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A recent client remarked after a lengthy hypnotherapy session, “That was powerful! Reliving (my past) is the most powerful thing.”
He’s absolutely right.
This approach to healing, known as inner child therapy, is a technique that I use most often in my practice. It recognises that your current self is heavily influenced by childhood experiences. When a traumatic event or a painful incident occurs in childhood, a part of you can get stuck in that moment, unable to move forward. This is your “inner child,” who may develop negative beliefs like “I’m not good enough,” leading to ongoing issues in adulthood.
Imagine growing up with an overbearing and strict father who criticises you for every wrong that happens. He yells when you don’t clean your room and berates when you make a mistake in your homework. He equally shouts at you when the family vacation goes awry. As a child, you develop a belief that you’re not good enough, which resurface as an adult every time your boss harshly criticises you because he subconsciously reminds you of dad.
The therapy technique guides you back to those early memories, allowing you to confront and put them to rest for good. By addressing the root cause, these past events lose their power to trigger you.
Repressing the past won’t help; letting go and forgiving those who hurt you will. To forgive is not to condone their actions but to free yourself from the jail you built for yourself.
How a Typical Session Goes
We start the session with hypnosis to help you relax. After which, I guide you back to the key past event that’s at the root of your current issue. This involves focusing on the feelings you have about the troubling situation you want to address, since they often reflect the emotions you experienced as a child during a similar event.
As you revisit this past event, we examine it in detail to identify the moment when a negative belief took hold—beliefs like “I’m not good enough” or “I’ll never succeed in life.” Once we understand that pivotal moment, we explore subsequent incidents that reinforced this negative belief over time.
This initial exploration can take about an hour, and longer if the case is complex.
Next, we create a safe space in your mind. Here, you can comfort and talk with your younger self, explaining what happened in the past. We also bring forth those involved in the past event so the young you can express their feelings and frustrations. This process helps release emotions that have been trapped in your body for years.
Is Reliving Re-Traumatising?
It’s normal to think that revisiting past traumas could be damaging. After all, you’re reliving moments that caused significant pain. However, confronting these memories is often essential for releasing the emotions that are still affecting you today.
Think of the therapy like getting a deep tissue massage to relieve muscle tension. The process can be uncomfortable, but the results bring relief. Similarly, revisiting past events can be challenging, but it’s a step towards lasting emotional release.
There are techniques to help make reliving these memories less distressing. For instance, you can view the event as an observer or use imaginative exercises to create a supportive environment for your younger self. These methods and other strategies to manage discomfort while addressing the root cause of your distress.
While some discomfort is likely, the intensity can be adjusted to ensure a safe and effective healing process.
Can Painful Memories Be Erased?
Given a choice, no one in their right mind would want to relive past unpleasantness. What more traumatic incidents?
Many clients ask if their painful memories be simply erased. Unfortunately, that’s not possible. While it would be an easier way out, erasing memories isn’t possible; repression, however, is. Repressing painful memories is a defence mechanism of the subconscious mind after all.
Repressing memories may seem like an easy solution, but it’s like covering a crack with tape—it will eventually resurface, often causing more significant problems. Pure suggestion therapy used by some therapists can bury the problem but doesn’t address the root cause.
But this isn’t the approach I take, and here’s why.
First, repressing memories doesn’t solve the actual problem. It’s like putting a plaster on a wound that needs stitches—eventually, it will get infected. Suppressed trauma often resurfaces through irrational behaviour and other symptoms, eventually causing bigger issues.
Second, there’s no growth in simply pushing down painful memories. It doesn’t make you a better person; it just delays the inevitable. Think of a 10-year-old who never cleans up his mess because a maid does it for him. When he grows up, his bad habits could cause more harm, and there won’t be anyone to clean up after him.
I’ve had many clients who tried pure suggestion hypnotherapy, albeit unknowingly, to repress memories. The results were either minimal or short-lived. When they came to me, we found the root cause, and their issues finally cleared up for good.
Break Free From The Shackles Of Your Past
Everyone has faced difficult times, and many have experienced trauma. The adult you is shaped by your childhood experiences. The only way to break free from the pattern of negative feelings and thoughts is to heal those past wounds.
Are you ready to face your past and heal yourself?
