Hi everyone,  I wanted to send the letter (see below) to Gary Craig but couldn't find any email address for him via the website, so I decided to post it below - I would be grateful for any feedback on my concerns. 

Many thanks  

Ann  

Dear Gary

I have been successfully using EFT in my practice for a number of years and couple of  weekends ago I completed a Level 2 training in the UK.  I was shown a DVD of you working with a US vet who had struggled with PTSD for years following an incident where he shot and killed a 5 yr old boy who was walking towards his vehicle, carrying a hand grenade.

My EFT tutor explained that this soldier had been in a very bad state for many years suffering from flashbacks and extreme.  During the session you took this man through various levels of intensity of feelings about this incident.  My group unchallenged by the tutor were amazed and pleased by the final outcome for this man who, when asked how he felt, said he was ‘bored’ by the issue which had once so adversely affected his life.

My problem is this, I wonder how healthy it is to bring a person from such an extreme place to one where he yawns in boredom when describing how he saw the back of the child's head exploding from the bullets he fired into it?  Surely this is only a transient place for this guy, a place to come away from his prior state but not one anyone would judge as a place of completion and healing.  

I work tirelessly to help my clients to free themselves from harmful thoughts and self-hating tendencies.   I believe the answer to everyone's problems is to bring more self-acceptance and love to a situation.   I have treated criminals who have committed extremely harmful and violent crimes and have no difficulty in getting them to love and accept themselves.  I would not consider these clients restored to well-being if they felt bored and disinterested in the consequences of their actions.  I feel such clients when they bring more self-love and acceptance to themselves are also able to experience compassion for those who have been harmed as a result of their actions.  I'm not equating a soldier with a criminal, I just feel a healthier outcome is acceptance of the self, with compassion for others who may have been hurt too. 

I raised my concern in the group after the video was played, it created an awkward moment when the tutor felt a little defensive and the rest of the group who had been smiling and laughing at the outcome, seemingly pleased with it.  I felt a little bit like the boy in the Emperor’s New Clothes fairy tale – and while I have no problem occupying this place, I would very much like to hear your views on this matter.

I know EFT works, I totally support the premise which underpins it but have great misgivings about this particular case being presented as ‘cured’ in this way.

Yours sincerely

Ann Lewis BA Hons, Homeopath,

EFT, Reiki & Theta Practitioner

Hi Ann, 

I definitely share your concerns about this particular video incident. I remember feeling exactly the way you do - that perhaps 'the treatment had gone a little beyond appropriate  human feeling.  If you watch the video carefully, however, you will see that much of the session has been edited.( You can see this in repeated viewings by keeping an eye on the camera view and cuts) I cannot be sure of the reason for this, but I think this was partly to protect the viewers from the full traumatic experience that was described to Gary.  Also, this client, although he claimed to be 'bored' about the event was in fact simply describing the reality of his situation at the moment; that although this incident had been the center of his nightmares for so long, it was no longer as riveting as it had been; that it was now something that he was willing to move on from at this moment.   "Bored' with it may have seemed callous and uncaring, and was not perhaps the best wording to use. I do not think, though, that an interpretation of the clients statement as being callous and unfeeling about the incident is correct.  In my experience with EFT, the 'sting' of the event is removed, but the event is never forgotten.  The lesson or the re-frame that took place in this particular case was that the soldier had been in a no-win situation  - to shoot a drugged child carrying an activated grenade, or to die.  That was the real re-frame that took place, that the soldier, though he did an awful thing, had had no real choice in the matter.  

I hope that my interpretation of what was going on is helpful to you. Please do watch this episode again with this explanation in mind. Although the video edits were important for purposes of protecting the audience from the full trauma of the situation,( I had to tap along as it was) I do think they gave an impression of congratulating the vet for completely letting go of his human feelings and that this was not actually the case, nor was it what was being applauded.

Mildred

Thanks Mildred for your response.  I am a former television producer so was very aware that the finished product was much edited.  This did not present any problems for me whatsoever, it was totally the end of the process, which left me feeling as I described in my first post. 

I think I was hoping for Gary to continue the process (either then or in another session) where the client was taken to a state of greater completion in this matter.  A place of integration I like to call it. This man had been in an untenable situation (as many soldiers are) so no judgement on him for his action at the time and in fact no judgement on him at all.  I feel for Gary to present this case in a training DVD as successfully completed shows very a different interpretation of what I would consider to be a successfully completed case. 

The audience applause and approving laughter I referred to came from the other people on my EFT course.

Many thanks

Ann

Hi Ann,

To reply to your last comment first, I meant that the video edits made the vet appear callous, not anyone else. Although the video ended as it did, I do not think that this necessarily meant that the integration over the event was competed for the vet.   In my own practice I have witnessed integration take place much later than the actual EFT session, and I have also  noticed that once some issues in a trauma have been addressed, healing continues without further EFT intervention.

In fact I have followed up with clients who had apparently made little progress on a particular issue at the time, but a year later had fully integrated and internalized the treatment to a place of healing. 

Lest you suspect that this is just me deluding myself or being deluded by my clients, I have also spoken a victim of sexual abuse, who after having received  EFT from another practitioner, continued to progress on her healing journey, though the practitioner had indicated that there was still much to do.  This is perhaps a lesson to all of us, that our clients can in fact continue the process without having their hands held by us.

Just for clarification, do you remember which DVD you actually saw? Was it the "6 Days at the VA", available in the first series that Gary sells, or was it a further edited and later version of the same tape?  I have been referring to the first version.  Other versions are more heavily edited and even more guilty of doing what you describe. 

I really want to say here that you are making some very valid points about the video and I think it takes some genuine personal courage to question your fellow EFTers in the course, and to take the public stand that you have.  From the point of what we the viewers saw, this vet was really not left in the best possible place the end of the treatment as was described.

Mildred

Hi Ann and Mildred,

thank you for this  great discussion.

From my own experience, I'd like to add a few comments:

Many of my vets report simply feeling tired after a session. that is  their first response, and they go home and have a few hours of deep rest, often very unusual for them, as they suffer from insomnia. This is, in my belief, due to the "heavy lifting" we did during the session, and the thought that a person needs to get out of his/her own way to integrate the new information his/her new way of being after a healing has occurred.

Over time, this shifts into a different awareness: My Veterans often report that they had no more visitors or nightmares after the session. This is more of an observation than an emotional response for them, but it creates a new and different life, as they begin to trust that they are safe and that it is OK to rest. Forgiveness is also a huge issue for them.

They are not always able to truly talk about how they feel. The military language is short and unemotional. There might be a much better way for "boredom", that didn;t cross the person's mind. It is my guess that, after all these years where he had the guilt of this memory so much in front of his eyes, he just realized that he had no urge to bring this back up at that time. The idea to think about it might have felt rather too much and no interest in it, no reason to bring it up, as the healing had occurred. These men have actual "visitors", and if they leave, the whole emotional framework in which they arrive disappears as well. This is huge.

So now, instead of being wired, scarred and overwhelmed when thinking about the kid, he doesn't feel that upheaval any more. His description is "boredom", but it could also be "there is no energy left in it, I am not having the response I am used to".

I have never seen a Veteran who truly feels that what happened in war was "nothing". In the contrary, they find new ways of honoring the person behind the enemy, of relating to all that happened in war.

So my two cents would be to not  thake the "bordom" and yawning as a sign of disrespect and dishonoring the situation, but as a first and rather surprised and inexperienced reaction of a veteran who doesn't know how to express what is happening yet, as he has no experience with it.

Healing can be very overwhelming, and, as Mildred pointed out so beautifully, it can take time to integrate what happened and what is now.

I hope this  helps.

Thanks for all that you do!

Love

Ingrid

Thank you, Ingrid, for turning my inarticulate musings into a more fully rounded explanation.  I fully agree that the soldier's reaction can be explained as inexperience. The yawning (which I had forgotten about) is another sign that an energy shift was taking place, but the soldier, a naive to EFT client, possibly interpreted his own yawning as boredom.

Mildred

I was similarly challenged by this clip and I think it is actually acknowledged now that the editing did nothing to help us understand what a complex and challening work working with PSTD can be.  I also found Garys body position and tone of voice challenging as well.

I have learnt from Ingrid that the language used by veterans and for veterans does not probably comfortably translate for many of us.

I have been in a training where I stood and almost watched with horror fully aware of what I had heard from the participants, two refugees and one born in Zimbabwe.  It was like throwing a bomb in room and we had to do emergency tapping all over the place.

I like to tell my students this was done 14 years ago, when Gary believed we should be spared the details.  Clearly that changed as we progess through the DVD training.  This is however a stunning example, and although it challenged me in many ways, it was what got my interest and made me take this silly tapping idea seriously.

I want to applaud you for the wonderful and very important work you are doing.  Adding EFT into this will bring spectacular results.

The main danger is in ever assuming EFT is that simple for trauma work and also if a client says they feel bored, then we accept that.  We cannot judge their reactions or feelings.

Gill

Thanks Mildred and Gill.

Yes, I fully agree: We cannot judge their reactions or feelings. When someone expresses certain things, I always ask what this means to him.

In his case, I would  have asked (and maybe Gary did this off camera): Where are you with this now? Is how you feel  a good thing for you?

Does it feel appropriate to you? NOT in a judging way, but to truly understand where he is at.

And I would get a much more detailed answer and understanding of what is truly going on.

Some of my guys just want to roll over and sleep. That's OK. We can talk later, a day or two, or we just briefly follow up and hear about changes. These men and women do whatever they can to cope with what they have been through, and some times their reaction will feel different to us than what we are used to. Maybe WE need to tap on that and learn and deepen our understanding.

The fact that he was OK with being videotaped alone might show that he felt he was on a mission to help others  with EFT.

Yes, Gill, there is SO much to this  work, that is beyond the basic tapping.

Much Love to you all! You are amazing!

Ingrid