Rimma (the name and some features of the described situation have been changed, permission for publication has been received from the client) went into the office and after some time, embarrassed, reported her perception of what was on me wearing a regular skirt and turtleneck: “I was immediately relieved when I found out that psychologists are not doctors and usually do not wear white coats. I see now - really, don’t wear it!” It turned out that she panics even at the prospect of communicating with doctors, and sometimes other people in white coats. Actually, that’s what she came for. She couldn’t immediately remember exactly when the fear first arose and under what circumstances: “I’m at a dead end, I need to go to the doctor, I haven’t been to the doctor for 20 years and I’m still putting it off. I understand that people usually don’t die from ordinary visits to doctors, but I can’t help myself. How can I imagine that I open the door of the clinic and see people in white coats behind them, I want to run away and hide.” Rimma agreed to the proposal to go into the analysis of the topic through working with images. My visitor’s fear of doctors caused a feeling of something interfering with her. throat. This made her feel nauseous and her throat was sore. At my request, she managed to present these sensations in the form of an image, which turned out to be a metal spatula - this is how doctors press their tongue when examining the throat. To study the image, we placed it on a chair and looked at it from the side. Rimma’s nausea stopped, to her surprise, immediately. In EOT (emotional-imaginative therapy), it is customary to explore images, obtaining the necessary information, including through the client’s “entry” into them. At the same time, the client has feelings that, among other things, are important for the analysis of what happened to the person, his perception of it and reactions. In the course of the work, as if becoming, at my request, an image that appeared, Rimma said that what was hidden behind it appeared to her at the age of four or five years. She then went to kindergarten, where on that day the doctors carried out an examination. Paying attention to the fact that we were talking about Rimma the baby, we got the opportunity to interact with this image. After Rimma sat down in the image of herself as a little girl, from it She said that then, in kindergarten, she was taken to the medical office. There she tried her best to obey her aunt in a white robe, “so as not to be scolded.” And she said “it’s okay to open your mouth” and stuck a very roughly metal thing to examine her throat so that the girl almost vomited something she had recently eaten. The woman in a white robe, looking imperiously and menacingly, only barked, ordering Rimma to open her mouth wider again . “Otherwise I’ll tear it off for you!” she hissed angrily, and then made it even more painful, so that Rimma’s tears began to flow. If it had lasted even a second, she, no matter how hard she tried to be a good girl, would have vomited . Rimma didn’t vomit, but the tears flowed treacherously... A stream of harsh abuse fell on the girl, her aunt-doctor forbade her to cry: “Well, don’t you dare shed a tear here, throw up concerts, otherwise...!”, and pushed her out of the office .Then the little girl did not understand what else could happen to her, but she was very afraid that they would do something very terrible to her, and tried her best not to cry anymore. She wiped her tears with the sleeve of her dress and told herself to stop the tears. Apparently, out of fear of punishment, she even succeeded in being pushed out into the corridor. And here, sitting on my chair, Rimma, as if she had turned into that little girl, could no longer hold back her tears, although in ordinary life she did not allow herself to do this, as she said, almost never. It was worth crying out the then suppressed pain from what had happened to her earlier. And the longer she cried, the less was left of the image of the spatula (remember, we placed it on a chair), until it disappeared completely, and Rimma’s state of paralyzing tension became less and less intense until it too left her, replaced by devastation. Bye to them. Unlived feelings and sensations of tensionand total helplessness (where there was a teacher, a nanny, someone else, it is not clear) from this difficult situation of childhood, were so emanating from the unconscious that they almost always responded with nausea and fear in Rimma even when thinking about doctors. Little Rimma at four For five years I found myself completely defenseless in front of an angry lady of a terrifying appearance and behavior. A small child is unable to defend himself in difficult situations simply because of his age. And such situations often become traumatic. If we clearly don’t remember them for ourselves, this does not mean that they do not influence us and do not poison our lives. But if you wish, you can relive them differently, no matter how old we are, later... A woman or man, being quite adults, who may have had their own children for a long time, often behave and feel as if they were just kids. And this is not their fault at all. This is the result of what happened to them in the past. With the help of EOT techniques in such cases, we give the suffering kids from the past who appeared before us, as far as possible, everything they needed, for example, complete acceptance, permission to experience any feelings they want - we allow them to cry, scream, get angry and, of course, we give attention, support, protection, love, etc. In the described case, Rimma, while working with images, not only showed sympathy and empathy for her little self, but also got the opportunity to lift, thanks to certain tips, the ban on showing and experiencing feelings, so that rebel, defend themselves, and also, which is also very important, not endure, but leave where it’s bad, look for help and ask for it if needed. Rimma’s little inner child for a very long time (“it seems like always”) felt lonely and abandoned in this huge world, where cruelty also happens, and the experience with imprints in the form of fear signaled to her that people in white coats cause pain, although she had not recognized it so specifically before. In the course of work, it also became clear that Rimma is small then, in her childhood, she didn’t tell her parents anything and didn’t ask for protection: “Dad is always at work, and mom would scold me for behaving badly. Mom was very strict.” Our attitude towards ourselves and other people, as well as the way we respond to different situations, largely comes from how our parents interacted with us. Remember, Rimma tried her best to obey the doctor from the very beginning for fear of being scolded, and, as we see, she was afraid of her mother - both before and after. As we can guess, there were reasons for this. Parental figures influencing a person's destiny. Where would we be without them? In the situation with this client of mine, who surprisingly bravely entered into working with images, everything was successfully resolved in the context of overcoming the fear of contact with doctors. She decided to become a caring mother for that little one - for her inner child. To heal the trauma received in kindergarten, we also did an exercise in which Rimma imagined herself entering the office and rebuffing a portly lady in a white coat, who was speaking unkindly to little Rimma and was just about to begin her tough examination. Rimma, an adult, in the process of acting out through visualization, experiencing a feeling of anger and a strong desire to protect the child, did this, fighting back in words and in deeds, pushing away the hand with the spatula, and then took little Rimma from there and promised never to let anyone offend her again. process so that little Rimma, at least in this practice to begin with, would feel safe, she would gain such necessary and valuable experience, and if she didn’t completely heal that long-standing trauma, she definitely made it so much less charged that she gained determination and went away. see the doctor in a few days. Quite successfully. And this campaign, in turn, added more resources and courage to her for the future. And if the doctors ever start to be rude or cruel to her, now she will find a way to defend herself or simply leave. At least, as she said, she is now able to do it. For?