Hypnotherapy could actually help. I’d had a great deal of success so far, and most of the job is actually done by the patients themselves. Mostly, it’s not that they don’t know how to talk in public – it’s not that they actually are unattractive or unable to perform a certain task, it’s just that they think they are. Once they get rid of that little monster on their back who says: “You’re useless, you can’t do this.”, it gets a lot easier.
Your boss asks you to tell your colleagues what you’ve been working on for the past three weeks? Easy. You’ve done the work, so you know the stuff, now it’s just a matter of saying it out loud to the group. That attractive woman next door drops hints that she’d love to go out some time? And you’d like that too? Okay, well, then simply ask if she’d like to have dinner with you this weekend. Easy. In theory.
Alisha had always felt awkward as a teen. Gangly. Weird. Limbs all out of proportion. And sure, for a little while that might have seemed to be the case. Her pelvis took time to widen, of course it did. And her breasts didn’t immediately turn from nonexistent to full-fledged hooters, that doesn’t happen to anybody.
Puberty can be a real bitch, causing the body to develop in all sorts of weird ways. A few years in, though, her body had really started to settle in. Now at 18, she had blossomed into a beautiful young woman. She, however, still felt like that awkward gangly teen she had been some years ago. This had turned her into something of an introvert, even though she really wanted to be outgoing and social.
Alisha used to be much more of a social butterfly when she was younger, and I could tell she really wanted to find her way back to those times. She also wanted to resume her hobbies, like swimming and cheerleading. When her body started developing, though, she immediately felt awkward in those tight outfits.
Hence, hypnotherapy. She knew I was doing well with my patients, so she had persuaded me to take her on as well. At first, I had been pretty dismissive, because I didn’t feel like she needed this kind of help, but after seeing the tears build up in my little girl’s eyes, I hadn’t been able to refuse.
So there it is. We spent one or two sessions a week here on the couch, working on her insecurities. I was chipping away. Moving slowly. Trying to get her to realize the truth. The thing is, that can be hard. No matter how many times you tell a person that they’re beautiful, the message just doesn’t penetrate. It’s something that they have to manage to tell themselves. So rather than repeating “you’re beautiful” over and over, we just worked on her general confidence.
Alisha said she really wanted to go on dates. She just didn’t have the nerve to ask anybody out, and after years of denials, none of the boys who were likely to be interested would dare ask her, since they were used to her shooting them down if they tried.
Also, the way she acted around people wouldn’t necessarily attract them anymore. A lot of people are fairly plain-looking, but have tons of charisma that makes everybody think they’re stunning. How you behave, how you dress, how you smile, how you walk… these things are just as important as your looks. They’re all a part of how people perceive you. As Alisha had started to behave more like an awkward dweeb than a sexy teen, it seemed she had become less desirable over time. That’s what she thought, anyway.