Tag: violence

Replacing Nightmares with Hope

UPdate Issue 8, Summer

El Shaddai Orphange: Nightmares Replaced with Dreams of a Future

by Gabriel Constans

There’s much more to Rwanda than the genocide that took place over thirteen years ago. Yes, there was plenty of carnage that lay in its wake and everyone in the country (the size of New Jersey) was directly affected, especially the children, many of whom ended up on the street, with distant relatives or friends or perished from neglect. Add the scourge of the AIDS pandemic and you found even more homeless and abandoned children living on the streets. The needs outstripped all available resources.

But it only takes one person to make a difference and the street children, also known as “street rebels” in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, were blessed with one such man. His name is NZITUKUZE Sylvester. (In Kinyarwanda, the official language of Rwanda, last names go first and are capitalized).

While Sylvester was in the Rwandan Army he had a vision that he was somehow meant to help the street kids of Kigali. He followed his vision, left the army and started taking children into his home. It wasn’t an easy task. A lot of the kids were filthy, disease-ridden, taking drugs, angry and traumatized. After a year or two of Continue reading “Replacing Nightmares with Hope”

Relieving Trauma of Refugees and Immigrants

Thought Field – Vol 4 Issue 4

Thought Field Therapy and Traumatic Stress Recovery of Refugees and Immigrants

by Robert L Bray, PhD, LCSW, CTS, TFT-Adv and Crystal Folkes, MS

A pilot project in San Diego has demonstrated the effectiveness of TFT in helping immigrants and refugees to resolve post traumatic stress symptoms. The San Diego Elementary School Counseling Partnership (through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education) sponsored a traumatic stress clinic for children and families in the mid City area of San Diego for two months.

Although short in duration, it proved to be of great value. This project, serving an inner city school area, provided services primarily to immigrant and refugees. Andrew Jackson Elementary School, home base for the study, serves several immigrant communities.

Seventy percent of the 1,165 students at the school have limited English proficiency. Ninety-seven percent of the students receive free breakfast and lunch at the school. This population was chosen for several reasons. Continue reading “Relieving Trauma of Refugees and Immigrants”

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 Veteran’s PTSD

Charles G. Hayward, Sr., tells how he finally found relief with TFT after many years of suffering from war-related trauma:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM6u_t9Cxn8&hd=1&rel=0]

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”