By "Joanna"

Dear Gary,

We first used EFT with Adam (my son) when he was 8 during summer baseball. He often had a stomachache and general malaise before games but desperately wanted to play. During the games he often got overheated and nauseous. Once he threw up. We had attributed the nausea to his heat sensitivity but the more it happened, the more it looked like anxiety. We began to use EFT before games towards the end of the season which greatly reduced the stomachache and nausea. The heat sensitivity seems to run in my family.

However, now that the other issues are taken care of, the heat sensitivity is more manageable.

When basketball season came along, Adam (at that time, 9) was again having anxiety symptoms before games but really wanted to play. Again we used EFT and again had good results, even better than during baseball. I think that was both because we were more practiced at figuring out the words that worked the best for the treatments (Adam was more able to identify his feelings) and the heat was no longer a factor.

I remember one Saturday in particular because of twin problems. He had a basketball game AND he was to spend the night with a good friend (which he had not done much). He was very anxious so we spent about 20 minutes doing various EFT treatments both for the basketball game and the spending the night away from home. At the end of the 20 minutes he was like a different child. He was full of energy, excited, and free from stomachache and other anxiety symptoms. I can't tell you how relieved I was, not only for that particular day but also that there was clearly hope for my child to have a less stressful life.

Right before basketball season, we moved to a new house. Up until this time, Adam had woken up every night after my husband and I had gone to bed and crept down the hall to get in bed with us. We never heard him and this arrangement was fine with us. We had had a family bed with each of our children, sometimes more than one at a time, until they were ready to stay in their own beds. However, in our new house the floors creaked badly and we woke up every time he came in. Also, he was more restless which meant none of us slept well. We decided it was time to make a change. Adam was not happy about it but made the adjustment for a couple of weeks. Then he started to wake up from bad dreams. We talked about them and treated for them but that wasn't enough. He was still scared and couldn't get back to sleep for hours sometimes. We were all getting threadbare!

Finally, my husband realized in talking with him that Adam was feeling insecure about the safety in this new house. He explained how this house was safe and that seemed to help a lot. However, he continued to wake in the night and be awake for a couple of hours. He wasn't scared but he couldn't go back to sleep and he couldn't identify what to treat himself for. We even tried treating for something that he couldn't identify but with no luck.

One night while I was sitting with him, I had this overwhelming intuition that he was lonely at night. I asked him and he started crying and said yes that he was. After giving him some time to really feel that and get some comfort from me, we decided to try treating for being lonely. It was like magic! After that we began to see that using EFT regularly before bed and treating the chronic issues each night meant that we all got a good night's sleep. He can occasionally skip a night but if he skips more that a couple of nights he wakes up again.

What has been most amazing to me is watching my now 10 year old son learn to identify his feelings with such clarity and to see his dedication to himself and his commitment to do his treatments every night. He knows when he needs to treat himself in other than bedtime situations ( like he tried it on carsickness on his own!) and even suggests it to others when he senses their stress.

We have also used BSFF for some dramatic events of Adam's early childhood that I felt had left some lasting emotional residue. His comments following those treatments were that he felt lighter, like a burden had been lifted.

Recently, he learned from my mom how to do instant treatments which he loved. Now his nightly routine was cut from about 10 minutes to about 2 or 3 minutes. Things seemed fine for a long while but about two weeks ago he began waking in the night on a regular basis again, not scared but unable to go back to sleep for hours again. He was having headaches which kept him awake also. We suspect he may need glasses so we've made an eye exam appointment.

Three nights ago I had another strong intuition and had Adam use his old method of EFT treatments. He slept all night. Again the next night he used EFT and again slept all night. Last night he woke once but was able to go right back to sleep and slept the rest of the night.

So we may experiment some more with the instant treatments but I wonder if what happened was that his anxiety was so low from the regular EFT treatments when he tried the instant routine that maybe he was just coasting on his lower anxiety level and it built back up again over time until he was waking up again.

Usually he is so good at checking in and knowing if he needs treating that I didn't suspect that the instant routine wasn't working. I just thought that we were missing something that needed attention (either another emotion or that he needed glasses). At any rate, we are sleeping again.

Gary, I can't find words to express my gratitude for your sharing this technique with the world. I know it has helped Adam to have a less stressful life which affects not only him but the rest of us as well. He is going to grow up very conscious and in tune with himself.

As for the ways in which we've used EFT with our other children, it has been more isolated but just as effective. Emily (7) sometimes has intense fears of insects for which EFT is greatly helpful. She has also used it to treat herself when she has bad dreams. It's like flipping a switch to watch her go from being terrrified to being happy to climb back into bed and go back to sleep.

David (13) has used EFT during baseball but for very different reasons than Adam. He got hit by a pitch in a game and then had difficulty staying in the batter's box if anything even looked close to him. Using EFT greatly reduced his anxiety and he was better able to stand in. He doesn't understand how EFT works and that bothers him but he finds that it works anyway.

Well, I am sufficiently wrung out now! I have wanted to get all this on paper for myself as well and just never took the time to sit and do it.

Thanks again for spreading this wonderful work!

"Joanna" (last name withheld for privacy reasons)

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