Anxiety Session 3 of 6 - Age Regression Therapy
Age Regression is a well-respected analytical hypnotherapy technique. In basic terms you are taken back to a memory of your initial sensitising event (ISE). The event that your subconscious holds to be the first time you every experienced anxiety. Your subconscious has offered this story or metaphor to help you during therapy.
We work through your ISE, remembering the detail with the aim of finding and clearing feelings the younger you felt at that time. Noting the older you knowns much more and is much wiser, the older you may comfort the younger you and let them know everything will be ok because, everything is OK with you today. This can help to clear some of the anxiety you feel as an adult.
Plan of Anxiety Treatment Session 3 of 6
Talk about progress since your least appointment. How do you think things are going for you now? How much help have the therapy and the coping tools been? If I were to ask you which coping tool has been of most use to you, which one would that be and why?
Stages of the Age Regression Treatment
- Induction into hypnosis.
- SUDS scale (10 to 1) of your anxiety.
- Peaceful place to get you more relaxed and go deeper into hypnosis.
- Possibly another metaphoric deepener like safely walking downstairs. In front of you, you see a small stairwell with 5 steps going down. You slowly, safely start to walk down them. 5 at each step you go deeper. 4 deeper and deeper into relaxing hypnosis. 3 twice as deep, 10 times as deep as before onto step 2 nearly there now relaxing deeper and deeper. 1 Yes. Well done. Relaxing now, into a safe and comfortable hypnotic trance.
- Regression therapy can be used to safely go back in your memory to the first time you experienced anxiety. This is called an initial sensitising event (ISE). You describe the event. What happened, who was there, how you felt at that age and your therapist will help you to overcome this. Perhaps freeing your past self (maybe it’s a childhood event) from any trauma or emotional distress your ISE caused. This is so your more knowledgeable, wiser, older self can overcome it too.
- Future pacing suggestions can be used. These would aid you to see yourself, during an event that used to cause you anxiety, overcoming it. Being a more emotionally intelligent person in what used to be a troubling situation. See this happen in your mind’s eye to the stronger, wiser you. Then it can actually happen in real life if you choose for it to be so.
- Ego-strengthening to enhance the changes, make changes more permanent. Also to “go with the flow” of any anxious feeling or emotions you experience. After all, you will know, those feeling don’t harm you. They are just emotions, thoughts and feelings that come and go like clouds floating across a mountain sky. You are not the clouds, you are not your thoughts or feelings. You are the strong, sturdy, unwavering mountain, observing your thoughts and emotions come and go. Yes. That’s good.
- SUDS scale (10 to 1) of your anxiety.
- Reorientate, count out.
- Add-ons for the week – Practice your new skills (breathing and peaceful place anchor). Do at least 1 thing you have been avoiding because of anxiety and use your coping tools to stay calm.
- Add-ons – Practice STOP! When you begin to feel anxious and it is safe to do so. Stop for a moment. Take 3 deep breaths. Observe what is happening and how you are reacting. Proceed with emotional intelligence, calmly, more relaxed and peacefully.