Beyond the Conscious Mind: How Regression Therapy Reveals What Needs to Be Healed – An Interview with Fil Woodhouse

What if the answers you’ve been searching for were never missing, just buried in your subconscious?

Most of us carry things we can’t fully explain, patterns we repeat, fears that feel bigger than their cause, a heaviness with no clear origin. In this conversation, Fil Woodhouse talks about her work as a regression therapist, guiding people into trance to reach the parts of the subconscious that everyday thinking can’t touch. She describes how a single question, sometimes answered by nothing more than the rise of a finger, can uncover what’s really been driving someone’s anxiety, their sleep, or their sense of being stuck. She approaches all of it as a self-described skeptic, someone who wants evidence before she believes anything, which only makes what she’s witnessed harder to dismiss.

Whether you find yourself nodding along or raising an eyebrow, this dialogue invites you to consider what your own subconscious might be holding onto, and what it might take to finally ask.

Continue reading or listen in by subscribing for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or YouTube.

I am very excited about this interview because we have worked together over the last year on regression therapy and channeling. And now the tables are turned, and I get to ask you all the questions. I want to hear your story of awakening to consciousness, mindfulness, and spirituality. Take me back into little Fil’s life. Where did you grow up, and did you have some sort of faith or spiritual experiences as a kid?

Fil Woodhouse: I was born and raised in London, and I also spent some time in Cyprus. I remember having a random dream about winning something using knitting needles. My mom asked me for some numbers for something we have here called the Littlewoods Pools. People in the UK will understand what I’m talking about—it was like a gambling thing that housewives would do. I gave her the numbers, and basically, we won about £50.

That was one of my early experiences. Another thing was that I would think of something or say something, and then it would happen. So in that sense, I thought, there’s something in this. I won’t say what my mom used to call me, though, because your viewers may have sensitive ears.

Did your family have a faith or religion? Was that part of the conversation around the household, or not so much?

Fil Woodhouse: It’s really funny because my mom used to read coffee cups—Turkish coffee. In Greece, it’s called Greek coffee, and in Cyprus, it’s Cyprus coffee. We have these little espresso cups. My grandmother used to read them, my great-aunt did, and my mom did as well. My mom used to do it willy-nilly, as it were, but my grandmother was quite into it.

That was how I was raised as a child. We’d check the coffee cup: What did it say? My mom would pick up things for me.

For people who don’t know, what does that even look like? How do you read a coffee cup?

Fil Woodhouse: Basically, you’re reading the coffee grounds. It’s like reading tea leaves, but you’re reading the coffee grounds. You tip the cup around, turn it upside down, and let it drain. It’s a special kind of coffee, and you have a little pot to make it in. Then you read what’s left. Bubbles indicate money, and birds indicate news or messages, for example. That’s a given.

My grandmother used to do readings for me and say, “You’re getting a present.” I’d say, “Nanny, you always tell me that.” And she’d say, “Well, you’re eight years old. What do you expect me to tell you?”

From a faith point of view, I was raised as a Muslim. My mom came here in the ’50s, so we blended traditions. At Christmas, we had the Christmas tree and the turkey. At Easter, we had Easter eggs, and we celebrated Eid as well. So we blended both religions, as it were.

The only thing was that we didn’t eat pork at home. We were sort of secular Muslims—there would be alcohol, so we weren’t that strict. But certain times of the year when you’re not meant to drink alcohol, that was observed.

As you got older, how did these things start to unfold for you? Did you have certain experiences or a particular teacher who came along?

Fil Woodhouse: What ended up happening was that I met someone and went to live in Egypt with him. He was like an Islamic—we call it a hodja—a shaman. People went to him for insights, talismans, and things like that.

How old were you at the time?

Fil Woodhouse: I was 17.

Really? Were you that young? Wow. So you were 17 and went to Egypt?

Fil Woodhouse: Yes. There’s a long story there that we’re not going to get into today. That’s a tale for another time! I spent seven years in Egypt with him.

While I was there, there were certain things that I picked up on—the incense, the blessings, things like that. I remember we had a flat on the coast in Alexandria. We had these two black, almost alabaster cats that you could get from Khan el-Khalili in Cairo.

He placed one of the cats on the table facing the front door and the other facing the window to the balcony. We came back after being in the UK for about two weeks, and the doorman—the caretaker, because almost every building has one there—said, “We didn’t know when you came back because the people downstairs and beside you could hear voices and footsteps. So we had no idea when you returned.”

That gives you an idea of the person I was with and what was going on in terms of getting a grasp of the other world.

Was he training you, or were you just picking up on things along the way?

Fil Woodhouse: I was picking up on things. I spent seven years in Egypt with him, and then I was with him for another nine years before that marriage came to an end.

It was interesting because I bought some tarot cards, but he also had this really old book about divination from the 1960s. It showed you how to read playing cards, so I got into that as well.

I started reading the playing cards, which was quite interesting because certain cards—people say death, and yes, it does mean death. So I won’t actually use those cards with people. But you’re learning all the time.

At what point did you sense, “Okay, I am feeling called to utilize my intuitive gifts to serve other people”? When did this become more than something you were exploring and turn into something you actually wanted to use to help people?

Fil Woodhouse: Several things happened. Toward the end of my relationship with him, I was asking myself, “What’s going on? What am I doing?” You get to that point in life, and this is my lived experience.

I remember being on an Overground train in London, and suddenly the sunlight just hit my face. I got the message, “You’re here to help others.” I was like, “Ooh.” It just blew me away, and at that point, I didn’t know what that would look like or how it would unfold.

Then the marriage ended. I worked in domiciliary care, looking after elderly people in their homes. I was doing assessments, manual handling, and things like that. Then I had my daughter, and things started moving in another direction.

I did a counseling course, and then I got into hypnotherapy while also starting to attend spiritual development. Then one crazy incident made me realize the gloves were off. My Instagram profile was no longer going to be private. I had to put myself out there.

I was working at an after-school club at the time, looking after children, and I was a senior there. We were a charity, so we had to watch the pennies. The girls I worked with kept saying, “We need more hole punches, Fil.” We did arts and crafts with the children, gave them something to eat, made sure they were okay in terms of first aid, and supported their emotional, personal, and social development.

I went to the shops intending to go to the cheap shop, but my intuition said, “No, you’re going to the supermarket.” I thought, okay, let’s roll with this. Intuition needs to be listened to.

I went to the supermarket and picked up a hole punch. It was £3.50, and I thought, that’s a lot of money. It’s only £1 or £2 in the other shop. But something said, “No, you’re going to take it to the till.”

So I did. There was a lady at the till, and I said to her, “£3.50—don’t you think that’s a lot of money for a hole punch? I work for a charity.”

She turned around and said, “I’ve just put five or six of those up on Facebook Marketplace.”

I said, “Excuse me? How much are they?”

She said, “They’re free.”

I asked if she still had them, and she said yes. That was on a Wednesday, and by the following Tuesday, I had them. I knew then that the universe was saying to me, “Come on, sort it out. You need to put yourself out there. No more hiding in the shadows. Get out there. We are working with you.”

I still have that lady’s voicemail message on my phone because it was just so surreal.

That happened in 2023. At that point, what shifted for you? What action did you begin to take to serve other people?

Fil Woodhouse: I basically put myself out there a lot more. I promoted myself on social media, and around that time, I started going to a holistic venue here in Kent. I became much more visible in terms of making people aware of who I am and what I do.

It just felt like I was aligned at that time. To be honest, it’s all about community now. I realized the Universe was showing me I was connecting with the right people who were going to help me on my journey.

I want to talk about how I met you because I’m curious to connect these dots. Last year, I interviewed Steve Burgess for Awakened Magazine. He’s a regression therapist with thousands of hours of experience, and he came to our studio here in Southern California and did a group regression therapy session. I told Steve I’d been dealing with some heavy anticipatory grief because of health challenges in my parents’ lives, and I asked if regression therapy could help me with that. He said yes, but he was busy for several weeks and offered to connect me with one of his colleagues—and that was you. That’s how you and I connected. So how did you get into hypnotherapy and regression therapy, and how has it personally impacted your life?

Fil Woodhouse: I’ve always been interested in the paranormal. I spent two years doing a counseling course because I thought that was my path, but it wasn’t. It was hypnotherapy.

Someone— I think it was my mother-in-law—sent me a post about hypnotherapy training. I did the taster course, and I absolutely loved it. I think what I loved most was the fact that with hypnosis, when you’re in trance, you’re able to access those issues much more quickly and work with them, as opposed to going through hours and hours of counseling.

You’re working with the subconscious. It’s not going to take you around the houses. That was mind-blowing to me.

Then, on the back of that, I heard, “We have Steve Burgess coming to do regression.” And I thought, yes, that’s where I’m going. That’s it for me. That’s what I’m going to do.

The crazy thing was that when I was doing my training, Steve was meant to come in March, but I’d only just started, so I couldn’t have done it then. He ended up coming in June, and thankfully, everything aligned. I absolutely loved it.

But I’m very cynical, David. Very, very cynical. When I was doing the training, I remember thinking, “Is this it? Is this how it goes?” But when I experienced it firsthand—my days.

We did the training over the course of three days and also did some theory work on Zoom. On the Saturday, Steve asked, “Has anybody got anything to work with?” My hand went up, and then my brain kicked in. I thought, what have I just put myself in for?

I have a fish phobia.

Fish?

Fil Woodhouse: Fish! I have a fish phobia. I can’t touch a live fish.

I was walking on the beach two days ago, and there was a teenager in front of me with a live fish in his backpack, face down. The fin was sticking out, and I said, “Hey, your fish can’t breathe. Turn it around!” Then the fish started flopping, and I thought, this feels like torture. Anyway, you would not have liked that.

Fil Woodhouse: No! So we went into the session, and Steve guided me into trance. All my peers were there in the room, and it was recorded as well. Suddenly, the tears were just rolling down my face.

My logical mind kicked in and thought, you can’t control them. You can’t stop this. This is an automatic reaction. What the hell? It completely blew me away.

Basically, I was a fish. I had been caught and was on the deck of a ship, and I couldn’t breathe. I was crying, saying, “I’m dying. I’m dying.”

But the most amazing thing happened at the end of the session. It wasn’t that I’d had a fear of death before, but afterward, I felt like, if I die tomorrow, I’m okay with that. That came naturally. No suggestion or power of suggestion could make me feel that way. It was just this sense of peace, like, okay.

I did feel really bad when I saw fish in the supermarket afterward. I was like, brethren! I couldn’t eat fish for a while, but that’s kind of okay now.

How would you describe the difference between hypnotherapy and regression therapy? Is there a difference?

Fil Woodhouse: Regression is a modality within hypnotherapy. I’m a trained hypnotherapist, but I’ve specialized in regression. We use the same foundations: guiding someone into trance, doing the work, and then bringing them back to the here and now.

We use different techniques and scripts, particularly with people who have analytical minds. Knowing how to work with that and the language we use is part of the underpinning.

With conventional hypnotherapy, the person lies there, and you’re essentially reading them a script. They’re in trance, but it’s much more passive. Whatever they’re seeing or feeling isn’t necessarily brought to the surface, discussed, or spoken about.

With regression, you’re engaging with the person. You’re getting them to explore the root cause of an issue, so there’s dialogue and interaction. Never a dull moment.

I remember working with one client, and this is where the intuitive side of what I do comes into it. She was in America, and on the day of the session, I had this feeling of being very unsure. I actually texted the word “unsure” to myself so I would remember it.

As I was looking at her and talking with her before the session, I got the message that her problem had some connection to being abroad. I wasn’t told which country, and I couldn’t tell her what I was picking up because we need to use clean language. We’re not there to plant any seeds. The language has to remain neutral.

So I simply asked, “Out of curiosity, have you been abroad at all?”

She said yes and told me where she had been. I said, “Okay. It may mean something, or it may mean nothing. I just felt I needed to ask you.”

Then we did the session. During regression, we connect the subconscious mind to a finger. We ask it to rise nice and high for yes and remain resting for no.

This is actually what I was going to interrupt you to ask about, because when I interviewed Steve Burgess, he had a name for that. It’s called the ideomotor response, right? You’ve done this with me, and the first time I experienced it, I was thinking, “Yeah, right. Come on.” How do you connect the subconscious to the pointer finger?

Fil Woodhouse: It’s the ideomotor response, or IMR. You create subconscious dominance. You ask the conscious mind to go somewhere else—to relax, read a book, however you want to frame it—and you bring the subconscious forward.

We’re doing it for a reason. We want to help you get better, so we need to connect your subconscious to one of your fingers. Usually, it’s on the non-dominant hand, although I’ve had people whose whole hand starts going up and down.

So you ask the subconscious a question. Give me an example of one of the first questions you might ask.

Fil Woodhouse: We use a regression model to gauge where the issue may be coming from. It’s not a medical diagnosis, but we’re looking to find where the problem is rooted.

For example, we may ask the subconscious whether there is anything in your energy field that no longer serves you and is connected to whatever you’ve come in with—anxiety, depression, sleep issues, or something else.

We might ask whether there is anything from this lifetime. If the finger goes up, we then divide this lifetime into five different areas and explore further.

I just have to say, as someone who has gone through this, I remember thinking, “Okay, whatever.” And then suddenly my finger just floated up out of nowhere. It was like your hand going up before you volunteered in the training—your brain hasn’t even caught up yet. You’re thinking, what? This is crazy. It really is mind-blowing when you experience it.

Fil Woodhouse: Listen, going back to that client, we were working through all of this—this lifetime, past lifetime, ancestral lifetime—and I always ask whether there is something else.

It may be a standalone issue, or it may be connected to the other areas. That could include spirit attachments, entity attachments, oaths, vows, promises, curses, anything hidden within the recesses of your energy field, or anything that has a thread or connection to an agreement that is stopping the light from coming through.

When I asked whether there was “something else,” her finger went up. Then something came into her awareness, and she suddenly said, “Not worthy.”

I nearly fell off my chair.

I said, “Not worthy?”

Then she said, “She’s not worthy. She thinks she’s not worthy, but she is. I’ve been trying to bring her down for years, but she’s still standing.”

Then she let out this laugh, and I thought, my days. At that point, I’m thinking, right, grow a pair, girl. Grow a pair.

So I asked, “Who are you?”

She said, “I’m Isabelle.”

That wasn’t my client’s name.

I asked whether her subconscious knew how Isabelle came to be there, and the finger went up. I asked for it to come into her awareness, and she realized it was while she had been traveling in Greece.

Then I asked, “What needs to happen for Isabelle to go?”

The answer was, “Just ask her to go.”

Simple as that.

So how did you ask Isabelle to go?

Fil Woodhouse: I said, “Can you go, please? What needs to happen for you to go?”

And the response was, “Just ask me, and I’ll go.”

Would you say that Isabelle was a spirit who had formerly been human, or some other sort of entity?

Fil Woodhouse: I think it was a spirit that was possibly human and had connected to her.

To be honest with you, David, I’m getting a lot of those. Some of it can be quite intense. I worked with another lady in America, and that was the one time I actually felt scared. I don’t usually have an issue with these things, but suddenly I felt this massive fear.

I’ve also had clients who have literally thrown the laptop and headphones out of fear because of what has come through. Then we just calm everything down and continue from there.

So you ask Isabelle to go, and then what happens next?

Fil Woodhouse: She goes. Then we continue with the session. I’ll ask, “If your subconscious feels that Isabelle has gone, yes or no?” and look for the response.

In the next session, I’ll ask, “If your subconscious feels there is any residual energy left over from Isabelle, then with that finger, rise nice and high for yes.” So we check again and make sure there’s nothing left behind.

And the result is that the person feels more freedom and lightness?

Fil Woodhouse: That’s what can happen in a session. I worked with a beautiful lady yesterday who is also a friend of mine, and spirit just kept coming through because there was something connected to her late son. We released it.

Sometimes people’s loved ones will come through during a session as well. There can be a sense of closure or communication. And sometimes, if that loved one has passed and there is something in their energy field that didn’t serve them, we clear that as well.

What types of people tend to come to you? Is there a particular kind of person or challenge you see repeatedly, or is it really across the board?

Fil Woodhouse: It’s every type of person. My oldest client was 90, and my youngest was probably 15 or 16.

The issues are across the board too. Sometimes it’s physical, sometimes emotional. It varies greatly.

People also come in with different ideas about how they want to deal with something. Sometimes people jump the gun, and I have to say, “No, no, no, there’s a process. This is how we’re going to do it.” They might say, “I’ve been to this person, I’ve been to that person,” and I’ll say, “Right, you’re going to park all of that. This is how we’re working.”

Or someone will say, “I’m going to go into a past life,” and I’ll say, “No, you’re not. You’re going to go wherever your subconscious takes you, and it may not be a past life.”

That’s why I think regression therapy can be a bit of a misnomer. I prefer the term transpersonal therapy because it encompasses the mind, body, and spirit.

I also work with what are called surrogate sessions.

Tell our listeners what a surrogate session is.

Fil Woodhouse: I worked with a lovely lady, and we were connecting with her son’s energy. Her son was experiencing sleep paralysis and a very low mood, and we were working together to help release what might be contributing to that.

She went into trance beautifully because she meditates, and it does help when people have a meditation practice. First, we ask permission to connect to the person’s energy field. If permission is granted, the second question is whether we have permission to work with that person’s energy field. We look for a yes-or-no response.

She went into one of her son’s past lives as a poor man living in poverty. I think he had stolen something, and what he experienced afterward was awful.

Then she went into another lifetime within her son’s energy field, this time as a wealthy man. He had been responsible for the death of someone’s son, and the father of that son had placed a curse on him.

I asked, “What needs to happen for that curse to be lifted? If your subconscious knows, let that finger rise.” She said yes, so I asked for it to come into her awareness.

She said, “I have to ask for forgiveness.”

I asked, “Can you do that?”

She said yes and asked for forgiveness.

During the session, she also felt a sensation in her chest, and that lifted. Afterward, she still had a slight cough, but when I later asked how her son was doing and whether the sleep paralysis had changed, everything was good.

Physical sensations can be part of the experience, too. Yesterday, the lady I worked with started flinching. That can be a release. Crying can be a release. Sometimes the hand or finger rising can feel like connecting to energy.

I remember working with one gentleman whose whole hand lifted right up. I kept thinking, surely his arm is going to start aching, and he’ll put it down, but he wasn’t even aware of it.

People can experience sensations of falling, sinking, floating upward, or being touched. Luckily, the sessions are recorded, so they can see afterward that no one was physically touching them. They’ve experienced something that can be difficult to explain. I tend to call it paranormal or unexplained.

When I came to you around September or October 2025, we had a couple of sessions. I already felt like I was pretty good at dropping into meditation, but I had never done hypnotherapy before. In the first two sessions, I remember having some definite release around the worry and anticipatory grief I was carrying about my parents and what I might have to go through in helping them in the future. I felt a lot lighter afterward.

Then, in the third session, I think light language started coming through. All of a sudden, a voice started speaking through me, and my head turned to the right. For people who haven’t seen the videos of our sessions, I essentially started channeling a being I had previously channeled while using plant medicine, but I had never channeled it without plant medicine. I remember thinking, wow, this is happening, while another part of my brain was going, this is crazy. What was going through your mind while I was having that experience in front of you?

Fil Woodhouse: I remember thinking, my days. People have channeled during sessions before, but not as demonstratively as you did.

It was a lot of energy. I actually nearly fell off my chair because one minute you were completely calm, and the next minute you went straight into it. It made me jump.

I had to learn to settle myself because my video was off; otherwise, you probably would have laughed if you’d seen me practically fall sideways.

But for me, it was like, wow, there is something in this.

It felt like an alignment. David is receiving what he needs to receive. There was this sense that everything was unfolding the way it needed to.

I also felt quite honored that it happened with me, because that’s a big deal. It’s like that with anyone who has a significant experience in a session. You feel honored to be there for it.

And they’ve given you tons of messages through me, which is so funny.

Fil Woodhouse: Sometimes you’ve made me cry, David. Sometimes you’ve made me cry. The shoe is on the other foot now!

They have given me messages through you. And as I said before, I’m extremely cynical. I like things to be proven. I like evidence.

The fact that you came through with some very powerful messages and insights really touched me. It reassured me.

Reassured you of what?

Fil Woodhouse: You touched on things involving members of my family, and there was also something going on for me personally at that time. It was just like, whoa, this is all coming together.

I felt something greater was at play.

Something is definitely unfolding, especially in our working relationship. For those who don’t know, Fil and I continue to work together almost every week, and we’ve also invited guests to join us and receive messages through me. Fil takes me into a hypnotic, trance-like state, which usually takes about ten minutes.

One of the wildest things early on was that I could enter that state with Fil’s help, but then I started feeling like I wanted to get there on my own. I remember the first time that happened—it was like, whoa, this energy just came in.

Now we work together pretty much every Wednesday, recording these channeled messages, and Fil holds space for me in such a beautiful way. We’ve put them on YouTube in the Awakened Magazine playlist called Channeling Love and Wisdom. I don’t know exactly where all of this is going. We’re still exploring it and allowing it to unfold. Sometimes we don’t publish a session because it’s more of a personal training session for me, and even last week, one of those sessions rocked my world. So thank you for how you’ve held space for me and for the way we’ve been collaborating.

I also love that there’s no pressure to turn it into a business. It can simply be of service. Things have come through that I never would have expected. Over the last six or seven years of my own spiritual awakening, I would say without a doubt that I believe in past lives—but I don’t spend much time thinking about them. Some people get very excited about their past lives and say, “I was an Egyptian goddess,” or whatever it might be. That’s just not really my thing.

So when it came through very clearly that I had served Jesus in many lifetimes, as those words were coming out of my mouth, my brain was going, “Are you kidding me? This is so weird.” But here we go. You create a space where people can experience whatever it is they need to experience, and that’s going to look different for each person.

Fil Woodhouse: That’s exactly how it works. It’s really about holding the space, because everyone’s experience is going to be unique. Some people have very profound spiritual experiences, like you have, David. Others may connect with loved ones in spirit, receive certain insights, or release things that no longer serve them energetically.

When I talk about past lives, I tend to think about them in relation to the energy field. I see the auric field almost like an energy bubble around us. Sometimes you walk up to someone and their energy repels you, and within that energy field there can be disturbances.

Those disturbances may come from experiences in this lifetime, past lifetimes, the lifetimes of our ancestors, or something completely different.

What I’m trying to do when I work with someone is guide them into trance. Trance is actually a natural state of being. We enter it several times a day. It can happen when we’re driving from point A to point B and don’t really remember the journey, or when we’re completely absorbed in a good film or a good book.

It’s a state of inner focus. In effect, we’re shutting out the outside world, tuning into the inner world, and discovering what needs to be cleared, what needs to be dealt with, and what needs to be filed.

Closure is what I’m hearing when you say that. I’ve never heard someone describe it as something that needs to be “filed,” but I really like that. It’s not necessarily about getting rid of something. It’s more like it needs to have its own place.

One thing I learned about you recently that I found fascinating is that, as you mentioned, you were raised Muslim in a fairly secular household. You also use certain Islamic prayers in your work, but you use the Lord’s Prayer as well, which is generally considered a Christian prayer. How does prayer fit into what you do?

Fil Woodhouse: When I’m working with someone, and there is something in their energy field that doesn’t feel aligned with them—such as a spirit or entity attachment—or if there is something going on in their property, I’ll sometimes walk around with my little pot of incense and frankincense.

Frankincense appears in the Bible, but it’s also widely used across the Middle East for clearing energy. I’ll recite a prayer, blow, and set the intention.

For example, several months ago I worked with a lady who came to me through someone else. She had been hearing a sound in her son’s bedroom.

I said, “Okay, I’ll come down and have a look.” But even before I got there, in my mind’s eye I was already seeing the place. It was almost like Stranger Things. I said, “There’s white. You’ve got a fireplace, and it’s white.” She said yes. I also saw that the house had been reconfigured, and she confirmed that too.

For me, that’s almost like the universe saying, you have permission to go because we’ve already shown you something.

So I went there with my incense, doing the blessings and blowing. While we were working, the woman who owned the property started feeling faint. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen something like that happen.

I asked, “Have you eaten?”

She said, “No, but I’m okay. I don’t usually feel like this.”

I told her, “Just sit down.” To me, that can be part of the energy shifting.

Then I said, “I feel the issue is in that corner there.”

She said yes, and later she told me that was exactly where the sound had been coming from.

As we got toward the end, I said, “The energy feels very mischievous.” As soon as I said that, my little pot with the coal—which thankfully was mostly ash by then—was knocked over and fell to the floor.

Afterward, the space felt clearer. The children were able to settle better in the bedroom, and it didn’t feel cold anymore.

So yes, I blend the power of prayer because, to me, a prayer is a prayer.

Last week, I went with a friend of mine to an area called Rye. One of his ancestors had been on a lifeboat that went down in 1928.

As we were driving there, I suddenly felt this anxiety in my chest. He said, “Don’t worry,” and I told him, “It’s not me. It’s where we’re going. I’m picking up on that energy.”

When we got to the memorial, I think there were around 17 men who had drowned that night. They had gone out to rescue another vessel, but another flare had been fired telling them to come back in because the other boat no longer needed rescuing. They didn’t see it.

In my mind, I could see them trying to take their belts off and their boots filling with water. They were drowning after the lifeboat went over.

But what I picked up most strongly was that the captain was carrying tremendous guilt and wasn’t resting peacefully. Many of the men who drowned were related—brothers, fathers, and sons. You were taking multiple men from the same family, and back then, they were often the breadwinners. It was a huge loss.

I said, “I understand you may be carrying guilt, but this was God’s will. You had no say or control over the outcome.”

Then I read the Lord’s Prayer and prayed that his soul and spirit could now be at peace. After that, something shifted. The energy shifted.

Was your friend dealing with challenges in his own life or family, or was he mainly interested in the story of his ancestors? What led the two of you to go there?

Fil Woodhouse: He had started opening up spiritually after I did a regression session with him. That’s another thing regression can do.

During his session, he went back and saw himself spying on the Napoleonic fleet. I was asking him, “Where are you? What’s going on?” and he literally got up and told me to go away in his most polite French.

He was so immersed in what was happening because, from his perspective, he was hiding in a bush and I was standing there asking questions, potentially giving away his position. So he basically told me to go away in French.

Later, I said, “Maybe the name of who you were will come to you.”

He got the name, Sinclair. We later found that there had been a Scottish spy named Sinclair who had spied on the Napoleonic fleet and was caught by Napoleon. Napoleon was apparently impressed by him and released him.

There’s no way he would have known that, David.

That’s one of the other things I find with regression. It can open you up to what is out there.

If someone feels like they need support, what kinds of issues might they be dealing with that would lead them to work with you?

Fil Woodhouse: Anxiety, depression, sleep issues, and sometimes physical issues as well. We’re talking about things like skin issues, headaches, sleep paralysis, and unexplained medical conditions.

Sometimes it’s something where they feel like they’ve already tried everything else and think, well, let me try this. There can also be emotional issues.

And, of course, unexplained sounds or movement around the house as well?

Fil Woodhouse: Yes. People generally know when something feels off in a house.

I remember a friend of mine who had a place in Portugal. It was a single-story dwelling, and she told me, “Fil, I can’t sleep in this room.”

We worked over FaceTime. I saw the building and said, “It’s this room.”

She said yes.

It had previously been used as a pigeon house, and before it became part of the dwelling, pigeons had been killed in that area of the property. There was something about the room that she couldn’t settle with, so we worked with that.

Sometimes people simply feel their luck is off, too. It’s interesting what can be going on on an energetic level.

Some people just seem to have challenge after challenge, one calamity after another. Even when I was a pastor and responsible for several hundred people, I would see certain families who seemed to attract issue after issue—flat tires, problems at home, deaths in the family, sickness. It would just be one thing after another.

It’s amazing. I even see that on social media with people you’re loosely connected to on Facebook. You see the ones who are always dealing with something, and you think they need Fil Woodhouse’s support to clear that challenge.

Fil Woodhouse: Do you want one of the craziest stories?

A lady came to see me at the venue where I work, and during the session, there was a spirit who presented as a Jewish Nazi collaborator. He had connected to her family line, and I believe he had been tasked with assassinating her late uncle or great-uncle. He didn’t manage to complete the task, and he was executed.

He wasn’t at peace for two reasons. First, he had a grudge. Second, because of what he had done during the Second World War, he was afraid to ascend. To save himself and his family, he had implicated other people.

I asked her subconscious whether a blessing would help pave the way for him to go, to ascend with the angels around him. The response was yes.

We did the blessing over Zoom. I recited the same prayer repeatedly and blew, intending that anything within her energy field that no longer served her would lift and that things would feel lighter.

Suddenly, her cat came and sat right next to her.

I said, “What’s with the cat?”

She said, “It doesn’t usually come over.”

I said, “Why do you think that is?”

The next day, she sent me a picture of a dog that had also come close to her. Animals pick up on these things.

Later, we worked together again in person. It was winter, and all the windows and doors in the room were closed. I asked her subconscious, now that we had done the prayers and the angels were in place, whether this spirit could ascend.

With that, there was suddenly a draft in the room.

I felt it, but I didn’t say anything because I wanted to see whether she noticed it too.

Then she said, “I felt a draft.”

I said, “So did I.”

No one had opened the door. I turned around, and it was still closed. We had both felt it.

Where can people connect with you or book a session? Do you normally have a consultation beforehand, or do people simply book?

Fil Woodhouse: There’s a contact form on my website. Get in touch, tell me what’s going on, and we can have a little chat and take it from there.

I’m also on social media: Instagram and Facebook. My website is IntuitiveHypnotherapy.co.uk.

Fil, it’s great to be with you today, and I look forward to channeling with you tomorrow.

Fil Woodhouse: Thank you for having me.

I know I thank you profusely, but I really appreciate how you hold space for me. We have such a unique connection in the way we work together, and I’m very curious to see where it goes. I’m grateful for you and for how you’ve helped me. You hold this magical space that allows things to happen, and I really appreciate that.

Fil Woodhouse: You’re very, very welcome. I feel there is an alignment. I just feel there’s something greater at play that neither of us quite understands yet. Does that make sense? There’s something greater.

Yeah. And thank you, Steve Burgess, for being too busy to see me.

Fil Woodhouse: You’re very welcome. Thank you so much.

Fil, thank you so much.