"Becky, here's that list of memories I've been able to come up with. You wanna take a look?"

"Sure, just put it with my bag. I'll look at it on my commute."

"Thanks honey."

That evening - after the kids are dealt with...

"Bill I was reading your list, and found one thing you've not mentioned before. What's this about a pink gown?"

"Oh, I just have this picture in my memory of a little kid wearing a pink ball gown. I'm guessing the kid's about eightish. It might just be me juxtaposing pictures from my mom's photo albums, but I don't recall that gown in any of them."

"Bill, maybe it's a memory of your missing sister!" Becky said excitedly "You know the one your Aunt Rachel talked about."

"I dunno Becky. It was kinda strange. But that'd be nice if it's real and not just my imagination. Anything else about the list?"

"Well, there was that memory you told me about - you , your brother and a girl climbing this big sand hill and sliding down in your under shorts."

"Oh yea, I'd forgotten that. Maybe that's another hint about the sister. I dunno though, when I think about it, it feels like my cousin; you know the one whose wedding we went to?"

"Okay, but you should put that down too."

"Thanks I will. This list was harder to come up with than I'd thought it would be. I was actually surprised that there were a few things. Maybe my memory isn't so screwed up after all."

"No Bill, but you don't remember as much as most of us do, so go ahead with trying to find out more."

The next morning

I wonder what this Dr. Wong will be like. Interesting name Katrina Wong. Well, no time like the present, and with this, I walked into the office. There was a nice looking red head behind the counter.

"Hello, I'm Bill Wyman. I have a 9:00am appointment with Dr. Wong."

"Hi Bill, I'm Katrina Wong. I don't have any staff yet, so, we can kill two birds with one stone. You can fill out the forms, and we can start talking about your case. Dr. Broadhurst only gave me a brief sketch of it over the phone, but it sounds interesting. Shall we head into the back? I don't have anyone else scheduled this morning, but the buzzer goes off if someone comes in."

"Sure Doctor. I'm afraid you're nothing like what I was expecting!"

She gave a laugh. "I'm afraid I get that a lot. This last name my parents saddled me with, don't you know! Go ahead and sit over there and hit the forms and I'll give you the two minute life story of Katrina Wong. It'll remove your confusion I think." She laughed again. I guess she laughed a lot.

"It all started when I was a wee child, living with my parents in Northern Ireland. Things were still pretty bad at the time. Mom was German, and Dad was Irish" she said pointing at her hair "I guess I get this from him. However, I was named after my mom's grandmother. In any event Katrina O'Meara I was. Then, a bomb took my parents. They were in their car and I was walking toward it. The bomb was in the next car. Apparently, I saw the whole thing. I still don't really remember it going up. I was shuffled around various aunts and uncles, but I guess I was hard to deal with, and was put up for adoption. I believe it was about 2 1/2 years later that my new parents the Wong’s adopted me, and brought me here to the states. They were very loving and were able to get me out of my shell. See, they couldn't have any kids of their own, and while they may have wanted a baby, they believed that older kids deserved a good home too. They were the best parents a girl could have wanted! And, the rest, as they say, is history. But that traumatic experience is one of the things that drove me to study memory, and I've found it a fascinating topic!"

"How're you doing on those forms? About done?"

"Umm, I think so" I said, as I handed them to her. She certainly is open about things. "I'm not used to hearing people give their life stories so readily."

Another laugh. "Sorry about that Bill. I actually use that as an icebreaker, sort of a way to let you quickly get to know me in a non-threatening manner. But, now it's your turn, well, at least I'd like you to describe your memory loss and what you do remember."

I told her my, by now routine, story of my memory loss, and the mistaken memory I had about the cause of the loss. I also mentioned that I'd made a list of those things I thought I remembered from that time.

"Well, you and your counselor should go over that list. I'd rather we NOT look at it at this point. Perhaps later we will. It will just depend on how things go. One thing I would like you to start doing though, is keeping a dream log. If you wake up in the middle of the night with a dream, or when you wake up in the morning, I'd like you to write down as much of the dream or dreams as you can remember. The same is true, if you find yourself daydreaming or taking a nap in the afternoon. Each entry in your dream log should be dated, and timed as well, if it's a single event."

"What good is that?"

"Well, if we're lucky, we'll be able to help you get some memories back sitting right here. Some of the activities we'll try have been known to have a delayed reaction and the memories show up as much as two or three days later as a dream. The difference being that the dream tends to reoccur and many times the events in the dream are confirmable through other means."

"Ummm, Okay I'll try. But now that you mention it, can you maybe go into what we might be doing?"

"Bill, My research has shown that memory loss can be caused by many things, and I've had good success in recovering some lost memories. The most common cause I've found tends to be direct viewing of some catastrophic event or experiencing something that the body just can't deal with. I've done work with many police departments helping crime victims recover memories of the crime so that the perpetrators can be found. They don't always remember the whole thing, and in some cases this is good, but they typically remember something that helps the police. For particularly traumatic experiences, these individuals also tend to need follow-up care to deal with the events."

"Okay, that's the what, how about the how?"

Authors Note: The following is made up, based on how I need the story to go. I'm aware that there is a lot more to it, that it doesn't work quite the way I describe and the protocols are not how I describe. Notes describing personal experiences in this area would be appreciated so I can improve the realism of the future sessions. Thank you.

"Okay." she laughed. "I've found several approaches effective, depending on the cause of the loss. Most of the time, a bit of light hypnosis with or without NLP can have amazing results."

"NLP? Sounds like something I use in my line of work."

"Oh sorry, that's Neuro-linguistic programming. It's not really neurologically based, nor is truly linguistic. It's more a study of how the words used encourage how we think about problems. In general, studies have had mixed results as to its effectiveness. However, my research indicates it can be a powerful aid to hypnosis."

"Ummm. You can't make me do things with hypnosis can you? That sounds kinda scary to be quite honest."

"Well, yes and no. I couldn't make you go rob a bank, or the like, unless you were going to begin with. What I can sometimes do, is tell you to remember something you may have subconsciously decided you don't want to know. I might even be able to get you to stand up and walk out, but things like the latter are much easier by mundane means, like insulting you. In addition, like most practitioners, I subscribe to a code of ethics where I promise to only use the tools to the benefit of our clients."

"Umm. Okay. I guess, if it'll help me remember. It still sounds worrisome."

"Perhaps a more concrete example of how NLP works would help. If I were to describe something as red and warm, you would immediately begin to think of things that were red and warm. So, the adjectives red and warm actually guided your thoughts to some extent. So you see I'm not FORCING you to think that way, but more encouraging the action.

"In addition, I'll be telling you when we're going to be using these tools, and when we're just going for memories without them. One thing with NLP/Hypnosis triggers for memory is that they don't always release the memory right away. It's as if the subconscious has to 'think' about it without your conscious mind interfering, so it does it while sleeping."

"Oh, that makes more sense now. Does the work ever turn up fictional things that parade as memories?"

"Yes, most definitely. We have to assume that many of the things you'll remember are in that category, until some corroborating evidence is found."

"Oh, like if I were to remember some event, and asked my folks about some of the details and they confirmed them, we could assume most of my memory about the event was actually a memory and not something I'd made up?

"Not exactly, but close. Even with events where memory loss is not involved, the brain fills in details, as if you store a shell description of an event, and it fills in the details whenever it's recalled. This is one reason that five witnesses to an accident will give five different versions. Many of the gross details will be the same, but many of the smaller ones will be different."

"So, what's the use in bringing up the memories or shells of them?"

"Well, in crime investigations, they provide clues to the detectives on what to look for, even though the memory itself is not admissible usually. In your case, it all depends on how much you want the memories. By coming this far, I suspect it's important to you."

"That's true I guess. I'm also nervous about what memories I might have hidden away."

"That's only natural. It's also why you have someone not involved in our work to talk with. You can safely assume that there will be SOME disturbing memories. Most people have a few, but you're much older than you were then and you'll probably be able to deal with them easier now. Again, your independent counselor will help you do that as well. You're not alone on this road."

"Okay, when will we start on this?"

"We can get a start next time. I'd like you to have a chance to think about all of this, and get a start on your dream log. You can also research NLP and hypnosis on the internet. Just be careful, a lot of the material is more fiction than fact it's sad to say. You might also talk them over with your counselor."

"Okay. Thanks. That sounds like good advice. When should we meet next?"

"I'd like to schedule regular meetings about the same time and day of week, since I've found that to work most effectively. Pushing faster doesn't seem to make things go faster, and slower lets your sub conscious fight us more." I laughed at this last.

"One more thing. Since your memory loss is so unusual, I'd like to keep a log of how we go, and what works and doesn't as far as recovering your memories, with an eye to eventual publication."

"I don't know if I like the idea that my memories will be out there for the world to see."

"Sorry, I should have been clearer. It's more a case where I describe the background, the type of event that triggered the memory loss, the approaches used in attempting to recover the memories and their relative effectiveness. No direct reference would be made to you, or your specific memories, other than the time scale of the memory loss."

"Oh, as long as I get the option to reject all or part, if I believe it's got personal info, I guess it's OK."

"Of course Bill. That's why I wanted to get your approval up front to even start!"

Okay then. I guess I'll see you next week."