Relieving Stress of a Trauma Specialist

By Robert L. Bray, Ph.D., TFT-Adv, Update Magazine, Issue 2, Winter 2005

TFT Makes a Hard Day’s Work A Good Day’s Work: Taking care of traumatic stress in myself and others

One night, my wife asked if I wanted to talk about my day. I snapped back at her: “Do you want to talk about the man who was beaten by his mother because he was male and beaten by the older boys in his neighborhood because he was Jewish?

Or would you like to talk about the women with a chronic pain disease and suicidal depression who was sexually abused by her last therapist? Should we talk about the woman who was beaten regularly by her crazy mother, raped as a child, abandoned by her church after a date rape, and strangled by the father of her child? Or, on a lighter note, we could discuss the man who, because of a work related injury, just had another surgery to help control the pain in his hand and faced years of painful back surgery and rehab?”

As the sarcastic words and tone came out of my mouth I realized how much I wanted not to talk about my day but instead to push the intense emotion and stress of my day away. I immediately treated myself for the vicarious traumatic stress I had experienced from being present with my clients. More myself, I then was able to share a couple of humorous and moving moments that occurred in my day’s work.

I have over twenty years of experience as psychotherapist specializing in traumatic stress response. In any given day I hear stories of meaningless violence, evil indifference, and endless despair. I see in many clients the terror, fear, distrust, pain, and suffering still carried by those who have experienced things which I can not even imagine. Continue reading “Relieving Stress of a Trauma Specialist”

Relieving Trauma from Earthquake in Japan

We have instructions for the TFT trauma relief technique in Japanese. Go to the page listed on the right that says “Japanese”. It will give a link to the ATFT association website in Japan, which has complete instructions in Japanese. Please pass this on to those you know in Japan. It can greatly relieve the suffering involved in such a crisis.

If you need any assistance with this, please let us know by submitting a comment. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Trauma-Related Panic Attacks Gone with TFT

By Suzanne Connolly, TFT-Adv, from the UPdate Magazine, Issue 4, Winter 2006:

Solving the Mystery; Curing the Panic

At a recent Conference on Panic Attacks, a speaker presented as a fact, that panic attacks do not have their origin in past trauma. Speaker after speaker asserted that there is currently no cure for Panic Attack Disorder. While there are undoubtedly cases where this is true, I find that in most cases this upset in the sympathetic nervous system is rooted in past trauma and of course, with Thought Field Therapy, is curable. The following case study offers just one example.

Yolanda’s panic attacks were keeping her from her job as head of housekeeping at a nearby resort, and from her second job of babysitting her friend’s children, and from participating in life in general. She had been referred by her Physician and I began taking a history in an effort to find some specific sources of anxiety to address.

Being around small children seemed to precipitate the majority of Yolanda’s recent panic attacks. Being home alone at night, being around knives, Continue reading “Trauma-Related Panic Attacks Gone with TFT”

TFT After Brutal Physical Attack

From “The Thought Field”, Vol. 17, Issue 3:

Tapping Thru Trauma and Dysfunction To Happiness

Oct 2010, Australia, Gabrielle Williamson

In 2000 I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after a brutal physical attack. Because of head injuries I was unable to complete thoughts or make any sense of the world. This led to debilitating depression as even simple tasks like cooking had become difficult. I was also suffering from severe anxiety and did not know how to engage in society. I became a relative hermit and put on a lot of weight. All I could manage was eating, sleeping and watching videos. My depression grew and intense rage emerged as I ruminated day after day on the attack.

Five years passed in this manner then one day I was introduced to a local TFT Practitioner who listened to my story and offered to give me a treatment with TFT. I was totally skeptical, yet after several treatments I lost the depression and became more functional. Soon, not only did my fear of people and being in public places disappear, but I began to rekindle my former career as a singer/ songwriter and performed my songs at local venues. Previously my memory had been so damaged due to head injuries that I had had trouble remembering my songs. It improved using TFT.

I also became a TFT practitioner and continued to clear phobias, stress, confusion, love pain and rage as they emerged and began helping my friends with TFT as well. Soon I had several regular TFT clients. Chronic depression and anxiety became things of the past.

I realized with gratitude that I had started living my life again and it was better than it had been even before the assault!

In 2006 I won $1,000 first prize in a major local songwriter’s quest and went on to record an album of my songs. I organized every detail of my own album launch which had been an unfulfilled dream for 30 years.

Today I have 4 different part-time businesses which I run myself including a small TFT client-base, many friends, hobbies and interests and am living the life I always wanted to live, as cliche as that may sound! I am an active member of my community and the world at large and feel I have something to contribute. I have no doubt that I am capable of moving on to achieve even greater goals as my life unfolds.

This year, 2010, I will be 50 years old and have never been happier than I am right now. I believe that TFT has very significantly contributed to my healing process when very little else seemed to be working. It is simple, fast and effective as a modality of therapy and easy to administer to myself and others when the need arises. I highly recommend it to anyone. I will continue to rely on its help as it is an invaluable way to be free of all kinds of problems both mental/emotional and physical.

TFT Relieves Terror from Childhood Trauma at Dentist’s Office

From “The Thought Field”, Vol. 11, Issue 2:

TFT Helps a Severe Fear of Dentists

A letter to Rosanna Mosca, DipND, DipCH, Point Cook, Victoria, Australia:

I’m in my 40’s and for most of my life, I have been a little bit of a ‘fruit loop’. Not quite crazy but occasionally, I would turn from ‘Jeckell to Hyde’. It all started when I was eight years old. My subconscious would take over and I wouldn’t be able to control my body anymore.

What started off being a shopping trip suddenly turned into something not so nice. I don’t know where they came from, or how, but suddenly three men in white coats were holding me down, putting a mask on my face and needles in my arm. I’m hallucinating, I’m hurting, I’m screaming. Continue reading “TFT Relieves Terror from Childhood Trauma at Dentist’s Office”

TFT for Crisis Intervention

By Jim Mc Aninch, CTR, CEAP, TFT-Dx, from the “ATFT Update”, Issue 3, Summer 2005:

A Great Crisis Intervention Tool

I am the Industrial Coordinator for Pittsburgh’s Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) team and I have found TFT to be a very powerful tool in working with the individuals in these situations.

The principal goals of a CISM team are: (1) To reduce emotional tension. (2) To facilitate normal recovery process of normal people having normal, healthy reactions to abnormal events. (3) To identify individuals who might need additional support or referral to professionals for specific care. A CISM program is neither psychotherapy nor a substitute for psychotherapy. When I receive a call it is generally associated with a fatality at the workplace.

I first used TFT at a construction site where an individual witnessed an individual fall to his death. What created a problem for him was that he had a very similar near fatality for himself a numbers of years ago which ended up resurfacing for him creating visible anxiety for him.

I was able to have him follow me with the trauma algorithm and you were able to see the change and he was no longer feeling the anxiety from his previous fall.

The next time I had an opportunity to use TFT at an electrocution of an employee at a small company with a family type environment. I first treated them as a group using the complex trauma with anger and guilt. I also included hopelessness.

I then found that some people we’re having problems with other traumas in their past so I treated them separately.

I was able to use this procedure at a number of fatalities at a number of large industrial settings with ease and great success. My team coordinator was very skeptical at first on my using this until he was able to see the success and rapid results. The coordinator was quick to see the value in TFT and we are now planning a training for the team.

Recently, I was able to take HRV readings in addition to using the TFT protocol with very interesting results.

I was called to the fatality and I was there a couple of hours after a conductor on the plant railroad was crushed between two cars. Continue reading “TFT for Crisis Intervention”