guilt – TFT Trauma Relief

TFT and Dealing with a Loved One’s PTSD

Living Better with Your Loved One’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – How Not to Catch It as You Help Them Heal

Of course you cannot catch it like the flu or a bacterial infection.

When your loved one is exposed and develops dysfunctional survival and coping reactions, thinking, or behavior, do not just wait for time to heal this injury. Waiting adds to both of your stress levels and makes you more susceptible to developing more symptoms. Traumatic Stress Responses come in many forms. Even if your loved one does not meet enough of the 20 symptoms listed in PTSD criteria, the pain and healing can be just as difficult and they need your help. The closer your relationship, the deeper the love, the more at risk you are for the conditions that could lead to you getting your own dose of post traumatic stress.

Traumatic Stressor events can be any form of violence presenting a threat to life or safety. These events encompass a huge range and could be a one-time high- intense event, such as a car crash or shooting. Or it could be many less intense events over time, such as waiting for the next time a drunken rage ends in a physical fight or having to live in an environment under constant threat of attack. We all have our breaking points and traumatic stress can be a response to war, combat, assaults, childhood abuse, rape, domestic violence, natural disaster, or social indifference.

You can be affected by something called vicarious traumatization or secondary trauma, which can happen when you’re connected with someone through love and you know that your loved one has been overwhelmed and exposed to traumatic stressor events. This reaction is normal, and while it does not happen in every case and is not a test of your love in any way, you need to be aware of your own responses to knowing what happened to your loved one. You can find yourself with your own intrusive images and sensations about events and your own problems such as sleep, avoidance, or other symptoms causing dysfunctions in your work, relationships, or living a positive life. You must acknowledge and treat your own PTSD to be available fully to help another. There is much to be done to help and you are not alone. Using Thought Field Therapy is the best place to start. When

the overwhelming feelings are addressed, you can think and act in healing ways for you and the ones you love.

Continue reading “TFT and Dealing with a Loved One’s PTSD”

TFT and Loss of a Child

The following is a case study submitted to Joanne Callahan as part of TFT-Dx certification:

Case Study:

Female in her mid 30’s: lost her son at the age of 4 due to a rare genetic disorder less than a year ago. It is coming up on the first anniversary of his death. He was completely dependent on his mother and was not mobile at all. Fed by tube feeding, suction machines and continuous 24/7 care. Diagnosis was given with an undefined outcome of not knowing what each day would hold and the outcome being death.

So her life was a ticking time bomb for 4 years.

Current condition: She was feeling anxiety and fear of not knowing, not knowing how she will cope with the first anniversary. Anger for losing her son in the first place, why did this happen to her??

Algorithms used – Complex trauma with anger and guilt and she went from a 10 to 3.5.

I then corrected for level two reversal and repeated the algorithms. Ending SUD was a ZERO- there was no feeling of anxiety when thinking of the first anniversary or thinking of his death.

We finished off with ER- Floor to ceiling eye roll.

Comments: Client B was nervous and found it extremely difficult to hum the tune of Happy Birthday in the beginning. She fought back tears and somewhat choking in her throat. Her SUD dropped steadily and with a great response.

I found that she was humming without a prompt and more ease, without me having to remind her to hum the tune. No evidence of PR or Apex problems and she was extremely open to the treatment and findings.

During the treatment Client was swaying from side to side, she felt at peace, light and carefree.

Excerpted from “The Thought Field”, Volume 23, Issue 3

TFT Transforms an Abused Young Man

A Completely Transformed Young Man…

by Kristin Holthuis, MD

Here is a case study, with a client yesterday, it was so powerful, and, I just used some Algorithms…

Client was a 19 year old male, P, with a history of sexual abuse of nephews, and severe physical abuse by his father. His sister had been almost killed by his father several years ago, and also had been severely sexually abused.

I had been seeing his sister for multiple issues and she is doing so well that she decided to share her therapist (me) with her brother.

Note: They both live still with their father, who is trying to behave (after police intervention several years ago) but who recently has been emotion- ally abusive to this son again.

P. came in to work on what he calls ̈his frustration ̈ of not having work.

He looked very angry, with a kind of dark cloud around him. He has been looking for a job for 2 years now, with no success, and the family has gone through great financial challenges. He never smiled, almost didn ́t look me in the eyes, and was quite reluctant to talk.

I used some time to establish rapport, explaining about TFT and telling him he didn ́t have to tell me details. (His sister told me that he had been sexually abusive to his younger brother, which he was very ashamed about… he didn ́t mention this to work on in this session).

He asked me if I thought he was bipolar or so, and I explained that in any case it was important to address traumas, in order to be able to be free from the past… some tears came to his eyes, like regaining hope.

So when I asked if something else was going on he told me he doesn ́t speak to his father anymore since 3 months, and the situation in his house is very tense. I suggested we work on that first, since he stated he was so disappointed and angry with his dad, that he felt his presence as a dark energy, a 100 on a scale of 0 to 10!

We started to work on his anger and the deception of his father,

Beginning SUD was 100 (in his words), with a dark overwhelming feeling when thinking of his father. We used the complex trauma algorithm with anger, and it dropped to 8, a little smile and surprised expression came to his face.

We corrected several reversals, the 9 gamut and completed the sequence and the floor to ceiling eye roll and he reported his SUD was 0… He started to laugh and couldn ́t stop!! (It all took but 5 minutes.)

I then asked him to focus on his father and his shouting at him, and he didn ́t get upset at all!!

Then he wanted to work on his frustration of not finding a job, anxiety and lack of hope and self- esteem. His beginning SUD was 8.

I chose to use the complex trauma algorithm with guilt, and his SUD dropped to 5, so we completed the 9 gamut and sequence and it dropped to 4.

He referred to sadness and lack of self-esteem… so I repeated the sequence again and added the gamut 50 and some reversal corrections. After the eye roll his SUD was 0…

He laughed out loud and was completely transformed, with a sparkle in his eyes.

I gave him flower essences, and will see him back in one month.

Home work: PR corrections every hour and look for a strategy to get some experience in his job offering his services part-time for free.

During the session it was about 30 minutes rapport building and explanation, two times 5 – 10 minute treatment sequences, five minutes of laughter and 10 minutes of future strategies.

A completely transformed young man… I am looking forward to see how family dynamics might change too!

Excerpted from “the thought field”, Vol. 21, Issue 4

TFT Helps Young Man Reclaim His Life

By Monika D’Agate, London, UK, driving instructor and TFT therapist, shares how a student of hers used TFT to help a nephew reclaim his life.*

This young man is a very kind and sensitive individual, high achiever with very good grades at school. He has a supportive and caring family.

He only had his driving license for one year when an accident happened. Driving his father’s car only on occasion had given him very little experience. Furthermore, the country he lived in has very poor standards of competence, allowing people to take their driving test only after 30h of practical driver education.

Where it could be enough for someone with existing skills, for most people starting from scratch, it’s half or even less of what is really necessary to be competent and safe on the road. Sometimes people think that they are born with driving skills and they acquire more common sense as they get older. It’s rarely the case for the former one and not always the case for the latter.

One late evening, this 19 year old was driving back home from his factory, where he had a part time job. His parents bought him a car the week before. He was approaching a bend, not going fast, but when a car came up from the opposite side, blinding him with its high beam lights, he hit something.

It was a man on a bicycle, wearing dark clothing, on a bike without any lights. Continue reading “TFT Helps Young Man Reclaim His Life”

Immediate Relief from Family Trauma

From “The Thought Field”, Volume 18 Issue 4

: (photo not of actual client)

TFT Can Soften Life’s Traumas and Begin Healing

By Jennifer Harp, TFT-Dx

(Client name changed to Sara)

Sara is a 45 year old mother of two daughters, age 15 and age 13 as well as one son, age 17. She resides in Wyoming with her live in boyfriend and her daughters. Her son resides with his biological father in Florida.

Sara has endured a lengthy history of sexual, physical, emotional and mental abuse at the hands of her biological father from ages 5-18. She was later assaulted physically by numerous boyfriends as an adult. Her ex-husband, raped her on numerous occasions.

Her grief was compounded 8 months ago when she was told by her daughter that her son sexually molested her on a visit to Florida last summer. Her son is currently undergoing criminal proceedings for the assault. Sara sought counseling 5 months ago to assist her in managing her feelings of despair, shame and anger.

In working with her, I utilized the algorithm of complex trauma with anger and guilt to address her thought field of the perpetration of her daughter by her son.

I chose the algorithm for two reasons 1.) it was my first time using TFT in my own practice and I was more confident with the technique 2.) I thought that this would be a good place to begin with her symptoms of intense trauma as the algorithms have been tested and proven with so many clients.

Prior to going through the sequence, her SUDS level was a 10 on a scale of 1-10. After the first time of using the tapping sequence she experienced a reduction in SUDS to an 8. At this time, we corrected for specific reversal by adding the karate chop to the beginning of the sequence. After this process her SUDS dropped to a 5.

Another correction for recurring reversal was added to the sequence by rubbing the sore spot, this dropped the SUDS to a 2. The 9 gamut sequence was provided and then repeated the sequence of complex trauma with anger and guilt. To finish a floor to ceiling eye roll was facilitated. Sara’s final SUDS level was a 1.

No identifiable toxins were detected with Sara.

Upon administering this treatment, Sara commented that the technique was “unbelievable.” It took her several minutes to be able to identify her final SUDS level as she “could not feel it anymore.” Sara continues to tap on a daily basis with various algorithms as required for her symptoms.

Sara was the first client that I had utilized the TFT techniques with. It was remarkable the immediate relief that she felt in 7 minutes of TFT therapy that she did not receive in 2 months of cognitive behavioral therapy prior to the algorithms.

Sara and I frequently tap in session; I use both TFT diagnostic and algorithms to address her symptomology.

Jennifer Harp LPC-850, Northern Star Counseling, LLC, Cheyenne, WY 82001 Office: (307) 637-7906

Eliminating Severe Effects of Rape

Thought Field, Vol 1 Issue 1

Beliefs, Attitudes and TFT

Fred P. Gallo, Ph.D., Hermitage, PA

In “Transcending Painful Memories: and the emergence of the new psychotherapies”, I reported on one of my first cases of successfully applying TFT. I used the pseudonym of Barbara in the section on Rape Trauma. At age thirteen Barbara was raped while on a date with an eighteen year old boyfriend. The trauma continued to cause her suffering well into her thirties.

Additionally Barbara had a drug and alcohol problem, suffered severe bouts of depression with suicidal intent, and evidenced a number of other symptoms subsumed under diagnoses such as major depression, dysthymic disorder, bipolar disorder, poly-substance dependence, and borderline personality disorder.

She had received treatment at a number of facilities, both outpatient and inpatient, and she was not doing well at all when I first saw her.

When Barbara discussed the rape with me, she definitely appeared to be “reliving” the event to some extent. She cried deeply and evidenced profound remorse and referred to herself in the most negative of terms.

At first I interrupted the reliving episode by having her attend to the external environment by describing what she saw heard, smelled, tactually felt, etc. After she calmed down, I told her that I was working with a technique that might help to relieve the pain that she felt each time that she thought about this event. I asked her if she would be willing to give it a try, and she agreed.

Within several minutes of treating her for psychological reversal and using the basic trauma algorithm, Barbara no longer felt emotional pain while reviewing the memory. What amazed me even more so at the time, however, was the fact that Barbara’s beliefs about herself and the incident were simultaneously transformed.

For example, I asked her what she thought about the event and she replied in an almost casual tone that it was “just something that happened when I was a kid”. I even pushed her on this to test the reality of the transformation by asking with an accusing tone, “Don’t you think that you were to blame? Don’t you think it was your fault?” Her response to me was an unshaken and softly stated, “No, I don’t think I was to blame. I was just a kid.”

I couldn’t believe it. Just moments previously she had gone on about what a no-good so and so she was, and now she was doing an about face! How could this happen in an instant?

I saw her about a week after the treatment and she reported that she continued to not feel bothered about the rape. She told me that she tested this out at times over the week by thinking about the rape, and she did not feel any distress. That was about two years ago and I know that Barbara has continued to do well, since I have had intermittent contacts with her concerning other issues in her life.

As I reported in the article, Barbara was not instantaneously and totally cured, even though the traumatic memory was completely cured within a brief period of time (or even outside of time, depending on how one thinks about such things). While relieving the trauma certainly seemed to have a positive ripple effect throughout Barbara’s life, I should note that I also taught her treatments for addictive urges, anxiety and depression. These treatments were mostly employed during therapy sessions, although she did practice the algorithms at times on her own when she remembered to do so.

Today Barbara is not dependent on drugs and alcohol and her self esteem appears to be on the rise. She went on to complete an undergraduate degree in psychology, is now working on a graduate degree in social work, and is holding a responsible job in the field.