hypnosis for trauma and ptsd

Remember Kate Winslet’s crazy hair in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? I loved it. I also loved the concept of all of our painful memories being surgically erased.

Yes, our experience and the pain we went through have made us who we are today, and of course they brought resilience and resourcefulness, but imagine how it would be to never remember the most painful, shameful things that happened and to live life free of that dead weight.

Is past really in the past?

For many of the individuals I work with, the past is not just “back there”, it feels like it is happening right now. (This is one of the curious features of trauma recall. Years or decades later, the brain of individuals with PTSD is functioning as if the traumatic event is still ongoing. See the book The Body Keeps the Score for more detail.)

Most of us view our memories as permanent records, like a video stored on a hard drive.
However, few realize how malleable memory truly is. I know it sounds crazy because of how counterintuitive this is, but every time we recall a memory, we are not just “viewing” it; we are actually reconstructing it.

A single event can turn your life “upside down,” fundamentally changing how you view yourself and the world.

Think of a child who was publicly shamed or insulted in school. Even decades later, that person might feel:
• Withdrawn and disconnected
• Plagued by self-doubt and “not feeling enough”
• Struggling to trust others in relationships or career

The tragedy is that recalling these memories often causes further retraumatization.

Simply thinking about the event can trigger intense emotions that feel impossible to manage.

You know rationally the event is over, but your nervous system has not received the memo.

And it is not “just in your head”. The brain does not know the difference between what is happening and our imagination and or memory recollection. This is why remembering a happy day at the beach makes you smile, and remembering a stressful event makes your heart pound. Your body releases the hormones as if what you are imagining or remembering is happening right now.

Hypnosis for traumatic memories and reimprinting for your “spotless mind”.

Every time we live through an event that leaves a strong memory, be it a happy day at the beach or a date gone horribly wrong, our mind automatically considers this important and stores it in our long term memory. In some cases, we may remember minute details about the day in question, such as the weather, what we were wearing, and what song was playing. This is called “imprinting”.

Reimprinting is a safe, evidence based NLP and hypnotic process designed to change how a memory is stored in your mind. Instead of trying to delete the past, we “transform” it by bringing in the resources and skills that were missing during the original event. This is a powerful clinical modality where we work in a deep hypnotic state.

Healing from Trauma and PTSD

Reimprinting helps you heal from the past by breaking the “broken record” of trauma. After a successful session, many clients find it tough to even recollect the exact original event. Instead, the new, transformed version is what keeps playing in their mind.

This is how we overcome PTSD and limiting beliefs: by addressing the root beliefs formed during the trauma. Through “future pacing,” we then look at how your life will change now that you are no longer governed by that old version of history. Most clients see significant improvement in just 4 to 6 sessions.

While reimprinting works through the power of your imagination and intuition in hypnosis, neuroscience is proving that this is not just “make believe.” Steve Ramirez, a neuroscientist at Boston University, has conducted groundbreaking research on memory manipulation. By identifying specific clusters of neurons called “engrams,” his work has shown that it is possible to artificially trigger positive memories to help suppress the pain of negative ones. His research confirms what we see in the therapy room: our memories are biological processes that can be updated and rewritten to help us feel like ourselves again.

If you are ready to stop being triggered by your past and start moving forward, book a consultation and let’s begin your journey back to yourself.