All psycho-therapeutic problems present as symptoms of core issues. Many consciously held symptoms by the patient are often related to deeper primary issues in metaphorical ways. Each core issue has its own basic belief structure and pattern. The pattern of symptoms often found to have their origin in a series of past-life traumas and are a manifestation of the individual's unconscious attempt to resolve the underlying issues. If the patient experiences suffering it is because it has come from the friction that arises because of the discrepancy between the individual's true, prescribed path and the direction that he happens to be following at the time.

The great majority of symptoms have their origins in earlier life. The goal of past-life therapy is to bring traumatic recollections of previous experiences into conscious knowledge. Remembering anger and other emotions and releasing them has a therapeutic effect but the more important release is at the level of understanding the symbolic nature of the complex. The past life is used to guide the patient into its opposite pole, the present. As long as the past is suppressed and continues to work on an unconscious level, the patient will not succeed in living consciously in the here and now. He will continually be re-stimulated and re-tortured by past events because he has confused past with present.

In working with past-lives, the patient re-lives them as if they were real. At this level there is real pain and catharsis may ensue. For example a real execution or beheading in a past life is experienced as pain in the neck. At a second level, the symbolic or metaphorical content is explored. The pains in the neck experienced as beheading at the first level may indicate a feeling of being cut off from life. Feeling crippled and being starved for love may now be seen to be metaphors for one's current life problems.

The alleviation of symptoms is not the final goal. True healing depends on confronting the polarity behind the symptoms. By exploring the chain of symptoms the patient is continually confronted with similar situations in different lives until finally he discovers teh originating source of guilt. When the patient has identified with the opposite personalities in past lives, much is achieved therapeutically. A shadow figure becomes integrated, a split is healed and a lost part of the soul is redeemed through love and acceptance.

(Source: Winafred Blake Lucas, "Regression Therapy - a handbook for professionals).