Hypnosis and Memory Recovery
Why it’s unethical and should never be attempted.
By Katelyn Redwood C.Ht.
Clients often ask me if we can recover repressed memories through hypnosis. Media often portrays hypnotic memory recovery as effective, but attempting to recover memories through hypnosis is highly unethical because it is unreliable and can cause harm. A hypnotist/hypnotherapist who is educated on the subject of memory recovery will never attempt it.
When I attended HMI College of Hypnotherapy for their clinical hypnotherapy program, we were required to take classes on law and ethics. The instructor was highly-esteemed hypnotherapist Lisa Machenberg, and her exact words regarding attempting memory recovery were, “never, ever, ever, not EVER,” and rightfully so.
It’s a common misconception that the subconscious “records” everything we experience, and that through hypnosis, we can access and replay certain moments like we’re re-experiencing them or watching them like a movie. This simply isn’t so. The subconscious does clock an incredible amount of data from the day you are born until the day you die, and we do work with the subconscious in hypnotherapy to create more positive beliefs and behaviors in our lives. But the role of the subconscious is to identify and create associations in order to build our individual view of what reality is and how we exist in it. There is no “playback” function.
When people use hypnosis to regress someone to a certain time, the “memories” recovered are highly inaccurate. Even if there is something that is or feels true, clinical studies have shown that these sessions create false memories. The hypnotized subject may truly believe that the imagined “memories” actually happened. This false impression has the potential to devastate their identity and personal relationships.
Clinical studies have demonstrated that hypnosis is an effective treatment for many problems, but there is overwhelming evidence against the reliability of hypnotic memory recovery. In fact, if hypnotic memory recovery is attempted during a legal conflict, the subject will be disqualified from testifying in court.
Besides being unreliable, hypnotic memory recovery can traumatize the subject. Hypnotherapists should never attempt anything that might cause harm.
The subconscious is programmed to help you survive and blocks traumatic memories to protect you, like the body creating a scab over a wound. The scab’s function is to protect the wound until it heals fully from the inside out, then the scab falls away on its own. With a blocked memory, the amnesia is the scab that the subconscious uses to protect the injury, so that one can heal from the inside out while remaining functional in their everyday life.
If healing has not completed enough for the subconscious to safely shed the scab, then forcing the memory out simply reopens the wound, causing the subject to re-experience the trauma that the subconscious was trying so hard to protect them from. A forgotten memory may return naturally when the wound has been healed from within enough for the subject to process the most difficult part of their experience without compromising their ability to function day-to-day.
Even when I explain the above reasoning to potential and current clients, people are often disappointed. Many people assume they could heal something that’s holding them back, if only they could recover a repressed memory. But it’s not the hypnotherapist’s job to dig up a client’s past.
My role is to help you discover how you want to change and then guide your subconscious mind toward that change. You do not need to re-experience trauma or remember a forgotten moment you believe is important in order to move on and improve your life. Often, clients do attain insights about the past that relate to their presenting issue, but it is not necessary to relive certain moments or uncover forgotten scenarios in order to heal.
Instead, we help the subconscious mind actually experience the positive feelings, beliefs, and outcomes you desire. This approach focuses on the present and the future, not the past.