Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Using Cranio-Sacral Chiropractic Adjustments And Emotional Freedom Techiques To Release Body Memories of Incest

Back in April I ran across a blog called Empowering Wellness which is written by Fred Krazeise who is "a Nationally Certified Massage Therapist and Intrinsic Coach" who "combines wellness coaching and therapeutic body work to provide a source of healing for women suffering from physical or emotional pain or stress."  The words in quotation marks comes from Fred's "About Me" page on his blog.
http://empoweringwellnessnow.com/about-me/

The article that Fred wrote that caught my attention was called "Emotional Healing Tissue Memory and Bodywork - What Happens and Why It is a Good Thing."
http://empoweringwellnessnow.com/emotional-healing-tissue-memory-and-bodywork-%E2%80%93-what-happens-and-why-it-is-a-good-thing/

What I got from Fred's article is that abuse survivors have memories stored in the tissues of their bodies.  I have heard this idea before but have not met anyone who does this type of massage as Fred does.  Fred is like many of my healer friends and has incorporated several different healing methods into his own brand of healing.  I have done the same with Reiki and several other healing modalities that I have been exposed to over the years.  Thank you Fred for what you do.  You are a treasure and a blessing to those who know you and to those women that you work with.

I have a dear friend who is a massage therapist so I asked if she knew anybody in our area that did this type of massage.  She didn't.  What she did recommend was that I go to our chiropractor who does Cranio-Sacral adjustments and ask if what he does would work at releasing body memories.  Well, I did that last week.  He also suggested that I use the services of an associate in his office who does EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) for releasing energy that no longer serves the client.  I have experience with EFT.  I have their manual and have used EFT on myself and a friend in the past.  I have even taken two classes over the past few years on different ways to use EFT for healing.  Rather than me trying to explain how EFT works, you can find a lot of information about EFT at the website of its retired founder Gary Craig.
http://www.eftuniverse.com/

I had my first session with my chiropractor last Monday.  I figure it may take awhile before I see any results of the Cranio-Sacral adjustments.  On Monday, I had a regular adjustment to get everything back into alignment, especially my neck.  The chiropractor agreed that my headaches and nausea that I have been experiencing a lot of over the past month could be because my neck was so out of line.

I had my first session with EFT on Thursday of last week.  EFT works on the assumption that "The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system." (From "The Timeless Principles of EFT" from the above EFT website)

I really didn't know where to start with the EFT.  I told my therapist/counselor (Not sure what to call him.  I will have to ask next time that I see him.) that I have been working on incest issues for over 20 years and have healed quite a lot over the years.  I told him that I am wanting to find out if I have any body memories that need to be released.

I mentioned that every time that I do work on my issues that I have to acknowledge that a part of me resists doing the work.  A part of me is very resistant to change of any kind.  We did some tapping on releasing this resistance.  I believe that a lot of my headaches come from this resistance.  Those headaches may be an area for us to work on next time.

We then moved to him asking me where I felt anger.  I told him that I feel anger/rage in my solar plexus.  He asked what it looked like and I told him a big black ball of rage that I carry in my solar plexus.  Then we did some tapping on the different energy meridians in the body as I repeated whatever affirmations he told me to say.  You will need to go to the above EFT link and do some reading about how to do EFT if you want to understand how it works.  I know I am not doing a good job of explaining it but I don't remember a lot of what we said.  I know that the next step was to look to see what the remaining anger looked like and it was cleared out of my solar plexus.  It was gone.  I remember at some point being asked to let the anger/rage flow out of my body however it wanted and in whatever direction it wanted to flow.  I remember it flowed down my legs and out of my feet into the earth.  Then we replaced the anger/rage with healing light.  I remember that the light was yellow.  When I run healing light through my body, I have learned to be okay with whatever color it chooses to be.  Sometimes it is white.  Sometimes it is yellow.  Sometimes it is the pink light of love.

Next we went to the sadness that is in my heart.  I told him that sadness has been almost a life-time companion.  We did the tapping and the affirmations.  The sadness was resistant to completely leave.  Only about one-fourth of it left the first time.  We did some more tapping and affirmations and then one of the affirmations that he had me say was something along the lines of "I live my life fully."  When he said that I started to cry and my voice got shaky.  I told him that it has been many, many years since I have fully lived my life.  We did more tapping and affirmations along those lines until the tears and the shaky voice stopped.

What I know from reading about EFT in the past is that when you hit a major issue, the emotions, usually with tears will begin.  When we finished the tapping with this statement of affirmation, the tears were gone and so was the sadness and heaviness in my heart.  I felt joyful and lighter.


When we had the energy flowing from the solar plexus I was aware that it flowed downward into my legs and feet and into the earth.  When we started the energy flowing from my heart to be released, it came out of my heart straight in front of my body and then flowed upward like going toward the sky, toward the heavens.  When we ran healing light to fill the empty space left from releasing the black energy of sadness, the healing light flowed and filled my whole body.  I felt the joy of healing light flowing through me.  This is where we chose to end the session until two weeks from now.

I will be alternating the Cranio-Sacral adjustments one week and the next week will be the EFT sessions for awhile.  I scheduled them on Thursdays because Thursdays are when I also have my Grief Class.  That way I have the class that night to talk about anything that comes up that I may need extra time to talk about afterwords.

I know that I haven't been writing as many posts over the past month or so as I usually do.  I have had several of my readers who are also friends come back and leave messages and hugs as they check up on me.  I thank you all for that.  You are greatly appreciated.

Since I started the Inner Child Letters Series of posts and before that the post about the abuse by my uncle, I have been slower at processes some of the stuff that has come up for me.  I am taking care of myself by not pushing too hard and by just going with the flow.  I thank you all for your love and patience.  I am in a better place now than I was when I first started the Series.

One of my Inner Child Letters Series posts did not get mailed out by Blogger.com or if it did, it didn't get sent to me like all of the others do.  I don't know how many of you got that post so I am going to put the link to that post here.  It is a really important post in the series ending the letters to the three-year-old inner child.  The name of the post is, "Three Year Old Adultress Carries The Shame Of Incest - Inner Child Letter Series." This is the post that talks about the healing of the shame of incest for me.  The link for that post is as follows:
http://patriciasingleton.blogspot.com/2010/06/three-year-old-adultress-carries-shame.html

Thank you Fred for giving me the information to start this part of my journey.  I honor you for the amazing work that you do with women.  I wish you were here in my part of the world.  I will do my best to take advantage of what God has put here for me to use.

I have asked two of my friends if they could see any differences in my aura since my EFT session last Thursday.  Both said yes.  One said my aura was not so dark as it was before.  The other said that there is blue above my crown chakra.  Blue is one of the healing colors.  She said the blue hasn't been there in a long time.  I see both of those as proof of the progress that I have already made with these two procedures.
Patricia
 

31 comments:

Evelyn Lim said...

I have had great success with the use of EFT combined with inner child healing and other techniques. It is a powerful release method. Without using EFT, I doubt that the other techniques would have really worked as well for me.

My personal experience is that when I use it daily, I gain far more benefits. I tap for everything and anything that makes me irritated, worried or sad.

I wish you every success in your healing. May you find the release that you need from your pain.

With love,
Evelyn

Patricia Singleton said...

Evelyn, thank you. Again, congratulations on your 10 year Anniversary. I feel good about the healing work that I am doing right now.

Brooklyn Book Lover said...

EFT is wonderful. My sister-in-law who is a holistic nurse, Reiki Master & certified EFT teacher turned me on to it. She came to my house and gave me, my husband and a few of our friends a class on how to use EFT in our every day lives. It is a fabulous technique that really works. I can't say enough good things about it.

Patricia Singleton said...

Brookline Book Lover, I have used EFT before as well on minor stuff. I know the manual says to use it on everything. I will start using it more on my own as well as in the sessions. I wonder if tapping on "spinning out of control" would help your vertigo. I would sure try it and anything else you could think of along those lines. I use Reiki on myself and others just about every day. I am up to Level 3 with my Reiki certificates and will soon take a Level 4 class.

Hold Fast said...

Patricia, I have used Cranio-Sacral and EFT as part of my healing for the past 2 years. It has been the best thing I could have done for myself and have come so far in my healing. I understand the airy lightness you feel. It is wonderful. I'm glad you found someone who does it in your area. I hope it will allow you to make great strides in your healing. Thanks for the encouraging posts. You are a wonderful writer.

Patricia Singleton said...

Hold Fast, thank you. I have used both healing modalities on other issues. This will be the first time that I have used either for healing incest issues. I take that back. I have used EFT for minor issues on incest a few years ago. I just don't want to do the tapping for major issues by myself. I am not sure but my inner resistance and fears could keep me from going deep enough. With someone else being in control, that isn't a problem.

Fred said...

Patricia,

Thank you for pointing out my work and my blog. I have to say that what I do is nothing very special. I would say that I stand on the shoulders of giants. If you wish to learn more about the concept of tissue memory, I suggest reading John Barnes' book, "Healing Ancient Wounds."

There are many excellent techniques for helping survivors to reconnect with their bodies. I combine cranial-sacral therapy, traditional massage therapy and myofascial release techniques. But most importantly, I just try to be present for the client, and allow her to set the pace and tone of each session. It is, after all, not about the techniques used, but about helping a client transition from victim, to survivor, to thriver.

Peace,
Fred

Patricia Singleton said...

Fred, you are very welcome. I see the work that you do as a blessing to so many women. I will get the book that you mentioned. Thank you. You humbleness only makes the work that you do more inspiring.

Anonymous said...

Patricia, thank you for sharing. Take the time you need, I am certain your readership will understand completely while you move through this process.

Be well...

Patricia Singleton said...

Elle, you are very welcome and thank you for your words of understanding.

Marj aka Thriver said...

Wow, Patricia! I'm impressed with all this information and the various therapies you're using to address body memories and issues. Kudos!

My therapist told me recently that she thought that my regular massage therapy was doing wonders for helping me heal from my childhood trauma. Yeah! I have also done some of the EFT tapping and found it strange at times, but amazingly helpful.

Patricia Singleton said...

Marj, thank you. I have a friend who is also using regular massage to help me work on these issues. I love watching you on your own journey to recovery. You truly inspire me to keep working on me.

Just Be Real said...

Pat, I came back to this post several times reading and rereading. Thank you for the info. Blessings to you dear one.

Patricia Singleton said...

JBR, you are very welcome. Blessings and hugs back to you.

me as i am said...

wow patricia! thank you for sharing about such specifics of your healing techniques and how they made you feel. i'm so glad to know about more options for healing out there. this reminded me of some visual imagery i did when i suffered from intense back pain years ago. it's the first time i used my imagination to envision physical pain or negative energy leaving my body and allowing healing energy to come in and help relax and renew the area in pain. i am no professional and have never read anything about what technique this may be or how to do more of it. but i continue to do these types of exercises sometimes. they have helped me a lot.

oh, and the space and time of your posts lately feel very natural to me. you're dealing with so much, it makes sense and seems healthy that you are posting the way you are. it requires no patience on my part. i feel like i'm witnessing your process from here on the side. and i'm just here caring, not thinking you should be handling things any other way than you are.

sending healing thoughts and safe warm hugs to you~~~ :)

darlene ouimet said...

Hi Patricia,
I somehow missed reading this post when you wrote it; I am glad I stopped by.
I love reading your progress and following your journey. You are such a blessing to many!
I have tried Cranio-Sacral treatments with great results too! I loved having those treatments and loved the added stress relief; I held so much stress in my jaw prior to this treatment.

Hugs to you! Darlene

Patricia Singleton said...

Katie, you are so welcome. I appreciate your comments. Yes, I also use visualizations to help in my healing work. Seeing ourselves well is so important. Thank you for the healing thoughts and safe warm hugs.

Patricia Singleton said...

Darlene, thank you for your kind words. I carry my stress in my solar plexis, neck and shoulders. Stress is something that I still don't always recognize.

Kim said...

I am "laughing" at this only b/c it strikes such a chord with me, I can't do anything BUT laugh!
"I mentioned that every time that I do work on my issues that I have to acknowledge that a part of me resists doing the work. A part of me is very resistant to change of any kind. We did some tapping on releasing this resistance. I believe that a lot of my headaches come from this resistance. Those headaches may be an area for us to work on next time."

I have been in counseling for 6 years with a T who uses EFT and I've been resistant to it for just that long. Even though I have seen how it can work. I finally made a commitment to give it a try and I had to tap for a solid month on the fact that I thought tapping was stupid before I could use it for anything more meaningful.
And...every time, I mean every SINGLE time, I begin to relax in any manner, I get a searing headache. It only lasts for a minute or two but I also see it as resistance. My body does not want to know anything different that the stressed out, anxiety ridden state it's accustomed to. I can SOOO relate to you!

Patricia Singleton said...

Kim, thank you for your comment. I don't think it is my body that is resisting the EFT. It is my mind that resists change. My mind likes the comfort of staying in one place with nothing changes. Then it knows how to react. Any change, for me, brings about fear and resistance. Have really been working on this one recently. Thanks for letting me know that I am not alone in this resistance thing.

Chiropractic said...

Wonderful story. Keep it up :)

Chiropractic

Patricia Singleton said...

Chiropractic, thank you. Right now transportation problems have kept me from getting back to their office since I took a break while my daughter was visiting in July. Hopefully soon, I will be able to start back on this process. I was seeing results.

Bellevue Massage said...

Thanks for sharing your story, Patricia. This is an informative write up. This is good insight.

Patricia Singleton said...

Bellevue Massage, you are very welcome. I stopped the appointments back in July when my daughter and grandchildren were here visiting from Idaho and haven't been able to reschedule because of problems with transportation so I can't say how well it would work.

Issaquah Chiropractor said...

Glad that I found this blog, what a very nice story, Patricia, congrats for it. Indeed it is an informative one. I'm grateful with your excellent insight.

Patricia Singleton said...

Issaquah Chiropractor, You are very welcome. I have been blessed to be exposed to many different healing modalities. This is my latest. Because of transportation difficulties I wasn't able to continue this. I will go back sometime in the future when I have a car again.

Bellevue Chiropractic said...

Hi Patricia its a pleasure to be part of your blogging community. Anyway I really appreciate your post very informative, I really enjoy reading it. Thank you.

Patricia Singleton said...

Bellevue Chiropractic, you are very welcome.

Bone cancer Survival Rate said...

I was very encouraged to find this site. The reason being that this is such an informative post. I wanted to thank you for this informative analysis of the subject. I definitely savored every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.

Patricia Singleton said...

Bone cancer Survival Rate, I am glad that this post is offering you encouragement. Soon after I started doing this healing work with my chiropractor and with the EFT counselor, I had to stop because of transportation difficulties. Given the chance in the future, I will return to using these healing methods. Thank you for your visit and your comment.

Patricia Singleton said...

Brian Jones, you are very welcome but I am not a sir. I am a lady. The main topic of my blog is healing from incest and has little to do with this particular blog post. I wasn't able to continue to go to the chiropractor or to the EFT person because of transportation problems. The EFT was an experiment for me and I don't know how well it might have worked since I wasn't able to continue it. Thank you for your comment.