Hypnosis, Holy Water, and Hyped-up Trauma

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When Christian Counselors and Psychotherapists Agree on One Thing: Past Lives Are a No-Go

Based on a podcast conversation between guest Ara Trembly and host Philipp Kobald.

The Hypnotic State of Confusion

It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that a person in possession of a good dream must be in want of an interpreter. But who better to decode the nocturnal nonsense than the dreamer themselves? Ara Trembly, psychotherapist, Christian counselor, and author of Dreaming God’s Way, insists that the best interpreter of any dream is the person who dreams it — a radical notion in a world obsessed with quick-fix dream dictionaries and one-size-fits-all symbolism.

Hypnotherapy, Ara explains, is often misunderstood thanks to its Hollywood caricatures — no one’s clucking like a chicken or revealing secret confessions on stage. Rather, hypnosis is a state of deep relaxation combined with intense concentration, a kind of mental limbo where the conscious mind takes a coffee break and the unconscious mind gets to work. This “royal road” to the unconscious mind allows therapists to unearth the roots of anxiety, phobias, and depression that often lurk beneath the surface.

But let’s be clear: hypnosis is a tool, not a magic wand or a sorcerer’s spell. Ara’s Christian perspective doesn’t see it as some dark art but as a legitimate, God-approved instrument — after all, God Himself is recorded in scripture as putting people into trances. So, if Adam’s rib removal and Apostle Peter’s visions count as divine hypnosis, then why shouldn’t modern hypnotherapy?

Past Lives? Past Nonsense.

Now, let’s slide down the slippery slope of past life regression — an area where Ara firmly plants his feet in the “Nope” camp. Despite the popularity of revisiting former incarnations, he dismisses it as a concoction of imagination, suggestion, and a hypnotist’s leading questions. The supposed past lives often look suspiciously like scenes from a movie or a TV show rather than authentic memories.

From a Christian standpoint, the idea of reincarnation is not just unproven; it’s biblically unsound. Scripture teaches that we live once, die once, and then face judgment — end of story. While some might argue for a “greater consciousness” influencing us, that’s a far cry from believing in multiple lifetimes. Ara’s approach is refreshingly grounded: regress only as far as your own childhood, where real memories and unresolved issues live, not some cinematic fantasy of previous existences.

Trauma: The Overdiagnosed Epidemic

If past life regression is the shiny, dubious fad, trauma is the current darling of the psychological world — and Ara has some choice words for how it’s being handled. Trauma, he acknowledges, is real and devastating when it involves genuine horrors like war or abuse. But the modern trend of slapping the trauma label on every inconvenience or emotional hiccup? That’s a statistical anomaly and a professional overreach.

He likens it to a carpenter who sees every problem as a nail, wielding the trauma hammer indiscriminately. This overdiagnosis risks turning ordinary life struggles into lifelong victimhood, fostering a culture of excuse-making rather than empowerment. Ara’s warning is clear: not every discomfort is trauma, and not every excuse is a legitimate reason to abandon personal responsibility.

Christian Counseling: Forgiveness as a Radical Act

So where does Christianity fit into this psychotherapeutic mosaic? For Ara, it’s not just a background detail but a guiding light. His patients know he’s a Christian, and it shapes his approach — most notably through the incorporation of prayer and the emphasis on forgiveness.

Forgiveness, as he describes it, is not about excusing wrongdoing or pretending harm didn’t happen. It’s about freeing oneself from the toxic burden of grudges, those self-inflicted wounds that hurt the holder far more than the offender. Holding a grudge is like squeezing a porcupine: the tighter you grip, the more you bleed. To forgive is to put down the poison and walk away, regardless of whether the other party seeks or deserves forgiveness.

This radical act of releasing resentment is central to healing and mental health. Ara notes that Christian patients often recover faster because they have a “rock” — a steadfast belief in an unchanging God to cling to amidst life’s chaos. This spiritual anchor provides resilience and hope, qualities that secular therapy sometimes struggles to replicate.

Dreams, Symbols, and the Bible: Not Just for Sunday School

Finally, the pièce de résistance: Ara’s book Dreaming God’s Way offers a fresh take on dream interpretation that marries biblical symbolism with Jungian archetypes, but with a crucial twist. Unlike the generic dream dictionaries that declare “water means spirituality” with the certainty of a fortune cookie, Ara insists that symbols are intensely personal.

A cross in a dream might mean Christ to one person, the Red Cross to another, or simply a crossroads to a truck driver. The meaning depends entirely on the dreamer’s own associations and life context. The Bible provides a method, not a manual, for interpreting dreams — one that respects the subjective nature of symbols while grounding them in a spiritual framework.

For believers, this approach resonates deeply; for skeptics, it offers a flexible, metaphorical toolkit. Either way, it’s a reminder that the unconscious mind is a complex, fascinating labyrinth, and sometimes the best guide is the dreamer’s own intuition, aided by a little prayer and a lot of self-reflection.

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