Have you ever been told you have a condition called Aphantasia? This apparent condition means you find it difficult to picture or imagine anything visually. People are told it is caused by a brain injury, or it might be genetic.
Catch PTSD therapists believe Aphantasia is not a condition, as such, but a symptom of PTSD, especially if it presents with other PTSD symptoms like anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, anger, or pain. CatchPTSD therapists don’t believe it is a bar to clinical hypnotherapy eliminating PTSD either.
We believe the inability to visualize images, or ‘see’ memories from the past, is a protection mechanism – a trauma response – to something that happened that was really upsetting and destabilizing, and what is required is a method to gently get around that protection mechanism, and show the person they need to see it, to understand it. That is the CatchPTSD method.
Light hypnotherapy, deliberately conducted in a conscious state, where you can speak back, may indeed prove challenging to someone who has been deemed to have Aphantasia. The conscious mind can only work with the tools the subconscious mind wants it to have.
If the body has decided that the easiest way to protect the person from what happened to them is to block the recall of it, any image of it, any image of ANYTHING, the person is unlikely to be able to see it.
But CatchPTSD hypnotherapists work at a level of hypnotherapy called somnambulism, which is similar to sleep walking, and in that state the conscious mind is bypassed, and conscious safeguards are negated.
Clients deemed to have Aphantasia have found they do experience visions, like in dreams, which can explain why they feel, or are acting, the way they do.
They experience hypnotherapy in exactly the same way as anyone else, when relaxed to that level. As the subconscious mind explains what has happened, maybe over a few sessions, they find they regain their ability to visualize, as if a block has been lifted. This has been the experience of CatchPTSD clients.
To that end, Aphantasia would appear to be a protective symptom of emotional trauma, and not a permanent condition.
Even people who have not been diagnosed with Aphantasia can sometimes struggle to see specific images in their mind during hypnosis. They may feel extremely relaxed throughout, but they may be disappointed when others talk of wild, psychedelic visions.
But each body uses hypnotherapy differently depending on its own experience.
Some people feel sensations in the body of touch, or heat, or a quickening of the heartbeat or breathing. Those people are deemed to be more kinesethic. Others may suddenly hear words, or noises, and these people are deemed more auditory. CatchPTSD hypnotherapists take this into account when conducting their sessions.
Sometimes people experience all three, depending on the message the body is trying to get across.
However, by the end of sessions, usually half a dozen or so, when the clues and pointers have been understood, and looking back, all CatchPTSD clients understand everything they have experienced as clues leading to an explanation.
So, even if you have been told you have Aphantasia, and especially if there is any hint of an emotional trauma in your past, don’t think that means you can’t use clinical hypnotherapy to eliminate your symptoms, because our experience is that you can! So use us. We are here to help.
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