For most of my 20s, I travelled the world, working in media in war zones. It was exciting, but I was exposed to trauma daily: babies orphaned on the Gaza Strip; the fear of hearing a plane fly over and not knowing whether it was for a missile strike. I’d bury my emotions and continue reporting the news. ‘In 2011 I got pregnant. My then-partner was abusive, but because I was trapped in a cycle of loneliness exacerbated by the traumatic nature of my job, I’d come to “accept” his abuse.
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He was also manipulative and knew how to make me feel dependent on him. During my pregnancy I contracted listeria, and doctors told me that my baby either wouldn’t make it to full term or would be born braindead. My partner tried to force me to have an abortion. It was the motivator I needed to fi nally leave him. ‘Fast-forward to 2016, and I was back in South Africa with a great career and a daughter who’d beaten the odds to be healthy. But I still wasn’t happy; I felt anxious and fearful. I tried everything: anxiety meds, counselling, psychotherapy. Nothing worked. Then, a year ago, after researching mind therapy and conscious healing, I found hypnotherapist Kavi Kilawan online. ‘When I went for my fi rst session, I was apprehensive and cynical. Did hypnotherapy really work? Was it safe? But Kavi made me feel at ease.
‘The feeling of hypnosis is like that time in the morning when you wake up but you’re not fully awake: that dazed phase. There’s a misconception that when you’re hypnotised, you’re not aware of what’s going on around you. In fact, you’re fully alert; you’re just so engrossed in what the hypnotherapist is saying that you zone out of everything else. Often we feel ashamed when we talk about our “issues”. But through hypnotherapy, Kavi could move past all that and get to the core of me. When you come out of being hypnotised, you feel relaxed and at one with yourself. It’s like the best sleep of your life – and you remember everything. ‘By getting in touch with my subconscious, Kavi shifted my selfsabotaging behaviour and thought patterns to ones that empowered me. The change was evident after just one session: I felt positive, self-aware and in control. I came to understand the causes of my unhappiness, stretching back to my reporting days and events as I grew up. All of my past experiences left marks on my subconscious that affected my conscious state – and it’s this deep-rooted trauma that Kavi helped me process and let go. ‘Hypnotherapy has affi rmed for me how powerful the mind is and how beautiful life can be when we harness that power.’ Find certifi ed hypnotherapists at Hypnotherapy.co.za.
