Hope and Healing for Veterans
On November 11th we remember veterans and our hearts ache for them. Some never made it home–and we still grieve. For others, “the war is over, but their battles never end.” You and I personally know veterans who daily carry not only physical scars of war, but also invisible emotional scars.
Some weeks ago, I worked with a lovely young woman veteran suffering the scars of Afghanistan. I couldn’t help Shaina with her brain injury, but she did EFT with me for six long sessions and healed the traumatic stress from her childhood and the war.
Every client teaches me and Shaina reminded me of two things: that people who suffer the most deeply from trauma in adulthood have usually experienced childhood abuse. And, secondly, that like any other modality, EFT must be used very carefully to clear the distress without re-traumatizing the client.
But she can tell her story better than I can.
“When I first met D’Anne, I was having a major identity crisis due to a traumatic childhood and to what I saw and did overseas in the military. I was dealing with flashbacks, anxiety and felt something horrible was going to happen any minute. I blamed myself for all the negativity in my life–and judged others because of all the bad people I’d experienced.
I had all these new behaviors that were not me, but instead I created this different person to protect myself from more harm. I needed help and nothing was working as I wanted it to. I tried regular counseling, EMDR and acupuncture. All worked a little here and there, but nothing really changed me. I was starting to think that this was just something I would have to live with.
Then, by pure luck, I met D’Anne who invited me to try EFT. During our first session we tapped through my childhood trauma; it was amazing! I already felt some type of enormous release from things I had been holding onto for so many years. Within two appointments my childhood trauma was completely gone. Then we worked on my identity issues—and the cognitive shifts happened in that appointment.
After that, it was off to deal with my military trauma from Afghanistan when I was in a roadside bombing incident and had to recover the bodies of the 16 soldiers that did not survive. It took only three amazing appointments to clear all that away!
Now, I am not jumpy anymore and I can talk about my Afghanistan trauma with no problem whatsoever. I’m not afraid that something terrible is going to happen to me in the next two seconds. I feel great! When I did EMDR, it took me three months to clear my childhood—which was never really cleared. For the other issues, I did acupuncture for about five months till I finally gave up and went for counseling—which I’d done on and off since I was seven years old. With D’Anne I had only SIX appointments and my whole life has been transformed. Thank you D’Anne and thank you for EFT!”
–Shaina Johnson, Sheridan, OR
Thank you for the work you do. Our military people need this kind of healing. I too had been re-traumatized trying EMDR.
Blessings!