A regression session will often bring to light something that the client wasn't consciously aware of. Even when they go back to an event that they had conscious awareness of, aspects of that experience may be missing from memory. This makes the debriefing process of the session a valuable part of the client's healing.
The Session De-Brief
Your session debrief can be the key to the client's healing. Sometimes they’ll bump into something during the session that has been hidden from their conscious awareness. This blocking from conscious awareness can have to do with the subconscious mind’s protective function.
When it's brought to light, the client can find it hard to believe that those things really happened. The client may have some doubts about what their subconscious mind has shown them in the session. They may doubt that any of those things are real or true. That's understandable. But it can cause them to doubt the process.
When a client asks you, “Did that really happen?” …. What do you say?
One of the main reasons for allowing a little time to debrief following a regression session is to reinforce all the positive changes that are occurring, at a subconscious level of mind, as a result of the session. It also gives the client a few minutes to consciously process where their Mind just took them.
This allows you the opportunity to explore any thoughts or feelings they might be experiencing immediately after emerging them. You can then address any questions they might have about what just happened in the session.
You can also use this post-session debriefing period to build positive mental expectancy toward the results of the healing process.
"I don't think I was hypnotized . . ."
If the client expresses any doubts about what just happened, you need to address them, right away. Don’t let them take those doubts home with them! Take care of them during your post-session debriefing. For example, if the client were to say, “I don’t think I was hypnotized ….” that little bit of doubt can undo all the good work you’ve just done with them.
You need to nip doubt in the bud because your client is invested in the hypnosis being the answer. If the client doesn’t believe that they were hypnotized, they won’t believe that anything has changed. Their dis-belief has the power to undo positive change.
"Did that really happen?"
If the client emerges from a regression session and asks, “Did that really happen?”, realize that their subconscious mind has just thrown them a curve ball. It has shown them something they were not consciously aware of. As a result, it's bringing up doubt because they’re thinking, “Did I make that up?”
"Did I make that up?"
Even when it’s an event that they had conscious recall of, there’s something about that event that was previously hidden from consciousness. When it’s brought to light, it’s hard to believe. The client starts to question whether or not it’s even true.
Sometimes the client will regress back into an event that they had no conscious memory of. This may be because the event happened very early in life. Or it could be that their own Mind has been protecting them by blocking conscious recall of those aspects.
Hard to Believe?
Either way, when the regression reveals something that’s hard to believe, they’re going to question whether or not they just made the whole thing up. That’s the conscious mind doing what it does best – trying to make sense of things. But for regression hypnosis to have any real effect, the client needs to be willing to set aside reason and logic just long enough to listen to what the subconscious mind has to say.
That’s not always easy because the subconscious mind has a different kind of reason and logic from the conscious mind. What the client needs to accept is that their own Mind has just shown them where the real problem is coming from.
When a client asks, “Did that really happen?” or …. “How do I know that event was real?” my answer is always the same . . . “True or false – you were feeling the feeling?”
The only thing we're interested in is the feeling. This is because the subconscious mind is the feeling mind. As far as it’s concerned, the feeling is what’s real. When you change how an event feels, the client is free to make newer, better decisions about themselves, about relationships, about life in general it changes them.
This is how you can transform lives for the better.
So, that's it.
When a client asks you, “Did that really happen?” or “Was that event real?” … ask them, “Was the feeling real?” because that’s all we’re interested in.
