Latest southern Colorado news, weather and sports from FOX21 News

On January 24 our photographer Pedro and I go to meet Dr. Gary Neuger, Ph.D. His office has a great feel. It has a giant window that lets in tons of light and the great view of Pikes Peak.

After the introductions he asks about my phobia and how it all began. I give him the story of how when I was 4 years old I was sitting in a veterinarians office with my face pressed against the side of a glass terrarium. A terrarium, I thought was empty, when all of a sudden out of no where a snake, struck the glass, tongue out, right between my eyes. Already not fond of snakes, that incident sent me into hysterics and was the cause for 20 years of fear and anxiety.

I feel I should clarify, because saying I have a 'fear' of snakes isn't really accurate. It is more accurate to say that I am utterly petrified of snakes, even just the idea of them gives me goose bumps and sends chills up my spine. I can't look at a picture of a snake or be in the same room as a one without every muscle in my body tensing up, getting heat flashes, and my legs feeling like they've gone into temporary paralysis.

So what are my goals for the hypnosis? Ideally, to be free of this phobia. To be able to be in the same room as a snake. Definitely to be able to look at a snake without going into a panic attack. When Dr. Neuger asks me if I would like to hold a 'safe' snake I laugh and say that would be great, but honestly would take a miracle.

I've tried throughout my life to get over this phobia. When I was younger my mom and I would go to the pet store in the summer time so I could try looking at snakes. I wanted to conquer my fear. But every time we'd get to the door and I'd freeze up and almost break into tears before deciding I can't even go in.

In seventh grade I got the closest to a snake I'd ever been when my teacher forgot I was afraid of snakes and had one wrapped around her hand just a couple feet from me. So far, this has been my most triumphant moment with snakes, but I should mention that my heart was beating so fast it could have generated enough power to run a city.

Dr. Neuger explained 'when we have something we're afraid of and were face with it and we become anxious then when we avoid it the anxiety goes down. And what happens is that feels better so that rewards the avoidance behavior. And that can strengthen the fear and strengthen then the avoidance of it.' So he says we're going to want to approach that piece of it a little bit.

From there Dr. Neuger goes through some of the misunderstandings people have about hypnosis.

The idea you're not going to know what's going on during the hypnosis: NOT TRUE.

The idea we start and hours go by and boom you have no idea what's been said or done: NOT TRUE.

On the flip side, the assumption that if you are aware of what's going on then it means you were not really hypnotized: Again, NOT TRUE.

Then he addresses what he says is the most common concern: who is in control when you're in hypnosis? "You are in control because you are always aware of what's going on." However, Dr. Neuger does warn while it's rare, it is possible for some people to be taken advantage of, which is why its so important to check the background and qualifications of a hypnotist before going.

"When it comes right down to it all hypnosis is, is self hypnosis. It's not anything I'm doing to you, it's a natural state of mind we all experience on a more or less regular basis. And you've actually experienced it many times without realizing it. For example when you're driving up the road and realize you don't know what the last couple miles looked like that's a hypnotic state. Anytime you've had some pain and got so involved with doing something that for a period of time it's like you forgot about your pain…that's a hypnotic state. Anytime you've been involved in athletics and been in the zone, that's a hypnotic state." "All we're doing here is helping you recognize that natural state of mind and learn how to harness and direct it in a healthy way."

It all sounds great, but it sounds almost too easy. All I have to do is learn how to put myself in a state of mind where snakes don't bother me and I'm cured?
Apparently, yes. Dr. Neuger says hypnosis taps into the unconscious mind, which is a huge reservoir of knowledge, strength and power. Something that doesn't just change our perception about things, but can change our physiological functioning.
"You had a traumatic experience when you were 4 and so we're going to do some things hypnotically, and possibly non-hypnotically to help you heal emotionally from that. It's my hope that as we typically see healing at that level will watershed out everything else." Sounds good!

We have about three weeks before this story airs, so three weeks of hypnosis. I am a little skeptical we won't have enough time, but Dr. Neuger is confident two one hour sessions a week will be enough.

Pet Store: Baseline (Friday, January 25)
Since hypnosis can not only change your perceptions, but physiological reactions we decided to use a heart rate monitor as a more "scientific" test. (Just to prove how terrified I really am of snakes…and so people don't think I'm faking or embellishing for the camera.)

The day before (Thursday) we took my heart rate just sitting at my desk, which fluctuated in the 80 beats per minute range.

So today I meet Pedro during my lunch hour at Pet City to go look at snakes. I've avoided the thought all yesterday and morning, but as I get out of my car I can feel my legs starting to tense up. Pedro goes in first to tell the manager we were here and I waited outside. He was probably only gone for a couple minutes, but it felt like an eternity. I tried to distract myself once I noticed my hands had started shaking and my stomach was now in a huge knot.

Pedro came out to get me. He and one of the employees walked me back to the snakes…(I hesitantly followed far behind.)

As soon as I stepped into the store I could feel every muscle in me tense up. i had goose bumps on my arms and the hair on my arms was standing straight up. I got a couple feet from the cages, but made sure to position myself in a way so I couldn't see into the cages. That's where I stayed for about 10 minutes while I tried to muster the courage to actually look at one.

(note: my heart rate shot up to 156 beats per minute. Needless to say, I was strongly regretting the decision to do this story!)

After a few more minuets I got a few steps closer to the cages, but that's as close as I got. I chickened out and left without even looking at a snake.

1st session: Entering a hypnotic state (Monday, January 28)
Court got out late for lunch today so I was a little late arriving to my first session. (I'm covering the Jereme Lamberth trial so both dr. Neuger and I our using our lunch breaks for these sessions.)

We get a little late start, but Pedro already had the camera and lights ready to go.
After my failure at the pet store the other day I began to realize that maybe this story wasn't going to be as easy as I had thought. I wanted hypnosis to help me, but I've already trying facing my fear 'head on' and it's never worked. So I was a little nervous about what kinds of things Dr. Neuger was going to have me try to do… things I'd already tried before to no avail.

The first step is learning how to enter a hypnotic trance. I have to concentrate on Gary's (Dr. Neuger) voice breathing in total relaxation in body, mind and emotion. To help achieve this he tells me to imagine myself in what he calls 'my special' place. It's a place I find very relaxing and I have to visualize how things feel, smell, look, sound in this place.

I am able to enter this trance fairly well and relax myself. I stay in this guided trance for what seems like maybe ten to fifteen minutes and then Gary counts from one up to ten to 're-alert' me or bring me out of trance.

After we're done, I feel relaxed, but a little skeptical wondering how doing that for the next three weeks is going to cure me. To me it seemed very similar to meditation.

2nd session: Message from the unconscious (Thursday, January 31)
Today was the craziest day! Absolutely unbelievable in a good but totally new way. I'm not sure how to describe the experience today since it's not one we typically experience…consciously at least.

Today Gary wanted to do a little work with my unconscious mind and do some question and answer. The way we did this was through finger movements. I put up my left arm letting my hand hang loosely from the wrist. Gary tells me that the unconscious mind can answer his questions by selecting a finger to use for yes replies and no replies. He says sometimes people feel the finger move other times they don't. But what he didn't want me to do is consciously listen to the questions and think oh the answer is 'yes or no' and then move the finger.

So as we begin Gary addresses my unconscious mind just as if it's another person in the room speaking directly to it. He first asks it to select the finger it wants to use to answer 'yes' - my index finger twitches. Then he asks the same question for 'no' -my middle finger twitches. I know this sounds crazy and is difficult for some to believe (because even I didn't believe it at first, and I was experiencing it!) but I honestly did not consciously move my fingers. They both twitched at their own will in response to Gary's questions.

Gary begins asking my unconscious mind a series of questions about my fear and my hand begins responding! Truly I was not consciously moving my fingers at all. The experience was a bit overwhelming and even scared me a bit at first. How could my fingers be moving on their own, much less answering questions about things I consciously had no answers to. It really was almost too much for me to handle at first and I contemplated stopping the process and 're-alerting' but I decided to trust Gary.

One of the last questions Gary asks my unconscious mind is 'there is anything the unconscious mind feels Christina needs to consciously know or understand or experience about this fear of snakes before we end this hypnotic session?" It answered yes.

Nothing happened for a few minutes so Gary asked the question again. Another minuet went by and then all of a sudden I get this very vivid image of a snake. It comes out of nowhere and lunges at me with its mouth wide open. The image scares me and I pull away. After I receive the message Gary has me 're-alert' and I don't understand the message at all. I don't understand why my unconscious mind would want to scare me like that. So Gary tells me to go back into trance and put my arm up again. He then asks my unconscious mind to share with me the message and all of a sudden the snake slithers away. A much less threatening and scary feeling accompanies this image and I get this feeling telling me "I can get over this fear and I will get over it." The whole experience is a very weird and new sensation but in the end leaves me feeling comforted and encouraged.

3rd session: Relaxation, Comfort and Calmness (Monday, February 4)
It's getting easier to go straight into trance and for me to put myself into a trance. Today Gary takes my unconscious mind to a corridor and asks me to describe what I see.

I end up seeing a pastel color snake. It won't directly look at me instead looking to the side the way a dog does to its master when it knows it's in trouble. In my mind I pick up the snake and bring it closer to me. It tries to open its mouth, but I won't let it. This image communicates the message that I am now in control of whether snakes scare me or not.

After the session I realize how calm and relaxed I was while I was looking at the snake in my mind. That in it of itself is some very good progress!

4th session: Break through! (Tuesday, February 7)
I have been making a lot of progress lately. I am able to see images of snakes on TV for short increments of time and still remain calm.

Today was by far my most intense session yet. Gary asked if I thought I was ready to try to go back to the day my trauma happened at the vet's office.

Now, every time I've told the story about why I'm afraid of snakes and how the snake struck at the glass I never actually re-live the experience. So today is the first time that I actually sit down on the same bench and turn my head to look into the terrarium. As I turn my head I get this spinning feeling. It feels like I'm on a Mary-go-round that's out of control. I start to get really hot and a huge wave of nausea comes over me. The experience scares me and is too much to handle so I 're-alert' and open my eyes, but it doesn't stop. My whole body is spinning and everything I look at violently shakes back and forth. Gary reassures me I'm ok and tells me to go to my 'place.' (That's where I go when I begin my trances to relax) It's usually very easy for me to go to my 'place' but I can't stop spinning and I'm worried I may actually throw up.

It takes me at least 5 minutes to get myself back into trance, back to my 'place' where I then am able to calm myself! As I focus on relaxing the spinning stops, my heart rate goes down, my body cools off and the nausea passes. That ability in it of itself was amazing.

After that my unconscious mind decides to show me a door. I recognize it as the door of the pet store my mom and I went to when I was little. The door I would always get to before chickening out and going home. Now, I was there in front of that door again. I could see myself inside the pet store, but I couldn't visualize myself actually walking through. Gary told me to be patient. My unconscious mind was telling me to trust it and as I felt that trust radiate through me I pushed open that pet store door and I walked in! I get this huge wave of happiness and accomplishment as I turn and make a small circle taking in my environment… taking in the significance of the step that I just made.

Gary tells me to give myself permission to feel good about today's progress and we end for the day.

I did ask Gary about my initial reaction when my unconscious went back to the vet's office and he said it was its way of taking control of the experience. I was on cloud 9 the rest of the day!

5th Session: Letting Go (Tuesday, February 12)
I know I said last session was a break through, but today was even bigger! I let go of my fear today.

We began where we left off last session, in the pet store. I was working on looking at the snakes inside the cages when another image suddenly popped up. It was the face of the snake that came at me, in the vet's office, when I was four-years-old . I've never seen any images of this snake in my head since the traumatic incident, nothing that even let me know I remembered what the snake looked like in detail. But there it was as clear as day and I recognized it immediately.

Gary reminded me to think out loud. I felt a substantial amount of fear; tears started rolling down my cheek as I described what the snake looked like.

Gary kept assuring me I was ok that this was an old fear and it was ok to let it go. As I kept breathing I calmed myself down and the image of the snake began to fade and with it so did the feelings of fear. As the fear faded I could see strings still holding on to me. As I cut each of those string the fear got smaller and smaller until I cut the last string and felt this huge relief. The fear was gone. Just like that.

A big smile of accomplishment and relief spread across my face. As I re-alerted I was thrilled. I felt completely liberated, but also drained.

6th session: One More Time (Wednesday, February 13)
I went in today feeling very confident with my progress, which is great, but I didn't have a very eventful session.

There were a series of disruptions that kept interrupting my trance and Gary spent the majority of time getting me back into trance rather than going deeper into one.
The first hiccup came when one of our lights blew-out. Then Pedro's cell phones went off… which we only left on in case the lamberth verdict came in. (Since I covered the case I went into stand-by mode during jury deliberation). After hearing the phone ring I spent a good deal of time worrying about whether there was a verdict and we needed to leave. (turns out the call was about something else completely)

After the session we decided to schedule one more session for tomorrow since today was a wash. I don't think any of us wanted to end our work on that note.

7th session: Final Visit (Thursday, February 14)
I asked Gary today how he defines someone as being 'cured.' He answered my question by asking me the same question. I thought back to my first visit and the goals I outlined then. I feel like I can now accomplish two of the three goals; being in the same room as a snake and looking at one without having a panic attack. But that third goal, the one I said would take a miracle is still a bit daunting. So I my unconscious used this final session to show me that I can hold a snake.

My unconscious took me to my seventh grade classroom -- to the day my teacher held her pet snake just a couple feet from me. In my trance I was able to hold the snake, but didn't feel the same sense of accomplishment I had in some of my previous sessions. That turned out to be because the triumph today wasn't the ability to hold a snake, but the fact my whole experience and journey had now come full circle. As I realized I can now calmly deal with any situation that might encounter a snake, I realized I am no longer a slave to my fear. I am cured!
With that Gary asked if I was ready to see a snake to which I said of course thinking to myself didn't you hear me in this session I'm ready to hold a snake! But my cockiness was quickly put back in check when he told me they had made arrangements for a snake to be here. I was a little unsure at first, but had to remind myself I am more than ready to do this. As they brought in the snake's cage I could feel myself instinctively position myself as far away from the snake as possible. A huge wave of emotion came over me, but I didn't immediately recognize it. I didn't recognize it because I didn't feel any fear. I didn't feel my muscles tensing up or my legs locking. I didn't feel my heart pounding out of my chest. It wasn't until tears started welling up in my eyes that I recognized these emotions as joy, triumph and awe. I was doing it! I was certainly in the same room as a snake and I was looking straight at it…and all without panicking.

I can't describe how this kind of accomplishment makes me feel… so I won't even try, but I am in complete awe that in three weeks we erased a 20 year petrified terror of snakes.

Thank you Gary!