natural disaster – Page 2 – TFT Trauma Relief

TFT Relief for Flood Victims in Chile

Floods at III Region, Copiapó, Chile – May 2015

by Mariela Prada, PhD

The purpose of this paper is to describe briefly the experience of one week of mental health workshops with a company’s employees and their families who were suffering from the effects of a devastating flood.

The events happened in Copiapó, Chile, located in the III Region, 800 kilometers north of Santiago, Chile. On March 23 and 24, 2015, there were 4 floods that caused much destruction. There were a lot of people who suffered damage or loss of their homes, household goods and even some deaths.

After the flood the community itself responded to the basic needs in three major groups; families, neighbors and co-workers. There were no governmental social services avail- able during the first weeks.

Considering this situation, a company asked a team of specialists to provide some help to
their workers and their families. Thought Field Therapy (TFT) was chosen as the most appropriate tool to provide a quick and effective healing experience. The group of mental health professionals asked for some advice from a TFT expert, Mariela Prada, to design an adequate trauma relief algorithm, which was part of the workshop program.

The team designed a workshop with three areas of intervention to work with them: emotional education, trauma healing tools and networking analysis. The workshop included the TFT algorithm, a relaxation routine, and a working group analysis of individual and social resources.

For a period of five days there were 8 workshops and 75 attendees who shared their experiences. They learned about trauma and learned a routine to deal with anxiety. The people followed the instructions in spite of never having seen anything similar to TFT. They practiced the TFT technique without any resistance.

They demonstrated they felt relief and gratitude. Their faces at the beginning of the workshop showed anxiety and tension. At the end of the workshop their faces showed relaxation, and some were even smiling. It is interesting to note that the therapists experienced the benefits of tapping as well. Because they were using the tapping itself during demonstrations they felt energized instead of exhausted.

The final evaluation of the workshop showed a level of success. This was a single intervention with no plan for a follow up workshop. This was a time of peace and reflection about the tragedy and time of recovery after the flood. Each one learned something useful and maybe they will use tapping again.

excerpted from “The Thought Field,” Vol. 24, Issue 10

TFT in National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs

TFT Now Listed in National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs & Practices

by Robert Schwarz, PsyD, DCEP:

Thought Field Therapy, the grandfather of energy psychology, was listed as an evidence-based practice in the SAMHSA registry (NREPP). It was found to be effective or promising in 6 different areas. This is a big deal.

SAMSHA stands for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation.

The National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) is an evidence-based repository and review system designed to provide the public with reliable information on mental health and substance abuse interventions.

excerpted from Feb. 5, 2016, post on acepblog.org

Peace through TFT Trauma Relief

By TFT Foundation President Joanne Callahan:

Trauma, Disasters and Our Emotional and Physical Health

World-wide disasters are increasing at an alarming rate, as is our awareness of them through the media. Whether man-made or natural, they have the same devastating effect on our lives–anger, grief, hatred, fear, nightmares, and ill health.

According to the World Health Organization there will be 1.2 billion people suffering from PTSD. It’s predicted that by 2020 mental illness will grow to be the number two cause of death, second only to cardiovascular disease.

One only need watch the news or read the paper to hear about a war, genocide, terrorist attack, hurricane, flood, fire or earthquake, and see the millions suffering. The mere watching of these events can also cause trauma and fear. The need for effective and affordable help for these people is becoming greater every year.

As the disasters increase and our awareness of them grows, research showing the long-term effects is being published. A couple of years ago there was a study showing that PTSD was passed on to our children through the sperm of the father. This year there was a study showing Continue reading “Peace through TFT Trauma Relief”

Making the Impossible Possible

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyh-TxqZVkk&w=560&h=315]

The TFT Foundation’s documentary, “From Trauma to Peace”, is in post-production and almost complete. I will post when the DVD is available. Our new trailer gives an inkling of the power of the stories told. Please share it to give people an idea of the real possibility for peace in this world.

TFT in Chile with Earthquake and Fire Victims

by Mariela Prada, TFT-Adv

As you may know Chile is a country where natural disasters happen every now and then. Thus most people are always willing to help and to assist those in needs when something happens, each one doing its best according to experience and knowledge.

In March we had a “minor” earthquake (7.0) in the northern region (Iquique, a port in the north of Chile) , which was not so harmful but left people in a state of unease and expectation to what might be coming next. On April 1 a much bigger earthquake (8.3) hit the same region at 8 pm. Fortunately most were already at home with their families , which was a very positive. The first reaction people have with these events is to desperately know if their relatives are ok.

It is also important to know that for many weeks there were important aftershocks which kept people under continuous stress . Some did not want to sleep in their homes for fear it would hit again at night, and many wanted to stay in the surrounding hills, as after earthquakes there is always the danger of a tsunami afterwards. The memory of what happened in March 2010 (earthquake plus sumani).

In these cases, the best way to help is to do it through a local organization. A group of TFT therapist were eager to help, so we got in contact with a mining company who was organizing psychological help for people affected by this earthquake. One of the volunteers was somebody who has done the Algorithm course and lives in Iquique.

The team traveled to Iquique twice for one week. Most of the times they worked with a whole group (algorithm for the trauma plus emotions), the only way to give help in larger number. And in some cases , they did individual sessions (using mostly diagnostics).

The work involved the trauma (s) of the situation, plus the anxiety of what the next one to come, as earthquake specialist were saying that not all of the pressure had been released , which means that there must be another one in a near future. This caused a lot of anxiety in all of the people treated, and mainly those who had to drive up to the mines, which means taking a winding road that may be very dangerous during an important earth movement. Thus we also had to address this anxiety and give them tools to do tapping on their own while driving up the road or whenever they felt uneasy or afraid.

While we were doing these interventions, we had another big disaster on April 23. In Valparaiso, a hilly town near the sea there was a huge fire that burned down 2.900 homes affecting 12.500 people, all of them of very low means of income. The fire was extinguished only after a week; the town was covered in smoke, the houses burned to ashes, people living in shelters, stray dogs and cats in need of food….

Local authorities asked to concentrate all help through organizations working in Valparaíso so as to limit the number of people coming to the city. In this case we worked through the School of Psychologist, who had the necessary contacts to go and work with the people, mainly in shelters.

In this case the traumas were not only the one of the fire but also that of losing all their belongings, all their “treasures” (pictures, family items, etc)., the uncertainty of the future (the local government is rebuilding those homes but that takes time), children who had lost their pets, whose school had burned down, plus the daily problems that rise when living in shelters with many other families.

As you can see, it is a multitraumatic situation. In this case, what we mostly did was train volunteers to work with the appropriate algorithm. This work is still being done; volunteers mainly work on week-ends. They have also been trained to teach parents algorithms to have tools to help their children. This empowers them and gives them tools they can use with others.

Once again, TFT has proved to be a wonderful tool to help people in need, help them get over their traumas, to do tapping with their children, to get back the energy to address their daily routines, help them have faith in the future.

TFT: The Missing Link

Figure 1. A representation of the medical model conceptualisation of the relationship between “symptoms” and “treatment.”

Thought Field Therapy – The missing link to effective trauma-informed care and practice

By Christopher Semmens Clinical Psychologist Perth, Western Australia

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Arthur Schopenhauer

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Niccolo Machiavlli

Trauma- informed care and practice is a framework for the provision of services for mental health clients that originated in the early 1990s and has especially been put forth as a sensible service model since Harris and Fallot’s 2001 publication Using trauma theory to design service systems. Trauma-informed care can be seen to be characterised by three main considerations in regard to the provision of treatment services:

That they incorporate a recognition of the reality that there is a high incidence of traumatic stress in those presenting for mental health care services.
That a comprehensive understanding of the significant psychological, neurological, biological and social manifestation of traumatic and violent experiences can have on a person.
That the care provided to these clients in recognising these effects is collaborative, skill-based and supportive.

In Australia these ideas were the focus of a consciousness raising conference: Trauma-Informed Care and Practice: Meeting the Challenge conducted by the Mental Health Coordinating Council in Sydney in June 2011. The conference was part of an initiative towards a national agenda to promote the philosophy of trauma-informed care to be integrated into practice across service systems throughout Australia.

It has only really been since studies such as Continue reading “TFT: The Missing Link”