Past Life regression therapy is a very interesting area for both clients and therapists. Often the thoughts around past life therapy are based on media reports about people who remember being a soldier in the war or working in the fields and seem to be just about entertainment. My experience working with past life therapy clients is that what often happens is a resolution of an issue in their life which means they are able to move on and forward and let go of something that has been troubling them.

The following article appeared in the national press and was brought to my attention by a client. I think it makes for very interesting reading.

The women who believe a past life is to blame for their ailments

By Polly Dunbar

The full article originally appeared in the Daily Mail on June 8^th 2014

Sherrie Jenner believes her crippling migraines were due to an eye injury in a past life

Once a month for the past 27 years, Sherrie Jenner suffered a blinding migraine. Each time they struck, the 64-year-old would endure three days of searing pain behind her right eye, leaving her unable to do anything other than lie in a darkened room.

No wonder, then, that having spent the past three months pain-free after trying every treatment available, the retired medical receptionist from Horsham, Surrey, can’t rave enough about her ‘miracle cure’.

But rather than a cutting-edge medical procedure or super-strength painkiller, Sherrie, a grandmother-of-two, believes the key to solving her health problem was something altogether more unusual: past-life regression therapy. 

This involved being hypnotised to ‘recover’ what therapists believe are subconscious memories of past lives  or incarnations.

The idea we’ve all been here before sounds, to many of us, as far-fetched as an episode of Star Trek, and scientists scoff at the notion.

But exponents of past-life regression therapy believe ‘accessing’ our different lives from previous eras is not only possible, but could hold the key to solving the problems we experience in this life.

These, they claim, are a manifestation of our subconscious holding on to traumas we experienced in other lives — and, as such, we can be helped to let them go.

Sherrie went to see Nicolas Aujula, a London-based regression therapist, after spotting an advert for an open day during which migraine sufferers were offered a free trial of the treatment — which usually costs £150 for up to two-and-a-half hours.

‘I’ve never tried alternative therapies before — I’m usually very cynical. After all, I worked in the medical profession,’ she says. ‘But I’d tried everything and my migraines were so debilitating I thought it was worth a go. My husband Graham laughed and said it would never work, but I didn’t care.’

During the session, Sherrie sat in a comfortable chair while Nicolas put her into a state of relaxation with deep-breathing and visualisation exercises.

Then he asked her to go back to a time that would explain her migraines.

‘I’d never been hypnotised before, so I didn’t know what to expect, but I felt extremely relaxed and I was aware of my surroundings,’ she says.

‘I saw a little pair of tanned feet. It was the strangest thing I’d ever seen, but somehow I felt calm and accepting.

‘As I looked at my body I saw I was wearing a loincloth. I appeared to be a 14-year-old boy standing in a lush rainforest. I knew instinctively that it was South America around 200 years ago. I could see my hut, and I was carving a bow because I was starving and needed to catch something to eat.

 ‘Nicolas asked if I was in pain, and I said: “My heart hurts. I’ve been rejected by everyone.”

‘He then took me back even further, and I seemed to be about two. I was sitting on my haunches in front of a fire when, suddenly, an ember flew into my eye. I could hear my mother screaming.

‘Then I was 14 again, and I realised my face was burned and I’d lost my right eye — the same one I had searing pain behind during my migraines. I really believe that boy was me.’

According to Nicolas, regression techniques bring people back to the source of their pain.

‘Certain patterns repeat themselves — I usually find that people with migraines suffered some sort of head injury in a previous life, and those with breathing difficulties suffered a chest trauma,’ he says.

‘Of course people are sceptical. I believe we’ve all lived before — but it’s not necessary to believe that for the therapy to be beneficial.

‘No harm is being done, and if it can help people with their problems it’s better than them taking drugs.’

Sherrie and hundreds of others like her believe regression therapy is little short of a miracle cure. To ‘release’ her from her pain, Nicolas asked her to envisage the boy without the scarring and with his right eye intact, sitting with other children.

‘When I opened my eyes I felt slightly spaced out, but absolutely euphoric for this boy that his problems had been resolved.

‘Three months later, I still haven’t had a single migraine. Graham is still sceptical, but my friends have all been fascinated.

‘A few years ago, my optician noticed something at the back of my eye, and I was referred to a surgeon who told me it was scarring. He didn’t know what had caused it, or if it was related to my migraines, but said it had probably been there since birth. Now I think I’ve found the explanation.’

But according to Dr Blumberg, what Sherrie had probably seen was a memory from her past.

He says: ‘I’ve watched people having regression therapy and my sense is they’re experiencing crypto-amnesia — which is when forgotten memories linger in our subconscious and seem genuinely new when we think of them. Often they’re images from a Hollywood film they’ve seen a long time ago.’

Jane Russell says past-life regression therapy cured her of psoriasis, caused by burns in her life as a man in the 1900s

 

However it works, Jane Russell, 65, a model from Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, is another regression therapy devotee, believing it cured the psoriasis from which she suffered for two years.

Last year, she had a session with Andrea Foulkes, who describes herself as an ‘intuitive soul whisperer’, and was astonished by the results.

‘I’m the biggest sceptic you could ever find, but I’ve known Andrea for years because we used to work together as models,’ Jane says. ‘When I told her about the terribly sore, dry skin condition I had on my hands and feet, which no cream seemed to help, she suggested I give regression a try.

‘It was incredible. She asked me to imagine walking down a corridor and told me to pick a door. She asked where I was and I said: “I’m in an apartment in Scotland.” There was a mirror and when I looked in it, I saw I was a man of around 36, wearing clothes of the early 1900s.

No strings attached: Jane's therapist told her to imagine cutting the strings attaching her to her past life

‘The next thing I knew, I was the same man in the same era, but in a field with my two children, who were sitting on a horse-drawn hay wagon. The hay was alight and I was trying to put it out with my hands and feet.

‘Andrea told me to imagine I had strings attaching me to this man’s experiences, and I needed to cut them. Then she rang a little bell, and I was amazed to find two hours had passed. It felt like five minutes.’  

Afterwards, Jane  felt exhausted and found she had been crying. She didn’t expect it to cure her condition, but she says: ‘Within two or three weeks, the psoriasis had gone, and I’ve had no problems since.

‘I think we carry a lot of tension inside ourselves, and it seemed to release that stress. I don’t know why it worked, but I’d recommend it to anybody.’

Past life regression therapy to help cure IBS symptoms

Jeane Trendhill, 47, believes regression therapy addressed the cause of the crippling IBS she had suffered since 2010. The pain in her stomach and constant need to use the bathroom often left her house-bound.

Jeane, a photographer from Essex who is married to Leslie, 52, says: ‘Once, I went to A&E because I was in so much pain. When I read about Nicolas’s work, I was willing to give anything a try.’

What she saw during her session in February is still vivid: ‘I was a little girl called Louise — which was strange because when I was a child, I used to tell my parents my name was Louise and that I remembered having a different mummy.

 ‘I was in America in a car with my father. I got out of the car and he hadn’t put the brakes on properly and it rolled over me, piercing my stomach. I could hear him crying out: “It’s my fault.” ’

Most people would imagine Jeane’s brain conjured the name ‘Louise’ because of its resonance from her childhood — and that recent dietary changes, including cutting out wheat, are the real cause of her reduced symptoms.

But Jeane is unwavering in her belief. ‘When Nicolas released me from these lives, I had an intense feeling of loss, as if I was saying goodbye to someone I knew very well. It was incredibly powerful.

‘I didn’t notice much of a change initially. But after a few days, I started to feel calmer, and the knot in my stomach seemed to loosen.

‘I went from having 20 bad days a month to just five, and it’s remained at that level ever since. I know it’s thanks to the therapy. It released something deep inside me.’

 

Mark Powlett Comments...  As you can see these stories show how the clients have been able to let go of something that has been having a terrible effect on their lives. It doesn’t really matter if you believe that we had a past life or not. If you believe that you can let go of thing that have caused you worries, problems or pain then you are much more likely to be able to do that and move forward than if you think you have to live with things that do you harm.

If you have a medical issue then it is very important that you see your GP about this first. I would always make sure that this was something that had been undertaken by any client before I would work with them. For instance I often work with clients who suffer with pain issues to help them turn down pain that they have been given medication for, but find they are still having discomfort. You must make sure that you see your GP before any therapy takes place. Always make sure that you visit a qualified Hypnotherapist such as much self.

 

If you would like to read about my past life therapy sessions and the two session package that I offer then you can simply click HERE

 

 

Yesterday the Speakmans new TV show began on ITV. They started by helping a young girl who suffered from emetophobia, a fear of being sick.

Today they met Ashlea who has a form of OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which means that her life is ruled in a way that many would find alarming. Her issues started at about the age of 8 when she started touching and smelling objects. Now she still does this on a daily basis because she believes that if she does not then something bad will happen to her or her family. When she goes upstairs in her home she has to bite the banister three times at the bottom and the top. If she feels that she did not bite it properly then she will start the ritual again. As she herself stated "it's kind of my daily living now"

Her husband Brian finds that it can be frustrating to be married to someone suffering from OCD. It can take hours for her to get ready and to check everything before they go out.

Just when we thought we had heard it all she confessed that when walking the dog she would want to bite the bag with dog waste in. She said that doing it would give her relief...until the next hurdle.

Being ruled by these rituals means that when she is driving she will often take her hand off the wheel to touch buttons with both hands. The voiceover stated that this was dangerous for her. Perhaps he could have explained that it is also dangerous for other road users and pedestrians too.

She travelled to the country pile of Nik and Eva Speakman..Speakman, Hall to get some help. As a Clinical Hypnotherapist who has just watched how severe her traume is I have to say I was surprised that she found it so easy to visit a new place and walk inside and sit on their sofa without biting or touching anything. Perhaps we just didn't see this in the edit.

The Speakmans asked her what the issue was and explained that they had seen her notes. I suppose they could also have watched the video that we all just watched but I am sure there was a reason that they did not do that.

Both Ashlea and Brian spoke to the Speakmans together. This does seem to be their modus operandi and is an interesting approach. Often, of course the last person a client wants to be with is someone that they feel may stop them from being honest. When a problem is caused or made worse by someone close then it may well be better for that person to not be around during therapy.

She told us that she gets the worse comments when driving. It seemed like she was not taking much responsibility for those around her. I do feel that If I was a danger in a car to others then I wouldn't be driving that car until I had sought help.

Whilst talking about her life she stated that her parents divorced when she was seven and that is when the OCD problems started.

At this point we are told that Ashlea's mother and step father had only just learnt about her OCD issues. Again, as a Clinical Hypnotherapist this sets alarm bells ringing a little because it would be very hard to hide this from your family, especially when you are biting banisters and taking the paint off them.

Ashlea stated that when anything bad happens in her family then she blames herself. Even when her mother was diagnosed with cancer she thought that this was because she had missed something in her rituals. After talking it emerged that her mother had lung cancer and admitted that she smoked and knew this was the cause.

The Speakmans had asked them all to write letters to each other which they read out for us all to hear. From what I have seen it appears that this would be the first time that they had really talked about the issues and how they cause problems for everyone. When working with clients I always explore how they deal with family and friends and how the knowledge of a situation affects it. Often people are scared of what will happen when they talk and open up. In reality this often makes things much easier to bear and helps everyone to see how each feels.

The Speakmans concluded that it was a family who did not communicate. I think we could all agree with that therapist or not. There is a lesson to learn for some people from that I believe!

She had told them that she hears a voice telling her to do these things. It emerged that the voice was that of her mother and she felt that she was being told to do them.

Nobody wants bad things to happen.

Nik Speakman told Ashlea that the OCD did not cause her mother's cancer, and had that been the case they would have called Ashlea in to perform her rituals to make her better. Actually this seems a great way to help reframe the thought of this and show her how the reality is.

The first time that she tapped a banister when when her parents were breaking up at the age of eight. They pointed out that if that was to keep them together then it didn't work!

They then whipped out a picture of a Mayan temple and showed us that although they thought the world would end in 2012 it did not. An interesting approach I thought, as they explained that sacrificing someone every night did not make any difference to what happened in the world.

So, this was all traced back to the initial event of her parents splitting up. She is now 25 but has carried this with her.

At this point they told her "All you have to do is grow up, and become a woman" 

It is important to bear in mind that we only see an edited version of the show and of course there are probably many hours of talking that we do not see and other interventions that the Speakmans do not want to show us.

They did in fact offer to let her sacrifice their pet goat...but she declined!

They then brought out several items for her to bite and she did not want to bite any of them, She stated that she felt very stupid. This is interesting because often people do feel foolish for having problems and she didn't seem to feel this way before.

They talked about memories and how they felt different now, which did show me that they have also used therapies that we have not seen to help her deal with her issues. It is a shame that they do not want to show us this part of what they do. Talking is a very important part of therapy but there are also other aspects and tools which I use and the Speakmans also use which for some reason they do not seem to want people to see. Why this is, I do not know.

To celebrate her losing the OCD problem the Speakmans took her to a car racetrack. I perhaps would have wanted to know how she was going to drive on a normal road, but that would probably make less interesting viewing! Of course it wasn't her car they were in and that is the one where she had rituals but I am sure that they knew this and took it into account.

Off she drove and we watched her leaving her rituals and routines about OCD in the past.

We were treated to the "getting her life back on track" metaphor as we watched her race around keeping her hands on the steering wheel. I was once lucky enought to race a car round Silverstone and I kept my hands on the wheel too.

We were then treated to a clip of the next episode where they help a lady who suffers from hair pulling or trichotillomania. I look forward to seeing their approach.

Another interesting episode which does help to show people that you do not need to live with any problem. Always ask for help. As ever I do feel that we miss a lot of the therapy but that is the nature of any television programme. If you would like any help and advice do drop me an email and I would be happy to help.