Age Regression (in this Life!)
Treating the Cause/Extinguishing the Symptoms:
Theory, Techniques,Case Histories and Video
Demonstration©
Hypnovations: Clinical Hypnosis Education &
Training Programs, June 1-3, 2012
Burlington, Vermont
Maureen Finnerty Turner, RN-BC, LMHC, LCSW
ASCH Approved Consultant
Welcome!
Introduction of Faculty and Colleagues
–Purpose for Attendance
–Heterogeneity of Clinicians
• Variety of disciplines
• Hypnosis knowledge base and
Experience
–Goal Setting
• Professional/ASCH Learning Contract
• Personal
Behavioral Goals
1. Be able to conduct effective age
regression techniques to identify the
causal (imprinting) belief of the subset of
behavioral and psychological symptoms of
focus in a minimum of 80% of Clinical
Hypnosis patients/clients at the first
application of Turner’s Somatic – Affect
Bridge technique.
Behavioral Goals
2. To be able to reframe behavioral and psychological
symptoms as “purposeful” psycho-somatic
indicators of an unconscious belief system that can
be treated with Age Regression Techniques in a
minimum of 80% of patient/client appropriate
cases*, i.e., instead of focusing on the management
of symptoms- use symptoms to lead to the cause of
the symptoms.
* This does not apply to the screened out medically
complicated or organically - involved cases.
Behavioral Goals
3. To be able to induce and depth test for a
somnambulism trance state in a minimu% m
of 80% (i.e., 8/10) of all Clinical Hypnosis
patients/clients at the first induction using
Turner’s teachings of advance hypnotic
induction and deepening techniqques
Behavioral Goals
4. To be able to effectively resource,
update, and “lift” limiting causal (imprinted)
beliefs and, therefore, effect the subset of
symptoms with reduction/extinction in 80%
of Clinical Hypnosis patients/clients using
Turner’s Rescue Mission Techniques at first
application to imprinted beliefs with the
treatment paradigm of patient/client as
“rescuer” and clinician as coach/guide and
resourcing therapist.
Theoretical Objective:
Changing Paradigms:
To Challenge and re-frame:
• Psychoanalytic history
• Roles and relationship of the hypnotherapist
and patient/client to teacher, investigator,and
detectives
• The construct of the unconscious mind
including:
– cause and effect analysis
– memory
– “False Memory Syndrome” and
– memory storage and retrieval
Changing Paradigms:
• To Involve the Individual (Patient/Client) in
the direction, priority setting, and pace of the
Age Regression Therapy
• To partner with the Individual as coach and
actively teach and re-enforce self- hypnosis,
self-healing, and self-soothing techniques
such as anchoring and positive self-talk.
Age Regression
Age Regression: Any technique that connects
present beliefs and behavior to the past and past to
the present and encourages insight.
Historic Perspective:
The practice of Age Regression has had a long and
tumultuous past that is intertwined with the History
of Trance States (labeled “Hypnosis,”by James
Braid in 1841), the concepts of an Unconscious and
Conscious Mind, the understandings and theories
on Memory - its storage and validity, and the
present Brain Imaging and Neurological Scientific
validation. It is time to revisit and review our beliefs
and interface them with new information about the
efficacy and healing power of Clinical Hypnosis Age
Regression and the efficacy of deep trance states.
History of Trance States
• Pre-historic and primitive cultures have long
used rhythmic chanting, strained fixation and
repetitive drumming to enter into trance
states. Inducing trance for healing is
associated with the Hindus of ancient India
taking their sick to sleep temples to be cured
by suggestions, as was the case in ancient
Egypt and Greece. Iba Sina Avicenna (9801037),a Persian psychologist and physician
was the first to make a distinction between
sleep and trance state.
Unconscious – Ancient to Present
• Pre-historically and cross-culturally, there has been
the idea that outside influences have an effect on
thinking and behavior, such as: the historic “causeeffect” beliefs of superstition, temptation, divine
intervention,inspiration and roles of gods influencing
motives and action across cultures. The Hindu texts
known as the Vedas referred to unconscious aspects
of mentality between 2500 and 600 BC.
• Paracelsus is credited as first to address the
unconscious aspect of cognition and is often
regarded as beginning modern scientific psychology
(Harms, E.,1967).
• Freud is most often associated with differentiating the
conscious mind (ego) and the unconscious mind as
consisting of the instincts (Id) and the Superego. The
unconscious mind was used to explain neurosis.
Unconscious Mind – Ancient to Present
Freud’s concepts have long been under considerable
research scrutiny and debate. The Freudian
unconscious mind appears to have now been preempted with the advent of brain-imaging allowing us to
study the workings of the brain as never before.
At issue is the degree to which cognitive processing
happens outside the scope of cognitive awareness and
how our senses trigger and influence our cognitions and
behavior. Cognitive research has revealed that
automatically, and clearly outside of conscious
awareness, individuals register and acquire more
information than they can experience through their
conscious thoughts (Augusto, L.M., 2010).
Presently, the Unconscious mind is thought to be about
90% of the mind’s activity and Conscious, about 10 %.
Brief History of Age Regression Using Hypnosis
Age Regression: Any technique that connects
present beliefs and behavior to the past and
past to the present and encourages insight.
Age Regression Techniques have ancient roots
in oral history, superstitions, religions, and are
most often purposeful in keeping order in the
social structure: “You reap what you sow!”
“Your past will come back and haunt you!”
“You’ll pay for your sins!” Historically, the
“insight” is likely to be shame, guilt, and fear–
ridden. Less-likely, is one viewed as
“deserving good” and more likely - discounted
to having “good luck” or a “lucky day!”
Age Regression and Clinical Hypnosis
The earliest semblance of directed Age Regression
appeared to be discovered by Marquis de Puysegur, a
disciple of Mesmer in the 18th century. He is now being
credited with one of the early “pre-scientific discovers of
Hypnosis” and could be rightfully called “the father of Age
Regression.”
In 1784, at the age of 33 years, the Marquis de
Puysegur discovered how to lead a client in to a
deep trance state he called “magnetic
somnambulism,” by using relaxation and calming
techniques. The term “somnambulism” is still widely
used among hypnotherapists today in reference to a
deep hypnotic trance state.
First - Deep Trance (Somnambulism)
• The Marquis de Puysegur was able to describe
three cardinal features of this deep trance state
or somnambulism; these were:
• Concentration of the senses on the operator
• Acceptance of suggestion from the therapist
• Amnesia for events in a trance
Instead of having his patients silent like Mesmer,
he would let them talk and have a dialogue with
them, and as a result, he focused his attention
on what happened to people in deep trance
state.
“While the patient was in a deep magnetic
sleep, the patient was asked (by de
Puysegur) to establish his/her own
diagnosis …and the form of his treatment .
. .He was also asked to predict the
development of his treatment: when he
would recover, when the attacks would
occur, etc. Thus was produced a kind of
psychodrama in which the patient caused
the magnetist to play a part in a series of
successive catharses.”
(Chertok, 1981)
• De Puysegur developed a set of principles:
– Convulsions were not necessary (contrary to
Mesmer).
– The “magnetist” needed to listen to the person
seeking relief
– Often the patient had to re-experience painful
feelings (Age Regression)
– Sessions had to be of regular frequency and
duration
– The Magnetist had to be neutral to the patient
– Symptoms might return temporarily.
Freud and Age Regression
• By the end of the 19th century, the effect of “prior
events” on behavior was of great interest to many
doctors, writers, and philosophers which included
Sigmund Freud. In his efforts to decipher the
meanings of hysterical symptoms and other
neglected mental phenomena that seemed beyond
conscious control (such as dreams and slips of the
tongue), Freud moved further and further away
from his neurological training: “The hysterical attack
corresponds to a memory from a patient’s life.”
(Freud, 1895).
• Freud became committed to the idea that
apparently meaningless behaviors actually
expressed unconscious conflict. He
developed techniques for determining what
the behaviors might mean. His beliefs were
that sexual conflict lay at the root (of
hysteria.)
Freud has a peculiar tendency to smuggle
sexual significance into all possible and
impossible dream contents.
Zeitschrift fur Psychologie, 1901
By 1909,Freud claimed to denounce hypnotism
for “Free Association” and instead called for
interpretation (by the analyst) of the seemingly
random thoughts of free association. (Freud,
1909) and promoted the analyst as the creator of
conditions in which patients could grasp the
significance of their symptoms using PsychoAnalysis and thereby free themselves from
illness.
Yet as many theorists are reflecting that Freud
was simply inducing a lighter trance than was
used by his predecessors and “that patients were
in continually varying states of trance as the free
associate on the couch.” (Rossi, 1988).
This light form of hypnosis requires much
more time for patient and psychoanalyst –
traditionally 5 times a week, was much
more lucrative for the analyst and then and
now, affordable only to the wealthy. It was
a definitive transfer of the interpretation of
the symptoms and troubling behavior from
the psychoanalyst to the patient – very
different from the patient-empowered
treatment method of de Puysegur.
Hypnotic-Based Age Regression Therapies
• Magnetic Somnambulism – Marquis de Puysegur
• Psychoanalysis – Sigmund Freud, MD
• Gestalt Therapy– Fritz Perls, MD
– Informal hypnosis/Parts representing the whole
• Psychodrama Therapy – Jacob & Zerka Moreno
– Informal hypnosis/Therapeutic drama
• Psychomotor Therapy – Al & Diane Pesso
– Informal hypnosis/Therapeutic drama
• Ego State Therapy – Helen & John Watkins
– Formal Hypnosis/ Ego states and Parts Therapy
• Ideomotor Response – Cheek & Ewin
– Formal Hypnosis/Directive Age Regression
• EMDR – Bandler, Grinder, Shapiro
– Informal Hypnosis/Directive Age Regression
Why Age Regression in
Induced Clinical Hypnosis?
•Allows for tapping directly into the Unconscious Mind
• Best facilitates identification and circumstances of
cause (s) and resultant beliefs and triggers.
•Provides direct access to the imprinted belief and ability
to “rescue” the abreacted part “stuck back in time”
•Enables the older self to provide “new information” to
“update” and “free” encoded beliefs and “rescue” the
“entrapped frozen part” which changes behavior or
reaction.
• The belief change work in Clinical Hypnosis directs the
treatment, cure, and healing.
Unconscious/Conscious Mind - Revisited
• The mind is a network of the brain – not a location.
• The unconscious mind represents about 90% of the
Mind’s activity (i.e., Conscious mind = about 10% ).
• The unconscious mind stores according to category
by all the 5 senses and chronologically with the most
recent usually being the most accessible.
• The unconscious tends to be very literal, primitive
and protective especially re. fear.
• The conscious mind is hundreds of milliseconds
behind the unconscious processes.
• It is the conscious mind that is being hypnotized in
order to have direct access to the unconscious mind
How Does Hypnotic
Age Regression Work?
• Hypnosis may be regarded as controlled
dissociation and may facilitate both the recovery
and working through of traumatic memories.
• Given that memories are stored according to mind
state – hypnosis helps the hypnotic self to travel
back in time to the first “imprinting or encoding”
event where the cause-effect belief was first
“imprinted or encoded”.
• Change the Belief - - Change the Perceptions - Change the Behavior/Feelings!
What About Memories?
• Once an event is perceived, it is recorded
in memory. This seems universally true at
all ages. Unaided, conscious recall of an
event may be inhibited or enhanced by
many factors, including: time, emotional
involvement and reinforcement and reenforcement. (Yager, E., 2009)
Memories - continued
• Discomforting or traumatic events tend to be the
most difficult to recall.
• Recall of an event can also be blocked by a
conscious belief that it cannot be remembered,
or by an unconscious protective influence.
• Memory aided by hypnosis may not be effective
in evading such blocks, depending upon many
factors, including the responsiveness of the
subject to hypnosis, the skill of the guide, and
severity of the experiences involved.
Pseudo-memories
• It is essential that anyone utilizing regressive
phenomena exercise all possible precautions
(use forensic protocol) to avoid the “recall” of
events that did not actually happen or events
that are the product of the subject’s imagination
• The occurrence of such pseudo-memories can
be avoided by careful wording of the
suggestions used to elicit the memories, such
as: “What was he wearing?” instead of – “Was
he wearing a jacket?”
Avoiding Pseudo - Memories
• A clinician’s suggestions should specifically
relate to the objective of the search, avoiding
implications for expected responses and
avoiding any demand for response.
• As has been conclusively demonstrated by
Pettinati (1988) and others. Memories retrieved
during the trance state tend to be strongly
perceived by the subject as real and actual,
sometimes in the face of evidence to the
contrary.
Avoiding Pseudo-memories:
• Such memories have the potential of serious
consequences, both to the patient and to the
therapist, if subsequently acted upon by the
patient as though they are real and actual.
(Yager,E., 2009)
• This is why Turner recommends utilizing the
Somatic -Affect Bridge and regressing to the
Imprinting event first – it has been encapsulated!
Allowing the patient to tell their story – thus,
avoiding the interrogating techniques which has
threatened to compromise hypnosis in the past.
Hypnosis is No More Distorting Than
Other Retrieval Methods
When hypnosis is used properly, there is no
evidence to suggest that it is any more likely to
contaminate memory than any other properly
used memory retrieval technique. Nonhypnotic
variables have been shown to produce
significant memory contaminations.
Hypnosis when used properly, does not appear
to make a unique contribution to the memory
contamination process (Hammond, 2004).
False Memory Syndrome Foundation
The False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF) was
founded in 1992 as an advocacy organization for
people claiming to be falsely accused of sexual abuse.
The founders and Executive Directors, Peter and
Pamela Freyd are psychiatrists who were publicly
exposed by their own daughter- Jennifer Freyd
(Professor of Psychology) of child abuse and rape.
The FMSF originated the terms ‘false memory
syndrome’ and ‘recovered memory therapy.’ Neither
term is acknowledged by the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders, but are included in public
advisory guidelines relating to mental health.
There is No False Memory Syndrome
False Memory Syndrome did not evolve from clinical
studies, but instead it is based on the alleged
accounts of parents claiming to be falsely accused
of sexual abuse with no evidence to the contrary.
The FMSF has been criticized for misrepresenting
themselves, the science of memory, selectively
quoting the science of memory, protecting child
abusers and encouraging a societal denial of the
existence of child sexual abuse. (Wikipedia.org,
2011).
The Board Members regularly are paid “expert
witnesses “ as part of the defense teams for people
accused of child abuse and other crimes.
Hypnosis Age Regression Targeted
A major target of the False Memory Syndrome
Foundation has been the practice of Age Regression
in Hypnosis because it allows suppressed and
repressed traumatic memories to surface, thereby
increasing the risk of more child abuse court cases
against the perpetrators. Their negative public
relations campaign has successfully caused most
states in the US hold that a person who has been
hypnotized cannot testify in court about anything
remembered during or after hypnosis.
Meanwhile, testimony is allowed for individuals who
are convicted pedaphiles, schizophrenic,
narcoleptic, drug and alcohol addicted and sexual
and physical abusers. These laws need to be
reversed!
Hypnosis Consent Form
• (Please see the Sample Informed Consent
Document Recommended in Appendix A,
Clinical Hypnosis and Memory: Guidelines
For Clinicians and For Forensic Hypnosis,
(Hammond, 2004).
More on Memory Storage
• Traumas are stored according to category
• There can be cross-category storage, ie. fear &
sadness for the same event – but one is primary.
• The events are stored chronic logically – “from womb
to tomb.” (The earliest childhood memories in US
tend to cluster around 40 months and nearer to 60
months in China) Smith, 2005).
• A baby develops a sense of mind other than its own
at about 18 months (Eliot, 2000). Turner and Ewin
have documented statements of Shame trauma as
early as intra-utero (especially for unplanned
pregnancies and being the “wrong sex!”) recalled by
a number of patients/clients in the hypnotic state.
(Turner,2008 & Ewin, 2010).
More on Memory Storage
• Highly traumatic events can become
available in Clinical Hypnosis, such as trauma
in-utero and sexual abuse during infancy. The
Unconscious Mind can describe or physically
replicate the event in trance as if, it were
happening now (re-vivication or abreaction)
or as if, the patient were a bystander
watching and sensing the event
(hypermnesia), which is the posture Turner
prefers to encourage – re-injury is avoided.
• The neuroscientists find that the amygdala
seems particularly involved in aggression,
fear, anxiety, and worry. The amygdala is
closely connected to the frontal lobes which
manage impulsivity, long-term planning,
discrimination and fine judgment, and goal
setting. There are more connections from
the limbic system up into the cortex than in
the reverse direction, and there are more
connections from the frontal lobes into the
amygdala than from any other part of the
brain. (Smith, 2004).
THE CIRCUITS OF THE BODY'S
ALARM SYSTEM
Amygdala: Trojan Mouse of Motivation
• The Amygdala is part of the limbic system
located in the Mid-brain, which coordinates
survival responses and is responsible for
emotional arousal and memory. The amygdala
has been described as “the Trojan mouse of
motivation: Upon this small site, all else
depends. It plays a powerful part in labeling or
tagging an experience as significant. Once an
experience has been tagged, we respond
thereafter in very different ways (Smith, 2004).
• In other words, – it (the cause/effect) becomes
an Imprinted Belief and we therefore respond
accordingly!
Imprinting the Fear Response
in the Mind/Body
• Prefrontal Brain – perceives the environment
• Amygdala in Midbrain – links perceptions to
emotions – it is now considered center of the
fear process if deemed dangerous- the event
is “encoded” by the amygdala and any
subsequent perception of the same or
likeness will trigger a similar emotional
response automatically ( unconsciously).
Beliefs Control Biology (Lipton,B, 2008)
• A trauma is “encoded” through a process of
neuropeptide activity that encases the event in total
with all of its senses including immediate prior
trauma events that are now associated as the
cause. ( Lipton, B., 2008)
• The “prior trauma events” can be up to 15 minutes
prior to the trauma happening - this can include
laughing and having fun, snow falling, a cold
temperature –just prior to the dog bite, accident, or
news of death, etc.- the prior events and post
events up to 15 minutes after the event can, and
often do, become “triggers” to the mind/body
emotional responses. This encasement is not
unlike the “swelling” providing “protection”
surrounding a physical trauma.(Turner,M., 2010)
“There is only one way to change beliefswith new information!”
• The “encoded trauma” is then stored in the
lateral nucleus periaqueductal gray region (seat
of immobility) of the midbrain. There is only
one way in to change the belief(s) of the
encoded trauma - that is with new information.
• Turner has identified that the “new information”
has to be deemed creditable by the “encased
part” and be delivered by a believable, trusted
source. She recommends “in deep trance,
utilizing age regression techniques, that the
individual in hypnosis be coached to be that
“believable” source and become the “rescuer”
to “lift the imprint” and the triggers. She calls
this the “Rescue Mission” (2001).
Intelligent Cells
• Mind and body become one as
neuropeptides chemically
communicate emotions, thought, and
beliefs to cells. The “mobile brain”
translates intelligent information from
one system to another – profoundly
influencing how we respond to and
experience our world. (Pert,C.,1997)
Intelligent Systems
• It is now become more and more accepted
by neuroscientists that emotions are “the
result of multiple brain and body systems
that are distributed over the whole person”
and that “we cannot separate emotion
from cognition or cognition from the body”
(Ratey,J. 2001)
Emotions Stored In The Body
• “Intelligent Cells” appears to be a new
frontier. “Intelligent cells” are for real and
often appear to “cluster.”
• For years – physical symptoms have been
ascribed a “stress” response such as
colds, stomach aches, ulcers, colitis,
Irritable Bowel Syndrome, migraine
headaches –without an adequate
explanation of “why.” Utilizing hypnosis –
the “whys and wherefores” are unfolding.
The Intelligent Body: Where do we store
memory feelings in our body ?
Turner (2009,2011) has asked over 1000 individuals in trance:
Negative feelings:
• Forehead = Fear of Safety
• Eyes = Sadness
• Jaw = Anger
• Chest = Fear or Anger - Heavy and Heart Pounding Fast
(Flight/Fight Response)
Sadness = heavy hearted
• Upper Abdomen = Shame appears to be stored separate
from guilt. Shame has a public aspect to it – “imagined or
real” people viewing an embarrassing event. It can include
“what if” my parents knew and is further complicated if it is
“a secret” and/or held from intra-uterine - childhood.
• Upper Abdomen = Low Self - Worthiness
tied in with Shame and “feels heavy.”
• Lower Abdomen = Low Self-Esteem/
Deservingness (tied in with Guilt and Low
self-worth and stored in Lower Abdomen
• Pelvic area, Vagina/Penis = Sexual & Tied
in with other fear storage connections
• *** When one’s face, hands, or legs are
part of the feeling – it is likely the individual
will go right to the specific imprint event.
Positive Feelings:
• Heart felt = joy and can be a full-body response
• Light Chest = happy
• Back of throat = “giggling place.”
Both positive and negative feelings tend to be stored in
separate clusters
An “all over” body sensation is usually an Infant
Memory.
This information has compiled by Maureen Turner as a
result of over 12,000 Age Regressions using the
Somatic-Affect Bridge Technique and asking “where”
the feeling or urge “lived” in the head and body (2010).
The Making of a Fear
Response Imprint /Memory
• Since most imprints occur in
childhood – the child is dependent
upon the adult or older child to define
the danger and response. Children
believe what they are told, and in
danger – do what they are told.
Beliefs make sense
• Beliefs provide for protection and
mastery over one’s environment. The
belief dictates the behavior
accordingly – “if this, then that.”
• Once beliefs are encoded, so is the
habitual response (physical and
emotional response).
Mind/Body Example:
• Anxiety – a mind/body fear response
to a perception of danger.
• This response becomes the “default
(or ‘automatic’ or ‘unconscious’)
response” to the danger stimuli - until
and when - new information is
sufficient to change the response.
First Mind/Body Response to Fear
• Normal Freeze – stop, turn toward the
source of threat, assess if in danger
or safe – within .10 seconds
(Amygdala) and decides to Fight,
Flight, or Fright (Abnormal Freeze)
within an average of .25 seconds
• Fight = Anxiety Reaction
• Flight = Anxiety Reaction
• Fright/Freeze = Panic/Phobic
Reaction/Dissociation
Fright/Freeze Response
• Fright (Abnormal Freeze/Dissociation) –
inhibition of action (tonic immobility)
meaning resigned acceptance of this new,
unpleasant situation. This may enhance
survival and is therefore adaptive when
there is no perceived possibility of
escaping/ winning a fight.
Dissociation= Abnormal Freeze Response
• Acknowledging that the Abnormal Freeze
Response is “one and the same” as the
phenomenon labeled “dissociation” is critical
in the understanding needed by the clinician
to “undo” the dissociation or “abnormal
Freeze Response” which can happens within
.25 seconds of the assessment of the
frightening experience, automatically. If it is
the first time of the frightening experience –
an imprint is created – taking in up to the first
15 minutes before and after the “fright” and a
new belief is set with a dissociative response.
Freeze, Fight, Flight, Fright,
Faint
• Faint – Feeling faint and fainting.
Most associated with the BloodInjection-Injury Type Specific phobia
(BIITS phobia/ “Vaso-vagal Episode”)
which may have a genetic base.
(Bracha et all, 2004; Bracha, 2003)
Conscious or Unconscious Memory?
Because most imprints/beliefs (positive and
negative) are “set” by the time a child is five,
many “first imprinting” experience are not
available to the “conscious memory.” Most
people can re-call major events and some
minor details easily from age 4 or 5 years old.
In hypnosis, it is not unusual for the
“unconscious” to have memory from in utero.
(Example: A failed abortion attempt with knitting
needles memory captured on video with patient
re-experiencing fear response in hypnosis).
Hypnosis:
Beliefs,Emotions,Behavior
Change
• Most basic beliefs are established
by the time a child is 5 years old.
• Basic beliefs (positive and
negative) are “cause-effect” in
outcome.
The Making of a Fear
Response Imprint
• Since most imprints occur in
childhood – the child is dependent
upon the adult or older child to define
the danger and response. Children
believe what they are told, and in
danger – do what they are told.
Treating the Cause and Extinguishing
the Symptoms
Most often the first Imprinting Cause of
Symptoms is a Fear Response to a
real or perceived danger:
(Turner, 2010)
Fear Response
» A little fear = Nervousness
» More fear = Anxiousness
» Much More fear = Panic
» Much, Much, More fear = Freeze
(Dissociation)
» Much, Much, More fearful and/or
Genetically Vulnerable = Faint
Triggers are Associated with The Belief
Cause and Effect
• Given that the Neuropeptides encode the
imprint with events up to 15 minutes prior and
after the trauma - any sound, vision, smell,
taste, feeling can be associated with the “bad
thing that happened” and be a warning sign or
trigger, even if experienced vicariously through
a movie, hearsay, or imagined.
• If a child was triggered frequently by parents
yelling and fighting, for ex., a Generalized
Anxiety Disorder or constant anticipatory fear
can result.
Only New Information can be transmitted to
the Lateral Nucleus
• Only new information is able to penetrate the
encoded fortress of the Lateral Nucleus which
is protecting the traumatic event and that part of
the ego state that is trapped in there. (Very
important to note, it is truly trapped and this is
why just “talk therapy” often does not work.
Turner finds that it usually takes a deep
hypnotic state (ie. Somnambulism) to reach
these beliefs stored in the “seat of immobility.”
• Turner has developed a technique to creditably deliver
“new information” to re-code the event to past history
Trauma =Trigger
– Trauma event memory is stored in the lateral
nucleus – therefore, all information from the
outside world is screened for trauma event
triggers before it even gets to the amygdala
– If the lateral nucleus is “triggered” – this is
communicated to the amygdala which then
interprets what level of fear (anxiety reaction)
to effect.
– Once triggered, the encased, encoded
“traumatized part” has no knowege past the
imprinting event – it is “stuck in trauma!”
Let’s re-visit: “There is only one way to
change beliefs- with new information!”
• The “encoded trauma” is then stored in the
lateral nucleus periaqueductal gray region (seat
of immobility) of the midbrain. There is only
one way in to change the belief(s) of the
encoded trauma - that is with new information.
• Turner has identified that the “new information”
has to be deemed creditable by the “encased
part” and be delivered by a believable, trusted
source. She recommends “in deep trance,
utilizing age regression techniques, that the
individual in hypnosis be coached to be that
“believable” source and become the “rescuer”
to “lift the imprint” and the triggers. She calls
this the “Rescue Mission” (2001).
Turner’s Rescue Mission
• The individual must trust the “messenger
of the new information” ie. “rescuer”, or
they will not trust the new information, i.e.
“that was then, this is now!”)
• Any subsequent event that reminds the
lateral nucleus of the original “encoded”
event is stored in the same or near-by file
and can be freed at the same time
(Turner, 2010).
Imprints and Their Counterparts
• Once identifying the imprinting event and bringing
current information to the traumatized part (not
unlike finding a WWII Vet on a remote island who
thinks the war is still going on), the mind/body
connections begin to free up and and feel “free!”
However, it is very rare for an imprint to be alone in
storage – Turner’s Rescue Mission includes a
summoning of any and all parts that know just what
the imprinted part “felt like.” Typically, at least 8-10
“parts of similar circumstances” gather and are
easily released having witnessed the update given
to the initial imprinted part. The symptoms are often
eradicated with this imprint and counterpart release.
De-Coding, Un-coding, then Changing
Beliefs
• By providing new information to the encoded
belief – enables change to the belief system
which changes the response. New information
can be real or imagined:
– using teaching metaphors that match,
– imagining a future progression (when a negative
behavior is no longer a problem),
– giving direct suggestions which address the belief
(s), emotion, and behavior (s).
– employing Turner’s Rescue Mission Techniques
to ensure the belief system is updated to the
present reality
How do you tell the Imprint Part
from a Related Fragment Part?
• Turner has asked hundreds of patients – “what
does she/he look like?” “feel like?”
• If it is the Imprint (i.e., Dissociated at Fright) –
it will be an In-time Abreacted “Re-vivication” or
as seen, felt as viewed and felt as the older self in
deep trance describes it in “hypermnesia” as an
informed by-stander who knows the players,
which house/apt. the event has just occurred. In
either form, neither will recognize the older self or
have any sense of future beyond the trauma.
The Related Fragment Parts will
Know You!
If in age regressing, the stored part of the
event that “pops up” recognizes the patient
or “knows he/she grew up” – do not discard
– release the discovered Related Fragment
Part using Turner’s Rescue Mission
Technique – and utilize to go to a younger
part – the same session or the next,
depending upon the time available.
Peeling Away at the Layers of Belief
Clusters
• Turner has found in over 1000 cases to date that
there often is more than one imprint affecting
belief and behavior and it appears to have a
layered effect. A stutterer, for instance, may
have started the “stutter” as a result of a fearful
situation that also had a “embarassing” aspect
to it and imprinted Shame as a result, along with
a Fear. Turner would do a separate “Rescue”
each of those imprints, typically using a session
for each one.
OCD as Layered Trauma
Cluster Imprints
Experiencing a house fire as a child, could
have imprints of Fear, Sadness, and
Anger, for instance. She has treated a
number of OCD cases successfully that
have needed to have several layers of
imprints removed. The ObsessiveCompulsive behavior was reduced
immediately after the first imprint was
disconnected as was it with the 2nd and 3rd
imprint disconnect. The OCD is typically
extinct by the 4th or 5th treatment.
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An Overview of Age Regression
Techniques
Affect Bridge
Calendar Technique
Library Technique
Time Machine
Ideomotor Signaling
EMDR
Meeting Room Technique Adapted (Turner,
2011)
• Somatic-Affect Bridge (Turner, 2001)
• Rescue Mission/Belief Change/Parts
Integration (Turner, 1996, 2010,2011, 12)
Hypnotic Methods of Facilitating Age
Regression (to Imprint) Include:
• Affect Bridge – using a “feeling” to get to cause
Age-old method – often will regress to a fragment
not “imprint.”
• Calendar Technique – using time, date, event –
Very effective to search for “anniversary reactions.”
• Library Technique – imagine “library of your mind”
and imagine you can find a book on ______
• Time Machine – “imagine traveling back in time”
• Ideomotor Signaling – Deep trance/psychosomatic
7 questions to elucidate “imprint” and re-vivication
• EMDR – Light trance eye movement – re-vivication
Turner Preferred Techniques:
• Meeting Room Technique Adapted (2010):
Inviting all parts with an opinion – pro, against,
neutral – to a large table with patient at head
and others on Left, Right, and other end of table
Very Helpful to Assess extent of resistance
• Somatic-Affect Bridge (Turner, 2001) Using
Mind and body to regress to “first time” – most
efficient and effective means to find the Imprint
• Rescue Mission/Belief Change/Parts Integration
Most efficient for healing and re-integration
(Turner, 1996, 2010,2011, 12)
Cross-Age, Gender, Cultural Pattern of
Imprinting Behavior and Rescue
In the past 17 years of practicing Clinical
Hypnosis, Turner has utilized the Rescue
Mission Technique in over 13,000 sessions
with over 1200 male and female individuals of
23 different languages of origin to date. The
youngest patient was 9 yrs. old and oldest so
far was 85 and about 60% were females and
40% males, The responses are reliable and
predictable.
Clinical Hypnosis – Changes in
Paradigms
l Clinical Hypnotherapist as Diagnostician –
no longer just treating symptoms.
l Patient/Client as colleague on the team
l Clinician and Patient/Client attaining an
appropriate “Working understanding” of:
– the new Brain research on Mind/Body
– Unconscious and Conscious Minds
– Belief Change = Behavior Change
Identifying Contra-Indications
for conducting Age regression
Situations such as:
• Thought Disorders
• Inadequate ego strength
• Medically impaired Patients
• Where an abreaction might pose risk to health
• Without permission of the Patient and,
• When there is no adequate time to be reviewed.
References
Augusto, L.M.(2010). Unconscious Knowledge: A Survey.
Advances in Cognitive Psychology 6: 116-141. doi:
10.2478/v10053-0081-5.
Braid, James (1845-46). Magic, Mesmerism, Hypnotism, etc.,
Historically and Physiologically Considered. England.
Braid, James (1846). The Power of the Mind over the Body:
An Experimental Inquiry into the nature and acuse of the
Phenomena attributed by Baron Reichenbach and others to
a “New Imponderable-Hypnosis explained.”
Hammond, D.C., Garver, R.B., Mutter,C.B. et al. (2008).
Clinical Hypnosis and Memory: Guidelines For Clinicians
and For Forensic Hypnosis (Third Printing). American
Society of Clinical Hypnosis: Education & Research
Foundation, pp.48-49.
References
Hammond, D.C. and Elkins, G. (2005). Standards of
Training in Clinical Hypnosis. Illinois: American
Society of Clinical Hypnosis Press.
Harms, Ernest (1967). Origins of Modern
Psychiatry. Thomas ASIN: B000NR852U.
Smith, (2005),The Brain’s Behind It,
Turner, M. (1995-2012). Private Clinical Hypnosis
Practice, Case Presentations. (Unpublished
Turner, M. (2010,11) Age Regression in Clinical
Hypnosis: History, Theory, Techniques,
Demonstrations & Practice History, Theory,
Techniques, Demonstrations & Practice Workshop
Manual. 15 CEU ASCH Approved Advanced Course
Yager, E., Foundations of Clinical Hypnosis, 2009)