Jean J. Jenson - Reclaiming your life: a step-by-step guide to using regression therapy to overcome the effects of childhood abuse

Jean Jensons approach helps the adult to mourn the losses of childhood without at the same time losing himself in the chaos of his own feelings. For a person caught up in the chaos of his feelings, Jean Jensons book provides aid in structuring that chaosif the need is there, the person in question cannot but profit from Jensons clear, detailed guidance. In clear, simple language, with an abundance of examples, Jenson gives her readers the chance to find their own way to their own truth and at the same time maintain a receptive attitude toward anything new which they may come across and which can be of help to them.

from the New Foreword by Alice Miller

Reflects a wealth of clinical understanding that is too often not present in self-help books. One cannot fail to appreciate the depth of her sensitivity, empathy, and respect for children raised in an atmosphere of neglect and abuse. Rather than merely listing symptoms, Jenson honors strength and resiliency and invites her readers to see themselves in others with compassion and respect while she guides them on a clearly marked path that shows that healing is possible. This is an excellent book not to be missed by anyone who has been affected by a painful childhood or anyone working with children or adult survivors of childhood abuse and neglect.

Jane Middleton, Author of Shame and Guilt, Children of Trauma , and Will to Survive

JEAN JENSON, M.S.W., is a psychotherapist with nearly thirty years of experience in the field of mental health, fifteen of them in private practice. This is her first book. She lives in Hailey, Idaho.

ALICE MILLER, a practicing psychotherapist for over twenty years, is the author of bestselling, pioneering books on child abuse and its effects, including The Drama of the Gifted Chid, Thou Shalt Not Be Aware , and Breaking Down the Wall of Silence (the last two available in Meridian editions).

JEAN C. JENSON, M.S.W. reclaiming
your life A Step-by-Step Guide
to Using Regression
Therapy to Overcome
the Effects of Childhood Abuse New Foreword by Alice Miller

MERIDIAN

Published by Penguin Group

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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Published by Meridian, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Previously published in a Dutton edition.

Copyright Jean C. Jenson, 1995

Foreword copyright Alice Miller, 1996

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARKMARCA REGISTRADA

The Library of Congress has catalogued the Dutton edition as follows:

Jenson, Jean C.

Reclaiming your life: a step-by-step guide to using regression therapy to overcome the effects of childhood abuse/Jean C. Jenson:

foreword by Alice Miller.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978-1-101-65964-9

1. Adult child abuse victimsRehabilitation. 2. Regression (Psychology)Therapeutic use. 3. Catharsis. 4. Self-help techniques. I. Title.

RC569.5.C55J46 1995

616.85822390651dc20

94-34390

This book is dedicated
to my daughter, Emily,
whose presence blesses
my life.

Contents

It is more than twenty years now since I made the discovery that pictures I had painted spontaneously were a source of revelation about my own past, a discovery that inspired me to start writing about the effects of childhood traumas on our lives as adults. For some time I believed that primal therapy could provide the key to working through these old wounds. Finally, however, I came to see that working on the past is something that can be achieved only by the adult part of the personality, not by the child. Regression to the stage of early infancy is not a suitable method in and of itself. Such a regression can only be effective if it happens in the natural course of therapy and if the client is able to maintain adult consciousness at the same time.

Jean Jensons approach reflects her obvious awareness of this fact. It helps the adult to mourn the losses of childhood without at the same time losing herself in the chaos of her own feelings. In the seventies Jean Jenson experienced primal therapy in operation at Arthur Janovs institute. Later, however, she went on to develop a therapy design that, in the all-important question of regression and the understanding of what actually happens in the therapeutic process, represents a notable advance on that particular method.

To what extent readers will be able to employ this method without expert assistance remains to be seen. My present view is that the assistance of a therapist with the necessary competence and integrity is essential if the client is to be able to develop her capacity for change to the fullest. To exploit the entire range of her potential for growth, a potential stunted in childhood by neglect or cruelty, she must be in the presence of someone perceptive, affirmative, and protective and who will not try to take advantage of her.

Jean Jenson may indeed have succeeded in reducing the dangers of primal therapy to a minimum while at the same time enhancing its positive aspects. Time will tell. In her much discussed book Therapy Gone Mad (1984), Carol L. Mithers draws upon a number of extreme cases to demonstrate the dangers that can arise through exploitation of regression. Perhaps Reclaiming Your Life can help reduce these dangers.

For a person caught up in the chaos of his feelings, Jean Jensons book provides aid in structuring that chaos. With the help of her exercises the adult can learn to work on the feelings that go back to his childhood and to distinguish between the two levelsthe childs consciousness and the adults reality (see ).

Aided by this distinction, he is able to identify and exploit the opportunities that his present life offers him without reverting to the helplessness of a child and thus laying himself wide open to potential manipulation. In so doing he creates for himself the possibility of a self-induced, structured regression into the past undertaken in the service of a process of maturity if this is what he wants and needs. I feel that this latter question is one that requires very careful consideration before the decision is taken to embark on such an experiment. By no means does everyone feel the need to explore their own childhood, certainly not to the extent that I myself did. But if the need is there, the person in question cannot but profit from Jensons clear, detailed guidance.

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