Bad Memories

Bad memories that cast a shadow in the present can be a barrier.

You might have an upsetting memory that while it does not rise to the level of PTSD symptoms, it still bothers you and takes up more time than you would like.

It may be a preoccupation with some past event that troubles you.

Perhaps it is a relationship that ended about which you are still obsessing. Or maybe it is from a childhood experience you had with a parent or caregiver.

Many of these early experiences form the basis of limiting beliefs that hold people back in their adult lives.

Some beliefs can place limits on your life.

A limiting belief is something you believe to be true that limits you in some way. The belief can be about you, other people, or the world.

Limiting beliefs may hold you back from making different choices in your life. They may keep you from seeing different opportunities presented to you each day. They may prevent you from seeing your own gifts or accepting the gifts others offer to you. They often keep you stuck focusing on the negative aspect of your circumstances.

Limiting beliefs are often associated with childhood.

Children’s brains are not fully developed, and they don’t know the difference between what is real and what is fantasy.

Limited beliefs are typically based on an early experience in childhood that your younger self decided about you or the world. They can come about from interactions that children have with the people around them.

For example, a boy whose family moved to a new town experiences being treated differently as the “new kid” and forms a belief that he is not likeable and that others are ‘against’ him. He may grow up thinking he is not enough or that other people are untrustworthy and may still hold this belief into adulthood.

He could have low self-confidence and have difficulty finding a partner or forming friendships as a result. This belief is based on his memory of childhood hazing and may color his interactions in his adult life.

He will hold this belief until he resolves the disturbing memories that form it. Resolution involves changing the meaning of past experiences so that they form different beliefs about the self, others, and the world.

The techniques offered by Dr. Bob do this very effectively by revisiting the memory from a different perspective that infuses new meaning in it.

Trauma is different from limiting beliefs

How is this different than a trauma? It’s really a matter of degree.

The memories are not events experienced as a threat to the life or safety of the individual.

But they were upsetting as they threatened the person’s integrity or sense of self.

Dr. Bob uses two hypnotherapy techniques for this type of issue with good results.

The first is Change Personal History.

This method consists of going into the memory, projecting it onto an imaginary screen, and sending resources back to that younger person who experienced them. If available at the time, those resources would have helped the young person reach a different meaning of the event.

Once these resources are anchored to the experience, the person is then helped to relive the event with internal resources they didn’t have when it occurred. Since the brain doesn’t distinguish between a memory and a fantasy, the person’s memory of that event is reformed with a different meaning, resulting in a new belief.

The second is Re-imprinting.

This method targets childhood memories. It specifically targets beliefs that were formed about the self and other significant people in the child’s life with whom he or she interacted.

We take the memory and project it onto an imaginary screen, identify what resources each of the persons in the scene were lacking at that time, send back those resources in time, and then replay the scene for that individual to see what changes about it.

When the person feels that enough resources are there to change the meaning of the original experience, he or she steps into the scene and relives it with those resources in play, forming a new meaning and understanding of that early experience.

The results of this method, if done correctly, are often life-changing, as they not only change that memory but also the memories of subsequent life experiences that were based upon the original formative memory.

How many sessions does this take?

Sometimes it can take a few sessions to figure out what the disturbing memory and limiting belief is that is troubling the person.

Once we figure it out, however, it should only take 1-2 sessions to get a resolution and to remove the disturbing aspects of the memory and form a new belief.

For this reason, the estimated amount of treatment sessions is more open-ended than it is for phobia or trauma.

We offer a free 20-minute phone consultation. Please call (917) 720-6086 and get started today.