Preparing for Life Between Lives Work: Foundations Before Specialisation
Life Between Lives (LBL) work is considered among the most advanced forms of regression practice. It originates in the pioneering research of Dr Michael Newton, a counselling psychologist who, over the course of decades of clinical practice, developed a method of deep hypnotic regression that allowed clients to access the space between incarnations, the soul’s experience after one physical life ends and before the next begins. Newton’s landmark books, Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls, documented thousands of case studies revealing remarkably consistent accounts of what clients encountered in this interlife space: soul groups, councils of elders, life purpose review, and the process of choosing the next incarnation. His work gave rise to the Michael Newton Institute (MNI), which now trains and certifies LBL practitioners worldwide, maintaining the rigorous standards and ethical framework that Newton himself established.
Developed within the framework of the Michael Newton Institute, LBL takes the client beyond past-life regression into the space between incarnations, a territory of profound exploration that can include encounters with soul groups, the review of life purpose, and the experience of expanded states of consciousness. These sessions often last three to four hours, access the deepest states of trance, and produce material that is unlike anything most clients or therapists have encountered before.
This depth of work is not a starting point. It is a destination, one that requires extensive foundational preparation. The practitioner who arrives at LBL work ready to serve their clients is one who has built competence layer by layer, from basic hypnosis through clinical hypnotherapy, through regression therapy, and through the kind of professional and personal maturity that only comes with practice, supervision, and honest self-reflection.
Why LBL Requires Extensive Preparation
LBL sessions are typically long, often three to four hours, and they access the deepest states of trance. The material that surfaces can be profoundly moving, existentially challenging, and unlike anything the client or therapist has encountered before. The practitioner must be able to hold this space for extended periods without losing their centre.
The requirements for LBL readiness include:
Demonstrated regression competency; the ability to guide clients through childhood, womb, and past-life regression with confidence, skill, and sensitivity
Emotional containment; the capacity to remain grounded when intense or unexpected material surfaces, without rushing, interpreting, or projecting
Professional maturity; understanding the limits of your role, maintaining ethical boundaries, and knowing when and how to refer
Mastery of grounding and integration; the ability to bring a client fully back after extended deep trance work, with thorough post-session care
Supervised experience; a track record of regression cases reviewed by a supervisor, with demonstrated growth over time
Preparation, not acceleration, defines readiness. A practitioner who has rushed through foundational training to reach LBL work is not serving their clients.
The Foundational Skills That Support LBL Readiness
LBL work does not emerge from a vacuum. It builds on every skill the practitioner has developed through their foundational and intermediate training:
Induction mastery; the ability to use multiple induction methods and adapt them to each client. As taught at nai do transpersonal academy the best induction is the one that works for this client. LBL requires the practitioner to achieve and maintain deep trance states, which demands fluency across progressive relaxation, Elman, guided imagery, and other approaches
Deepening techniques; fractionation, counting, compound suggestions, and the safe place. LBL sessions require sustained depth that foundational work rarely demands
The somatic bridge; the primary regression tool, connecting a current sensation to its origin. This technique must be second nature before LBL work is attempted
Working with past-life material; exploring environments, bodies, relationships, significant events, and the death scene. The practitioner must be comfortable guiding clients through the full arc of a past-life regression, including violent or emotionally intense death scenes
The space after death; this is the doorway to LBL. In past-life regression, after the last breath, outside the body, the client enters a space where the past-life persona in spirit can review everything, invite souls, seek forgiveness, and understand larger patterns. Facility with this space is the immediate precursor to LBL work
“This space, after the last breath, outside the body, is sacred. It is the door to the life between lives.”
Regression Competence: The Essential Foundation
The regression skills that underpin LBL work are not simply technical. They involve a way of being with the client that requires extensive practice to develop.
In regression, the rhythm of the session shifts and the therapist gives the client space, longer pauses, more silence, fewer questions. The phrase that unlocks the work is always the same: “What is the first thing that comes to mind?” Clients are invited to report whatever arises, no matter how strange or trivial it seems, and the therapist must hold space for doubt, uncertainty, and the unfolding of material that neither one of them expected.
Not every client is visual. Some feel, some know, some hear. The practitioner must be fluent in working with all representational systems, and particularly with clients who cannot visualise at all, connecting instead through body sensation, emotion, or a simple sense of knowing. This adaptability is not optional for LBL work; it is essential, because the material accessed in deep transpersonal states may not present visually.
Past-life regression also involves working with patterns across lives. When a client sees the same theme repeating across multiple incarnations, recognition becomes liberation. The therapeutic intervention is helping them see how patterns repeat and then facilitating release through forgiveness, understanding, and conscious choice. This pattern recognition is directly relevant to the deeper soul-level themes that emerge in LBL work.
Emotional Containment and the Therapist’s Presence
LBL sessions can surface material that is deeply moving, for the client and for the therapist. Soul encounters, the experience of unconditional love, the recognition of life purpose, the meeting with beings the client describes as guides or teachers, these experiences can be overwhelming if the practitioner is not grounded.
Emotional containment means remaining present, centred, and available no matter what emerges. It means not rushing to interpret, not projecting your own spiritual framework onto the client’s experience, and not becoming so moved by the material that you lose your professional orientation.
“Be present. Presence is the therapist’s most powerful tool. When we are truly here, grounded, open, available, the client feels it. When we are in our heads, thinking about what to say next, they feel that too.”
This quality of presence is developed through every session the practitioner conducts, from the simplest suggestion session to the most complex regression. Each session is practice in being here, with this person, in this moment. By the time a practitioner is ready for LBL work, this presence should be their natural state in session, not something they have to consciously maintain.
Professional Maturity and Clear Boundaries
LBL work exists at the intersection of therapy and existential exploration. This intersection demands exceptional clarity about the practitioner’s role and boundaries.
The practitioner is not a spiritual teacher. They are not an authority on the nature of the soul, the afterlife, or the meaning of existence. They are a skilled facilitator who creates the conditions for the client to access their own experience and draw their own conclusions. They follow., do not lead. And most important of all, they hold space.
This neutrality is especially important in transpersonal work, where the temptation to interpret, to validate one spiritual framework over another, or to share one’s own beliefs can be strong. Professional maturity means maintaining the client-centred orientation even when, especially when the material touches on the therapist’s own deepest convictions.
Boundaries also include scope of practice. LBL work is not psychological treatment. If a client presents with clinical pathology, dissociative experiences, or material that requires psychiatric care, the practitioner’s ethical obligation is to refer, not to attempt to address it within the LBL framework.
The Training Pathway
The pathway to LBL readiness as supported by nai do transpersonal academy follows a structured progression:
Module 1: Clinical Hypnotherapy Foundations; covering the philosophy of client-centred practice, the nature of hypnosis, the therapist’s role, pre-talk and client assessment, hypnotic communication, induction and deepening techniques, NLP tools, pain management, anchoring, future pacing, grounding, and deep and transpersonal therapeutic work in client´s highets interest
Module 2: Regression Therapy; covering the bridge to cause, childhood regression, womb regression, past-life regression, the space after death, transgenerational patterns, release and forgiveness, and integration
Module 3: Parts Therapy; covering the foundations of parts work in the lineage of Tebbetts and Hunter, the psychodynamics of symptoms, ideomotor responses, the facilitator as mediator, the eleven steps of a parts therapy session, and ethical boundaries
Ongoing supervision and case development; building a portfolio of supervised regression cases that demonstrates growing competence and clinical maturity
Each module builds on the previous one. Attempting to skip ahead, to move to LBL without mastering regression, or to regression without mastering foundational hypnotherapy, creates gaps that may not be visible in training but will become apparent in practice, potentially at the client’s expense.
The Inner Preparation
Beyond technical and clinical readiness, LBL work asks something of the practitioner at a deeper level. It asks for a certain quality of character: humility before the mystery of the client’s experience, trust in a process that cannot be fully understood or controlled, and the willingness to sit with not-knowing.
“Trust the process. Not every session will produce a dramatic breakthrough. Some sessions are for building trust. Some are for planting seeds. The subconscious mind works on its own timeline, and we honour that.”
Reflective texts such as The Good Hypnotherapist explore the inner dimensions of this formation, the qualities, questions, and challenges that shape who the practitioner becomes over time. This inner work is not separate from clinical training. It is integral to it. The practitioner who arrives at LBL work having done their own deep inner exploration is better equipped to hold space for others doing the same.
In the words of Wayne Dyer, referenced in the training: in the morning of our lives, we are active and hungry for experience. In the afternoon, we slow down, integrate, and make wiser decisions. We cannot run the afternoon of life on the morning’s programme. This applies equally to our practice: begin with enthusiasm and learning, and over time, allow your approach to mature, deepen, and become uniquely yours. LBL readiness is an afternoon accomplishment, it comes from the accumulated wisdom of everything that preceded it.
About the Author
Sanela Čović, CMT, BCHt, is the founder and lead instructor at nai do transpersonal academy, where she teaches Clinical and Transpersonal Hypnotherapy, Regression Therapy, and Parts Therapy. Her training programme provides a structured pathway toward advanced regression practice, including preparation for Life Between Lives specialisation aligned with the Michael Newton Institute. She is the author of The Good Hypnotherapist.