Category: stress

Local Rwandan TFT Therapists Relieving Trauma

We would like to share with you reports by ATFT Foundation-trained TFT therapists at the IZERE Center for Peace and Reconciliation in Rwanda:

“When we observe change in the lives of the people we are treating using TFT, we really feel a deep joy in our hearts and all this is because of your generosity which pushed you to think about us, and your love for us, that led you to decide to send again the team from the USA to train Rwandan therapists who are now doing their best to help people using TFT.”

“What is pleasing us the most is that after the departure of the team from USA, now many people are coming every day at IZERE CENTER to be treated, the average number being 30 people a day, and we are trying our best to treat them and finish them all.”

“Thank you for TFT which we are using to heal the people.”

“Those who are treated tell us that TFT helps so much and do not cause any danger to them; this because our clients fully participate in what is being done to them by tapping where we tell them to tap according to their problem. We also see ourselves that their facial expressions change drastically after treatment. They do not remain the same as before treatment. We see that they are happy again and confident. We are happy and empowered when we observe such great change in the lives of suffering people. There is nothing better than seeing somebody smiling again after so many years without smiling. Many of them became our friends.”

“Many Persons are excited too about TFT, and they have shown interest in our work. They know we are there and we are working for the good of our nation. We are constantly in touch with them so that we can always carry out our work publicly. And The IZERE Center is becoming the model of social center in our District. Our dreams are to see TFT growing bigger and reach as many people who need it as possible. The work we do speak itself and makes us known even without our notice. After the training of the trainers, we will be able to make sure our dreams.”

“Many Rwanda citizens are living with trauma and other Psychological problem because of the genocide and the war, the poverty. Consequently, there is a really a big need for services like these for many Rwandan people. Thank you very much.”

There are still hundreds of thousands of yet untreated genocide survivors who suffer from PTSD in Rwanda. The Rwandans need to be trained as TFT trainers so they can train others to use TFT in their homeland. This year the ATFT Foundation will be training four lead therapists from Byumba and Kigali to become TFT trainers themselves.

They will be brought to Hawaii for an intensive month-long training. As part of this training, the Rwandans will train 16-20 therapists over two days. They will then supervise the Hawaiian trainees in their own pro-bono clinics that serve needy populations.

Please consider helping the ATFT Foundation with this project. If you are able to donate funds to this effort, please click here. If you can donate needed United Airlines mileage for flying the Rwandan therapists to their training in Hawaii, please e-mail sheila@atft.org.

TFT Relieves Young Jamaican’s Trauma from Violence

By Chrissy Mayhew, TFT-Adv, Well Within Reach, U.S.A.

In a recent mission trip to Jamaica with our church to build housing for the less advantaged, I wanted to take the opportunity to share with the beautifully spirited people of Jamaica and the various organizations who support them how Thought Field Therapy can be a much needed tool for healing many problems.

I knew TFT could help with the many stresses and traumas associated with living and working in a country that has very meager resources, out of control teen pregnancies, high crime rate, limited medical facilities and other types of challenges that exist in less advantaged countries.

Our group was counseled not to go off on our own anywhere, walk outside the compound of our facility at night, drink water outside of bottled water, or carry a lot of cash with us.

The church facility where we stayed hired a night guard to watch over the groups during the night because of previous problems with break-ins and theft. Continue reading “TFT Relieves Young Jamaican’s Trauma from Violence”

TFT Relieves Child’s Terror

By Helen Sugarman Schicketanz–“ATFT Update”, Issue 16, Autumn 2010:

My four-year-old son Max has always been a very happy, outgoing child whom nothing can phase; nothing, that is, except getting a haircut or getting his fingernails or toenails cut.

When he was a baby, my husband would literally have to hold him down while i cut his nails, and he would be screaming the entire time. Not only was i afraid that i would traumatize him for life (clearly something already had, but we had no idea what it was), but i was half-afraid that someone would hear the screaming and call child protective services on us.

When i took him to the barber shop, he would have to sit on my lap while the barber (who was very patient) used the scissors or the clippers. He alternated, hoping that something would make the experience less traumatic. During every hair cut, my son would scream and i would cry. it was horrible.

We tried different barbers, different places, and were told by one barber Continue reading “TFT Relieves Child’s Terror”

The Power of TFT

The following article is from “David Baldwin’s Trauma Information Pages”  and was written by Charles R. Figley, PhD,  Director of the Tulane University (formerly of Florida State University) Traumatology Institute. On behalf of the institution, he is editor in chief for Traumatology, the field’s independent, peer-reviewed, scientific/medical journal.

Charles R. Figley, PhD

Psychosocial Stress Research Program & Clinical Laboratory
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4097
June 27, 1995

Dear Colleagues,
As some of you may recall, I sent out early last year, via Internet and other media, nominations from clinicians about approaches that appeared to offer a “cure” for PTSD. I had become frustrated that, although we knew a great deal about the etiology, incidence and prevalence of PTSD, there was no known cure. My intention was to find a cure. and if one could not be found, build upon those offering the best hope for providing one.

Thanks to the help of colleagues all over the world, we were able to find four approaches that appeared to hold great promise for reaching our goal. We were so impressed with them that we invited the innovators of these approaches to our clinical laboratory for a week to participate in our systematic clinical demonstration study. The primary purpose of their visit was to treat our clients, while meeting with our Tallahassee clinical practitioner colleagues prior to and following their work here. The Four approaches we studied were: Traumatic Incident Reduction, Visual Kinesthetic Dissociation, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, and Thought Field Therapy (TFT).

Here I would like to tell you about one of the four approaches. I do this not because we are suggesting that it is better than any other approach. All four of the approaches we investigated generated impressive results. But TFT stood out from all other approaches of which I am aware because of five reasons:

  1. It is extraordinarily powerful, in that clients receive nearly immediate relief from their suffering and the treatment appears to be permanent.
  2. It can be taught to nearly anyone so that clients can not only treat themselves, but treat others affected.
  3. It appears to do no harm.
  4. It does not require the client to talk about their troubles, something that often causes more emotional pain and discourages many for seeking treatment.
  5. It is extremely efficient (fast and long-lasting).

In this brief space I would like to describe how it works in sufficient detail to permit you to try it yourself. By doing so, my hope is that the necessary work of clinical research will begin in as many laboratories as possible. It is only after the difficult work of science in testing the utility of the approach and an explanation for its effectiveness will it be sanctioned by our fields and utilized extensively. And, then, will we have a chance of realizing the full potential of this important discovery.

Dr. Figley then describes how to use the basic TFT trauma algorithm and invites colleagues to join him as “collaborative investigators” into the effects of TFT.

 

TFT Healing the Trauma of Parents Whose Children Have Died

Published in “The Thought Field”, Volume 7, Issue 3:

Trauma and Grief Across the Border

by Oneyda Maestas

My name is Oneyda Maestas. I live in a very small town called Kim, CO. I have been in the education profession for 9 years. I currently am a Kindergarten/First Grade teacher at Kim Elementary School.

My background and experience with TFT. I met Dr. Jenny Edwards during a Fielding Institute Training. She cured my “head-splitting” migraine with TFT. I was amazed as it usually takes a prescription drug to rid me of one of these headaches. I inquired more about what she had done to me and soon thereafter registered for her Level I and II TFT workshop. It was absolutely fantastic!

I began practicing TFT by tapping with my parents, co-workers, friends, and students at school (it worked well for discipline issues, anger/aggression on the playground, minor accidents). The results were phenomenal. It was amazing.

Then, Dr. Edwards informed me about a TFT workshop in Mexico City to be offered in Spanish. I was so excited, as I am a fluent Spanish speaker. In Jan./Feb. of 2001, I trained in Mexico City, TFT (TCM in Spanish). I met many people and assisted Father Luis and Dr. Edwards in administering TFT to others in the workshop.

I worked with a lady named Connie Bravo, who was also attending the conference. She is the leader of a parent therapy group, whose children have died. She found out that I was staying a few extra days after the conference and offered me room and board, if I would provide TFT to her parent group. Continue reading “TFT Healing the Trauma of Parents Whose Children Have Died”