"Back from the future": a powerful age-progression technique.

This paper briefly reviews the benefits of using age-progression techniques in hypnotherapy, followed by a detailed explanation and illustration of the "back-from-the-future" technique with two case examples, including their outcome. The patients presented with feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and a sense of futurelessness. Following the hypnotherapeutic intervention, patients were instructed to take time to reflect on the session and to write down the specific experiences they had on their voyage into the future focusing on their visual images, auditory sensations, experiences with other senses (touch, smell, and taste), as well as thoughts, emotions, and self-perceptions. Follow-up validated that the patients maintained their therapeutic accomplishments several months after the initial interventions.