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EFT for A
Child’s Plane Sickness ►Page 3
EFT for a
Child’s Plane Sickness Page 3
After we'd
cleared up the car problem pretty well I did a final check for
other aspects of the plane problem because, after all, she was
getting on the plane in four days for a long flight. I had her
imagine the whole scenario from start to finish — all the
details, from boarding in Newark to disembarking in Arizona.
Everything seemed pretty ok and the vibration bit was just fine
(she was still playing with the mini-vibrator happily) but I had
a feeling that there was still a little something in there, so I
asked her if she had ever seen any movies of planes or heard
anything about them that made her even the tiniest bit concerned
about flying — outside of the vibration problem —and
she looked a bit worried although nothing came to
mind.
Fortunately her
mother volunteered the information at this point that recently
Miriam's friend Karen and her mother had been flying on a plane
where there was some difficulty, and Miriam quickly explained:
"Oh yes. Their plane crashed!" (I tried not to show surprise at
this, but it did seem a bit extreme to have happened!). Stephani
then explained that their friends had had a forced landing, it
wasn't a crash, and that Karen and her mother were fine now (here
is where it can be particularly usefully to have a parent present
to clarify). And then Miriam filled in with these details, "They
had to land so quickly that the plane kind of bumped and the TV
set fell on Karen's mother's head" she said.
"Oh
really?" I commented. "Well that's not such a good thing to have
happen." (I was trying to act nonchalant about this and show
therapist "objectivity"). Stephani explained that the jolt had
loosened the TV above their heads and the set had fallen on the
mother, but she didn't seem to think it surprising that both
mother and daughter were perfectly fine now (I did, but I
discreetly said nothing about it). "Is her head ok?" I asked.
Miriam said they both were fine, but that she was kind of worried
about having to land that way and have things like a TV set fall
on her. So we did EFT for being "scared of having that happen"
and for "the plane crash".
She
had a SUDS of five to start with and we'd been working now for
over an hour— a long time for a child — so after a
round or two of EFTing on this new issue I decided to use Silvia
Hartmann-Kent's method of alternating negative and positive
statements at alternate acupoints. I felt it was important for
Miriam to realize that "these things happen only very seldom and
they don't need to end in real disaster even then". To drive
this point home, I felt she needed to "collapse" her fear (an NLP
term which means, essentially, neutralizing the fear) by coupling
it with an awareness that Karen and her mother HAD survived
perfectly well. Silvia's Alternation Technique seemed a natural
for doing this.
So,
I asked Miriam to use the reminder phrase "Planes sometimes
crash" when she was tapping on the first acupoint, and then use
the phrase "Karen and her mother are JUST FINE NOW" when tapping
on the second acupoint, and after that to alternate the phrases,
using one phrase at one point and the opposite one at the next
point. I said I would prompt her by repeating the phrases myself
each time — this method can be confusing if a person is
left on their own at first to remember the alternation, although
they usually can pick up the rhythm and go with it after the
first few repetitions. By using this technique I felt Miriam
would simultaneously be neutralizing the worst fear she had by
articulating it and tapping for it, while in the same round she
would be repeatedly installing the positive thought that people
can survive even disasters or near disasters and be "just
fine".
This
did the trick! Miriam's SUDS level quickly came down to
"somewhere between a zero and a half or maybe a zero" and she was
now playful and smiling.
As
they got ready to leave she was still waving the mini-vibrator
around and switching it on and off, and I asked her if she'd like
to borrow it and take it on the plane with her so that if by any
chance she felt the tiniest bit sick then she could just switch
it on and use it to "EFT" with. She seemed very pleased with
this idea and marched out of the office clutching her mechanical
wonder.
As
for me, I was enchanted, and for the zillionth time understood
why I chose this type of professional work in the first place. I
also felt certain that Miriam would be "just fine" on the plane.
That part of the story belongs to her mother though. Here is
Stephani with the parent's perspective.
Stephani reports
that her family has made four cross- continental plane trips
within the past two months since I saw Miriam, and that during
none of them did Miriam have even a trace of motion sickness.
She has been in a good mood each time for the entire flight,
playing travel games with her brother and reading her books the
whole time. Although she has each time kept the mini-vibrator in
her back pack "in case I need it", she has not actually taken it
out during any of the flights.
A
temporary setback came only when they were taking a long
automobile trip. Miriam's back pack containing her mini-vibrator
had been stored in the trunk of the car while they were driving,
and when they found themselves caught in a traffic jam on the San
Francisco Bay Bridge, she began to get quite nauseous. She was
too sick to tap for herself with EFT, and surrogate tapping by
another family member was not helping in this instance, so the
family could just hope that she wouldn't vomit before they got
off the bridge and could pull over to the side of the road and
get the mini-vibrator out of the back.
Fortunately,
Miriam did hold out, although with difficulty, and when they
finally stopped the car and could get for her the mini-vibrator
she immediately switched it on and an interesting thing
happened. Her mother reports that within about 30 seconds (it
seemed an almost instant reaction to those watching) Miriam
dropped off into a quiet sleep holding the mini-vibrator to her
chest. She slept peacefully for the rest of the trip and was
completely free of symptoms when she awoke at their
destination.
To
these progress reports Stephani adds her observations of the
treatment session and Miriam's comments to her at that time which
illustrate some other features of the rapport that was built up
between us at that time and the meaning which the "props" had for
this child.
Stephani tells
me that during the therapy session, after I had told Miriam I
would fetch the first prop, the "seat belt", and was out of the
room getting it, Miriam had enthusiastically exclaimed "Oh Mommy!
Pat is really very creative!" Later when I went to fetch the
mini-vibrator, she had expressed the opinion, "Mommy, I think Pat
is a really good therapist". Upon arriving home following the
therapy session she had informed her family with dignity that
"the session went very well" and showed them the mini-vibrator
which she demonstrated with delight.
Commenting on
the effectiveness of the props, Stephani suggests that they may
have demonstrated to Miriam that she was being heard in the
session. She also says that she had noticed from the very
beginning of our session a "connection" between myself and Miriam
(this is what I had so happily felt when I first saw her) and
reminds us that a "really good match" between therapist and
client is often a major factor in the success of any form of
treatment.
I
know this has been a long report but maybe you've enjoyed reading
about little Miriam as much as I enjoyed working with
her!
EFT
Master, Dr. Patricia Carrington
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