John Fletcher Jr loved psychology in his high school and college years.Despite that he decided on a career in carpeting until he reached a crossroads five years ago and determined a change was in order.He now offers life coaching and holistic healing services to the public. His specialities include helping people overcome phobias, stress, anxiety, insomnia, weight issues and depression.In some rare cases, people can start to find healing in a matter of minutes. But where serious emotional trauma is at the root it can take multiple sessions before the person sees results, he said.Clients have come in for help in dealing with something small, but then realise they are in denial about “monster” issues, which are uncovered once the emotional layers are pulled back, Mr Fletcher said.“In each case in less than 30 minutes I helped them to completely relive the entire trauma,” he said.In the case of one woman, the therapy revealed she hadn’t properly healed following the death of her daughter 20 years prior.“She internalised the guilt, blame and also self-hatred, so it started manifesting itself as anxiety and by being cynical later on in life. She had blocked out the original trauma and from when I started working on the anxiety the original trauma came to surface,” he said.That session lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours, Mr Fletcher said.“Now she tells me she is happy-go-lucky in the office and it’s improved all of her personal relationships because she is no longer cynical and no longer projecting self-hatred,” he said.He applies different approaches depending on the client’s needs, one of which is nuero-linguistic programming. Popularised by motivational speaker Tony Robbins, it centres around the belief that the words we use reflect an inner, subconscious view of our problems.For instance, if we constantly tell ourselves we’re too lazy or too busy to work out, the underlying problem will continue.Mr Fletcher also experiments with using ancient oriental healing techniques — the emotional freedom technique involves tapping on acupressure points in the face and chest, while using other psychology techniques to remove past and present physical and emotional traumas.Another popular technique he uses is called the Midas touch method. It blends ancient healing with modern science to quickly identify and remove the causes of an ailment.Mr Fletcher said he first became interested in natural healing techniques as a child in the US.He said: “My mother was always involved in psychology and self-help practices,” he said. “She taught us how to meditate as well as use our creative visualisation, creating whatever you want freely in your mind, so if someone wanted an ideal career they could get it through visualisation.“At that age, as a child, it was a better book, toy or whatever, but we learned to just allow our imagination to roam without having any limitations to it.”He started practising holistic healing in Bermuda around two years ago; he has since seen more than 200 clients with varying results.Some people experience complete recovery, others just notice small changes over time.Mr Fletcher said people on the Island were gradually becoming more receptive to alternative healing methods.“Fortunately people are only interested in what works,” he said. “And people are looking for solutions because they have doubts about the modern medical practices and the truth is that ancient healing techniques blended with modern science is the way to the future.“Holistic healing has no negative side effects there are no pills, no potions, no surgery and no shocking the person to get better.“Mr Fletcher said the ultimate goal is for people to leave his office feeling relieved of their symptoms and with increased confidence and more positive energy.For more information e-mail peak.performance.profs@gmail.com or phone 531-1001.