Fear Related to Not Breathing

Question

My client, an 18 year old, claims that when she pays attention to her breathing, she's afraid that she's not breathing because she can't feel the air going in and out of her lungs. She also feels a tightness in her throat. We worked on that, tried some releasing work which helped only somewhat. I also worked with her on "trusting the process of her body/lungs - that they've not let her down since birth...etc" - along those lines.

We went over her nutritional needs as well. She's also "not very good at talking about feelings". She's coming back next week and I'd appreciate some additional ideas - I'm not sure what to do anymore.

Answer

You could try any of the following:

1. "Alice in Wonderland" idea where she goes down to her lungs to investigate what's there - color, what's shaped like, etc., and the lungs telling her what she can do for them.

2. Go for the source of her lung problem by having her go to where she first experienced the feeling that she might not be able to get enough breath (emotional bridging into regression).

3. Use the tightness of the throat to go to other times of feeling that kind of tightness.

4. Use Chakra energy work around the throat and heart areas.

5. Speak to the part that's having trouble believing they have enough breath.