My wife is stressed and has lost her happiness. She is always upset and I have to hide it from the kids. Can you help her?
My first question would be does your wife know you are calling me? Is this help she wants or you want for her?
I often have well meaning friends and family call or write me wanting help for a loved one. “I want my Dad to quit smoking or my wife wants to lose a few pounds.” While it is great to be supportive of a loved ones goals for positive change, allow those changes to be the desires of the loved one.
Now, when a spouse asks me about the others emotional side, I want to know why that individual is not placing the call. It is important that I spend a few moments speaking privately with the person who will be receiving the help. I have also found it helpful to interview the one who places the call in private as well. In the case of the individual who wrote the above note, he was feeling overwhelmed and trapped by his wife’s emotional state. He was doing his best to remain strong and solid, but, he had sacrificed any time for himself in the process. He was becoming controlling, because he felt his life was so out of control.
I worked with the wife on her concerns, we did some regression work to allow her to see her strengths and to experience feeling safe in those situations that had sparked this emotional state. We also used Neuro-linguistic programming, allowing her to change her thoughts from those of doom and gloom to learning the lessons in her past without feeling the emotion. We carried her forward into future possible situations where she could apply those lessons and avoid the pitfalls. We worked on recalling thoughts that made her laugh and her husband was astonished when he heard her laughing later, it had been two years!
I worked with the husband on stress relief and we created a plan of action for him. Found ways he could get back to his favorite activity, body building. How great for him to get away from the stresses and release endorphins back into his system as well. There is more work to be done with this couple, but now their future’s so bright, they gotta wear shades!