Heal Traumatic Stress NOW for your Kindle

 

I am excited to announce that you can now read my book, Heal Traumatic Stress NOW, on your Kindle. You can purchase your copy on the Kindle Store by clicking here: Heal Traumatic Stress NOW – Kindle version.

 

And as always you can learn more or buy the book or eBook on my website.

From Roger Callahan, PhD, Founder and Developer of Thought Field Therapy:

All you need to know about traumatic stress responses and steps to recovery – with complete instructions for using a non-drug, non-invasive, non-cognitive, safe technique to eliminate overwhelming upset in the context of a complete approach to mending the aftermath of horrific life and death experiences.

Dr. Bray’s book leads the reader through the basic steps to help end immediately the suffering from traumatic stress and then guides them towards a complete recovery from their traumatic experience. Thought Field Therapy and the NOW recovery model compliment one another beautifully empowering people to heal themselves.

Thank you,

Dr. Bray

 

 

Thought Field Therapy™ and Traumatic Stress Recovery for Refugees and Immigrants

A pilot project with TFT to help immigrants and refugees resolve post traumatic stress symptoms didn’t last long but it did help – a lot.

This project, delivered in conjunction with The San Diego Elementary School Counseling Partnership at Andrew Jackson Elementary School served several immigrant communities. Clients were served in English, Spanish, Amharic (Ethiopia), Tigrinia (Eritrea), and Somali, French. Swahili, and Arabic. There was a great need for services in general and more specifically to resolve trauma the immigrants experienced in their homeland and in their transition to the U. S. Also, because of their unfamiliarity with mainstream therapy and their distrust of “strangers” these groups were unlikely to seek traditional counseling services. Their difficulties with the English language and access to translation, and high mobility rates among immigrants and refugees require quick treatment approaches.

Thought Field Therapy sessions were provided free of charge to individuals and families by supervised TFT trained counseling interns. In most cases TFT was done in the presence of other family or community members at the school or at home. A wide range of issues were treated from psychological threats to violence and torture.

During the first meeting clients completed an evaluation of their post traumatic stress symptoms. Clients completed the same form as a post test 30 days or more after treatment. Results were constant across age, primary language, gender, ethnicity, and service provider. In the end 79% reported significant improvements in the frequency of their traumatic stress symptoms; far beyond what can be expected with traditional  therapy.

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the link below and fill in the comments form. If you would like to make your comment to Dr. Bray privately, please go to the Contact page to email him directly.

 

HRV demonstrates effectiveness of TFT

How Do You Know Thought Field Therapy™ Works?

Critics of Thought Field Therapy say that success can only be measured subjectively and there is no scientific evidence of it’s benefits. Researchers have found however, that there is an objective physiological measure known as Heart Rate Variability (HRV) that can measure the positive effects of TFT.

What is Thought Field Therapy?

TFT is a treatment for psychological problems, developed by psychologist Roger Callahan in which meridian points on the body are stimulated, usually by having the client tap with their finger tips, in specifically determined sequences while the client focuses attention on the problem being addressed. Tapping patterns are either individually determined treatments through a method known as causal diagnoses, or formulas known as algorithms. Most treatments take only minutes to administer and results are reported immediately by patients using a Subjective Units of Distress (SUD) scale.

Tought Field Therapy has been used by over 5,000 mental health professionals from around the world to help people with problems such as phobias, anxiety, trauma, obsessions, compulsions, depression, addictive urges and a variety of other problems. This treatment approach has a high degree of success, is quick and its effect is immediate. Patients don’t have to talk about the trauma or relive painful memories. There are no negative side effects; if the treatment does not work then nothing happens.

What is Heart Rate Variability?

HRV is defined as the variation in the length of the intervals, measured in milliseconds (ms) between heart beats.

Two people can have the same heart rate (pulse), but have very different variability For example, two people, both with an average pulse of 65 beats per minute could have a very different HRV. One could have variability only between 63-67 beats but the second person could have much higher variability between 58-72 beats. The first person would be considered to have very low HRV.

The heart beat is controlled by the autonomic nervous system and the rate of the heart beat changes moment to moment as the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems switch dominance.

What the Studies Show

Studies have shown that subjects with Post Truamatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have lower HRV consistently compared to those without PTSD. There is also a relationship between phobias or anxiety and low HRV. A relationship between HRV and depression has also been demonstrated but some studies showed the absence of such a relationship, too.
It also has been demonstrated that TFT makes positive changes towards optimal health and that there is a significant relationship between subjects’ self rated anxiety and emotional stress and low HRV regardless of age, gender, trait anxiety, cardiorespiratory fitness, heart rate, blood pressure and respiration rate.

What Does All This Mean?

It means that there is measurable scientific evidence that Thought Field Therapy ™ works. More importantly to those who suffer from PTSD, phobias or anxiety may be helped simply and safely.

 

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the link below and fill in the comments form. If you would like to make your comment to Dr. Bray privately, please go to the Contact page to email him directly.

 

Engaging Clients Fearlessly

With so much Big “T” traumatic stress happening in the world it is easy to become overwhelmed as you hear the stories of those you are reaching out to these days. I hope this will remind all of you helpers it is very important to take care of yourselves.

A woman in her forty’s once was sharing an experience that happened to her at about age eight. I have been doing this work for many years and the level of violence and pain this eight-year-old child suffered was the worst I had ever heard. Be grateful for the lack of details. At some point in the telling of her story I began to cry. It is not unusual for me to cry with clients. My rule is: if I will laugh with a client, I will cry with them. But in this situation, my own upset continued to increase as the details of her horrific suffering became too much. At the point that I was crying so hard that I was no longer able to listen, I stopped her and treated myself with Thought Field Therapy (TFT). Once I had reduced my own upset she continued to tell the rest of the details of this event. I was able to help her with her overwhelming feelings with TFT. I was also able to help her by being a witness to the violence she experienced and guide her in making sense of these events and her life.

In the past before I learned TFT, I would have stopped her from telling me that story. I know that even as skilled and committed as I am to helping others I would have to protect myself. But, thanks to TFT we continued to the end.

The pay off in this story came the next week. When I asked, “what stuck with you from the previous session?” She replied “that in all my life it was the first time any one had ever cried about what happened to me as a child.” This meant a great deal to both of us. She now trusts that it is safe for her to share her experiences. This is a first for her in several ways. This is the first time she has been safe enough in a relationship with another person, a man, and/or an authority figure to reveal her story. She knows she does not have to take care of me and that I will be there to help her.

The knowledge that we can engage safely clients as they come to us with all their stories of horror, violence, pain, and suffering has been a benefit of learning TFT. We can bring relief of the overwhelming emotions of both our clients and ourselves quickly. Empathy is not a requirement for performing good TFT techniques but it is a big part of my work as a specialist in traumatic stress recovery. This means I am often exposed to vicarious traumatization and the associated upset that comes with witnessing their experiences through their stories.

The lesson for me is that I can be fearless as I engage with those who have suffered so greatly. Their stories of the horrors of life will not harm me. With TFT I can offer help and hope no matter the condition of my clients. In the moment as we work, or later as the memories surface I can treat myself. I can help my clients and learn in that helping relationship more about this field, human responses, and myself. Traumatic stress recovery work has been my calling and I am ever so grateful to Dr. Callahan and all those colleagues and clients who have made TFT a way for me to be fearless in this part of my life.

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the link below and fill in the comments form. If you would like to make your comment to Dr. Bray privately, please go to the Contact page to email him directly.

Staying in our natural states of health love and joy

I believe that we all know instinctively that to be healthy, live with love, and in a state of joy is our nature. When we are in this place we need no explanation for why or how we come to be there. We simply accept this is right and good.

It is only when we are not in this state that we begin to look for explanations of why and how we came to be in ill health, or isolated and alone, or existing in misery. Human beings seem to know that this is not good or right or in any way in accordance with our nature.   In all my years as a professional helper I have never had someone come in to my office and struggle with questions of how they can be so happy or so lucky in life and love.

It is common for people to seek help in answering questions about how their life came to be in such a state of suffering with ill health, shut out of relationships, to find positive joy in their lives. Because it just does not make sense that anyone should suffer without reason.  It does make sense to live in health, love and joy.   Thought Field Therapy works to restore our natural states of health, love and joy. Tapping on meridians in the right sequence resolves or heals the blocks to our nature states.  If you cannot experience your natural state of health, love and joy- NOW is a good time to use Thought Field Therapy.

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the link below and fill in the comments form. If you would like to make your comment to Dr. Bray privately, please go to the Contact page to email him directly.

Being an optimist can be risky – thought field therapy reduces that risk.

Watching the news is often a source of hope about the world we live in. It doesn’t matter if you get your news from TV, the Internet, or an old-fashioned newspaper. Knowing that there are people in the world who struggle and often succeed in making our communities safer and more responsive to the needs of all us humans is a good thing.

We are not alone in what we want for our world and can find support hearing the stories of those who succeed. The risk of course, is that we are also exposed to the evil and violence that we do to one another. Often this will trigger traumatic stress responses or fear about our future. When this happens we need to remember to use TFT on ourselves and those we care about so that they do not become overwhelmed by the realities of our struggles.

Living as an optimist means being aware and taking actions that support our beliefs that the world can be a better place. As people all over the world take action to make their governments and communities more responsive to human beings the least we can do is to be aware and focus our optimism in their support. Thought field therapy will greatly reduce the risk that you will become overwhelmed practicing optimism.

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the link below and fill in the comments form. If you would like to make your comment to Dr. Bray privately, please go to the Contact page to email him directly.

Oasis Workshop – July 24, 2009

I am looking forward to presenting an Oasis training for 40+ seniors in San Diego.  Held at the Macy’s in Mission Valley, this short 1 1/2 hour long class will help participants learn about the nature of traumatic stress disorders and the easy ways to immediately end problems with negative overwhelming memories.

Date of class:  July 24, 2009/Time:  10:15 – 11:45

Anyone else interested in coming? Please log on to www.oasisnet.org, or email: oasistutor@yahoo.com

If you would like to make a comment, please click on the link below and fill in the comments form. If you would like to make your comment to Dr. Bray privately, please go to the Contact page to email him directly.