Question by bitchgalore: Can hypnotherapy help me recover lost memories of abuse?
I am considering trying hypnotherapy to recover lost memories of abuse. Would hypnotherapy be a good option? I was raped when I was 6 and can’t remember anything. I want to understand why I act the way I do and where this extreme behaviour stems from. Will hypnotherapy work?
Best answer:
Answer by ♥Kazz♥
It might but not everyone is as easily hypnotised as others – however if your going to give this a try I would suggest going to a psychiatrist or psychologist who does hypnotherapy instead of just going to any old hypnotherapist as the issues you are trying to find are going to need specialised counselling to help you work through it and your average hypnotherapist who has no conselling specialist might not be able to help you as effectively as those with the specialised training.
Give your answer to this question below!
Yes. It can also help you to recover ‘lost memories’ of being Cleopatra, a witch, a serving wench at the court of Robin Hood or whatever. That is why no hypnotically ‘recovered’ evidence is acceptable in court.
Your subconcious is a truly stupid creature, and was responsible for the difficulties you had distinguishing between fantasy and reality as a three or four year old child.
Yes but be careful what you wish for. As someone who has been there and knows where you are emotionally right now I strongly urge you not to do this. The event itself is not why you are the way you are, it was the choices that you made afterwards that caused your actions and personality changes.
I agree that the act itself must have been extremely traumatic which is most likely the reason why you can’t remember. The thing is that because you were so young, you didn’t have the maturity to understand that just because an unspeakable act was inflicted upon you does not mean the world owes you anything.
Clearly you are now at an age where you have the maturity and the higher cognitive functions to recognise that your behaviour isn’t “right” and you have to make the choice to change that. Remembering the event may only damage you further and do you really want to risk that? My suggestion is to find a cognitive therapist to help you deal with your behaviour properly. Re-visiting the past will only cause more hurt and bitterness.
It may make you remember some stuff, but it might make you remember false memories.
Hypnosis is just as likely to create false memories as it is to uncover ‘repressed’ memories.
Here’s a better idea: find a counselor or friend who can sit with you while you ‘re-tell’ the story… where the six year old STOPS the rape from happening… or the present-day you STEPS IN to the scene and saves the six year old from getting hurt. That would be much more empowering that ‘recovering’ a frozen memory.
Empirical data shows that it is extremely unlikely for you to recover a true “lost memory” as you put it and instead develop some sort of new “false memory” or distortion of a true memory.
You can uncover lost memory’s under hypnosis and you can also create false memories, the problem is knowing whats real and whats not.
psychotherapy or counselling is the best way to find help with this and not hypnotherapy at this stage.