To everyone who is requesting and responding,

Let's say that being very very traumatised afterwards is a possible consequence of big reversals, or severe trauma or incapable therapists. How come none of this is ever mentioned with relation to energy work/EFT/hypnotherapy/CST, as a possible side effect?

Is it ethical?

I also once had a bad experience, of feeling terrible after an unfinished clearing session. But then, the time was up, and the therapist couldn't/wouldn't stay until I felt safe again. If I wanted another session, I'd have to pay again. But was this ever going to end? I kept going a few times, and possibly if I'd kept going enough it would have been resolved - but maybe, with that practitioner's experience, it would have been a two year thing. Or 'one more session' thing. The person being treated is in a very vulnerable position. I think that if a therapist manages to stir so many things up in a session the therapist should give not only acknowledgement of the trauma being felt (as FromFrance was denied by the man in charge of the institute), but they should also provide free sessions until they return to at least the level of functioning they were previously at.

It doesn't seem ethical to leave a client like that. Shaking. Vulnerable. Depressed. Unsupported. Alone. Desperate.

Rachel

(...)they should also provide free sessions until they return to at least the level of functioning they were previously at.

The position of power that the role of therapist gives to an individual has in itself the potential to make the individual less sensitive to the client's vulnerability and powerlessness. I guess it is similarly to politics where the power has in itself the potential to corrupt an individual who has the power, and the absolute power has the potential to corrupt absolutely.

I'll try to respond without getting up on my soapbox on this one. No, it's not ethical to traumatise someone through therapy - but it is possible. This is where I think the majority of training for EFT is sadly lacking. Fortunately for me, coming to EFT via hypnotherapy and counselling, I have been steeped in ethics and boundaries. Some of it is sadly out of date and a hindrance, but some of it is helpful. One of the key safety guidelines has always been, for me, to have a supervisor who oversees my work. This isn't just so that I can work on my issues as they get triggered by clients, but also to see what is happening and why and, above all, to keep my clients safe. 

There is so much to learn about this kind of therapy, and I do think that doing 3 or 4 days training and then going out into the world to practise needs some acknowledgment of inexperience and how to keep clients safe. Of course nobody can jump from being a newbie to being highly experienced, but at least  new practitioners should be taught to own their responsibility for being inexperienced. You never know what issues are going to come to you, and I have been eternally grateful for the training I received which lad down some basic tenets of my work

a) the presenting problem is never the underlying problem - so weight loss or smoking is a 'cover' for other issues

b) to treat the person and not the problem

c) the need to appreciate how dangerous I can be

Working with a more qualified and experienced practitioner has been so helpful to me especially when this person gets to know me and the way I work over time. Ideally, every practitioner would know how to keep their clients safe at all times, but this simply isn't possible - we all have to start somewhere.

In my early days of working with EFT, I had a new client with a weight loss issue. Within two rounds of tapping, she had uncovered a traumatic memory and refused to go on. She didn't leave the room, but maybe would have if I hadn't insisted she stay whilst we do further work to help her calm down and come to terms with what had happened - including 'why'. I used hypnotherapy because she wouldn't tap!. She never returned to me for the follow-up sessions because her father died 2 days later, but I took the matter to my supervisor, a lady with 25+ years experience of counselling and trauma work, although she didn't know anything about EFT. I learned so much about how I could have handled it differently, which ensured that my subsequent clients were much safer.  If I hadn't had hypnotherapy to fall back on .......

I have also had clients who have come to me 2 years after first seeking therapy. Their first therapist didn't handle things well, and it took them that length of time to summon the courage to put themselves into the care of a therapist again. That's a lot of someone's life spend suffering when they could have been helped. However, I do also recognise that they had something to learn from their experience, but there are hard ways and easier ways of learning!

If that sounds like ranting, sorry. I'm keeping it very restrained :-)) But it's my hobbyhorse - we all have to have one, don't we?

Marian

Rachel,

Thank you very much for your reply which has given me a lot of comfort.

 Yesterday I finally had the guts to call the therapist, he totally remembered me and the session. He almost didnt beleive me when I told him what I was going through, he said I had a perfectly clear voice and didnt sound depressed....he also said all this happened not for a physical reason but for an emotional reason, he remembers me saying during the session that I hadnt accepted the fact that my son's dad had left us years ago, and thats what had triggered the depression, he said it was "underlying" anyway , (is that the right word? to say it was there but not out there yet) . All this doenst echo at all to me...He said he was here to make people feel good and not bad. Is he a psychic to know all these things, I mean he puts these words in my mouth, I think its very dangerous and not ethical, as he doenst make me question the event, he just says thats whats making feel bad.

But after I  talked to the boss of this therapy yesterday he said that there might have been a too strong energy movement and that I was the first case he had heard of...(so he says)

My homeopathic doctor , who is great, told me I shouldn't go back to try and fix things up as this is not be a therapy for me.

I know deep inside that some issues havent been delt with, but I also feel this depression is the result of some kind of energy mess up, that my brain has actually suffered from the session. It sounds strange but I can feel it in my body. If its the case what should I do? Tap on it I guess.