Healing trauma using Rewind Therapy

In the past, the word 'trauma' was used to describe serious incidents or assaults, but its definition today has widened to distressing events that overwhelm a person's ability to cope, resulting in a lasting negative impact.

Dr Gabor Mate in The Myth of Normal (2022) supports the widening definition of trauma, seeing trauma as an experience of being emotionally wounded rather than an extreme event. This includes responses to more mundane experiences of stress and adversity or even of “good things not happening”.

Bessel van der Kolk, in The Body Keeps the Score (2014), highlights that trauma isn’t just a psychological problem but can lead to long-lasting physical symptoms. He identifies that the urgent work of the brain after a traumatic event is to suppress it, through forgetting or self-blame, to avoid being ostracised. But the body does not forget; physiological changes result in a “recalibration of the brain’s alarm system, an increase in stress hormones”. The stress is stored in the muscles and does not dissipate.

Why treating trauma matters

So, trauma is not just a memory, it is a wound. If left untreated, it can stay in the body and mind for years.

Neuroscience shows that it's hard for our brain to do the work of processing a trauma on its own. This is because traumatic memories are often stored in our nervous system, meaning that the emotional impact of the trauma can dominate over rational thought.

Trauma manifests itself as a range of conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anger, guilt, anxiety, depression, addiction, flashbacks, fear, sleep disturbances, panic attacks, emotional numbness or disconnection, defensive behaviour, and physical symptoms like chronic illness. 

Treating trauma is crucial to allow a person to take back control and improve their ability to function, maintain relationships, and feel good about themselves.

One highly effective and gentle method to treat trauma is Rewind Therapy.

What is Rewind Therapy?

Rewind Therapy, also known as The Rewind Technique, is a non-intrusive, safe, and fast method for alleviating symptoms of PTSD and trauma-related distress. It is different from other trauma therapies as it doesn’t require individuals to share their traumatic memories with the therapist. 

How Rewind Therapy works

When you undergo Rewind Therapy, a specially trained therapist will help you to relax and encourage you to think of a time when you feel safe and happy. You will then be guided through a visualisation of being in a private cinema where you watch a film of your traumatic event. Because you're watching remotely and seeing the events on a screen, you're protected from the emotions of it. You are then asked to rewind the memory at fast speed to help the brain re-code how the traumatic memory is stored. 

Why Rewind Therapy is so effective for trauma

Rewind Therapy has been specially developed to treat PTSD and trauma effectively and quickly, by stopping the involuntary recall of traumatic memories. Unlike other exposure therapies that require detailed recounting of trauma, Rewind allows clients to work through their trauma without having to disclose or re-experience the painful details.

The process takes two to three sessions, which means that many clients experience significant relief quickly. The method can be used for single events and multiple events. For multiple events, the method is used for each event separately.

Rewind has been so successful that it’s now used by many organisations, including the NHS, prisons and charities such as Barnardos, the London Fire Brigade and Mind.

Clients who have experienced the Rewind Technique for trauma tell me they have been surprised and delighted at how effective the treatment is. They no longer suffer from intrusive thoughts, flashbacks and nightmares, and can choose to think about the event as they feel less emotional about it, detached from it. They are able to talk about the event comfortably and not hide it or feel guilty about it.