Liz had a fear of losing all her money and becoming poor. She is married, and approaching retirement. She and her husband ran a consulting business together and now they want to create a new common space. It became immediately evident that there was no rational reason for this fear of poverty. Liz was aware of this herself, but this didn't stop her from being afraid.

When we continued to explore what the fear was about, she told me that she was afraid to lose her house, and have to live in a one-room apartment, under a bridge, or worse. She feared a loss of dignity. When I asked her for the worst that could happen is she lost her dignity, she answered: "Loneliness." She touched on a very deep pain here, with roots in her personal history.

I asked for those roots and she came up with two images. In the first one she was 3 or 4 years old, sitting in the kitchen, watching and listening to her parents discussing the financial concerns of the family. The child understood that they were sad and upset; she wanted to help them but she was desperate and lonely because as a child she didn't understand.

In the other memory Liz was somewhat younger, on a walk with her parents. She fell behind, and even though she ran as fast as she could on her shaky little legs, she could not catch up. Her mother looked at her from a distance and seemed amused. She was afraid her parents would leave her behind.  

I asked Liz in which image most energy was bound; she didn't know. In such a situation I usually start with the earliest situation. Later memories tend to be neutralised by resolving the earlier material. The first memory had a strong visual component: the image of her parents walking away from her. She said the Logosynthesis sentences for this image, and it lost its significance immediately. She could recognise that her parents had been gently challenging her.

The second image remained active. She felt desperate and alone being unable to help her parents. When I gave her the sentences for this memory, already the first sentence had an immediate effect. The second sentence took a long time to process and gave further deeper relief. After the third sentence Liz started to laugh. The fear of losing money? It was gone. It had not been her own, but her parents' fear.