From time to time, in order to help clients understand that clinical affectology is NOT an approach that can be immediately defined or reported on (as to the in-session experiences) I have told them some stories of past experiences where clients who have some pretty ordinary expectations of success have experienced amazing changes over a small amount of time. 

I recall a couple of those clients telling me that I "should" write these stories down and hand them out to clients and prospective clients because they seemed to put questions and skepticism somewhat to rest.

Elsewhere I have told you that I am a dyed-in-the-wool "therapy skeptic" - or "therapy cynic". That means that not only do I believe that many reports from clients that are directly given to their therapists are skewed in some way, or downright untruthful. I've always been suspicious of the "Ah-ha; Wow!" style of report. ADDITIONALLY, I have always been aware that not everyone believes appeals to just "wait and see" as I am in fact asking you to do. These constitute in many cases, plain and simple SPIN. This then, is why I do not make a big issue of "case histories" of that nature in any of my writings.

But it can be helpful, I believe, to just read about them and draw your own conclusions. So, I offer a couple of cases where we have discovered that positive outcomes have resulted in surprise, even to the practitioner. And OF COURSE, names have been changed. I cite presenting symptoms and problems, not from gaining that knowledge during therapy, but afterwards.
BILL (Who will be forever imprinted in my memory!)
Bill came to see me some years ago, at a time before clinical affectology had been fully developed. Bill was a policeman. He was in his 50s and still only a constable. Bill was fiery and huge!
He had been in a lot of trouble in his job, both on the street and in the office. he was on the brink of a marriage breakup. All because of attitude and a fierce anger, bordering on rage.
He made it VERY CLEAR, in a most vocal way, that he thought what I did was "hogwash" (not his word, you understand), but he had no choice because his departmental psychologist had prescribed my work for him, and to defy that would add one more of an extensive array of "black marks" to his record. The department psychologist had sent a number of police to me, since she had direct and personal experience of clinical affectology's potential.
But Bill could be described as being the DIRECT OPPOSITE to the perfect client - the affectology practitioner's nemesis!
I conducted our first session with difficulty. Bill was distractive, argumentative and disdainful, with comments like "This BS is for hippies and freaks".
Not being one to be put off easily, I continued with him when I should really have cancelled treatment.
During the self-attention phase of the first session, he sat, arms firmly crossed, tapping his feet, sighing loudly and mumbling about this BS, and doing everything that seemed the opposite to what he "should" do. But I will say that he never once opened his eyes until the end.

Before he left my room, he said, "when I come back next time, what you do had better be better than THAT BS!"

I half-expected not to see him again, but he did return and told me in no uncertain terms that he HAD to be here, or he'd get in trouble with the department - something he could no longer afford to do.
I continued with the process, and the exact same situation ensued. He was restless, angry, dismissive, sitting through the self-attention process in the same way - shifting about, mumbling, tapping his fingers on the chair, crossing and uncrossing his legs, and so on (but again, eyes closed all the way). At the finish of the session, he stood over me and shouted "I told you that this had to be better than the last BS, and it wasn't!"

He huffed out and returned for his third and last session. I felt that I wanted to be somewhere else, but persevered. Unfortunately, Bill's experience of that last session (and by default, MY experience of it) was as unpleasant as before. He was so angry at the end of it, I feared for my physical safety. His face was beet-red, his body tensed and shaking. Fists clenched and raised. He stood up out of the chair and went directly to the door. As he went out the door, he stuck his head back and shouted, "and you can fight me for the fxxxing money!" He slammed the door ferociously, and I sank into my chair, devoting myself to a future of not accepting referrals unless well prepared.

Around 6 weeks later, I was in my office when the phone rang. I picked up the receiver and a deep voice on the other end said "Is this Ian White?" After responding, he said, "Well, I don't know if you remember me or not, but my name is Bill xxxx and I came to see you for that stuff you do a couple of months ago." I said that I remembered, at which point he said, "It's now your turn to shut up, because I have never apologized to anyone in my life, but I'm apologizing to you. I don't know what you did or how you did it, but I am no longer in trouble at work, I'm no longer in trouble at home and I'm no longer in trouble on the street. As a matter of fact, everything seems to be going good. ... Your check's in the mail!" At which he hung up the phone.
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So....what's the moral of the story? ... You can never know the processes and time schedule of the subconscious.
OTTO
Otto was a senior German gentleman who attended and abided by all the rules of clinical affectology, in that he did not try to tell me what his symptoms or problems were, did not attempt to reveal anything about himself.

We conducted the full program and Otto left after agreeing to participate in the ESR system.

A week after his completion, I received a hand-written letter from him in the post, with his overview of the experience. He said that I was a quack (he actually used an ancient German word that implies a person of low ethics), that affectology was a scam, and that his experience was exactly as he expected it to be (whatever that meant, but I had an idea).

Of course, I was less than happy with his letter, but reflected on the high positive success levels in our feedback system, so dusted myself off and continued. I can't know if he responded to the ESR questionnaire, but suspected that he did not, because I did not receive any anonymous comments from IGA that reflected Otto's letter.

Around 6 months later, a woman made a booking for treatment, and when I asked her where she had heard about me and affectology, she asked, "do you remember Otto xxxx? He came to see you some time ago. I am his niece." I recoiled and said, "Otto? Why would he recommend me? He told me all sorts of insulting things about me."

She replied, "Oh, don't take that personally. He says that to all his therapists!" It appeared that Otto was a long-time therapy client and had been diagnosed "schizophrenic" many years ago. But what surprised me was this.... She said,

"The reason he came to see you was that Otto has never flown, and he and his family were looking to go back to Germany for a holiday with family there. His abject terror at the thought of getting on a plane meant that he would not be able to go for that event."

" I went to see the family off at the airport, and there was Otto, all cheerful and relaxed, about to step into the plane. I was shocked, and asked what had happened to him that he was no longer terrified. He turned to me and said, 'Oh, I went to see Ian White and now I am all fixed!'..."

"And whatever you did for Otto, I want some of it!"

So....what's the moral of the story? ... You can never know the processes and time schedule of the subconscious.