I worked with a teen that had a limited number of triggers. Most of his triggers was a parent or family member crunching food. I conducted the “repatterning” treatment with him live and the trigger was also provided live. For a positive stimulus, he shoulders were rubbed, and I had him visualize some of his favorite things to do and positive life events. Progress was minimal.
We next changed the positive stimulus to his favorite music. WOW. He progressed so fast.
We thought things were going well, but he couldn’t stand eating with his family. The problem was that he also had a visual trigger to his parent’s jaw moving. Even though he could hear the crunching sound without having a trigger reaction, one glance at the parent’s moving jaw and – BANG – a big trigger reaction. We used the same “repatterning” treatment for the visual trigger and the trigger went away.
He didn’t do the homework very often and didn’t cooperate on assignments, such as wearing headphones at dinner and progressively turning the volume down. BUT, he now eats with his family and never complains about their eating sounds.
So, I would call this case a success. Eating with his family went from being a huge problem to no problem at all.
The unusual facts of this case is that 1) he was only minimally compliant with the homework, 2) he was hearing the real triggers, live in the treatment sessions, 3) his favorite music was the key to creating the positive conditions that allowed the “rewiring” to work.
*Past client of Tom Dozier who agreed to share their story. (solicited)