A Dont-Think-About-It Treatment for Trauma 2004 (Revised 2009) red !" #a$$o% !

!hD Many standard treatments for trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and phobias are being supplanted by or integrated with newer methods based on different assumptions. These therapies often produce trauma relief within a single sessions, alleviating intrusive thoughts, flashbac s, an!iety, panic attac s, depression, guilt feelings, emotional numbing, and dissociation. Simultaneous stimulation or dual focus of attention is an obvious factor in these therapies. "n eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (#MD$) the client reviews the traumatic memory while engaging in bilateral patterns of eye movement or even alternate hand tapping. Many energy psychology (#P) approaches such as thought field therapy (T%T) and emotional freedom techniques (#%T) similarly directs the client to thin about or attune the trauma while tapping a se&uence of acupuncture meridian points or acupoints. 'ith visual/kinesthetic dissociation (()*D) the client reviews the trauma from a position of therapeutic dissociation+,'atch you watching yourself going through that trauma way over there in the past.- .nd traumatic incident reduction (T"$) engages the client in bac /and/forth viewing and then telling about the trauma in detail until the missing pieces of the pu00le are assembled. Since the 1223 demonstration pro4ect of these power therapies by 5harles %igley and 6oyce 5arbonell at %lorida State 7niversity, other approaches have been developed that employ similar yet innovative strategies. " developed energy diagnostic and treatment methods (#D!TM), which includes an easily applied global treatment+the negative affect erasing method (8.#M)1+that can be used for trauma)PTSD, phobias, an!iety, and affective conditions. #D!TM and 8.#M are e!amples of what " call energy psychology, which includes TFT and a number of related energy/based methods. These approaches are based on the assumption that there e!ist subtle energies in the body that serve as a control system for emotions as well as health in general. (%or detailed coverage of these innovations, see my edited volume Energy psychology in psychotherapy: A comprehensive source book (8orton, 9::9). There are many active ingredients that account for the effectiveness and efficiency the power therapies, although here " will focus on energy psychology. "n addition to dual focus of attention, similar to 6oseph 'olpe;s counter conditioning techni&ue+systematic desensitization+" believe that reciprocal inhibition is a factor. "n systematic desensiti0ation, clients are taught to deeply rela! and then imagine increasingly distressing images related to their phobia. The idea here is that you can;t rela! and be an!ious or distressed at the same time. #nergy psychology produces relief much faster than traditional counter conditioning techni&ues. <y tapping on certain
1

.lso called Midline #nergy Treatment (M#T)

Don;t/Thin /.bout/"t Treatment for Trauma

acupoints while thin ing about the traumatic event, it becomes difficult to lose yourself in the trauma, and therefore you are unli ely to become distressed. Similar effects are achieved by stimulating the <ennett neurovascular refle!es on the head or the arma (vital points) of =oga. "n addition to reciprocal inhibition, " believe that other active ingredients include the degree of rapport between therapist and client> maintaining orientation to present time, rather than becoming emotionally submerged into the traumatic memory> e!pectations of immediate positive results> parado!ical intention> pattern interruption and disruption> interrupting the limbic system;s stress response associated with the memory> activating subtle energies> and directly targeting or attuning the memory and negative emotions. .lthough abreaction is considered to be favorable according to some therapies, e!posure to the point of emotional flooding is unnecessary from the standpoint of energy psychology. "f one of the most fundamental aspects of the trauma is the subtle energetic substrate that triggers the chain of events that maintain the trauma, then only the most subtle degree of tuning the trauma is needed, as the following case illustrates. .manda was an attractive 12/year/old female college student who was brought to me by her mother because of PTSD as a result of a severe automobile accident. The into!icated driver of the other vehicle crossed over the medial strip and struc .manda;s car head/on, unfortunately illing himself and his two passengers. .manda was pinned under the dashboard for over three hours while a rescue team applied the 6aws of ?ife and cut her out of her car. She was then life flighted to a hospital and later spent several months in a rehabilitation center and in a wheel chair. She suffered bro en an les, a bro en arm and shoulder, bac in4uries, and facial lacerations. 'hen she came to me eleven months after the accident, she had been e!periencing fre&uent nightmares, flashbac s, panic episodes, generali0ed an!iety, guilt feelings and anger related to the traumatic event. .manda and her mother participated throughout the initial session, at which time inta e and detailed history were obtained. During that time we also had some light hearted tal and developed rapport. Toward the end of this first session, " told .manda that " had some ways to help people overcome painful memories that often wor ed &uic ly and painlessly. " indicated that " didn;t now if this would help+since we only had about ten minutes left in the session+but at the very least " wanted to introduction her to the ind of wor we would be doing in future sessions. " as ed her to bring to mind an aspect of the accident that still bothered her. She chose to focus on the time when she was pinned under the dashboard and she rated her sub4ective units of distress (S7D) on a 0ero/to/ten scale as a nine at the time of our session. " then as ed her to imitate me as " tapped with my fingers at specific locations on my body. .lso rather than as ing .manda to hold the traumatic memory in mind and ris abreaction, " as ed to dismiss it from her mind and to assume a specific body posture called a leg lock or pause lock in order to maintain the bioenergetic information about the trauma at a subtle, more comfortable level during the treatment process. The leg loc
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involves standing or sitting with legs abducted+similar to the second position in ballet+ after the trauma has been brought to mind and rated. .lthough this and other loc ing procedure have many advantages fre&uently they are unnecessary, since the trauma tends to resonate at a subtle level+li e the lingering vibration of a tuning for +after it has been brought to mind. 'e then went through the 8.#M protocol, intermittently reassessing the S7D level. 8.#M includes tapping, rubbing, or pressure touching several times at four locations+on the forehead above the nose, also called the third eye point> under the nose> under the bottom lip> and at the upper section of the chest bone, also called the thymus point since this is the location of the thymus gland. .fter one round of 8.#M, " as ed .manda not to bring the trauma to mind but to simply guess what the level of distress would be if she were to recall it vividly. .t this point she said that she did not thin it would be different. ,Still a nine,- she said. " told her that was fine and that we should give this another try. .gain " guided her through 8.#M@ third eye point, under nose, under bottom lip, thymus point, after which " as ed her to estimate the level of distress if she were to thin about the event. This time she said, ," feel more rela!ed. " thin it might be a si!.8e!t " too her though the brain balancing procedure by having her follow my fingers in a hori0ontal A across her line of vision while she tapped on the far ends of her eyebrows near her temples and alternated counting to five and humming the scale. .fter this she estimated that the S7D would be a three if she were to really thin about the event vividly. .fter two more rounds of 8.#M followed by a vertical eye movement techni&ue combined with tapping on the bac of her hand between and above the little finger and ring finger nuc les, .manda said that she did not thin it would bother her if she were to ,really- thin about being pinned under the dash board. So " as ed her to chec it out. .fter reviewing the scene for a couple seconds, she laughed and enthusiastically responded, ,'owB "t doesn;t bother me nowB Cow does that wor D" told her that while " would be happy to e!plain this to her, " wasn;t sure she had given this a fair test yet. So " as ed her to review the memory in more detail to be sure that it did not bother her. .fter about ten seconds she shoo her head, laughed, and reported that it still didn;t bother her. 8e!t " as ed .manda to do one more test. " set a timer for one minute and as ed her to try to bother herself about the memory while her mother and " tal ed over a few things. " pointed out that if she could feel distress about any aspect of the event that would mean that we needed to do some more treatment on that memory. To really test it out, " as ed her to picture the event as it was+the way her body was positioned in the car, the front seat cramping her in, sounds of the rescue wor ers cutting her out of the car, and so on. To no avail .manda tried her hardest to become upset about this vivid memory. She was able to review the event calmly in detail. Cer comment was, ,"t;s ama0ingB 8o big deal nowB Cow does that wor D- .t this point " told her why " thought
Don;t/Thin /.bout/"t Treatment for Trauma E

this wor ed and we and reviewed how she could repeat the treatment if it became necessary between sessions. %ollow/up sessions at one wee , two wee s, and two months revealed that after that initial treatment, .manda no longer e!perienced nightmares and flashbac s about that trauma. During the course of therapy, other aspects of the trauma, including survivor guilt and anger, were treated in a similar manner. These issues were also relieved efficiently by using either 8.#M or, when necessary, an energy diagnostic and treatment methods (#D!TM) protocol that involves manual muscle testing to more precisely diagnose acupoints needed to relieve her distress. During the initial session .manda revealed that from ages five through twelve, a relative molested her when she was a child. .fter successfully treating all of the aspects of the vehicular trauma, we treated several of her distressing memories of being molested. These traumas were readily resolved in similar ways, without having to intensely thin about the events. #ven after treating the traumatic memories that she was conscious of, she reported a lingering feeling of being ,dirty and disgusting,- which was locali0ed in the vicinity of the lower abdomen. .lthough she could not attach specific memories to this feeling, she said that this made her feel that she was not worthwhile. 'ith energy psychology we were able to dissipate this sensation permanently in a single session and her sense of not being worthy vanished with it. ! realize the limitations of anecdotal reports and that e"perimental studies are needed before energy psychology will be accepted by the scientific and therapeutic communities# !nsufficient compared to the vast number of e"perimental studies on cognitive behavioral therapy$ however% to date over &' studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of E(% and many are randomized controlled trials )Feinstein *'+*,# -evertheless% these treatment results have become quite common and we should not forget that e"perimental studies are actually anecdotal reports systematically gathered according to statistical guidelines to control for other variables and in order to generalize to the wider population# Also my colleagues and ! have similarly treated thousands of clients suffering from intense traumas# The results are generally achieved efficiently and without the client having to e"perience distress during the process# .ou might say that therapist enthusiasm is another active ingredient% to which we should e"tend a hearty welcome# /owever% !0ve never found enthusiasm to be the sufficient condition for therapeutic success# Cow will these results ultimately be e!plainedD .s it is often said, ,The 4ury is still out.- .s one of the 4urors, " believe that energy psychology does e!actly what the name implies. 'hile psychological problems can be viewed cognitively, neurologically, chemically, and behaviorally, they are also energetic. Fur bodies and nervous systems operate electrically and electromagnetically at both profound and subtle levels. This is even the basis of medical technologies such as electroencephalography (##G), electrocardiography (#*G), magnetic resonance imaging (M$"), etc. %undamentally everything is energy, with matter being fro0en energy. . traumatic e!perience includes a
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strong electromagnetic charge that is captured by the nervous system in a stable form+ also called information+in the same way that pebbles tossed into a pond would leave an ongoing record if the pond could free0e instantly upon impact. <y attuning the trauma and activating subtle energy systems, the stored information is released. #nergy psychology thaws the pond.
red !" #a$$o% !h"D., clinical psychologist, maintains a private clinical practice in Cermitage, P.. Ce offers certification training internationally in Advanced Energy (sychology )AE(,% including #nergy Diagnostic and Treatment Methods (#D!TM) I, #nergy 5onsciousness Therapy (#5T) I, and the "dentity Method ("M) I. Ce has published eight boo s in addition to numerous articles, manuals, and boo chapters on brief therapies and energy psychology. &ib$io'ra(h) Gallo, %. 122A. Energy (sychology, 5$5 Press 11111111111 9:::. Energy 2iagnostic and Treatment ethods, '. '. 8orton /////////// (#d.) 9::9. Energy (sychology in (sychotherapy: A 3omprehensive 4ourcebook , '. '. 8orton /////////// 9::3. Energy (sychology Jsecond editionK, 5$5 Press /////////// 9::L. Energy Tapping for Trauma, 8ew Carbinger Gallo, %. and C. (incen0i. 9:::. Energy Tapping, 8ew Carbinger Gallo, %. and C. (incen0i. 9::A. Energy Tapping (Second #dition), 8ew Carbinger. %urman, M. and %. Gallo. 9:::. The -europhysics of /uman 5ehavior, 5$5 Press

Don;t/Thin /.bout/"t Treatment for Trauma