What Happened to You?

Imposter Syndrome

I was in an amazing new role, in a beautiful new country but at my core, I felt like I didn’t deserve to be there. Despite my years of experience and glowing references, I felt like it was only a matter of time before I was caught out and told by my superiors that they’d made a huge mistake in hiring me. I didn’t believe that I was worthy of success.

My imposter syndrome reared its ugly head in the disguise of an email notification.

Every time a notification popped up on my screen, anxiety would set in. ‘Is this the email telling me I’m going to be fired?’; ‘Have I made a huge error that I’m going to be told about?’; ‘Have they realised that they made a mistake hiring me?’

All these thoughts rushed into my mind within a split second of receiving the email, regardless of the fact that I was excelling in my work. And every time I opened the email, it was nothing to be afraid of.

So why was my body reacting this way? Every. Single. Time.

The Body Keeps The Score

It just so happened, I was training to be a Hypnotherapist at the time and the next session was going to be on age regression therapy – a technique that facilitates access to childhood memories by using a strong emotion experienced frequently in the present.

“If we want to understand the oak, it’s back to the acorn we must go.”

Oprah Winfrey

Now, I must admit, I wasn’t sure this was going to work on me and if it did, I was fairly convinced I’d be taken back to the time I was given detention at school aged 9 or 10 for drawing a treasure map on the school walls. I had been a trouble-free student up until that point and so I recall being devastated by this.

However, that was not my experience. The session, led by a fellow hypnotherapist trainee, enabled me to recall an armed burglary at my uncle’s home when I was aged 3 that I knew of but had no strong recollection of. I felt fear as if I was there and thanks to the skill of my hypnotherapist, I was able to put into context that traumatic experience. Following on from that session, I never had anxiety related to receiving a work email ever again.

So, my question to you is this: What happened to you? Have you thought about how the impact of a past experience could be affecting your life in the present? Could a self-limiting belief such as, ‘I am not worthy of success’, be rooted in a childhood trauma?

If you want to discover how life coaching and hypnotherapy can empower you to let go of shame and rediscover your self-worth, then book a FREE Discovery Call with me, Dr Connie Kerali.

If you’re tired of feeling like you’re not worthy of love or success, or feeling like you’re not enough – not attractive enough, smart enough, slim enough, young enough, accomplished enough – then download my free Remarkable Woman Workbook and begin your journey to letting go of shame and rediscovering your self-worth.