Hi All,

1.

I see only 9 threads in this (PTSD) forum, instead of the 186 that should be here according to the report of the system when I look at the list of the forums. Any ideas why, and how can be fixed?

2.

I'm working with a lady suffering from a driving anxiety, actually it's anxiety about sitting near the driver on narrow roads. In this situation she sees well the road, but has no control over the car and therefore over herself.

We worked on this as a phobia (working directly on the symptom), with zero results.  Part of the difficulty is to control the exposure to the trigger - usually it's another car coming from the opposite direction, which

 However, now we're digging on the past. She told me that she had an accident several years ago. She also told that she didn't feel the accident was a big dead for her, and the fear of narrow roads appeared only a year or two later, while she had no problems in the meanwhile.

I speculated that she may be underestimating the importance of the accident to her system, and we started to work on it and the emotions around. Today she told me that after the accident she discovered that the thick front glass of the jeep was cracked by her head... She however doesn't remember  the boom, she only remembers getting out of the car and leaving the place.

Knowing this, I understand that even if the driving fear is caused by something else, the accident is an important issue and releasing it can free an amount of her energy.

But, as said above, the memory of the accident itself is blocked.

Any ideas how can we uncover it?

I asked her to describe  in details the last moments she does remember, and tap on any emotions there. Until now it didn't open the blocked memory.

 

Thank you

Dani

 

 

I can't help you with point 1 but on point 2, have you tried tapping around possible reasons why a part of this person is protecting her from the memory?  What you describe suggests that there is something that needs to be heard either in order for all parts of the woman to feel safe addressing this, or in order for all parts to be ready to heal.  There could be some "secondary gains" (something that will change in this woman's life if she completely heals that a part of her isn't ready to have happen) or it could be some belief around safety of going there, or sometimes it can be guilt blocking it - if someone takes on a belief that it was their fault that an accident happened (even if their logic is faulty and it definately wasn't - it's common for people to take on fault where there is none as it gives an illusion of some control over what happened) then there can be a part of them that prevents the healing happening because they think they deserve it.  Gentle exploration around all these themes might uncover some perspectives or beliefs that need to be addressed before you are able to get near the actual event.  I've found it's very important to honour that there is some reason why a part of us isn't ready to go there, otherwise we can unwittingly put pressure on the healing and cause that part to dig it's heels in even more!

Best wishes,

Jo

Hi Joe, 

That's interesting. 

I believe the reason that the memory is not accessible is just that it's too overwhelming. Why do I think so? Someone asked her immediately after the accident , several times, whether she feels any pain at her head. She didn't understand why he asks, untill she saw the cracked front glass. So it looks like her system blocked the pain at the very moment it occurred. 

However, I do know that there is guilt there - it popped very obviously before the end of the session. We may have to do some more work on this. In your experience, except of the direct emotional effect of feeling guilty, does it influence the possibility to remember / to heal?

 Thanks for taking time to answer this.

Dani

 

 

 

Hi Dani, The answer to the 1. question is easy: If you scroll down on http://eftcommunity.emofree.com/forums/41.aspx, you will see "More options" on the left side. There you can set the date filter on "Show all". On your 2. question, temporary loss of consciousness and therefore of memory for what happened shortly before the accident can be signs of concussion of the brain. So I wouldn´t be too fixed on overanalyzing it as emotionally "too overwhelming". It may have been just/mainly organic. The good luck is that with EFT it isn´t necessary to remember the event consciously to heal. As a possible alternative you could ask her to invent a story of an accident and tap on it. Chances are, the important elements of her own case will be in the story. ---------------------------- When I did some proxy-tapping for a person who has driving fears, there was a sudden realization that this fear parallels the fear of living her own emotions esp. aggression and the consequences of that. In her case it was about driving herself, but maybe the generalization of seeing the problem as a relational one can be drawn. Your client´s fear is triggered by a car approaching, there is fear it might come too close and hurt her, and she can´t do anything about it. Is there anything in her life, in relations with human beings that feels similar? Then there is the other aspect of not having trust in the driver. What experiences did she have with trusting/not trusting/experiences that make her believe she can´t trust. These might be other routes to take, if the accident-approach doesn´t turn out to help.--------- kira

Dani - I've found that memory is different in each circumstance, you can't predict what is causing someone to protect themselves from a memory, because it's different in each case.  If you stick with what your client is presenting (rather than trying to direct it) and then be aware of looking around what is presented in the moment for things like guilt, secondary gains etc, her subconscious should lead you into the memory at a safe rate for her.

Best wishes,

Jo

 Kira and Jo,

Thank you for your interesting insights. 

 Kira, you suggest that inventing a story can be as valuable as remembering it. It didn't work for me, but I've heard this idea several times before.

What's your personal experience with this technique: Did it work for you? How many times?

 

Dani