All in a day's work

Heena came to me with a high degree of work stress. The client cannot understand the limitations her team has and her manager doesn't seem to have enough bite to set client expectations right. She was saved by the bell recently as she had dialed the client to give her a piece of her mind, but her call went to voice mail. And that's when she called on us.

Explored her metaphor -- interestingly, she was in a room, open door on the left inviting her to get up from her desk and explore the land outside. The view was a bit de-focused at first, but then with a pair of imaginary binoculars, she was able to see trees and hills beyond. Behind her was the boss, standing between her and the client. Below her feet were vitrified tiles.

Got her to get up from her chair and take a step to the right. Immediately she felt so much lighter -- away from the computer that had been sitting in front of her. Got her to return to where she had started from and take a step to the left -- slowly moving towards the door. Three steps later, there was a voice inside her head on the right, cautioning her to have patience. This voice was soft, evenly paced and calming. There was another voice from the opposite side of her head, instigating her to fight for herself.

We played with the voices then -- exploring the submodalities of each. The louder, aggressive voice would cause her eye to twitch and the spin would find its way to her solar plexus and back up. Making the other voice on the right louder, but retaining the even pace calmed the spinning.

I expanded her metaphor using Andy's story about forts and how we build walls around ourselves thinking they'd protect, but like many armies that took refuge in forts were starved out by surrounding enemy forces, these walls we build can be detrimental. Then again, smarter warriors have bored tunnels to freedom. I began an induction and got her to grow up -- in strength, resources, confidence, faith in what she wanted .... and she was soon looking up and out of the room to vast landscapes.

We took all the learning and got her to picture herself in the near future, handling the client. She said she played with the voices ... causing the client's barking to bounce off her left side as she spoke calmly, much like the other voice in her head.