Phoenix Rising Team submitted a new blog post:
Story -- EFT for Sensory Overload and More
Posted by Cort Johnson
Written by Wayne
Wayne posted this story of the benefits a person with brain trauma received from using EFT. It's interesting how many of her symptoms resemble those found in ME/CFS and it illustrates how these types of techniques can alter neural functioning. I imagine that the right type of brain scan would have revealed a huge difference between her pre and post EFT.
Quote:
I just had this remarkable story sent to me, and thought I would pass it along for anybody who might be interested. I've experimented with using EFT periodically and feel I've gotten some benefit from it. But I've never used this technique to the extent that Deborah Dineen has.
I experience so many of the symptoms that she shared in this story, and am now somewhat hopeful that EFT may prove to be more beneficial if I discipline myself to practice it a little more diligently.
Best, Wayne
...............................................................
The Story I Want to Share With You
Deborah Dineen was a stranger to me when she phoned my office to ask
how she could obtain some information about one of our educational
products. At that moment I was manning the phones in my assistant’s
absence and I felt drawn to talk with Deborah.
I could tell that she was a sincere, intelligent and observant woman
and with some encouragement she quietly and easily told me about the
astonishing experience she has had with EFT. She was glad to share the
story and recounted it with such thoroughness and sensitivity that I
was deeply impressed. I would not have thought these outcomes to be
possible despite all my experience with tapping – and all without the
intervention of a therapist, just through this woman’s own self-taught
use of EFT and her strong persistence.
After listening to her account and asking my many "check up"
questions, I asked Deborah if she would write down her experiences and
submit them to me so that I could pass them along to you. It is a
"must hear" story about the strength of the tapping methods we all
respect so much, and it conveys unusual information about them that it
has been very valuable for me to learn.
Here is Deborah's simply recounted story.
She began by saying that,
Quote:
"My skull was crushed at birth and
thereafter for six months my skull was opened and pressed on twice a
week to prevent fluid build up. I survived, and lived to find a way
out from under all of it."
This is Deborah's clear objective statement about what was a near
disaster in a newly begun life – the smashing of a baby's brain. This
trauma affected every moment of her life from that point on.
Here are only some of the debilitating symptoms she suffered from in
her childhood and later:
Birth Brain Trauma. These relentless symptoms were the daily ongoing results of Deborah's
Birth Brain Trauma.
As a child, Deborah's favorite time was nap time when she could escape
momentarily from the constant challenges of everyday life. Often she
did not understand what was being said to her and was unable to
distinguish whether people around her were serious or joking. There
was an ongoing experience of being an 'alien', with many things not
making sense and a feeling that she didn't belong anywhere (much later
it was explained to her that this is typical of brain injury).
Her report cards always indicated that she was "not working up to her
potential". This was a gross understatement, Deborah was a brilliant
child.
She considered that she had had a particularly "good" day if she had
not noticeably fallen asleep in class, or out of her chair. She
learned to nap with her eyes open.
During the school day when she had 'windows' of semi-clarity, she
used these to complete her school work, but felt as though she were
dragging herself up an endless hill.
Quote:
"In those days," she explains,
"if you were walking and talking and able to do school work at all you
were considered "normal".
Authoritative adults around her kept telling her it was "all in her
head", but she doesn't remember any person asking her what she was
actually experiencing – and she says it is doubtful if she could have
told them had they asked -- how could she put that in words?
Inspite of all her inner and outer confusion and her inability to get
clear about her experience, she nevertheless knew that something was
not right and that it was out of her control. She didn't know exactly
what this 'something' was and didn’t know how to ask for help with it,
however, because after all, it was supposed to be "all in her head".
Then came puberty and young adulthood. These are never easy times for
anyone, but "when you are trying to hide the fact that you can barely
move and that you have no idea if your emotional intensity is even
remotely appropriate to the situation" – and with emotional 'storms'
erupting and persisting for days and weeks without any awareness of
what triggered them or the capacity to process and release them, life
becomes unbearable and often was for Deborah.
Suicidal thoughts would frequently arise and depression and fatigue
would merge and meld, and there didn't seem to be a way out…"It was
like being in a nightmare from which you can't awake and I developed
the capacity to "watch" what was happening in my mind, but was still
powerless to change any of it."
The doctors repeatedly asked if she had headaches, to which she always
replied "No" because it would be decades before the inner pressure and
pain in her head subsided long enough to experience not having a
headache even for a little while –– and with that came the
understanding that her head had continually ached for 47 years.
As an adult, Deborah's condition required her to juggle work hours so
she never had to work for too long at once. She always managed to work
creatively as an assistant teacher and in other responsible helping
positions –– an amazing accomplishment given her handicap. However,
until her discovery of EFT, her adult working life was actually
structured around being able to take naps. There was no life for her
after the work day, the need for rest was all consuming. This cocoon
of disability was what eventually became her motivation to find things
that might help making living easier.
She sought many answers, tried many healing techniques, most of them
alternative, and says that "while many of them helped me to cope with
the situation, very few made the slightest dent in my experience."
EFT: Then she discovered EFT when a little over three years ago a friend
sent her the first DVD series of Gary Craig's Emotional Freedom
Techniques. She watched and was impressed with what she saw, but she
was also cautious. Often the methods she had seen had worked
beautifully for others, or she herself had been able to share them
with others and get beautiful results, but they had no impact on her
system at all.
Quote:
"At first I tapped along and felt nothing," she reports, "but I
learned the Basic Recipe, thought I had gotten the idea, downloaded
the manual, and decided I had nothing to lose by giving it a try."
(Pat's note: Notice Deborah's persistence when encountering what
might have discouraged many another person.)
Shortly thereafter, while riding in her car, one of her emotional
"storms" came up within her. These often persisted for minutes, hours,
or sometimes days. "This time there was no sense of what had triggered
this storm, as was often the case with my brain condition, so I just
started to tap on the points of the Basic Recipe, and in a round or
two not only had the emotional storm subsided, but I felt clearer than
before it had occurred and that was unheard of in my experience."
She reports that it seemed that something had finally really
positively impacted her sluggish and erratic system. She felt the
change and in her own words she "grabbed hold and started tapping" and
did so amazingly often. If she noticed even the slightest awareness of
a derangement in her system, she tapped on it. She tapped in the
morning upon waking. She tapped throughout the day, and she tapped
before going to sleep.
"Sometimes the shifts were extraordinary; sometimes nothing much
seemed to happen. When I was shopping and got disoriented and
overwhelmed I would do the finger points until I became clearer and
then could continue. I did a lot of 9 Gamut Point tapping, adding the
Alternate Nostril Breathing Technique for good brain hemispheric
integration."
Gradually over that first year, Deborah reports, her system started to
change. The tapping seemed to be retraining her responses. Instead of
waking up as tired or groggier than when she went to bed (that had
been the case for decades) she began to wake clearer and could more
easily start her day.
Her system seemed to strengthen because even when she felt heavy
emotion she could" continue to think and even speak", a feat she had
not been able to do before.
The usual "haze" or "fog" that would come upon her at unexpected
times, rarely rolled in anymore, and if it did roll in, she knew that
there was an "issue" to be revealed and worked on. "As I tapped, my
mind cleared. Rather than being held hostage by my own nervous
system, I began to feel like I was awakening into a freedom I had only
vaguely hoped possible."
This was her story to date. Incredible...Today there are still
functional hurdles Deborah would like to overcome. Yet now in her
early sixties, she can tell me that
Quote:
"this brain injured baby, myself,
has come a long way and I know now that it is never too late….Positive
change is always possible. Acceptance no longer means resignation and
despair, but rather is a stepping stone for moving beyond."
Deborah then goes on to say, "Even though I have no idea if my brain
has changed physically, it is irrelevant to me. What I do know is
that functionally and experientially the difference between before and
after that first year of tapping was the difference between endless
night, and dawn of day. I am truly grateful to Gary Craig who
introduced me to EFT and to all the practitioners who have shared
their talents and insights through MTT (Meridian Tapping Techniques)."
I would like to add the comment that, when I asked her about the words
she used while tapping, Deborah told me that when she first began
tapping she used no words at all, just tapped. She had first to
address the incredible over-responsiveness of her nervous system. She
says that at that time it was very difficult for her to take an
Intensity Rating (SUDS level) because she had to take account of what
level of "deadness" or "shut down" was being experienced in her system
and often she would need to tap to bring back emotional
responsiveness. She found this overall strategy to be very helpful for
'tapping out' her neurological pattern.
Deborah's way of handling this – it was all self-devised – shows us
that the stimulation of acupuncture points alone (this was all she did
for the first 3 to 6 months) had an incredibly powerful effect on her
previously impaired brain functioning and that a form of deep healing
took place even before words were introduced with the tapping,
particularly when she also tapped directly on her protective emotional
numbness (often experienced as a physical sensation of numbness). Her
powerful intent itself, it seems, was enough at this point to effect
the healing needed at that time. So in the beginning, this healing
apparently took place due to the stimulation of the energy system
alone. Later she did use words along with the tapping – at first to
deal with the numbness, but later in a far more precise and subtle
manner, and those words proved very helpful.
The end result of Deborah's self-treatment is awesome in the true
sense of the word. It shows us clearly how self-tapping can be used to
bring about healing when it is used with true courage and persistence.
Well done, Deborah, may you continue with your inspiring progress...
Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Story -- EFT for Sensory Overload and More
Posted by Cort Johnson
Written by Wayne
Wayne posted this story of the benefits a person with brain trauma received from using EFT. It's interesting how many of her symptoms resemble those found in ME/CFS and it illustrates how these types of techniques can alter neural functioning. I imagine that the right type of brain scan would have revealed a huge difference between her pre and post EFT.
Quote:
I just had this remarkable story sent to me, and thought I would pass it along for anybody who might be interested. I've experimented with using EFT periodically and feel I've gotten some benefit from it. But I've never used this technique to the extent that Deborah Dineen has.
I experience so many of the symptoms that she shared in this story, and am now somewhat hopeful that EFT may prove to be more beneficial if I discipline myself to practice it a little more diligently.
Best, Wayne
...............................................................
The Story I Want to Share With You
Deborah Dineen was a stranger to me when she phoned my office to ask
how she could obtain some information about one of our educational
products. At that moment I was manning the phones in my assistant’s
absence and I felt drawn to talk with Deborah.
I could tell that she was a sincere, intelligent and observant woman
and with some encouragement she quietly and easily told me about the
astonishing experience she has had with EFT. She was glad to share the
story and recounted it with such thoroughness and sensitivity that I
was deeply impressed. I would not have thought these outcomes to be
possible despite all my experience with tapping – and all without the
intervention of a therapist, just through this woman’s own self-taught
use of EFT and her strong persistence.
After listening to her account and asking my many "check up"
questions, I asked Deborah if she would write down her experiences and
submit them to me so that I could pass them along to you. It is a
"must hear" story about the strength of the tapping methods we all
respect so much, and it conveys unusual information about them that it
has been very valuable for me to learn.
Here is Deborah's simply recounted story.
She began by saying that,
Quote:
"My skull was crushed at birth and
thereafter for six months my skull was opened and pressed on twice a
week to prevent fluid build up. I survived, and lived to find a way
out from under all of it."
This is Deborah's clear objective statement about what was a near
disaster in a newly begun life – the smashing of a baby's brain. This
trauma affected every moment of her life from that point on.
Here are only some of the debilitating symptoms she suffered from in
her childhood and later:
- chronic mental confusion that caused much disorientation
- extreme difficulty focusing or paying attention to tasks
- prolonged emotional 'storms' that would "take her over"
- a "deadness" or lack of inner responsiveness that came if she
- experienced a very intense emotional situation or a memory of one –
- her nervous system would, in effect, shut down.
- intermittent depression
- a condition known as brain "haze" or "fog"
- an inability to process her daily experiences as they occurred
- an inability to gauge whether what she was saying was "even coherent"
- stuttering in an attempt to articulate ideas when her system was
- in overload
- constant head pressure and pain
Birth Brain Trauma. These relentless symptoms were the daily ongoing results of Deborah's
Birth Brain Trauma.
As a child, Deborah's favorite time was nap time when she could escape
momentarily from the constant challenges of everyday life. Often she
did not understand what was being said to her and was unable to
distinguish whether people around her were serious or joking. There
was an ongoing experience of being an 'alien', with many things not
making sense and a feeling that she didn't belong anywhere (much later
it was explained to her that this is typical of brain injury).
Her report cards always indicated that she was "not working up to her
potential". This was a gross understatement, Deborah was a brilliant
child.
She considered that she had had a particularly "good" day if she had
not noticeably fallen asleep in class, or out of her chair. She
learned to nap with her eyes open.
During the school day when she had 'windows' of semi-clarity, she
used these to complete her school work, but felt as though she were
dragging herself up an endless hill.
Quote:
"In those days," she explains,
"if you were walking and talking and able to do school work at all you
were considered "normal".
Authoritative adults around her kept telling her it was "all in her
head", but she doesn't remember any person asking her what she was
actually experiencing – and she says it is doubtful if she could have
told them had they asked -- how could she put that in words?
Inspite of all her inner and outer confusion and her inability to get
clear about her experience, she nevertheless knew that something was
not right and that it was out of her control. She didn't know exactly
what this 'something' was and didn’t know how to ask for help with it,
however, because after all, it was supposed to be "all in her head".
Then came puberty and young adulthood. These are never easy times for
anyone, but "when you are trying to hide the fact that you can barely
move and that you have no idea if your emotional intensity is even
remotely appropriate to the situation" – and with emotional 'storms'
erupting and persisting for days and weeks without any awareness of
what triggered them or the capacity to process and release them, life
becomes unbearable and often was for Deborah.
Suicidal thoughts would frequently arise and depression and fatigue
would merge and meld, and there didn't seem to be a way out…"It was
like being in a nightmare from which you can't awake and I developed
the capacity to "watch" what was happening in my mind, but was still
powerless to change any of it."
The doctors repeatedly asked if she had headaches, to which she always
replied "No" because it would be decades before the inner pressure and
pain in her head subsided long enough to experience not having a
headache even for a little while –– and with that came the
understanding that her head had continually ached for 47 years.
As an adult, Deborah's condition required her to juggle work hours so
she never had to work for too long at once. She always managed to work
creatively as an assistant teacher and in other responsible helping
positions –– an amazing accomplishment given her handicap. However,
until her discovery of EFT, her adult working life was actually
structured around being able to take naps. There was no life for her
after the work day, the need for rest was all consuming. This cocoon
of disability was what eventually became her motivation to find things
that might help making living easier.
She sought many answers, tried many healing techniques, most of them
alternative, and says that "while many of them helped me to cope with
the situation, very few made the slightest dent in my experience."
EFT: Then she discovered EFT when a little over three years ago a friend
sent her the first DVD series of Gary Craig's Emotional Freedom
Techniques. She watched and was impressed with what she saw, but she
was also cautious. Often the methods she had seen had worked
beautifully for others, or she herself had been able to share them
with others and get beautiful results, but they had no impact on her
system at all.
Quote:
"At first I tapped along and felt nothing," she reports, "but I
learned the Basic Recipe, thought I had gotten the idea, downloaded
the manual, and decided I had nothing to lose by giving it a try."
(Pat's note: Notice Deborah's persistence when encountering what
might have discouraged many another person.)
Shortly thereafter, while riding in her car, one of her emotional
"storms" came up within her. These often persisted for minutes, hours,
or sometimes days. "This time there was no sense of what had triggered
this storm, as was often the case with my brain condition, so I just
started to tap on the points of the Basic Recipe, and in a round or
two not only had the emotional storm subsided, but I felt clearer than
before it had occurred and that was unheard of in my experience."
She reports that it seemed that something had finally really
positively impacted her sluggish and erratic system. She felt the
change and in her own words she "grabbed hold and started tapping" and
did so amazingly often. If she noticed even the slightest awareness of
a derangement in her system, she tapped on it. She tapped in the
morning upon waking. She tapped throughout the day, and she tapped
before going to sleep.
"Sometimes the shifts were extraordinary; sometimes nothing much
seemed to happen. When I was shopping and got disoriented and
overwhelmed I would do the finger points until I became clearer and
then could continue. I did a lot of 9 Gamut Point tapping, adding the
Alternate Nostril Breathing Technique for good brain hemispheric
integration."
Gradually over that first year, Deborah reports, her system started to
change. The tapping seemed to be retraining her responses. Instead of
waking up as tired or groggier than when she went to bed (that had
been the case for decades) she began to wake clearer and could more
easily start her day.
- Emotional storms could now be managed and dissipated.
- Processing emotionally charged situations that arose during the day
became easier in present time and processing emotions from the past
became easier too.
- She could feel the perpetual inner heaviness start to lighten.
- Focusing and paying attention became easier, and she could do this
throughout the day rather than for just a few hours.
- She began sleeping less and less, from 12-14 hours down to 8-10 hours.
- She could listen to herself while she was speaking and evaluate how
clearly she was presenting her point in present time.
- She could actually meditate.
Her system seemed to strengthen because even when she felt heavy
emotion she could" continue to think and even speak", a feat she had
not been able to do before.
The usual "haze" or "fog" that would come upon her at unexpected
times, rarely rolled in anymore, and if it did roll in, she knew that
there was an "issue" to be revealed and worked on. "As I tapped, my
mind cleared. Rather than being held hostage by my own nervous
system, I began to feel like I was awakening into a freedom I had only
vaguely hoped possible."
This was her story to date. Incredible...Today there are still
functional hurdles Deborah would like to overcome. Yet now in her
early sixties, she can tell me that
Quote:
"this brain injured baby, myself,
has come a long way and I know now that it is never too late….Positive
change is always possible. Acceptance no longer means resignation and
despair, but rather is a stepping stone for moving beyond."
Deborah then goes on to say, "Even though I have no idea if my brain
has changed physically, it is irrelevant to me. What I do know is
that functionally and experientially the difference between before and
after that first year of tapping was the difference between endless
night, and dawn of day. I am truly grateful to Gary Craig who
introduced me to EFT and to all the practitioners who have shared
their talents and insights through MTT (Meridian Tapping Techniques)."
I would like to add the comment that, when I asked her about the words
she used while tapping, Deborah told me that when she first began
tapping she used no words at all, just tapped. She had first to
address the incredible over-responsiveness of her nervous system. She
says that at that time it was very difficult for her to take an
Intensity Rating (SUDS level) because she had to take account of what
level of "deadness" or "shut down" was being experienced in her system
and often she would need to tap to bring back emotional
responsiveness. She found this overall strategy to be very helpful for
'tapping out' her neurological pattern.
Deborah's way of handling this – it was all self-devised – shows us
that the stimulation of acupuncture points alone (this was all she did
for the first 3 to 6 months) had an incredibly powerful effect on her
previously impaired brain functioning and that a form of deep healing
took place even before words were introduced with the tapping,
particularly when she also tapped directly on her protective emotional
numbness (often experienced as a physical sensation of numbness). Her
powerful intent itself, it seems, was enough at this point to effect
the healing needed at that time. So in the beginning, this healing
apparently took place due to the stimulation of the energy system
alone. Later she did use words along with the tapping – at first to
deal with the numbness, but later in a far more precise and subtle
manner, and those words proved very helpful.
The end result of Deborah's self-treatment is awesome in the true
sense of the word. It shows us clearly how self-tapping can be used to
bring about healing when it is used with true courage and persistence.
Well done, Deborah, may you continue with your inspiring progress...
Continue reading the Original Blog Post