Dyslexia
John O’Reilly Therapist
RD Hyp, Dip Hyp, BA., MSc. Reiki Master.
(086) 3338886
www.combo-therapy.com
Introduction to presentation
 I wish to inform you of a major breakthrough in the treatment of persons
with dyslexia.
 How would you like it if there was a treatment that
 made the difficulties or blockages experienced as a result of dyslexia simply
disappear or dissolve away.
 If you or your child no longer needed to experience the learning difficulties
associated with the various aspects of dyslexia
 If you or your child could be free from any of the learning difficulties
associated with Dyslexia.
 By the end of this presentation you will be informed of how all of this can
happen.
Introduction – My Background
 I have worked with all kinds of victims of trauma for the past 34 years.
 I hold a Masters in Child Protection and Welfare
 I have conducted research into the psychological effects of trauma on
behaviour for over 10 years,
 I am a qualified Cognitive Behaviour Based Therapist in Clinical and
Therapeutic Hypnosis.
 I have combined my research in to psychological effects of trauma along
with my research into the effects of hypnosis on trauma related behaviour.
 This has all resulted in this break through in treatment of Dyslexia.
My Introduction to Dyslexia
 While treating a client, I was asked “if I could do anything for Dyslexia”
 I replied that “I didn’t know if I could as I hadn’t worked with anybody with dyslexia
before”
 A 15 year old boy who had been diagnosed with Dyslexia was brought to see me.
 I asked him to describe his experiences where he suffered from dyslexia.
 What he described to me was very similar to symptoms of cycles of anxiety.
 I treated his dyslexic experiences and the issues / problems that he previously had as a
result of his dyslexia and they simply dissolved away.
 He could no longer find or connect with them.
 He was free from any of his issues, sensations or difficulties that he previously experienced
through his dyslexia.
 I can hear you saying if it was only that simple – Well it is.
Case Study 15 year old male
A 15year old student diagnosed
with dyslexia was found to
experienced the difficulties
outlined in the next slide
Assessment of Student – Case Study
 Nonverbal Knowledge
Exceptionally low range
 Verbal Knowledge
Low Average range
 Nonverbal Quantitative Reasoning
Low range
 Pseudoword Decoding
Exceptionally low range –
(phonetic decoding)
age equivalent score is 6.8 yrs.
Indicates difficulties reading
unfamiliar words.
 Word Reading
Exceptionally low range - age
equivalent score is 9.4 yrs.
 Reading comprehension
Low average – age equivalent score
is 10.8 yrs.
Assessment of Student – Case Study
Contd.
 Spelling - Low range – age equivalent score is 8.8 yr
 Numerical Operations - Low range – age equivalent score is 10 yrs
 These results indicate the presence of a Specific Learning Disability (Dyslexia
and Dyscalculia) and will require teaching resources and exemption from all
languages except English
 Dyslexia is a specific learning disability characterised by difficulties in expressive,
receptive, oral or written language that can cause problems with reading,
writing, speaking or listening
 Dyscalculia – Specific learning difficulty in which there are problems with
learning or comprehending simple mathematic concepts, difficulty in
understanding numbers, being able3 to manipulate numbers and memorising
mathematical facts when struggling with the processing of quantitative
information.
Assessment of Student – Case Study
Contd.
 Subject finds it hard to translate language into though (as in listening or
reading) and thoughts into language (as in writing or speaking).
 Subject finds it hard to create mental images of what he reads and is
unable to organise the information as he reads
 Subject finds it hard to understand the relationship between cause and
effect; complex explanations; distinguishing between important and
unimportant information and following multi step directions
 The subject has a large gap between learning aptitude and achievement
in school, he may have feeling of confusion that prevents him from being
able to focus on the task at hand and this can give rise to tendency to act
impulsively without giving the matter any real thought or engaging his
reasoning skills
Following Treatment

Having undergone a number of sessions of this new technique throughout the academic school
year of 2014 / 2015, for
 concentrate in class,
 memorising of spellings,
 reading,
 comprehension,
 memory recall and
 understanding new lessons etc.

the student sat his junior certificate in June of 2015.

With no issues remaining from his previous diagnosis of being Dyslexic

He was able to concentrate, study and learn.

He went on to achieved in his junior certificate
 One 'A',
 Two 'B's and
 Four 'C's
Improvement Continued
 His performance and improvements since his exams have been monitored
 The student has reported that all of the problems identified as being
affected by his dyslexia have completely gone.
 His mother has highlighted her amazement at the difference in his ability,
attitude and performance in school since.
 The teacher, who originally recommended that the student
be assessed for dyslexia, informed his mother at their last parent / teacher
meeting, that he was finally able to comprehend his lessons, and also
remarked on the improvement in his abilities.
 This student continues to excel in his current transition year, excelling in all
arears and tasks – business enterprise exercise example.
Case Study with Adults
 I have also worked with a number of adults suffering from dyslexia who also
have had their issues / obstacles to reading / writing successfully dissolved.
 They reported
 that the blocks / wall, as they described their experiences when reading or
writing, have all gone and
 that they can now read or write without experiencing the difficulties or mental
block that they previously experienced.
 Writing is no bother now, the confusion / blur / haze isn’t there anymore
 They have no bother reading now and can take in what they are reading
My Hypothesis
 My hypothesis is that dyslexia and all of its variation are actually caused by a form of
anxiety.
 Fear can result in anxiety.
 Anxiety results in a survival response of either ‘Fight’, ‘Flight’ or ‘Freeze’.
 Anxiety, - causes the survival unit (Amygdala) to hijack the cognitive ability in a person,
so as to impair the person’s ability in processing of information in the area where the
element of fear presented itself such as - reading, writing, spelling, learning, arithmetic
etc.
 “It is not the event that matters, but how one actually looks at it” that causes the
malfunction of the survival unit
 I want you to pay particular attention to the element of cognitive impairment during this
presentation.
Dyslexia
 The Dyslexia Association of Ireland has stated that dyslexia is a specific
learning difficulty in relation to reading and spelling.
 it is characterised by cognitive
difficulties in
 phonological processing,
 memory recall and
 the speed of retrieval of information from the long term memory.
 They also report that suffers from dyslexia also suffer
 heightened anxiety.
 Dyslexia ranges from mild to severe and affects up to 10% of the population
Dyslexia is Characterised by difficulties which are relative to Cognitive impairment
 Learning to read
 Difficulties with letters &
associated sounds
 Spelling,
 Writing,
 Memorising learning
 Short term memory recall,
 Visually recognising and
remembering words,
 Concentration,
 Verbal expression, ,
 Expression of ideas,
 Sequencing of information,
 Learning by repetition,
 Recognising rhyme
 Directional confusion,
 Mental arithmetic,
 Disorganised
 Judging and telling time
Dyslexia – The Facts –
& One’s Cognitive ability
 Dyslexia does not occur as a result of any disability or sensory impairment
 Dyslexia occurs across a full range of intelligence and social economic
groups.
 An indication of dyslexia is where there is a discrepancy existing between a
person’s
 likely ability to learn to read and
 their actual reading ability.
 Dyslexia can result in different cognitive and behavioural consequences for
different people
 Dyslexia is associated with a problem in the neurological coding required
for learning and retrieving of associated information between verbal and
visual information i.e. the learning the sounds associated with the letters of
the alphabet.
Defining Dyslexia
 There has been three main approached in defining dyslexia
 1. Definition by exclusion – where there is no other alternative explanation for reading
and writing difficulties.
 2. Definition by discrepancy – the discrepancy between the perceived potential to learn
to read and the actual level of reading achievement. Discrepancy is a statistical
approach in trying to define ‘abnormalities’ and is not accurate in indicating dyslexia
 3. The identification of positive indicators – these are symptoms or characteristic that can
be used to identify dyslexia by virtue of them being present.
 It is worth noting that none of these procedures clearly diagnosed dyslexia due to the
variation of difficulties experienced by the dyslexic population
 Dyslexia does not only cover reading and spelling difficulties, it covers a wide range of
learning issues that encompass visual and auditory processing skills and memory
capacity.
 All of these would be covered by a difficulty in one’s cognitive impairment
Its possible for you to break free from the
Psychological impacts of Dyslexia such as;
 Feelings of hopelessness
 Being emotional distress
 Afraid of failing -
 Fear from having to express ideas
or think out loud
 Afraid of making a fool of
themselves
 Feeling ashamed because of their
learning difficulties
 Humiliation as a result of attitude
of teacher or peers
 Feelings of inadequacy
 Anxiety from having to listen and
write simultaneously while
attempting to grasp the concept
of what is being explained
 Anxiety over trying to decipher
and retain meaning from their
notes or large amounts of text.
Its possible for you to break free from the
Psychological impacts of Dyslexia such as;
Contd.
 Feeling of information overload
 Depression, trauma,
 Anxiety as a result of having no
memory of what was discussed in
class or a lecture despite having
pages of notes taken during the
class or lecture
 Being bullied because of their
apparent ‘academic weakness’
 Low Self Esteem – negative selfbeliefs
 Social anxiety when meeting
people
 Frustration and embarrassment
due to length of time taken to
learn a new skill (10 times longer
for some people with dyslexia)
 Development of coping
mechanisms to overcome
difficulties
Its possible for you to break free from the
Psychological impacts of Dyslexia such as;
Contd.
 Development of shyness or
becoming introverted (Girls)
 Necessity for behavioural
difficulties as an avoidance or
distraction coping mechanism
(Boys)
 Fear of being labelled as “Not
Normal”
 Fear from people’s perception
 Fear of disappointing parents
aspirations or expectations of
them
 Frustration from poor memory skills
 Fear of perception that their brain
is malfunctioning in some way
Points to Note
 The majority of the psychological effects relating to Dyslexia are
fear based.
 Anxiety thrives on FEAR
 Anxiety results in the hijacking of one’s cognitive ability
 Anxiety results in cognitive impairment.
 Where you just cant think straight, and you can not process any
information or ideas
 Lets Look at the research into Dyslexia over the last 100 years or so.
 Please note references to cognitive impairment or cognitive
inability.
History of Dyslexia and Research
1879 to 2008
 1878 – described as word blindness
 1887 - renamed as Dyslexia (Greek word “difficulty with words”).
 1896 - First case of Dyslexia reported in British Medical Journal as a visual
processing deficiencies.
 1917 – First book published on Congenital Work Blindness
 1925 - stated to be a syndrome unrelated to brain damage
 1939 – recognised need to assess each child educational needs
individually
 Mid-Twentieth Century study moved from medicine to education and
psychology
History of Dyslexia and Research
1879 to 2008 Contd.
 1970 – Difficulties with sounds and visual letters – Phonological awareness
 1983 – described as a syndrome
 1986 – Weakness in the visual processing
 1987 – Suggested as a Cognitive Disability
 1991 – 1999 PET and MRI Scans that disclosed inconsistencies of neuronal
activations associated with reading and phonological processing in adults with
dyslexia in the left hemisphere of the brain.
 2004 - Dr. Michael Ryan of the International Dyslexia Association reported that
“Anxiety was the most frequent emotional symptom reported by Dyslexic
adults”. He refers to the fear, frustration and confusion for dyslexics in school and
the anticipation of failure and anxiety over new situations.
 Note the presence of ANXIETY
 2008, Heimn found that dyslexia may result from distinct cognitive impairments
So what has all this to do
with our survival system?
Our survival system can malfunction and result in our survival unit
hijacking our logical thinking process, our cognitive ability.
In order to explain this, we need to look at how our survival system
works
How Our Survival Unit Responds
Normally
 Our survival unit scans all the information that comes into the brain every
millisecond of every day.
 Once it detects threats, danger, or fear it causes energy from non vital
organs to be transferred into our chest, arms and legs getting the body
ready for a survival response.
 Once we become consciously aware of the threat, danger or fear our
body is ready for whatever survival response is required – Fight, Flight or
Freeze, (these are our three survival responses).
 And that is how we survive.
What happens when our
Survival Unit Malfunctions
 A malfunction can occur when we experience a fearful situation that
causes our long and short term memory to freeze, so that they don’t save
the fearful memory;
 So when the survival unit detects a similar fearful situations in the future, it
gets the body read for a survival response by bringing energy into the
chest, arms and legs and waits for directions from the logical thinking part
of the brain.
 Because the long and short term memory froze and didn’t save the
memory, the logical thinking part of the brain doesn’t know why they are
feeling this way and so doesn’t inform the survival unit what to do.
What happens when our
Survival Unit Malfunctions Contd.
 When the survival unit doesn’t get directions form the logical thinking part of the
brain, it does what it is supposed to do, it over rides the logical thinking part of
the brain (hijacking it) and provides the response that will ensure survival
 Whatever the response was when the original fearful situation occurred, the
survival unit will use it again and again, because we survived. It will use it every
time a similar fearful situation occurs.
 This malfunction can cause the survival unit to misfire at other situation and
cause a similar survival reaction, while at the same time our logical thinking part
of our brain doesn’t know why it is feeling or behaviour in this way.
 This is what is termed ANXIETY.
 Anxiety creates an intense sensation of fear and or a severe physical reaction,
when danger or fear (whether real or perceived) is detected by our survival unit
(Amygdala).
What happens when our
Survival Unit Malfunctions Contd.
 Depending on one’s ability to calm themselves down or talk themselves out of their
anxious state (their coping mechanisms), their anxiety can go out of control.
 Depending on one’s coping mechanisms, it can take two to three hours for the body to
restore control to the logical thinking park of the brain once the danger is no longer
present.
 When ‘hijacked’ the decision making ability of the logical thinking part of the brain is not
working until the survival unit give back control to the logical thinking part of the brain. –
Hence the Cognitive impairment / inability
 This what I believe occurs during the effects / symptoms of Dyslexia
Research and Findings in relation to
Dyslexia
 Existing research into Dyslexia has highlighted that dyslexia is encased in
fear that results in anxiety and even terror.
 Fear of performance / failure in daily schooling activities
 Fear of not being able to read in front of classmates or teacher
 Fear of not being able to spell
 Fear of not being able to write well
 Fear of not being able to learn
 Fear of having to express oneself verbally in front of the class or teacher
 Fear of having to express one’s ideas
 Fear of getting it wrong
Therefore the hijacking of the cognitive ability of the brain as a result of anxiety, would offer
an explanation as to why a person is unable to learn or concentrate as experienced by
persons with Dyslexia
With this newly developed techniques the fears / anxiety can be dissolved away so as to
leave you or your love one free from the effects of Dyslexia
Fears and our Educational System –
 Erik Erikson highlighted that during the first years of school every child must
resolve the conflicts between a positive self-image and feelings of inferiority.
 Research indicates that feeling of inferiority develop by the age of ten.
 Early years in school focuses primarily on reading, writing, arithmetic and spelling
and the progress can be slow and even frustrating when children feel that they
are compared to their classmates or siblings ,which can lead to embarrassment
and defensiveness due to being weak or misunderstood.
 The almost daily comparison with kids who can learn well, can erode their
confidence and very quickly cause anxiety, that results in children trying to
avoid any area of their life that is affected by fear or symptoms of dyslexia.
 Rosemary Scott (2004) in her book Dyslexia and Counselling, highlights the fact
that most dyslexic's spend their time at school veering between fear and
outright terror
 Children with dyslexia can lose interest in learning very quickly.
New Techniques to combat Dyslexia
 This new techniques have been developed as a result of 10 years research into the
psychological effects of trauma on behaviour, plus 34 years experience of dealing and
interviewing people who suffered traumatic experiences
 This techniques induces an altered state of consciousness, where a client experiences a
very relaxed and highly focused state of mind at the same time.
 The techniques differs from other therapies in that they deals with the intrusive fear that
cause the hijacking of the cognitive ability,
 Other therapies deal with the resulting thoughts / behaviours etc., that result from coping
mechanisms following the activation of anxiety.
 This techniques allows for the core fear issue to be dissolved within the subconscious mind,
resulting in the dyslexic behavioural response simply disappearing.
Close
 At the beginning of this presentation I stated that I would inform you of a major
breakthrough in the treatment of persons with dyslexia.
 I asked you, if you would like it, if there was a treatment that made the difficulties
experienced by suffers of dyslexia simply disappear or dissolve away.
 I asked you, if you would like it, if you or your child no longer needed to experience the
learning difficulties associated with the various aspects of dyslexia
 I asked you, if you would like it, if your or your child could be free from any of the learning
difficulties associated with Dyslexia.
 And I told you that by the end of this presentation you will be informed of how this major
breakthrough in the treatment of dyslexia came about
 You or your love one no longer need to be effected by the cognitive impairment
associated with Dyslexia.
 Any one of you can avail of this treatment for yourself or your love one.
 The treatments takes approximately 2 hrs each and may require two to three session over
the academic year depending on the degree of dyslexia.
 Parental presence is required in all treatments of persons under 18 years of age
 I use this treatment on persons from the age of 12 years upwards.
Questions?
For further enquiries or an appointment please contact
John O’Reilly Therapist
RD Hyp, Dip Hyp, BA., MSc. Reiki Master.
(086) 3338886
www.combo-therapy.com
Based in Limerick City.