Night terror

4 ½-year-old Linus was one of those boys you would immediately love to take home with you. Firefighting was his big thing.

This adorable little guy came to the session with a strange issue. Several times per night he would suddenly sit up in bed. Often, he shouted, “no, no,” sat trembling in bed or stared into the corner. He did not react to the concerned parents and seemed absent, despite his wide-open eyes. Typically, he would lie back down in a pool of sweat and fall asleep again. The next morning, he could not remember anything. This phenomenon began after a carnival.

The parents had already tried all sorts of things. Neither doctor, homeopathy nor osteopathy could provide a solution. Because the parents were sleep deprived, their desperation had grown.

Linus did well during session. He visualized himself falling asleep in his bed. Then we went to the point in time roughly 30 minutes after falling asleep. Then 45 minutes. At 90 minutes, where the night terror usually occurred, he perceived a darkness. He could not describe it in detail, but he described a bad feeling in his head. In his incredibly cute way he said it was “not good.” It was big. And black. In his head.

With the Magnet Hand he managed to pull this black feeling out of his head.

In his mind, Linus took a seat in a fire truck. With his eyes closed, he reached out his hand for support, as he climbed up into it. We began driving, always on the lookout for a positive feeling. He wanted a bright light, Linus said. When he saw one, we stopped. He got out, took the bright light with both arms and put it in his head, where the black feeling had been before.

On the back of his hand we installed a switch to turn up his new light. Accompanied by clicking sounds, we turned the switch until the light was bright enough to illuminate an entire city.

For a child of his age, the 45-minute session was quite long. On the way home, he slept peacefully in the car. As homework his parents had to turn his light up with the switch before bedtime. With the proper clicking noises, of course.

That same night, the only thing they heard was a gentle whim. The night terror never came back. The second session they had booked was no longer needed. The parents were amazed, grateful and understandably happy.