TFT Mission to Uganda - February 2009

Hello again!

Some good things last forever.  The feeling of my heart swelling with pride and joy as I witnessed Thought Field Therapy being successfully applied in service of the people of the Kasese diocese in Uganda lives in me now. This is the first I have written about the mission since I returned so if I sound a bit flighty it is because of the amazing number of powerful and beautiful moments I experienced as part of the ATFT Foundation team training over 350 people in Algorithms and helping them care for hundreds of more members of their communities.

If you have ever watched a hummingbird move from blossom to blossom, you have a sense of what happens to me as I think about picking some delicious bits to share with you.

Quick Facts:

Members of the mission: Phyllis and Howard Roberson from the UK, Stein and Carina Halvorsen Ho from Norway, Roger Ludwig and myself from the USA.  A team of local organizers, translators, and supporters lead by Father Peter Mubunga Basaliza.

Dates of the mission: Stein and Carina were there from Feb. 7 to March 1 – the entire time.  Phyllis, Howard and I were there from Feb. 6 to Feb. 22.  Roger was there from Feb 15 to March 1.

Training provided: Three Algorithm workshops, over 350 certificates of completion were awarded.  One Causal Diagnostic workshop was done with over 100 participants.

Research data collected: Pre-tests and post-tests measuring traumatic stress symptom reduction were completed by over 100 of the participants treated by the newly trained TFT’ers.  The complete information on the numbers is still being compiled and you will see it here soon.

The excitement of being in a different culture was energizing as we worked out the best ways to share the knowledge and skills of Thought Field Therapy.  The fact that human beings function the same all over the world and the fact that TFT works regardless of language and culture were the constants in conversion of the description of the key concepts and applications from our usual way of training.  Working with a group of over 100 participants through translators in a context far different from our lives was challenging but great fun and stimulating.  We had to think about TFT in a very different context.

All of us have had the experience of seeing the expression of amazement and joy that comes over a person’s face when he or she has been relieved of their pain or fear by TFT for the first time.  For me this is always the best part of training or treating – now imagine that joy times hundreds!  The people we trained were so open, honest, caring and appreciative that again my feelings swell up as I remember faces and moments.

Laughing, crying, and dancing in moments of sharing and growing will last forever.  I am thinking that next time I do a workshop I need to include drumming, singing, and dancing.  The next story about Uganda will be more focused but for now I just want to say thank you to the ATFT Foundation Board for making this trip possible and to the members of our team for a tremendous experience and all that I have learned.

At last the research is catching up with those of us already using Thought Field Therapy and who know about its power.

The website: www.innersource.net/energy_psych/articles/ep_energy-trauma-treatment.htm will lead you to a very good academic article reviewing the results of energy psychology in disaster settings.  David Feinstein, Ph.D. does a very good job of pulling together the standards for evidence and presenting the case for using these techniques.  He includes the work of Carl Johnson, James McAninch, and the Trauma Relief Committee of the Association for Thought Field Therapy who worked with the El Shadai Orphanage in Rwanda, as well as many others.

In general, I agree with many of Dr. Feinstein’s conclusions, but not all of them.  I am still convinced that the Callahan Techniques Thought Field Therapy treatments are the most effective. I am also concerned by his discussion of Critical Incident Stress Management.  The following article by Jeff Mitchell provides an excellent review of these issues and the confusing terminology that is the source of much of the controversy in the field: www.icisf.org/articles/cism_research_summary.pdf

The next time someone asks about research you will find Dr. Feinstein’s article and references useful.  There are more good articles coming out soon.  I will keep you posted.

I hope to see you soon at one of the upcoming trainings!

Bob