EmotionalBuzz
the resource for meridian energy therapy
Rape case study
A very strange turn of events took place this week. Firstly I had been in contact with the Rape Crisis and Trauma Centres for Scotland at the beginning of the week and they informed me that they were currently using EFT within the centre and that the results so far had been great. I then received a phone call from my Mum asking for my immediate help.
by Kelly Meisak
A woman who I shall name ‘Louise’ had been drugged and raped at the weekend but had tried to keep going, and came into work for my parents in an incredible mess. She hadn’t slept since the incident because she was experiencing such intense nightmares, and was exhausted, terribly anxious and in complete turmoil. Understandably, she was a mess.
My Mum took her to a sexual health clinic to be tested for sexually transmitted infections and diseases. Thankfully, she got the all clear and I should mention that when she told the doctor she would be receiving EFT his reply was, ‘it looks pretty wacky, but it really, really works,’ (I was pleased to hear that yet another health professional could see its potential). Louise was brought straight to my house. She looked terrible (and she won’t mind me saying so). She was pale, with bags under her eyes, droopy eyelids and was physically hunched over as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. I got to work straight away.
Initially she was suffering from a lot of anxiety, so without even discussing what had happened to her we began to work on the anxiety itself. It took a good bit of time and work to gently manage it downwards. When she felt calm (which already was a big relief to her) I began using the movie technique. I told her that we were going to work on the memory itself in tiny little bits, and again we worked on the anxiety that was produced by even imagining having to possibly THINK about the memory again. It went down a little more quickly this time.
Next I asked her to imagine being in her bedroom (where the event took place) with a brick wall in front of her where the event was taking place behind it. Again we tapped on the anxiety. I asked her to then pick a person, alive or dead, famous, friend or family – anyone who would make her feel safer and have them with her behind this brick wall (I suggested Arnold Schwarzenegger as I’m a big fan – he would make me feel a LOT better and she laughed) however, she picked a policeman.
I then asked her if the image seemed close up, or far away. She said close up, so I had her imagine it as if it were a tv screen moving further and further into the distance. The image was also brightly coloured, so I asked her to make it black and white instead. In changing some of these aspects the brain reacts differently to the images. She said she could hardly see it, and felt rather calm about it, and with her permission we began to move on.
I asked how she might feel if I asked her to knock down some of the bricks from the top of the wall. She said scared, because she knew what was going on behind it.
We began tapping for ‘even though I don’t want to see what’s behind the wall because it scares me and I don’t want to relive it, I deeply and completely love and accept myself and I refuse to let the past control me...’
After some work she began to feel hurt at what this man had done to her, I asked her to imagine where the hurt would be and what colour it might have, so we tapped for ‘even though I have all this black hurt in my heart, because he ‘did that’ to me (I avoided using words like rape and abuse initially to keep it a little more gentle) I deeply and completely love and accept myself, and know that he must be really messed up to have done that, that’s his problems, it’s his stuff...’
She then almost immediately became angry – now I knew we were really getting some movement. We tapped using the same technique on ‘even though I have all this black anger in my heart because he ‘did that’ to me, I deeply and completely love and accept myself and know that this anger is like drinking poison – it only poisons me. It will never make him suffer the way I am...’
We got to a point where there was no emotion left so I began the movie technique again, however again, she became frightened at the thought. I asked her to find herself after this event had happened where she was crying and panicking and to take herself away somewhere she felt would be safe. I then asked her as I tapped on her, if she would talk to herself and comfort herself, and let her know that it was safe and that it was over. (This technique really takes the client up and out of the situation and it tends to feel a bit more detached). She took around five minutes to talk with herself, and tell herself that she was totally safe.
I then asked her to imagine the man who did this to her and for the two of them to ‘double team him’ and do whatever they had to do to teach him a lesson – punch him, beat him up, embarrass him (yes, this sounds a bit drastic and I wouldn’t encourage people to engage in thoughts like these often, but in an extreme case like this the mind tends to find resolve in the fact that the abuser got payback and usually, by the time the emotion is taken out of it, it tends to be funnier and more light hearted than you would imagine). This was a private moment for Louise, and I had no need to ask what she did to him in her mind – however she giggled a little.
Lastly I asked her to run the memory one last time. She said that she couldn’t see it as clearly. I asked her to imagine that it was in the form of photographs of the incident in front of her. I told her to take a set of matches and imagine burning them all away, burning them out of her consciousness so that they could never come back. I’ve begun using this technique when I deal with trauma because it seems to really finish it off.
For the last time, I asked her to recall the memory. She stated that she felt completely ‘numb’ towards it, and found that she was actually almost unable to locate it at all. All in the space of around an hour and a half! To think that she might have suffered those horrific memories her whole life and it was resolved in that little time! I’ve had such a feeling of fulfilment since this session – I know how dramatically this has helped her – I feel it would’ve been pretty much impossible to get that result, in that length of time with any other treatment that I know of. I was also pleased to hear that she hasn’t had a single nightmare since, and has used the technique on daily lifestyle stresses. I myself know the power of what EFT can do often, but sometimes it does something that just blows you off your feet. Fantastic.