Join us in an insightful conversation with Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, DeAnna Torres. After two decades as a dedicated school teacher and homeschooling mom, DeAnna embarked on a transformative journey in 2009, graduating from The California Hypnotherapy Academy under the guidance of the esteemed Dr. Katherine Zimmerman. Her unique approach combines 200 hours of basic hypnotherapist training with an additional 100 hours in advanced techniques, a supervised practicum, and successful completion of the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners’ exam. DeAnna’s path also led her to a 12-year apprenticeship in shamanic healing, studying with Dr. Hank Wesselman and Jill Kuykendall. In 2011, she expanded her expertise with Between-Lives hypnotherapy training from Dr. Michael Newton and The Newton Institute. DeAnna’s passion lies in guiding clients through Soul-Healing Hypnotherapy, a client-centered and transpersonal practice that aims to heal past-life traumas, integrating lost aspects of self for a more fulfilling and balanced life.
Can you share a bit about your personal journey and what led you to transition from being a school teacher and home-schooling mom to becoming a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist specializing in Soul-Healing Hypnotherapy?
A very personal experience set me on this path, one I was neither looking for nor believed was even possible at the time. After an argument with my very religious (now ex-) husband about whether or not a demon was attached to a windchime I’d bought in a metaphysical bookstore, he stormed out of the house to go “gather the men to pray.” In the next breath, I found myself in the body of a terrified Irish woman in the early 1600’s whose husband had done the same. Only for her, the accusation of heresy would have much harsher consequences.
Psychiatrists would say that I’d experienced a dissociative episode. Jungian psychologists would say that I’d tapped into the Collective Unconscious. But I knew that I’d somehow spontaneously regressed to a past life, and that because her trauma was so closely mirroring my own that in moment, it thinned the time barrier between us.
It’s not an understatement to say that my entire life and my understanding of why I’m here shifted in that moment. I felt shaken to the core, and my determination to discover what had happened to me and why it was even possible led me on the quest into shamanism that changed everything.
What exactly is Soul-Healing Hypnotherapy, and how does it differ from traditional hypnotherapy or other healing modalities?
My practice is both client-centered and transpersonal. That means that each person who comes to me becomes an active agent of healing in their life with the awareness that their consciousness extends beyond their current-life personality. I named my practice Soul-Healing Hypnotherapy because I focus on healing the traumas that impact our souls from their incarnational experiences so that my clients can complete the remainder of this life free from past-life compulsions.
In contrast, traditional hypnotherapy is script-based: the therapist relaxes the client into trance then reads a script of suggestions to bring about the desired behavior change. The clients usually provide input into what those suggestions will be, but once they’re in trance, there’s no interaction between them and the therapist. This method will have limited success because it’s trying to overwrite the subconscious mind’s programming, rather than removing the root of the problem.
Some hypnotherapists offer group past life regressions based on this model. In my experience, these have a very low success rate because the therapist can’t possibly give each attendee the individualized attention they need, and since they’re not interacting with people once the session begins, they can’t tailor their questions to follow what’s being experienced. For the few attendees who do get a glimpse or two of a past life, they will leave with information, but no actionable change in their lives.
You mention a 12-year apprenticeship in shamanism. How does shamanic healing complement Soul-Healing Hypnotherapy, and what role does soul retrieval play in your sessions?
The goal of shamanic healing is to restore the client’s personal wholeness and power. Once the distortions in the person’s energy field are corrected, their bodies and self-perception will naturally begin the process of healing themselves. The main way to do that is to remove anything in the client’s energy body that doesn’t belong to them (extraction), and then to fill up those “holes” by returning to them their own energies that do (soul retrieval).
These concepts form the foundation of the Soul-Healing protocol I use with my past life regression clients with one major distinction: rather than the shamanic practitioner doing the work and the client passively waiting (as is traditional), because the client is already in trance and merged with their past-self, I facilitate them to experience doing this for themselves. Remember, clients are active participants in my sessions – even though they’re in trance and merged with their past-self, they can always hear me and answer my questions easily.
In your practice, you offer Past Life Regressions. How do the experiences from past lives impact our current life, and how can exploring them lead to healing and personal growth?
It’s amazing how much of our personalities and the way we interact with the world are actually shaped by past life trauma. We may think a belief or a behavior is “just the way we are,” but more often, it’s a distortion in our energy field that began in the past and is still echoing forward to impact us today.
One of my clients always had to pack water and food with her, even to go to the store, until we released a past-self who’d been starved to death in a German work camp in WWII. Another client came in to learn why he’d always felt such intense survivor’s guilt that no amount of talk therapy could clear, even though he’d lived an easy, quiet life. We discovered that the guilt was coming from a past-self who had been the only survivor when his regiment had been ambushed in the Civil War. Several clients have had past-selves who were stuck as ghosts, and as soon as we helped them Cross Over, the feeling of “being invisible” and the belief that “I don’t matter” instantly cleared from their present lives.
Exploring what happened in a past life is only the first step in clearing the traumatic imprint. The releasement protocol that I developed blends shamanic healing, elements of NLP, and other hypnotic techniques to clear the emotional effects of the trauma from the past-self after their death and before they Cross Over. Once that’s done, the client is free of those energetic distortions, as is every life they’d lived between then and now.
What brings you the greatest joy in your work, and what message would you like to leave with our readers as they consider the possibilities of soul healing and personal transformation?
Not only do I love how unique each session is, I also really enjoy hearing from my clients about the changes in their lives that result from our sessions. I’ve had clients tell me all of these:
- Relief from anxiety, fear/phobias, guilt/shame, depression, regret, or bursts of anger.
- A sense of calmness, inner peace, and well-being.
- Clearer thinking and a renewed sense of purpose.
- A deeper understanding of how personal challenges in life are actually opportunities for self-observation and choice of how to respond.
- A greater awareness of the connections with other souls through time, which allowed for the creation of healthier relationship patterns.
- Being more patient, forgiving, and loving toward others.
- A shift in priorities and perspective gave them the willpower to clear codependent entanglements and to leave toxic relationships.
- Increased self-love, self-confidence, and self-worth.
- A more positive, hopeful outlook on life.
- Bridging forward talents and strengths from the past-self to access them this life.
- Having a deeper awareness of the Soul’s immortality leads to a diminished fear of death and the transformation of grief and loss.
I’ve even had a few clients experience permanent relief from physical ailments afterwards, though I certainly can’t guarantee that will happen.
The final message I want to leave with your readers is that personal transformation is an ongoing, life-long process: one past life regression isn’t going to solve all their problems, but it can definitely be a rocket boost on their path of personal growth because they’ll no longer have the compulsion to repeat the old patterns. Some people will still have mental habits they’ve become identified with, and they’ll need additional therapy to shift them; but it will be so much easier for them to do that once they’re no longer dragging the baggage of lifetimes of trauma responses.
To learn more or get in touch with DeAnna visit:
www.hope4youtoo.com
