Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume - 3, Special Mega Annual Issue 15 June 2019 | Page 7

After three sessions, he had made peace with his younger self, including
the rejection he felt as a child when his mother went from homemaker to
working at a full-time job.
The process I’ve found most successful is to bring the client to a
somnambulistic state, elicit the emotions and regress to the first time the
emotions were experienced. The initial sensitising event (ISE) is often
experienced before the age of seven. When a client is regressed to what
he indicates is the ISE, it is important to ask if the emotions are ‘familiar or
new’ to him at that age. Regressing to the event in which the client
describes the emotion as a ‘new’ experience is key to a successful
regression.
Allowing the client to describe what he is experiencing and feeling brings
the event out of the closet, so to speak. It gives light to a story that is often
well-hidden from the client’s conscious awareness. And in the event the
client is aware of the experience, it may surprise the client how much
emotion is still present. I often ask the client to imagine the younger self in
front of him, to examine his face, to breathe him in. The client is then
guided to apologise to his younger self for having had the experience (“I’m
sorry you had to experience this”, “I’m sorry they did not understand you”,
“I’m sorry you were hurt”…).
I guide the client to continue looking at the child’s face, eyes to eyes, and
say “I see you. I hear you. I love you. I understand and accept you”. This
usually has a profound impact. The client is then guided, using my words or
his own, but usually a combination of the two, to bring adult wisdom of the
situation to the inner child. Statements, such as “your parents were only
trying to keep you safe” may be appropriate to share the larger story to the
child.
Sometimes, the only right thing to say is “you did nothing wrong; you were
not responsible; you were only a child”, “they didn’t know any better” or
“you didn’t deserve this treatment”. Giving the inner child permission to
release feelings of responsibility for something out of his control can be a
big relief. In addition, there are times when the client is guided to join the