Hypnotherapy

[NukaGirl]

A few things were brought to light in therapy about when I was a toddler. I'd been having flashbacks of my older sister making me do things. It's difficult to talk about still. There are also flashbacks of my Mother not looking after me.

I remember screaming and crying for her and she never came. My support worker reckons these may be the cause of a lot of my fears, namely abandonment. I asked my Gran if any of what I was remembering true, and she confirmed that I had indeed been sexually abused by my sister.

My support worker wants to try hypnotherapy as a way to reconnect with my younger self and heal her so I can heal myself.

I'll bs sure to keep a record of progress.

Has anyone here done hypnotherapy at all?

 

[Hashi]

Is your support worker trained and experienced in trauma and PTSD? What are their qualifications?

 

[NukaGirl]

She works for WRASAC who provide alternative therapies for trauma. She is qualified, as are all employees of wrasac, to do CBT and other forms of therapy.
My diagnosis came from a psychologist, my GP and my support worker.

 

[shimmerz]

I too have taken the alternative route for therapy. I have explored many including hypnotherapy. The thing is with hypnotherapy that most practitioners have their own special style. I cannot speak for WRASAC, but think that I may understand what @Hashi is asking you I believe. Those of us with multiple (complex) traumas need to be treated a bit differently than most as it is not a single event. Even with the alternative therapy there will be possible fallout issues that may bring you deeper into the trauma as you work through it. Have they mentioned this to you or have you asked?

I am also wondering if they hypnotherapy is something like Matrix Re-imprinting? If you look up Karl Dawson, there is a good piece on what he does. I wonder if asking your therapist if this is the type of work they are going to do (attaching to your younger self and finding out what she needed at the time).

 

[Hashi]

@NukaGirl, I was asking because hypnotherapy is a controversial treatment for trauma, especially when there has been a history of suppressed memory. You could open a Pandora's box. You could break open defences that your subconscious has put in place for a good reason and isn't ready to let go of yet. You could be overwhelmed or even retraumatised.

It's not completely clear to me whether the aim is to recover more memory, or to "speak" to the little girl that you were. If it's to make a connection, then I'd be a bit surprised because there are other ways of doing that. But I hope it's not for recovering memory because I think that's ill advised. There have been posts on the forum about this in the past - if you search on hypnotherapy - so I won't repeat all that here.

I've had hypnotherapy for things other than trauma. I wouldn't do it since I got PTSD. You might do it with a particular reason in mind, but once you open up your subconscious you can't say what is going to surface.

I wouldn't recommend it, but if you're going to do it I would only do it with someone who really knows what they're doing. That is, not someone who has done some courses but someone who is qualified in psychology (psychologist or psychotherapist) and who understands trauma and safety issues.

 

[shimmerz]

has been a history of suppressed memory.

So key! I didn't realize the implications of not remembering my first 8 years until my "Pandoras box" had already been opened. Mine opened because I had acupuncture for carpel tunnel. Panic attacks, which I never recalled having etc. This led to a lifestyle change and incredibly intense work for the past 7 years.

Be careful.

 

[NukaGirl]

I reckon that if I wasn't ready to face these things I wouldn't be remembering them. I have so many issues because of my Mother and my sister, issues that only recently I've been able to explain because of these flashbacks. And they are horrible. So many things make sense now and I feel sick and angry just thinkig about what my sister did to me. Talking isn't helping anymore. I'm already on medication and that will take forever and a day to kick in. But ti won't make these things go away. Medication just supresses them.

I'm already hurting inside because of these flashbacks. Talking to my past self can only reassure my now self that everything is okay.

 

[shimmerz]

Ah, okay, So Pandora's box is already open. I am sorry @NukaGirl, I didn't realize you were having flashbacks. I guess the question I would ask myself is, do I have the skillset to disconnect from the emotions you talk about in the previous post or will these flashbacks just keep coming up with therapy without skills to release them?

So yes, hypnotherapy is good as long as you have been taught how to release the emotional reaction that comes with them. Can your hypnotherapist or someone else answer that for you? In my world, although I was chomping at the bit to work at it - I had many good people who slowed me down so that they could teach me tools to release emotions before they allowed me to jam myself with repressed memories.

Hope this makes sense. :confused: