By Carol Look, EFT Master
Note: To augment her original article
(below) Dr. Carol Look conducted a further follow-up with
her client after 5-6 years. She reports as follows: I
told my doorman "John" that I was interested in how well
the one short EFT session for the treatment of his chronic
migraine condition had lasted. John told me that after
suffering from weekly and sometimes daily migraines since
childhood, he hadn't had a single migraine since the EFT
treatment, which was between 5 and 6 years ago. He still
doesn't understand what went on in my office, but is
thrilled with his relief.
About 18 months ago I had a session with "John," a New
York City doorman, who described searing pain at least
once a day from migraine headaches. He had finally
returned to work after months of medical treatment
following an incident where he ended up in the middle of a
street fight. He had been hit over the head with a lead
pipe and ended up in the hospital with his skull split
open. He has no memory of the accident. After weeks of
hospital procedures and recovery, his final surgery was to
place a metal plate in his skull.
In my office, John's current headache was only a "4"
with pain and aches traveling down his neck to his
shoulders. His eyes looked watery and he was clearly
uncomfortable. He said a "4" wasn't too bad since he lived
with "8's", "10's" and "off-the-chart" pain on a regular
basis. In fact, he was a little disappointed that my scale
[0-10 intensity] only went to a "10." We tapped as
follows:
"Even though I have this dull headache..."Even though
my head always hurts..."Even though my neck and shoulders
are tight/sore..."Even though my head is throbbing..."Even
though I can't see when I have these headaches...
We "chased the pain" in regular EFT fashion as it moved
locations and changed either quality or texture.
GC: This procedure is described in
our tape set, Steps toward becoming The Ultimate
Therapist. I used the exact words John used and
tapped on myself at the same time. When John's current
headache was reduced to a "1" we moved to work on the
trauma of the accident. Since John had an amnesic period
of about 3 days, he couldn't "tune in" to rate the trauma
on a 0-10 scale. I asked him to follow my words and tap
for it anyway, knowing that aspects of the trauma were
stored somewhere, even if currently inaccessible by normal
channels of recall.
"Even though I'm upset that I got caught in the
fight..."Even though I don't remember what
happened..."Even though I got hit over the head and my
head still hurts..."Even though I suffered from the
accident...the surgery...and myheadaches...
Then we talked more about John's recent headache
patterns and why he never took anything stronger than
Advil for the pain. He said, "All my life I've never
gone near a painkiller..." I asked, "What do you
mean, 'all my life...' " To my surprise, John told me
that, BY THE WAY, he had suffered from migraine headaches
since he was a little kid! He said that when he first had
migraines, no one knew what they were and he would tell
his mother he "had one of those fevers again." I
had mistakenly assumed his headaches were a direct result
of the accident, and had missed this HUGE aspect. We
continued tapping:
"Even though I've always had migraines..."Even though
my head has hurt me since I was a little kid..."Even
though I have no idea why I've had migraines all my
life..."Even though I don't know the SOURCE of my
migraines...(This phrase seemed to hit a target as
evidenced by facial movements and a sigh or two.)
Of course we couldn't rate these issues on the 0-10
scale, but I listened to that intuitive "pull" to use
these phrases.
John left the office looking and feeling much better
(no glassy eyes) but was still skeptical about the strange
treatment. He knew nothing about acupuncture and didn't
"believe" in therapy, so the analogy of EFT being a form
of "Psychological Acupuncture" fell on deaf ears. I gave
him the homework assignment of tapping every morning for
"Even though I've had migraines all my life..."
and tapping each time he felt a migraine beginning to
brew.
When I spoke with John last Thursday for a follow-up
discussion, he reported that he hadn't needed to do any
tapping other than during the first two weeks since our
session because his migraines were totally gone. His
friends had mocked him [re: tapping] during that first two
week period, but since he was able to effectively reduce
any pain to a "1" or a "0" each time, he didn't care. John
was beaming about the success of the treatment and the
empowerment it gave him, and of course, he was enormously
grateful for the pain relief. "No more lying down in
the middle of the day." John explained that he used
to take unscheduled breaks from his doorman shifts to lie
down when his migraines became unbearable.
I asked several questions, checking and testing for
details about his symptoms. "No more headaches
whatsoever?" John said, "Well, once in a while I
get a little headache if I've stayed out too late or if I
don't get enough sleep..." (don't we all...) "but
nothing like what I used to get."
Love, Carol
