Excerpt from the updated and expanded 2nd Edition of Regression Hypnotherapy by Randal Churchill

Hypnosis is a bridge to the subconscious mind. The subconscious is the seat of the emotions, imagination, memories, habits and intuition. It also regulates our autonomic body functions, is the part of the mind that dreams, and is the pathway to the superconscious. It is the very essence and core of how we experience ourselves and the world. To attain powerful and lasting results in therapy, it is essential that the methods employed reach and affect the subconscious mind. The best results in therapy always come from a hypnotic state, whether or not the state was achieved intentionally, and whether or not the therapist uses or understands hypnotic theory and semantics.

The Power of Regression

A hypnotic regression is a process in which a person in hypnosis recalls a memory or series of memories from the subconscious mind. While in hypnosis a person’s awareness is heightened and memories can become much more vivid. Also, there is easier access to the emotions, barring suggestions for detachment. And because of the heightened suggestibility that occurs as the subconscious mind is accessed, insights can have a much greater impact than they would normally have.

Major events from childhood and infancy, both positive and negative in nature, can have a tremendous impact, and expectancies that result from these experiences continue to affect us in our lives. Events in extreme cases can serve as an imprint, a powerful single-impact learning experience that greatly influences our ways of experiencing ourselves and the world. Much hypnotherapy is about de-hypnotizing ourselves from the limiting influences of significant negative experiences from the past. In many cases, a potent aspect of effective hypnotherapy can be regression to facilitate more thorough and lasting results.

An irony of regression work is that what makes a past event important is the way we frame it and manifest it in the here and now. We carry traumas from the past with us into the present and filter our experience of ourselves and the world through the lenses of those past experiences. The form of regression hypnotherapy emphasized in these volumes, including returning to an initiating sensitizing event(s) and working with Gestalt, hypnoanalysis and reeducation, sometimes has the effect of an imprint. The work can be so powerful that major changes from a session or two of regression are typically immediate and yield long-term transformation.

Regression strategies, as described and demonstrated in this series, are options highly recommended for appropriate use by hypnotherapists and by clinicians using hypnosis as an adjunct to their therapeutic specialties. The great value documented in the sessions of this Transcripts of Transformation series is not because they were exceptional in my work, as a kind of “greatest hits” collection. The majority of sessions that I have taped over the years, in the demonstration of exploratory hypnosis using regression and ideomotor methods, have been transcribed for insertion into a book. In the late 1990’s, for example, a string of 16 consecutive taped sessions are all being included in full in texts. That’s remarkable, considering there are many very effective taped sessions over the years that were not selected because the theme, presenting issue, or some elements of the therapy were too similar to another session already transcribed for inclusion.

The Relevance of Regression to the Practice of Hypnotherapy

Within the field of hypnotherapy there are many potential benefits in harnessing the power of the subconscious mind to affect change. Hypnosis is used in a wide variety of ways for chronic and acute pain relief; it can be effective to improve confidence, communication, relationships, motivation, achievement, concentration, recall, health and stress management; it can help overcome addictions, habits, eating disorders, insomnia, fears, phobias, procrastination, and negative thought, emotional and behavior patterns; it can help utilize one’s full potential in endeavors such as work, sports, writing, performance, art, public speaking and creative expression.

The potential use of regression within a series of hypnotherapy sessions for these and other issues will be individually evaluated. Considerations include many factors about the presenting issues that begin to get explored in the initial intake interview, the kind and severity of difficulties that the individual is working on, underlying reasons, associations and history regarding these difficulties, the stage of the therapy, and the purpose and kind of regression techniques being considered.

As described in the next two chapters, there are many forms of regression. In fact, a hypnotic regression can be as simple as encouraging your client to focus for a moment on a positive memory that’s relevant to the presenting issue. For example, almost anyone working on confidence can recall a context in which he or she felt confident about something. Such a basic use of regression could be done at some appropriate point in almost any hypnotherapy session. What is more pertinent to the transformative emphasis of these two volumes is the context of making a decision to reserve a session or more to do deeper regression work to help overcome major effects of trauma.

As enthusiastic as I am about the therapeutic regression options to help with substantial unresolved issues, a regression is selectively relevant on a case by case basis. Comprehensive regression strategies will be of great benefit in many cases in a wide variety of issues for which people seek therapy.

In my private practice an initial session has typically been a 50 or 55 minute interview that does not include a formal hypnotic induction (although I will endeavor in many ways to work with subconscious rapport and expectancy factors). During that session I have the opportunity to gather significant details about the presenting issue(s). This will include any known underlying factors regarding behaviors and symptoms, the possibility of secondary gains, causes of current problems as well as relevant traumas at the time of initiation or the development of similar significant ongoing or recurring problems, historical attempts to overcome the difficulties and the positive and negative results and side effects of those attempts, relevant personal and professional lifestyle issues, medications, stress factors, etc.

A regression is often called for if the initiation of some experience is still tied in directly with one’s current experience in a major way. A severe problem that has been difficult to overcome over years, in many cases will be pointing to doing regression work. An unexplainable compulsion, reaction, emotion or behavior would be a signal to reserve a session for exploratory ideomotor questioning which would typically lead to regression in that session or a subsequent one. There are many obvious developments in the above-described initial session that could encourage at least one planned comprehensive regression. Sometimes it’s a judgment call, and a decision one way or the other could be a close call, to be determined as the sessions progress. Initially there may not seem to be a need for regression but something unexpected could occur in the course of the therapy, signaling otherwise. For example, someone may reach a new stage of success and have a strong adverse reaction signaling surprising subconscious resistance, which can encourage an exploratory ideomotor and/or regression intervention.

When doing major regression work in private practice, I have found that commonly a single session or two, out of a brief series of perhaps five to ten sessions, is needed to work on a particular issue. However, in at least one prior session (typically the initial session) there will be significant preparation for the regression, and there is usually at least one subsequent session involving hypnotic work that is strongly associated with the results of the regression, even if it’s not a regression per se. It’s difficult to generalize because there are any number of possible presenting issues and each individual, situation, and experience in regression is different.

To give a specific example, some significant regression strategies will often be included in helping overcome most kinds of addictions. But in my experience, about 85 percent of the time regression does not need to be included for smoking cessation. This is partly because the reasons why most people start smoking don’t have much to do with why they are still smoking. Most commonly, people started smoking in teenage years to be adult, to be part of the group, to feel sophisticated or cool, those kinds of things. Years later they’re smoking because they’re addicted and they have the habit pattern, the psychological need and oral fixation that most of them didn’t initially have, or that was not significant at the time. However, there are circumstances when regression is appropriate for smoking cessation. For example, sometimes there is trauma around the initiation of smoking that is still having an effect, such as the example described early in Chapter 3, which in that exceptional case led to an unusual form of regression set up to avoid conscious recall. Another example is discussed in Chapter 18 when the client, preparing to quit smoking, develops an overwhelming fear that is a signal that these deeper emotions need to be faced and cleared.

When addictions are of substances that create altered states, as is true for most substance addiction, this adds a complexity that is not usually relevant to those who seek smoking cessation. Including regression is more often of major value in cases that developed from being drawn to or escaping from certain feelings via an altered state, and/or there is a continuing struggle with breaking the addiction partly for difficulties regarding such feelings. Some substance abuse problems are serious enough that I will only work with the individual at the conclusion of completing a detox program, and our work would very likely include regression. On the other hand, a regression may be irrelevant for someone who wants to break the habit of needing a glass of wine late each evening to help fall asleep.

In the case of working with a client on something as simple as increasing reading speed while maintaining comprehension, such an issue would normally entail a brief series of sessions, perhaps weekly, working with direct and indirect suggestions, metaphors, etc. Such a scenario would not usually call for major regression work. However, every situation is unique. In an exceptional case, even this simple sole presenting issue could have a complication relating to a lack of confidence or a significant trauma associated with studying or concentrating, that might necessitate something along the lines of an in-depth regression.

A somewhat similar presenting issue of desired increased concentration and recall for studies typically will not need significant exploratory work beyond questioning during the first session, unless exceptional resistance develops as the sessions progress. But besides the sample of possible complications of the above paragraph, proper initial questioning will sometimes yield additional factors that may signal the appropriateness of digging deeper. The concentration-recall could be tied in with preparation for exams, for example, and this in some cases will be associated with a phobic reaction. To give another example, I had a client who had always had great resistance to studying because his father had often bragged that he had done well in college without ever studying, and insisted studying wasn’t needed. My client had managed to get through school until now avoiding studying, but even with his deteriorating grades in Chiropractic School he had not been able to overcome his aversion. We included a regression in one of the first sessions, and his resistance cleared right up.

Transformation and the Mind-Body Connection

Many scientific studies have surfaced documenting the mind/body connection - that is, the thoughts we think do significantly affect our bodies and the environment around us. The work of the late Japanese researcher, Masaru Emoto, is worth noting. He experimented with freezing water and used high speed photography to take pictures of the frozen crystals. He found that crystals emerged and were visible for only 20 or 30 seconds as the temperature of the water rose and ice started to melt.

Emoto then discovered that the crystalline structure of water is different under various conditions and in different parts of the world. Pure, pristine water from natural resources formed beautiful, geometric designs, while polluted water from industrial wastes and populated areas formed distorted and random crystalline structures. His experiments with music and thoughts also changed the form of water. Praying over polluted water, for example, altered the molecular structure to form more organized geometric designs.

Hypnotherapist Hal Isen, co-author of The Genesis Principle and originator of transformational Core Wisdom® workshops, writes of Emoto’s research: “Perhaps the tradition that exists in so many cultures of saying a prayer or grace before meals is not mere ritual, but actually alters the energy of the food itself.... The remarkable photos validate that what we think, feel, and most of all, who we are being, shapes our reality all the time.”

The evidence overwhelmingly conveys that our thoughts affect everything in and around us, as practitioners of hypnotherapy and other modalities that tap into the vast power of our subconscious minds have long been witness to. We can positively tap into our profound potential to heal and transform ourselves and our planet by directing our thoughts and moving them into action. The techniques and examples in these volumes present tools that allow us to work deeply with the memories, emotions and expectations of the subconscious mind, and reeducate and integrate the power of suggestion to transform trauma into lasting positive change.

From many years of practice and teaching, I’ve outlined the following combination of factors as likely to yield great success, usually within a relatively brief time span.

Churchill’s Recipe for Outstanding Therapy

Client: motivated. Good work can always be done no matter how challenging the issues, when the client is highly motivated, in the circumstances outlined here.
Therapist: compassionate and centered. The Buddhist concept of detached compassion fits well here. The therapist cares and does his/her best possible work, but does not try to do the client’s work. The therapist does not get caught up in the drama, but is totally present and supportive - flexible, intuitive and creative, rather than rigidly adhering to a system of techniques.
Together: good rapport, enthusiasm, and positive yet realistic mental expectancy. Therapy includes working comprehensively with the whole person, including underlying issues.
Therapist training/experience: a solid foundation that includes a wide variety of methods to reach and affect the subconscious (i.e., hypnosis).

In Perspective

In spite of my enthusiasm for certain regression modalities, I must emphasize that learning a comprehensive set of techniques is just one aspect of becoming a good therapist. “The most important thing you bring to your client is yourself,” states Sidney Jourard. “Your methodology is additional.” We bring to our work our education, professional and life experience, creativity, intuition, dedication, compassion, inspiration and love. With each session of each client we can be receptive to learning, being present in the moment and continuing to fine tune our skills. Also, subconscious personality and rapport factors can strongly influence the speed, ease, and thoroughness of therapy.

Jack Schwartz said, “There are at least 21 paths to the top of the mountain. If somebody tells you he’s on the path, he’s not even on the mountain.” There are so many ways to heal. Each person must discover and rediscover what works for her or him. The awareness, wisdom, creativity, and power of our subconscious minds is astounding. We may not fully understand how people can be deeply healed by various forms of prayer, faith healing, touch, spirituality, work, devotion to family, shamanistic rituals, or positive mental expectancy. But with the right people, under the right circumstances, any of this and much more can produce extraordinary results. Also, recognition of the power of the placebo, as described in Chapter 15, is relevant to understanding the potential for dramatic physical and mental shifts resulting from mental expectancy.

The potential we hold for change is awe inspiring. A new client once described to me how he had been scheduled for triple bypass heart surgery but then just before the surgery he suddenly felt better. He went to his doctor and the doctor was shocked to discover that his patient had grown an entire new artery. His heart was now in good condition. Visualizations can work wonders, but he had not as yet consciously tried to visualize anything, and certainly did not expect or consciously imagine that such a thing could occur. He came to see me because he wanted to shape up, improve his eating habits, and take responsibility for himself. He felt that God had given him a new heart and a whole new lease on life. This is a sample of the profound potential of the subconscious mind, which in the forms of regression demonstrated in these two volumes is consistently harnessed with even greater power than the dramatically increased access normally associated with hypnosis.

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