Therapy Notes

  I often hear people say: I am so afraid. We are afraid of many things, real and unreal. Growing up, as children, often adults threaten with fearful outcomes if we do not eat, sleep, or do what we should be doing. I remember our ayah, the woman who took care of my sisters and me while we were children, would often scare us by saying an old man with a sack would take us away if we were naughty or disobedient. For years, I had a recurring dream, a nightmare really, of an old man with the sack coming up to the house to take me away. I was running, terrified, not being able to move. Patients come to me with various fears: of flying, of fire, of water. Some of these fears are real in the sense that people have witnessed a plane crash or a fire or experienced almost drowning. It could have been in this life or a past life. I had a patient who was petrified of flying. During a hypnosis session, she saw a past life in which her mother died in a plane crash, a crash she witnessed a...

  I have been working as a psychotherapist in the Delhi area in India for almost twenty years.  When I started, therapy was not popular in India, as most people thought seeking help was  something to ashamed of. And many still do.  Growing up in India in the 50s and 60s, the only word for people who were not mentally well was 'mad'.   Keen to study an area that focused on the mind, after high school, I didn't figure out that it was psychology I wanted and there wasn't anybody to guide me. Fortunately, I fell into taking Education as my major in College, during which I was exposed to a fair amount of psychology.  While I was living in the United States in the 70s and 80s that I sought therapy. I had issues that I couldn't work out on my own. I too, initially resisted, thinking it was for the weak and I could manage by myself. But, I couldn't. My housemate suggested a therapist she had been working with.  I was in therapy in the U.S., Italy and when...