The following case-study demonstrates what can be achieved in terms of curing an eating disorder by practicing the simple self-help method Higher-consciousness healing. Jane came to see me because she had been suffering from an eating disorder since the age of 11 years. She had been sent to me by her nutritionist who felt that she couldn’t help her any further. Jane had been dieting constantly all her life and her weight has never been the same from one week to another. She was either gaining weight rapidly in one of her binge-phases or she was losing weight on her many self-imposed and harsh diets. Jane told me that 75% of all her thoughts were obsessing over food. When I asked her to measure her suffering on a scale from 0 (no suffering) to 10 (utter despair) she saw herself at 8.5.

I have to add here that I had worked with women suffering from eating disorders for many years with more conventional methods before I started Higher-consciousness healing. I had found that it was very hard to help people whose problems with food had already started in childhood because these clients didn’t have any positive memory of themselves as a disorder-free adult. In general, my success with complete eating disorders cures had been small to moderate. I was intrigued to work with Jane in 1999 because she was my first client with an eating disorder since I had started to include the help of the Higher Consciousness into my life-coaching sessions.

In the first session I guided Jane into relaxation so that she could make contact with her Higher Consciousness which appeared to her in form of a wise old woman surrounded by golden light. She asked this wise woman for a healing-symbol to overcome her problem and was given the image of a red flower. I instructed Jane to visualise her symbol in her heart every day twice for two minutes and breathe out the colour red throughout her whole being with love and particularly to the parts of her body she considered as too fat. I also told her to forget everything she had learnt about diets, to eat only when she was hungry, to eat exactly what she felt like eating (within ‘healthy’ reason) and to stop when she felt full.

In previous years I had routinely given this advice to all my clients with eating disorders and I had found that the likelihood that someone would put it fully into practice was near to zero. Usually, the obsessive compulsive thoughts around food and the cravings that led to binge eating were much too strong to be counteracted by this simple advice. Mostly it took many weekly reinforcements before people slowly and haltingly started to trust their own body. I was intrigued to see how Jane would deal with my advice, now that she was guided by a healing-symbol from her Higher Consciousness.

Two weeks later Jane came back to me and declared that all her cravings had disappeared, that she didn’t have a single binge and most importantly that her constant inner obsessing over food had stopped! Unfortunately, Jane still had issues with her body image as she felt much too fat and therefore she still measured 5 on the scale of suffering. This time she asked for a healing-symbol to reduce her suffering from self-disgust. She received a yellow daffodil and worked with it in the same way as before for another two weeks.

When Jane came back she visibly looked slimmer and told me that she was enjoying a peace of mind like she had never had before in her whole life. For the first time, she said, she enjoyed eating and had positive thoughts around it. Her suffering had been reduced to 3.25 on the scale because she still wished to become slimmer. I taught Jane a little exercise to send love to herself and she continued to work with her previous symbols.

Another two weeks later Jane had improved even further and measured 1 on the scale of suffering which is only a very mild niggle. Most surprisingly, she had made peace with her body and felt that she could accept it even though she still hadn’t reached her (unrealistic) low weight goal she had always desired.

Jane and I agreed that she was cured for the moment but that she could always come back to me in the event of a relapse. When I spoke to her on the phone several months later she had maintained all her improvements.

Author's Bio: 

To receive Tara Springett's FREE eBook and more advice on self-help go to www.taraspringett.com. Tara Springett M.A is a fully qualified and authorised Buddhist Therapist and Teacher and self-help book author.