to what to do. I even did a regression session and it did not help either. Any ideas?
Think “Sensitized”.
Most cases of hives involves an allergic reaction to something like fruit, insect sting, pollen, dander, milk, etc. Like hives, eczema is an allergic reaction. Both express as skin lesions. Both are triggered. Both result from a hyper-sensitive immune response. In other words, the person who suffers with these skin conditions has been sensitized. Whenever they’re confronted with the trigger, their immune system goes bonkers.
Let me share an actual client case of eczema that may be helpful.
The client had deep, painful lesions on her shoulders. There were itchy patches on her chest, and the insides and outsides of her arms and legs. All attempts to resolve the condition, so far, had failed. She had been through the standard regime of cortisone treatments and even tried 10 session of Brain State Re-patterning. She saw some improvement but not complete resolution.
Stress made it worse. So she attended my 7th Path Self-Hypnosis course which focuses on releasing internal, emotional stress. Self-hypnosis definitely helped so she decided to schedule private sessions with me. And we began the deeper work of regression hypnotherapy.
Symptoms Serve a Purpose
According to German New Medicine (GNM) the problem isn’t the body running amok. There’s a reason for the symptoms. Physiological conditions serve a biological imperative. The symptoms may not make sense to the Conscious, thinking mind but they serve an underlying Subconscious purpose.
The object of regression-to-cause hypnosis is to find that underlying purpose so we can resolve the problem. I have certainly found GNM accurate with many of the somatic conditions I have worked with. And having insight into how the body-mind “thinks” has certainly helped me to identify what to look for during a session.
So here’s what I’ve learned …
Watch for a Boundary Issue
Skin issues indicate a boundary issue. Our skin is our most immediate contact with our environment. Hives or eczema are the skin responding to a perceived threat in the environment. And it is expressing either a “come here” or “go away” message.
How do you know which it is? If the condition appears on inside parts of the body like inner arms or legs, that indicates a need for connection. In other words, “come here.” If it appears on the outside, the body is expressing defensiveness, a need for distance. A clear, “go away” message. Interesting, huh?
With my client, the Symptom Producing Event (SPE) occurred in her teens. This wasn’t the causal event. It’s just the event that preceded the skin eruptions occurring.
Let’s call her Carla. Carla was picking fruit with her mother and had forgotten to bring a cover-up shirt. Her mother would not let her go home to get her shirt, however, so she got a severe sun burn on her shoulders – the area of her body where the lesions were the worst.
The SPE was not the cause of the eczema. This event was merely “the last straw” for Carla. This is how the Mind works. When the internal pressure reaches critical mass the body starts expressing symptoms.
I bridged back off of this event to earlier situations and the pattern was soon evident. Her condition had everything to do with Mom. As a child she was rejected by her mother and severely neglected. She was left for hours alone and only attended for dutiful feedings or diaper changes.
Her saving grace was her father who adored her. But most of her time was spent in the care of a mother who did not want her. So the person she depended on most to meet her primary needs was not safe. Her body was screaming the conflict – “come here” AND “go away.” Note: This is a common pattern with incest clients.
The Answer Lies in the Perception-Brain-Body Connection
Where symptoms appear in the body is determined by which part of the brain was impacted during the causal event. And that is determined by the nature of the perception at that time. So, skin conditions involve boundary issues. Colon cancer, on the other hand, points to an anger issue.
Regression to cause revealed that the client had been the product of a rape. This was an event that her mother had kept secret from everyone, including her husband. Carla was a constant reminder of a trauma that her mother had endured and the shame she carried because of it. This realization allowed Carla to understand, accept and forgive her mother and herself. She came to peace. And the skin condition disappeared.
It took a week or so for the lesions to heal completely, but the itching and oozing and pain evaporated immediately following that session. The condition has not returned (it’s been about eight years at the time of this writing).
Where is the Block to Healing?
The body is naturally designed to self-regulate. When this doesn’t, there’s always a reason. There’s some kind of a block. Something is preventing it from doing what it was designed to do . Our job, as hypnotherapists, is to help remove the block so the body is no longer inhibited from doing it’s job.
With your client, the removal of the tattoo obviously acted as a trigger for some unresolved emotional issue. I would want to know what was going on in her life when she got the tattoo. And also her reasons for having it removed.
What was going on in her life 6 months prior to both events? This may or may not reveal a contributing factor but arms and legs often reflect unexpressed fight/flight responses. We run and kick with our legs. We strike out and protect ourselves from attack with our arms.
It could be a simple matter of attitude, i.e. “grin and bear it” overriding the body’s automatic protective response to avoid the pain of the tattoo process. Or it could be something much deeper, as it was with my client. Either way, you’re looking at an unresolved trauma. It could be a “big Trauma” like abuse. Or it could be a “little trauma” typical of the mis-perceptions that take shape in childhood.
Stress makes symptoms worse.
Stress makes everything worse. But we are not always consciously aware of internal stress because Subconsciously-held stress tends to build up over time. Like the frog that is placed in cool water and slowly brought to a boil, we may not realize we are being “cooked” by unrecognized fears, anger, resentment, guilt, etc.
Our negative self-talk yammers away in the background generating anxieties that can come to be accepted as “normal. The fact that you got temporary relief from the various interventions you employed suggests there may be a deeper cause. The trick is to find the thread. Then follow it back to it’s origins and release the trauma.
Here’s a free resource on skin problems you can download.
