Exciting New Project.

I will be sharing regularly with the TBT community my clients case studies which were instrumental in developing this technique. You can see how powerful this technique is in removing trauma and giving people back their lives. Trauma is at the bottom of most unwanted behaviours and early childhood conditioning is key in the formation of our personalities. When using TBT never focus on negative behaviours but rather on what caused them to occur in the first place. If the problem is not caused by a pathology, we can use TBT to change it. I’m sharing with you (permission granted by my clients) so you may also gain insights into how TBT works. Contact me directly if you wish to discuss aspects of a case so I can further enlighten you with my observations.

Permission granted to share this session   All names changed to protect the clients.  All male clients referred to as John and females as Jane.  References to locations also changed.  TBT Session was performed 1994.

Viet Nam Veteran trapped in recurring PTS symptoms for decades, finds permanent relief with one TBT Session

I had the opportunity to work with John, a veteran from

the Army. He had heard that I might be able to help him and after several 

years on prescribed medications (nortriptyline, citalopram and melatonin), therapy with psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, etc  he 

thought he would give TBT a try as a last resort.

John had served in Vietnam from 1965 to 1968. During that period he has witnessed

a lot of death, destruction and violence. The most traumatic incident during that

period was the death of his best friend who was killed by enemy fire before his eyes.

This particular memory had haunted him all these years and he blamed himself for not

having prevented Jim’s death.(core trauma event)

The symptoms he had been suffering  were typical of PTS: nightmares,

recurring thoughts, flashbacks, and intense anger/grief.  John was having difficulties relating with his family and friends.  Severe mood swings were part of his daily emotional routine.  John  blamed the commander for not taking enough safety measures and for being a ‘glory hunter’,  sending guys into known dangers. This patrol was following a fresh trail into the jungle and had stepped right into the enemy bunkers. John felt he should have got shot instead of Jim and then he wouldn’t be carrying all this guilt and grief.  The commander didn’t make a right decision  and Jim was killed.

After explaining briefly to John the 4 steps of TBT we started the session  (we sat in the back yard verandah, in this safe and calm place and  very casually did our session)

I asked John to relate the whole event to me and asked him to measure his intensity of feelings

from 0-10. He said they were 10++ and my observation of his physiology confirmed

this.  His face was flushed and bright red, his jaw was tightly clenched and his

knuckles were tight and white.

I asked John to narrow down his memory to the most  intense part of the story  (the SHOCK point) and with his permission I did the tapping.   I asked him to repeat the story around the shock point and recall  details and particularly bodily sensations.   We repeated this 3 or 4 times. Each time I asked him to go over the shock point as best he could.  The shock point revolved around the intense blue color of Jims eyes. Even in death his eyes were an amazing blue. 

Did we do step 3?  Yes we did.

We completed the session and here is the feedback from John.

“I realized it was not Jim, it was just an empty shell that once housed my friend.

it was a war and people die.  I did the best I could under the circumstances.

I couldn’t save my friend,  I can honor his life by remembering the good times we

had”

I checked with John the following day, and he told me he had the BEST sleep in 30

years! Then the same again the next night. Previously John has lived with recurring

nightmares and flashbacks. Within a week John  does not have any of the old negative emotions he was experiencing in the past 30 plus years. Most importantly the nightmares have not occurred since the TBT treatment.  John is going to continue to monitor the symptoms he previously had and let me know if there is a recurrence.

Been a few years now and no complaints from John.  The power of TBT and mind body interventions!

________________________________________________

FEAR OF DOGS

A simple case and the results in a fabulous career opportunity.

About 5 years ago my neighbor disclosed to me she had an instense fear of dogs!  She said that even though my dog, a large husky, was friendly and mild she was afraid to even come to my gate in case she was confronted by the dog.

I could see from her body language that this was a genuine phobia.  Her stress levels were at the highest point and she was indeed frozen in that state at the mere thought of being confronted by a dog.

It turns out as a child she had been attacked by a dog and since then avoided all contact with dogs.  She asked me to help her and after gathering data on her phobia she was able to identify the traumatic event which occurred when she was around 5 years old.   The shock point was narrowed down to all those huge teeth in the dogs mouth.  It as a very visual shock point.  The teeth were very white and sharp.

This was indeed a simple trauma to resolve.  Following the 4 step TBT protocol she was quite relieved when she relived the trauma event to test the results.

The real test was waiting …in one hour she called me elated that when visiting another friend whose neighbor had a large dog with shiney white teeth, she surprizingly had no fear and not only patted and played with the dog but she sent me a selfie with the dog…teeth and all.  Her teeth and the dogs  Both with great big smiles .

All fear gone with one session of TBT.   Of course I asked her to be careful around unknown dogs and ask permission from owners before making contact with them.

That was 5 years ago and I got a message from her today….she has finally got her DREAM JOB.   Working with dogs.  Yes her company is training her for this key role and position.   She is delighted and said that she never dreamed of such opportunities while she was trapped in her fears.  I was so pleased for her.  Such a competent and caring person now in the perfect job role.  

________________________________________________

FEAR OF FAILURE/SUCCESS …CHILDHOOD TRAUMA AND CONDITIONING

Early childhood trauma and personality

John was referred to be through a social worker for undisclosed anxiety.  He was  60 years of age and getting close to retirement.  His main complaint about life was that he had never been able to succeed in any aspect of his life.  For example any business ventures he undertook started off well and then crashed.  There was a point at which he would fail just as all seemed to be going well.  His relationships with wives and partners followed the same pattern.  He referred to it as the opposite of the Midas touch.

John undertook many courses and trainings to change this pattern.  No matter how many coaches he had and the number of self help or formal trainings he undertook, his life pattern in failure continued.  

At our first meeting I asked John to think about how this pattern in life started and what traumatic event had set up this pattern.  My question to John was who taught him to fail?  This simple question triggered a traumatic memory of when he was 10 years old.  His face and body language showed how powerful this was.  He was amazed as this memory had never surfaced before after the initial event.  It was buried deep and out of sight.

The story John told me was that he had an older brother whom he adored and followed everywhere.  One day all that changed in an instance when his brother grabbed him by the shoulders and yelled  “you will never succeed in life…you will fail at every thing in life”.   John was stunned by the vehemence these words were shouted at him.  Left him stunned in a state of shock and disbelief that his beloved elder brother said that. 

Why did his brother do that?  What John didnt know then was that his brother was actually his uncle and Johns birth had been disguised so as not to bring shame to this good catholic family.  When Johns sister (mother) became pregnant, the family pretended John was their youngest child.  The only one who didnt know the truth was John.  His brother was so angry at keeping this secret and pretending about their relationship.

That was the traumatic event and the shock point were those powerful words which became an unconscious command and John lived out his life never succeeding as he was commanded.

We did our TBT session and John was amazed at how he clearly saw the reasons for his pattern.  He had followed his beloved brothers commands unknowingly.  The pieces of this puzzle started to fall into place.  John wondered how his life would have been had he been aware of where this pattern was coming from and released it early in life.

Even though he was at the end of his working life and ready for retirement, he was he was very grateful to have uncovered a reason for this pattern.

________________________________________________

INTENSE TRAUMA RESOLVED IN A COUPLE OF TBT SESSIONS

case study 1.

This is the story of a brand new TBT practitioner and a practising psychotherapist, who tested out how effective TBT is in resolving the symptoms of trauma. There are 2 case studies shared here.

I will call him John. All names and locations are changed to protect the people involved.

John had just achieved his TBT certified practitioners level. As a clinical psychologist, he was very keen to help his clients get over their life traumas.

John had one client that he had mentioned to me when he first started to use TBT about a year ago. This client was highly traumatized, suffering from flashbacks, panic attacks and hypervigilance. He was utterly inconsolable and in deep grief and shock. He could not stop crying. The trauma was that the client had discovered the body of his murdered girlfriend. In their apartment. The scene was horrific and he found her tied up body with a slashed throat. Blood was everywhere, on the floor, the walls, the furniture and she was covered in it.

He was so upset and could not move forward. At the beginning of therapy, he could not even mention her name or even think about the incident, without bursting into tears and shaking.

John did a major TBT session with the client, and then another one to ensure all or most of the trauma was cleared up. Shortly after, John with his client visited the scene of the crime.  Surprisingly enough, the client was quite calm and, matter of fact, accepting the event especially in the crime scene. At the crime scene, John asked him to retell the whole event of him finding her. During the detailed narration, the client rated his feelings at 2 which were really low considering that at the beginning the ratings were over the scale completely. What a great outcome! John’s client can move on with his life finally. His overall mood also drastically improved and he could smile again. This was John’s first major trauma client where he used TBT.  

This is a great testimonial to the power of TBT. Many thanks to John for sharing.

2nd case story using TBT.

John had a long term patient and had used conventional tapping therapy with her for her panic attacks. One Saturday, the client called John at home begging for help. She was distraught as she found out her beloved brother had been murdered the night before. The brother had intervened to break up a fight and got stabbed and died immediately. She was completely destroyed when she got the news from her mother via the phone an hour earlier. She could not sleep properly on Saturday and Sunday, and ruminated the whole time about her brother, as she was devastated. John was able to see her on Monday at his office and he did the TBT protocol, which took only an hour! After the session, she was fully able to talk normally about her brother without getting triggered. She was able to attend the funeral and the whole subject was not a problem anymore. This is one hour of a TBT session!

Training with one of the certified TBT trainers is essential to achieve such a high level of success.  

________________________________________________

SNAKE PHOBIA

Symptoms:  Nightmares, flashbacks, recurring thoughts, hyperventilation, elevated heartbeat, sweating, shaking etc.

Simple phobia, complicated associations

A young woman was referred to me for a phobia of snakes..  Yes indeed she exhibited  all the symptoms at the mere mention of snakes, even though she had never encountered a snake in her life.

We looked at pictures of snakes and we watched the natural history channel on snakes to elicit her reactions.  There was no evidence of her EVER having been traumatized by a snake.  WHY?   There are NO SNAKES in New Zealand.  No snakes in the bush or gardens because they never evolved or colonized this island nation and the bio security laws has kept NZ a snake free zone right up to present day.  This young woman, Jane had never travelled overseas or any place where she may have encountered snakes.  

We used TBT to extinguish the triggers for fear of snakes.  That was simple.

So why this phobic reaction?  Upon further enquiry Jane disclosed that the phobia developed after she had a nightmare in which she fell into a pit of snakes.  I asked her what had been happening in her life prior to the nightmare.  She disclosed that as a young child she was sexually molested by a close family member and the double bind of disclosure developed into the phobia.  To tell or not to tell was going to be disastrous. 

We proceed to work on the sexual assault issues and this resolved the snake phobia.   Result was no more nightmare and no more phobic reactions to pictures of snakes.  It’s been a decade and the phobia has not returned.  Of course it doesn’t mean that she will like snakes if she comes across one.  However she is freed from the unnecessary and incorrectly paired reactions.

________________________________________________

OCD AND TRAUMA

Solution focused trauma intervention

PULLING OUT EYELASHES AND BROWS

Jane my new client appeared to look quite normal.  However her eye brows were pencilled on as she continuously ripped out any regrowth of both brows and lashes.   It made her face look like a rubber doll.

This lash pulling behaviour had prevented her from leading a normal life.  She was unable to function in ordinary situations and not able to get a job and maintain any friendships.  Jane was totally focused on the hair pulling habit and could not break free of it.  She had tried all types of therapies without success.  She had heard me speak on a radio show and took the initiative to have a session with TBT.

I asked her the leading questions about traumas in her life especially around the time when she started pulling out the lashes.  It had to start at some point as surely she was not born with the habit of hair pulling.  Jane agreed and thought about when this habit may have commenced.

She recalls that one day she overhead her parents arguing about separating and divorcing.  Jane was outside the house window when she heard their conversation.  She was shocked and felt terrified as she had no idea why this should happen..  Jane adored both her parents and she was under 10 years of age when her parents decided to split up.  This was the biggest trauma in her  young life.

Jane recalls tugging on her eyebrows and ripping out the hairs one at a time.  A very deliberate act which gave her a sense of control and relief as she pulled out her brows and lashes.  She was in control and the physical pain diverted her attention from her trauma.  It became her coping mechanism during any stressful situations.  

We agreed that the words she heard stung her in the heart.  This was her shock point.

The four steps of TBT were applied  successfully and Jane assessed the dramatic decrease 

in the ratings and bodily sensations.

I received her feedback a week later and Jane informed me that she was not pulling out her brows an lashes.  She just didn’t feel like doing that anymore.  Noe there was regrowth after years.  Success.

________________________________________________

FLASHBACKS OF BOMB BLAST – TRIGGERED BY CUP OF TEA

Some of you may remember a particular bomb blast in India at an ashram town.  This happened a while ago.  A GP doctor referred a young woman to me who was a victim of the attack.  She did not suffer any physical damage but being in the center of the blast, witnessed the carnage but miraculously escaped with her life.  However the psychological and emotional damage was lasting.

Jane was  unable to continue with her well established dancing career when she returned home.  In fact she also withdrew from most social activities and refused to meet with family and friends.

This was a simple straight forward trauma to deal with.  It was a one time incident  and therefore was the core incident.  Jane was suffering from nightmares and intense flashbacks.  The interesting connection with the flashbacks was the trigger.  Every time she saw or thought of a cup of tea, the whole inciden would replay itself and send her into a roller coaster of uncontrollable fear emotions. 

The story was that Jane was in India at an ashram and was sitting with an local friend about to drink tea from the near by chai vendor.   As Jane took her cup of tea and was about to take a sip, the calm and happy atmostphere was shattered  instantly with a loud explosion, smoke, dirt, confusion and screams.  Jane was stunned and her body was numb.  She found herself looking at body parts around her and the most shocking was the parts of her companion  lay in several pieces around her and were still twitching.  You can see how horrific and shocking this was.

Jane had tried all sorts of therapies and medications but could not get these images out of her mind especially since the trigger was the cup of tea which is such a common drink everywhere.  Her GP who is an allopathic and homeopathic doctor recommended Jane see me as the GP had seen good results for her other clients with  TBT.

Yes, we did TBT and it was a ONE session trauma resolution.  The trauma event was clear, the shock point was clear, the ratings by the client were evident.  Yes, she choose to do the step 3 and was quite relieved and amused by the bodily response to the original trauma.  It was gone, not there, just a story now.  

She went on to follow her dreams of going overseas and joining a prestigious dance company and living out her life ambitions and dreams.   Jane was so overjoyed that she was able to move on from the terrifying trauma.

The follow up meeting we had so I could check if she was quite over the trauma,  Yes we shared a cup of tea.  There was a smile on her lips as we enjoyed our drink together.   

________________________________________________

RELEASING THE TRAUMA OF FATHERS SUICIDE

This client was referred to me from the corrections departent.  Jane was an angry young woman and had been in and out of prison from a young age for physical assaults, fights and disorderly behavior.

Her energy bristled with rage and her energy was so aggressive, like a storm.

As soon as she came into my office she burst forth with an angry tirage of accusations, blame etc.  She immediately made it clear that in all the counselling, therapy etc she had received no one hade  been able to help her with traumas in her life.  So I asked her the magic question.  What in your opinion is your major trauma?  She responded that there were several traumatic incidents but the most painful and darkest of all happened when she was 5 years old.

It was a sunday morning and her mother had gone to church leaving little Jane in the house.  Jane went to look for her father who was in the garage.  When she opened the door she was shocked to see her beloved father lying by the exhaust pipe of the car.  He had committed suicide.  There was his dead body limp and pale.  This is how she described it.  She knew instantly that he was dead.  Jane was devastated.  This was the worst trauma she had experienced.  

Situation went from bad to worse.  She was not able to connect with her mother or get over this trauma.  So started a long list of offending, violence, home invasions, fights and immense anger at the everyone and anyone who crossed her path.  She spent many years in and out of probation and on courses such as anger management etc.

We did TBT on the discovery of her fathers dead body.  It was such a vivid memory.  She had been having flashbacks daily and nightmare of this scene.  In this session we skipped step 3 as she choose to do so.  I saw her one more time and checked her ratings on the discovery incident and there was no attachment or triggering.

Jane went on to build her life now that the anger and blame had been released from her.  She choose to make a career in the financial sector.  Months later she came to see to to proudly show me that she had secured a position in international banking, her name tag on her uniform proudly displayed.   Yes even with a criminal record, some one with a sense of fairness had decided to give her a chance.  Imagine that.

However, to top it all, she was a martial arts expert and all the street fighting had finally been put to good use.  She was top of her form with black several levels of black belts.  She got to represent her country at an international event.  How wonderful is that.  Getting rid of her trauma, allowed her to change her life at so many levels and achieve her fullest potential.  What a legend she became.

________________________________________________

RELEASING THE TRAUMA OF FATHERS SUICIDE

This client was referred to me from the corrections departent.  Jane was an angry young woman and had been in and out of prison from a young age for physical assaults, fights and disorderly behavior.

Her energy bristled with rage and her energy was so aggressive, like a storm.

As soon as she came into my office she burst forth with an angry tirage of accusations, blame etc.  She immediately made it clear that in all the counselling, therapy etc she had received no one hade  been able to help her with traumas in her life.  So I asked her the magic question.  What in your opinion is your major trauma?  She responded that there were several traumatic incidents but the most painful and darkest of all happened when she was 5 years old.

It was a sunday morning and her mother had gone to church leaving little Jane in the house.  Jane went to look for her father who was in the garage.  When she opened the door she was shocked to see her beloved father lying by the exhaust pipe of the car.  He had committed suicide.  There was his dead body limp and pale.  This is how she described it.  She knew instantly that he was dead.  Jane was devastated.  This was the worst trauma she had experienced.  

Situation went from bad to worse.  She was not able to connect with her mother or get over this trauma.  So started a long list of offending, violence, home invasions, fights and immense anger at the everyone and anyone who crossed her path.  She spent many years in and out of probation and on courses such as anger management etc.

We did TBT on the discovery of her fathers dead body.  It was such a vivid memory.  She had been having flashbacks daily and nightmare of this scene.  In this session we skipped step 3 as she choose to do so.  I saw her one more time and checked her ratings on the discovery incident and there was no attachment or triggering.

Jane went on to build her life now that the anger and blame had been released from her.  She choose to make a career in the financial sector.  Months later she came to see to to proudly show me that she had secured a position in international banking, her name tag on her uniform proudly displayed.   Yes even with a criminal record, some one with a sense of fairness had decided to give her a chance.  Imagine that.

However to top it all, she was a martial arts expert and all the street fighting had finally been put to good use.  She was top of her form with black several levels of black belts.  She got to represent her country at an international event.  How wonderful is that.  Getting rid of her trauma, allowed her to change her life at so many levels and achieve her fullest potential.  What a legend she became.

________________________________________________

Positive conditioned response with negative consequences

A young woman Jane was referred to me by her mother.  She had been diagnosed with the condition known as bulemia.  Whether she was bulemic, I dont know but her behavior certainly suggested an unusual relationship with some foods.

Often Jane would gorge herself then force herself to throw up.  Upon searching for more information about this behavior Jane said that she only forced vomit with certain foods and I got her to tell me the story about how this behavior started.  What trauma lay underneath ???

On exploring how this developed, Jane told me that when she was a child her parents had separated.  She loved both mother and father.  It was decided that she stay with her father.  She missed her mother terribly and recalled how every sunday mother would get ready for baking bread and the two of them would sit in the kitchen waiting for the bread to bake.  All the time the smell was so wonderful  It was a beautiful time for Jane to be so close with her mother, in the kitchen ….getting the loaves out, allowing them to cool and then slicing them and eating with a dollop of butter.  The smell recreated the wonderful times she spent with her mother, just the two of them sharing very special moments.

Jane rented a flat near a bakery and every sunday, her day off from work, Jane would wake up to the heavenly smell of freshly baking bread.  It would waft through her flat. The association between the aroma and loving times with her mother was extremely strong.  She would get ready and make her way to the bakery and wait for the doors to open.  Jane would buy a couple or more loaves of the soft newly baked bread and rush back to her flat.   She would proceed to eat all the bread.  It gave her great satisfaction to relive feelings of love she experienced before the dreadful trauma of her parents break up.  As her stomach got to bursting point she would put her fingers down her throat and force herself to throw up.    As unpleasant as vomiting was, she continued to do this every sunday.  It was her way of coping with her devastating childhood trauma. 

When Jane recognized where this habit was coming from she was eager to address and change the unhealthy part of it.  We treated the main trauma memory of the parental separation with TBT.

When I checked with Jane’s mother a month later, she informed me that Jane had stopped the gorging and throwing up.  She just lost the urge.  Jane was no longer triggered to gorge herself by the smell of bread and yet able to fondly remember the loving times with her mother.   Her conditioned response disappeared after the trauma was eliminated

________________________________________________

JOHN   Most violent, chronic offender!

Transformation of reprehensible, anti social behaviour eventually lead to management position!

John had history of physical violence and was in the probation system since early age.

Daily he would look for opportunities to vent violently and physically for no known reason (his words)..

John joined the army as soon as he could and got into the special forces.  He was able to use this choice of career to manage his anger in an acceptable manner.  There was plenty of physical work and contact sports in the curriculum.

I asked John what made him so angry and violent.  He recounted many incidents in his early childhood. His father was an extremely violent man and punished his kids and wife for the slightest infringements.  John recalls when his mother would try to leave with the kids, how violent his father would become, dragging the mother by the hair and flinging her out on the street as John stood by helplessly watching.  There a time at the dinner table when the father was so angry that he chopped off a digit of one of the other boys finger.   There were several times when the kids would get stabbed by forks at the dinner table because they had upset the father.  John had no chance to retaliate as he was just a little kid.  Violence was a daily occurrence in Johns early childhood.

The incident which stood out in Johns mind was when he was unable to complete a gardening chore according to his fathers instructions.  John had to dig up 2 rows of potatoes with a pitch fork for dinner.  He was instructed to make sure he didnt get any punctures in the potatoes.  When father returned from work and examined the potatoes he was incensed as most of the potatoes had been punctured by the pitchfork.  John received a huge beating.  He was 6 years old, hardly big enough to handle a pitchfork.  From then on the sight of potatoes would trigger an intense anger in John.  This was the core event of brutality.

We did the 4 step TBT procedure and John was able to fully release this trauma and the anger and grief held in his body.  We also applied TBT on some other incidents as well to make sure that as much of the stored anger was released.

What did this allow him to do with his life?  He got  a job working in a winery/.  John started out working in the fields with the grape vines.  He worked himself up and then started learning about the rest of wine making.  John did so well and within a year he was promoted to the position of Manager.  He called me to tell me how well his life was going and now he was in charge of a small private winery.  What an achievement for him as he could barely hold a job in the past when his anger from traunas ruled his behaviour and life.

________________________________________________

DRUG ADDICT:    INTENSE CHILDHOOD ABUSE

Recovery after traumas deconstructed

John had been in the prison system for 25 years.  His offences were mostly related to breaking and entering, stealing and physical violence to support his drug habit.   At 12 years old he had run away from home and lived on the streets.  John survived by stealing and dealing in drugs.  He had spent years trying to get control of his intense anger and hatred.  John was easily triggered into violent actions at the least provocation.  Many years were spent in rehabilitation without success and had been seen by psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors and the prison pastors.

John was very happy to see me as he had requested a female counsellor and never had access to one before.  John felt he could not share his deepest dark traumas with a male counsellor.  I asked him what his early childhood was like.  He disclosed that it was terrible.  He was adopted by a family at age 2 or 3 and life went down after that.  His adoptive father was a monster.  I asked John to tell me what was the worst experience of his early life.   John recalled one event vividly, like it happened yesterday.  His father called him into the shed one afternoon and ordered him to drop his shorts.  John was sodomized, beaten and threatened if he dare to tell any one he would die.  He was 5 years old when the first sexual assault occurred and he endured daily abuse after that until one day when he was 12 years old and big enough to fight back and run away from home.  He had no one to depend on and he turned to petty crime to survive. 

 After sharing this horror story with me he looked  me squarely in the eyes and asked “can you see why I am the way I am?”    Obviously he connected the childhood traumas to his present behaviors.  He added that not one day would pass when he didn’t recall the first assault.  In fact John said that it was the first thought that would come into his mind upon waking every morning.

We did the TBT protocol and he was amazed at how easily and quickly it worked to change his conditioned response to the abuse and his abuser.  He told me the following day that he had such a perfect restful sleep without any fear, flashbacks or nightmares.  The core incident was just an incident and he felt no attachment to it.  He could not believe that such a simple technique helped him so thoroughly without the need to talk about it, rationalize it or analyze it.  

Over the next few years John was a changed man,    He started a relationship and had a couple of kids himself.  I saw him often in town and it was so good to see how John had been transformed.

________________________________________________

________________________________________________