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| EMOTIONAL FREEDOM TECHNIQUES: 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, EFT-ADV |
by EILEEN SULLIVAN, May 16, 2007 - 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 on audio CD, 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
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 on audio CD, 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
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| 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. |