My Experience with the Filming of the Vets PTSD Documentary

Part 1 of 2

By Lindsay Kenny, EFT Master

First I’d like to express how very honored I felt to be included in the making of the documentary on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  I was part of a select group of EFT experts, organized by Gary Craig. Additionally, there were several volunteer assistants, including my favorite U.S. and EFT Vet, Miguel Vasquez, and a crack-jack film crew headed by Eric Huurre.

The key to the successful making of the film was the willingness of some very brave Veterans who agreed to put their fate, privacy and vulnerability in our hands for a few incredible days.

The Meet and Greet

The first night, when they brought the Vets in to meet us, the energy in the room was so highly charged it was almost crackling. The hair was standing up on my arms and a prickling chill ran through my body. Everyone was nervous, but the Vets seemed angry and agitated…mostly at US.

Maybe they were afraid that what we were about to do with them wasn’t going to work. Or, maybe they were afraid that it would. I only know that during the first few moments of introductions I was a little bit afraid of what I was hearing…and I’m generally fearless. Fifteen minutes into it I was actually frightened. Even though we had read their intake forms, I still wasn’t ready for what I was hearing. I remember thinking “What in the world have I gotten myself in to?

However, it was too late to turn back and I was already committed to helping them out of the painful place they were in at the moment.  And I’m so glad I did, because it ended up being an incredibly fascinating, shocking and enlightening experience.

Anger and Betrayal

There were several things that I started noticing about these vets when we began working with them the following day. Even though they had never met each other before, they had much more in common than their service to our country.

One of the many things the Vets shared was their array of negative emotions. Anxiety, stress, frustration, resentment, guilt, shame and fear were widespread. The most commonly held feelings, however, were anger and betrayal.

Their anger, directed at different events, people or injustices, was palatable. It was the raw emotion that I had felt the first night which I found so scary. As we worked with them over the next few days, we heard the many of the justifications for why they were so mad at the world. Most of their stories, however, were too horrific or personal to tell.

Surprisingly, the Vets also seemed to share a sense of betrayal. Many of them felt they had been let down by their commanding officers, friends, and family, or by their own government.  While their reasons for feeling betrayed varied vastly, their stories were all sad and shocking.

The Evolution

Each practitioner was assigned 3-5 Vets or family members. From the first morning we had measured each person’s intensity, from 1 to 10, on each of their symptoms. Each day we worked with each Vet separately or in small groups, as well as Vets not assigned to us.

Many were experiencing common symptoms such as sleep disorders, nightmares, night sweats, headaches, restlessness, depression, migraines or tinnitus (ringing in the ears.) Some were paranoid about protecting themselves or trusting others. Many had alcohol or other substance abuse issues, while others were afraid of heights or loud noises.

Perhaps it wasn’t unexpected that many of them experienced the same emotions or disorders.  That’s to be expected with PTSD. The strange thing was that the family members of the Vets, with whom we also worked, experienced many of the same post traumatic stress disorder symptoms as the soldiers. No battlefield experience, but similar emotions and symptoms. 

Each morning we would check in again with our personal assignees to see where they were with their issues. We would ask them to measure their intensity again on each of their symptoms.  It wasn’t remarkable to us that they were experiencing great results. They were getting intense treatment all day long from different experts. But they were genuinely surprised and pleased by how quickly their symptoms were dissipating.

By the end of the second day many of the Vets were pretty much over their PTSD issues.  A few of them had deeper issues (many non-war related,) that they took an extra day or so to deal with.  Still, to have 10, 20 or 40 years worth of horrific trauma evaporate in a few days was incredible…especially to them.

We could see it in their faces, their posture and the way they walked. One soldier was swinging his cane next to him as he walked down the hallway, where previously he had been limping along like a 90-year old man. Another Vet, who I was a bit afraid of, had a constant smile on his face and twinkle in his eyes.

The End Result

On that first night of introductions the vets didn’t look at each other or at us. It appeared that any of them, including the women, could have bitten a nail in two. Yet at the end of our 5-day experience, we all sat in awe, watching these once anxious, angry people, who seemed to hate the world, sitting at a table together laughing, smiling, and talking freely with each other.

They were joking with the staff and seemed like a group of friends about to leave for a football game.  To actually see the remarkable transformation in these guys in a few days was truly astonishing and inspiring.

This was a wonderful experience for me. Working with my friends, Carol Look, Sophia Cayer, and the other highly gifted others was genuine honor. I remember almost every moment of it and will treasure the experience the rest of my life. Of course we had to tap on each other and ourselves at the end of each day to deal with what we were hearing, but it was more than worth it.  I keep in contact with several of my little group and they’re still doing quite well.

In the second installment of my experience, I’ll tell a little bit more about the experience and how we all worked together to facilitate the growth of these brave and remarkable Vets.

Good Luck and Good Tapping,
Lindsay Kenny