Cynthia Lyons, Anchorage, Alaska 2018
I have had panic attacks about not being able to breathe all my life. These occurred when there was no danger of my stopping breathing. Over the last couple of years, they had been happening quite frequently when I would go to bed at night. I’d feel fine until I got into bed and then I would start feeling my chest tighten up and my breath would get shorter and shorter. Sometimes I would be able to bring myself out of it by consciously relaxing and trying to get into a more meditative state. Sometimes I would have to call my partner and have her talk me out of it. I had no idea what caused this.
During an RTT (Rapid Transformation Therapy) session with Marianne from the White Raven Center one time, I began to have the feeling I couldn’t breathe. The heavy blanket on me was usually so helpful, now it made me feel like I was suffocating and when Marianne put her hand on my chest, I thought I would go through the roof. Eventually, I could see a traumatic event from my past. At first I felt helpless to do anything about it, but eventually I was able to give the part of me that was traumatized a voice to reclaim the choice and power that had been taken from me. By the end of the session, I could tell that a huge weight had been lifted off my chest, allowing me to breathe.
At the time of this writing, almost four months since that session, I’ve had not one episode of feeling that I am unable to breathe. Not one. These were things that happened sometimes many times a week, but since then I haven’t had a single episode.