For many of us, hope is what keeps us going forward in our healing journey.
To be inspired regularly with stories of healing adds to our momentum to keep doing the work. Many of our volunteers at FREA are licensed professionals that use the FREA techniques in their practice. All of us at FREA use these techniques in our own self-care practices. We have loads of stories! We are excited to share with you case studies from our team. We have changed details to protect privacy. If you have an experience of healing from sexual trauma with these techniques to share, please contact us - we would love to hear from you!
CASE STUDY #5 - Saying No to Sex After #metoo with EFT BY GLENDA RUEGER PAYNE This was my second session with Mary. A newlywed, she was searching to find more sexual spark in her new marriage. We began examining the blocks to sharing sexual intimacy with her husband. She described a memory of being molested by her mom's boyfriend just as her sexuality was awakening. Since that event, she has been attracted to men who don't respect her boundaries. I asked her to rate her Validity of Cognition (VOC) on the statement, “I have the right to say no.” It was only 50% true for her. I then asked her to put herself into a memory of saying no to a man and not feeling heard. I asked her to rate her emotional charge according to the SUD scale of 0 to 10 when she remembered the event. She said she felt a level 8 frustration. After tapping on the frustration, she found guilt at level 10 whenever she says no. Investigating the guilt further, we uncovered that she didn't feel safe saying no. I had her search for a childhood event representing the first time she felt it was unsafe to say no. We found one from age 2 when she witnessed her dad assaulting her mother. We used gentle techniques until she was able to handle the memory with a lower SUD rating. We used the Movie Technique, reducing each spike to 0 as she ran that scene through. I then had her call in everyone she could think of, either living or dead, who made her feel safe. I asked her to take her adult self along with her safety guard, and introduce herself to her 2-year-old self. I asked her to pull her little self out of that situation and into safety. Upon completing that guided visualization, her VOC on the statement "I can say no" increased to 90%. Exploring further, she found seething anger at a SUD level of 7. Subsequent emotions that surfaced were, “When my husband wants something from me, I feel dirty and shut down.” We tapped on those for two rounds each. Then she was able to access more comfortably the molestation event that happened when she was 15. We used the Movie Technique on that event as well. I made sure to have her focus on each aspect: noises in the room, the way he smelled, the color and feel of the couch they were sitting on. At each emotional spike, she was able to access exactly how she was feeling in that moment. After tapping each of those spikes down, I had her adult self safely encourage her 15- year-old self to join our session. I had her give her younger self permission to say no, and defend herself. Lots of tears welled up just knowing she had permission to say no. She felt a huge emotional release and gave her 15-year-old permission to smack her attacker with a bat. Her SUD level had reduced to 2 when we ran out of time, so we did a sneak away and set up another appointment. www.FREA.support Please share today's message - help us get the word out that healing from abuse is possible! #metoo, #saam, #metoorecovery, #metoohope, #metoohealing If you have been raped, assaulted, or abused recently, please get help immediately. #metooRecovery, #metooHope, #metooHealing, #metoo, #sexualabuseawareness