My name is Dr Hayes. I am a psychotherapist who specializes in the unlocking of repressed memories.

A repressed memory, for those of you who may not know is a rare psychological phenomenon in which memories of traumatic events may be stored in the unconscious mind and blocked from normal conscious recall.

In simple terms, the human mind can sometimes hide away memories of trauma or abuse,

giving them the illusion as if the event never happened.

Some theorists claim that this is a defense mechanism developed in the cases of young children who could possibly not be able to mentally cope with the trauma from the experience.

At first glance, this may not seem to be much of a concern.

What you can't remember can't hurt you, right?

For some people, this may be the case, but in others they find themselves responding to mental triggers,

smells, sounds or phrases with no prior knowledge as to why they are having these experiences.

For others, they may unknowly stumble across the memory in their sleep.

Have you ever had a dream that seems so vivid and real, yet upon a waking you think back to it, unable to recall when your life the scenario happened.

What you simply dismissed as a strange dream could have very well been a repressed memory

unwittingly stumbled upon in your subconscious.

It's weird, I know, but bear with me.

I find the phenomenon fascinating, which is why I choose to specialise in this area of psychology in my studies and practices.

Periodically, from time to time, I am visited by patients from all over the country who believe they have experienced this phenomenon.

After being referred to me by their therapist who suspects their patients may have repressed memories from the childhood.

It is then up to me to unlock these memories.

Only after using social cues and making notes on their reactions to certain smells, sounds and pictures,

can I estimate where in the lifetime the repressed memory takes place?

This is a slow process that can take up to a year before we even identify the time frame of this memory.

Once the time frame of the repressed memories discovered, commonly between the ages of 4 to 12, I bring in what I call the Dream Screen, a device invented

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