ABSTRACT

Jan was a patient I will never forget. She came to me to help her come to terms with her death, and in the 9 months I treated her, we dealt with that and much more. In that short period, I, too, changed in ways that I still am discovering. Not only did I help her to die with dignity, or, as she put it, “with her head held high,” but I, too, felt I had encountered my own mortality and what it meant to be alive in the present. I also learned more about the power of therapy and of hypnosis, and how we as finite beings can come to terms with our finitude.