Eczema Healed through Meditation and Self-Hypnosis 


On 4 March 2014, a 43 year old lady desperately wrote to me for help with regards to her problem of her latest outbreak of eczema. She has had two previous attacks and were treated with steroids in both instances. She gave me a background history of child abuse and could not get over her anger with her mother since. She experienced her first panic attack on 6 June 2012, did not obtain any relief with the medication from the private doctor’s clinic. As a result, she was sent by ambulance to the Emergency Room of the hospital where the doctor told her that her problem was one of psychosomatic in origin.

Of late, she noticed that she had increasing difficulty coping with her housework, with her daughter who has ADHD and with her daughter’s homework. Every day she would find herself feeing trapped while looking for misplaced things and busily attending medical appointments for her eczema. Life has since become very tiring for her and she never seemed to have the time to do the things she wanted to do.

Her latest outbreak of eczema involved her arms and were spreading to her feet. This time her doctor has decided that there would be no more steroids prescription for her after completing the current cycle. On hearing that, she felt helpless and was trying to look for an alternative therapeutic option. She wrote:

“I feel trapped like in a vicious circle. I really hard to get out of it but somehow I can’t. I try very hard to forgive my past and my parents, but in the daytime, moments of what my parents have done to me will come back and I find myself talking to myself, “You, mummy and daddy, go away please.” My daughter, who is nine years old, has often caught me talking to myself and told me to stop. Goodness, I’m not at peace.”


As she could not fit her schedule to come to see me in my clinic, I addressed her psychosomatic issues over email. In essence, I advised her to start practicing meditation, and go for a training course if necessary. She later told me that she had a good cry after reading my reply and recommendation.

She heeded my advice faithfully, and in fact attended a formal course on mindfulness, conducted by a psychiatric specialist. On 22 March 2014, she wrote to me again:

“You have addressed the root cause of my eczema. I started my meditation on 7 Mar 2014 with the help of a good friend and attended the afternoon Meditation Class (organized by Brahm Centre) too hoping to catch the group meditation energy. Since then, I have been practicing meditation daily and conscientiously. Today is the seventh day that I’m without steroids. Your advice for meditation is unbelievably amazing. There is currently no more relapse on my face and neck which usually happens previously whenever my supply of steroids ends. My arms and feet are almost cleared too. I have been having eczema for more than 6 months now, and I still can’t get over the excitement that my eczema is finally over, if not under manageable condition.”

However, along the way she encountered certain issues during her meditation. She realised that while in a meditative state, whenever she started to scan her body for sensations, thoughts of unresolved issues with her mum would surface repeatedly and this is usually associated with chest discomfort. Whenever she thought of what her parents had done to her when she was a child, her “itchy bumps” of eczema will surface immediately on her upper arm. So I taught her a visualization technique that she could self-apply. I wrote:

“I suggest that whenever thoughts of your mother arise again during meditation, use visual imagery to get rid of it. Even if the thoughts arise spontaneously, just switch yourself immediately to a meditative state and once in that state, feel the anger and focus on that part of the body that the thoughts are associated, in this case, your chest. Then give the thoughts a colour, a shape and a feeling, such as a ball of fire, to represent it. Next, visualize the shape, together with its colour, moving from the chest to the shoulders, down the arms, elbows, forearms and hands. When it reaches the hands, open up both palms physically and visualize the ball of fire being released from your palms to the air. Finally, experience the feeling of comfort after the release.”


A fortnight later she replied that the technique had worked very well for her and the frequency of eczema eruptions had reduced not only on her feet but on her arms also. Since then she has been completely free from steroids and used meditation only as her method of dermatological treatment.

On 20 August 2014, her eczema over her heel had healed completely after 8 weeks of meditation and she sent me the following pictures:

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