About Age regression By Alba Alamillo, Hypnotherapist
 

During the 70's and 80's some therapists believed that our mind was like a tape recorder that registered every moment of our life with perfect accuracy.
 
 Hypnosis was believed to be the tool with which we could uncover secret memories that could be the cause of our current behavior/problems.

 
That is not true. If you recover a forgotten event during hypnosis, such as a crime, it will not be admissible in court.

 
Let me give you a very simple example:
 
Suppose that when you are a child you are terrified because there is a thunderstorm one night. It is dark and you decide to jump into your parents' bed. You are still frightened and are crying.
 

Let's assume that your dad in an attempt to hug you, smacks you on the face with his elbow by accident. He apologizes, but now you are terrified, crying and in pain.  But your dad hugs you and comforts you.
 
Now you are older and you come to me to do an "age regression" and have a question:
"Was I molested as a child?" People seem to believe that finding out if they were molested will actually solve their current problems. It is not so.
 
Anyway, assuming that I'm an old school therapist who believes that age regression will answer that question, I'll start with my session and question you during the session.
-were you molested as a child?
-mmm I don't know
-well try to remember…
-I remember something, it was dark, I was crying, my dad smacked me on the face, I was terrified… I was in pain and terrified. My dad was holding me tight. YES I guess he molested me… and that is the reason why my wife and I cannot get along.  And back then, poor dad would've ended in jail.
 
Age Regression is not an option to recover memories, because people under hypnosis tend to lie. They lie to please the therapist… to answer a question with facts …to provide a concrete answer and not with a  simple "I don't know." 
 
After awakening, the lies will have an impact on them… as if what they said really happened sometime in the past.  It will stay in the subconscious as a full fledged memory.
If we want the client to lie to themselves, we have to trigger positive feelings. We want to create responses that will leave them with a feeling of well being, even if their answer was a lie in the first place.  So the better use for age regression would be to trigger positive emotions, not to recover memories.
These types of questions would be appropriate to ask somebody under hypnosis.
"Remember a time in which you were really happy"
"Remember a time in which you were able to express your feelings freely"
"Remember a time in which you were able to control  your anger successfully"
These questions are win-wins. They trigger positive emotions; they bring memories or fantasies that empower people in their everyday life.