by Marit Fischer, Andy Tomlinson, and Bel Rogers

A handful of regression therapists worldwide have been exploring, with positive results, a new therapeutic approach that grants contra-indicated clients access to the benefits of regression therapy. This alternative therapy, proxy regression, requires two things: a willing partner, and full permission granted to that person to access the higher self or subconscious of the one who is seeking therapy. The therapist then works directly with the proxy with the express intent of healing or helping the client.

The applications of proxy regression are as different and numerous as the clients who may seek it out. Whether it’s for addiction, severe or terminal illness, mental or personality disorder, the deaf or mute, or even for children, proxy regression therapy can open a door to healing for those for whom it would otherwise not be an option.

Marit Fischer, Bel Rogers, and Andy Tomlinson are regression therapists that believe that, through Regression Therapy, we can directly access the source of personal challenges or symptoms to understand, address, and transform them. This therapy allows access to past lives and suppressed, forgotten, or ignored current-life memories. Through this work, one is able to transmute the influence of past pain into a positive learning experience to unlock current potential. Then, with recognition and understanding comes healing and growth.

When considering those who are viable candidates for regression therapy, there are limits. As therapists, we are trained to recognize contra-indicators in our potential clients that preclude our initiating regression with them. With some exceptions, we know to find other kinds of treatment for those who are too young or too old, for those with serious mental or personality disorders, for those on prescription or recreational drugs that alter brain chemistry, for those with a health condition for which high emotional levels are not recommended, for those with advanced terminal illness, et cetera. Other therapies may help, but regression therapy cannot until now.

A handful of regression therapists worldwide have been exploring, with positive results, a therapeutic approach that grants contra-indicated clients access to the benefits of regression therapy. (e.g., McHugh, 2010, 2009; Van der Beek, 2009) This alternative therapy, proxy regression, requires two things: a willing partner, and full permission granted to that person to access the higher self or subconscious of the one who is seeking therapy. The therapist then works directly with the proxy with the express intent of healing or helping the client.

Andy Tomlinson, a UK-based pioneer in regression therapy, the author or editor of three books on the subject, and the founder of the Past Life Regression Academy, stumbled onto the idea of proxy regression in 2008. In recording feedback from clients after regression sessions, he noted some interesting side effects of the therapy for significant people in the client’s life with whom the client connected during their sessions.

In one case reported by Tomlinson, a client had not spoken to her mother for 12 years following a major argument. During therapy she had an intuitive dialogue with the ‘spirit’ of her mother and found completion. Within 24 hours, her mother phoned saying she had suddenly felt different about her. After an emotional three-hour phone call, the women were able to reestablish a loving relationship.

In another Tomlinson case, the client’s father had committed suicide several years prior. The police case remained open, and the client, her mother, and her sister still had unresolved emotional issues related to the event. During therapy the client had an intuitive dialogue with the soul representations of her father, mother, sister, and the police. Through this process, the reasons for the father’s actions and events surrounding his suicide became clear. The client found completion. Within one week, the police had closed the case, and the client’s mother and sister both called to say that they suddenly felt different about her father’s death and could finally let go.

Perhaps all of these events where simply a coincidence, but Tomlinson felt compelled to explore the possibility that the intuitive dialogue during regression therapy had somehow consciously affected the people involved. He began to explore the use of a proxy to work with clients who could not otherwise effectively represent themselves in therapy. The idea was to connect them, during induction, to the higher mind of the person seeking help.

Marie and Anne: case study by Tomlinson

To test his theory, the therapist suggested proxy therapy to Anne, a 32-year-old mother in France whose five-year-old daughter, Marie, was a healthy child who had exhibited selective mutism since she was two and half.

Anne explained, “When an adult looked at her and talked to her, even the most kind person, her eyes would swell with tears and she would look away.” Things got worse when she started pre-school. “She chatted with other children, but not a word to any of the teachers or adults. It appeared she had an inexplicable anxiety about talking to adults, even though she was growing up in a loving and happy environment.”

Administrators at the school sent the family to doctors and psychologists for evaluation since teachers had no way to evaluate Marie. She would not speak to or even look at some of them. Because Marie was so young, and because adults frightened her, Anne agreed to be a proxy client for her daughter. The therapist worked directly with Anne with the intent to connect with Marie’s subconscious via hypnotic trance and resolve Marie’s issues.

The therapist regressed Anne in two sessions to two different significant past lives. In one, Marie was a girl of ten whose nanny nagged her incessantly. Because of social expectations and her own fear, she was unable to speak up to defend herself. In transformation, Marie found her power of voice and the ability to communicate clearly. In the session, Anne realized that she had been the nagging nanny. “I realized intuitively that it was me who had treated her this way. As a result, I’ve changed the way I communicate with Marie and our relationship has gained another dimension.”

In the following session, Anne, in Marie’s subconscious, found herself in a past life as an eight-year-old Indian boy who was caught up by a small group of an enemy clan. He was interrogated though he could not understand what they were saying. The men cut out his tongue and left him to die. Women from the same clan rescued him and raised him as their own. As an adult, he formed his own family group who understood him and lived apart from the village. During the transformation, Marie’s soul, via Anne, was empowered to speak with all the significant characters from the past life to find forgiveness. After the second session, both Marie and Anne experienced eight weeks of a sore throat. Then, Marie spoke.

Following the therapy, Marie reported: “The truly amazing thing is that Marie has changed so much. Now, at school, she can’t stop talking. Her selective mutism is completely gone. It did require a few weeks but now she is proud, confident and doesn’t hesitate at any time to reply or ask for what she wants. She stands for herself and speaks for others. She is very witty even in public. She jokes and makes other people laugh all the time.”

Now, 10 years later, Anne continues to be amazed by her daughter. “Marie is now a teenager,” she said. “She is at the top of her class, is a feminist leader and animal rights activist. She aspires to become a wildlife veterinarian and marine protector. She is totally herself.”

Why does proxy regression work?

 [Fisher] Even among therapists who practice proxy regression, there are differing and complementary explanations as to why this indirect access to a transformative healing state may be possible. All are rooted, however, in the body of spiritual knowledge accumulated via the experience of and research related to Life Between Lives or Between-Lives Spiritual Regression. This therapeutic experience, pioneered by Michael Newton, Ph.D. (2004, 2000, 1994) in the United States and Joel Whitton, M.D., Ph.D. (1988) in Canada, among others, allows clients to access interlife soul memories via deep hypnotic trance.

While accessing soul memories of the time between incarnations, the pioneers mentioned above and others who have followed in their footsteps have guided ordinary people of all religions through experiences as energetic beings. In these experiences, prior to the next incarnation, souls plan the life ahead—choosing not only challenges and lessons, triumphs and joys, but also the people with whom they will work to master understanding of emotion in a variety of life settings. Often, souls will choose to work through emotional understanding with members of their “soul group”—the group of souls with whom one most identifies, whether because of traveling together from lifetime to lifetime since initiating incarnation or because of a commitment to learn similar lessons.

The majority of Andy Tomlinson’s work with proxy has focused on a proxy and client who are intimate in some way, having shared repetitive emotional learning over a number of life times. In other words, the participants may share a soul group.

Tomlinson suggests that as energy beings we hold the memory of unresolved emotions in our energy field with an intuitive link to the other soul involved, and that the other soul holds a related unresolved memory. This is why a lot of incarnations are collaborations of soul group members who choose different roles in each others’ lives, together attempting to help resolve lasting issues. Healing involves understanding the issues at a soul level by both souls. It’s like plugging in for both souls involved so there is some level of healing for the proxy and client.

 Fischer agrees that this is the case for some but does not hold that this soul-level intimacy is a requisite for regression therapy. She contends that it is possible to share consciousness by permission. Sometimes in this process a proxy can become privy to soul memories that are important for personal healing and the healing of the other involved. However, she holds that it is possible for someone to access the consciousness of another, with permission, to help him or her heal simply because the souls—or the individuals, if considering this from a right-here, right-now perspective—agreed to help each other.

[Fischer] How are we, as therapists, to know beforehand whether or not the client and volunteer he found to help him share the same soul group? If we knew they didn’t, would we deny them the opportunity to try? I would not. From the perspective of honoring the soul’s life plan set during the interlife, perhaps these two otherwise-unrelated souls agreed to help each other in this way in this life, for a purpose related to research, or the media, or for the proxy’s learning of altruism and the client’s learning to receive gifts from strangers. But for those who do not believe in reincarnation or in pre-incarnation life planning, this explanation would not make sense. I won’t be the judge, nor will I tell people what they must believe in the never-death of consciousness. The important thing, in my opinion, is that, through proxy, healing via regression therapy is possible for people who otherwise may be unable to access it.

In the book Your Soul’s Plan: Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born, regression therapist Robert Schwartz, explores life planning in the between-life: “All discuss before incarnation what is to be done. Is it too much? Things are altered, decisions are changed, until an imprint is decided” (Schwartz, 2009, p. 224)

For some, pre-life planning brings up the question of free will. Do we have it if we plan our lives beforehand? If we do have it, why wouldn’t someone who wants to be healed choose to be healed?

In Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Michael Newton addresses pre-life life planning in light of free will. He writes;

People have the idea that free will and destiny are opposing forces. They do not realize that destiny represents the sum of our deeds over thousands of years in a multitude of incarnations. In all these lives we had freedom of choice. Our current life represents all past experiences both pleasant and unpleasant, and so we are the product of all our former choices. Add to this the fact that we may have deliberately placed ourselves in situations that test how we will react to events in our current life, which are not perceived by the conscious mind. This too involves personal choices. (Newton, 2001, p. 371)

The authors agree that the life plan of the client can preclude some perceived positive outcomes in regression therapy. Sometimes souls decide beforehand that they will choose illness, debilitation, or even death to teach themselves and/or those around them profound lessons. In these cases, the soul may choose to find healing of some challenges, but not others. That is, unless the lessons that the soul intends for itself to learn while incarnate are learned.

Isabel and Gina: case study by Fischer

In April 2017, Isabel and her daughter, Gina, contacted the therapist, a regression therapist based in Spokane, Washington, USA, for help. Sixty-seven-year-old Isabel had stage four breast cancer metastasized to bone. Gina had experienced the benefits of regression therapy and felt intuitively that it could help her mom. The therapist explained that Isabel would not be a candidate for regression therapy on her own because of her advanced terminal illness, her extreme level of pain, the drugs she was taking, her inability to sit or lay comfortably for any duration of time, and her tendency to nod off when she did. The therapist suggested proxy regression if mother and daughter agreed to partner in this therapy. Both agreed. At the onset, when asked why she was seeking regression therapy, Isabel stated: “I want to heal from stage four breast cancer.”

Isabel and Gina agreed that, even though a result of complete health might be unlikely, they would like to try—partially to honor Isabel’s deepest desire—to get well—and partially to explore what might be possible through this therapy. Isabel and Gina agreed to welcome any healing or comfort that resulted from their efforts.

Isabel identified an intense fear of death; a feeling of being misunderstood; deep sadness resulting both from her childhood with a father who had killed himself and a mother who was mentally ill, as well as a failed relationship with her husband; and a weighted lack of energy.

In the following months, the therapist met with Gina four times for proxy regression and Isabel three times for integration and explanation. In the first session, Gina experienced Isabel’s Between-Life Spiritual Regression or Life Between Lives. She accessed Isabel’s soul memories of her spiritual existence after her last death and before her current incarnation. In this deeply spiritual session, which the therapist recorded for Isabel, Gina facilitated Isabel’s revelatory experience of coming to understand that which she planned for this life. Isabel quite clearly set out to learn of her own personal strength and to trust in it enough to live without fear. She had decided that this life was to be all about empowering herself to let go of the fear-seated need to control outcomes and to choose instead to open her heart to possibility and love. The epiphany for Isabel came in the clarity of the fact that she planned her cancer as a last resort if she did not learn this lesson in all the other opportunities, she lined up for herself during this life.

Isabel’s higher mind, through Gina, said: “I planned to get cancer if necessary, to learn what I wanted to learn. It was a contingency, but I planned this.”

In the next regression, focused on getting directly to the source of Isabel’s overpowering fear, Gina-as-Isabel accessed Isabel’s partially suppressed current-life memory of being sexually molested by her grandfather. Through inner-child therapy, she also dealt with the emotions related to the suicide of Isabel’s father and being left to live with her emotionally absent, mentally ill mother. The primary learning for Isabel in this transformation was that she had all the power within her to face the life before her.

Therapist: When we did the Life Between Lives session, one of the things that your spirit guide said was that you’d be presented with lots of opportunities in this life to learn of and trust in your own personal strength. What is it that’s important to understand about finding strength inside?

Client: That I just can’t look outside myself. It’s all in there already. If I’m looking in the wrong spot, I’m never going to find it. I have to have faith and trust in myself, and I just haven’t. I have to learn. It’s not outside; it’s inside. Everything I need is inside already. It’s right there. But I have to be willing. And I haven’t been willing…

My guide is telling me: “You know, you’re already protected. Realize how absolutely amazing and strong you are. And you’ve always been that way, but you just deny it over and over, any way you can. You’re not helpless, but you are acting like you are.”

Therapist: Why is this particularly important, right now, as you face cancer?

Client: Because this is my last chance [in this life]. I didn’t learn it before, even in past lives. It’s just a golden opportunity. I can’t get set up any more perfectly to learn this.

In this session, Gina experienced the abuse, loss, and neglect, and well as the following transformation, as if it were her own. When she returned to waking state, she worried that perhaps she had made it all up.

[Gina] This was quite challenging because the regression went to a deep emotional place. And because I was connecting with my mother’s higher self and my mother’s experience, knowing, seeing and feeling what she faced was quite heavy for my heart. I was troubled and saddened by knowing so fully the difficulties she faced. However, this allowed me to know my mother in a more profound way. While the process was emotionally taxing at times, I could simultaneously feel the healing taking place, inside myself, in my mother, and between the two of us. This made any challenge well worth the effort.

[Gina] What solidified my trust in the process was the confirmation I received from my mother when I relayed the experience to her. I explained all that I experienced—what I saw, what happened to me, how I felt—even the details like where and how I was sitting and who was sitting next to me. My mom was crying as she said I described what had happened nearly perfectly. It was my mom validating the current life regression that allowed me to relax and let go of the thought that I was making stories up.

Following the session, Gina and Isabel both noticed a change in Isabel. She became calmer and softer, more accepting of the people in her life with whom relationships had grown strained or challenging for her—with her separated husband and her other daughter, specifically. Isabel was able to reconnect with both, and the relationships shifted for the positive.

[Isabel] I have been so determined, so driven, that I forgot to live, smile, relax and have fun. I was just attached to earthly goals that I forgot to smile. I want to appreciate all of life, smile a bunch, and have more fun. I’m finding that easier now. I’ve forgiven everybody and love everybody. I realize that we all did the best we could.

“Her relationships improved,” Gina confirmed. “She was less guarded and expressed more caring and concern. A few times my sister and I said: ‘old mom is back!’”

Isabel’s feelings of being misunderstood completely evaporated. Her energy level increased significantly despite still feeling tired from her illness and medication. Her fear shifted, and she felt instead a hatred of cancer, resentment and disappointment.

In the third session, Gina accessed Isabel’s past life as a British maritime soldier during the American Revolutionary War. At the time of her death, she was so focused on her work as the navigator and maps man, that she was completely surprised by an attack that killed her and everyone on board her ship. During transformation, Fischer guided Isabel to find the relation between her life then and her life now. The following is a transcript from the session:

Therapist: Think about the fact that you were caught of guard. You said you were so focused that you didn’t see the whole picture. How is that relevant to your life now as Isabel? Ask June [spirit guide] if you need help.
Client: [Speaking as spirit guide] Don’t have such a narrow focus. In this life you just saw, you were focusing so much on the task that you couldn’t see what was going on around you and it surprised you. Don’t do that again. It’s like the one thing you think . . . is going to be the right way . . . is how you’re bringing this tragedy into your life. It’s the exact opposite. Just by letting go and not worrying, by smiling more, and playing… it doesn’t matter if you die or not, this is the only way you can live.

Therapist: That reminds me of the lesson you had the last time we were together, about how when you let go of the outcome of body, you actually become more connected with body.

 Client: Yes. It’s a paradox. It’s a lesson I have to learn though. I don’t have to learn it the hard way. I don’t have to die to learn it. But it is that not attaching to the outcome actually brings about the outcome you want. In this life as the soldier, I did not figure that out until I died.

 Therapist: Do you have the opportunity to figure it out in this lifetime as Isabel?

 Client: Absolutely. It doesn’t have to go like that again.

Therapist: You don’t have to be caught off guard. And when you think about your life as Isabel, you’ve come to the understanding over and over again in the work that we’ve done together that you actually did plan to have cancer. So is there an element of being caught off guard here, and if so, why?

Client: There is. Just to really shake things up. It is my one last chance in this life. I don’t have to be subject to the cancer. It doesn’t have to end things. I could wake up. I could choose to wake up or die. Either way. I think it’s the way to . . . if you don’t learn your lesson, it sometimes has to be a harder lesson. And this, for me, is the harder lesson.

The fourth session was a return to the Life Between Lives, to meet with Isabel’s spirit guide and council of elders for their thoughts on the work that she’d done and to share advice or wisdom for her journey.

In trance, Gina shared the message to Isabel:

You get to decide now. You have learned the importance of surrender. Surrender is the opposite of what you consciously think it is. It is not death as you understand it. When you surrender to life, it will not be the onset of death, but the moment you start to live. When you let go, you will find true peace.

In November 2017, four months after the final session, and 18 months after her diagnosis of stage four cancer, Isabel died. In a conversation a few weeks after her death, Gina described her mom just before she ultimately let go of her cancer-riddled body:

She had a more open heart and a clearer mind. Everyone in her immediate family felt that there were few to no unresolved issues. More so, we felt that the issues that were resolved may not have been resolved [without the proxy regression therapy]. She had a stronger understanding of why things happened the way they did and she let go of anger and forgave those that had caused her harm. She was more at peace, more settled, more loving.

Whether or not Isabel could have been fully cured of cancer through proxy regression is a valid question. Perhaps, at a soul level, Isabel decided beforehand that even if she did learn the lesson ultimately, if it came to the point of getting cancer, she would carry the sickness to her death. And perhaps her death, to her, was the doorway into new life, free from the burden of cancer as well as the need to continue to focus on the same lesson, repeated, for her, over lifetimes.

[Gina] I think it is very important to note that if we are defining success for my mother as becoming cancer-free and living a long life, then I would say we were not successful. The regression process did not eliminate her cancer. I, however, would not define success in this manner, and I would caution others against doing so with their own regression and other healing experiences. There is much that is out of our control and beyond our understanding. While it is quite natural and normal to want to live as long as we can and to want our loved ones to be by our side forever, that may or may not be what we need for the growth of our soul. One thing that was quite evident to me throughout the regression process was that this life, or any of our lives, while vitally important in the moment, is actually just one small aspect or experience in a much larger, grander experience. I would suggest that we try to define success with an open heart and mind with an eye to the bigger picture. For my mother, a successful outcome was achieved—she came here and was able to learn and grow so much from her experiences. And she left with an open heart full of love, compassion, and understanding when she was called home. That, to me, seems perfect.

Elizabeth and Jan: case study by Rogers

 Ninety-three year old Elizabeth had been bed-bound at her care home for nearly two years after falling out of her wheelchair and breaking both legs. She had been active until immobilized by arthritis ten years prior. Side effects from her medications included a tendency to regularly drift off to sleep, so she was not a suitable candidate for regression therapy. Her daughter, Jan, had benefitted from regression therapy herself, and contacted the therapist, a Varese, Italy-based regression therapist and trainer for the Past Life Regression Academy who has been researching regression therapy by proxy since 2011.  Jan volunteered to be Elizabeth’s proxy.

 Most of Elizabeth’s emotional symptoms—anxiety, loneliness, guilt, constant worry, grief and bereavement—had been with her throughout her life. At this point, she had grown gloomy and depressed. She had become more and more irritated by her physical constraints and bored. Physically, Elizabeth was completely immobile from her waist down due to the broken legs, which, she had been told, would never heal. She experienced whole-body arthritis pain, which was most severe in her neck and right shoulder. She was unable to move to make herself more comfortable. Her arms and hands were weak and arthritic due to lack of muscle and swollen joints. She had experienced a number of strokes, which caused dribbling and slurred speech and weakness on the right side of her body. Handwriting was virtually impossible. She also suffered from acid reflux, which gave her pain in her chest and caused vomiting and nausea.

Elizabeth’s body was ready to die. However, she was not. She was afraid of death. She did not want to leave her family behind.

Elizabeth herself said: “I don’t feel like I’m in the world.” She reported recurring dreams where she was told to “get off the bus!” It seemed as if her spirit guides and higher self were communicating to her that it was time to let go, but she would not.

Through proxy regression therapy, she agreed to explore what was blocking her path, what needed to happen for her to find peace, and how she might finally let go.

The therapist used finger ideomotor signaling through Jan to communicate with Elizabeth’s higher mind and determine the type of work required. The healing plan consisted of three sessions: intrusive energy release, current life regression, and past life regression, in that order.

The energy release session involved releasing two energies that did not belong with Elizabeth. The first was the soul of her baby brother who died at birth when Elizabeth was three years old. He had stayed with her all her life and communicated to her at this point that because of this, she was unsure sometimes whether to behave like a girl or boy. He influenced her, telling her, “You’ve got to be strong, you’ve got to be brave and clever and tough.”

Her brother’s soul said this made her sad and confused:

She worried she wasn’t what I wanted her to be and she tried too hard to be me but she couldn’t. She always did her best and was sad if she couldn’t be the best all the time. She’s sad she wasn’t a boy. Mummy and Daddy knew they wanted a boy and I’m a boy but couldn’t make them listen.

This first soul was aware of the other energy, which was a mischievous nature spirit who used to play with Elizabeth when she was a lonely little girl. The first spirit was moved compassionately to the light and the second to the appropriate place in the universe.

Intrusive energy can cause physical symptoms and exacerbate personal emotions. As a result of this release through Jan, Elizabeth reported improvements regarding loneliness, sadness, guilt, anxiety, and fear.

For the next session, which had been already established by Elizabeth’s higher mind as needing to be a current-life regression, the therapist guided Jan to the source of Elizabeth’s challenging emotions—the same emotions that had been connected with the energy attachments in the previous session.

Jan regressed to an event in Elizabeth’s current life when she was a toddler, just after her brother had been stillborn. She felt upset, shocked, frightened, anxious, lost, abandoned, guilty, and worried. She believed that she was a failure. To help Elizabeth with the painful childhood memory, the therapist transformed the memory through inner-child therapy until understanding and forgiveness were reached. The therapist then guided Jan to the spiritual between-life when Elizabeth’s soul was choosing her life to come. She found that she had chosen to experience rejection in this life as Elizabeth because she had rejected people in another life.

With this revelation came the epiphany that she herself had chosen to experience rejection throughout her life: by her parents as a child, by her unfaithful husband as an adult, and later, as a senior, when she was put into a care home by her other daughter. She had also experienced a form of rejection when a man she loved deeply and was going to marry died in World War II.

After transformation brought forgiveness and understanding in relationship to all these people, Elizabeth’s spirit guide told her she had learned her lessons and could now find peace. Elizabeth, through Jan, could then express the wisdom she had gained:

Feelings of guilt are pointless and negative. Worrying does not achieve anything. Sometimes anxiety and worry and all the other problems get in the way of living your life and being happy. We’re not here to be sad all the time. We’re supposed to be happy, relax, and have faith and find forgiveness. It’s okay to love people even if you might lose them. It’s okay to be and value yourself.

In the following past-life regression session, the therapist guided Jan-as-Elizabeth into a past life as a shepherd boy who got caught in the middle of fighting soldiers. His shoulder and arm were hurt, and he had a pain in his left side caused by a bullet, which had pierced him through, leaving him immobilized. In the dark, he lay in his blood on the ground, cold and confused. He worried about his mother and the sheep. He was full of anger and regret and did not want to die.

After ‘beings’ came and carried him into a bright light—a safe, happy, healing place where his spirit guide joined him—he felt better. There, he reunited in love with his family and in forgiveness with the man who shot him. His guide helped him understand that his dying so young was something that he had planned so that his mother could find her own independence. This awareness resolved everything. In the process, he witnessed that souls incarnate to Earth to be with others, and then they leave. He saw that those who remain are fine and safe. There was no need worry or be anxious. He could be at peace.

Elizabeth learned through this life that:

Loss is temporary and not to be feared when you are alive… I will see them again; they are not lost. I’ve got to have faith … and not question everything … to trust my inner soul, to stop when I get panicky and in a state of anxiety … and realize what I’ve learned, what I’m supposed to learn. I must not get dragged down by pointless, logical trains of thought or get confused by external influences that try to take me away from what I know to be the truth … reject all the negative thoughts that come into my head … have the strength to push them away … and let the light come in … allowing love, faith and peace.

 Through this session, Elizabeth-via-Jan discovered within herself the, “acceptance and faith to let it happen, whatever happens.” She expressed a desire to live in the present, free of worry about the past or future, with “peace of mind, happiness and serenity.”

To counter Elizabeth’s historic fear of dying and leaving loved ones, the therapist anchored the “bright light” experience from this session to serve as Elizabeth’s positive reminder of what happens when our souls leave the body. She anchored the understanding of peace, love, joy, and safety, and the knowledge that we are all connected and together in the light.

The day after the first two sessions, Jan received a text message from her sister, Sarah, who did not know about the proxy therapy. Sarah reported that their mother was suddenly more peaceful: “It was like all her depression had gone and that worries she had, had been alleviated.”

In a later conversation with Jan, Sarah, who visited Elizabeth six days a week and was very sensitive to her wellbeing, said that Elizabeth had been sleeping with unusual ease, so different than before, with her awkward body positioning and tense expressions:

She had relaxed facial muscles. Her face looked like she was much younger, more comfortable, completely relaxed. She allowed herself to drift off and sleep . . .without any of the old worry and no mention of pain. Just peaceful drifting.

Sarah reported improvements in pain, too, even though there had been no change to Elizabeth’s medication regimen: “The pain that she had in her neck and sometimes in her legs and feet that she always talked about . . .there has been no mention of any of this.”

Before the proxy sessions it had been a struggle to get Elizabeth to eat, but afterwards, Sarah observed: “She is eating fairly normally again, it is going down better, there seems to be an easing of all bodily functions.” The acid reflux was gone, and Elizabeth’s dribbling had stopped altogether.

When Elizabeth was awake, she was calm. “Her anxiety about death and depression dissipated,” Sarah said. “She seemed to be without fear.” Sarah also noted Elizabeth’s new comfort with being left alone. “It was like all the worry and concern over worldly things and her family just stopped.”

One day after the final proxy session, Elizabeth’s soul left her body and traveled home.

Sarah’s observations of her mother before she passed confirm emotional and physical symptom reduction or elimination, allowing Elizabeth to die without fear. The family had no doubt that the proxy therapy allowed Elizabeth to heal and to finally be free.

[Sarah] Everything about her existence, mental and physical, was a test of endurance and a struggle. It was very difficult for her to exist in that state. All that seemed to disappear at the end, and I knew subconsciously that she was drifting away. It was like she knew that it was alright to go and I knew that I must let her go too.

“My grief has been made easier having done this work with my mother,” said Jan. “Knowing that I helped facilitate her healing has given me great peace of mind.”

Soul midwifery or spiritual death doula work is a new branch to regression therapy but one that the therapist hopes to help develop, while also encouraging other therapists to join in this focus.

[Rogers] For me, the biggest joy is helping a soul have a smooth transition home, free of any baggage that may have been holding them back. I have experienced first-hand how clearing and healing can have such a big impact on a departing soul, and how it will assist in the next part of the journey, in their ongoing evolution as a soul.

How do we, as therapists, facilitate the process? (Fischer)

Permission

First of all, we as therapists must consider the ethics of proxy regression therapy. We all have met people in our work and in life that would do anything to “fix” the person they love. As always, we cannot help people who do not want help. Permission is a key factor in the proxy regression equation. We must consider the person seeking help as the client, and the client is our primary focus in this work. The goal of the proxy must never override the true objective of the client.

Of course, it is worth special consideration of exception for young children and those who cannot communicate for themselves. Fischer, Tomlinson, and Rogers agree on moving forward with the empowerment or healing of children with express parent/guardian permission—in which case it would most likely be the parent or guardian serving as proxy for the child. Other proxy options for children may be siblings over the age of 18 and other relatives. For clients of age who are unable to communicate for themselves, the therapist is urged to consider and decide on a case-by-case basis.

Objective

As always, it is important that the therapist and the client agree beforehand on the objective on the therapy. It is appropriate and often necessary to review and sometimes revise the objective as the client learns and grows through the therapy process.

Intention

The therapist, as the guide for the process, must work with the proxy to set the intention of connecting with the higher mind of the client before the sessions. This is fundamental to the process, as it reminds the client that the work they are doing is on behalf of the client, and it serves to activate the intuitive link between proxy and client.

Induction

The induction process for proxy regression therapy is the same as for direct regression therapy, with the one exception that the proxy client is directed to access the higher mind of the person that he is helping. A hypnotic induction during which the proxy is directed to connect with the higher mind of the client is a simple technique. Set the intention beforehand, and, at the end of the induction, instruct the proxy to go to the source of the client’s challenge, (or to enter the past life that is the source of the client’s challenge) on the count of three.

The therapist may also choose to use a physical bridge after a pre-session body scan using the directive “allow body to communicate/reveal connection to the source of _______ (the pinpointed emotion) for ________ (client’s name).”

Once the client is in trance and is connected with the higher self of the client, the therapist should proceed to address the client in the second person, knowing that the proxy is experiencing the memory, whether past-, current-, or between-life, of the client. Further directives to connect with the client are unnecessary.

Means

Any trace-related regression is possible through proxy. The therapist is encouraged to use ideomotor response, muscle testing, or other means to determine the most appropriate therapeutic action for each client. Facillitating the client’s participation in this decision making is beneficial for client buy-in and understanding. For example, the therapist may ask the client’s higher self direct questions about necessary therapies while the proxy is in trance.

Some examples of therapy-related questions are:

Do we need to do current life regression therapy?

Do we need to do past life regression therapy?

Will a Between Life Spiritual Regression session be helpful?

How many total sessions are necessary?

Is it in the highest good of the client that we choose a certain order to the therapy?

What other healing modalities are in the highest good of ________ for healing/understanding/empowerment, etc?

Acupuncture?

Herbal remedies?

Energy healing?
Other modalities?

Completion and disconnect

When the session is complete and the therapist is guiding the client back to the waking state, a simple reminder to the proxy that his or her work on behalf of the client is complete for now, and, that once the proxy is fully awake and aware, he/she will be disconnected from the client, and ready to go about the day as usual.

Remote or present client

The therapist should use professional judgment in determining whether or not the client should be present during proxy therapy. Just as all clients are different, so too are the circumstances that indicate proxy as an alternative solution for each client. It is important to gauge the physical, mental, and emotional ability of the client to sit quietly and passively through the experience.

In many cases, privacy during sessions allows for a more thorough and deep regressive experience. It eliminates the possibility of client interference or reaction, and allows the proxy to relax into the experience without worrying about what the client might think, and whether or not what she is reliving is “right.” This is recommended when the client is very young, is experiencing physical pain or illness and cannot rest comfortably for several hours, cannot process or understand what is happening, or is prone to disruptive behavior. It is also recommended if the proxy is more comfortable proceeding without the client’s presence. One should do what is necessary to manage the proxy’s trance depth and potential conscious mind interference.

In some cases, however, the therapist may identify inherent value in the client’s presence during the session. Witnessing one’s own healing through another is not only an exemplary proof of compassion and support, but it can foster cathartic release, and be a facillitating factor in the thorough integration of the transformation.

In May 2018, Andy Tomlinson facilitated one such session, during which a non-family volunteer agreed to be the proxy for a client who was exhibiting high anxiety and social aggressiveness. The client granted Tomlinson and the proxy permission for inner child regression therapy, while she was also present in the room.

{Tomlinson] The session was truly remarkable. We uncovered several challenging childhood memories of the client, which opened the door to catharsis for both the client and the proxy, who was altruistically experiencing the trauma as if it were her own. The client was able to quietly witness and identify with all that was happening before her. What followed was a remarkable healing for the client, but also for the proxy as well, who was able to experience forgiveness and transformation through the eyes and soul of her counterpart.

[Fischer] If the client does join the therapist and proxy in the therapy space, she will need to agree to sit or lay quitely without interfering. Prepare the client for the probability of experiencing a cathartic reaction while listening to the memories emerging. When initiating a current life or inner child session, take the time beforehand to discuss the possibility of uncovering suppressed memories. While it is not possible to prepare the client for the emotions that he may experience when this happens, it is important that she/he understands the expectation of maintaining the therapeutic environment when it does.

Prepare the space not only for the proxy, but for the client as well. Set out tissues, water, a waste basket, and other comforting amenities. If the client must leave during the session, let her know how to do so as quietly and unobtrusively as possible. Also, before beginning the session, to prepare for the possibility that this may happen, establish a waiting space and/or a way to indicate to the client that the work is complete and she may rejoin you.

Allow time to discuss the session with the client and the proxy. Empower the proxy to answer any and all questions about the experience to help the client process and undestand more fully. This can be an invaluable process of integration for the client, who has just witnessed her own deep healing through another.

Integration and results

The effects of proxy regression therapy following resolution generally follow quite naturally. It is this phenomenon that turned Tomlinson on to the idea of proxy regression in the first place. Examples of therapeutic results are outlined in detail in the several case studies presented in this article.

The client and others close to the client involved in the transformative phase of therapy will exhibit emotional, thought-related, behavioral, and sometimes even physical changes in the time post-therapy. That being stated, however, professional follow-up and integration can be additionally helpful to the client. The therapist’s recording sessions, transcribing them into writing, and providing thoughtful synopsis for both the client and the proxy could be very benefical to them in understanding the process of healing.

The three therapists also work with a system of recording and reporting on measurable symptoms. Each therapist records the emotional symptoms of each client and related behavioral, physical, or spiritual effects, through the use of a number scale of severity. During the process of therapy, through to completion, symptoms are measured until resolved. This allows the therapist, the client, and the proxy to track, and to understand, the progress.

Hope for the contra-indicated (Fischer)

The applications of proxy regression are as different and numerous as the clients who may seek it out. Whether it’s for addiction, severe or terminal illness, mental or personality disorder, the deaf or mute, or even for children, proxy regression therapy can open a door to healing for those for whom it would otherwise not be an option.

Just like with direct regression therapy, we cannot, in proxy regression, always guarantee that clients will heal the way that they want to be healed. The limits of what is possible remain the same. However, there are no longer limits to those with whom we can work, if and when they are willing to trust their healing to a partner. We now have a new, viable, and extraorinary way to work with people.

 

References

McHugh, G. (2010). The new regression therapy: Healing the wounds and trauma of this life and past lives with the presence and light of the divine. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

McHugh, G. (2009) Remote regression therapy. Journal of Regression Therapy, Vol. XIX, No. 1, pp. 48-58.

Newton, M. (2004). Life between lives: hypnotherapy for spiritual regression. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications.

Newton, M. (2000). Destiny of souls: New case studies of life between lives. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications.

Newton, M. (1996). Journey of souls: Case studies of life between lives (5th Ed.). St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications.

Schwartz, R. (2009). Your soul’s plan: Discovering the real meaning of the life you planned before you were born. Frog Books.

Van der Beek, H. (2009). Remote regression and past-life therapy for children up to 9 years. Journal of Regression Therapy Vol. XIX, No. 1, pp. 59-66.

 Whitton, J. L. (1988). Life between life. New York City: Grand Central Publishing