FAQ
Hypnotherapy & Past Life Regression – Frequently Asked Questions
Whether you’re curious about what to expect in a hypnotherapy session, exploring past life regression for the first time, or simply looking for guidance on your healing journey, you’re in the right place. With over 25 years of experience and personal certification from Brian Weiss, MD, at The Weiss Institute, Stephanie Riseley has helped countless clients find clarity, release old patterns, and reconnect with their deeper purpose. Below you’ll find answers to the questions she hears most often, but if you don’t see yours, feel free to reach out directly.
Before You Begin
Can everyone be hypnotized?
Most people who can concentrate can drop into it. It’s a deep, relaxed Theta-wave state, and I use Theta Wave light glasses to help you get there. You can’t be hypnotized against your will, and you can’t get stuck.
Is this like stage hypnosis?
No. Stage hypnotists pick people who want to perform. This isn’t that.
Is hypnosis safe?
Yes. It’s just focused concentration. The only side effect is feeling very relaxed.
What if I say something I didn’t mean to?
You’re always conscious. You control what you say.
Credentials & Confidentiality
Do you take insurance?
No, but I accept FSA payments and can provide a superbill for you to submit yourself.
Is this confidential?
Completely. I follow HIPAA guidelines.
Is there real science behind hypnotherapy?
Yes. Once you change your thinking, you change the physical structure of your own brain. That’s not a metaphor; it’s neuroplasticity. I teach clients techniques drawn from UCLA neuroscientist Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz’s work on the subject, starting in session one.
Sessions & Cost
How much does a session cost, and how long is it?
$350 per session, two hours.
How many sessions will I need?
I suggest starting with five, but it’s not a requirement. One session is enough to know if this works for you. No packages, no pressure to sign up for more than you want.
What happens across the first few sessions?
Session one covers your history and any buried trauma. Session two is your subconscious mind, and where sabotaging habits started. Session three is your first regression, once you trust the process enough to let it lead.
After that, sessions follow whatever you’re working toward: love, work, even a baby, which is a specialty of mine.
Do I get anything to take home?
Every session is recorded so that you can hypnotize yourself with it afterward, every day.
Do you offer virtual sessions?
Yes. Zoom works just as well as in person, so don’t let distance stop you.
Is there parking?
Ample street parking.
Past Life Regression
Is this real?
Honestly? It always feels like you’re making it up while it’s happening. There’s no way to prove it. But after more than 25 years doing this work, I have no doubt. You don’t need to believe in past lives or an eternal soul for it to help you. I can also work with what’s unresolved in the life you’re already living.
What if I don’t see or feel anything?
Some people don’t “see.” They know, or they feel. It can take more than one session to relax enough to drop in fully. It’s a skill, like anything new. I can’t shake a past life out of you like coins from a piggy bank, but the more you trust the process, the more it tends to open up.
What does it actually feel like?
Different for everyone. I have a very visual brain, since I trained as an actress, so my own regressions play out like film. My first one surfaced when I was three: I saw myself as a doctor in a lab coat, tending to wounded soldiers. Years later I understood it as a bleed-through from a life I’d just left, in Auschwitz.
Will I remember it afterward?
Yes, and you’ll have it recorded on your phone besides.
What if something disturbing comes up?
It can happen. You can always “float above” and watch from a safe distance instead of reliving it. It’s exactly why I won’t do a one-off, hit-and-run regression. I need to know you, and what’s already unresolved in this life, first.
Relationships & Family
The questions people are almost embarrassed to ask out loud. Ask them anyway.
Can past life regression help a marriage that’s struggling?
Yes. I’ve watched couples heal once they stopped seeing each other as the enemy and started seeing the whole picture. It doesn’t fix everything, but it changes how you see the fight.
Why was I born into this family?
Regression often shows people why they landed in the family they did, even a chaotic one. It’s rarely random. Sometimes the parent or sibling who drives you the craziest is exactly who you needed to learn something from.
Why am I not married yet?
Sometimes what’s in the way isn’t bad luck. It’s an old pattern or an old agreement your soul is still working through. Regression can help you find it and finally put it down.
What if the person who hurt me most turns out to matter?
Plenty of clients discover that the person they thought was their enemy was actually a guide doing hard work on their behalf. Someone who signed on, long before this life, to teach them exactly the lesson they needed, even if it hurt like hell to learn it.
Is this a normal, by-the-book kind of therapy?
No. I live in an alternate reality myself, and I’m not shy about it. If you want a conventional, lock-step therapist, I’m not your person. If you want someone who’ll go to the strange places with you and actually help, that’s me.
What We Work On
Addiction
Smoking, weight, and addictions of every kind: porn, vaping, cocaine, heroin, other drugs, even Instagram.
Anxiety & phobias
I teach the brain science behind anxiety starting in session one, including UCLA neuroscientist Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz’s work on neuroplasticity. Phobias usually trace back to childhood trauma or a buried belief; sessions two through four are where we find the source and clear it.
Chronic pain
Hypnosis won’t cure it, but it can teach you to ask your pain what it needs: to heal, or to be released. I’ll often bring in acupuncture or energy work alongside it, and refer out where that helps more.
Grief
My book, “Love From Both Sides,” is built on this: love doesn’t end at death. The relationship continues, in a different form. Dying is a transformation, not an ending.
The Near-Death Experience
Are a near-death experience and past life regression the same thing?
No, separate things entirely. I’ve had one of each, though. At nineteen, an NDE. Nothing since has felt as joyful as dying did. I got pulled back into my body knowing, somehow, that I’d live a long life. I was right, even when the doctors weren’t.
What makes you different from other hypnotherapists?
No one hands out a certificate for surviving death, or for talking to the dead afterward. I’ve done both. My husband, a rocket scientist, died in my arms, and came back to talk with me for over a year. It’s all in the book. A lot of my clients have had something similar happen to them, and never had anywhere to say it out loud until now.
Still have a question?
Every new client begins with a phone consultation. Ask me anything then.
Last Updated: July 27, 2026.
UC Berkeley
Bachelor of Arts
University of California, Berkeley — the academic foundation of Stephanie’s interdisciplinary approach.
Undergraduate degree
UCLA
Master of Arts
UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute — Four years of field research that contributed to the DSM III(R), the diagnostic manual used by mental health professionals worldwide.
1982 – 1986
The Weiss Institute
Certified Regression Therapist
Personally trained and certified by Brian Weiss, M.D. — noted psychiatrist, Columbia & Yale graduate, and author of Many Lives, Many Masters.
Verified certification
** Disclaimer – Individual Results May Vary. Hypnotherapy treatments are not a substitute for medical diagnosis and treatment, and no medical claims are made regarding these treatments. People with serious conditions should consult their doctor.