Four Year Research Into The Rewind Technique

The Rewind Technique is a technique used in Hypnotherapy that is associated primarily with curing phobias, although it is also used to deal with trauma or stress. It’s used to allow the client to review the memories causing them problems whilst still feeling calm. The experience is very therapeutic and sometimes even described as pleasant.

As with many areas of hypnosis, there has been very little research into this technique but there has been one four year study by the charity Barnardo’s Nova Trauma Support Services (NTSS).

The NTSS operate mainly in Northern Ireland, helping victims and their families through psychological trauma.

Over the four years, lead clinician Martin Murphy and the NTSS team worked with forty seven sufferers and the results of the study were published in the Human Given Journal (Vol 14, 2007). 57% of the sufferers were treated using purely the Rewind Technique. Twenty six of them would have met the criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Following treatment, none of the forty seven met the PTSD criteria.

Murphy suggests that the treatment is suitable for all ages from as low as 8 to as high as patients in their 70’s and was quoted as saying:

the case notes repeatedly identified not only relief from symptoms but also the emergence of qualitative positive changes in the individual’s daily lives

The majority of Hypnotherapy courses will include the rewind technique as one of the basics of their student’s study.

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