Ascent Healing

I often get asked if I offer hypnotherapy as a service. The answer to that is both yes and no. I do hypnotherapy for pain management, smoking cessation, help with relapse prevention, and some techniques for anxiety and possibly phobia interventions. I always prefer to use EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) because I think it is more effective but I can do hypnotherapy if that is what a client prefers.

What I do not do is use Hypnotherapy for trauma. I do not do memory retrieval which is fraught with liability issues. There are too many dangers of being accused of creating false memories so I DO NOT do this. I understand that many people really want to remember what happened to them and they seek to “speed up” this process. My experience is that memories, if they exist, will surface naturally and when a person is ready for them. Often, I hear people say they wish they could forget again once they do remember.

Keep in mind that if you can’t remember certain things, there is probably a good reason. Your brain is an ally in this process. It can be tempting to try to “force memories out” but this is not helpful and may cause more problems with denial later. In this endeavor, slower is faster. If you force memories, you can remember things faster than you can handle and then become destabilized which takes more time to help you recover your stability than if you allowed your memories to come out naturally and when you were ready. You can’t rush trauma recovery. It takes as long as it takes. You deserve gentleness and kindness during this process if that is what you are working on. Patience is hard but it is worth it in the long run. Feel free to email me if you have additional questions about this topic.