By Rehana Webster, EFT Master, Australia
Michael, a 27 year old truck driver, was sent to me because he had not been able to get any help for the after-accident symptoms he was suffering. Michael had been involved in a fatal road crash a year before, where the driver of the other vehicle had committed suicide by driving into the Michael’s truck head-on.
Michael remembered vividly the aftermath of the accident. He described the carnage in detail and rated his intensity at 10+. Michael was plagued by flashbacks, up to 50 per day. These had not diminished over time. He also had intrusive thoughts that he couldn’t control. By the time he came to see me, he had given up hope of ever getting his life on track again.
Michael was very willing to try anything to help himself but he was highly amused and quite skeptical about EFT. I asked him to make a movie of the incident and then go over it in his mind as we tapped. I asked him to recall the sights he saw, what he heard and how he felt during the incident/movie.
He then told me the story of the event. I helped him focus and be very specific by staying within the boundaries of the story from the beginning to the ending. I asked him to rate his feelings and also note where and how he felt his emotions in his body. Then I asked him to see the event again as a black and white movie. We rated how he felt again, noting each time that the rating of anxiety diminished with each round of tapping. I then asked him to reverse or run the movie backwards in his mind and finally asked him to imagine another outcome for this event. Each time we rated how he felt and where and what he felt at the body level. Throughout the process I tapped on the EFT points for him (with his permission) while he related the story to me. At the end we wrapped up by tapping on the KC point and acknowledging that he was involved in a horrific accident which was out of his control.
My observations were that the body language shifted during the process, however when I asked Michael to rate his intensity he was not sure. He was not sure about what had changed, even though he said something had changed about how he felt regarding the accident, he couldn’t describe it. I asked Michael to keep a diary/journal and record how much flashback he had on a daily basis.
Michael came for a second session a week later. We went through his journal and Michael informed me with a huge smile that he had had no flashbacks or intrusive thoughts about the accident/carnage since the first session. He was simply amazed that after all the sessions using traditional psychological interventions and medication; this painless, simple and quick treatment had worked wonders. I asked him what had changed and his reply was, “It all seems far away somehow. I can see the accident clearly in my mind’s eye if I want to, but it doesn’t intrude upon my consciousness and it just seems far away ….is how I can explain it”.
Rehana Webster
EFT Master
www.behaviourchanges.com
