09/08/2026
*Case study*
My client had gone to great expense to have a set of dentures made so that she could have a beautiful smile.
Unfortunately, she struggled with wearing them due to a gagging reflex and also a sense of dread which arose simply through thinking about, or looking at, them - consequently they had not been worn or taken out of their case since coming home.
Session 1 focused on removing the "power" this object had and to find a way to make friends with them! This was achieved through a combination of havening and hypnotherapy. Homework involving regularly taking them out and using some relaxation techniques while building up to popping them in and timing how long they could be tolerated. This was not to be rushed, however, and very much left up to the client.
The feedback at session 2 was positive - the feeling of dread had vanished and the object no longer had the power to upset. Also, the client had successfully trialled popping them in and timing this, but only for a short while.
Now the really interesting bit - the night before the second session, my client reported that she'd had a dream which was around an uncle who had sadly drowned. She hadn't know the uncle, but had grown up hearing the story and had also developed various fears around water which she had all of her life.
So guided by this subconscious "message", we first used havening to help the brain to process anything which was attached to the water fear and then using hypnotherapy we communicated to the subconscious that whatever had happened to her uncle was nothing to do with the denture whatsoever!
At this point, the client felt a "shift" and that the 2 issues were now "separated" where before they had somehow been tangled together by the subconscious.
She immediately felt as though she could now pop in the denture without any problems and promptly did so!
Now she is in a better position to get the work properly done so that they fit correctly 👍
So what has happened here may seem very strange, but is actually quite "logical" according to the subconscious.
The subconscious had been "primed" since a very young age to "look out" for anything to do with drowning and especially not being able to breathe. Anything which seemed to interfere with breathing was a big red flag to the subconscious and immediately rejected - hence all sorts of other associations which had popped up during the havening segment. The client realised that there were lots of seemingly unrelated fears and anxieties which had actually stemmed from this one source.
The subconscious latched onto the dentures in the same way - something which could interfere with breathing - and so was rejected and became the focus of all of the subconscious "dread" of drowning which had been "bottled up" since childhood.
This may seem extreme but is a great example of how the mind works - children always picture themselves as the protagonist of every story and overhearing the sad story of the fate of the uncle would be no different. Unfortunately, "trauma memory networks" can arise through secondhand, as well as first-hand experience.
Once we had "disentangled" the dentures from this fear and also used havening to disrupt the trauma memory network, the shift occurred quickly.
In this case, just 2 sessions were sufficient, purely because the client was excellent at listening to and accepting whatever "messages" the subconscious delivered. ☺️
*Feedback used with kind permission.
