Allergic to Laughter
Scary aliens didn’t stand a chance when Anna started making fun of them
Laughter is such a powerful tool when children struggling with fears.
Anna (8) came to me because of nightmares and fears. It had started a few months around the time her mother had gone into hospital for the birth her sister.
Eyes closed, we visualized that moment roughly two hours after falling asleep and uncovered two fears:
First: aliens abducting her. She described them precisely. Ten of them. One eye each. Two snail-like antennae. They wanted to take her on their spaceship for slave labor. Lazy creatures, these aliens, she noted.
Second: a feeling of being alone and unprotected. Her father at work. Her mother gone to hospital.
Then I told Anna something important:
Aliens can’t stand laughter. They are allergic to it. They shrink immediately when someone laughs at them.
It was time to chase them away permanently.
Anna went quiet. She prepared.
Then she started laughing. Loudly and for a long time.
I joined in of course.
Anna described how the aliens grew smaller and smaller, making squeaking sounds, scrambling frantically back toward their spaceship. Because she had laughed so hard and so long, even the spaceship had shrunk. Smaller and smaller, until it completely vanished with a final poof.
We checked her room and all her dreams. Not an alien anywhere.
The aliens were gone. But underneath was still the feeling of loneliness.
I had her visualize a remote control and a TV screen. When she turned on the TV, she could see her mother in the hospital. She waved to her and told Anna she was thinking about her. She would be back soon. Anna said she could feel her love and warmth in her belly.
That image, her mother present, safe, and thinking of her, was what she needed. Once she could hold this image vividly, her mother safe and thinking of her, the loneliness lost its grip.
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