Episode 34 The Benefits of Past Life Regression, with Carolyn Sheehan

[CHRIS McDONALD]

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Welcome to the Holistic Counseling Podcast, where you discover diverse wellness modalities, advice on growing your integrative practice, and grow confidence in being your unique self. I'm your host, Chris McDonald. I'm so glad you're here for the journey.

Welcome to today's episode of the Holistic Counseling Podcast. I'm your host, Chris McDonald. I am over the top excited for today's guest. I have always been interested in past life regression. I've had a couple readings myself I just find it so fascinating and I think it can be so helpful to answer difficult questions we may have about our current life and current struggles. Today's guest as Carolyn Sheehan. Carolyn assists people unlock their own potential for growth and healing by guiding you to recognize the power is within. She's renowned for helping thousands of people around the world to help achieve their lifestyle goals. Carolyn was voted best five star businesses from 2018 through 2021. She was named VIP Woman of the Year by National Association of Professional Women for year 2014, through 15.

She was recently featured in Midtown Magazine, health and wellness article. She is a professional master trainer in hypnosis, a medical Reiki master teacher, a Past Life, Life Between Lives Regressionist and an Angel Healing, Intuitive Reader. Carolyn believes everyone has innate ability to transform their lives. Her compassion, wisdom, mastery, and passion combined to create an unparalleled client experience. Welcome to the podcast, Carolyn.

[CAROLYN SHEEHAN]

Hello, hello. And thank you so much for having me, Chris.

[CHRIS]

Can you tell my listeners more about yourself and your work?

[CAROLYN]

Sure. So my work started a long time ago, 22 years ago with a Reiki practitioner. I always love to tell people, Reiki is kind of, if you always want to pick up an instrument, the first instrument you would want to pick up the easiest that springs for everything else is kind of the piano. It's the same for Reiki. Reiki opens up a whole new perspective for people and it kind of changes their lives and puts them on a very intuitive path. It's pretty life changing.

So I started doing 22 years ago and realized that Reiki heals the mind, body and spirit and hypnosis actually helps people to heal their mind. Clinical hypnosis, self-hypnosis and then really got into spiritual hypnosis, which takes it all to a whole new level of awesomeness. So in terms of the spiritual hypnosis, that kind of guided me to the angelic realm of the healing portion of how I lead my clients. So it's just been an exciting journey and one that keeps changing day after day after day. It's just an awesome way of life and it's an awesome job to have. I'm blessed every day with the clients that I meet and the changes that they can make in such a small amount of time actually.

[CHRIS]

I love how you tied all those in together, how one led to the other. And I can hear your passion as you talk about this. It's so cool to hear that

[CAROLYN]

What I love about hypnosis is we can get to the root cause very quickly. It has profound changes in a short amount of time, and I think that's what I really like about it and I think that's what my clients really like about it. It's you have these aha moments very quickly, maybe in a couple of hour and a half sessions.

[CHRIS]

That's pretty incredible coming from a mental health therapist. I know that our work isn't always so quick if we just use regular traditional counseling.

[CAROLYN]

Sure, absolutely. Well, I think one of the most important pieces of this puzzle is the subconscious mind knows exactly what it needs in order to heal themselves. So the way I access and help people it's accessing their subconscious space. So by putting someone in a nice meditative state that subconscious mind is taking the front row seat, so to speak and has all the answers to be able to help this client when, and if they're ready to be able to make really fast changes.

[CHRIS]

And that's just fascinating.

[CAROLYN]

Yes, sure.

[CHRIS]

Have you always wanted to be a healer?

[CAROLYN]

Yes, I think I've always been a healer. I didn't really know what that was until I became a Reiki practitioner.

[CHRIS]

So can we just rewind for a little bit and can you share more about what exactly is past life regression? Because a lot of people may not be familiar with that.

[CAROLYN]

Oh sure. Of course. So reincarnation is not a new concept. It's been around for centuries. I think a lot of people are coming into that realization. They're kind of opening up to that concept and people are affected by their past lives, whether they realize it or not, because your subconscious mind carries the memories of your past existence. So people who have repeated patterns in this lifetime are basically patterns that they have repeated from lifetime to lifetime. When they not uncovered and healed and resolved, they will keep presenting themselves until they actually are healed, resolved, rebalanced, so to speak. All of our subconscious space carries the memories of our past experiences, whether it be one lifetime or thousands of lifetimes.

And these memories can be stored in our physical bodies, our mental bodies. We will keep attracting the same kind of relationships. We will keep these relationships, so to speak, for lifetime to lifetime, being in a relationship with a certain person for lifetime to lifetime, to lifetime. So going back and remembering, restoring, rebalancing all of these memories is the most important part of the work that I do. So, yes, it's cool to remember things. And it's so great that we have the internet because many of my clients can get names who they were in a past life, plantations that they lived on. They can go back after our session and Google themselves.

[CHRIS]

That is so cool. I love it.

[CAROLYN]

So the history of all of the clients' sessions that I've had have been just amazing because they'll go home and they'll send me newspaper articles or Google articles validating their experience, so to speak. So that's always, always really fun. What's so cool about it is we're all born into this world, remembering our past lives, remembering what it's like to be in soul state, remembering what it is to be back home and then we get busy. We're learning to walk and talk and all of those things. So by the time people are around five years old, they've forgotten who they were and where they came from.

What's so great about past life experience is that it is not a reading from me. I am taking them through the process via hypnosis and people are so surprised about how easy it is just being in that quiet meditative state that I take them through. Then I ask them open-ended questions. So I'm not putting any memories into their subconscious. I'm asking them open-ended questions and I allow them all the time they need to have all the details slowly come into the picture of their mind. What I love love about this work is that Chris, this is heart-centered work. So we put the conscious the thinking mind, we give it a job.

We thank it for all it's done for you in the past, but we put it on your left hand shoulder to observe your session for however amount of time that we're working with. And we say to that, conscious thinking mind, we're going to talk to you at the end, but for this time that we're together, please sit on your conscious thinking mind to your left hand shoulder. That works really well so that the client can work the heart center. So when I ask a client a question, it's not coming from their thinking mind, it's coming from their heart. And I always love to tell people, just do the blah, just say the first thing that comes into their mind and they are really surprised about what comes to their heart and not their mind. Then I always say, don't second guess what you're saying?

[CHRIS]

So they have to really trust the process.

[CAROLYN]

They have to trust the process. And of course I have great conversations with them before the process. I explain to them like, I'm explaining to you how the process works. So let's say I get somebody that they get to the past life regression and they say, I ask them what the mode of transportation is, where they are and they'll say, I see buggies and carriages and all that. Then they may say something that to them does not resonate in that time zone.

Because of quantum physics, there's no time. There's no space. We're all on the same continuum. So if we're all in the Mojave Desert and in the same course and buggy state at the same time, being the same person, just at a different time zone. So that brings up something that's so cool too, is I move them forward and I move them backward in time. Whatever they need to resolve, what it is they need to resolve, that's what I do. Every single session a complete, I love to say grab bag. We never know what we're going to get. We're going to get what you need. We're going to heal what you need to be healed today and it's just awesome.

[CHRIS]

So you technically could be going back to several different past lives?

[CHRIS]

Yes. Some people they do, because if it's a pattern, I will ask them, how many lifetimes has this been a pattern for you? Or how many lifetimes have you been with this person? Let's go back to the original. And a lot of times when it's a relationship issue, it will go back to sole contract work. We've made a sole contract and I will go back and say, was it time to change that contract?

[CHRIS]

Can you share what that is, a sole contract?

[CAROLYN]

Sole contract, so what you and I are speaking about today is past life regression, but it goes much be beyond past lives. It goes up into soul state. Some people can call it heaven. Some people don't believe in heaven. So I don't really like to use that word. So what I like to say is we make contracts in soul state. So souls will connect with other souls and say, "Hey, I'm going to help you with this. Hey, I'm going to help you with that. Let's make a contract, let's go to earth and let's work on these things together." It's very involved. It is very spiritual because our meaning for being on this planet, being human beings is to evolve. So when we are in soul state, we're like high fiving each other saying, let's go to earth and do this stuff together. And at some point maybe it's time to change the soul contract. So that's one of the things that I really like to do if it's time.

[CHRIS]

So by evolving, I think from what I've read too, it's we have a lot of lessons we have to learn. And I think you said too, that if we don't learn it in one lifetime, we have to keep going, keeps that lesson coming up.

[CAROLYN]

Going and going. And it's great too, because Chris, it's one of the questions that I ask, actually in the beginning of the session. I start off with the womb regression because that's basically where we started off as a soul state and I will ask them, okay, how are you feeling about coming into this life that you're just to be born into and how many lifetimes have you incarnated? So we get a whole bunch of information just being in the womb. And what I love is I actually do have just womb regression sessions because people who become depressed, become depressed because they don't know why they're here. They forgot their sole purpose. So if I just do a womb regression with these people, they're like, oh gosh, I forgot that this is why I came. So those also are extremely healing sessions as well.

[CHRIS]

Yes, I imagine so because I see that a lot with young adults. So I see that they just struggle with where am I going with my life and what's my purpose? And I could see how, I hate to see real life, but the normal life we all have, it's like you could easily get caught up in everyday business and just kind of lose that connection to the spiritual world.

[CAROLYN]

Absolutely. You are absolutely right.

[CHRIS]

So have you seen transformation with them finding more of what their meaning is and purpose?

[CHRIS]

Oh gosh, absolutely, yes. Over the last four or five months, most of my clients have been really young people, between 20 and 28 years old. They are getting it. They are on this raising of the consciousness. They are on this spiritual path. They are ready to fight this in the bud rather than waiting until they're 50 and 60 years old. So this has been really exciting for me to have this kind of work come in recently at a younger age. That's been super exciting, but even in terms of people who have not only relationship patterns in their life, but also this is extremely beneficial for people who have physical ailments.

I had a young client come to me. She's had all kinds of herpes and chicken pox and all of those types of viruses, all of her life. She came to me for a past life regression. So in this past life that she went to, of course, based on the patterns that she has been experiencing in this life, she went back to a time when she was a nun and she was working in a church during the years of the Smallpox outbreak. She contracted the Smallpox and she did not tell her elders because she did not want to be taken out of her job, her posts. So she continued to work and eventually became sick and died.

So this is the work that's so important where I would say to her, and I never assume that people want to change history, but we are able to, and I said to her, is there something that you want to change about this situation? Because when you change the situation, you're taking it out of your DNA. So she was like, oh yes. And I don't take it upon myself to tell her how to change it. So I just kind of motioned her to say, okay, how would you like things to have gone now that you have more understanding around it? And everything's out loud, everything is recorded. So as soon as she started to get these symptoms, she did go to the head nun and they all were able to heal her. Then she was able to go back to her job. So it currently took out those symptoms in her lifetime now

[CHRIS]

That's incredible.

[CAROLYN]

It's just amazing. And I honestly could tell you a thousand more stories.

[CHRIS]

I asked you before we recorded. You're like, "Oh, do you have 50 hours to record all these great stories?"

[CAROLYN]

Actually Chris, what's kind of interesting too, is I had a gentleman who, same thing, he didn't tell me going into the session that he had shoulder pain. He just wanted to, for him, he was just curious. He didn't really have anything in his current life that he was struggling with. He just wanted to know, hey, what's his past life regression about? So that's a big part of what I want to say as well. A lot of people want to know what's my life purpose. A lot of people want to know why does this life feel so challenging. Some people are just curious. Some people just want to know, why am I here? Some people notice the continued patterns and behaviors, conflicts, and some people are just looking for personal growth and spiritual awareness. So I see the big gamut of people that come to me for this kind of work.

But this one gentleman that I'm thinking about, he was just curious. He just wanted to go through the process and when we were in his past life, he was a very bad guy and we are all good. We are all bad. We are all rich. We are all poor. We are all white. We are all black. We all of those things. So this gentleman was a really bad person in this past life and we got to the point where he was stabbed with an arrow in his shoulder. I said to him, "Well, do you want to make things right with this guy?" He said, no, I want to keep my shoulder pain so that I remember to be a good guy. So it is interesting on how some people decide that they do want to keep it.

[CHRIS]

I would think most people would be like, "Yes, please release me."

[CAROLYN]

Most people do. So I think that's why that one stands out to me very much so because every everyone's journey is different.

[CHRIS]

Yes, that's good to know. So I know you mentioned depression and how regression was a good way to manage that. But what about anxiety, because a lot of therapists listening treat anxiety and it can be difficult at times to find the right treatment. Sometimes clients get stuck and it's really hard to find the right strategies to help them overcome. What do you think about anxiety?

[CAROLYN]

So you are absolutely right. Especially in the times we are in now, I'm seeing a lot of people for anxiety, probably just like you, Chris. We teach people mindfulness, we teach people the tools to be able to calm down. And of course we have many of those tools in terms of getting through the day. But so sometimes after a couple of sessions, if these tools are not working, then I love hypno-regression for regular clinical hypnosis. So we can go back to the original time of when was anxiety first an issue for you? So we, the same thing as the past life, we can go back to the first time anxiety was an issue for you and really work around restoring, rebalancing, forgiving of that first initial time. That is so helpful and so healing, especially for children. Hypnosis is so great for children, young adolescents.

[CHRIS]

Wow, I hadn't thought about that that it would be an option for children and adolescents.

[CAROLYN]

Oh my gosh, it's so great. I mean, I know we're not talking about that right now, but I would just love to share with you a quick story. I had a young, she was seven a couple weeks ago, she was definitely afraid of birds. It was impacting her every day. She lives here in Raleigh where there's a lot of birds, a lot of crows. She would be running in the house whenever she saw a bird and her mom took her to me and we had one session. It was probably not even an hour, maybe 45 minutes of just going back to the very first time fear of birds was an issue for her.

For her, she was three years old and she was in a bird sanctuary and to her, these birds were huge. She was some mall. She was terrified of these birds when she was three. So we went through this process of me making her bigger than the birds, me making the birds smaller than her. It's just a very simple rewind, replay situation and making her large and powerful, taking her out of the hypnosis. I mean, she was ready to take on the world, though. And it was so great because two weeks later her mother had taken her to a bird sanctuary, a local one here in North Carolina and sent me pictures of her having all the birds on her arms.

[CHRIS]

That's got to be so satisfying for you.

[CAROLYN]

Right. It's, so that's why I wanted to bring up the children. It happens very quickly with children.

[CHRIS]

Is there a reason why it would happen quicker with children?

[CAROLYN]

Well, they don't have as much baggage as we do.

[CHRIS]

As we get older, we carry too much that blocks probably the process.

[CAROLYN]

Yes. So I always love working with children. We can use so many metaphors with them. It's like storytelling with children, obviously the clinical side with them. I wouldn't do it past life regression on a child. So I just want to put that out there.

[CHRIS]

Okay. Good to know. Are there any risks to the past life regression, because what I'm thinking of is from a therapist's point of view, bringing up traumas from the past that could be emotionally difficult or challenging or somebody was violent or witnessed a lot of violence?

[CAROLYN]

I love the questions that you're asking. A past life regression brings up traumas. So what I counsel my clients, before we start, you can just watch it like you're watching a movie, you, you don't have to relive what is happening. So what I do at the beginning is I establish a safe place. So if someone is having a reaction to something that they're experiencing, have them go back to their safe place and I have them watch it from a movie because it is important to go through the process. I take them through and I have them breathe and it is such a natural, beautiful process because what we do is we remember, we heal, we rebalance, we restore.

[CHRIS]

That's like a perfect tagline.

[CAROLYN]

It's just an awesome experience. And I would just love to share one last experience with you because I will see a clinical hypnosis client who will come to me for fear of enclosed spaces. Sometimes that will take maybe two or three sessions. So this one gentleman that I'm thinking about that I just had, he came in and we did a hypno regression because, I did this on his first session because he's a really good meditator. So I brought him back to the first time. Being in enclosed spaces first became an issue for him and boom, within 20 minutes, he is sobbing uncontrollably. He was three years old and he fell in his family well.

He wasn't crying uncontrollably because he was in this well. He actually had a near death experience that he didn't remember and he was in soul state. So if you're following that story, I brought him back to the first time him falling into the well, I give him enough space, tell me what you're experiencing. The next thing he says is, okay, I am in soul state and I am being told that this is not my time to go. I was like, well, okay, so we are somewhere we didn't realize we were going to be. Then you just, you go with what you need to go to. And I love that experience because he was able to meet with his spirit guides.

His spirit guides told him, you can't go yet. You have all this work to do. I brought him back into his three year old body. He ended up going to the hospital and the hospital doctor that was helping him come back from that experience was actually his spirit guide in soul state. The doctor was like, you're fine. You're all good. Go home, get some rest. So it's just hypnosis in general, whether it be clinical or past life regression or the lives between lives. It's just incredible.

[CHRIS]

Our listeners are mental health therapists mostly. So what would you say to someone that they want to learn more about this to add this to their practice?

[CAROLYN]

What I love is when people are stuck, a lot of times, it goes beyond what they are experiencing in their day to day lives. So I see a lot of therapists come to me for hypnosis for their personal reasons and then they realize, oh my God, my clients can really benefit from this because it's a much broader scope first of all. Second of all, we get to results so quickly. I mean, I don't see many people more than maybe four times max for one specific issue. So they realize the benefit and then they go out and they get hypnosis training. Some people just do the clinical. Some people realize the benefits of spiritual hypnosis. So it's just so fantastic for the mental health therapists to be able to do this.

I know some of your listeners will be able to understand that that's how Dr. Brian Weiss, I mean, he was a clinical hypnosis doctor and actually I think he probably started off as a mental health therapist. When he did the open ended regression, that's when all of these things started opening up for him and realized the benefits of this past life regression. So, of course, there's many people before Dr. Brian Weiss, before Dr. Michael. But I would encourage all mental health therapists to consider these two options, these two references. And I also teach clinical hypnosis, spiritual hypnosis, and the lives between lives work. If anyone is interested, of course, they can always contact me for additional information.

[CHRIS]

I think you're on the right track with that, that we have to do our own work as therapists? And guess what, we got to do therapy too and maybe some of these other modalities that we might be interested in adding to our practices. I think it's so power to use them on ourselves too, especially before you start with clients.

[CAROLYN]

Absolutely. You are absolutely right.

[CHRIS]

So is there a takeaway you could share today that could help listeners that might be just starting their holistic journey?

[CAROLYN]

All of our holistic healing is within ourselves. Self-hypnosis is so powerful. We all have what we need inside of ourselves. Sometimes people just need help accessing it. Giving people the understanding that they are their own power, that you can do this themselves and have somebody help, show them how to do it is invaluable.

[CHRIS]

That's wonderful. I want to thank you Carolyn for providing all this information and coming on the podcast today.

[CAROLYN]

Sure. I just thank you so much for the invitation, Chris. It's just been so awesome.

[CHRIS]

I could sit and listen to your stories all day. I just like tune right in and I'm just like, "Yes. Keep going. Tell me more.

[CAROLYN]

I know. Well, so I have a book in the making. So you can read my book.

[CHRIS]

Oh, excellent. Can you share what, if listeners are interested in finding you and they want to learn more about you, can you share that

[CAROLYN]

Of course. My main way to contact me is www.integrativehealinginc.com. That's my main web address, www.integrativehealinginc.com. If you want to learn more about Reiki healing, www.raleighreiki.com. If you want to find me on Facebook, it's Integrative Healing, Inc. If you want to find me on Twitter, it's Inner Healing.

[CHRIS]

And we'll put all that in the show notes so that listeners can easily access that from the website. Thanks again, Carolyn.

[CAROLYN]

Sure. It was my pleasure.

[CHRIS]

And I want to thank my listeners as well for tuning in today. Did you like today's show? Please support the show and remember to subscribe, rate and review wherever you get your podcast. This is Chris McDonald sending each one of you much light and love. Until next time, take care.

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