Talk Therapy is not enough to heal trauma.

You need numerous tools in the toolbox: EFT can help.

In his renowned book “The Body Keeps the Score” detailing his research findings,  Bessel Van Der Kolk M.D. discusses how traumatic events shape people’s lives. Our brains react to ‘triggers’ that resemble past trauma, sending us into natural ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ instincts that cause stress, anxiety, and pop up so often that it is difficult to be productive and feel complete.

As Van Der Kolk argues, “neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going on inside ourselves.” Why do we break out into a sweat when certain events occur? Why does our heart beat double? Why do our mouths go dry? Our bodies are telling us something, and we need to listen if we want our bodies and our minds to be in harmony so that we can live productive lives.

Commonly, we push things from our conscious mind and because it isn’t at the forefront of our brains any longer, we think it doesn’t bother us. However, our subconscious causes our bodies to react to certain triggers from that memory, whether we know it or not. When we pinpoint that memory through EFT/tapping and face it head on, we can rewire our brains to cease from going into ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ mode when certain events occur that resemble our traumas.

The beauty of Tapping is the ability to ease into the more difficult memories. With other treatments, traumatized people may be asked to recall the event in detail, or even visit the place where the trauma happened. With Tapping, you are in control and can ease into the memories gradually while you tap on acupressure points that ease your body into a natural state of relaxation.

Tapping is a combination of talking about what is causing anxiety or stress in a patient’s life, while incorporating the body by tapping on meridian points that act as natural calming agents.

To try tapping for yourself, email Tijana at [email protected] for your free quickstart document!

 

 

Trauma seeps in to every part of our lives. From relationships, to work, to personal care and routines, trauma can impact our behaviors, actions, emotions, and even our outlook on life… whether we realize it or not. As caregivers, it is especially important that we understand this, so that we may be aware of the complex impact of trauma on a person, and how it affects their lives, including how they cope with the very trauma. We must be careful to understand that trauma could affect a patient through every step of treatment, so emotional and psychological safety is of utmost importance.

Remember that when we think of “trauma,” and “trauma-informed care,” the term can be applied to more people than those dealing with situations that we usually relate to trauma, such as physical abuse. It can be those who suffer from or have a history of mental illness that has changed their lives, those with wounds from emotional abuse that you cannot see, and many more examples of less obvious traumas.

3 Ways Emotional Freedom Technique Compliments Trauma Informed Care

1.EFT Lowers Anxiety to Prepare for TIC

A patient’s safety is always top priority, so confidence and competence in a survivor’s ability to self-regulate and not flood with emotions is crucial in the Trauma Informed Care process. Before beginning to address the trauma, EFT can be taught as a tool to prepare the patient and give them access to a resource that will help them take control.

Even in my own EFT business, I realized that many of my clients forward movement was hindered by subconscious-level messages that they had no desire to face and they had spent the majority of their lives blocking out. The majority stemmed from subconscious traumas, or small t’s (read my blog about those here).

2. EFT Can Build the Cognitive Bridge

Trauma changes how a person regulates their thoughts and feelings, and their ability to care for themselves emotionally and psychologically. TIC also recognizes that a person with a history of trauma may not think of himself or herself as a trauma survivor, and may not even be fully aware of how that trauma is shaping their lives. EFT can help with the process of making the cognitive bridge back to the trauma to understand how the past event impacts their current behaviors. Tapping calms the amygdala and allows the frontal lobes to come back online  so they can think clearly. “OH, I see, I am not setting a boundary with my coworker because of the trauma with my dad when I was seven.” Once it is safe to be in the body, these cognitive bridges occur with ease.

3. EFT Can Combat Hypo/Hyperarousal

A therapist who is trauma-informed knows that the mind and body of a person with unhealed trauma is functioning in an altered way. That person may be easily triggered to feel too much emotional intensity (hyperarousal), or shut down and unable to feel much at all (hypoarousal). The beauty of EFT is that the calming of the limbic system allows for self regulation, helping a patient to calm themselves or to feel safe in their bodies so that they are able to express emotions.

 

As caregivers, we focus not only on the behaviors people want to change, but why those behaviors exist for long lasting relief. A trauma informed approach ensures that we are reaching deeply to make that change one that will last. Tapping is the perfect treatment to compliment trauma-informed care, bringing the body and the mind into healing to understand not only conscious anxieties, but subconscious traumas holding patients back from progress.

 

Many times it doesn’t take much to trigger someone around a specific trauma incident. Specific and extensive details of the trauma are not necessary to cause an adverse bodily reaction. Simply saying an “obscure” detail about the event can bring fearful emotions up in the body. Statements like, “I can vividly remember it. We were in the living room” or “The accident happened the day after my birthday,” have caused many of sick stomachs and chest pains.

The What and Why of Trauma Names (TN)

The unique beauty of EFT is that it isn’t necessary to delve deep into a trauma for the client to begin to feel some relief from Tapping – an exemplary testament of “Do No Harm.”

Occasionally, I simply have the person name the traumatic event so that he/she can wade into the Trauma Tapping instead of diving in head first. This is especially helpful if the person is resistant to “going back” there (you can read my blog about easing tapping anxiety here.) Additionally, this allows for the person to put distance between them and the event – that was then, I am now.  Also, it helps me to reference the event with my clients, instead of saying things like, “the time your mother left you with your alcoholic father.” We have named it and Tapped on the charge around the name so at the very least, I can bring it up without the fear of throwing my client into a trauma reaction.  

How to Create a Trauma Name (TN)

Like with everything in EFT, the Trauma Name needs to be the voice of the client. They come up with the TN and I let them know that this too can change over our sessions.  We just need a starting point. It can be a word that represents the event, a date, a group of words, or simply something very general like “the event”. The goal is for the TN to be close enough to home to feel “true” in the body when they say it aloud but not so close to trigger overpowering emotions.

It can  be something like “that day”, or contain slightly more details like “the attack“ or even a date  -“September 11”.

Trauma names can also be used in other mediums for recovery, such as journaling. For example, one client took the trauma name she used, “That Day”, and made a poem about it to use as a send off:

That day, That day. You have shaped my life and held me prisoner, That day, That day you robbed me of joy and innocence. That day That day I had no one to protect me from you.  That day, That day you had all power over me. But it’s no longer that day; it is Today (she inserted a sun here).

Then she created a document titled Today and it was almost like a journal or affirmation document listing overtime many of the good things in her life. She listed things that anchored her in the here and now. The funny thing is, at one point (after some time) she shifted the list from basic affirmations to starting to list the unexpected gifts/lessons that she received from That Day.   And as we know, that is when a survivor turns into a thriver.