CreativeEFT

On our recent trip to Tucson, Arizona to visit our daughter, my husband bought me a beautiful little wall hanging. It has a picture of the extraordinary Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and the words, “The soul thinks in images.”

I love this idea. It has been my experience that whenever we can allow ourselves to think in images, we are indeed closer to the soul level, or the deeper wise mind. One image can embody so much, and when our own images transform and change, things really shift within us.

The Inner Theater work with EFT that I’ve been developing with my friend and colleague Jade Barbee is exciting precisely because it brings EFT into that realm of imagery and inner life. I’ve been amazed at how easy it actually is to go there in an EFT session. And once you’re there, things unfold.

I was working with a woman who is seeking to follow her dreams, make some changes and move in a new direction that would be more authentic for her. But she has felt very blocked. We had talked about the situation and had done a little tapping when she suddenly told me that she was going to have to leave the session much earlier than planned. We only had 18 minutes left! I asked her if she would be willing to close her eyes and do some work through the imagination so that we could get the most out of the little time we had. I guided her into an inner healing room, a “room of possibilities,” we called it. Just being there brought tears.

Tapping: Even though there’s a lot of emotion about this, I can be with my feelings and just let them flow… even though this brings up deep emotion… it’s okay to feel this…

She didn’t know what the emotion was about. She said the room was still empty. I suggested that something might appear in the room, images, an object or symbol, something that was connected with those feelings.

Tapping: Even though nothing’s here yet, I’m open to seeing whatever I need to see…

Confused images came… .. then there was a tree… then her grandfather’s face… “Any feelings?”….. “Yes… missing them.” So we tapped for “this tree… my grandfather’s face… missing them” and as we tapped, other images from childhood arose, the places, the people… and feelings. I tapped to acknowledge the importance of what was arising, based on what I knew about her. This is someone who grew up in another country, a different culture and language, but had left that behind. “Even though I’ve moved on… my past is deep within me… these places, these people… my roots… missing them…”

I wondered out loud if this was connected with her desired new direction. I wondered if the child that she had been might hold the keys to her authenticity. She liked those thoughts, so I just tapped the points, “This deeper level of who I am … rooted in the past… who I was… that girl in that country… that culture… connecting with this part of me… ” This brought a wave of deep emotion and tears, which we tapped for.

Even though there’s so much deep feeling here, that’s okay… I can feel this now…

We had to end, but something so significant had happened. She felt like a channel into her deeper self had opened. She acknowledged that she had walked away from that past and had left it behind. But to be whole and authentic and move forward into more wholeness, she needed to reclaim that part of herself. Whatever that would mean. And she was open to that possibiiity.

Wow. I’d begun recording only when she’d found her healing room and gotten established there. I noticed that the actual work in the healing room had only been 12 minutes! And yet she had had a profound healing breakthrough.

I keep thinking about the tree and wondering if it was symbolic of those deep roots in her, as well as being a real tree. This is the power of imagery. An image can have many layers of meaning. I also think this story illustrates the new language that is emerging. It’s a language of allowing. “Even though….. I can be with this… that’s how I feel… I can let these feelings flow, etc.” This is now coming into all my sessions, language which helps us stay right in the moment, acknowledging and supporting in such a gentle way whatever is unfolding.
********************
For a free teleclass about Inner Theater and EFT and more resources, visit
www.creativeeft.com/Inner_Theater_Resource_Page.php

originally published in the Rising Sun EFT Group Newsletter

This article is the final installment of my report of using EFT very successfully for a broken wrist, the subsequent surgery and my healing.

A friend mentioned to me that the body registers an accident or other trauma in slow motion. What a profound thought. Of course, our conscious experience of any sudden accident is that it happened so quickly. There’s no time to stop it or change the course of things — in a flash, it’s all over.

I started wondering what would happen if I replayed the event in slow motion while tapping. If my body had registered various emotions and thoughts that I wasn’t even conscious of, maybe this would be a way to clear even more of the trauma.

I tried it and was truly amazed at what happened. When I put the event in slow motion, it went something like this:

(Here’s the background story: when the accident happened, I was carrying a huge load of wood from our garage and trying to maneuver my way between some bicycles. I lost my balance and went down, too top-heavy to right myself. I fell with all my weight on my left wrist and heard the bone snap.)

I started with the moment when I was first aware that something had gone wrong. Strangely I remember the words in my mind — I thought “I’m destabilized!”

“Even though I’m destabilized, losing my balance…. oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!”

I paused the inner slow-motion movie at that moment and just tapped all the points for the “oh no’s.” This brought up a huge wave of fear and it cleared as I tapped. That’s the same thing I did with each of the following.

“Even though I’m going down, oh my god, oh my god!”

This one brought up shock, disbelief and terror. Tapping for “I’m going down, oh my god oh my god.” Huge emotion came up and was released.

“Even though I can’t stop, I can’t stop, I can’t stop!”

A huge sense of powerlessness. There was nothing I could do. More tapping.

“Even though I’m going to get hurt… oh no, oh no, oh no!”

With each little piece more emotion came up, along with tears. Finally I reached the point of impact.

“Even though I just hit the concrete, oh my god, oh my god.”

“Even though I heard the bone snap, oh no, oh no, oh no! ”

“Even though I’m hurt, I’m hurt, I’m hurt”

“Even though it looks really bad, really bad, really bad.” (my wrist was at a strange angle).

For anyone who is cringing, I will tell you that I was never in terrible physical pain. Maybe endorphins kick in, I don’t know. My main experience was absolute terror that I had hurt myself pretty badly.

Strangely, I couldn’t finish any of the above set-ups with “deeply accept myself” or anything similar. In the slow-motion process, it seemed that I just had to stop and tap with the exclamations and get the emotion out of my body. Then after all that emotion was released, I came back and tapped through all the points with the positive reassurance:

“But it’s okay now, it’s okay now, I’m okay, my wrist is okay… I want my body to know that everything is okay. I love and accept my body, you went through so much, but you’re okay now.”

After that process, which took less than 10 minutes, I felt like a million dollars. I’d done a lot of tapping previously and didn’t expect that there would be so much emotion left. But there it was, right on the body-level. The slow-motion replay brought it out. And once it was released, I felt great.

Some weeks later, I had the opportunity to present to a group of psychotherapists and the topic was EFT for Trauma. I told my wrist story, including the part about going through the event in slow motion. These professionals were especially impressed by the slow-motion tapping and said that it made perfect sense. As they explained it, the brain cannot process everything that is happening so fast, and our system is overwhelmed. The details and the horror are registering but not on a conscious level — they remain as if frozen in the body. This is a major component of Post Traumatic Stress. They saw great value in this process of unpacking the trauma little by little, tapping for every possible piece of the slow-motion replay. Of course we talked also about the Tearless Trauma Technique and how in many cases, you would not address the details until you had tapped for the fear and dread of even going there.

So I’ll add Slow-Motion EFT to my toolbox now. I never would have chosen to break a bone. But the experience of healing my wrist using EFT and the Creative Language approach has taught me so much that I can be grateful for the experience now. Isn’t that one of the great things about knowing EFT? Almost any life experience is an opportunity to help yourself and to learn more about helping others with this wonderful tool.

(originally posted in the Rising Sun EFT Group Newsletter)

I met with my surgeon, Dr. Benoit, at six weeks after surgery. I’d been in once post-op to get stitches out, but that didn’t involve a meeting with the doctor. So this was the first time he had seen me since performing surgery on my wrist.

When I told Dr. Benoit that the surgery had been a very good experience, he was surprised. He said he doesn’t hear that a lot! When I showed him the condition of my scar and the full range of motion that I have, almost 100%, he had to check his records. He said I was showing astounding progress for only 6 weeks past surgery. Of course I told him about what I do and how I’d used the body-mind connection, talked to my body, prepared mentally and emotionally, etc. He called in another doctor who was out in the hallway. Dr. Benoit showed him my x-rays, my scar and had me demonstrate range of motion. He asked the doctor — “So how long past surgery do you think she is?” The doctor said, “12 weeks?” Dr. Benoit seemed rather proud to say, “No — she’s only 6 weeks. Isn’t this amazing?”  Of course I briefly mentioned what I had done, and that doctor said, “Do we have a body-mind person in the physical therapy department?” Everybody laughed but you never know — maybe this will be a
n opportunity.

Dr. Benoit says he does at least 100 of these surgeries a year and has only seen this kind of healing a few times. “It’s major surgery. Most people drag along on pain meds for weeks. It’s amazing that you say you had so little pain and swelling.” I told him — and I’m sure this was a stretch for a surgeon — that I thought it was because I had informed my body and gotten rid of all fear. The day of the surgery, my blood pressure was normal. So my body didn’t have to panic with swelling and pain, perceiving the surgery as another injury. It was reassured and ready to cooperate.

My work with EFT has evolved more and more into a form that I’m calling Creative EFT. It’s a combination of hypnotherapy concepts and language with EFT processes. The work I did for myself during the entire experience of breaking my wrist, having surgery and working towards healing was of this nature. That it worked so well is great confirmation for me. Of course I’m really appreciating my body right now and telling it — “great job!” And I know it is the power of EFT and hypnotherapy concepts & understandings that really made this possible. I think some powerful body-mind communication took place, and that made all the difference. We are so lucky to have these powerful and effective tools.

First posted to the Rising Sun EFT Group, 3-01-09

FIRST AID KIT IN MY HEAD - PART 2 - USING EFT FOR SURGERY
(Part 2 of a 3-part series)

My broken wrist was re-evaluated and surgery was recommended — and scheduled for the next day. I’ve done a lot of pre-surgical work with people and always make them a hypnotherapy CD to inform the subconscious and ask the body to cooperate. Well, I didn’t have time to do that! So I just brought what I would have said into rounds of EFT, some done with physical tapping, some done with mental tapping (imagining tapping the points) since even my good hand was extremely tired from doing everything for me.

BEFORE THE SURGERY

“Even though I’m going for surgery, I love and trust my body — body, you’re going to do great.”

“Even though it’s a little scary, I want my body to know that I have an excellent surgeon and I have complete trust that he is going to do a great job.”

“Even though my arm has to go through this, I’m informing the tissues and fibers and cells of my left arm about what to expect and how to cooperate…”

I then talked to each affected part, “Skin, you can accept the incision. Your job is to open up the gateway. Thank you for your courage, you’re a trooper.” And so forth. I visualized the good result and tapped that in too. “I see myself when it’s all over with my wrist strong and healed, perfect form and function. I appreciate how well my body has handled this.” I tapped these thoughts in and also simply repeated them mentally.

I also talked to the body about minimizing any negative effects. “Even though my arm has to go through surgery, I’m asking my body to accept the anaesthesia perfectly… and minimize bleeding… and minimize swelling… and accept the titanium plate that will support the bone… it’s going to be wonderful, welcome support.”

THE DAY OF THE SURGERY AND AFTER

I was amazed that I felt perfectly calm during the prep for surgery. My blood pressure was normal. This was out-patient, so I would be awake, just sedated. There were several hours where I was mostly just waiting and what I felt drawn to repeating over and over mentally was, “Body, you are my hero. You’ve got so much courage to go through this. I’m so proud of you. You’re going to do great. You’re my hero.” I really felt that appreciation deeply and the words moved me to tears. With an IV in one arm and the other completely numb, I could only tap mentally, of course. I kept coming back to those words.

I felt very calm and free of fear throughout the surgery and into recovery. I was given enough pain meds for a couple of weeks, and I was warned that there would be so much swelling that I might think the cast was too tight, but that this was normal. I went home to rest and heal.

As directed, I took the pain meds when the numbness began to wear off and they did help me sleep the first night. But I hated the sick feeling the next morning from the narcotics. So I tried to go with just ibuprofen that first day after surgery — and I was perfectly fine with no more heavy pain meds. I remember doing some tapping to address the discomfort, which was not bad:

“Even though I’m feeling a little pain, that’s okay — my arm just had surgery! My arm can scream and yell about that if it wants to! If it needs the pain to express what it went through, that’s okay!! I give you permission to feel whatever you need to feel. But I want my wrist to know — you’re okay now. You’re doing great. It’s time for healing now.”

I’ll never know if that communication was what did the trick, but by that afternoon, 24 hours after the surgery, I really had very little pain using only over-the-counter relief.

As for swelling, there was a tiny bit the first two days, but nothing like what they had predicted. Soon it was completely gone, my fingers looking and feeling completely normal. When I went in for my post-op 10 days after surgery, the medical staff was quite surprised that I’d only taken pain meds once and had no traces of swelling. My stitches were taken out and everything looked great. The physical therapist who fitted me for a removable brace said, “This is really miraculous. We don’t see this kind of rapid healing.” Of course, I gave lots of credit to my excellent surgeon for doing such a good job. But I did mention to everyone that I was a hypnotherapist and EFTer and that my work with body-mind connections could have made a difference too.

I’m writing this exactly two weeks after the surgery, typing with two hands. My wrist feels great. It will still take time to fully heal, and I will give it plenty of time, but I’m amazed that it’s completely pain-free and very strong and functional already, just a little stiff. Physical therapy exercises will take care of that. I’m still tapping to continue sending healing energy into the cells of those affected tissues and fibers. and especially to appreciate my wrist and thank it for doing such a great job.

As many times as I’ve done pre-surgical preparation for others, and everyone has reported great results, it’s been a whole new level of understanding going through it myself. Now, I can’t imagine having surgery without the mental preparation. Without the EFT to clear away the fear and bring in the reassurances, without the positive images of the successful result, of course the body would perceive such an invasive procedure as a threat. But I think my cells knew it was safe and okay, and so the tissues didn’t have to react with a lot of swelling and pain. I also experienced dramatically that what I would have done through hypnosis worked just as well through EFT. I can see that self-hypnosis and mental EFT are very close, and perhaps what I was doing was a blend of the two. Whatever brought those messages into the deeper level, it worked!

Rising Sun EFT Group Newsletter, February 13, 2009

HOW EFT HELPED WITH A SUDDEN TRAUMATIC INJURY

A funny thing happened on the way to the wood stove recently… involving a close encounter with the concrete garage floor…! While carrying firewood February 1, I fell and broke my wrist. At least it was my left wrist and I’m right-handed. But it has been quite an experience. Of course, EFT and mind-body connections have been a big part of dealing with this and I’m doing great now. I’d like to share how EFT came to my rescue. This article is in three parts and the first installment is below.

When I was in our garage carrying my huge load of firewood in my arms and side-stepping my way through the bicycles to reach the extra wood at the back, it never occurred to me that I was doing anything dangerous. I didn’t realize how top-heavy I was until I somehow made a misstep and slightly lost my balance. Without the heavy load, I would have recovered easily. But with all that wood in my arms, I simply toppled over, no way to stop it. Most of my weight went onto my left wrist and I heard the bone snap. 

When I picked myself up, I saw my wrist at a strange angle. Luckily my husband was home and whisked me to the hospital, which was only minutes away. I was holding my hurt wrist with the other hand and trying to do some mental tapping, but I will admit to you that I wasn’t successful in calming my fears. I know the injury sounds painful, but honestly the physical pain wasn’t so bad — my main experience was utter terror that I had hurt myself quite badly. I kept thinking “I’m scared… this is bad… I’m not okay.” Indeed, I was feeling like I might pass out.

They took me right in and checked my blood pressure. It had dropped to 50/40! So I was experiencing some shock. An IV was started in the other arm and now that I understood things and knew I was safe and getting care, I could really do some tapping. Mentally, of course, because both arms were incapacitated.

“Even though my blood pressure has dropped so low, I love and accept my body, and let’s turn up the blood pressure…(imagining a dial being turned up towards 80-90-100)”

My blood pressure immediately rose to a normal level and I felt much better. The IV had a lot to do with it, of course, but I’m sure the mental tapping helped too because I could feel the fear leaving my body. Later the nurse told me that people can pass out just from the sight of a body part not looking right, that is so frightening. Now that I understand this, if I’m ever in the position to help someone else, I would just talk to them and gently tap or press on points reassuringly, even just the hand points would help — or if touch isn’t possible, I would still talk and mentally tap for them with this message:

“Even though it looks bad and you’re really scared, you’ll get the care you need right away. You’re going to be okay. It’s going to be alright.”

My husband did some of this intuitively. In the car on the way, he kept telling me, “The worst is over. You’ll be in the hospital in minutes. You’ll be alright.” It felt good to hear those words. But my body still had quite a fear reaction.

I got the care I needed and plenty of pain relief. Throughout the X-rays and procedures, I kept mentally tapping and talking to my body.

“Even though this bone is broken, I love and appreciate my body… and I’m getting the care I need for this to heal.”

“Even though my wrist got broken, I love and accept my wrist…… sending reassurance to my wrist… it’s going to be alright”

“Even though it was scary to get hurt like that, it’s time for healing now…and I know my body has amazing healing power.”

I really do believe that the body is always listening and responds to reassurance and encouragement. I then felt quite calm during the two hours we were in the ER. Eventually the bone was set so I could be on my way. The X-ray had revealed a complete break of the radius with displacement. After it was put back in place, I was told that it would have to be re-evaluated in a week to see if surgery would be necessary.

At home that week, I tapped physically at times, but often went back to mental tapping because my right hand had to do everything (I’m typing one-handedly as we speak) and would be too tired to tap! My wonderful friend and colleague Ingrid Dinter had just broken her arm a few weeks before and she guided me in some tapping. These tappings were right on target and brought tears — and really cleared some emotion. For example:

“Even though I can’t believe this happened..    can’t believe this happened, can’t believe this happened…”

“Even though I heard the bone snap…  awful sound, awful sound…”

I did tap through the week for the bone staying in alignment… but alas, there was no magic. When it was re-evaluated, it was found that I would need surgery. I’d been told that a break that bad usually does, and when I saw that it wasn’t perfectly aligned, I welcomed the surgery. I was willing to do whatever it would take to support my arm to have a full recovery. Part 2 of my article will be about using EFT for my surgery. I will, however, skip now to the happy ending and tell you that the surgery went great. Only three days later, I’m feeling terrific, confident that I’m on the way to complete healing. EFT has been great support every step of the way, even though much of my tapping was done silently in my head. Just imagining tapping the points was all I could do much of the time, and it really worked!

Just getting started with a new blog on the theme of Creative EFT, which combines hypnotherapy and EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques). I look forward to sharing ideas and stories from my practice here, as well as personal reflections at times. This blog will also serve as the archives for articles shared in the Rising Sun EFT Newsletter — A Place To Learn About Creative EFT. Welcome to all, and I will appreciate your comments!