How Does ‘Rewind’ Therapy Work?
​A birth trauma memory, once trapped in the amygdala – the emotional memory storehouse of the brain – fires anxiety and a panic response (fight or flight) when anything reminds them of the trauma. The ‘rewind’ technique is a fast, effective and safe way of removing the strong emotional charge that is attached to the birth trauma memory. By neutralising the emotions, the brain can process the memory and the hippocampus part of the brain can create a narrative for the event, so that it can be moved to the past and stored as a narrative memory in the neocortex part of the brain where normal memories are stored.
What Happens During a ‘Rewind’ Session?

• There will be an initial consultation when you talk about your traumatic experience (if you wish) as well as your symptoms. This will include some birth trauma counselling.

• The therapist will begin by relaxing you using deep relaxation techniques.

• You will be asked to imagine yourself in a relaxing place of your choosing whereby you feel particularly safe, secure and relaxed.

• You will be asked to imagine a television screen and a remote control to fast forward through the traumatic events from before they began until after they have finished, in a doubly dissociated state, at top speed on the screen.

• You will then be asked to float back into yourself after the traumatic event and then relive the event backwards really quickly until before the trauma began.

• This is done several times in a deep state of relaxation until the memory of the trauma does not trigger any strong, unwanted emotions.

The Benefits of ‘Rewind’ Therapy

• The ‘rewind’ is a form of non-disclosure treatment, which means there is no need for you to offer details of the trauma if you do not wish to. This is particularly useful if you fear reliving the strong emotions attached to your traumatic birth experience.

• The trauma therapy technique requires that you are taken into a deep state of relaxation. This means that intense states of arousal can be carefully managed and kept right down whilst you get in touch with the traumatic event.

• Because you are in a deep state of relaxation, the therapist is able to access the reprogramming part of the brain so other beneficial techniques, such as rehearsing a future birth experience as being positive with the patient feeling calm and in control, can be used.

• The ‘rewind’ therapy can also be used to prevent birth trauma. It is well documented that if a woman has suffered a previous trauma, such as sexual abuse or domestic violence or she has a close relative or friend who has lost a baby and she has listened to and imagined their suffering, she is more likely to have a traumatic birth experience. The ‘rewind’ therapy can, therefore, be used to remove the emotional charge from these memories or future imaginings, so that they are not triggered during birth.