Coaching Session: Scary Nightmare with a Small Child, Age 6.
(May be reprinted on the NFNLP Website, with permission.)

Issue/Background: My 6 year old daughter had a terrifying nightmare which prevented her from sleeping. The mere thought of going to bed absolutely terrified her. And, it was getting late (thus a brief, powerful yet simple intervention was necessary so we all could get some sleep!)

Description:The nightmare consisted of “a scary witch who was bald, with a green eye”, at school looking in at me from (outside) the school yard door.”

Modified NLP Protocol:

• Capturing the Scene: I asked my daughter to draw the “scary picture” she had seen in detail, including, as best she could, the horrible, terrifying physical features of the witch/scene. I directed her to feel all those “yucky feelings” while trying to capture them as best as she could, with colour. When she said she was done, I could clearly see the green, malformed eye oozing out of the witch (scary indeed!)
  
  
• I folded part of the page back, over the “scary picture” - to cover it completely with a clean part of the sheet.
  
  
• Modified EMDR Eye Movements: I asked her to think of the scary image while humming the words to one of her favourite songs - “I got nerve” (by Hannah Montana) as I asked her to track my hand movements with her eyes. I had her track a Z-pattern, several infinity loops, and finally some up and down sweeps while she hummed her happy tune. Her smile grew noticeably bigger from this procedure.
  
  
• Positive Picture: I then asked her to redraw a positive, happy version on the folded-over part of the page – a funny, big, bright, happy, friendly, fun-loving version. She seemed to perk up when I asked her to do this and included trees, sun, rainbow, picnic scene, hearts, pretty flowers etc. I also directed her to feel all the “happy feelings” associated with this new, vibrant scene and to “bring it to her heart” (hold it to her chest).
  
  
• I asked her to rename the new picture, to which she eagerly exclaimed “Yellow, the witch.”
  
  
• Swish-like Flick: I then flicked the page over the negative image (-pic.) - like a door hinge to expose the happy positive image of “Yellow” the happy witch (+pic.) overtop. I repeated this process several times quickly until the images were suitably “morphed” together. As I snapped the pieces of the page together in dramatic fashion, I made a “bling” noise to which she laughed. (At this point, through slight of hand, I covertly tore off the –pic and tossed it into the garbage!)
  
  
• I covertly tore the – pic off the backside of the page).
  
  
• Modified Autopilot: I asked her to watch the picture as I moved the +pic. close to her, and “waved” it in (close) and out (back) of her visual field for the requisite number of presentations i.e., 1x, 5x, 10x, 40X, 10X, 5X, 1X. She giggled when I did this.
  
  
• Anchor: I anchored her (touched the centre of her chest gently) when she laughed. I repeated the anchoring and said “look it is Yellow (anchor).” “She’s all better now (anchor).” “She feels happy (anchor) – just like you feel happy (anchor).”
  
  
• Sling-Shot (modified Swish technique): I had my daughter imagine that a rubber band was pulling her +pic. back as I slowly pulled the image back and pretended to snap the image up close to her face (I ran up to her with it and said “snap”- - whereupon she laughed, each time).
  
  
• Lasting Impression: I placed a drop of lavender essential oil (one of her favourite smells) on the +pic and placed a second drop under her nose, as a “sensual” anchor.
  
  
• Repeated Autopilot
  
  
• Repeat Sling-Shot
  
  
• Repeat Anchor
  
  
• Fairly Tale Conversation: “Yellow the witch thanks you for helping her…She wants you to realise that she came to you - and only you - because she knew only you could help her. She didn’t mean to scare you in your dream, but that is the way witches show up sometimes. She had a small eye problem and she used to be teased by everyone so she used to hide away from the sun and come out only at night-time to be around people when everyone is asleep. Only you were brave enough to help her. Now that you’ve helped fix her eye she is so very, very, happy. She says that you are her best friend. She says that you can tap your chest and breathe in whenever you need her or want to play with her.” “Oh, what’s that…oh yeah, she says that she really really loves you!”
  
  Result:
• Yellow the happy witch slept with my daughter that night. She cooed “I’m so happy…I feel like crying now. “Tomorrow I would like draw Yellow a witch family and some witch friends.”