Tag Archive for: hypnotherapy

Relief from Depression and Unwanted Emotions

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Depression and anxiety often go hand in hand, so we work with depression much the same way as with anxiety – by looking at the feeling under the microscope of hypnosis and discovering the subtle, negative thoughts that make up the heavy, stuck feeling of depression. Uncovering these subconscious thoughts and limiting beliefs is the first step in diminishing their power to impact your life. They are nearly always untrue, and belief in these false thoughts gives them their power to affect the way you feel and live your life. Dr. Bruce Lipton wrote a book called The Biology of Belief which demonstrates this. When these false beliefs are fully seen through at a higher and deeper level of consciousness, beyond the conscious and even subconscious mind, we can replace these thoughts with empowering ones that are based in a higher truth from the vantage point of your eternal soul self.

While anxiety involves subconscious thoughts that are often future-focused while based in the past, depression tends to be predominantly past-focused, often including the emotion of anger or resentment. Resentment or anger is often about having to put up with something unwanted, or not getting something that was wanted, such as a sense of being loved, wanted, valued, safe and secure, etc.

Sometimes, depression or anxiety can be passed down unconsciously through the generations, like an “unconscious virus”, in the form of thoughts, feelings and emotional patterns such as the way in which love or anger is expressed or not expressed. As children, we not only depend on our parents for food and shelter, but also for a sense of worth and safety. Sometimes parents of past generations were too absorbed in survival or else their own issues to be fully present with their children or to give their children a sense of being loved, wanted and valued. If these core feelings of value were not felt, a person may feel a subtle sense of unworthiness and the seeds of depression and/or anxiety are sprouted in the belief and emotional system of the person…And if this subconscious emotional energy is never allowed a chance to be “emoted” through us, by being directly articulated or expressed, it can remain as trapped energy in the body/mind system, and years later have a subtle “pressure cooker” effect on the body/mind by negatively affecting the way we view ourselves, thus clouding our experience of ourselves and the world. This is why there’s often plenty of negative subconscious self-talk beneath depression or anxiety, and this is what can unconsciously be passed down through the generations. In the Present Life Emotional Healing session, we can become aware of this passed-down thought-form energy and stop it at the unconscious level, as well as ceremoniously heal the past generations. You release this unbeneficial thought-form energy and replace it with your own source/potential that was lost when you took it in.

Also, we examine all other contributing factors to depression or anxiety, such as the food that is fueling your body. Since there is a food/mood connection, certain foods will contribute to a lighter or more grounded feeling. Exercise is also scientifically proven to help the neurotransmitters fire across the chemical serotonin in your brain.

Relief From Anxiety, PTSD and Phobias

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When we put the feeling of anxiety under a microscope (which hypnotherapy does), we see that it is usually made up of subtle, subconscious fear-based thoughts. These thoughts have a beginning point in a past situation, event or circumstance. Anxiety occurs when these outdated, subtle subconscious belief programs are still operating in your present mind and affecting your life in a negative way, even though they are typically not relevant or even true. Fears are designed to keep us safe and protected, not block us from living a fulfilling, enjoyable life. Anxiety happens when the fear that’s trying to keep you safe is working way too hard, far beyond when it’s no longer necessary. The root of the problem is not you – it is the subconscious thought programs in your head. One of the first, and most profound leaps a person can make on their healing journey is to know that you are not your negative beliefs or fears. These outdated beliefs will begin to lose their power and can be changed and corrected once we put the spotlight of attention and awareness on them from a higher soul perspective. Carl Jung said about healing: “That which is unconscious must ultimately be made conscious.”

Anxiety can also be due to strong emotional energy from the past that is stuck in the body/subconscious mind system. Once we tune into this strong emotional charge in the body, it can be energetically released by our present moment consciousness. It is especially effective while simultaneously tuning into an eternal part of yourself that has no fears, which is what we can easily do with spiritual hypnotherapy. It is easy because, try as you might, you cannot separate yourself from the eternal consciousness that is animating your body, so when we go deep within we can experience a level of your consciousness that has no fears and is already whole and complete.

The subconscious mind operates like a computer program that hangs on to old, outdated messages that no longer serve you. A subtle yet powerful shift occurs when you begin to see that you are not your thoughts, you are the eternal consciousness that can witness and change your thoughts. A session is about releasing the stored trauma in the body/subconscious mind while empowering you to change the thought programs that no longer serve you and replace them with those that benefit and strengthen you. Each session provides empowering and noticeable shifts in you. To gain a more thorough understanding about anxiety, please read about the Present Life Emotional Healing session and also the article Relief From Depression and Unwanted Emotions.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

PTSD is an example of a past stressful event being kept alive in the body/mind system. As mentioned above, we can energetically release this stored trauma in the body while connecting to the eternal part of you that has no fears and is whole and complete. In addition to this powerful method, another means to relieve the effects of PTSD is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Visit www.eftuniverse.com to learn more about this effective method. It is a self-applied acupressure tapping technique that calms and soothes the body and mind’s fears while you focus on the root of the problem – the past stressful event itself. This also releases the stored fear/panic energy in the body, or anything with a strong emotional charge. Another way of looking at it is that the subconscious mind program gets reset – the thought pattern that pairs this past event with panic thoughts and feelings gets reset. The result is that you can focus on the past stressful event and finally feel relaxed, with the same emotional charge as though you were remembering a relaxing afternoon picnic.

The problem with past stressful events is that the more we try to run away from it, and at times cover the pain of it with chemicals or other addictions such as work, food etc., the more it will subtly impact your life in a negative way. Oddly enough, trying to get away from the past stressful event actually fuels the fear of it and thus its adverse effects. Paradoxically, the key to putting out the fuel of the stressful past is to fully face it and release the energy of it. It is painless and only takes minutes, and you typically don’t need to do it ever again.

EFT, when applied skillfully, is a powerful method. To relieve strong PTSD, I often combine EFT with spiritual hypnotherapy to re-program the subconscious mind and the body which holds and stores the fear-based thoughts and feelings.

Phobias

We work with phobias in the same manner as PTSD. A combination of EFT with spiritual hypnotherapy is highly effective. Typically, one or two sessions are all that are necessary.

 

Stories of the Afterlife

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One of the most influential books I’ve read was Michael Newton’s Journey of Souls. I read it in the mid-1990’s and it propelled me into doing the work that I do now. It was about a psychologist who, initially by accident, found a way to help people connect to their wise and eternal soul self for the purposes of healing and gaining clarity and insights about their life as a person and as a soul. I knew I had to get training with him before he retired, and fortunately I was able to do so.

Michael Newton died in his mid-80’s a few years ago, but his work was so inspiring to so many people, an organization was created around his powerful and impactful hypnotherapy methods of helping people to awaken to their immortal identity and higher consciousness within themselves. The organization is called the Michael Newton Institute.

The organization has published many books about case studies of life between lives and our soul’s journey, as well as producing a quarterly journal called Stories of the Afterlife. I wanted to share a sample of the most recent journal so readers could get an idea of what it is about.

Here is December 2022’s Stories of the Afterlife. Please enjoy!

Case 12: Two Past Lives that Helped Release Her Anxiety

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Client Background

A woman (I’ll call her Beth) came in having struggled with anxiety her whole life. She had panic attacks, feelings of unworthiness, and low self-worth. She wanted to try past life regression to help deal with these feelings and negative beliefs. Past life regression connects you to your higher self which will in turn show you the precise life or lives that can help you move forward in the way that you are requesting. Beth’s higher mind knew exactly what would be most helpful for her.

Client Experience

Beth saw a past life where she grew up in an orphanage where she kept to herself because she never felt like she fit in. She described her past life at age 12 as follows: “The woman who runs it is strict and mean. I don’t like her. I don’t remember my parents, and it feels lonely and sad being there. I don’t like being by the other kids, and I feel like I don’t fit in.” She left the orphanage in her late teens and worked at a tavern, but still kept to herself, never feeling like she belonged. She lived by herself the rest of her life. Then one day in her 50’s, she was out walking when she fell, hit her head, couldn’t get up and she died alone. She felt her soul drifting up into a lighter, higher vibration, and then she began to sense other beings sending her comfort and reassurance. She reported, “it feels like love, purifying energy and peace.” In the soul realm, she reviewed the life she had just left and saw how her low self-esteem and feeling of not wanting to be noticed carried over to her present life. From the vantage point of the soul, she understood her soul lesson in that life could be applicable to her present life. She described her soul lesson as follows: “I shouldn’t close myself off and assume that people don’t like me. I need to be more comfortable with myself and choose who I want to be around.” She then received a download of fully seeing and feeling what it would be like in her past life and current life if she lived from that wisdom.

She was then shown a second life of a high-status man who was a respected leader and in charge of making decisions for a community. He felt comfortable and confident speaking in front of others, with no self-doubts whatsoever. He was adept at fencing and even taught his wife and daughter how to fight with swords. When that life was over, her soul drifted up and at one point noticed that there were others with her that felt very loving. She described one of the presences as either a male spirit guide or an angel. She said, “They’re telling me that I have the ability in my present life to be that confident and self-assured as long as I remember who I am.” She then added, “I can really feel my heart center opening up a lot right now.”

Client Results

Two weeks after her session, Beth reported that her anxiety had become much less, especially when she was around people. She no longer felt the tight anxious feeling in her chest when around new people. She had not experienced any more panic attacks and felt much more confident at work. She also noticed that her intuitive abilities had increased and she was more confident in making decisions. She also reported that her heart center had continued to open up and expand, and she noticed feelings of love more frequently, even to the point of tearing up.

Eric’s Comments

Past life regression works at a very deep, subconscious level. It not only shows you the root of an issue, but also the perspective shift from a higher vantage point that needs to happen to bring healing and resolution to presenting life issues. This perception shift can be felt fully throughout the body, mind and soul, and settles in as a deep knowing that overrides any subconscious fears of “not good enough.” In short, you experience fully the truth that you are a brilliant soul being using a body. As Suzanne Giesemann channeled, “We are here to master being a soul in a human body.”

Case Study: A Lifetime of Anger Released

Case 13: A Lifetime of Anger Released

Reading Time: 3 minutes

A client (I’ll call her Ann) came in with “demons of anger”, in her words. It’s valuable to set an intention prior to doing a past life regression session. Her intention for her past life regression session was to “see a life or lives that can most help me understand and heal my anger about not feeling good enough”.

Ann saw herself in a past life as a boy who never knew his parents and was raised by relatives in a home in which there was care, but not closeness. Home felt cold. As a teenager, he fell deeply in love with a girl at school, but she died of an illness. After graduating from school, he moved to a new town and found a job cleaning. Eventually he married a woman that he didn’t really love, describing the marriage as “a convenient escape from loneliness…there was no love between us and no bonding with the kids.” As he grew older, he worked as a blacksmith in a small town, and felt stress and guilt about not being able to provide more for his family. “My wife and I have nothing to say to each other. After the kids grew up and were out of the house, they don’t visit much, and life feels hopeless and wasted.” He died in his mid- 50’s in a hospital, alone and scared.

He felt regret soon after his death as he reflected upon his life, saying, “I didn’t know who I was, and I didn’t accept the life I had.” He then moved into a shaft of light that pulled his soul into a higher vibration in the spiritual realm. Ann described it in this way: “It’s getting lighter. It feels like waves of energy are taking care of me. I feel calmness, forgiveness and not alone. There’s an energy that makes me feel connected, and a forgiveness for myself. It was a hard life with not enough money or food and I felt stress that whole life. I couldn’t provide as a man because there wasn’t enough. But I also didn’t provide love for my family.”

In the spirit realm, I typically ask, “What you would do differently if you lived that life all over again, only from the higher vantage point of your soul?” Ann responded: “I would have shown my wife and kids love and acceptance.” She then immediately began to feel what her life would feel like if she had actually done that, which is typical in the past life session. “I can now feel how different and much lighter that would feel if I lived from that perspective. I would have taught my kids things and been at weddings, and then enjoyed grandkids.” She described the soul learning in that life to be: “Don’t sweat the small stuff. Appreciate the life around you…the family you do have. Appreciate what you can in life.” She then felt a deep compassion overcome her for people on earth who are hurting.

It became evident that the feelings that were left unresolved in that past life carried over to affect the mental and emotional energy bodies in this present life, thus contributing to the feeling of anger about not feeling good enough. We then released the thought-form energy from the past life that had carried over and replaced it with the wisdom and light of her higher soul self.

Two weeks after the session, Ann shared how her session impacted her. She wrote in an email: “I have noticed a huge change. Driving home after my session, I felt an immediate sense of calmness and comfort. I felt like the empty and questionable pieces of me had a tangible reason. I finally felt free to feel better. I had no idea what to expect from the session and the fact that I was given a glimpse of a past life was riveting…especially the fact that I was a man. The trauma from that life, without parents, gave me such compassion for the life I live right now. My relationship with actual parents may never be repaired, but I have a clear understanding of why I may have been a difficult child for them. My life is forever changed and my anger for not feeling good enough is gone. I have already had success in my personal and business life because of my session. Thank you, Eric! I am truly grateful!” 

This is a good example of how a past life regression session works. A client can discover where the root of a problem or issue lies, release it, and then view both the past life and present life from the higher-dimension vantage point of the soul. Wisdom, clarity and compassion are natural by-products from resting in this high-vibration state of being. It’s a level of consciousness that we all have access to as we go deep within. We ultimately are not separate from it, but it can easily become obscured while living in this human experience. That is, until we can awaken to this higher level of awareness within our own being, and that IS our true permanent self.

Love Image - June 21, 2020 blog

Returning Home to Yourself

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This blog is dedicated to waking up to our true self. Let’s begin with a jarring quote from one of my favorite teachers, Adyashanti, regarding one aspect of the human condition: “The world’s problems are, by and large, human problems – the unavoidable consequence of egoic sleepwalking. If we care to look, all the signs are present to suggest that we are not only sleepwalking, but at times borderline insane as well. In a manner of speaking, we have lost (or at the very least forgotten) our souls, and we try very, very hard not to notice, because we don’t want to see how asleep we are, how desolate our condition really is. So we blindly carry on, driven by forces we do not recognize or understand, or even acknowledge.” Although his message seems bleak, he is actually the bearer of good news.

The good news is that our problems, personal as well as global, can be clear pointers to what no longer works for us, thus the starting point to reclaim our power. And even while we as individuals may be stuck in a limiting pattern, there is also a part of us that remains free from the constraints of our mind programs, and offers a clearer way of perceiving. This internal wisdom is available to us and can offer guidance that is based in a more permanent reality, the soul state, which is motivated from a background of love and safety rather than a background of fear, which is common in the human egoic state. I see examples of this in nearly every session. Here is a case example of the insights that come from this relatively “more true” reality:

A woman (I’ll call her Jane) came for a past life regression to gain clarity on her life purpose and whether or not she should relocate to another state. In her past life regression, she saw herself as a woman in a blissful marriage with children until her husband suddenly died. For a long time after his death, she grieved, overwhelmed with loneliness, while closely guarding her heart from further emotional pain.

During the regression, Jane recognized that she was repeating this same pattern in her present life. But then as the past life unfolded more and she saw her past life personality growing older, a shift happened. She saw herself beginning to pour love into her children and grandchildren, which in turn, came back to her, creating a full, rich life once again. It was important for Jane to see how she could overcome her hurt and loss with love. When the life was over and Jane was steeping in the higher vibration state of the afterlife, she experienced her soul self as a much higher level of consciousness, free of the fear-based, limiting, egoic mind patterns. This is usually the most healing part of the session when insights and wisdom emerge as a result of the larger perspective that comes from tuning into a higher frequency. The eternal part of her was then able to reconnect with the eternal part of her husband in the past life, whose loss had created years of stuck anguish in her previous life. She was then able to fully experience the truth that love transcends all loss.

A week after her session, Jane wrote to me this wisdom: “You know that deep love I described feeling for someone else? I am now feeling it for the beautiful essence that lives in me. My heart feels full, complete, and perfect just the way it is. This morning I felt a deep comfort with the person I truly am and was able to begin experiencing what it is like to BE THAT person inside of this body.  And, I love it.  The answer isn’t “out there” as to where I need to move or what I need to do.  It is being at home in me where ever the path leads.  My fear was that in the regression I would run into a real YUK of a person from another life.  That was only my shame and guilt that is so made up.  The real person in all of us is so beyond the denseness we humans can so easily sink into.

 When I return for another session, it is not so much about going thru past lives as it will be staying in touch with the beautiful love energy I feel for ME. That kind of love will only radiate more of the same in others. Right now, I am so enjoying for the first time having a sense of who I am and it is with deep gratitude for your skillful way of bringing me home to myself. THANK YOU.”

One of the greatest benefits of past life regression is tuning into the permanent self that transcends these lives. You can actually experience this higher dimensional self to be deeply anchored in the present moment and free of the subtle, subconscious thoughts that hold us back in life. It’s a great respite to become rooted in the clarity of your true self, free of fears and feelings of lack. This eternal part of us is always available and lies just beyond our thinking mind. As we become more acquainted with our soul while here on earth, we will begin to awaken from the human condition of “egoic sleepwalking.” I believe this is one of our purposes for being here on this spaceship called earth.

What is a Past Life Regression?

Our Answers Lie Within Us

Reading Time: 3 minutes

We are on the threshold of a new paradigm. More and more people are beginning to understand and identify ourselves as multi-dimensional beings. I was recently invited to speak at my alma mater, Saint Olaf College, by some students who were interested in the work I do. I spoke for an hour about past life regression. Ten years ago, I was also invited to speak there about my work, but past life regression was never mentioned because it was too  “outside the box.” I was delighted to witness the expansion of people’s beliefs systems. I explained that although we are human beings, but we are also spiritual beings using a body. This means that as we go deep within, we can gain a respite from the busy world of our lives and of our minds. As we go deeper, we tune into a built-in inner guidance system that is invested in our growth and evolution. Deep peace and clarity can be experienced, as well as answers and solutions to long standing problems. Here’s a case example that demonstrates this:

One of my clients (I’ll call her Shelly) was curious about experiencing a past life regression and decided to focus on a feeling of anxiety that was always beneath the surface, particularly in large crowds. She had a vague fear of not trusting people and was often on edge, even at home, as though an intruder might break in. She also had a phobia of having anything around her neck.

As she allowed her consciousness to go deep within, she became aware of a life of an African male slave brought to America on a ship, feeling confused, scared and angry. Here are a few descriptive excerpts from the session: “Fields… cotton…I bond with others, but feel alone. We don’t laugh…always a sadness…I run away…there’s overwhelming fear, I’m going to be caught. I’m running as fast as I can go…starting to hear dogs…run through a stream…feet cut…they’re closer…caught me…whip me…going to hang me. I leave the body just before they hang me…I watch it from above…I’m free…”

In traumatic deaths, the soul often leaves before the body is actually dead. As we progressed further into the freedom of the soul realm, we released the fear and confusion that was left over from that life and replaced it with energy of the soul — happiness, playfulness and joy — the part that was lost when the fear energy covered it up. Because we are all energy beings, dense, fear-based energy can become like a sticky residue on our physical, mental and emotional energy bodies, particularly after traumatic deaths, and thus affect the current incarnation. During a session, a person’s inner guidance will typically show them a life that is most impacting this life. Several weeks after the session, Shelly emailed this message:

“It wasn’t until after the session that I really realized how anxious I was. Immediately after the session I felt different, lighter, like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I couldn’t believe how great and relaxed I felt! I was curious to see if the change was permanent or if my anxiety would slowly creep back, but it never did. After a week or two, I realized looking back that I had been anxious all the time, not just in ‘certain situations’. I had never felt as relaxed as I did after the session, nor for that long a period of time. What turned out being something I wanted to do out of curiosity and for fun, ended up being the most positive life changing experience and the best money I’d ever spent!”

The healing part of the session occurs in the peace and clarity of the soul realm. But it is important to realize that this is actually a higher dimension of ourselves. We are multi-dimensional beings, so an aspect of us is already steeping in what we are looking for at a conscious and subconscious level, namely deep peace, love and clarity. Within ourselves lie tremendous resources for insights, releasing of limiting feelings and beliefs, and discovering the truth of our being. Once we have experienced it, we know it. But it’s easy to forget in this dense physical reality…the veil is strong, but certainly is getting thinner. We all need gentle reminders of our inner resources.

A New Understanding of Trauma that Changes Everything

Reading Time: 9 minutes

In a way, human life is about accumulating traumas which in turn create subtle fear-based beliefs that govern our lives until we awaken to them and realize we can heal and release these fears and limiting beliefs. We can heal them because they are based in the past, and the past no longer exists. Why does something that doesn’t exist still affect us? Because the traumatic “past” is stored in our body and subconscious mind.

We can become aware of the trauma blocks in the body and let them go when we become conscious and aware of them. We usually begin to become aware of them when they get in our way, like when we have anxiety about getting too close to someone we love, or about taking a test and making a mistake. We become aware of our limiting beliefs and fears when they create havoc in our life. Carl Jung once said about healing: “Healing is about making conscious that which is unconscious.”

Both my wife Maggie and I help people heal from past traumas, although we use different modalities. She uses Quantum Neuro Reset Therapy (QNRT), while I use a body-based hypnotherapy technique which I call the Emotional Healing and Awakening Session, which is about releasing the effects of traumas from the body and subconscious mind while connecting to the wisdom of your soul self. Maggie is so fired up about healing her own trauma as well as anyone else who wants to heal their trauma, that she wrote an article for her website which explains what many people don’t realize about trauma. I’m sharing that article here with her encouragement, and with a few tweaks that I took the liberty of making. Also, the last paragraph is written by me because it relates to my clients. So please enjoy most of Maggie’s words:

Is Trauma Affecting Me?

One of my driving missions in life is to help people understand trauma so they can recognize and move past it. Believe it or not, everyone on the planet has experienced trauma to varying degrees.

It can be debilitating to be affected by trauma and not know what it is or how to get rid of it. Many people don’t seek the help they need because they minimize the difficult things that have happened in their lives by comparing themselves to others who have had it much worse. It’s important to know that – like most things in life – trauma runs on a spectrum.

There’s an outdated mental health belief that you have to be really struggling in life before you need therapy or other healing modalities. Most people think that if they are high functioning in life, the pain of their past must not be affecting them. This isn’t the case. Seeking support to untangle from your past gives you the ability to thrive in life. You have the potential to feel even better.

The Definition of Trauma

Trauma is officially defined as, “a deeply disturbing or distressing experience.” That’s a pretty benign explanation compared to what most people think, right? We’ve all had deeply disturbing or distressing experiences in our lives. If the word ‘trauma’ overwhelms you or you just don’t care for it, try thinking of trauma simply as difficult situations and experiences throughout your life.

What’s tricky about trauma is that it’s not just in your past as a memory. The pain from the difficult experience is stored in your body, so when you have a similar situation repeat itself later in life, you are left vulnerable to getting triggered and having strong reactions. We actually form a belief about ourselves and/or life when something difficult happens. The trauma of your past can easily get triggered in your life now.

How to Recognize if You’re Affected by Trauma

Many people simply write off their poor behavior or chalk up their ‘weaknesses’ to not being a good person. They feel flawed. They think it’s just part of life to be plagued by anxiety or depression. What a painful way to go through life. There’s more to this story.

We don’t show up as our best selves when we have trauma stored in our body. The latest trauma research shows that it’s stored in our brain, nervous system and other parts of the body, which means you are not going to be able to simply ‘talk’ your way out of trauma. That’s why a body-based approach to releasing trauma is imperative. Some body-based therapies include Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT); EMDR; somatic experiencing; a powerful technique called Quantum Neuro Reset Therapy (QNRT), or a body-based hypnotherapy approach. These modalities address more than just your mind. Using talk therapy to understand your past and how it affects you can certainly be helpful but may not move the trauma out of your body. It’s helpful to make these connections, but it’s imperative to go further so that you don’t keep getting triggered.

A way to know if you’re being triggered by past trauma is by gauging your reaction to something or someone: is it bigger than what the situation warrants? Let me share an example. Let’s say you’re someone who has trauma around not being included, stemming from the time your friend group purposely excluded you on the playground in third grade. Now, as an adult, you find out your family planned a spontaneous get together and (unintentionally) didn’t invite you. You may have intense feelings of anger, sadness or isolation. You may even lash out at them.

Let me also share an analogy. Imagine there is a bloody, raw wound on your knee, which symbolizes not being included by others. And in this above example, your family not inviting you to a party is like someone taking a sharp razor and scratching the surface of your wounded knee. It’s very difficult for most people to not get triggered by their trauma when it gets stirred up by life’s events. Keep in mind, people’s reactions to trauma differs. Some people start to rage and yell while others get sad and withdraw.

If a person does not have trauma around being excluded (a.k.a. there is no bloody wound on their knee) they may simply think that it must have been an oversight and someone forgot to call them. It feels more like someone took a stick and scratched their knee, which felt slightly uncomfortable (a.k.a. disappointed), but not like the intense pain if there was a bloody, raw wound there. See the difference of living life without trauma?

Signs that You May Have Experienced Trauma

Many people I work with are unaware that the root cause of their challenges is past trauma. This list is based on signs of trauma I see in my clients. Can you relate to any of the items on this list?

  • You have an addiction: food, alcohol, phone, drugs, overworking, exercise, etc.
  • You struggle to make friends.
  • You are constantly worried what others will think.
  • You feel inadequate: in your job, parenting, marriage, or friendships, etc.
  • You have an overall feeling of being unworthy and not good enough.
  • You feel you’ve never lived up to your potential.
  • You spend too much time ruminating about your regrets in life.
  • You sabotage yourself when you start to make progress in your life.
  • It’s scary for you to be vulnerable with trusted people in your life.
  • You are anxious, depressed, or both.
  • You have done years of therapy but still feel stuck in your past.
  • It’s hard to consistently get good sleep.
  • You have health conditions that don’t make sense given how well you care for yourself. (Resources: Ted Talk and The Deepest Well by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris)
  • You hustle for your worthiness. You’re always trying to do and be enough in life to be loved.
  • You struggle to connect well with your family.
  • It’s difficult to allow yourself to be loved.
  • You’re uncomfortable accepting help, gifts or compliments from others.
  • It’s difficult for you to take consistent, good care of yourself.
  • You can’t relax and simply do nothing.
  • You are afraid to not be in a relationship.
  • You are afraid to be in a committed relationship.
  • You don’t know how to relax and just play.
  • You operate most of life from your head versus your heart.
  • It’s difficult for you to be in the present moment. You find yourself constantly thinking.
  • You are often reactive to what happens in your life.
  • You are hypervigilant and feel that ‘the other shoe’ is going to drop.
  • You have an ‘all or nothing’ way of operating in life.
  • You worry about money far too much.
  • You avoid feeling your emotions.
  • You have a lot of fears in your life.
  • You feel like nobody truly understands you.
  • You feel like your needs and wants are ‘too much’ for your partner to handle.
  • You have to rely on medication to adjust your mood.
  • You feel like given all the great things in your life you should be happy, but you’re not.
  • You want to be in a loving relationship, but you have fears it will never happen.
  • You often feel overwhelmed by life.
  • You feel like good things happen to others, not you.
  • You keep your life small even though you truly want more.
  • You accept ongoing, poor behavior from your partner and make excuses for them.
  • You find yourself attracting friends and relationships that cause you pain and disappointment.

I could go on and on. This is not a comprehensive list, but hopefully you get the idea. Our natural state is one in which we feel present, open hearted, peaceful and happy. Sound utopic? Well, releasing the trauma stored in your body will certainly get you much closer to these feelings. I think of all of life as spiritual and releasing your trauma helps you wake up to who and what you are at your core….love and pure presence.

What Types of Situations and Events Can Create Trauma?

First, it’s important to know that what creates trauma in one person may not be what creates trauma in another individual. We are all unique and some people may brush off a comment while another person may be deeply hurt by the same comment.

Here are some examples of situations and events that can create trauma:

  • An ongoing experience of parents being distracted and not present with you
  • Parents or caregivers having an addiction of any kind.
  • Kids making fun of you at school
  • Transitions of any kind such as changing schools, moving to a new city/state/country
  • Getting divorced and/or parents divorcing
  • Growing up in poverty or experiencing financial insecurity
  • Being criticized
  • A parent making negative comments about you either overtly or subtly
  • Feeling like you don’t fit in with your peers
  • Not getting your emotional or physical needs met
  • Not being able to fully express your feelings in childhood or adulthood
  • Any physical, sexual or emotional abuse
  • Making a mistake and getting in trouble for it (or not)
  • Experiencing a break up
  • Losing a friend
  • Struggling in your career
  • Growing up in a restrictive religious faith
  • Witnessing violence
  • Physical pain or injury
  • Surgery
  • Losing a loved one
  • Getting fired or let go from a job
  • Being separated from someone you love
  • Getting cut from a team
  • Any type of embarrassing or shaming situation or event
  • Not dating until later in life
  • Being the oldest in your family and parents relying too much on you
  • Being told you’re ‘different’ by someone you care about
  • Having to excel in school and/or extra-curricular activities in order to get love and attention from your parents.
  • Having a parent who tries to live your life because they haven’t successfully created their own
  • Having a sibling who took up an unfair amount of your parents’ attention
  • Struggling to make friends

Again, this is not a comprehensive list, but hopefully this shifts your perspective on trauma.

Don’t We Just get over Trauma with Time?

Time will not heal trauma.

Why do we continue to be affected by past trauma when it’s in the past? One, because as I shared earlier, it’s literally stored in the body and needs to be released using a body-based therapy. And secondly, we unconsciously form a belief about ourselves and/or the world when something distressing or disturbing happens to us. In a way, these beliefs lock the trauma in place. We live our lives 95% based on these (often unconscious) painful, subconscious beliefs. We are walking around in life as if these painful beliefs are true.

When difficult things happen in life, we unconsciously form beliefs such as:

  • I can’t get my needs met.
  • I shouldn’t communicate what I need and want because it will only end in pain.
  • I’m unlovable.
  • I’m unworthy of love.
  • I’ll never get married.
  • I will never have enough money.
  • I don’t fit in.
  • I have to hide my authentic self in order to get love.
  • What I have to say doesn’t matter.
  • I have to accomplish enough in life in order to get love.
  • I have to exhaust myself helping others in order to get love.
  • I can’t trust others, especially those I love.
  • I have to be smart and useful in order to connect with others.

These are just a few examples. You may notice a common theme in these examples – love and connection. As Brene Brown says, “Love and belonging are irreducible human needs.” When someone doesn’t feel unconditionally loved and connected with others when growing up (or as an adult), a lot of trauma can build up over time.

If I asked anyone if they had any of these beliefs, they would often answer ‘no’ because most people are unaware of their subconscious beliefs. But sadly, we live our lives based on these limiting, subconscious beliefs.

How Do You Release Trauma?

Engaging in a body-based therapy such as those mentioned above will allow you to release trauma stored in your body.

How Might I Feel Differently if I Release the Pain of my Past?

My clients report feeling lighter, because of the absence of negative thought-form energy which feels mentally and emotionally heavy. They also report feeling more free and more in touch with their true authentic self which is non-reactive. Also, as you heal the past within you, the “law of attraction” no longer takes place, and you will no longer draw to you situations, events and circumstances that match a low internal vibration of negative thoughts, feelings and beliefs that can be by-products of trauma. Thus, you are no longer caught up in the cycle of being triggered by loved ones who triggered you in the past. Strangers may even respond to you differently, in a more positive, non-reactive way, because you have shifted the energy patterns within yourself, and between you, others and the world. As Paramahansa Yogandanda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, wrote: “As you heal yourself, you heal the world…far more than you could ever know.”

Using Past Life Therapy to ‘De-Hypnotize’ Yourself

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Past life regression is one of the most potent ways to connect to the higher, wiser part of yourself in order to resolve issues or move through stuck periods in your life. We become so focused on the worries and stress of life that we rarely connect with the quiet, still witness behind the worries. We become hypnotized into identifying with the continual swirl of thoughts in our mind, rather than on the deep presence that can observe those thoughts. During a past life regression, you become that presence. Then the Buddha’s words become clearer, “All suffering is due to wrong identification.”

It is natural to be skeptical about past life regression when viewed from an ordinary ego-identified level of consciousness. Yet what is often overlooked in nearly every moment of daily living is that ‘you’ are the energy and consciousness that animates the body, and as such, that ‘you’ is eternal and indestructible. For most people, that truth may remain only as an intellectual concept until they die. So if an aspect of yourself is infinite now, then it makes sense that you can begin to ‘tune into’ or resonate with that ‘truer’ self. It’s simply a matter of identifying more with the part of you which is the constant, nonfluctuating self. An effective way to access that ‘self’ is to go within, closing off the relative world of time and matter. This leads to becoming focused in the present moment.  Hypnosis provides a quick and powerful means to accomplish this because it deeply relaxes the body and quiets the mind. It uses your mind’s powerful ability to do this. A gulf begins to grow between the peaceful presence/awareness of ‘you’ and your thoughts. It becomes easier to identify yourself as the awake and aware ‘witness’ of your thoughts rather than being sucked into your incessant mind chatter. In this state of stillness, you can set the intention to see other lives you have experienced.

Past life regression sheds light on your soul’s intention of using your life for growth and evolution. Here’s how it works: As you surrender to whatever your unconscious mind reveals, an impression of another lifetime will emerge. It’s important to trust the process and permit the story to develop. It will ultimately reveal something profoundly beneficial for you. If you try in any way to consciously direct the images that come, it will block the process. Typically a previous life will mirror a deep issue that you’re dealing with in this life, even unconsciously. These mental impressions can be interpreted either as a past life or a symbolic metaphor, like a dream image. After the death scene, you can reflect on how you lived that life from the viewpoint of the eternal soul aspect of yourself. Often the strongest healing part of the session comes when you experience the deep peace, freedom and insights after the human drama. You gain a sense of how you wish you had gone through that life. Perhaps you lived it governed by small fears that held you back in various ways. From the perspective of ‘now time’, outside of time/space, you can ‘re-script’ that life by making different decisions about how you would have wanted to live that life, much like lucid dreaming. You can create a life where you consciously allow the freedom, appreciation, joy and love of your soul self to shine through, unimpeded by subtle, fear-based mind programs and conditioning that are common in the human experience. You not only create that empowered life but feel in your body and mind what it’s like to live in this awakened manner.

At times your higher mind will show you a past life that you’ve lived with wisdom and strength if your current life lacks these qualities. You’ll be given that life to see so you can merge the powerful love-based qualities of that life with your current one. It all comes from an elevated level of consciousness that corresponds with ‘tuning into’ a higher dimension/vibration aspect of yourself, namely the part that is animating you right now.

A recent, typical example was a woman who struggled with anxiety. She experienced her past life as a woman of high status, forced to keep up appearances in an uptight, rigid society. She was afraid to express her true feelings while trying to please others. Her deep concern over other’s opinions held her back from fully living life, which caused her to feel alone. She was then shown a second life as a woman living in a poor village who was deeply connected to the entire community. During harvest time, everyone worked together, forming genuine bonds without any pretenses. She felt what it was like to be her true self without concern of appearances, and felt the exhilaration of experiencing authentic human relationships. In the time between lives, she could see how the first life mirrored her current life, while the second life revealed a way to live in which fears were replaced with the excitement and freedom of forming heartfelt connections with others. She saw that she had a choice about which way she was going to live this life, and how, up until now, she had been living a fear-based life, overly concerned with other’s opinions. Thus, at a subconscious level, she was able to shift the perspective that held her back in life. Past life regression not only reveals a person’s soul lesson, but also allows them to fully feel what it’s like to ‘get’ that lesson and live without the subtle fears that block them. Because this all occurs at the subconscious level, it has a subtle, yet powerful effect. It’s not uncommon to experience noticeable results in only one session.

We are multi-dimensional beings. We have a body, yet at a deeper level of relative truth, we are also the soul essence that animates our body. At the deepest, ultimate level of truth, we all come from the one energy source that animates all life, and from which souls emerge. As humans, we live life as unique, individual ocean waves that forgot that our true essence is the ocean itself. Past life regression is an inward route to gain an experiential glimpse of these deeper levels of your being with heightened clarity. Life trials come and go, and so do lifetimes, but what remains? You do. Past life therapy tunes you into this constant aware presence of ‘you’ that transcends all earthly dramas.

Q & A Interview with the Edge Magazine

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I was featured in the March 2018 edition of the Edge Magazine. I’d like to share it with you to give you some background about how I became interested in hypnotherapy. This interview shares details about my work and also who I am as a person.

The article also gives me a chance to highlight the Edge Magazine and the valuable role it has played in my life. It’s a metaphysical magazine that has helped me grow and evolve over the past 25 years. It offers consciousness-expanding interviews and articles of practitioners on the forefront of healing and spiritually awakening.

Please enjoy the Q & A interview here!