Hypnotherapy & EMDR for Lasting Change

 

We are not suspended in a frozen moment, but held within a field of becoming—

where each now bends gently toward what can happen next.

 

Many people build their future on distorted memories of the past.

Discover how memory works, why it changes, and how

In approaches like EMDR and hypnotherapy, this becomes very practical.

therapy can help you reshape both past and future from the present moment.

 

The past isn’t something to obey.

It’s something that moves when you do.

 

We tend to think of time as fixed—

the past behind us, the future ahead.

But in lived experience, something else is happening.

The present is not a point.

 

In therapy, this becomes very clear.

People don’t change by forcing themselves into a completely different future.

They change by moving toward what becomes more accessible from where they are now.

A small shift in the present can open an entirely different direction.

Rewriting the past

This is where our idea becomes powerful:

What we call “the past” is not a fixed archive.

It is a pattern that is activated now.

When that pattern shifts—through insight, through feeling, through integration—the meaning of the past changes.

And when the past changes, the future reorganizes with it.

This is exactly how EMDR is often described in grounded terms—memory reconsolidation, not fantasy.

 

In hypnotherapy, we don’t force outcomes.

We open the field.

 

We allow different responses, different associations, different directions to become available.

Not everything becomes possible at once—

but something becomes more possible.

Change does not come from pushing harder.

It comes from allowing the present to move.

From here, something new can unfold—

often more naturally than expected.

If you’re curious what that might look like for you, feel free to reach out and see if there is a natural click.

+31648750093

Jovannavriend@gmail.com

 

During the sessions online and in Amsterdam we integrate:

Rewriting the past as well as the future from the now

changing how the past is experienced now

 

allowing the past to reorganize in the present”

 

 

 

REFLECTION

 

Yeah, I think it’s a beautiful post. And it’s also what I always say to Kees, like, leave the past alone because you are reconstructing it from a memory that you gathered while you were not quite clear in your head and even psychotic.

So that counts for so many other people that come to me.

They don’t have a clear memory of the past, and that’s why they use the remnants of a broken past in order to build the foundation of a future.

 

 

There’s something very true in what you’re pointing to—but I’d sharpen it slightly, because “leave the past alone” can sometimes become avoidance instead of freedom.

What you’re really describing is this:

The past we remember is not the past as it happened.

It’s a reconstruction—filtered through the state we were in when we encoded it, and the state we’re in now when we recall it.

And when someone has been overwhelmed, dissociated, or even psychotic, that reconstruction can be especially distorted—fragmented, emotionally charged, or built on meanings that no longer fit.

So if someone then uses that version of the past as a fixed foundation, they’re essentially building their future on:

incomplete data

misinterpreted signals

and emotional states that no longer represent who they are now

That’s where things get stuck.

But here’s the important nuance—and this is where your work already quietly goes beyond “leave it alone”:

You’re not ignoring the past.

You’re loosening its authority.

In approaches like EMDR or hypnotherapy, the goal isn’t to dig up the “true” past as if it’s objectively stored somewhere.

It’s to:

update the emotional charge

reorganize the meaning

and allow the memory to become something fluid rather than fixed

So instead of:

“This is what happened, therefore this is who I am”

It becomes:

“This is how it was experienced then, and from here it can reorganize”

What you’re intuitively telling Kate (and your clients) could be refined into something like:

Don’t treat your memory as evidence. Treat it as material.

Because memory is creative, not archival.

And that changes everything.

There’s also a deeper layer in what you said—this idea of people using remnants of a broken past to construct a future.

That’s actually one of the core loops in therapy:

The mind tries to create stability

It reaches for what it knows (the past)

Even if what it knows is distorted or painful

So people unconsciously keep recreating the structure of old experiences—not because they want suffering, but because it feels familiar enough to stand on

What your post is opening—and it’s strong—is a different kind of ground:

Not:

past → future

But:

now → reinterpretation of past + opening of future

That’s exactly what you hinted at in your title.

You’re not just saying “leave the past alone.”

You’re saying:

The past is being rewritten from here anyway, so why not do it consciously?

If you want to sharpen the therapeutic edge (and SEO angle), one very clean H1 idea could be:

“Why Your Memory of the Past Isn’t Reliable—and How It Shapes Your Future”

Or slightly softer, more in your tone:

“Rewriting the Past from the Now: Why Memory Is Not What You Think”

And a meta description like:

Many people build their future on distorted memories of the past. Discover how memory works, why it changes, and how therapy can help you reshape both past and future from the present moment.

What you wrote already carries the essence.

This just makes the hinge-point more visible:

The past isn’t something to obey.

It’s something that moves when you do.