Client Success Story: Clearing PTSD symptoms and breaking patterns of depression and anxiety
If you are curious to learn more about the client experience and potential results of EFT, Gemma's journey is one that shows you what is possible. Gemma was a client who had one to one EFT sessions with me over a 6 month period and was committed to the healing journey. After the first session, she began to experience positive shifts in mind and body - by the end her PTSD symptoms had cleared. She also experienced a significant reduction and shift in her symptoms of anxiety and depression. I asked her to share some of her experiences of the process with you and these are her words. I have changed her name to protect her privacy.
How did the EFT sessions help you?
The EFT sessions with Nicole have completely changed my experience of the world. Since having regular sessions with Nicole, I have noticed a radical change in my experience in my day to day life, as well as when stressful situations arise – I’m much more able to deal with them without feeling I’m helpless and unable to move forwards through it.
I would say that my PTSD was cleared through my sessions with Nicole. Both through the EFT work that we’ve done together and which I continued to do in between sessions at home solo. It was something that I didn’t know I would be able to live my life without, it is an incredible relief and joy that it is possible to have the PTSD lifted and to live more fully without it.
It doesn’t mean that I don’t get stressed or anxious or worried, but the degree to which that happens and the effect that that has in my daily life is completely different. Having worked through some of the key challenging experiences in my life, I’ve been able to let go of a lot that was holding me back from living more fully in my day to day life and now I feel able to take on challenges that allow me to grow even more.
I was particularly struck one day when lying in bed, I realised that the mental window that I usually looked out at the world from was no longer there. It was like a great big weight or dark cloud or a combination of both had been lifted. I just felt so liberated and so relieved that it was actually possible to live without that in my life.
What brought you to EFT?
I came with what presented as periodic overwhelm, depression and anxiety. When these particular mental states were triggered I often felt like I was living from a very young age, living as me in child form in a traumatic or challenging situation, rather than living as me as an adult.
I came to EFT having experienced various other types of therapy including counselling and other kinds of bodywork. What I had experienced in the other therapies was growth, change and deepened awareness, but what I was now finding was a growing realisation that I had experienced PTSD.
I lived my life from what felt like behind a veil or a door, or so it felt, with symptoms of PTSD cropping up particularly in times of stress and difficulty in my life. I was previously triggered at times back into a childhood state, living through old patterns, old habits and old fears - feeling helpless, stuck and unable to move forwards, sometimes with very simple tasks or decisions in my life.
At times I was very much able to cope, living my life pretty fully. However, at other times it could feel debilitating, I was sometimes experiencing panic attacks and feeling overwhelmed by my own emotional responses to the world and to my memories.
I felt very clear that I needed to deal with the PTSD from my childhood experiences and the traumas I’d experienced in my life. Before this time, I might not have freely acknowledged that I actually experienced PTSD or that my mental health challenges and my experiences in life were really that debilitating at times.
What were the most powerful aspects of the sessions for you?
I find Nicole’s ability to see what is going on for me during the session incredibly powerful. For example, she might notice a shift in me or a different thought arising as we worked on a memory that I was exploring. Through observing these things, asking questions and bringing them to light it helps me to go much deeper in my process. This allows me to really get to the crux of a memory or an experience and to let go of it on a fundamental level.
For me, some of the strongest parts of my experience in my sessions with Nicole have been when she helped me to see, whilst we are Tapping, that a negative belief or habitual view that I have isn't really true as I hear it mirrored back to me and questioned. From hearing this, feeling this and Tapping through it, I was able to let go of those beliefs. I can sometimes physically feel this released in the body – as almost a twitching or a shaking out down through the ground.
Another strong aspect of the sessions for me is the combination of Tapping to release challenging experiences or negative views, in combination with the bringing in of a positive state of mind. This happened for me in a session when Nicole used hypnosis techniques and visualisation to bring in positive emotions such as the sense of being empowered, being capable and being confident. Through these I was able to anchor in those feelings, so that I could really feel them throughout my whole being, my whole timeline and move into the rest of my day knowing those qualities more in my body.
Any unexpected surprises?
I think one of the big surprises, after the alleviation of my PTSD symptoms, was a number of my significant habitual tendencies and protective patterning were alleviated. To give some examples of these:
Depression and low mood have been a huge part of my life since my childhood and through into my adult life. What I have noticed since having the sessions with Nicole and also doing EFT myself in between sessions, is that depression doesn’t arise in the same way for me. I haven’t experienced those huge lows on a regular basis, or even occasionally in the same way that I did before. Particular situations still give rise to it, but it really doesn’t feel like it’s there in the same way that I’ve experienced throughout my life.
This was a big surprise because I felt like this was just a part of who I am and how I experienced the world. So it was surprising to realise that even this habitual tendency and my patterning that leads me towards depressive tendencies are possible to change. It’s liberating to realise this and also to see the effects of this and to see the possibilities that this gives rise to.
Another is that since childhood and through my adult life I had experienced huge amounts of fear - particularly fear of being killed or fear of death. Through working on particular memories and also working through fear as it arose in my day to day life, I’ve been able to get to the point where even when I go to places that have tended to be triggering of that fear in my adult life, I’ve actually been able to be quite calm and not feel that fear arise and not feel caught up in that child place of being terrified.
How did you find the EFT sessions with Nicole?
In my first session with Nicole I was a bit unsure about what to expect even though I had done some EFT before, mostly on my own. But Nicole was great and she put me at ease straight away, and I felt confident to share deeply and to move through material with her.
In that first session, we worked very strongly and very deeply with some challenging material, and I could really physically feel the release of my physical holding and emotional tensions. At times we also explored how to bring in and really feel positive qualities such as strength, empowerment and joy.
In the visualisations, I felt something shift in my being and a change in my mental states, following the release from the Tapping. At the end of the first session I felt like a lot had dropped away in a positive way; I felt very different from how it felt when I first went into the session. I also felt quite tired. That has been a common part of my experience following EFT sessions with Nicole, the tiredness feels like part of the integration process and the need to rest and allow the changes to settle.
What would you want to tell anyone wondering about trying it?
I would say go for it! You have a lot to gain from the freedom and the possibility that the EFT sessions with Nicole can offer. Nicole is such an inspiring and supportive practitioner to work with. It’s not only been worthwhile but it’s been completely life changing for me, liberating me from my past experiences.
Going into those places that are challenging is unlikely to ever be easy whatever kind of therapy we are using, whether it’s counselling, body work or EFT specifically, but Nicole holds an incredibly safe space and she offers amazingly intuitive practice that is so supportive in that process. I’m not sure there are many other people that I could feel that safe with in order to do that challenging work.
If there was a possibility to alleviate some of the suffering you experience through the difficulties in your life, through depression or anxiety or overwhelm, would it be worth doing EFT? Would it be worth trying it? I think probably most people would say it would be, and that certainly has been my experience.
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