TFT Relieves Rescued Dog’s Severe Trauma

A graduate of the TFT Boot Camp shares how past traumas severely limited the life of her female border collie:

Client B is a 6 year old female Border Collie. She is a rescue and has been with my family for 2 years.

Her condition: massive anxiety.
The reason: In her past home she was low dog on the totem pole. The couple had 5 Border Collies total and they were all working dogs. Client B had been attacked by one dog and then the rest had piled on (pack mentality). She had to go to the vet after each one of these attacks ( I believe there were 3) and have stitches. After the last attack she was on crate rest for 6 months, severe damage had been done to the tendons and ligaments in her left shoulder.

When I heard about her plight I agreed to take her. She was terrified of

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TFT and Horses

TFT and Horses: An Interesting Journey

by Steven Rogat, LPC, TFT-Dx

I am excited to share some of the successes, and some of the non –successes of my work with horses using Thought Field Therapy. It is not something I ever planned on doing, but after learning of the helping potential of TFT with Equines, I wanted to give it a shot. I also have an affinity for horses (and ponies are okay too, I guess), so when asked if I could work with a horse, I quickly, although nervously, agreed.

I received a call from a woman, Sylvia, whose horse, Red, shied away from, and tried to refuse to go into tall grasses – anything over about 8 inches or so. This behavior seemed to come on suddenly with no obvious stressor causing it.

All the work we did was via telephone. First I had Sylvia (dismounted) lead Red toward the grass, until Red started showing signs of anxiety (ears flat, breath quicker, eyes tending to roll upward). When the anxiety appeared, Sylvia stopped, and I had her first pat the horse’s PR spot, right behind the shoulder. Then we moved on to Sylvia tapping herself as a surrogate while holding a hand on Red.

We didn’t know what caused the stress, but a general rule of thumb I use is that something happened to cause it – an experience that then provided a memory. So, we started with the complex trauma algorithm. Again, Sylvia tapped her own points while touching Red -Eye Brow, Under Eye, Under Arm, and Collarbone. She needed to do the series twice, and then the horse calmed down.

We took the horse closer to the grasses until the anxiety surfaced, and then stopped in order to do the points again. Closer and closer to the grasses we went. It took about

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Radio Interview: From Trauma to Peace

Interview on KAOI talkradio in Hawaii with Bob Stone, co-producer of the TFT Foundation’s documentary “From Trauma to Peace” and Joanne Callahan, co-developer of Thought Field Therapy (TFT) and president of the TFT Foundation.

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TFT and Rescue Dogs

Easy Tapping Techniques for Uneasy Rescue Dogs

by Jo Cooper, TFT-Dx

I have been visiting an animal rescue center and recently had the opportunity to work with a dog that was traumatized. She was at the center for re-homing and was lying shivering in her basket. She would not move from it and braced her feet against the side so that it was almost impossible to move her.

As she lay trembling, I talked to her and tapped using the trauma algorithm. I next used algorithms for complex trauma, anger and rage. Gradually she became a little more interested and did not tense her body quite as much.

I was able to lift her to a sitting position and then, after some more tapping, she stepped out of her bed and came with me for a walk. It had taken about 30 minutes. She was still very nervous, had her tail between her legs and pulled back when she saw another person or dog.

However, she seemed to enjoy the walk!

The next day, I found her—again—in her basket, trembling fearfully. But this time she

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De-Traumatizing Horses

stock photo

The Algorithmic Horse

By Brian Ewart as told to Ian Graham

While visiting a friend’s farm recently, the farmer’s daughter shared with me the story of her 7-year-old mare, who was extremely fearful of people—and especially hostile to men. The horse had been mistreated by its previous male owner. By now, it needed veterinary treatment to trim its hooves—which were overgrown and causing the horse extreme discomfort.

Unfortunately, the local veterinarian is a man and couldn’t get near the horse, even to examine it.  Not wishing her mare to be sedated, the farmer’s daughter shared with me her dilemma.

Could TFT help calm this anxious horse, I wondered?

I explained briefly about TFT, then asked the daughter to stroke the horse’s forehead, and tap gently under its eye. I then asked her to tap behind the horses foreleg (as close to where I imagined the arm point would be), then tap the horse’s chest—as close to the collarbone as she could get.

Since it was impossible for me—a man—to get near the horse initially, I asked the daughter to tap out the algorithm instead.  As she tapped away to my instructions, I could see the horse calming down from a distance. I entered the field and slowly walked to the animal, repeating the algorithm where the daughter left off.

In just a few minutes, the mare was almost asleep.

I asked the farmer’s daughter to walk away and leave the field. By then, she was extremely surprised to find the horse calm, receptive and unaffected by her departure—particularly when the mare had not been bridled in any way, nor had I used any treats.

Later, as I walked about the field, the horse followed me, nudging me in the back—her fear of people (and men, in particular) completely resolved. Even another male visitor to the farm that afternoon couldn’t change the anxiety-free state of the mare.

Of course, the veterinarian was able to treat her hooves with ease.  But getting her to hum a tune while tapping was a different matter entirely!

Excerpted from Callahan Techniques’ latest book, The Tapping
Solution: Tapping the Body’s Energy Pathways

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TFT Relieves 10-Year-Old Boy’s Trauma from Dog Attack

By Dick Brown, PhD (from “The Thought Field”, Vol 2, Issue 2):

Jimmy, a 10-year-old foster child, came to his first therapy session with the hesitancy, reluctance, and resistance common to this population. In an attempt to engage him, he was invited to create some pictures but stubbornly refused. I then took the pencil and started doodling upside down and unconsciously sketched a person walking a dog.

He looked at the drawing and said, “I’m afraid of dogs.” Despite having this knowledge, I asked him to tell me about it. “When I was little,” he said, “a great big Doberman pinscher attacked me. He bit me on the inside of my leg.

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TFT Relieves Pain of Euthanizing Beloved Pet

From Tim Bruneau:

My border collie, Murphy, was an extraordinary spirit who enriched my life immeasurably. He was, in effect, “the nicest person I knew”…cheerful, happy, and affectionate to all. When he reached the age of fourteen, his health began to fail dramatically, and slow organ failure had reduced his life to a miserable existence.

In an attempt to make the most compassionate decision possible, I sought the advice of his veterinarian and subsequently had him euthanized.

While I had psychologically prepared myself for the process of mourning his absence, I truly had not thought about the intensity of emotion that would be precipitated by my having made the conscious decision to have Murphy’s life ended. I was genuinely devastated by feelings of sadness, guilt and confusion for weeks after his passing.

I had met Dr. David Hanson in my work as an entertainer, and in one of our many conversations, he told me of his work in the arena of Thought Field Therapy.

When he offered to help me address my challenges in mourning Murphy through an impromptu session of therapy, I consented with only faint belief in its ability to help.

Despite my hesitation, the session proved to be a miraculous experience. Almost immediately afterward, I felt a clarity of thought and a lightness of spirit unlike anything I had experienced in weeks. Dr. Hanson’s treatment allowed me to process emotions that had simply remained in my head and heart as an unsolvable puzzle of pain and angst.

I will always be grateful for the gift of his healing treatment, TFT, and I encourage anyone who has suffered a loss of this nature to seek it out.

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TFT After Cougar Attack

Martin Law, C.Psych, describes how he used the TFT trauma technique to relieve his wife’s severe trauma after having witnessed the killing of their dog by a cougar:

It was a beautiful Fall Saturday in November 2001 when my wife (Viv) decided to go for a walk into a forested area close to our acreage west of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Our one year old Samoyed dog (Nakoda) happily trotted along with her.

One of our twin sons (David) tagged along as well, then decided to turn around for home after walking for 75 metres. To this day we are thankful that he chose to turn back for home.

About a half-hour into her walk a flash of light brown came bolting from behind a tree, knocked Viv to the ground, suddenly did a 90 degree turn and pounced on Nakoda.

Totally stunned and bewildered, Viv stood up to witness the cougar mauling Nakoda. The sights and sounds of Nakoda’s death were seared into Viv’s brain as she began to take in what was happening. In a panic she fled the scene, feeling helpless, confused and disoriented, as well as guilty for leaving her beloved dog to the mercy of this wild animal.

I was with our oldest son 60 kilometres away at a tennis tournament when all this took place. Fortunately, a distant neighbour who lived close to the site of the attack was home when Viv came crashing through the bush. He drove Viv home.

While this was a short drive, Viv was panicking, not knowing if David had made it home safely. Fortunately he had and for the rest of the day, Viv and our twins stayed with our neighbour until I got home.

Up until this time, we had no idea that cougars would be anywhere near our acreage. We later deduced that this particular cougar had actually been prowling around our home!!

When I arrived home, I heard the whole story. Not surprisingly, Viv was incredibly shaken up. We talked about what happened and I basically followed the standard protocols for defusing following a critical incident (per the Jeff Mitchell CISM model).

That evening Viv could not sleep, with classic flashbacks to the event, a re-living of the sights and sounds of Nakoda’s last minutes. The next day we

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TFT and Animal Trauma

Thought Field Therapy isn’t just for humans. Many animal lovers are using TFT on their pets. You might be asking how can I use this for my pet and for what? Well, animals have emotions and can experience many of the same things we people do like anxiety, depression, sensitivities, loss of a family member, pain and trauma.

My Yorkie that I’ve had for 8 years was a rescue dog. Tiny Nugget was abused as a puppy and suffers from pain from his two broken legs that he got as a puppy plus separation anxiety, and fear of men and small children. He becomes very agitated when there are new men or small children running around.

Recently, I had to be gone for 2 weeks which is the longest I’ve ever had to leave him. My dad called me a couple times to let me know he wasn’t really eating and my dog had to be carried outside to relieve himself because he wouldn’t go outside on his own. By this time, he had diarrhea. I had my 17-year-old take him to the vet. They said he was still hydrated enough but took some blood to be tested just in case and put him on an IV for a couple hours.

After returning home from my TFT advanced training, he wouldn’t get out of his doggie bed and even acknowledge I was home. His eyes were glazed over and I almost thought he was dead. Normally, he would zip to the door and bark and carry on until I picked him up and ran around the parking lot with him.

I immediately picked him up and laid him in my lap. I used myself as a surrogate for him and started tapping on myself while thinking of him and the trauma of me being gone and what he endured at the vet’s office. When I was done, I then tapped under his eyebrow, eye, under nose, under leg and collar bone, just as if I were doing it on a human.

It didn’t seem to work at first so I decided to do a diagnostic test to see if there was something else going on. I tested him for sensitivities to his food and outdoor allergens. His food was fine yet he was sensitive to weed pollen and tree pollen. I used myself as a surrogate again and then treated him for those things and he started perking up.

I treated him for anxiety as well. I even treated my border collie for the trauma of me being away because he was not his usual self either. Sammy was too big to fit in my lap so I just knelt down next to him and worked on him.

Within 2 hours, Tiny Nugget was back to his usual happy little self and barked insanely until I took him for a long walk. I had my two shadows and buddies back.

Chrissy Mayhew, TFT-adv

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