I'm only familiar with what happened to me. I never went through any kind of hypnosis. For me it was a long and arduous process of breaking down defensive walls built around my feelings. I think each child reacts to trauma differently... I was hypervigilant so retained many of the memories but had no feelings associated with them. As a child, I equated feeling my feelings with death, so had to split off from them. Once the feelings returned, various memories returned with them. However, no memories of my brother's abuse were ever revisited. They're still down there, hoping never to emerge. I feel certain I will never recover many of my memories and have been advised by many doctors to not try to coax them out. If I'm ever strong enough to handle them, they will come out on their own. In that sense, I will never fully be free of my past... but it's the price you pay in order to survive. To give you just one small example of the kind of memory I did retain, I was held down at age 4 on the railroad tracks by my father, with the train fast approaching, and told he was going to let the train run over me, because I was so bad. What I didn't retain were the feelings of horror that accompanied that trauma. Some 40+ years later, I was able to finally integrate the feelings with the incident, but it was one of the most difficult therapy sessions I ever experienced. Most of my doctors have said if that's what I do remember, it's best to leave what's not remembered alone. Some repressed memories will always stay repressed.