EFT Tapping Success Stories with Veterans

EFT Tapping Success Stories with Veterans: Constance Louie-Handelman, Ph.D, a former captain in the US Army Reserve shares how after just one round of EFT tapping, soldiers were noticeably changed.

photo by Lance Cpl. Jason T. Guiliano

By Constance Louie-Handelman, Ph.D CPT, USAR, MS

I began investigating Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) when a friend told me about “tapping.”

Although I have a Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology, I was continually searching for other effective techniques that could help clients. I studied EMDR, Neuro-linguistic Programming and hypnotherapy.

However, after studying and practicing EFT, I found it worked quickly in eliminating fears, limiting beliefs, pain, and releasing traumatic events. Every opportunity I had, I used EFT with family, friends, and clients and achieved excellent long lasting results. I was so confident in EFT that I felt I had something to offer when I read about the high rate of suicide among U.S. soldiers.

I was commissioned as a captain in the US Army Reserve on March 2010, and was deployed to Afghanistan from July 2011 to May 2012. As a psychologist, I was in charge of a forward operating base in Kandahar Province and officially saw 199 individual soldiers (574 sessions).

Once I established rapport, understood their problems and needs, I used EFT primarily for anger, sleep, depression, and stress.

After just one round of tapping, soldiers were noticeably more relieved and calmer. Soon thereafter, soldiers added more details about their problems, or expressed issues that they had kept to themselves for years. Feeling the positive profound result, it was then easy to encourage soldiers to learn how to tap, something they could do themselves in a matter of minutes, in order to release past, current, anticipated problems or “pre-emptive tapping,” as one soldier called it.

The ease to learn and to apply the tapping was an important element of EFT since I often saw a solider just for one session.

I realized the success of EFT when soldiers were able to return to full duty, wanting to learn more about EFT, or having referred other soldiers into my office. Since returning home, I am disheartened to learn that EFT is not an accepted technique in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Fortunately, there is the Veterans Stress Project (www.stressproject.org) that offers free EFT sessions for returning vets

I can only hope that the VA’s powers-to-be will soon realize the effectiveness of EFT in order to help thousands of suffering vets, thus making a dramatic dent in the suicide rate. 

No more rationed care for veterans, thank you IAVA

Dear readers,

If you signed and helped pass this legislation, you've probably received your own letter from IAVA and Paul. If not, the good news is THEY DID IT! These guys are really on the ball, they passed this new GI Bill, by tapping into the Veterans community on and off line. My hat is off to them and I strongly recommend you get on their e-mail list, so you can help them support all veterans, combat and non-combat, male and female, from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. Here's the letter they sent explaining more about that recent GI Bill...

Dear Lisa,

I'm writing from Washington, DC, and I have some big news.

The President just signed IAVA's number one legislative priority for the year into law- advance funding for VA healthcare. And it's all because of your support.

Click here to watch a quick video update I recorded at the White House before the signing ceremony, and find out how you played a huge role in today's victory.

The new law requires Congress to pass the VA healthcare budget one year in advance. It means no more rationed care for veterans- regardless of what year it is, or what party is in power. Period.

This is what we've been fighting for since January- and it's a huge win for veterans of all generations.

For the past ten months, you've played a crucial role in this historic process by calling Congress, forwarding emails, making donations, and recruiting others to join the fight. Click here to see how you contributed to this historic victory.

Last year, IAVA made passing a new GI Bill our number one priority. And because of you, we got it done. This year, we chose a new goal, and again, we got it done. You stepped up to the plate, and ensured that the VA will always have a budget that passes on time.

Click here to see how we won this fight together.

Thank you for standing with us.

Sincerely,

Paul

Paul Rieckhoff
Executive Director & Founder
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)

Hey folks,

this is REALLY important so pay attention . Take 5-10 minutes to read the links and call your senator. I just did it, it takes literally 4-5 minutes to call. Paul from IAVA has provided a call back number, so all you do is plug in your zip code and they take care of the rest. You are connected with your senators office, you can let them know about how you feel about them not getting this vote passed in time for VA hospital funding. thanks for helping to take care of the men and women who are taking care of us!!

Dear Veteran supporter,

This could be one of the most important phone calls you make this year.

Last week, the Senate failed to pass the VA budget, and six million veterans who rely on the VA for healthcare are paying the price. All passing the budget takes is one vote - the Senate just hasn't gotten around to it.

Now, VA hospitals and clinics nationwide can't plan for critical staffing and equipment needs, leading to longer waits for appointments, and rationed care. This is completely unacceptable.

Take action by calling your Senators now. Tell them to pass the VA budget, so that veterans get the care they deserve. Click here to place your call - our online tool makes it easy.

The VA budget has been late an astounding 20 times in the last 23 years. And every year we've had to fight to get it passed. But your phone call could change that forever. This year's budget includes a provision that will fund the VA a full year in advance. Advance funding the VA is IAVA's top legislative goal for 2009, and it means veterans' healthcare will never be rationed again.

So please place a call to your Senators now and make sure that the VA is fully funded this year, and for years to come.

The only budget that Congress passed on time last week is the one that pays their salaries. Veterans shouldn't have to wait while Congress gets paid. Help us change that today.

Thank you for making your voice heard.

Sincerely,

Paul

Paul Rieckhoff
Executive Director & Founder
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)

Parents-soldiers will need your help!

Time Magazine reports-

"For the first time in history, a sizable and growing number of U.S. combat troops are taking daily doses of antidepressants to calm nerves strained by repeated and lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The medicines are intended not only to help troops keep their cool but also to enable the already strapped Army to preserve its most precious resource: soldiers on the front lines."

This is what one combat sergent discovered after some heavy missions...

"LeJeune visited a military doctor in Iraq, who, after a quick session, diagnosed depression. The doctor sent him back to war armed with the antidepressant Zoloft and the antianxiety drug clonazepam. "It's not easy for soldiers to admit the problems that they're having over there for a variety of reasons," LeJeune says. "If they do admit it, then the only solution given is pills."

... any drug that keeps a soldier deployed and fighting also saves money on training and deploying replacements. But there is a downside: the number of soldiers requiring long-term mental-health services soars with repeated deployments and lengthy combat tours. If troops do not get sufficient time away from combat — both while in theater and during the "dwell time" at home before they go back to war — it's possible that antidepressants and sleeping aids will be used to stretch an already taut force even tighter. "

These kids coming back will have several issues to deal with. May of them simply won't be able to coop on their own. Much less to try and get their lives back to normal. Adding drugs to the mix may effectively hide symptoms, but don't be fooled. They will need extra time, care, attention and love to aid healing. (At a time when they may accept it from you least.)

Take care of yourself first, so that you can be your best, calmest, most loving self, in order to start to help them find a way out of the downward spiral they may find themselves in. To help both you and them-look into complementary health alternatives as a way to assist the mental and physical healing. Reiki, aromatherapy, cranial sacral, reflexology, EMDR, Quantum Touch, the list goes on and on. And though the healing stories may be largely antidoctal-the vast quantity of them is to large to ignore!

Our favorite is EFT www.emofree.com. It's inexpensive, it can be done over the telephone, can be done in groups or alone, with or without the help of a professional, (although at first we recommend finding an expert practitioner) and has no side effects. Once you learn how, the whole family can use it.

Illustration by Lon Tweeten and D.W. Pine for TIME

Combating P.T.S.D. and Preventing Suicides

by Jennifer Litz
Del Rio LIVE!

Pat Dugan was a reconnaissance marine corporal in Vietnam for 19 months, starting in 1966. He’s now a passionate voice for veteran help that resounds throughout West Texas. “I am seeing one of the biggest mushroom clouds,” Dugan says of times ahead for Iraq/Afghanistan veterans. “’... there are no front lines in this war. You can be [in a non-combat service] and get your butt blown off the road there with anyone else. Everyone’s sitting around waiting for an explosion to go off, and they send you back and back for more tours.”

When these vets do come back home—or in between myriad deployments—they’re still fighting—for their benefits. “In Del Rio, for example, we’ve got people with problems,” Dugan says. “And they have to travel 150 miles to get help [at a VA clinic]. And then when you get up there, I’m not being mean, but when you go up there and apply to get help, you get some VA muffin that’s not a veteran, and they put you through mental gymnastics like you wouldn’t believe. [Vets] don’t want to be humiliated and go through that process.”

This is a great article on a upcoming progressive treatment center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Texas. Dugan points out 3 classic problems for getting treatment from traditional sources for PTSD...
1. fighting for benefits
2. traveling 150 miles to get help from a VA clinic
3. humiliation of the process
That's what I like about using EFT for this population. Once they know how to do it, they can start healing without the fighting, traveling or waiting. They can work with a practitioner or they can work on their own. They can use the Emotional Freedom Technique at home, on the road, sitting in traffic-anywhere. They can find a buddy to do it with. And if they can't do it on their own-family members, friends and spouses can do it with them. How many therapies can you say that about?

More great news!! The Army is looking at complimentary healing.

Well what an amazing opening. Looks like the government is ready for some new ideas. My guess is they've got a bigger problem than they have answers for and have already started seeing some successes from the alternative/complementary health arena.

It's wonderful that they are ready to look into ANYTHING to find some help for this new population. OK, well not new. Ask any WW1 vet, WW2 vet, Korean war vet, Vietnam vet, Falkland vet, Gulf War vet, Afghanistan vet or Iraq vet about PTSD. It hasn't always been called that but it's always been the result of war.

And it does show an exciting potential for healing!!

The government is spending 4$ million to look at alternative healing for Vets.

Army's New PTSD Treatments: Yoga, Reiki, 'Bioenergy'

By Noah Shachtman

The military is scrambling for new ways to treat the brain injuries and post-traumatic stress of troops returning home from war. And every kind of therapy -- no matter how far outside the accepted medical form -- is being considered. The Army just unveiled a $4 million program to investigate everything from "spiritual ministry, transcendental meditation, [and] yoga" to "bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, [and] distant healing" to mend the psyches of wounded troops.

As many as 17 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have some form of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, one congressional study estimates. Nearly 3,300 troops have suffered traumatic brain injury, or TBI, according to statistics assembled last summer. And the lifetime costs of treating these ailments could pile up to as much as $35 billion, a Columbia University report guesses.

Small wonder, then, that the government is looking for alternate means to treat these injuries. The Defense Department "is dedicated to supporting evidence-based approaches to medical treatment and wants to support the use of alternative therapies if they are proven efficacious," notes a recently-issued request for proposals.

"Music, animal-facilitated therapy, art, dance/movement, massage therapy, EMDR [Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing] program evaluation, virtual reality, acupuncture, spiritual ministry, transcendental meditation, [and] yoga," might all be considered worth of the military's largess. So would "biologically-based treatments, botanicals, and nutritional supplements for enhancing cognitive function and mood in patients with trauma spectrum disorders, including TBI and/or PTSD, depression, anxiety, and/or substance dependence/abuse." Even proposals for wild-sounding "therapies using bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, distant healing and acupuncture" would be accepted.

Was the side effect of this medication Death?

The Cost of War by Julie Robinson

Stan and Shirley White of Cross Lanes remember they were at a restaurant that day - Sept. 26, 2005. They were talking about their youngest son, Andrew, and about how happy they were to have him home safe from Iraq.

Staff writer Charleston Gazette

Stan and Shirley White of Cross Lanes remember they were at a restaurant that day - Sept. 26, 2005. They were talking about their youngest son, Andrew, and about how happy they were to have him home safe from Iraq.

Then, Shirley's cell phone rang.

It was their daughter-in-law on the other end - the wife of their middle son, Bob, who was stationed in Afghanistan with the Army. Bob's Humvee had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. He was gone.

Now, 2 1/2 years later - on Feb. 12 - the Whites lost 23-year-old Andrew. He died mysteriously in his sleep, just as he was beginning an achingly slow climb out of the debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder.

"You really can't compare the two deaths, but directly and indirectly, both of their deaths are a result of the war," Stan said. "As a parent, you fear for them when they go to war. You fear for their lives over there. Andrew was home. We thought he was safe."

They are waiting for autopsy results, but the circumstances of Andrew's death mirror those of two other local servicemen, also treated for PTSD and taking the same medications.

"Is there a connection? We don't know," Stan said. "When you're 23, you're not supposed to go to sleep and not wake up.

"It seems like a cruel joke for him to die just when he was getting better," Shirley said.

Searching for answers

Since then, the Whites learned that the mysterious circumstances of Andrew's death are markedly similar to those of two other local servicemen who were being treated for PSTD with the same medications - Paxil, Klonopin and Seroquel.

you can read the rest of this story at...http://wvgazette.com/News/200803150602

The encouraging thing about energy medicine is that there are no negative side effects. Many different energy techniques have very positive side effects however-more energy, deeper sleep, less tension, better digestion, improved memory and especially increased happiness.

More good news!

Things are starting to move!

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake today said an expansion by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of its Vet Centers, which provide readjustment counseling and outreach services to returning combat veterans, is well ahead of schedule.

In February 2007, VA announced it would open 23 new centers during the next two years. Fifteen of those centers are already operational, and five others are seeing patients in temporary facilities while finalizing their leases. The other three facilities will begin operations later this year.

"Building on our past successes, 2008 will see a permanent increase in the number of Vet Centers, as we bring the remaining facilities on line to reach a record 232 Vet Centers by the end of the year," Peake said.

"To support this expansion and augment the staff at 61 existing Vet Centers, this year we are channeling a 44 percent increase in funding to the Readjustment Counseling Service, which operates the Vet Centers -- nearly $50 million more than last year's budget," he added.

The community-based Vet Centers are a key component of VA's mental health program, providing veterans with mental health screening and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) counseling, along with help for family members dealing with bereavement and loved ones with PTSD.

The 15 new Vet Centers that are open in permanent locations are in Binghamton, N.Y.; Middletown, N.Y.; Watertown, N.Y.; Hyannis, Conn.; DuBois, Pa.; Gainesville, Fla.; Melbourne, Fla.; Macon, Ga.; Manhattan, Kansas; Escanaba, Mich.; Saginaw, Mich.; Grand Junction, Colo.; Baton Rouge, La.; Killeen, Texas; and Las Cruces, N.M.

Five additional Vet Centers are providing services in temporary space while they finalize their leases: They are in Toledo, Ohio; Ft. Myers, Fla.; Montgomery, Ala.; Everett, Wash.; and Modesto, Calif.

The final three locations where Vet Centers will open for clients later this year are in Berlin, N.H., Nassau County, N.Y., and Fayetteville, Ark.

Vet Centers provide counseling on employment, plus services on family issues, education and outreach, to combat veterans and their families. Vet Centers are staffed by small teams of professional counselors, outreach specialists and other specialists, many of whom are combat veterans themselves.

VA's Vet Centers have hired 100 combat veterans back from Iraq and Afghanistan as outreach specialists, often placing them near military processing stations, to brief servicemen and women leaving the military about VA benefits.

These outreach specialists meet with returning veterans, work through family assistance centers and visit military installations to carry the message that VA will be there for the troops and family members after discharge.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Homeless vets-VA has a bigger count than Bill O'Reilly

Last night, Bill O'Reilly talked about the plight of homeless veterans on his television show. Unfortunately, he got the facts wrong.

O'Reilly: "They (homeless veterans) may be out there, but there's not many of them out there. Okay?...If you know where there is a veteran, sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it."

I'm not sure where Mr. O'Reilly got his statistics but according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, almost 200,000 veterans sleep on our nation's streets each night. And Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are joining those ranks at an alarming rate. In fact veterans make up about a third of the homeless adults in America.

If you would like to drop Bill a line go to http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/436/t/26/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=884
and sign the open letter that Paul Rieckhoff from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America has organized. Awareness is the first way to encourage the healing that these vets deserve.