Author Ann Barham Interview
What is past life-regression therapy?
Past life regression is a therapeutic approach that helps people to recall and work through their unconscious memories from their prior lifetimes. (To regress simply means to go back in time.) Often these past life experiences are impinging on emotional, physical and relationship aspects of our current life without our knowing it. By uncovering,working through, and integrating our past life experiences into our current consciousness, we can often resolve issues and dynamics that are troubling us and that have been resistant to other approaches.
In addition to helping in problem solving, past life work allows us to access an amazing degree of individualized spiritual guidance that can help us on many levels. We can plug into strengths and life lessons from the past that can be very applicable to our present lives. And by bringing an awareness of past life times into mainstream consciousness, we can help people realize that our outward differences are only an illusion, helping us to heal the divisiveness that challenges our planet.
Why are so many people seeking it out?
Despite the amazing advances of modern science and technology, there is a growing hunger to know the mystery of life, the divine energies, the deeper purpose of our human existence. Increasingly, people are calling themselves“spiritual, but not religious,” part of an emerging consciousness based on personal experiences of a spiritual nature rather than religious doctrine. The popularity of books describing near-death experiences (NDEs), such as Anita Moorjani’s Dying to be Me, speaks to this burning desire.
Past-life therapy is a window into these other realities – in a way that is much less traumatic than going through an actual NDE. In addition, we are able to help people resolve a myriad of issues in rather quick order, as compared to sometimes years of traditional counseling. Given the fast pace and desire for quicker results in our modern society, it is an approach that appeals to more and more people.
The types of issues that have been addressed with past life work include:
- difficult relationship dynamics with family, lovers, or co-workers, or intense new attractions
- enduring emotional challenges like depression, low self-esteem or guilt
- some physical challenges that have defied the medical community, for example clients have looked into insomnia, infertility, back pain, irritable bowel, and birthmarks
- unreasonable fears and phobias
- reconnecting with loved ones who have passed by seeking prior lifetimes together, which can greatly ease grieving and also helps us lose the fear of death
There are many people who seek past life work for help in discovering their life purpose or adjusting career direction. And many others seek to expand their spiritual exploration. The possibilities offered by past life work are seemingly endless.
What are some of the most life-changing experiences you’ve seen using past life therapy?
The client stories that really stick out for me are the ones where the regression experience was very dramatic as the story unfolded. One that comes to mind is a young woman who ran into severe writers block when trying to complete college papers. She actually would exhibit signs of a panic attack. She went to a lifetime some centuries back where her prior personality –also a young woman – had her hands cut off for writing a love letter to another woman. It was a very intense session. After we worked through the trauma of that memory, the client found that she could now approach writing her college papers without the panic.
As far as really turning someone’s life around, one client came to me after working in conventional therapy for years on her unexplained feelings of terror and dread. They still persisted, and were really getting in the way of a functional life. We worked through a number of lifetimes where she lived in terror: as a young Jewish girl taken by the Nazis and forced to bury bodies in mass graves in the prison camp; as an English sailor who was captured by pirates and forced into slavery; as a young girl who was strang led to death by an abusive, alcoholic father – to name a few! By clearing these experiences and releasing the fear, abuse, pain and sadness from those lives, this client found immense relief in her current life.
On the lighter side, a male client who was working as an attorney made a significant career adjustment and international relocation after exploring a lifetime as a significant figure in the Italian Renaissance. He received considerable spiritual guidance in session regarding all the strengths he was carrying forward from that lifetime, and he was pointed toward new directions in his current life.
