Mushroom soup

Yesterday afternoon I bought some items from a local supermarket & the checkout person gave me a big smile & said, "I had a great weekend."
I knew that she’d gone to a BBQ.
I said, "I knew you were going to tell me that."
She’d come to see me twice last week for two hypnotherapy sessions, two days apart for panic attacks. She had told her husband at breakfast that she was sick of putting up with 'the problem' & that she was going to see a hypnotist. She said he was happy about that.
I began the first session by asking her to keep her eyes fixed on the door & I asked her two questions...
“What are you thinking while you are keeping your eyes fixed on that spot?”
“What are you feeling while you are looking there?
She replied that her mind was blank to the first question & to the second question that she wasn't feeling anything, except a little bit calmer. I asked her to imagine that she was sitting in her favourite chair at home & was looking at the blank wall.
At the end of the second session she told me that the first time that she had ever felt really awful was when she was six years old. She had been staying with her brother who was a little older with an auntie. They went out for a meal at the auntie's mother's place. Mushroom soup was served. She didn't like mushroom soup, neither did her brother & he said so.
They were told sternly that even if they didn't like the soup that they would have to eat it anyhow. So they just had the soup & said nothing because it was bad manners to do otherwise. Ever since that day she had suffered from panic attacks & avoided going out especially to visit relatives.
During the second session we discussed the ‘looking at the wall’ homework. Besides keeping her eyes steady she was asked was to gather all unwanted feelings together in her belly & squeeze them into a ball until they were compact. Then I asked her to take a big breath & breathe the all those feelings & sensations out of her body & mind through the soles of her feet.
She told me that she had been fretting about going to a BBQ on Friday afternoon so I advised her to just keep doing the homework whenever she felt she needed or wanted to.
The mushroom soup incident may have been the dart that injured her self confidence when she was a six year old. The fear of having being bad & being scolded for inappropriate behaviour had produced unbearable problems & inconvenience for her for 40 years. She was eager to get rid of the problem & was very keen to learn anything that might help.
Because 'the lady' was so tense at the first session I did not attempt a standard induction & hypnotherapy session. I tested her to see if she could allow her eyelids to relax enough so that she could not open them. She couldn't. No matter. I gave her 'waking suggestions' & 'concentration & relaxation techniques' & she seems to have had a very successful outcome.
I have taught 'relaxation & concentration techniques' to groups of students & adults over the years & many people have reported great benefits even after one workshop. Like most things it depends on keeping up your skills every day. Finally, I did say as I left the store that she should call me if she ever loses confidence again. She said, "I will."