Overcome Trauma with Hypnotherapy and Rewind Trauma Therapy
Click for details of Sense-Ability Hypnotherapy & Coaching therapies for trauma including Rewind Trauma Therapy. Rewind is also known as ‘the closure without disclosure method’. There is no need to recount your traumas to resolve them.
Can I recover from trauma?
The short answer is yes.
It’s possible to resolve traumas; even complex traumas that have developed as a result of long term abuse or neglect.
Whether a single event trauma or a deep rooted complex trauma, it is possible to heal.
Some of today’s most effective therapies to process trauma are Rewind Trauma Therapy and Solution Focused Brief Therapy combined with Hypnotherapy known as Solution Focused Hypnotherapy.
The impact of single event traumas - car accidents, explosions, mugging etc - can usually be resolved, or significantly reduced, in one to two sessions with Rewind Trauma Therapy.
What is a trauma?
A trauma is an event, series of events or enduring situation in which someone:
can’t fully process unusual and intense emotional experiences or,
experiences (subjectively) a threat to life, bodily integrity or sanity.
What is a trauma?
If Lewis Hamilton had a crash, he is unlikely to be traumatised. His reflexes, experience, knowledge and training mean he is able to process what has happened.
If you or I had the same crash at the same speed, we are highly likely to be overwhelmed by events, possibly recovering over time naturally, or finding the overwhelming experience becomes embedded and we are unable to drive or even be a passenger again.
Are Phobias Traumas?
Phobias are similar to traumas and can be treated in a similar way. Some phobias might be linked to a traumatic event or events. Others may have developed over time.
You can also recover from phobias that are linked to traumas, including complex phobias like emetophobia (fear of vomiting) and misophobia (fear of hearing people eat) as well as simple phobias like spiders, birds or insects.
Sense-Abilities Therapies for Trauma
Jane Pendry at Sense-Ability is a compassioniate and supportive therapist who can support you through your journey to recovery. No disclosure needed. No analysis. No unwanted advice.
Complementary Healing
Solution Focused approaches and Rewind Trauma Therapy are complementary therapeutic interventions that help to resolve traumas and rebuild lives. For some, these approaches have been successfully used to treat PTSD and CPTSD painlessly without the need to disclose the trauma.
As someone who has suffered from a childhood which involved grief and trauma, the most effective therapies I have found were Solution Focused approaches. So I trained with the intention of helping clients who experience any form of anxiety, particularly those who have suffered neglect, abuse, or experienced trauma.
“Jane Pendry at Sense-Ability is a compassioniate and supportive therapist who can support you through your journey to recovery. No disclosure needed. No analysis. No unwanted advice.”
Case Studies
How do you know you are suffering from trauma?
Here I include three case studies: She, who overcame trauma related to her childhood; Helen who resolved traumas related to postpartum psychosis, and the sudden death of her husband and, Julie who recovered from misophonia (fear of hearing people eat) linked to childhood neglect and emotional abuse and who continues to peel back layers of more serious embedded traumas.
How do you know you are suffering from a trauma or traumas?
Do you remember last Christmas? Your last holiday? What you did at the weekend?
You may have to think about it.
Traumas are deeply etched on the mind
A trauma is so deeply etched on the mind, you don’t struggle to remember it. You struggle to forget it. You remember the emotions as if the event or events had just happened.
No amount of talking, understanding or explaining resolves the trauma. Intense experiential memories have become locked in the amygdala – the fight, flight, fright part of the brain. When apparently unrelated events or ‘triggers’ cause the original trauma to be relived vividly and instantly.
It is important to be validated and heard. Once someone trusted says, “I hear you; I believe you; you are not fatally flawed just a normal person who responded in a normal way to abnormal events,” you open the door to healing.
When talking brings no relief
Talking about your trauma brings a degree of instant relief. But how many of those reading this recognise that telling their story – which may have taken years to confront – didn’t free them from their trauma? How many recognise they are stuck in a loop of seeking reassurance, talking, analysing and repeating the trauma by choosing inappropriate partners, being addicted to drama in some way, or self-medicating?
How reassuring to know you can break the patterns that keep you trapped in trauma.
Single Event traumas and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Single event traumas – a car accident, robbery or explosion – can have a lasting impact. Although debilitating, these traumas are the simplest to resolve with RTT. Even complex traumas can be treated although recovering from deep trauma may take time, patience, faith and commitment; a journey that needs different approaches at different times.
Ongoing trauma
Ongoing trauma as a result of child abuse, domestic violence, bullying, military trauma, boarding school syndrome or racism can all have a more profound impact. Sometimes, these traumas lie buried until they are triggered by unexpected events like coronavirus, a news reports on racist or terrorist attacks or a bullying boss.
Physical and mental health, careers, finances and relationships can be affected. Sometimes, multi-agency support might be needed. However, Sense-Ability therapies can have a profound and positive impact in moving client’s lives forward painlessly, without even the need to disclose traumas.
What is Rewind Trauma Therapy?
Rewind Trauma Therapy (RTT) allows overwhelming sensory memories to be converted to narrative memories.
How do you know you are suffering from a trauma or traumas?
When we are traumatised, overpowering emotions get ‘stuck’. Every day, or whenever we are triggered, we are flooded with the original emotions. We remember every detail of the events that took place; or we are dissociated from the events but recall the powerful emotions whenever we are reminded (triggered).
The Impact of Events Scale
Prior to each Rewind session clients measure their trauma through an Impact of Events Scale (IES). This enables me to identify the impact of the trauma before and after treatment and to know how effective the treatment was.
Clients might undertake two or more sessions to remove embedded traumas. More complex traumas might include a course of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy to support them as they discover the authentic person that lies beneath, and rebuild their lives, careers and relationships as they resolve their traumas.
RTT helps to remove triggers and supports clients to become more stable
Rewind Trauma Therapy* and Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can support recovery from long term mental illness linked to trauma. RTT helps to remove triggers and supports clients to become more stable, rebuild their mental health and gently and incrementally help them move their lives forward at their own pace. Where necessary, I liaise with my client’s psychiatrists or other medical health professionals, to ensure I am supporting a wider treatment plan.
How effective is Rewind Trauma Therapy?
Dr Muss, who developed Rewind Trauma Therapy over 30 years explains: “The Rewind is different from other imaginal exposure therapies because no details are disclosed to the therapist. Hence the treatment is known as "closure without disclosure".
Dr Muss, previously Director of the PTSD Unit at the BMI Edgebaston Hopsital, Birmingham, developed techniques to minimise the chances of being re-traumatised. He explains that Rewind Trauma Therapy is about 80% effective on average according to preliminary trials held at Cardiff University and his own experience.
She’s Story - Childhood Emotional Abuse
She recognised the personal trauma that sometimes had hampered her. Intellectually curious and reflective, She had a firm grasp on the aspects of her childhood that had left her with self-doubt and trust issues. She was aware talking therapies were not going to resolve these issues.
The impact of being shamed as a young child had a lasting impact. Intelligent, experienced and hard-working, She was set to launch a series of collated beauty brands under the The She Effect brand.
“I now feel able to take on the challenges ahead with confidence and self-belief.”
Childhood Trauma held She back
With a firm grasp on the sales process, branding, positioning and the complexities of the market, She now needed to close deals with some of our best known retail brands. She needed to negotiate with confidence, build trust with business partners and really believe she was ‘good enough’ to succeed. Her childhood trauma was holding her back.
A positive resolution
After two sessions of RTT, She felt deep seated emotional triggers had been released. She said, “I feel free. I have resolved the insecurities that were blocking some key business decisions I had to make.
”After therapy, when I think about the pain and hurt I had experienced as a child and carried with me, it felt as if the traumatic events had taken place in a movie. I felt no animosity, no hurt, no anger and no shame. It was as if the pain had been transformed into a normal memory so it can’t be triggered anymore. I now feel able to take on the challenges ahead with confidence and self-belief.”
To understand She’s transformation, we need to understand what is happening in the brain.
How does Rewind Trauma Therapy WORK?
Rewind Trauma Therapy allows the traumatised person to reprocess traumatic memories so they can be stored in the right part of the mind without the intense emotions previously associated with them. The trauma victim remembers the events if they want to, but the event no longer triggers terror or intense fear.
The trauma victim remembers the events if they want to, but the event no longer triggers terror or intense fear.
The amygdala is an almond shaped part of the brain that alerts us to danger and stimulates the body's 'fight or fight' reaction. Rewind Trauma Therapy aims to ‘disconnect’ feelings of being overwhelmed, terrified or distressed by moving them from the amygdala, where they are stored as a sensory memory, to the hippocampus, where they are stored as narrative memories over which we have control.
Life threatening experiences (car accidents, bomb attacks, childbirth), especially those repeated over and over again (child abuse, domestic abuse, captivity, coercive control), can stay trapped in the amygdala.
What does Rewind Trauma Therapy involve?
The best thing about Rewind Trauma Therapy is that you don’t need to tell me about the trauma (if it helps you to do so, or your feel you need to, I will listen, validate and support but it isn’t an active part of the therapy).
The technique involves making an imaginary ‘film’ of the event – seeing yourself in the film helps you not re-experience trauma.
I ensure you are relaxed and help you to create an imaginary cinema. I give you the imaginary controls to forward and rewind the film you are about to create. This puts you in control. Then you become your own Hitchcock (after all your film is dramatic).
Single incident trauma
If the trauma relates to one incident, a detailed film of that incident is created. The starting point is always an ‘okay’ or normal place and the film is rewound to that safe space. I ask, “Did you witness the event or events? Or were you the victim? Did you imagine something worse was going to happen?” These questions help me identify how you need to frame your film, and your Rewind.
More complex traumas
In the case of ongoing trauma or enduring trauma, for example when a relationship has been abusive, the film is ‘edited’ and includes a scene from the first and last memories of the abuse, with a significant scene in the middle. The film always starts and finishes with your ‘okay’ or normal place. Seeing this film, and oneself in it (rather than looking through your own eyes) creates a certain distance and minimises, usually prevents, any re-experiencing of the abuse.
Clients report mostly feeling tired by the process rather than re-traumatised.
The film is run forwards, and rewound backwards at speed; the nature of the trauma determines how this is done. The Rewind process changes the programme people run in their minds when their trauma is triggered.
After Rewind, the film becomes, frankly, boring. That’s just what we want. Often the eyes flicker involuntarily as they do during REM dream sleep. That’s no coincidence. The emotions linked to traumatic events are being processed and disconnected from the memories of the events. We can recall what happened but the the overwhelming sense of terror has been diminished and dissipated until it finally disappears.
Helen’s Story – Protracted Grief and fear of loss
Helen had two significant adult experiences that haunted her days. One was the dramatic death of her husband, Bill, who died in front of her just as she thought he would recover. The other was post-partum psychosis bought on by a long and difficult labour.
These two traumas needed to be treated separately of course, so Helen’s first film featured her seeing herself and her husband in the hospital room. She was carrying a pot of daffodils about to bloom and a pork pie. This became her normal okay starting point. The speed with which Bill went in to cardiac arrest, with Helen being pulled aside so the staff could resuscitate left Helen stuck in the loop.
Bill and Helen were soul mates. When they were married, Helen already had two children. Her third, with Bill, was aged 3 when he died.
The Impact of Rewind
The loss was so sudden, so dramatic and so absolute that Helen found it hard to move on. However, following Rewind Helen reported, “I find myself winding back to the pot of daffodils and when things felt okay. I no longer feel ambushed by feelings of overwhelming grief. Nor do I have to repeat the story of his death, which never left my consciousness. It means I can get on with my life.” A few weeks later Helen briefly dated and she has found she can recall happier times.
The postpartum psychosis left a more subtle scar. Whenever Helen’s children left the house for any reason, she felt bereft and at a loss. Following Rewind Trauma Therapy for this issue, Helen found she could cope much better with her children going back to university, or leaving the house for any reason. The connection between an irrational fear of loss, rooted in real experience, and everyday comings and goings was broken. It was one less trauma to carry.
Helen said, “You have made so much difference. Since the Rewinds I feel so much more able to cope. My mood is more stable and I rarely feel I am being drawn in to a vortex of profound anxiety in the way that I did. Thank you.”
Julie’s Story – Emotional Neglect and MisophoNIA
Creating the foundation for a new preferred future.
For Julie, her misophonia - defined as extreme sensitivity to certain sounds, often evoking intense emotional responses ‘ - was negatively impacting her life.
Julie explained, “I developed misophonia when I was about 7 years old. I had a clear memory of how it began. It wasn’t straightforward; it was entangled with my mother and the corresponding feelings of powerlessness, rage, and impotence. I had suffered from this phobia around hearing and seeing other people eat for 44 years. It was gradually and slowly worsening every year. As a clinical lead in the NHS, I had to ask my team to not eat during meetings because if they did, I could not focus on anything else. I had to leave the room when my husband ate anything at home. When I made myself sit through it, I wanted to physically attack the eater.”
After the first session of Rewind Trauma Therapy, Julie said, “During those two weeks [between sessions], I noticed I wasn’t experiencing any triggers around eating. I thought this was a bit odd, but it was hard to shift my scepticism. So I asked my husband to sit next to me and chew on something very crunchy. He obliged, and I had no visceral reaction at all. Just nothing. I was stunned. I could not believe it. I started to deliberately put myself in all kinds of situations which would normally have triggered me, but the absence of reaction continued.”
Resolving traumas in layers
This extraordinary result was not going to solve Julie’s problems all at once – she had embedded years of trauma – but having tackled this issue that had been blighting her life daily, she grew confident we could look at more profound issues.
Julie focused on a trauma she thought relatively mild, but which was actually debilitating. Julie explained, “The feeling of being ignored, unseen, unheard, or not received - especially when distressed,” and led to crippling depressive and anxious episodes. She related this to some specific incidents – but we both recognised that identifying trauma from what didn’t happen, is rather trickier than identifying trauma from what has happened. Nevertheless, Julie found specific memories that related to being unheard and ignored that we could work with.
Rare Abreactions - strong emotional responses
Julie explained, “We did the Rewind session, but I was not prepared for my reaction. Despite consciously attempting to dissociate from the feelings invoked by the memories, I was overwhelmed by deep distress.” She identified that was not so due to reliving the trauma, which remained dissociated, but uncovering the strong emotions that lay beneath. “I cried for a long time afterwards. Jane did another session free of charge the following day, so that I was not left alone with the distress. This time I felt nothing at all.”
For Julie the huge emotional reaction, which was very unusual for her, was cleansing. She had to feel the pain and grief fully following the Rewind. It’s important when undertaking Rewind Therapy or hypnotherapy remotely, that a loved one is nearby or present in case there is a strong abreaction to therapy (that is a powerful and unexpected emotional release). Such abreactions are another step in the healing process. It’s important to be supported if such an emotional response takes place and not to be left in distress.
Julie was able to be comforted by her husband immediately. However, when I repeated the Rewind Trauma the following day to ensure Julie was stable, there was no reaction at all. She had processed the traumatic memory completely. I have to say, this response is very rare but being prepared for an abreaction is prudent and I think it’s worth mentioning here that for complex and profound traumas we do prepare for that possibility.
Following this Rewind, Julie returned to New Zealand as her father’s health was failing. We couldn’t do the follow up session. Nevertheless, Julie reported, “During this time, I noticed there was still pain present when I felt overlooked and ignored by my stepfamily, or dismissed by my brother, or not heard by my father while he was still living and I was attempting to show him care. However, it has crossed my mind that I was unusually emotionally stable during this period, and I felt that may be partly attributable to the Rewind sessions I had before I left on my trip.”
Focusimg on the present and the future
Multi-layered complex traumas
We discussed that complex trauma embedded in childhood is multi-layered and stripping back layers takes time. Each shift needs an adjustment. Some people may have never lived without their trauma so it’s actually helpful that Rewind Trauma Therapy is quite gentle and tends to deal with one trauma (or a group of obviously related traumas) at a time, giving clients time to adjust, reflect and internalise the change.
Often, when a profound trauma has shifted there is grief and anger. People ask, Why did I live with this so long? Soothing Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is ideal for processing the intense feelings that might bubble up after a trauma has been resolved.
Rebuilding Your Life after Therapy
Julie and I discussed that complex trauma embedded in childhood is multi-layered and stripping back those layers can take time. Rebuilding your life and personality, and finding out who you are beneath the trauma needs time and support.
Adjusting to change
Each shift needs an adjustment. Some people may have never lived without their trauma so it’s actually helpful that Rewind Trauma Therapy is quite gentle and tends to deal with one trauma, or related traumas, at a time giving clients time to adjust, reflect and internalise the change. To grieve, if need be, release trapped emotions, change false beliefs and so forth.
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy focuses on the present and the future in structured way to help with that process.
Recognising long term impact
Living with the physical and emotional impact of trauma for that length of time has an impact on physical and mental health too and even as we remove the triggers, the client needs to rebuild their new and sometimes unrecognisable self over time. I continue to work with Julie, and she continues to have support from medical professionals as she moves towards stability and resolution.
I am aware in my practice that living without the impact of a trauma takes adjustment. Helen and Julia may have shifted a trauma, and removed potential triggers, but sometimes there are human feelings underneath that still need processing. Sometimes there is grief, sadness for the time that has been lost, and a certain readjustment as the pre-trauma self is identified and assimilated too.
Time to readjust
I generally leave two weeks between Rewind sessions to allow this ‘settling’ and readjustment to take place, and to see how well the trauma has been processed. I use the Impact of Events Scale to measure the improvement in the client’s quality of life in the second session, and either repeat the Rewind, undertake another Rewind, or begin Solution Focused therapy.
When a client looks like they need support adjusting to their new ‘post-trauma’ self, Solution Focused Coaching or Hypnotherapy can help with the grieving and rebuilding process. The nature of this therapy is that it doesn’t involve ‘direct commands’ but rather indirect suggestions that subconscious mind can accept or reject. New suggestions in addition to those included in carefully scripted sessions, are nearly always framed in the language of the client. The therapy is gentle, supportive and reassuring, and always leaves clients feeling more relaxed than when they came.
Preparing for Rewind Trauma Therapy
Prior to therapy, I ask clients if they are ready to let go of their anger or shame, as well as other emotions, so we can explore what it would mean if they did. For example, if anger was fuelling your campaigning for a cause, you might lose that level of motivation. There needs to be a certain amount of preparedness before Rewind Trauma Therapy, not because of the likelihood of re-experiencing trauma – that is unlikely; but because of the response to the trauma may have been with someone for a long time, and may in some sense define them.
Fear and failure
Healng old wounds; creating a preferred future
Clients may also fear that the therapy will not work for them and another door might close on them. However, it’s very unusual for there to be no impact at all, and if there is, there are many other avenues to explore, from somatic healing practices to EMDR. Our minds are all wired differently and there is no guaranteed single solution.
Closure without disclosure
The good news is Rewind Trauma Therapy is a small investment of time, energy and money. It’s most likely to be a step forward in confronting your traumatic past and healing old wounds. It will not result in re-experiencing trauma (but may cause an abreaction which is not the same thing) and is a therapy that ‘does no harm’. in fact it’s called the ‘closure without disclosure’ therapy for that reason.
Each Rewind Trauma Therapy session takes about an hour. There are always a minimum two sessions, and occasionally a third. Where more sessions are required it’s because there are layers of distinct traumas.
How Quickly Does Rewind Trauma Therapy Work?
For trauma relating to a single event, often two to four sessions do the trick. For traumas covered by insurance, I offer a package of 6 sessions to ensure any complexities related to a trauma covered by insurance are treated thoroughly.
Complex trauma
For more complex, multi-layered traumas, it may need two sessions, and then a break with hypnotherapy in between to re-stabilise and help the client to adjust to the new self, followed by another two to peel back the next layer and so on.
How do I know what Trauma Therapy is Right for Me?
Always do your research and choose the therapy that is most appropriate for you. Take the advice of your qualified medical practitioner or psychotherapist over any generalised advice here or anywhere else. Other possible options for treating trauma are laid are out here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30346217/
Comparing therapies
Pilot studies indicate Rewind Trauma Therapy results in the resolution of traumas in about 80% of cases. Rewind Trauma Therapy is a ‘do no harm’ therapy’ and is very cost effective.
The Human Givens Institute has developed its own version of Rewind Trauma which has also been successfully trialled. Sense-Ability Rewind Trauma is based on Dr Muss’ original version.
EMDR – Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing has been in use since the 1970s where it was widely used to treat Vietnam Veterans. There is plenty of documentation out there so do your own research about these different methods.
Cost considerations
For many, cost, time and the nature of the trauma recovery processes, usually delivered by clinical psychologists, make it prohibitive. Rewind Trauma Therapy combined with Solution Focused Brief Therapy or Coaching, and/or Solution Focused Hypnotherapy delivered by someone with personal experience of trauma recovery is a cost-effective alternative to consider.
Further information
Further research can be found here: http://iartt.com/the-rewind/
Also see Rewind Trauma Therapy for Trauma, PTSD & CPTSD: A Case Study written by client, Julie
See Sense-Ability Therapies for trauma, which also includes hypnotherapy for trauma
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require more information, or would like an initial consultation.
Jane Pendry
www.sense-ability.co.uk
jane@sense-ability.co.uk
07843 813 883
www.sense-ability.co.uk
Please Note
* Please note Jane Pendry does not diagnose or claim to cure. Sense-Ability therapies are complementary approaches that promote and support self healing. Jane does not explore how or why traumas were created and does not offer counselling, or traditional talking psychotherapy which require different specialised training and supervision. For more on these services see The British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy.
Jane has the right to refuse treatment where she believes there is a risk of harm or where she believes Sense-Ability therapies conflict with your current treatment programme with a medically trained professional or a clinical psychotherapist.
Photos courtesy of Unsplash: Crashed car, Conor Samuel; Smashed glass, Amber Kipp; Butterfly and flowers, Gary Bendig, Butterfly on the wall, Krystel Hayes; Orange butterfly, Meritt Thomas; butterfly in hand, Reign Aberinto;