Regression Therapy

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Regression therapy has a holistic view of the mind, body and spirit having a fundamental interconnectedness. Healing involves reconnection with the root cause of the problem and allowing the client to understand deeply the issues associated with the problem before they are resolved at both physical, emotional and a spiritual level. Sometimes the root cause is a traumatic experience below the level of conscious awareness and has been affecting the client’s well being. Client experiences may go back to early childhood and prenatal experiences or into stories from the subconscious that may appear to be a past life. Any client experience is treated in an accepting and authentic way. Various psychotherapies may be used in the regression process such as hypnosis, gestalt psychology, psychodrama, body therapy, together with various transpersonal and energy techniques^[1].

History

As early as the 1950s J. L. Moreno saw regression as an opportunity for clients to gain new insights and to transform them in his group therapy that was successfully used in clinical outpatient groups and the mental health organizations in the United States. Early pioneers and authors in regression therapy include American Dr Morris Netherton,^[2] Dutchman Hans TenDam,^[3] and Englishmen Dr Roger Woolger^[4] and Andy Tomlinson.

Application

Regression therapy has been found helpful dealing with issues of self-esteem and personal empowerment and residual scars from sexual abuse. It has provided swift and effective release of deep emotional blockages, states of anxiety, depression, phobias, unexplainable chronic pain and persistent symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.^[5][6]

Research by Helen Wambach used the results of a survey of 26 therapists who had worked with a total of 17,350 clients using regression.^[7] Of these, 63% had an improvement in their emotional and physical symptoms and 40% an improvement in their interpersonal relationships.

Other research has found that client problems previously thought to be non-responsive to psychotherapy could be resolved with regression therapy. Ron Van der Maesen worked with 54 people who heard disturbed voices from a non-detectable source (auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia as defined in DSM-IV), of whom 80% were being treated by a psychiatrist or by a psychiatric outpatient clinic.^[8] The research was supervised by the Department of Clinical Psychology at the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands. Six months after therapy, an external psychiatrist found that the disturbing voices had disappeared in 25% and a further 32% could now cope.

References