Debriefing is essential after any pioneering activity. While not always a direct interrogation, specific questions can be used efficiently and effectively to help a person to focus awareness of knowledge gained. The debriefing session, in any area of life, provides an opportunity to integrate knowledge.

          Debriefing, as a part of a past-life regression session, is similar. As the past-life memory or immersion segment ends and you guide your client into the current time and location, allowing ample time for re-orientation, you prepare for the debriefing. That part of the session could take as little as fifteen minutes or as long as it takes the client to get an initial understanding of the experience.

          Past-life memories are like passageways or avenues through time. We know that the door or portal remains ajar after the memory, the re-living, has been experienced. A discussion involving the evaluation of the experiences can lead to an identification of past-life errors, blessings, and patterns. The debriefing part of the session provides an opportunity for the client to integrate aspects of lessons both learned and to be learned. Viewing the current life in a broader perspective, the client can make plans for future behavior.

          As a trained therapist, you allow the client to discuss as much as possible. Your thoughts are offered as neutral, discreet questions without opinions or observations. Ask simple questions to guide your client to explore various aspects of the experience. Such questions can open worlds of wisdom. As the client begins to associate past-life memories with current-life situations and events, links are made and patterns of behavior emerge.

          Remind the client that the door to the past life just processed still remains open after the session has been completed and that further insight could come within the next few hours, days, weeks or months. Explain to the client that, in a first session of processing a particular past life, one usually gets an initial understanding which is to be deepened and widened by further association and, especially, by application. Those expanded insights are like bonus gifts or compound interest from a savings program. Additional insights could come through dreams, day-dreams, or when the person is involved in any special activity-- especially a related activity.

          Encourage your client to encode all further insights that follow the session. The very act of writing does three (or more) things: it helps the client to clarify the material filtering through the subconscious mind; it opens to more inspiration; and it documents the material for future study, evaluation, assimilation, integration, and application. If your client does not yet keep a regular journal, suggest that one be started specifically for the greater study of the eternal self.

          What happens when your client receives very little material in the first session? It happens occasionally. In such cases, remain encouraging and let the client know that the single piece of the puzzle will interface with another at a later date and will provide a broader view --- a more complete vision. Little pieces fit together to reveal a vast panorama of the soul's experience. In subsequent session, the client will begin to feel more comfortable with the work. As trust builds (actually, the degree of trust must be quite high at the initial session), there will be more openness to the subtle memories and more freedom in the discussion.

          What happens when the client is mildly disoriented after the wake-up procedure? It is quite possible for the client to be aware in the present time and, yet, to be continuing to process the past life. During the memory or re-living part of the session, the client can be aware, simultaneously, of both the past lifetime and the current life. Most clients immerse so deeply into a past life that they need a few minutes for re-orientation into the present. When you observe that the client is not quite back, you could ask a question such as, "What are you processing now?" More information might come. It happens frequently that, right at the end of a session, a significant piece of information is disclosed by the client. Therapists refer to it as the doorknob syndrome. Your client's additional processing could be similar.

          What do you do when the client does not want to talk about the experiences? Accept it. Encourage the client to do some journaling and, perhaps, such further processing in private might create a need for open discussion in a subsequent session.

          In general, the client is eager to talk about the experience. Perplexed or amazed, rarely speechless, there usually is much to share. Sometimes a simple question such as, "Was there anyone in that past life that you recognize now in the current life?" can open up volumes in terms of the similarities of past and present behaviors. Remember to take careful notes because those past-life individuals, met in the present, might reappear in another session.

          How do you relate the past-life information to the presenting issue? While many clients come to you because of an interest in the spiritual area of life, your client might have an agenda of a therapeutic nature, e.g. fears, health, relationships. The debriefing should be related to the presenting issue. When the client does not make an immeadiate connection (although it seems clear to you) to the root cause in the past-life memory, you could ask, "In what way does that past life relate to the current issue?" In most regression sessions, that question is unnescessary because the agenda's past-life roots quickly become evident. That is one reason for the popularity of past-life therapy sessions. It is an effective procedure; the stories from the subconscious mind are believable and meaningful. The answers to some of life's perplexing problems come to light in the debriefing part of the session.

          In addition to seeking the root cause of problems, there is a more positive exploration area: the client can search for the original source of special skills and talents. The early childhood identification of people with exceptional gifts has led to the belief that such gifts have been developed in previous incarnations. In addition, some past-life skills and talents can be rediscovered unexpectedly.

          Although the forgiveness work done in the trance state at Soul Review time, it also needs to be addressed at the conscious level in the debriefing process. The phrase, "Forgive and forget" can be meaningless. Yes, it is necessary to forgive the hurt but the lesson must be remembered; otherwise, the pattern will continue. The act of forgiveness is processed, primarily, for the healing of the client. It can have very positive effects upon others involved in the original source of the issue.

          Forgiveness simply means that the forgiver (client) can be friendly, kind, and cooperative when working with the past offender; however, becoming that person's new best friend is not a requirement. The act of forgiveness puts the original hurt into a healing context; it tries to avoid the possibility of setting up a scenario for another victimization. The client strives to avid both the victim role and the playing of victimizer to another person. There must be no denial that the hurt happened; the lesson must be learned. The valuable aspect of forgiveness work is the severing of chains that link people together in a negative way. Those who are unwilling to forgive other are prisoners of their own hatred. That hatred becomes poison; forgiveness is the antidote. In time, all souls will mature to the realization that forgiveness, both of self and others, has healing qualities.

          Your client is sharing a personal and sacred experience. Helping your client is your primary job and all of your time, during the session, needs to be invested in that work. It is true that you, too, need fulfillment. It is vitally important that you complete the session in a professionally whole and healthful way. Schools of counseling and therapy warn students about transference --- the client-therapist bond which could turn into infatuation. Heed the warning. Treat all clients with respect. Do your work honestly and fairly; without fear or favor; without praise or blame. Keep the relationship professional. When the client leaves the therapy room, your fulfillment is a professional job well done.

          The fruit of your work is mutual learning. Both you and your client grow through your client's past-life stories. The client learns directly and personally. You learn by observing a pattern of lessons running through your client's past-life experiences and you can apply it to all of humanity. While you evaluate the session for the greater good of your client you also seek an expansion of knowledge related to soul growth in general over many lifetimes. An individual pattern is relevant to each individual. Just as the astronauts' debriefing provided valuable information to enhance further expeditions --- and to enhance humanity --- the individual debriefing of a past-life experience can contribute to the overall understanding of soul development.