For more information and to sign up, please visit 14th Annual International Energy Psychology Conference

As a licensed clinical social worker and a certified traumatic stress specialist I have known of EMDR since the early 1990s. I do believe it to be an effective and useful tool in the treatment of traumatic stress. I stopped using EMDR when I learned Thought Field Therapy in the late 1990s. Thought field therapy can be taught as a self-help technique to be given to anyone suffering with the symptoms of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome). Professionals of all types, not just mental health at the Masters and PhD level, can learn and use more advance techniques to help in difficult cases. Thought Field Therapy is safe. It is a non-drug, noninvasive, non-cognitive, and fast acting technique that has been used hundreds of thousands of times around the world. Dr. Callahan’s books have been translated into nine different languages. There is a body of research verifying its effectiveness in a variety of settings. The most basic forms can be found free online, including here on this site.

If you have PTSD or know someone who does the most important thing is to not give up. You’re not alone and there is much to be done to help you. Check out my Tips to Help Someone You Love videos.

Time, by itself, does not heal, it’s what you do with the time that heals. When you hear that old adage that time heals all wounds, don’t believe it. It’s a problem in Traumatic Stress Recovery that people get stuck in time. They get stuck in the there and then of the past. And when they do that, they get stuck in those overwhelming, horrible, ugly feelings and perceptions and thoughts that keep them from being able to move forward and to heal.

Your job with someone you love is to allow them to have some new experiences in the current moment and to keep changing. Loving someone and being alive is a moment to moment to moment experience that constantly changes and that’s what you want and what can be healing for the person you love. If they are stuck in one moment, reliving it over and over again then time really isn’t doing anything for them and time may not be changing for them.

The key here is for you to get them to engage in the moment and the best way to do that is through good contact with human beings. To be present in the moment is the only way you can really experience love, care, and concern. So get them to do it any way you can. If you can guilt trip somebody into taking some positive action that allows them to be in the moment and to have new experiences, that’s OK. It’s OK to trade actions on your part for positive actions on their part. It’s OK to play. Play is rarely a trigger for traumatic stressor events. So if you can play with them or get them to play with a child it’s a wonderful experience in the moment that helps the healing happen.

Remember, Thought Field Therapy (TFT) is very helpful in getting somebody unstuck from the there and then to the here and now. Somehow it resets the temporal map so consider using that also. But again, don’t worry about how you should or shouldn’t do it. The idea is to bring them into the moment in a loving caring and safe way. That’s very important for creating the human environment. Just keep at it and don’t give up. Remember, even if they are moving at a snail’s pace, it’s their pace but they’re moving and you will get there eventually. So do the best you can to bring those that you love into this moment and the best way to do that is loving and being loved.

Remember, there’s lots to be done and you are not alone. You can always tap if you start to get overwhelmed or get caught in those repetitious moments. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

For more about how tapping can help and how to tap instructions please check out my book, Heal Traumatic Stress NOW – No Open Wounds.

If you would like to make a comment, please 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.

Tip #4 – Always Act in a Gentle Way

Always act in a peaceful, non-violent, gentle way. Period. We want to make sure that we are not re-traumatizing the person or creating an event where there is more violence going on. All traumatic stressor events are violent in nature. It doesn’t matter if it is man-made or whether it is a natural disaster. What happens in that we are overwhelmed in such a way that we have to give up our thoughts, our feelings, our beliefs, our way of acting in order to survive. In a very short time, that can have a very powerful impact on the person. So it doesn’t matter if it’s wind and water or it’s men with their weapons. All traumatic stressor events are violent because they violate our basic rights. Violence occurs any time our basic rights are not allowed us or are taken from us.

What are basic rights? My belief is that we have a right to our feelings and we have a right to give expression to those feelings. We have a right to our thoughts and we have a right to give expression to those thoughts. We have a right to act in a way that we choose as long we are not harming someone else.

The difficulty comes when we are working with somebody we love and they are saying things about what they think and feel that don’t feel good to us or don’t meet our desires or our needs. You have to be very careful. Don’t tell somebody that they don’t feel something when they have just told you that is what they feel. Don’t tell someone that they don’t think that when they just told you that is what they think. Now, you don’t have to agree with them but you have to accept and acknowledge what they are saying and let them know that they are in a safe place. You also get to have your own thoughts and feelings about what they are saying and what they are doing. And you have the right to give expressions to those. But remember when the focus is on helping somebody you love, you kind of have to set aside some of what you want.

Helping is about an outcome that is independent of the helper’s needs and desires. This can be very, very difficult when we are working with those that we love because our needs and desires are so interwoven. Always remember that you can find a place to talk about your thoughts and feelings in a way that may not agree with them somewhere else but when you are just trying to help them create a safe environment, a safe relationship where they get to have their thoughts and feelings be careful about it.

Remember, you are not alone, there’s lots to be done. Keep tapping. If you have any thoughts or comments or I can help in any way, please let me know.

For more about how tapping can help and how to tap instructions please check out my book, Heal Traumatic Stress NOW – No Open Wounds.

If you would like to make a comment, please 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.

Sign up by February 2nd for special Early Bird pricing. For more information and to sign up, please visit 14th Annual International Energy Psychology Conference

I have put together a short survey to get your feedback and suggestions. There are only 5 questions and will take just a few minutes to complete. And your information will be kept confidential.

Please click here to access the survey.

Thank you,

Dr. Bray

Thank you to the Vietnam Veterans of America Connecticut Greater Hartford Chapter 120 for having the courage to confront this reality of the Veteran’s Administration’s ways. Your leadership in getting the benefits due our veterans is appreciated by those who work with those who suffer with PTSD.

If the VA wants to save money they have to look to other ways. Using Thought Field Therapy, a non-drug, non-invasive, and safe technique to heal the overwhelming symptoms will save money and suffering.

Our live TFT tele-class that you can attend over the phone is coming up next Thursday. The class will help those wanting to overcome past trauma or losses in their lives… with special guest Dr. Robert Bray and Joanne Callahan.

Thursday, January 12th – 5 pm Pacific7 pm Central/8 pm Eastern

For more information and to register, please click here.

Synthetic or organic, it makes no difference, what underlies drug abuse is an attempt to manage overwhelming emotional distress. Think about how desperate one must be to escape their life by using untested and dangerous drugs rather than find a way to managing and enjoying one’s life. Regardless of their military status everyone has a right to live in health, love, and joy. Learning and using thought field therapy to manage these overwhelming feelings is a much better way to improve our society. The money it costs to control these substances and the resulting actions could much better be used in creating environments which do not require drugs to tolerate them. Thought Field Therapy is a noninvasive, drug-free, and safe way to manage overwhelming feelings.

For more about how tapping can help and how to tap instructions please check out my book, Heal Traumatic Stress NOW – No Open Wounds.

If you would like to make a comment, please 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.