Jane - Algarve
Jane and her husband Peter (not their real names) run a successful business in Portugal. She had read about Douglas in the local papers but, although interested, had never followed it up until, as she put it, “I read an article to say he was coming, and I saw a small advertisement, and they leapt out at me. I knew this time I just had to see him.”
The session was a revelation in many ways. Jane asked an interesting question: “why I am so angry with my brother?” Douglas described the brother and his current circumstances fully and completely, and explained why Jane felt so angry and frustrated about her brother and his unusual situation. Douglas also said, referring to the brother’s wife, “Tell the Lady that she will make her big decision shortly.” Jane laughed – “Calling her The Lady was totally right, that is just how she saw herself, it was spot on!”
Then Jane asked, almost as an afterthought, “how is my husband?” Douglas replied, “he must go to see a doctor as soon as possible. It is important that he does this.” That came as a total shock. Although Peter had had a serious illness years before, that was in the past, everything was fine. When she got home, Jane told Peter about the session, and about the recommendation to go and see a doctor. Peter, best described as an open-minded sceptic, replied that, apart from a nagging stomach ache, he was fine, thank you very much. On his birthday a few weeks later, Peter seemed much brighter. “A strange thing happened to me during the night,” he said, “I felt some hands working inside me, in my stomach. I woke up and felt what was happening and said, ‘OK, that’s fine, carry on’, and went back to sleep. And this morning, my stomach ache has gone, I feel great.” As Peter would not go to the doctor, it seems, the doctors came to Peter!
At the end of that year, Peter became ill again, and this time he did seek medical advice, which led to an emergency operation to remove a cancerous growth. After the operation, Jane called Douglas for advice. “Your business will do very well next year,” Jane was told, “and your sons will take over the reins to allow you to step back.” That particular year had not been good – the general business climate had not been good and Peter’s illness had inevitably had an impact on what was, essentially, a family-run business. Furthermore, Jane and Peter’s two grown-up children had never shown any great interest in becoming involved in the business.
Jane came to see Douglas again in February of the following year. Peter was still battling with cancer, but was able to relax a little because their children had taken a decision and were committed to taking over the business. And to cap it all, a couple of major contracts that had been up in the air for some time came through, so that the order books were full and business was, as predicted, booming. Douglas said that the children would, indeed, make a good job of running the business, and that Peter needed to step back in order to allow his body to start the healing process: “he needs to be away from Portugal and away from Europe,” said Douglas.
Bearing in mind the amazing accuracy of his previous statements, even the open-minded sceptic took notice of this, and plans were put into place to allow Peter to ease back from the stress of company life, safe in the knowledge that his business was in safe hands!
Winter 2006