Hungry Fox
A conversation turned Celine’s fear into compassion
Celine (7) had developed a fear of all kinds of animals.
Eyes closed, I asked her to describe her inner world to me. The second she arrived, she gasped.
“There is blood on the ground.”
Together we investigated this scene further. Celine saw herself in a forest during a kindergarten trip. The group came across a bloodstain with some fur. Her teacher told the kids it may have been a fox that ate a rabbit.
A simple sentence that landed hard in a seven-year-old’s mind.
From that moment on, Celine was afraid the fox might come back for her.
We visualized returning to the forest, protected inside a bubble, floating above the trees. Celine landed near the fox’s den.
She called out to him. He came out.
She asked him if he had killed the rabbit.
He admitted it.
But also explained why.
He explained to Celine that unlike her, he couldn’t just go to the grocery store to buy food. And he said he had been very hungry on that day after many days of not finding anything to eat. He also shared with her that he had a family back in his den that relied on him to find food.
When kids are afraid of an animal, I have them speak animal language.
In this video can watch a girl speak “dog language”.
While these scenes are playing in her mind, Celine began to understand that the fox never had any intention of harming her.
The fox apologised.
She forgave him.
I had Celine return from the forest back to her inner world.
The bloodstain on the ground was gone.
This session lasted just 35 minutes. The fear was gone. And it didn’t come back.
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