Below you will find the testimonials of some of the participants of the MS study done by our founder Eva M Clark as well as private clients that went through the protocol that had been designed through that study. Though the graphs of the study and participants show improvement in symptoms and quality of life, these descriptions of their experience in their own words gives a more clear insight into the transformations experienced.
PHASE I
Through
hypnotherapy I am finding the courage to face the fear behind my
diagnosis and to gently let go of parts of myself and my life for my
personal healing, even parts that I love and cherish. I am also learning
how to bring awareness to a great source of power within myself for
healing. I am experiencing personal improvement with symptoms
(anxiety/depression, pain/discomfort/fatigue, bowel/bladder issues) and
the potential for so much more.
Eva brings a "theme" to each session
and we often begin with a brief summary about the symptoms that are up
front for me at the time. Eva guides me to achieve a state of deep
relaxation where I am able to access my own inner wisdom. From this
place I am able to dialogue with parts of myself in surprising ways. Eva
asks me questions in this deeply relaxed state where I discover that I
am able to express deep personal truths using images, archetypes,
personal myths and my own imagination. I take home recordings of the
guided sessions to use for "self-hypnosis" until the next session. I
also keep a daily tracking log of my symptoms, diet, exercise and any
significant events. This alone has proven to be a useful personal
process.
I was diagnosed with MS in 2010 and I still feel quite new
to it. I feel fortunate to begin learning hypnotherapy now as a tool to
help me navigate my path.
- Participant 1.1
I have had MS
for 30 years and have been in a wheel chair for 15. I have not been
able to lift my legs when lying in bed or to stand without holding on to
something for more than a few seconds. 4 months ago I started taking
hypnotherapy sessions with Eva Clark. She is doing a study on the effect
that hypnotherapy has on MS. I see her once every two weeks and then
she sends me an email of the taped sessions. After the first session I
noticed that, when listening to the recording, I could lift my legs off
the bed. I have had nine sessions and my legs have steadily becoming
stronger. This week I went to my ninth session and something else
changed - my balance. Each day I have been timing how long I can stand
without help and it have now gotten up to 1 1/2 minutes. It feels like a
miracle.
- Participant 1.2
I have been to nine sessions and
the transformations I have made are tremendous. I came to Eva having
lived with MS for over 15 years. Although I have spent most of those
years working on my own health and healing, it is only through the use
of hypnotherapy that I have seen the amazing power I have to heal from
within. Eva has guided me through internal journeys that continue to
help me experience the potential of my mental and physical well-being.
Among the changes I have seen since working with Eva I have let go of
destructive behaviors, wake up earlier, sleep better, am consistently
getting stronger, have eliminated an allergy, and even have improved my
golf game! Years of psychotherapy never helped me this much!
- Participant 1.4
My
sessions completed several months ago and I have very positive feelings
concerning a new proactive tool to fight the effects and continued
onslaught of my MS: and that is truly the keyword that sums up the very
beginnings of this project, proactivity.
I was diagnosed with
Multiple Sclerosis in January of 1989. My symptoms, however, began at
least eight years earlier. I slowly deteriorated until 1993 when I was
forced to take a disability retirement by the crippling effects of the
disease.
Having always been athletic and active, I now sit in a
wheelchair with only partial movement of my right arm and hand. This has
remained so for years, and it was not until a friend told me of the
hypnotherapy study that I gained insight into utilizing my brain to
overcome my body’s physical limitations. This was the first “exercise
technique” I had found in over 25 years.
Meditation as a weapon has
been very effective for me immediately, and hopefully effective in the
long-run with the accumulated effects of my mind increasing the battle
against MS’s progressive effects. I thank you dearly for opening that
door.
- Participant 1.5
PHASE II
Hypnotherapy was a
whole new experience for me. I had no familiarity with it previously. I
am now in a position to highly recommend it (with Eva especially.)
Why?
Because now I have a specific PLAN for my future! Because of MS I had
to retire from my career of almost 25 years. I had not trained for, nor
envisioned any other career. I was lost.
Hypnotherapy enabled me to
focus on what I had so loved about my former career. It also helped me
to regain the confidence that I needed to apply those same skills in a
new direction. In short --- it gave me HOPE.
I have also noticed that
as my hypnotherapy has progressed, many of my symptoms are diminishing.
The largest change I have observed is that I need my cane less and
less. I am unable describe all of the physiological changes brought on
by my hypnotherapy, but I can say that I am experiencing an increased
sense of balance. I also feel an improved sense of confidence and
calmness. These allow me to follow my own pace, instead of the feeling
the need to “keep up” with everyone else. This has greatly improved my
sensation of STRENGTH. Prior to hypnotherapy, I was beginning to
despair of ever feeling strong again!
- participant 2.2
I have
had M.S. For approximately 20 years. I am very fortunate because I am
still walking and trying to learn and improve everyday. I was a very
driven and yearning for success person. I was working everyday if
needed. The price I paid was M.S.
Eva has been helping me to slow
down and accept what is happening. I have had success with
hypnotherapy. My problem is my right leg and it has improved and I am
confident it will continue and heal.
- Participant 2.3
Perhaps
I was not the perfect candidate for the study. The premise of
mind-based healing, as I understand it, is that healing occurs when you
resolve the cause - with the cause being an inner conflict, toxic
thoughts, etc. This is the concept that I did not wholly accept - being
more pragmatic-based and thinking in terms of a viral etiology for MS.
Additionally, some of the guided hypnotherapy sessions during which I
was asked, "what do I see?" were mildly frustrating when I 'saw'
nothing. I mention these initial background thoughts because they make
the final, successful outcome all the more significant.
I believe
that the mind influences (perhaps directs) the health of the body and
that stressors aggravate a person's well being. I benefited from the
sessions because they helped me focus on health (rather than illness)
and gave me a method, under my own control, to feel better and to deal
with stress. Our sessions highlighted personal history that I had not
fully analyzed for its negative impacts. The study coincided with some
unexplained symptoms and disappointments with doctors. The sessions with
Eva were even more valuable because of these issues. The immediate
effect of relaxation and tranquility during and after a session was
palpable. I used the recordings during afternoon 'quiet times' and to
help fall asleep at night. I have experienced an immediate reduction in
pain and tingling when applying the 'dynamic spin' technique. I continue
to use the recordings and methods with improved health benefits. I am
now a believer in, and advocate for, the benefits of hypnotherapy.
- Participant 2.5
My
first impression was with Eva herself: she has a warm, gentle nature, a
good sense of humor, and an ability to explain to a novice to
hypnotherapy, like myself, the rationale behind the focus of each
session. This put me at ease, as did her eagerness to help those of us
with MS to find relief, and I gave myself fully to the process and
followed through with all “homework”. Eva’s ability to tease salient
points from copious notes during each session left me fascinated and
curious to see what would come next. Overall, this has been a very
pleasant, engaging and positive experience.
The symptoms I
tracked were cognitive impairment, blurred vision, exercise-fatigue,
stretching-pain and bladder incontinence. I experienced a marked
improvement in incontinence. The tracking numbers may reflect a mild
case of pneumonia that had me coughing for four months which, in turn,
aggravated the bladder incontinence for a while. Otherwise, I think my
rating on incontinence would have stayed low (since recovering, this
symptom has continued to be a very minor one).
Unfortunately, I
didn’t experience real benefit in the other symptoms that we tracked. I
do want to mention, however, that - due to the pneumonia - I was not
able to exercise for much of the time and my overall level of fatigue
(which aggravates my cognitive and vision symptoms) was higher than
usual for a good amount of time as well.
Hypnotherapy has
brightened my understanding of MS in my life, as well as refocused my
general self-understanding, in such areas as the role MS has played, how
parts of myself work with or against it, and the impact of brief
moments on how I’ve viewed and coped with MS over time. For example, I
saw how one visit with a neurologist set the tone for much of my future
expectations. One thing I already knew, but had lost sight of, is how
MS always gets worse when I stop listening to myself or stop making
myself a priority. Our sessions have also shed light on ways I’ve
neglected the things that bring me joy and how I’ve considered it a
priority but not actually made it one in my daily life.
I look
forward to remembering each day to put these lessons into practice,
maintaining the priorities of sharing and teaching from the heart,
beginning each day with gratitude and activities that bring me joy.
- participant 2.6
When I started Hypnotherapy and Neuro Linguistic Programming sessions with Eva Clark I was skeptical. After
all I had been living with Multiple Sclerosis for 12 years and over
that time I had seen many counselors for every aspect of my disease.
I
had completed courses in coping skills and emotional well being,
symptom relief, and even the financial aspects of my disease.I was an
RN, I thought I had a good understanding of the disease process and
pain. And if life was not great, I could describe it as good.
Despite
this skepticism I was intrigued. There had always been a certain degree
of uneasiness in my life and I was looking for an answer to that. What
was this therapy? Could it help me?
Within the first couple of
sessions I learned that Eva was open, non-judgmental, and had a passion
for helping people. It became clear I could trust her when “baring my
soul”. She had the knowledge and ability to help me to understand
myself.
She used multiple mind- body techniques including guided
imagery, visualizations, meditation, individualized tapes and various
NLP therapies to help me gain a new awareness. She never told me what to
do to improve my life. With thoughtful questions she took me inward so I could find my own answers. As we re-examined my most painful life experiences I learned that they could be seen as wonderful learning opportunities. The answers were there inside me, I just needed help finding the key to unlock them. Eva’s use of NLP gave me that. I
shared, I listened, I learned. Then I went home and practiced and
practiced it all again. I learned how to stare stress straight in the
face and deal with it instead of pretending everything was ok.
After 5
months I started to feel different, more hopeful. I felt I had a
purpose, I felt strong. I felt a tremendous gratitude for all the
wonderful things that had gone right in my life. MS was not so large
anymore. As I learned conflict resolution skills and how to practice
“Dynamic Spin” to decrease my anxiety and pain a wonderful thing
happened. I learned I could manage my pain very successfully. I did not
run to the medicine cabinet for a pain pill or muscle relaxant at the
first twinge. I used the tools I had learned to slow myself down and ask
my body “What is the message you are giving me?”
As I near the end
of my 6 month sessions I am taking 50% less pain medication and muscle
relaxants than what I took at the beginning of the course.
I learned that I like myself. My body is worth caring for in the best possible way. I feel there is a reason for my being here on earth. What greater gift is there than to believe in yourself that way?
As
I near the end of my 6 month sessions I know that this journey for me
cannot end, if anything it is only a beginning. Thank you Eva, more than
my words could ever say.
- Participant 2.7
Working with Eva
has been very transformative for me, but in such subtle, seamless ways, I
often don't notice it right away-- I'm just living it! For example, in
our fourth session together, she had me imagine "getting over" MS as if
it were just a cold-- something I've recovered from many times. She
made me a recording called "Consistent Ritual of Healing" which I
listened to every night at bedtime for two weeks. I would fall asleep
in the first 5 minutes and really couldn't tell you what was in the
remaining 15 minutes of recording. At the end of this time, however, I
started seeing a personal trainer, working out at a gym twice a week,
changed my diet substantially, and started stretching and exercising on a
daily basis. It never occurred to me that the two had anything to do
with each other until I was reviewing the timeline of our work together
and saw the correlation.
This has also happened with how I view
myself and how I interact with the world. Some specific examples are
that I ask for help more easily, I'm easier on myself, and I'm more
accepting of all of the parts of myself. I'm excited to keep working
with Eva to see what else we can gently transform for the better in my
behaviors, outlook, and fullness of life.
- Participant 2.10, session 10
Estoy diagnosticada de EM
desde junio del 2011. Cada año desde entonces, y todos los meses de
junio, he tenido un fuerte brote que me ha llevado al hospital. Durante
el resto del año padecía continuos dolores en distintas partes del
cuerpo, episodios intensos
de fatiga y se me dormían zonas de la cara, cuello, piernas y brazos,
que se despertaban para después dormirse otras zonas, como si fueran
luces de un árbol de Navidad. Contacté con Eva en enero del 2016 y,
después del tratamiento con sesiones de hipnoterapia
y PNL, todos estos síntomas han desaparecido. Desde julio de este año
no tengo ninguno. Aunque para no dejar de celebrar tan extraño
aniversario este junio también estuve ingresada en el hospital, pero no
por algo relacionado con la EM sino por una neumonía
bilateral.
Eva, estoy muy agradecida por lo que has hecho por mí y espero que sigas ayudando a muchas más personas ¡Muchas gracias! - Ángeles Rodríguez.
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