There are two reasons I do so much deep dive work with my clients:

1. we clear out the sludge that has collected at the bottom of their psyche’s, you know, the yucky stuff you don't want to look at.

2. we plug into their sources of joy.

By deep dive work, I mean working with the subconscious. In psychology, this is called hypnosis. Using hypnosis for health and healing is called hypnotherapy. I wrote about hypnotherapy in this post.

Very painful experiences collect as shreds of memories in our subconscious minds, often because we don’t know how to handle them. Discovering and integrating those experiences into our full sense of self is a key part of deep dive work. My clients often report a feeling of lightness when we have had a good clear out of the yuck. Sometimes we discover something that has never been shared with anyone else and it is a relief to bring it into the light.

Also deep down in our subconscious selves is our beliefs. The French would say ‘raison d'etre’ or reason for being. We create a meaningful story about us and the world through our experiences and through deep dive work we can uncover those beliefs.

This uncovering can lead to us rejecting our beliefs in favour of new ones e.g “I am insignificant and therefore don’t try and stand out from the crowd” becomes “I may not be gregarious but I am just as valuable as anyone else”. Or this uncovering can lead us to more fully embrace those beliefs E.g “I have always thought of myself as musical and so I am going to give more time to my violin playing”.

But whatever we do with them, the realisations that get unearthed in deep dive work result in happier and more integrated selves.

The really fun part of deep dive work is when clients discover their sources of joy. Sometimes we call this our ‘free child’. The part of us that knows how to play and be freely joyful.

One client of mine was a serious cyclist but always felt that she was being unfair on her kids and husband by going on long rides. Her subconscious associated long rides with a guilty feeling of indulgence. When we explored the role of joy in her life and she remembered how exercise had always been an amazing release for her we were able to clean off the unhealthy guilt. She began to talk about ways she could go cycling more and how cycling could be for the sheer fun of it not as a means of maintaining fitness. She was sure she would be a better wife and mother plugged into her source of joy.

It is really rewarding to find people owning their need to be happy and finding ways to make it happen. It is one of the best things about being a coach.

Questions to ask yourself:

Focus your attention on your inner world and look for any of the following in your awareness:

• heaviness

• shadows or murkiness

• shame

• guilt or self-blame

• resentment

• fear or trepidation

• a desire to hide

Focus on your inner world and ask yourself what your sources of joy are. What is your inner free child like? What does she/he love to do?

For my resource on discovering your values click here.