JRT Topic: Spirit Releasement Therapy

Maybe Controversial? Thinking Outside One’s Parameters – Louise Ireland-Frey (Is.17)

Louise Ireland-Frey, M.D.

Louise Ireland-Frey has been a true pioneer in Past-Life Therapy and Spirit Releasement Therapy (SRT), and here she gives us her personal view of her own ventures into “controversial” fields, in this case SRT. She considers some reasons others may have for considering new ideas controversial, but warns us at the end to keep an open mind but not an empty one.

Introduction

When my recent book, Freeing the Captives, was described as “controversial” ‑ in fact, as “very controversial” ‑ I was astonished. I had not thought of it as being so at all. A therapist friend commented, “I don’t feel that it is controversial, but then I know you and I am acquainted … Read the rest

Portals to the Psyche: Spirit Involvement – Isa Gucciardi (Is.16)

Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D.

Dr. Gucciardi examines the conflicts between western “scientific” approaches to Dissociative Disorders (DD) and those of shamans and today’s spirit releasement approaches. She recommends that the task of therapists working with DD is to let their clients lead the way to “their own maps of their own psyches,” whatever that map might contain, because it is only there that healing can occur. Dr Gucciardi appeared in last year’s Journal.

Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), now called Dissociative Disorder (DD), has only recently been recognized as a separate disorder within the field of modern western psychology. When Freud’s theories reigned supreme in this field, most cases of dissociative disorders were misdiagnosed as schizophrenia. In 1980, the American … Read the rest

A Study of Spirit Releasement Therapy for Individuals Who Believe They are Involuntarily Possessed – Jacqueline Whitmore (Is.15)

Jacqueline Whitmore, Ph.D. Saybrook Institute, 1995

Although there have been many definitions and little agreement as to what constitutes “possession,” for the purposes of this study possession was defined as “a subjective belief in the involuntary, non-culturally and non-religiously sanctioned, undesirable influence by an outside entity such as a spirit, power, deity, or other person.” The participants were twenty-two healthy, basically well-functioning adults who had chosen to experience Spirit Releasement Therapy (SRT) because they had come to believe that they were possessed. The researcher was not the SRT therapist, but had the therapist’s full cooperation.

Before SRT, 24 hours after SRT, and one month or more after SRT, participants were interviewed and completed pre- and post-treatment measures: the Hardiness … Read the rest

Healing Through Time: Reconnecting with an Old Foe – Isa Gucciardi (Is.15)

Isa Gucciardi, M.A., C.Ht.

Isa Gucciardi describes combining hypnosis, past-life therapy, depossession/entity release, and soul retrieval in the treatment of a client. She suggests that combining these modalities as needed can get better results than using only one or two alone.

My work as a hypnotherapist takes me to many times and places in my clients’ psyches. I use many tools to help people discover the origin of the problems they come to me for help with. My work is inspired by some of the studies that Irene Hickman, Edith Fiore, William Baldwin and Michael Harner have presented on spirit depossession, past-life regressions and soul retrieval, but I have found that most sessions do not confine themselves into the … Read the rest

Differential Diagnosis in Spirit Releasement Therapy – William J. Baldwin (Is.14)

by William J. Baldwin, D.D.S., Ph.D.

The problem of correctly diagnosing various kinds of entities is one that confronts all practitioners of Spirit Releasement Therapy. In this new paper, Baldwin presents some specific questions to ask clients and tells us what the possible answers to them might mean; along the way, he gives us some tips on what to do next. This paper might be considered a continuation of his paper in the 1995 Journal, “Soul-Mind Fragmentation and Recovery.”

Introduction

This article addresses the differential diagnosis of sub and alter personalities and the three types of attached entities which are most often discovered in clinical sessions. These three types of attached entities are: 1) human entities, which … Read the rest

Sacred Aspects in the Treatment of Trauma – Gail Carr Feldman (Is.13)

by Gail Carr Feldman Ph.D.

In the following paper the author describes using past-life and spirit releasement therapies with clients who have been severely abused in childhood. Dr. Feldman refers to the work of Shengold and his concept of “soul murder” in discussing these clients and their courage in therapy; she also points out that with these clients, therapists are “called upon to be guardians of their souls.”

Judith Herman (l992) reportedly said, “No one can face trauma alone.” The therapist is called upon to bear witness to a crime. I believe that no one can face recovering from trauma alone. The therapist is also called upon to bear witness to a healing. I believe that it is a sacred … Read the rest

Soul-Mind Fragmentation and Recovery – William J. Baldwin (Is.13)

by William J. Baldwin, D.D.S., Ph.D.

Dr. Baldwin is no stranger to our pages or to members of APRT. In the paper below he presents his findings on the condition he calls soul-mind fragmentation and makes some concrete and useful suggestions for diagnosis and treatment. In this paper, he pulls recent research on Dissociative Identity Disorder, spirit releasement, past-life therapy, and fragmentation therapy together in a novel and effective way.

Soul-Mind Fragmentation and DID

The concept of divided or multilevel consciousness has been studied extensively in recent years. The divisions of consciousness have been labeled variously as ego states, subordinate personalities, subpersonalities, alter personalities, fragments, special-purpose fragments, mind fragments, inner children, compartments, parts, voices, complexes, and selves. An emotional … Read the rest

Releasement of a Non-Human Entity: Case Report – Louise Ireland-Frey (Is.12)

by Louise Ireland-Frey, M.D., C.C.Ht.

No stranger to members of APRT or the readers of JRT, Dr. Ireland-Frey is a physician, well schooled in the rigors of scientific research. It is, therefore, doubly interesting for a person of her background and training to undertake an exploration of this topic. In a recent letter to the Editor, she addressed this, writing, “The trouble—and the fascination—is that the farther we go into the metaphysical and mystical realms, the more questions we come face to face with and the more shaky some of our firm old theories become.” She expects some skepticism. So do we. One of the purposes of JRT is to present new ideas and alternative approaches to inform and, Read the rest

Past-Life Report: Therapy in the Treatment of Multiple Personality Disorders by Kardecist Healers In Brazil – Stanley Krippner (Is.12)

by Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.

Dr. Krippner originally presented this topic as the keynote speaker during the banquet at the October, 1993 convention of the Association for Past-Life Research and Therapy in San Francisco. The importance and scope of his address were such that we asked him to share his comments, observations, and research with our readers.

The emergence of past-life report therapy is one of many harbingers of what many philosophers have called the “postmodern age.” “Modernism” or “modernity” holds that the methods of “objective” natural science will reveal “the external world” and lead to unanimity of belief regarding “natural laws” and their implications. However, this glowing vision has never been actualized. The search for “objective” methods has revealed … Read the rest

The New Age, The Mythic, and Legitimization of Regression/Releasement Therapy – Carl Silver (Is.11)

by Carl Silver, Ph.D.

Belief systems and theories, together with empirical data, are foundation stones upon which thought leads to knowledge and understanding. Within the therapeutic setting, “beliefs” may be more important to achieving an outcome than “science.” Dr. Silver directs his thoughts towards an interesting and provocative exploration of this topic.

My readings in the area of past-life regression therapy et al reveal occasional reference to altered states and their relation to the mythic, but always as tangential to some other focus rather than as a central theme. I propose that a grasp of the following two conclusions are central to eventual acceptance of this therapy into the mainstream of psychotherapeutic intervention:

A personal mythology and its requisite … Read the rest