The names of people and Agencies in this study have been changed to protect their identities.

Case Study #1013 - Cross-Dressing??

PD is 42 years old and has been a recidivist offender from the age of 12.  He was referred to me because he wanted to address his preference of dressing in women’s clothes.  This habit was taking its toll on his marriage and his wife was in constant fear of the consequences of public exposure, humiliation and ridicule for herself and the children.

I made a brief account of traumatic event in PD’s life:

Mother died when PD was 7.  One day when he and his siblings returned from school, there was an ambulance outside his home.  That morning when he said ‘bye’ to him mother was the last time he saw her.  He was very close to his mother.

Next two years were spent in an orphanage.

Father remarried and PD, with 6 siblings were returned to the family home.  The step mother was cruel and unloving.  She piled physical and mental abuse on the children, especially PD.

PD then spent the next few years in several Boys’ Homes – juvenile detention homes.  Here the house doctor sexually abused him for the first time.  There were several other incidents of sexual abuse after that.

PD launched on a path of self-destruction by drinking, smoking and substance abuse.  He tried to commit suicide on 3 occasions.

PD was diagnosed as bi-polar, sent to a mental institute where he was heavily medicated and also given shock treatment.  Finally the diagnosis of bi-polar was changed – he was undiagnosed and dumped from the mental institute.

Life was a series of criminal charges and stints in jail.  During a jail term PD was raped by a fellow inmate.

I always start at the beginning.  The trauma that was the turning point in PD’s young life was the death of his mother.  He never got to say ‘good-bye’, he never got to tell her how much he loved her and he certainly missed her enormously.

The EFT treatment started with tapping on the death of PD’s mother.  We did the typical ‘movie technique’ and I got PD to talk about what happened, what he saw, heard, felt.  Next we did the orphanage, stepmother, sexual abuse, shock therapy, jail rape and finally cross-dressing.  All these traumas were addressed in one session.

Here are some phrases we used while tapping on his problem:

• I love getting dressed in women’s clothes even though it’s affecting my relationship with my wife

• I love getting dressed in women’s clothes even though it’s affecting my relationship with my children

• I love getting dressed in women’s clothes even though it’s affecting my relationship with other people

• I love the feel of soft, smooth women’s underwear on my skin and I don’t want to give it up, etc

I asked PD to tap on whenever he felt the desire to cross-dress during the following weeks before our next appointment.

I asked PD if there was any connection between the sudden loss of his mother and his cross-dressing.  He seemed to agree that perhaps it was a way of connecting with mother whom he loved dearly.

No surprises next time.  PD came in beaming from ear to ear.  Said he had never felt better and his relationship with his wife and kids had been excellent over the past weeks.  What about the cross-dressing?  No issue here anymore.  He had no urge, need or desire to get into his wife’s clothes, Curious, huh?