Trauma and Using Exact Words in EFT

From this week's EFTUniverse Newsletter, "Dr. Robert Scaer, a researcher and specialist in treating trauma, maintains that any type of negative life event that occurs when the person is in a state of relative helplessness can produce the same changes in the brain as those that occur in combat, rape, or abuse. He believes that what makes a life event become trauma isn't the nature of the threat but the degree of helplessness the victim fears plus that person's history of other trauma."

 

How many of these have all of you seen? A memory/event/emotion that should seem to be relatively insignificant ends up being that big T trauma that tailspins a client's life.

 

This is why what trauma to one person may not be trauma to another. Much of the meaning of the trauma is determined by what the client has experienced previously in life (how much other trauma) and the perceptions built around those earlier experiences.

 

Because of all of this, we consistently use the client's words and phrases because those particular words have a special meaning to the client. Those words could hold the perception of the event details, including all the sensory input.

 

Example:  Recently another student friend of mine tapped with a man around a ton of childhood trauma. She phoned me after tapping to "review" what she had done and to ask if I had any other suggestions for next session.

 

This client became very agitated when he told her the name his classmates called him in high school. His SUDS on several emotions were near 10. She asked permission and then started slowly having him just say that name over and over again, telling me, "I think we said it 50 times."  Guess what, with each repetition the emotional pull around that name lessened and lessened. My friend could literally hear and feel the power diminishing.

 

When the client left my friend's office, one more time on the street, she said the name to him again (testing), and the client looked at her saying, "Oh, that is so silly now. What does it matter?"

 

Success! EFT did its magic, the emotion was neutralized around those specific words, lessening the charge and the changing the perception around the events (memory reconsolidation).

 

How many years have I been doing this?  I still stand amazed at all the stories.

Remember to take full responsibility for your emotional and physical health. EFT is NOT a substitute for seeing a MD!

Contact me at EFTforChristians@gmail.com to make an appointment to tap, or see all my pins at Pinterest and follow me there, or pick up a copy of my new EFT for Christians book on Amazon!

Sherrie Rice Smith, R.N. (Retired)

Certified EFT Practitioner

Author of EFT for Christians (2015)