Recently a woman entered the office of a hypnotherapist to discuss a
development which she did not understand. She had always, as far as
she remembered, been affected with sadness when a visitor left her home,
but in recent years the feelings had increased. Not only had the emotional
disturbance become greater, it also now resulted in tears and severe
crying spells which approached the levels of hysteria.
This was increasingly embarrassing, for the emotional upsets came when
anyone went out the door. It was not limited to loved family members
and fears for their safety. It occurred regardless of who departed --
the plumber, carpenter, even the pest control serviceman. She felt the
situation demanded attention and a friend had suggested hypnosis.
While in traditional psychoanalysis the case might have required many
moths or even years of therapy, the hypnotherapist felt that three sessions
could prove adequate. The first session would involve information gathering
in the fully conscious state, familiarization of the client with the
nature of hypnosis and certain tests of hypnotizability to provide the
practitioner with information important in determining methods and procedures
appropriate to the client’s personality and belief systems.
A
Case For Regression
The second session was planned to utilize techniques of hypnotic regression,
the purpose being to seek out the cause or event involved in the initial
development of the problem. The therapist felt that something, probably
early in life, had occurred which created a psychological imprint which
subsequently had been forgotten or had been unrecognized for the effect
it could produce. It might have involved parents, teachers, relatives,
siblings. Regression could pull back the covers of the past to reveal
the casual factors.
The regression proceeded normally. Since the hypnotherapist had no knowledge
of either the age or circumstances involved, the client was simply instructed
to go back in time to the year and place where the problem originated.
Programmed to view the event as if it were a television show and to
be able to speak about it, the client was asked what was going on.
She explained that she was sitting on the stairs in her home, halfway
down the staircase, looking down into the living room. She was three
years old. Her father had died and was lying in the living room. She
was called down and instructed to kiss her father goodbye, which she
did without reaction.
Well-meaning family members then sought to avoid a situation where,
not understanding death, the child would not be constantly expecting
her father to return. They explained to her that when her father was
taken out through “that door”, he would be gone forever
and would never return. That, she was told, is what death is. You go
out a door and never return.
Bingo! The explanation and the concept of doors was locked subconsciously
into the three year old mind. There was no understanding, simply an
authoritative statement that going out a door led to something terrible.
Parents, teachers and others often have no idea that an explanation
understandable and well-intended to adults can prove devastating to
a child mind.
No Third Session
Having uncovered the casual factor and surrounding circumstances, the
hypnotherapist felt it would be fairly simple, through hypnosis, to
guide the client into releasing the past to the past where it would
have no further effect on the present or the future. However, as is
not infrequently the case, it was not necessary. Simple understanding
of the cause --emerging from hypnosis with heretofore buried knowledge
-- was in itself sufficient to resolve the problem. From that moment
of understanding the problem vanished instantly. In three years it has
not returned. The third session was never needed.
Age regression has proved invaluable in hypnotherpay.
Its use in psychotherapy, following the work of the late internationally
recognized psychiatrist, Milton Erikson, M.D., has been expanding steadily.
Regression, as in the case cited, had proved a superb vehicle for rooting
out causes. In many cases of stress or anxiety, the causing factors
are unknown to the conscious mind. But the unconscious, vastly larger
and more powerful, is the seat of all memory and can bring forth from
memory information and events related or pertinent to the problems at
hand.
Fears and phobias often have hidden, repressed or suppressed
causes which can be ferreted out through hypnotic age regression. Perhaps
the most important factor in successful regression is the rapport between
client and therapist. Hypnotic trips into th e past can encounter very
sensitive and personal revelations, and solid trust and comfort between
the participants is essential to the achievement of goals.
Considerable attention has been given in recent years to the phenomenon
of “past life regression”. Unfortunately a number of individuals,
untrained in hypnotherapy, psychology, psychiatry or related fields,
present group programs in what they term “past life therapy”.
But the trained professional can resolve many problems using this type
of therapeutic procedure.
Such professional usually do not claim that experience recalled in such
regression is necessarily valid, noting that such regression could call
up past fantasies, imaginings or dreams. The consensus seems to be,
however, that whether the recalled experience is real or imagined is
really not significant -- if it solves the problem, which is often the
case.
Regression, of any type presents no particular risks in the hands of
a competent and trained professional. It can offer major advantages
in revealing the sources of problems, even in cases of habit control
-- smoking, overeating, etc. It is usually contraindicated in cases
of major medical disorders.
