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Testimonials
From
Franco, a special forces survivor from Nassirya bombing in Iraq:
"I've
treated my ptsd with EFT and [have had]
wonderful results. I was having extreme emotions of over 10 (on the
scale of 0-10). We treated about 75% of the event and we have been able
to get to a 0 on the emotional scale. We treated the remaining 25% on
another day.
The
morning of November 12, 2003, I was inside the building doing computer
work. A colleague asked if I wanted to go with him to return various
items before leaving Iraq in 2 days. I went with him and other men in a
military car to the other side of the river. We had just arrived when
we heard shooting from the Base (where we had been a few minutes
before) and we were shaken by the shock of the blast.
Immediately
we saw the building of the Base shrouded in black smoke and we heard
shooting from there. We took bulletproof vests, gas masks and rifles
and went toward the Base.
The
base was in flames but we went into the building to rescue those
wounded. There was still shooting and we didn't know if we were under
attack or not. We noticed a dead man's body and we recognized him. We
didn't find anybody else.
We
went behind the building and noticed the shooting came from the
container used as an ammunition depot, still in flames. With some
buddies I opened a breach into the fence in order to allow the Iraqi
Firemen to extinguish the blaze. Under the container I found other
bodies, and then shouted to warn people around to get away. I remember
one buddy in complete shock.
Once
the fire was out I looked around and realized the situation: charred
bodies, many in pieces, lay around. We couldn't recognize buddies that
we were talking to earlier. We put all the human remains in plastic
bags and I remember a buddy that was crying and asking me to help him
recognize a head he had inside the bag.
In
the afternoon . . . we continued looking for bodies and army documents
that we figured some Iraqi was trying to steal. In the evening, we went
to rest but I couldn't sleep because the scenes of the tragedy kept
coming back into my mind. The morning after we went back to the
half-destroyed based still looking for human remains, and we brought
them to the local hospital.
This
is a small contribution to [tell you] this technique works for ptsd
in a simple and effective way, when nothing else will.
Thank
you,
Franco
This
combat ptsd is second generation. From the daughter of a Japanese POW:
I have had PTSD all my life. My father was a POW in Japan for three
years. At the end of three years of torture, my father was on a ship 1
mile offshore when the atomic bomb was dropped and, accordingly,
suffered radiation sickness.
I remember my first memory of "life." I screamed in horror and did
everything I could to get out of my body, to die. Anything but face
this madman. . .
He
abused me horribly from the first moment of my life. For all intents
and purposes I was born in a concentration camp and raised on terror,
hatred, beatings and starvation. Isolation was big, left for long
periods of time alone in the dark, probably like the boxes my father
was put in for punishment.
I
never functioned normally in my life. I was a dead limp infant and
could not eat, sleep or eliminate. I could not learn, could not color
in kindergarten. I never laughed or smiled and had no idea how it felt
to do so. I threw up most days and sobbed every day of my life.
I
had migraines daily by age 12. I looked like Dracula's daughter. . . .
I was so locked up in terror that I was a walking panic attack and I
walked into walls from all the drugs.
I
learned a little bit about EFT 10 years ago and used it daily for the
pain. . . . I learned to apply it more effectively and the end result
(three months) is I rarely have a panic attack anymore.
. . .I occasionally get the beginning of a migraine
but work it out pretty fast. I had huge tumors
in my uterus and nearly bled to death every month, so I targeted them
specifically a month ago and they are all gone!!!
I woke up one day and they were just gone. . . .
This
is a powerful tool for transformation. Everyone can be helped by it.
J.R.
From
a PTSD survivor who suffered for years:
I had PTSD for 30 years without realizing it. Talk therapy helped a bit
but never completely eliminated my symptoms—most of which I didn't even
know were symptoms. Then I discovered EFT. I am completely clear of
pain and no longer have angry outbursts.
EFT
works! What more can I say?
N.
PTSD can be
un-related to war:
I want to thank you so much for this wonderful tool that came to me
just as I needed it.
Two
and a half years ago my 14-year career as a Paramedic ended following a
diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I was in a real
mess. Nightmares, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, compulsive behaviors
to name a few.
As
I traveled around, I would pass places I had attended serious road
accidents and other traumatic events and they would vividly replay in
my mind. I would see the accident in my situation. If someone simply
crossed the road in front of me, I would see them fall and injure
themselves in graphic detail. I would see my partner off to work in the
morning and then was unable to get images of her in a serious road
accident out of my mind. It was a very unpleasant time.
I'm
not sure how I got in this state. It seemed very gradual although there
were some very traumatic incidents in my career, the worst being the
attempted murder of two young boys by their father. My colleague of
that day never worked again, it was so distressing for him. I managed
another seven years. If only I had known about EFT then.
Although I got some basic counseling through my GP I was left on a very
long waiting list to see a psychologist. I was desperate to find a
self-help tool.
I
had seen [this technique] 2 years before, but wasn't convinced, so when
my partner had her longstanding fear of heights diffused very rapidly I
had to look in more detail.
[Without formal instruction] I started using it straight away and was
getting results almost immediately. I would spend an hour or so a day
using it to diffuse anxiety and stress in whatever situation arose. . .
.
When
I finally got my appointment to see the psychologist (after a 2-year
wait) she could find no traces of PTSD at all. She seemed very
surprised that I had managed to deal with the PTSD myself. . . .
It
has helped me not only get over the PTSD, it has also elped me rid
myself of tons of negative baggage from my childhood, self-limited
beliefs, build a growing hi-fi business...
My
whole family has benefited from these great techniques and it has made
us closer than we have ever been.
Thank
you so much. . .
Bob P.
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(This
is from another practitioner who worked with a Gulf War veteran.)
I met George (not his real name) by chance one day. On the
second day I knew him, we were visiting and George started to cry
uncontrollably and tell me how horrible the war was. He said
that he has not slept more than 2 to 3 hours a night in 39 years
because of flashbacks which also occurred randomly during the
day.
I could see it was very deep and he was in great despair, so I
mentioned that I worked with PTSD. George responded that he
had been to all the therapies and he was as good as he was going to get
and so he just managed it. So, I let it go. The
next morning while visiting he mentioned it again and I felt I had
earned his trust the day before, so I just said “Wanna [try]?” (meaning
my technique) He agreed, saying it couldn't hurt.
I described EFT and tapped on George to show him where to tap, and the
pressure we would be using. . . . He was clearly at a level
of intensity of more than 10 on a 10-point scale.
To give you some background, they were getting bombed and a radio cable
needed repair when another man (I'll call Henry) came to help
George. George was going to run one end of a cable to another
location and Henry told George that he should stay there and start
repairing things and he would run the cable to the other
location. They switched positions on this thick huge cable
and were only about 5 feet apart. As soon as they changed
positions, right then, in front of George's eyes, Henry got hit ... but
just not hit, he exploded like a human cantaloupe, and Henry was gone.
After we got through the first round of the story, I had him start and
stop whenever his intensity rose. He started his story and
the intensity came fairly quickly. In the following sequence,
you should know that there were long pauses between each because of the
intensity of the truth of each sentence, and I tapped the points on him
when he was unable to and couldn't through the tears. (Note:
I think one of the greatest powers of EFT is its ability to address the
conscious and better yet, the unconscious personal and universal truth
of a situation.)
[We tapped for a long time on his story.] EFT is a neutralization
process and when starting to use this technique it can seem as if the
person has forgotten a situation. We continued tapping:
This was a big one - extreme despair - I had to tap on him for several
minutes while he cried . . . This took about 45 minutes which
is long for EFT but was needed in this situation.
I asked him how he felt and he said, “I think it's working and I feel
better.” We tapped some more and… I could feel and
see the energy release from George.
George continued tapping himself this time and just started saying
"Thank you, thank you" over and over again through the tears while we
continued tapping the points until he felt complete. He was
exhausted and grateful and we were complete for that session which was
about 1 hour in length.
That night, for the first time in 39 years, he slept 8 hours straight.
I spoke to him two weeks later and he told me that he had slept for 12
hours a few nights before, and he felt great. He also stated
that he wasn't ready to give me credit for it, but what I did couldn't
have hurt. I laughed and said, "It's o.k., I don't need the
credit. As long as you're feeling good that's all that
matters.”
I spoke to him two months later and in general conversation he started
telling me all the things he was doing and that he had lived in a house
for four years and had never unpacked the boxes, but was unpacking
everything, organizing it, and started feeling as if he had a
home.
He's also making plans to repair a boat he's had in the water for years
- in fact he was on it when I called. I asked him how he felt
and he replied that he felt good. I asked him how the
flashbacks were and he said he had everything under control but it was
probably because he's come to accept everything that happened and
didn't really think it was that weird tapping stuff I did to him.
I just smile. Then I asked him if he's sleeping
through the night, and he now gets up once during the night to get
something to eat because he's used to doing that but all-in-all
everything's great.
Kim Eisen
(This
is an example of surrogate tapping for families of soldiers in Iraq.)
Recently, I was speaking with a grandmother of a soldier in Iraq, and
asking how the family was doing. For every soldier, there is
a family that has to endure every day not knowing what their child …
spouse … parent … sibling … grandchild … niece … nephew … friend is
doing, what danger they are in, and whether they will ever come home.
As I was listening to this grandmother, it occurred to me, much as we
do "borrowing benefits" in EFT, that families could gather together and
tap for their loved one at war, as well as for themselves to get
through each day. It would be a way for a family to do
something tangible for their loved one and themselves. EFT
provides visible results and could help the families to unite behind a
common goal regardless of politics.
I'm suggesting families everywhere can gather together - or if they
live many miles apart, agree that at a certain time on a certain day,
at certain intervals, everyone will tap individually at the same time -
and yet, collectively - for their loved one and themselves.
A typical session could go something like this:
Take some deep breaths and get into a relaxed state. You
might want to hold hands, or not. You might want to sit on
the floor, or not; whatever is appropriate for you is right.
If family members are far apart, you could do a telephone
conference call, or video chat, or just ask everyone to tap at a
certain time of day, coordinating your efforts.
Then everyone taps.
This can be [done also] for military members who have returned and are
in military hospitals, healing. It can be modified for those
who have returned and are dealing with emotional memories of their
experience. It could also be modified for families who have lost a
soldier, coming together to support each other in their
grief. Individuals could also do this for the troops in
general.
Pamela Leigh Powers, CCHT, EFT-ADV
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