Why Hypnosis Might Just Change Your Life

Annie's professionally successful Mom is a TV-worthy hoarder. A few months into our sessions, Annie mustered up the courage to show me a few photos of her childhood home — filled with newspapers, kitchen supplies, hangers, clothes, doorknobs and other objects. Sharing these photos was so shaming for Annie because it mirrored her own painful hoarding problem.

Over the months Annie and I have been meeting, she began to understand how her compulsion to acquire has served as a stand-in for the love her family didn't offer. Each new item she hoards provides her with self-esteem on some level: "I have things, therefore, I have value."

Her strategy is self-preserving. She had to feel love from somewhere and material objects were available to imbue with all the feeling she longed for, much like clinging to a beloved teddy bear who in a child's mind loves you back in equal measure. Continue reading.

Originally posted on Mind Body Green.