The Way A Hypnotherapy Session Goes

There were many times in my sessions I felt at loss. Things didn’t go as I intended, or they didn’t go as my clients expected. There were many times a session twisted itself and I found myself delivering in a very different manner from what we anticipated. And then there were times a session became so fluid that I started to wonder where this was going to go.

Bonnie’s session was such a case. Since 2015, her sister Harriet who lives in Manitoba would come to visit me once a year or so for past life regression sessions – sometimes because she was taking a vacation and visiting her family in BC, and other times she stopped over for a visit to my office on her way to some Asian countries.

In July this month, Harriet booked an appointment again. Her sister Bonnie who lives in Vancouver drove her to my office. On their way, unintentionally, Harriet talked her sister into becoming interested in a past life regression session. Harriet called me immediately to check my availability for this spontaneous decision. As it would go, I happened to have the space for her sister Bonnie after her appointment.

When they arrived, they had already decided that Bonnie was to have her session first. Harriet went to the floor lounge area in my office to wait. Bonnie sat down beside my desk. She told me she is a certified Yoga teacher, and she was taking a counselling course herself, so she could offer yoga therapy sessions, combining the different trainings to work with trauma through a body-centered approach. Bonnie had spent some years in India, so Past life regression was not a foreign idea for her. When I asked her what she’d like to explore in the session, she said it was more a curiosity. I sensed, however, the curiosity was not really that strong for her. I wondered what exactly Harriet had told her about me or sold to her in what I do. Bonnie was dressed pretty hippie-like, with a nose ring and many earrings and a few layers of clothing. There was a heaviness around Bonnie, so I casually asked how she was doing in her life. Bonnie said she really wanted to get her practice and business going, but her waitressing job kept her time and energy occupied. She was waiting for a good timing to start. There were many conditions before she could commit.

I like talking about business. The success of my practice is that from day one I treated it as a business. So, we started talking, till I glanced at the clock. I did not forget what Bonnie said what she came here for – past life regression.

As we settled for the hypnosis part, Bonnie voluntarily told me the exposure to Eastern culture and living a hippie lifestyle doing fire dancing, for example, she’d make herself a very good candidate for past life regression. That made sense to me. After all, her sister had always been an excellent hypnotic subject. We started the session.

To both of our surprises, nothing came up, no matter how much I changed different inductions to get her into a scene.

Time was up and I brought the session to an end, completely not sure how Bonnie would feel about the session. She said it was very insightful. Bonnie seemed to have a subconscious concern about letting it go, which in itself was a feedback to my work, or she lacked true motivation for past life work. Knowing everything does happen for a reason, I felt very fine with it. I quickly gave Bonnie my feedbacks and observations before I sent her to the lounge area and had Harriet come in. I knew the private practice mentoring part was of value if she’d apply what we discussed.

Three weeks later, to my surprise, I received an email from Bonnie:

Hello Kemila,

I met you a few weeks back with my sister Harriet when we came in for sessions with you. I’m messaging with you today to reconnect with you and fill you in a bit with some things that had shifted with me after our session.

I found it comical that I came in for a past life regression session and walked out with a completely different experience. The session turned out to be exactly what I needed. I walked away that day with an insight into something that I hadn’t noticed, I lacked trust in myself. My intention of seeing you that day was to see why I hadn’t been moving forward with my business and perhaps there was a block in my way. After our discussion together post-session, I realized that I was the block and in my own way. I was the reason I wasn’t moving forward because I didn’t trust myself.

I spent some time after meeting with you reflecting on our conversation. I knew I had to make a change and begin trusting in myself. I decided to leave my waitressing job, jump with two feet into my business and start trusting in myself.

I want to thank you. Thank you for holding the mirror up for me and holding space for me to be honest with myself.

Thank you once again for your insights, time, and energy.

Bonnie is, after all, very suggestible.