Seeing Patterns in Regression

The main advantage of regression therapy is help the patient to see "patterns" in his/her lives, both past and present. With a knowledge of patterns, the relief of symptoms is facilitated. Patients can then see how past mistakes are still interfering with their physical and emotional functioning and make new choices to improve their performance.

All of us live somewhat in our past and never completely in the present. Whenever our past obtrudes upon the present and distorts it, a return to the orginal event that that has "sensitised" us to the distortion can often provide the necessary enlightenment to free ourselves from the torture of the distorted present. For instance, a whole range of psychological symptoms and emotional dysfunctions are the outcome of past injustice, e.g. fear, stress, irrational behaviour, rage, etc. For patients who have lost all their sense of self-worth or experiencing personality clashes in their relationships, the use of regression therapy to work out their patterns has been noted to be of immense value in healing. A past life regression helps to ferret out and resolve patterns in the current life that are rooted in the past and that which cannot be dealt with by conventional methods of healing.

Almost any symptom can be an entry point for regression therapy. Even incidents such as illnesses, accidents or death can be important targets for recall. However, the use of regression therapy is not confined to the alleviation of symptoms. Simply pinpointing the origin of a symptom to a past life may not be adequate to bring about transformation. It is more important to re-live the experience, and examine the dynamics and attitudes that support the symptoms. This has often got to be explored at the physical, emotional and mental levels.

Patients who experience problems which cannot be formulated in terms of anything known about their current life may find the origin in a past life and use it to search for a pattern to deepen their understanding of themselves at a subconscious level. Very often healing, or a resolution of the problem occurs along the way and he/she may become aware that the discovery process is part of an embedded spiritual journey.

Hypnotic Approaches to Pain Relief

Hypnosis as a healing technique can be used for pain relief in a number of ways in clinical practice:

(a) Firstly, remember that all pain states have a muscle-tension component because the natural reaction of the physical body to pain is to splint or hold the painful parts of the body still. This brings about muscle tension and contributes to the discomfort. Yypnosis or an altered state of consciousness is associated with relaxation. As part of the hypnotic process, the muscles in the body will let go of their tension. Relaxing tight muscles removes the discomfort and brings about relief of that part of the pain contributed by muscle tension.

(b) Secondly, pain relief can be obtained through a dissociative approach. Hypnosis helps the patient to be creative in distancing themselves mentally from the pain. Some patients for instance, takes the pain and put it on a shelf somewhere. Other patients may devise a barrier between themselves and the pain, almost as if they are looking at the pain from outside.

(c) Thirdly, the sensation of pain can be substituted by other sensations while the patient is under hypnosis. The patient can be facilitated to substitute his pain for a more pleasant kind of feeling, such as numbness, warmth or pressure.

(d) A fourth approach is to give the pain an image with a shape, size and colour. By helping the patient to voluntarily change the size or colour of the image under hypnosis, the patient may be able to achieve pain relief.

(e) A fifth group of technique involves the use of "pain switches" or "pain rheostats" that can be created under trance. Once created, the pain can be switched off or reduced by a sliding switch at will.

(Source: Marlene Hunter, "Creative Scripts for Hypnotherapy", 1994)