Trauma & Past
Hypnosis for forgiveness work
Set down what has been too heavy.
Forgiveness Work is a session for anyone carrying a weight for too long, where the recording spends most of its time on the act of setting that weight down.
It treats the hurt as real and avoids any need to excuse what happened, letting you work toward your own relief at your own pace.
Most people carry one old conversation in their pockets like a heavy stone. It is the same scene played over and over, the same sharp words, the same wish that the moment had gone differently.
The mind returns to it while driving or washing up, turning the memory over until it feels fresh and sharp every single time.
What’s in it
A gentle way to set down a weight you have carried too long, so the hurt stops costing you your own peace.
Why do it
Forgiveness here is for you and your relief, in your own time, never to excuse the wrong or push you back toward anyone, and it leaves you lighter.
- Theme
- Trauma & Past
- Delivery styles
- 3
- Lengths
- Quick ~26mStandard ~27mDeep ~29m
- Ends
- Calm and present
- Stages
- 5
- On this shelf
- 9 sessions
Perfect use-case: Forgiveness Work — hypnosis session
The memory surfaces at quiet moments, when the world stops and your hands are empty.
What you’ll hear in the Forgiveness Work session
The recording guides you to acknowledge the weight you carry, visualise it as an object, and then place it down in a safe space you create, focusing on the physical sensation of release.
You are carrying a weight that has been yours for far too long, and you are ready now to find a way to set it down gently
This work is for you and your relief alone, a quiet act of reclaiming your own peace without excusing any harm done
You can feel that heaviness in your shoulders, a constant pressure that reminds you of the burden you bear
It is a familiar ache, a tension that has settled deep within your muscles and bones
Today, you allow yourself to acknowledge the sheer cost of holding on, the energy it drains from you each and every moment
You recognize this weight completely, giving yourself permission to see its true size and shape
As you breathe, you can notice how that tightness in your chest restricts the fullness of your breath, a cage built from past hurts
- a cage built from past hurtsa metaphor that makes an internal feeling feel concrete and containable
- a familiar ache, a tensionnaming the physical symptom to validate it before the work begins
- the sheer cost of holding onframes release not as forgetting but as stopping a personal loss
Timeline: Start to Finish
The suggestion block is built around setting the weight down in your own time. Rehearsing that specific motion of leaving the hurt behind is what the middle minutes are spent on.
4 of the 5 stages are named techniques with a published origin, credited under each.
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InductionStage 16 min
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
A classic head-to-toe relaxation. Tense and release, or simply soften, each muscle group in sequence.
After Edmund Jacobson PMR (1929); Dave Elman Hypnotherapy · what progressive muscle relaxation is
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DeepenerStage 23 min
Staircase Descent
Visualized stairs descending into a deeper level of trance. Each step takes you down.
After Ledochowski, Deep Trance Training Manual
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SafetyStage 39 min
Personal Sanctuary
Personal Sanctuary begins at the edge of a vast woodland, where soft moss cushions your feet.
After Battino, Guided Imagery; safe-place protocols
Inserted before the suggestion for every Trauma & Past session, so there is a stable place to be.
-
Suggestion ScriptStage 410 min
Forgiveness Work — Balanced
This block guides you through creating a safe place and performing the act of setting a burden down.
-
AwakeningStage 52 min
Calm Alert Awakening
Awake and present, but calm rather than energized. Good for evening or pre-meeting use.
After Yapko, Trancework
Why this works — and what the research actually says
Group-level, not session-level: no study has tested this exact session, and we will not pretend otherwise. Every source below was opened and read on 2026-08-25 before it was quoted.
Why do it as hypnosis?
Doing this alone often means you argue with yourself rather than letting anything go.
This structure is different because it sets the scene first and then spends the middle of the time setting the weight down in a safe place. It does not ask you to excuse what happened or make contact with anyone.
The whole focus is on what you put down, not on what you keep.
Grief: what the research does not say
Worth knowing: There is no meta-analysis of hypnosis for grief. What exists is case reports.
We are showing you the evidence for grief work in general precisely because the evidence for this session's method specifically does not exist yet.
The exact wording and figures
A systematic review of grief interventions across 12 randomised controlled trials found they reduce grief symptoms from before to after, but were more effective than control treatments in only just over half of those trials.
The review does not examine hypnosis at all.
Published in Innovation in Aging. Included here as the honest answer rather than the flattering one.
Three ways to say it
Choose the voice that lets you believe this is truly for you: a quiet act of setting down what you no longer need to carry.
Balanced
Honor the hurt as real, then set the weight down in your own time and free yourself from its hold. The default.
You acknowledge the hurt as real, then give yourself permission to set the weight down without excuse.
Future self
Picture the version of you who has already set this down and moves through ordinary days lighter.
You picture the self who has already done this work, whose shoulders are no longer hunched with the old load.
New identity
Step into being someone at peace with their story, open-handed and quietly unburdened.
You step into being the person whose posture is open and whose mind is quiet, unburdened by the past.
Questions people ask about Forgiveness Work
Does this mean I have to forgive them?
No. The work is for your own relief. It does not ask you to excuse what happened or make contact with anyone. The focus is on what you put down, not on what you keep.
What if I just get angry instead of calm?
The session does not ask you to feel calm. It gives you a structure to set a weight down. If anger comes up, you can notice it and still focus on the act of release.
How is this different from just talking it through?
Talking can sometimes turn the memory over, keeping it fresh. This structure spends most of its time on the separate act of setting the weight down in a safe place, not on retelling the story.
Is it safe if I'm still in contact with the person?
The session does not involve them at all. It is a private act to reclaim your own peace in your own time, and it encourages you to keep the distance you require.
Will this make me forget what happened?
No. The session does not aim to erase the memory. It works to change its hold on you, so it becomes a distant event rather than a constant, present weight.
Where it sits
Old material, approached slowly and with a safe place built in first.
Before you press play
- This one asks for a bit of care. In the app it opens with a consent step before anything plays.
- Not the right session right now if any of these are live for you: psychosis, or a diagnosis on the psychosis spectrum; active thoughts of suicide or self-harm.
- A Personal Sanctuary block is added automatically before the suggestion, so there is somewhere stable to be first.
Hypnosis is not for everyone. If you have epilepsy, a psychotic illness, or you are under psychiatric care, talk to your clinician before using this — here or anywhere.
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