Joan Hitlin, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and longtime OPEN EXCHANGE lister, offers private sessions and group work.

I always suspected that if I were not vigilant I might turn into the wrong person. Or that I might mistakenly end up living someone else's life. On bad days, I worried that I have already become not-me and am already living a life that was intended for someone else. Then, it seemed that my most important task in the whole world was to turn back into myself. Have you ever feared that you were on the verge of turning into the wrong person? If so, you might be suffering from the "Reverse Cocoon Effect."

Q: So, what is this Reverse Cocoon Effect?

A: It's like this: Normally a caterpillar goes into a cocoon, incubates, and comes out a butterfly. This is a positive transformation. A good thing!

But what if the butterfly went into the cocoon, incubated, and came out a caterpillar? No more beautiful wings. No more flying around. No more feasting on flowers. Negative transformation! Not so good!

Take this test to find out if you are on the verge of turning into the wrong person, or are already suffering from the Reverse Cocoon Effect:

• Were you once happier, stronger, more determined, more energetic than you are now?
  
  
• Do you feel like the life you are living would suit someone else more than it suits you?
  
  
• Do you feel as if you are in a dream (or nightmare), waiting to wake up?
  
  
• Are you trying to be the person your family expected you to be?
  
  
• Do you feel as if the face that you present to the world is not your real face?
  
  
• Is there something else that you would be doing if you thought you could?
  
  
• Do you do what you think you should, rather than what you really want to do?
  
  
• Do you feel as if you are only half your true self?
  
  
• Are you creatively or spiritually blocked?
  
  
• Do you wish that you could start your life over? How did you manage to find yourself stuck in a "not-myself situation"? You may not have been aware that you were veering away from true-self.

Or you are aware, but just don't know what you can do about it. Perhaps you are afraid that the changes you need to make are either totally impossible or wildly disruptive. Maybe you are trying to turn back into yourself, but are encountering many obstacles along the way. Or, you might be focused on immediate problems which mask the larger dilemma of not being yourself.

In order to turn back into yourself you will need to do four things:

1) recognize that you are turning into the wrong person,

2) make the commitment to turning back into yourself

3) learn how to handle the obstacles on this path, and,

4) learn how to rapidly clear problems and predicaments as they arise.

Once you choose to make turning back into yourself your highest priority, you will find that you are on a path --- a lifelong, continuous commitment to honoring what is real, what is true, what is soul-making and spirit-nourishing.

This alone will make you feel more whole, more authentic, more alive and more joyful. Problems will be identified and cleared quickly and with less resistance. Some long standing concerns even seem to disappear on their own. (Addictions, for example are often the side effect of this longing for your true self.)

My clients and students are people who were fed up with how long it takes for ordinary talk therapy to bring about visible, lasting, continuous change. Using Energy Therapies, hypnotherapy and other gentle, powerful modalities, we process specific predicaments such as food cravings, phobias, relationship problems, or creativity or prosperity blocks, while specifically clearing the larger issue of Reversing the Reverse Cocoon Effect.