Overcoming Childhood Trauma with Root Cause and Parts Hypnotherapy
A Sense-Ability Case Study
by Jane Pendry
Clinical Hypnotherapist, DFSH, HPD, BA Hons (London), PGCE (Cantab), Reg CNHC, AfSFH, MNCH, ABNLP, ABH, IARTT, CTAA
Its possible to fully recovery from deep rooted childhood trauma. Photo © Unsplash Cole Keister
Daniel’s difficulties in relationships, decision-making, and emotional regulation stemmed from deep-seated childhood abandonment.
Through Parts and Root Cause Hypnotherapy, including safe age regression techniques, and ego parts integration, Daniel transformed his understanding of himself, learnt to set clear boundaries and moved toward a more fulfilling life.
*NB: Names and details have been changed to protect the client and those connected to him.
Root Causes
Raised by a mother who struggled with drugs and alcohol, Daniel often felt unsafe, alone and abandoned as a child. His father, though physically present and kind, remained emotionally disengaged and was unable to create the safety and stability that Daniel craved.
Excessive responsibility
By his early teens, Daniel was managing responsibilities far beyond his years, including helping to run his mother’s failing newsagents. He felt responsible for its failure and this created a life-long pattern of working long hours, over-delivering, anxiety and fear of abandonment.
Self-sacrificing
As an adult, Daniel was aware he was too self-sacrificing and over-facilitating of others. He pushed himself to the limit to try to meet others’ needs, until he eventually shutdown and withdrew completely. Unable to feel or function for days at a time.
Daniel divorced after a long but unfulfilling marriage. He then began a committed relationship with a woman with two school age children. Moving in very quickly, Daniel soon took on much of the responsibility for school runs and household management.
Neglecting his needs
Daniel soon started to neglect his own needs, and those of his daughter, who continued to live with her mother. It was a pattern he recognised from his marriage.
Now his new partner was impacted by what she felt was over-controlling behaviour. She had coped and managed before his arrival. The family was neurodiverse and valued creativity and spontaneity over structure and order. Daniel had seen the apparent chaos as something that needed to be fixed! However, his partner had been happy in the home that she had built, and in the way her family felt valued and confident.
Naturally, this became a source of friction between them.
Fear of abandonment
Daniel's unstable upbringing caused a deep, unconscious belief that love and security were fragile. As a result, he struggled with a tendency to emotional shutdown and had difficulties trusting others.
Either withdrawing completely, or over-working, Daniel tried too hard to meet the expectations of others - real or perceived. He had lost touch with old friends and felt isolated and abandoned throughout his marriage. Now he felt swamped with responsibility and frustrated in his new relationship too.
Daniel experienced shutdown as deeply debilitating, distressing, and frightening and he lost the capacity to function for days at a time.
Subconscious patterns
As a child, Daniel's needs were rarely met. He had developed a belief that his needs and desires were secondary to those of others. This manifested in his relationships as perpetually trying to fix problems for others, struggling to advocate for himself, and over work.
Becoming resentful and exhausted, Daniel didn't know how to set firm but flexible boundaries, and manage his energy and resources in a more balanced way.
Recognising a pattern, Daniel began to look at his upbringing and the root of his self-negating behaviour. When he was completely overwhelmed, Daniel had a tendency to completely withdraw and shutdown emotionally, causing his current partner distress and confusion.
Therapeutic Approach
Daniel’s therapy was designed to uncover, release, and reprogram the subconscious beliefs and emotional patterns keeping him stuck.
PTSD Assessment: Identifying Ego Parts
Using structured questioning, Daniel recognized the different parts of his psyche that had developed as coping mechanisms in childhood. While Sense-Ability Root Cause and Parts Hypnotherapy does not generally name parts, for the sake of clarity, here is an indication of the parts Daniel uncovered and processed.
The Over Responsible Part: Took on too much, prioritizing others over himself.
The Inner Critic: Told him constantly he wasn’t good enough.
The Wounded Child: Still operated from past abandonment fears.
The Shutdown Protector: Disconnected emotionally when overwhelmed.
Root Cause and Parts Hypnotherapy
Structured and carefully scripted hypnotherapy sessions helped Daniel access subconscious memories, release emotional burdens, and naturally reprogramme long-held limiting beliefs.
During the six sessions, which included negativity clearing, ego parts, forgiveness of others (processing anger), age regression, forgiveness of self and ego parts integration, Daniel made steady, measurable and lasting change week on week.
Steady Progress, Step by Step
At first, Daniel struggled to relax. He didn't believe he could. However, his sleep and emotional state improved significantly after two sessions.
As each session progressed, he was able to relax into it faster, and reported feeling calm and refreshed after each session. He was able to share shifts in his thinking, and report back changes he was implementing into every day life: firmer boundaries, better communication, improved sleep and greater emotional regulation.
Daniel's relationship had been under strain for some time because he and his partner had different values, priorities and interests. He knew that this relationship was drawing to an end, but he struggled to let go and move on.
Negativity clearing
Daniel let go of deep-rooted emotions like shame, guilt, and frustration. He was able to shift much of the pain and loss of his childhood and reach a state of acceptance.
Age regression
Revisiting key childhood experiences, including being being stranded with his intoxicated mother on a family holiday overseas when he was aged 9, Daniel was able to process early abandonment experiences.
Clients are never regressed back to a particular age. Neither are they regressed back into a specific early experience to avoid false memories. They travel back in a secure, imaginary vehicle to protect them from re-traumatisation. Daniel was able to witness what had happened to him on the overseas holiday where he had been stranded.
Remembering the fear and stress of feeling responsible for getting his mother and himself back home, he fully realised he had been far too young to be taking on such an onerous responsibility, which he had continued to bear ever since. He was able to identify and empathise with his young self and let go of the overwhelming sense that he was responsible for everyone's safety and welfare. He recognised how young and vulnerable he was.
Ego parts integration
Helping Daniel communicate conflicting inner parts, allowing his authentic self to emerge. He found his voice and began to find it easier to set boundaries and to protect his time, space and energy. He began to get in touch with his emotions, acknowledge that he had a right to look after himself, and began to find his voice.
Anger Release & Boundary Setting
Under hypnosis, Daniel was finally able to express long-suppressed anger toward his mother, recognizing that it was both reasonable, and now safe, to be angry.
He understood he was entitled to set boundaries going forward. During this session, Daniel was able to understand his mother's behaviour and let go of its consequences. This also reminded him he was no longer that powerless child, and he no longer needed to hold this anger and fear.
Forgiveness & Self-Compassion
One of the most transformative sessions focused on forgiving himself for the unrealistic burdens he had carried since childhood. This created a profound shift in self-worth, posture, and confidence.
Daniel became less focused on his shortcomings and began to recognise his strengths, resources, and resilience in the face of sometimes in insurmountable challenges.
Breakthrough Moments & Lasting Change
By the final sessions, Daniel had undergone significant transformation. As therapy progressed, Daniel was able to process emotions and rewrite subconscious long-held negative narratives and beliefs about himself. As he stopped prioritizing everyone else’s needs over his own, Daniel began setting clear emotional and physical boundaries. He recognised his relationship was no longer serving him, yet rather than feeling abandoned or rejected, he approached its end with maturity and self-respect.
A changed man
Root Cause and Parts Hypnotherapy resolved Daniel’s childhood abandonment issues and helped him lead a better life. Photo © Unsplash
Daniel's posture, voice, and self-expression changed. He stood taller, spoke with more confidence, and engaged with life more proactively. He no longer felt trapped in emotional shutdown states, instead allowing himself to feel and process emotions in a healthy way and to communicate his needs, fears and anxieties more directly. Daniel also recognised he had a need for some space and time for himself, and he began to reorganise his life and his space to allow himself moments of peace, respite and rest when he needed it.
A few months after he had completed the process, Daniel was able to move in to a new home and start his life afresh. He remained on good terms with his former partner, and communications with his former wife improved. He was able to spend more quality time with his daughter.
The Path to Freedom
This case study highlights how hypnotherapy, ego parts and root cause hypnotherapy can transform deep-rooted and hidden trauma to create lasting change, helping individuals reclaim their true selves and build a more fulfilling life.
What is Root Cause and Parts Hypnotherapy?
This form of root cause and part at theotherapy has been developed by, Sarah Yuen Gilliat. Sometimes it is called ‘The Military Method’ of Hypnotherapy.
The structured scripts have been drawn from tried and tested hypnosis scripts developed by psychiatrists working with shell-shocked soldiers in WW1 and later with war trauma in WW2 and after the Vietnam war. Sarah Yuen Gilliat, a former war reporter, had retrained as a hypnotherapist and researched how war trauma had been treated.
Developed over many decades
Sarah created a protocol drawn from her research which was approved by the Ministry of Defence in the UK. Rooted in neuroscience, the six session protocol was developed after many hours of personal experience of working with veterans and first responders, as well as the research and records of psychiatrist and psychologist that abused this method, Sara develop the six part protocol and refine the language to make these sessions universally helpful to any trauma suffer.
Sarah learnt that war trauma that lasted for many years, and was resistant to therapy and treatment, actually had a root in childhood trauma. This simple method of resolving deep-rooted trauma, although well researched and documented, does not seem to have been widely adopted by governments around the world for reasons that are not immediately clear. However, Sarah having found these therapies so successful, decided to train as many therapists as she could at low cost so that more people could be helped.
So tribute must be paid to Sarah who has tirelessly and fearlessly refined and championed this process.
Interested in Hypnotherapy for Trauma & Emotional Healing?
Jane Pendry
Clinical Hypnotherapist & Coach
Sense-Ability Hypnotherapy & Coaching
jane@sense-ability.co.uk
+44 (0) 7843 813 883
www.sense-ability.co.uk