 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
| EFT ARTICLES: CHELLE & PTSD |
"What if we could create a network of EFT-trained doulas, midwives and nurses, so that no woman
ever has to live with emotional trauma after a difficult birth experience? The time to do it is NOW."
Eileen Sullivan
ever has to live with emotional trauma after a difficult birth experience? The time to do it is NOW."
Eileen Sullivan
In March of 2007, I had the pleasure of working with several pregnant and
postpartum moms in the Pensacola, FL, area. They were gracious enough
to allow me to videotape our EFT sessions, and I will be creating DVDs of
those sessions so that others can learn from them. I’m excited about this
project, and thrilled to have been able to work with so many wonderful
women.
One mom that I worked with has just given birth, a VBAC after a cesarean
that led to PTSD. Congratulations to Chelle, her partner, and to baby
Gryffen!
Several other moms that I worked with are due any day now, and I hope
they are continuing to tap. Others are postpartum and I hope they’re
tapping too. Some of these women had never heard of EFT before we
began working. Others had heard of it, or perhaps even tried it, but none
were very familiar with it. And ALL of them experienced some really
wonderful results. I will continue to follow up with them over time to see
how they are faring in the months to come, and I will share their feedback
with you.
Today I wanted to focus on Chelle and Gryffen and their journey to birth.
Gryffen is Chelle’s sixth baby. His big brother, Nik, is a little over a year old
and was born by emergency cesarean section. While many women have
cesarean births and do not develop PTSD, Chelle’s distress over her
surgical birth is very understandable– she was given a general anesthetic
and it did not work. She felt the surgery but was unable to communicate
that to the doctors and nurses in the O.R. Afterward, when she told them
that she had not been anesthetized, she was invalidated and told that it
was impossible. Of course it IS possible, and Chelle was able to accurately
describe what happened during the surgery, where medical personnel
were standing, and what they were saying while they thought she was out.
The nightmares, flashbacks and intrusive memories began immediately,
while she was still in the hospital. The trauma she experienced, combined
with her physical pain and lengthened recovery time after the surgery, also
impaired her bonding with Nik. He seemed to prefer his oldest brother or
his dad to Chelle, and even their breastfeeding experience was rocky.
When I met Chelle, two physicians and a psychiatrist had diagnosed her
with PTSD as the result of her experience. She had been on multiple
medications prescribed by these well-meaning doctors, in an attempt to
treat her symptoms. But she had stopped taking the meds, she said,
because none of them helped. She still had nightmares and flashbacks and
intrusive memories. She just felt “foggy” all the time. Not a good thing for
a mother of five!
I had no idea if EFT could help Chelle. But it certainly couldn’t hurt.
She couldn’t tell me about what had happened, not without breaking down.
So we agreed to start “globally”– to “tap around” the problem first. After
several rounds to help Chelle become more calm and present, we began to
use a version of The Movie Technique, breaking things down into scenes
with one crescendo each. This avoids reliving the painful incident, and is
VITAL for working with intense traumas like Chelle’s. The person can simply
choose a word or phrase to represent each crescendo scene and we work
with that.
Chelle’s initial rating of her distress about the five scenes as a whole was
“off the scale, off the planet, almost out of the Universe.”
We decided to start chronologically, so began working in order on each
scene. The later ones were even more intense than the earlier ones, so
this was probably wise! Slowly, things began to shift. Over the course of a
2 and a half hour EFT session, Chelle got close to tears a couple of times
but never broke down. And round after round, scene after scene, her
intensity level steadily decreased. I was ecstatic when we made it into the
solar system, landed on the planet, made it into the right state, and then
actually got onto a numerical scale! When we got below a 10, it was even
more exciting.
For the most part, we used the simple set-up, “Even though I have this
problem (still have some of this problem) with Movie Number (whatever), I
deeply and completely accept myself.” Occasionally I would vary it to
something like, “Even though I have this out-of-the-solar-system intensity
on Movie Number (whatever), it’s okay, I love and accept myself anyway.”
And we used only the shortcut tapping points, with the occasional floor-to-
ceiling eyeroll or tapping of the finger points.
At the end of our session, Chelle could relate the story to me– and did–
without getting upset at all. She smiled, and the smile went all the way to
her eyes now. She said she felt lighter, as though a huge weight had been
lifted off of her. It was amazing and wonderful all over again, just like birth
is. I never got tired of seeing babies born, and I will never tire of seeing
people shift and heal themselves with EFT.
The best part, though, was hearing Chelle’s follow-up about the results.
Chelle’s nightmares and flashbacks ended. The intrusive memories
stopped. AND baby Nik, who had never slept through the night in his entire
year of life, began to do so from the very night that we worked together!
He also began to run to his mommy more, for comfort and to play. Their
relationship began to heal, once Chelle was freed of the emotional and
physical trauma she experienced at his birth.
Chelle and I subsequently worked together again, on baby Gryffen’s
position (he was breech) and then on some of her other concerns about
Nik’s birth. I will be bringing you that session in an audio file (listen here),
as Chelle once again very generously gave permission for it to be recorded
and shared with you. Sadly UNrecorded are the wonderful EFT sessions
Chelle had with my friend, Donna, who served as her doula. These sessions
went right up to the time of Gryffen’s birth, since Donna was present during
Chelle’s labor and used EFT to help whenever it was needed.
I believe that the courageous work Chelle did with EFT helped her have her
VBAC. And I send huge thanks and much love to Chelle, to her partner and
kids, to Donna, and to all those who contributed to Gryffen’s hopefully
healing entry into the world.
What if we could create a network of EFT-trained doulas, midwives and
nurses so that no woman ever has to live with PTSD after a difficult birth
experience, like Chelle had to?
What we do to help mothers, helps babies too. Nik and Gryffen prove it.
Thank you, beautiful boys!
And what we do to help mothers and fathers, babies and families, helps the
whole world. Get out there and use those healing hands, dear ones!
All my love,
Eileen
postpartum moms in the Pensacola, FL, area. They were gracious enough
to allow me to videotape our EFT sessions, and I will be creating DVDs of
those sessions so that others can learn from them. I’m excited about this
project, and thrilled to have been able to work with so many wonderful
women.
One mom that I worked with has just given birth, a VBAC after a cesarean
that led to PTSD. Congratulations to Chelle, her partner, and to baby
Gryffen!
Several other moms that I worked with are due any day now, and I hope
they are continuing to tap. Others are postpartum and I hope they’re
tapping too. Some of these women had never heard of EFT before we
began working. Others had heard of it, or perhaps even tried it, but none
were very familiar with it. And ALL of them experienced some really
wonderful results. I will continue to follow up with them over time to see
how they are faring in the months to come, and I will share their feedback
with you.
Today I wanted to focus on Chelle and Gryffen and their journey to birth.
Gryffen is Chelle’s sixth baby. His big brother, Nik, is a little over a year old
and was born by emergency cesarean section. While many women have
cesarean births and do not develop PTSD, Chelle’s distress over her
surgical birth is very understandable– she was given a general anesthetic
and it did not work. She felt the surgery but was unable to communicate
that to the doctors and nurses in the O.R. Afterward, when she told them
that she had not been anesthetized, she was invalidated and told that it
was impossible. Of course it IS possible, and Chelle was able to accurately
describe what happened during the surgery, where medical personnel
were standing, and what they were saying while they thought she was out.
The nightmares, flashbacks and intrusive memories began immediately,
while she was still in the hospital. The trauma she experienced, combined
with her physical pain and lengthened recovery time after the surgery, also
impaired her bonding with Nik. He seemed to prefer his oldest brother or
his dad to Chelle, and even their breastfeeding experience was rocky.
When I met Chelle, two physicians and a psychiatrist had diagnosed her
with PTSD as the result of her experience. She had been on multiple
medications prescribed by these well-meaning doctors, in an attempt to
treat her symptoms. But she had stopped taking the meds, she said,
because none of them helped. She still had nightmares and flashbacks and
intrusive memories. She just felt “foggy” all the time. Not a good thing for
a mother of five!
I had no idea if EFT could help Chelle. But it certainly couldn’t hurt.
She couldn’t tell me about what had happened, not without breaking down.
So we agreed to start “globally”– to “tap around” the problem first. After
several rounds to help Chelle become more calm and present, we began to
use a version of The Movie Technique, breaking things down into scenes
with one crescendo each. This avoids reliving the painful incident, and is
VITAL for working with intense traumas like Chelle’s. The person can simply
choose a word or phrase to represent each crescendo scene and we work
with that.
Chelle’s initial rating of her distress about the five scenes as a whole was
“off the scale, off the planet, almost out of the Universe.”
We decided to start chronologically, so began working in order on each
scene. The later ones were even more intense than the earlier ones, so
this was probably wise! Slowly, things began to shift. Over the course of a
2 and a half hour EFT session, Chelle got close to tears a couple of times
but never broke down. And round after round, scene after scene, her
intensity level steadily decreased. I was ecstatic when we made it into the
solar system, landed on the planet, made it into the right state, and then
actually got onto a numerical scale! When we got below a 10, it was even
more exciting.
For the most part, we used the simple set-up, “Even though I have this
problem (still have some of this problem) with Movie Number (whatever), I
deeply and completely accept myself.” Occasionally I would vary it to
something like, “Even though I have this out-of-the-solar-system intensity
on Movie Number (whatever), it’s okay, I love and accept myself anyway.”
And we used only the shortcut tapping points, with the occasional floor-to-
ceiling eyeroll or tapping of the finger points.
At the end of our session, Chelle could relate the story to me– and did–
without getting upset at all. She smiled, and the smile went all the way to
her eyes now. She said she felt lighter, as though a huge weight had been
lifted off of her. It was amazing and wonderful all over again, just like birth
is. I never got tired of seeing babies born, and I will never tire of seeing
people shift and heal themselves with EFT.
The best part, though, was hearing Chelle’s follow-up about the results.
Chelle’s nightmares and flashbacks ended. The intrusive memories
stopped. AND baby Nik, who had never slept through the night in his entire
year of life, began to do so from the very night that we worked together!
He also began to run to his mommy more, for comfort and to play. Their
relationship began to heal, once Chelle was freed of the emotional and
physical trauma she experienced at his birth.
Chelle and I subsequently worked together again, on baby Gryffen’s
position (he was breech) and then on some of her other concerns about
Nik’s birth. I will be bringing you that session in an audio file (listen here),
as Chelle once again very generously gave permission for it to be recorded
and shared with you. Sadly UNrecorded are the wonderful EFT sessions
Chelle had with my friend, Donna, who served as her doula. These sessions
went right up to the time of Gryffen’s birth, since Donna was present during
Chelle’s labor and used EFT to help whenever it was needed.
I believe that the courageous work Chelle did with EFT helped her have her
VBAC. And I send huge thanks and much love to Chelle, to her partner and
kids, to Donna, and to all those who contributed to Gryffen’s hopefully
healing entry into the world.
What if we could create a network of EFT-trained doulas, midwives and
nurses so that no woman ever has to live with PTSD after a difficult birth
experience, like Chelle had to?
What we do to help mothers, helps babies too. Nik and Gryffen prove it.
Thank you, beautiful boys!
And what we do to help mothers and fathers, babies and families, helps the
whole world. Get out there and use those healing hands, dear ones!
All my love,
Eileen
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Read about our first EFT session from Chelle's point of view or Listen to an audio of our second session (EFT for Fear of Cesarean) |
| EILEEN SULLIVAN, EFT CERT1, EFT-ADV, MCHD (704)569-1427 |
| by Eileen Sullivan, EFT CERT1 |
| THIS ARTICLE IS FROM 'TRANSFORMING TIMES,' SHEKINAH BIRTHING CO.'S BLOG. YOU CAN ACCESS THE BLOG FROM THE MAIN PAGE OF THIS WEBSITE, OR BY CLICKING HERE. |
While EFT has produced remarkable clinical results, it has only been in use in its current form since 1992. Therefore, it must still be considered to be in the experimental stage. You are
an expert on your own health, so please take full responsibility for your use of EFT. Eileen Sullivan, EFT CERT1, EFT-ADV, is not a licensed health professional. She offers EFT as an
ordained interfaith minister, a certified holistic doula, and a certified Reiki Master/Teacher. Where appropriate, please consult your healthcare practitioners regarding your use of EFT. It
is VITAL to note that you should not stop taking any prescribed medications, nor alter your dosage, without the advice of the prescribing physician.
an expert on your own health, so please take full responsibility for your use of EFT. Eileen Sullivan, EFT CERT1, EFT-ADV, is not a licensed health professional. She offers EFT as an
ordained interfaith minister, a certified holistic doula, and a certified Reiki Master/Teacher. Where appropriate, please consult your healthcare practitioners regarding your use of EFT. It
is VITAL to note that you should not stop taking any prescribed medications, nor alter your dosage, without the advice of the prescribing physician.
| SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER AND RECEIVE MEMBER PRICING ON WORKSHOPS AND CLASSES! |
| SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER AND RECEIVE MEMBER PRICING ON WORKSHOPS/CLASSES! |