Tag: EFT

Relieving the Smell of War


The Smell of War

By Suzanne M. Connolly, MFT, LCSW

The Gulf War was a short war and a war with few Allied casualties. And yet one young soldier, we’ll call him “Gary,” left a large part of himself back in the large flat desert to the North of Kuwait.

He wanted that part of himself back.

The war was officially over. The multitude of invading tanks and infantry had retreated and formed a long contiguous line stretching from the North of Kuwait and into Iraq. The tanks had been disabled, most burned by the Allied Forces beyond recognition. The  bulldozers had plowed the Iraqi tanks into trenches, sometimes inadvertently burying live Iraqi soldiers, still entombed in their sandy graves, arms sticking up here and there from the sand.

Gary’s job was to bury the dead. Cleanup duty.

The sight of charred Iraqi bodies and eyes still staring out from burned corpses haunted him. But even more, it was the smell of charred flesh he remembered most. It was a smell that wouldn’t leave him.

It had been over a year and Gary was still paralyzed by the sights and especially the smells of war. He was not available to his wife. He was not available to his two small children. And work was not going well.

Gary numbed the sights and smells with the bottle when possible, providing his only relief but causing even more problems in his life. It was the only form of relief he could find, despite some attempts at therapy.

Gary thought that the idea of tapping while he focused on the sights and smells frozen in his memory was a little crazy, but he was willing to try anything. As we tapped, Gary reported that the visual memories began to fade and seemed far away and lost their charge.

The smells from the past that seemed to permeate his world in the present didn’t go away as easily. But they, too, eventually disappeared with more TFT. Soon Gary was present to his family and doing well at work, no longer haunted by the sights and smells left behind in the desert.

He was finally home.

Excerpted from Callahan Techniques’ latest book, The Tapping
Solution: Tapping the Body’s Energy Pathways

Update on TFT for Earthquake Survivors in Japan

By Ayame Morikawa, Ph.D., TFT-VT, TFT-RCT

The Japanese Association for TFT continuously supports the victims in the North of Japan.

We offer workshops in public and cooperate with medical institutes, public offices, and other parties.

The people in the area are very sensitive to the words of “trauma”, “PTSD”or even “Psychological” problems. It may come from our cultural spirit of Chivalry that we should not mar the pleasure or the serenity of another by expression of our sorrow or pain and that we should try to attain our mind level at the highest good.

We as professionals are very careful dealing with their emotions and pride to offer the best support for them.

Relieving Violent Trauma of Teenager with Autism & Downs Syndrome

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It’s Not “Talk” Therapy

—By Nora J. Baladerian, PhD

As the 17-year-old boy flopped into a chair in my office, I knew right away TFT was the right therapy to help him. A victim of violence by his day-program worker, he is an African-American boy, quiet, very engaging and cute!

He was also born with Downs Syndrome and Autism.

He lives with both of his parents and a younger sister in Los Angeles. To communicate, he uses sign language and a communication board to spell out, letter by letter, any words he wants to say—as his verbal output does not always match what he intends to say.  He also uses sign language (finger spelling) and some American Sign Language.

Because of the moderate level of mental retardation that he has, I knew “typical” talk therapy would not work to help him recover from his trauma. Continue reading “Relieving Violent Trauma of Teenager with Autism & Downs Syndrome”

TFT Healing Comes Full Circle in Africa

New Rwandan TFT Trainers with Dr. Roger Callahan--Sept 2011, Hawaii

Our Dreams Become a Reality: TFT Healing Comes Full Circle

by Joanne Callahan, MBA

In 2006 and 2007 when the ATFT Foundation first began its missions to help heal the genocide survivors in Rwanda, we had no idea how great an impact TFT could have on this beautiful country. Our first team treated nearly 400 orphans at the El Shaddai orphanage, with wonderful results (PTSD study published 2010 International Journal of Emergency Mental Health).

The Foundation team went back in 2008 and 2009 to train the local community leaders to be able to use TFT to help their own country men and women. Much healing occurred and many were trained in TFT. The PTSD studies that were done had excellent results (2008 study accepted for publication and 2009 study soon to be submitted).

Entire communities were changing from sad, hopeless people, to productive and hopeful communities. The Foundation model for large scale trauma relief had succeeded both in the studies and follow-ups–and particularly in the real life experience of the Rwandan people.

Our desire to expand the reach of this healing even more led to the ATFT Foundation bringing four Rwandan TFT trainees to Hawaii to be trained to become TFT trainers back home in Rwanda. Our hope was that their ability to conduct trainings themselves would enable TFT healing to spread to surrounding communities–and even surrounding African countries.

The ATFT Foundation flew four of the Rwandan leaders, two from Byumba, Rwanda, and two from Kigali, Rwanda, to Hawaii where they spent the month of September, 2011, teaching TFT and supervising  staff at pro-bono Hawaiian clinics, treating underprivileged local people and perfecting their skills. Both the Hawaiian people and the Rwandans benefitted tremendously.

And now we see the dream of sharing TFT coming full circle. The Rwandan trainees from Byumba have already been asked to train a team in the Congo.

They have met with and provided support for 60 of the TFT trained therapists in their region and shared their Hawaiian experience with them. With the help of the ATFT Foundation, their sister Rwandan charitable organization, the IZERE Center, is treating up to 35 people per day and has already helped nearly 2000 people this year.

One of the Rwandan leaders and trainers from Kigali is the Director of the Rwandan Orphan Project (new name for El Shaddai Orphanage), and he is also expanding the reach of TFT. We just heard from him that he is training eight Counselors and Social Workers to help the disabled and retired military. He will then supervise and assist them as they treat nearly 80 wheelchair bound ex-military.

It is truly a blessing to see and hear about these hard working young leaders sharing and expanding the healing of TFT in Africa. The ATFT Foundation, the IZERE Center and the Rwandan Orphan Project need your help to continue this wonderful healing and teaching process.

Please go to www.ATFTFoundation.org  to donate to the furthering of this model of trauma relief, to www.IZEREByumba.com to help the IZERE support their TFT treatment programs, and to www.RwandanOrphansProject.org to help with their work in the community in TFT training and treatment.

De-Traumatizing Horses

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The Algorithmic Horse

By Brian Ewart as told to Ian Graham

While visiting a friend’s farm recently, the farmer’s daughter shared with me the story of her 7-year-old mare, who was extremely fearful of people—and especially hostile to men. The horse had been mistreated by its previous male owner. By now, it needed veterinary treatment to trim its hooves—which were overgrown and causing the horse extreme discomfort.

Unfortunately, the local veterinarian is a man and couldn’t get near the horse, even to examine it.  Not wishing her mare to be sedated, the farmer’s daughter shared with me her dilemma.

Could TFT help calm this anxious horse, I wondered?

I explained briefly about TFT, then asked the daughter to stroke the horse’s forehead, and tap gently under its eye. I then asked her to tap behind the horses foreleg (as close to where I imagined the arm point would be), then tap the horse’s chest—as close to the collarbone as she could get.

Since it was impossible for me—a man—to get near the horse initially, I asked the daughter to tap out the algorithm instead.  As she tapped away to my instructions, I could see the horse calming down from a distance. I entered the field and slowly walked to the animal, repeating the algorithm where the daughter left off.

In just a few minutes, the mare was almost asleep.

I asked the farmer’s daughter to walk away and leave the field. By then, she was extremely surprised to find the horse calm, receptive and unaffected by her departure—particularly when the mare had not been bridled in any way, nor had I used any treats.

Later, as I walked about the field, the horse followed me, nudging me in the back—her fear of people (and men, in particular) completely resolved. Even another male visitor to the farm that afternoon couldn’t change the anxiety-free state of the mare.

Of course, the veterinarian was able to treat her hooves with ease.  But getting her to hum a tune while tapping was a different matter entirely!

Excerpted from Callahan Techniques’ latest book, The Tapping
Solution: Tapping the Body’s Energy Pathways

Relieving Trauma of Family Car Accident

Excerpted from “The Thought Field”, Volume 18, Issue 5:

Dear Dr. Callahan and Joanne,

I wanted to take the time to thank both of you for giving myself and my family tapping sequences that helped us cope with the trauma and grief of surviving a horrific car accident.

Last summer we were hit “head on” by a drunk driver, the speed at impact was estimated at over 110 miles per hour. The drunk driver died on impact and although we all survived our injuries were extensive. My husband sustained a broken neck, broken lower spine, broken sternum and two broken feet. My 14 year old son fractured his leg and burst the main artery in the stomach lining. I sustained severe whiplash, broken sternum, “dented” stomach from seat belt, broken toes and foot.

Upon leaving the hospital and having necessary surgeries it was very difficult and anxiety provoking to get into a car. Because of the extent of our injuries we had to be taken to San Diego to be cared for by family.

I consulted with Dr. Callahan on October 12, 2010. He took turns asking each one of us different questions and then gave detailed instructions on tapping sequences. Each one of us were given a sequence to use for trauma/anxiety. In addition to this my son was given a sequence to ease the stress of the surgery he had undergone. My husband was given a sequence to clear side effects associated with the medicine he was taking. And I was given a sequence to gain confidence to drive again.

Just after performing the first tapping session we all noticed a more peaceful and calming state of mind. Within in 1 day I had enough confidence to get behind the wheel and run an errand. I was so happy I started to cry. Slowly but surely we all started to get our lives back on track and start the recovery process. We still go back to these sequences any time we have to make a stressful phone call or receive bad news.

I am happy to say that one year later we all doing well and thriving. My husband was able to go back to work in January, my son was able to start a fresh new school year and I am able to make long drives from the desert to San Diego by myself without experiencing severe anxiety.

We are grateful to the Callahan’s for their expertise and sincere concern for our health and healing process.

With sincere gratitude,

Mark, Mary and Tice Ledbetter La Quinta, California