I’ve had a couple questions about "the garbage can" process and this dovetails into a post at the HypNetwork from a hypnotist who has discovered he has an illness and is sticking to a positive imagery program in addition to other treatments.

My discussion . . .

A lot of folks have chimed in with their well wishes so I will add mine.

However, I would also like to add that you are doing the right thing by maintaining a positive outlook and doing guided imagery that is positive and worthwhile.

If you go to the Guided Imagery section of my webpages at http://www.briandavidphillips.com I have a free MP3 called "the garbage can" which you may find useful. It’s in the section for "mp3s used in classes" as I run it with students all the time.

The original process which I’ve adapted was first developed as part of a pilot study for the Department of Health of Canada in regard to children in hospice. As you know, hospitals are often faced with the Catch-22 when it comes to "incurable" illnesses that the patients experience a lot of pain so they give them pain medication but that only makes things worse in the long run as the pain medication causes its own set of problems.

Well . . . the root of pain is often fear, once we get past the "warning" system it provides, the fear is what makes it more unbearable.

If we can let go of that fear and worry about what’s going on, we can focus on the positive things in our life.

The Garbage Can process only takes a few minutes, my MP3 is just six minutes but once you learn it you can do it yourself and take longer or do it quicker, as you wish.

The kids in the study did the process in the morning and in the evening and anytime during the day they wanted to take a break and just let go.

The study results found a MUCH higher instance of complete remission where the disease just went "goodbye" never to return. Those who did not go into remission still had much lower stress levels and were able to deal with things more easily . . . resulting in a need for lower medication and much much longer lifespans. Remember, these kids were the ones in hospice who were being written off as completely incurable and most likely to be making room for others very soon. By using a simple process, these kids stayed around much longer and they enjoyed their lives. Due to the very powerful connection between the mind and the body, many of these kids imagined their disease away and it left them. Of course, such proceses are done as a supplement to a qualified physician’s care.

Now, here’s the kicker. When adults get sick, they understand the nature of disease and the process of possibly dying. It sucks . . . it sucks big time, but at least as adults we can wrap our heads around things and have some understanding . . . but with kids, they don’t get that, they’re lost and lonely and afraid as in their world kids don’t get sick like that and kids never should die.

So, no matter how much life kicks us in the ass, it really is nothing compared to the fear and pain and loneliness of a child dying in a hospice.

So . . . if it worked for those kids, the process will certainly work for you. No brainer. I teach most of my clients how to do the process regardless of presenting issue and it really does work very nicely (particularly when you teach them to go into deep trance with compounding convincers and the like so that they can REALLY EXPERIENCE the process fully within their body, mind, and spirit – as I use somnambulism with compounded experience and convincers to increase imaginative involvement in the trance experience, this works very well).

You can find the original script for the process in Maureen Murdock’s Spinning Inward which also has a number of other wonderful pieces appropriate for children and adults. The "Healing Cells" guided imagery is a nice short one that is useful to supplement work for medical issues as well.

While I have seen the process used elsewhere in slightly different ways, I am happy with the variation published by Maureen Murdock in Spinning Inward (see above for a link to the book).  Of course, there are a lot of ways to do this, for instance Gerlad Kein’s very powerful Gray Room (which John London also teaches) or Maureen Garth’s delightful worry tree process she uses for kids that I find adults love as well.  I like the garbage can as the metaphor is more stricly of throwing the pain and worry away as garbage while many of the other processes keep in hidden in the background.  BTW, if you work with kids, I absolutely reccommend the various Maureen Garth books as they are wonderful.  When I write my children’s imagery books, they will be quite inspired by her wonderful work (yes, I am actually working on a children’s trance book).

I have used the garbage can with folks for stress reduction related to any number of issues and works wonderfully.  However, when dealing with pain or medical issues, I make it a point to always signpost that the trancework supplements competent qualified medical care.

I hope this has been helpful to you.

I wish you well.

All the best,
Brian

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]Certified Hypnotherapist
Executive Director, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.briandavidphillips.com