Emma came to see me 6 months ago. She had been battling her nail biting problem for as far back as she could remember. It took 2 sessions of Hypnotherapy to completely eradicate the problem.

This is Emma’s story, as told in her words……..

After going for counselling a couple of years previously and feeling that it had achieved nothing for me. I scoured the net for information about my problem. This did not help at all; if anything the horror stories I was reading were actually making my problem a lot worse. For as far back as I could remember I have always bitten my nails, but not to the extent of waking up in the morning and seeing nail bits all over my bed. I was now chewing on my nails in my sleep!! My marriage had broken down 2 years previous and it was at this time that I started to chew on my nails morning, noon and night.

I’m a 40 year old woman, why can’t I be normal?

It had gotten to the point that I now had no nails. The tipping point for me was when all the girls in the office were on a dinner break and they were all swapping stories about going to their nail technicians and having pedicures. I just happened to join the conversation late, when one of the girls said “Emma you don’t have a problem trying to make your nails look nice because you don’t have any” Everybody just laughed, I then ran into toilets and then locked the door behind me and just started to cry.

What was happening to me?

It now started to feel like I was becoming a joke to my work colleagues. Enough was enough; I needed to start making a change,

But, how……?

So after a lot of soul searching and a lot of conversations with friends and close family members, it was then that my aunt suggested that I go to see a Hypnotherapist. In fact, my aunt handed me Inner Mind’s business card. She had previously been for Hypnotherapy with Nico and she had nothing but good things to say about him. She had been a smoker most of her life and she had now stopped. I had tried everything else, so why not give this a go.

Session 1

I must admit I felt slightly embarrassed explaining my problem to Nico but he couldn’t have made me feel more at ease. He was so warm and friendly and he assured me, we can put a stop! To this problem.

During our first session, Nico asked me what I ideally wanted out of these sessions. I simply replied I want to be normal. I want to be like everybody else, I want to lead a normal life. His response was; what does a normal person look like? What is a normal life? I really didn’t know…… He then explained to me, I’m not the only person in the world with this problem, I’m not the first and I won’t be the last. Nobody is perfect, we all have problems in our lives, but it’s how well we can deal with them. For the first time in years I started to relax, he was really talking sense. I already started to feel positive and we haven’t even started the proper session yet.

We then started off with me closing my eyes and just listening to his words. I still can’t describe the feeling, all I can tell you is that I would have been quite happy to have stayed like that all day. Relaxed is an understatement!!

Nico made me a recording from our first session, I then listened to that recording at night and I have to say I slept like a baby. The next morning I woke up I went through my morning routine before work and it wasn’t

until after dinner time, when I actually thought to myself “I haven’t even looked at my fingers yet”. Normally, I take a look at my fingers the moment I wake up.

The next week went by and I have to say I did not chew on my fingers throughout the night. There was the odd occasion during work while sitting in front of my computer that I would put my hand in my mouth, but I would stop as soon as I realised what I was about to do.

Something was starting to change, I could feel it!

Session 2

My second session arrived, and Nico asked me how my week went. I explained how my week went and it was a huge improvement, but I said there is still something, just lingering. Nico then got straight to work.

I still can’t explain to this day how he did it, but it’s a day that I will never forget; because that day, he changed my life.

I can still remember now, word by word what I told Nico. “I was 5 years old. My mum and dad were having a heated argument at the dinner table. I remember my dad getting very angry and I remember him leaning over the table and screaming at mum. I started to cry and told dad to stop shouting at mummy. My dad then turned his attention to me and he then began to shout. He demanded that I stop crying, I was told to keep stump! I tried to stop crying but couldn’t. Dad just kept yelling at me and mum. It was then that I put my hand in my mouth and it was then… that very moment when I first started chewing on my fingernails.

I remember dad storming off from the table and leaving me and mum at the table. Mum was sobbing; I still had my fingers in my mouth trying to be quiet and not knowing what to say or do. Not long after that argument, Mum and dad split up and I never saw my dad again. Nico then moved me on to another time in my life, this time I was a teenager and I was taking my final exams before leaving secondary school. I remember really struggling with my studies, for my exams.

I would always chew on my nails as I read my books. I remember back then, my best friend Janet did say to me that my nail biting was starting to get out of hand. Again, everything was so vivid these were not made up memories these were memories that were locked away. All of them coming back as if I never forgot them.

As I went away from that session, I felt free, I felt reinvigorated. I know this may sound crazy, but I felt like I had my life back. As soon as I got home I rang mum up and asked her about that day. Everything that I said to Nico, my mum repeated back to me word for word. The funny thing was we’ve never spoken about that argument, or even dad leaving us both for good.

I then tracked Janet down; it had been a few years since we last spoke. I told her everything; again, she repeated everything back to me. She told me how I used to drive her crazy when we were studying and I used to be chomping on my nails.

Post Sessions……………

6 months later, I now wake up every day feeling excited; worry is not a problem anymore. I have a sense of calm, I feel happy. The other day one of my work colleagues said to me, I wish I had nails like you”

Thank you Nico, I can’t thank you enough for what you did for me. Emma x

Nico – Return of the blocked memories

Emma’s Subconscious had obviously blocked this memory away for years. Through using “Age regression” we were able to take Emma back to a point in her life, so that we could find the root cause of the problem. Emma then found the exact moment when the nail-biting started, which we now know it was from her childhood when she was 5 years old to be exact. She was then able to address the problem and then we started to look for new ways to overcome this habit. Emma obviously linked, stress and fear to this act. Her father yelling at her, this obviously had a long term effect on Emma. That moment Emma puts her fingers in her mouth, linked with her fear of seeing her dad scream at her mum and herself, her subconscious then linked this act to her memory. She then developed a defensive mechanism to these situations, and that was to bite her nails. Whenever she was fearful or was suffering from stress her defence was to bite her nails. As well as the nail biting, Emma’s Subconscious also blocked certain memories. My theory is the Subconscious was trying to protect her.

If you take a look at Session 2, we find 3 different times in her life that were obviously significant to Emma

* 5 year old Emma first suffers from biting her nails during mother and father’s argument

* 16 year old Emma, has a habit of biting nails during her struggles with studying

* 40 year old Emma, marriage breakdown. Nail biting gets worse, starts to bite her nails in her sleep.

My theory is that Emma’s Subconscious was trying to protect her. By blocking these memories out she forgot these significant moments in her life. At 5 and 16 years old, these memories were stored away.

Her marriage breakdown led to her nail biting in her sleep. Now she has obviously not forgotten that her marriage had ended. Her dreams/nightmares always revolved around her marriage break up. My take on this, was that fear and anxiety were creeping into her sleep. After session 1, her nail biting in her sleep stopped. Now that was before we did “Age Regression” Session 1 revolved around Emma relaxing. The more relaxed she became, the easier it was for us to access the Subconscious; this in turn helped us to start to make the change.

We hope that this real case study has given you some insight into what we do. A big thank you has to go to Emma for allowing us to use this case study for the purpose of the site. We really do hope this can be beneficial to future clients who wish to have Hypnotherapy.