PTSD

With some 5 million people in the U.S. – including hundreds of thousands of veterans – suffering from PTSD, the condition has reached epidemic proportions, often leading to untold suffering, shattered families, inability to hold a job, homelessness, violence, and suicide. It is an area where energy psychology is showing itself to be one of the most promising interventions available.

Case Example [excerpted from an article in the Psychotherapy Networker]:

Keith, who had served in the Mekong Delta as an infantry soldier during the Vietnam War, suffered with repeated flashbacks, nightmares, and sleep disorder more than three decades after the war. He had been diagnosed with PTSD but reported that substantial individual and group therapy through the VA hadn't helped with his symptoms. In April 2008 he began a series of six hour-long energy psychology sessions through the Veterans Stress Project, treated by Ingrid Dinter.

His severe insomnia, complicated by the nightmares, made him fatigued and unable to function during the day. In his initial energy psychology session, he reported that he'd seen "many casualties on both sides." His flashacks were vivid and frequent, explaining, for instance, how it would often occur that "I think I see Viet Cong soldiers behind bushes and trees."

During the sessions, Dinter had Keith tap on a series of acupuncture points while he focused on traumatic war memories and other psychological stressors. In their first session, he reported that since the war's conclusion, he'd rarely gotten more than one to two hours of sleep at a stretch and averaged about two nightmares each night. By the end of the six sessions, he was getting seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep and was having no nightmares. He said that other symptoms, such as intrusive memories, startle reactions, and overwhelming obsessive guilt had abated as well. A six-month follow-up interview and further testing showed that the improvements held.

Sample PTSD Treatment Outcome Study:

Church, D., Hawk, C., Brooks, A., Toukolehto, O., Wren, M., Dinter, I., & Stein, P. (2013). Psychological trauma in veterans using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques): A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 201, 153-60. Abstract.

Review Article:

Feinstein, D. (2010). Rapid treatment of PTSD: Why psychological exposure with acupoint tapping may be effective. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training. 47(3), 385-402. Abstract.

10 Minute Video:

Excerpted from a documentary movie, brief snippets from the treatment of four combat veterans provide a poignant and compelling glimpse into the method. Click here.