EFT helps Terrie recover after her brain injury

By Terrie Stieferman

Hi Gary,                                                         

I would like to share with your readers how I discovered EFT at a very pivotal time in my life.

In December of 2002 my husband, Mike and I left Atlanta to drive to St. Louis for our yearly trip to visit his dad.  After driving a short distance, we stopped at a restaurant for breakfast.  I remember getting out of the car to begin the walk to the restaurant.  My next conscious memory was being inside an ambulance feeling totally confused, disoriented, and experiencing excruciating pain on the left side of my head.

The ambulance attendant who was beside me told me that I was being rushed to the hospital.  He said that I had fallen on “black ice” and had received a head injury.  Mike had been walking behind me.  He saw me slip and tried to catch me.  It happened too fast for him to prevent me from falling.  I fell flat on my back, and then my head slammed onto the pavement.  In a split second this accident changed my life!

After arriving at the nearest hospital it was determined that I had bleeding in the brain cavity and I would have to be moved to a different hospital for surgery.  During my short stay at that hospital my personality appeared to be changing in a most unpleasant manner.  I felt highly agitated and irritated and began using inappropriate language to hospital personnel who were attending me.  Mike was obviously shocked and had a look of concern on his face.  A doctor quietly told him that my erratic behavior was due to the brain injury.  After being transferred to a different hospital and with further testing, it was found that the bleeding had stopped and surgery was not necessary.  However, this was just the beginning of my personal nightmare.

The grueling process of my therapy began.  I was a regular outpatient at the Shepherd Spinal Center here in Atlanta which deals with Spinal Cord Injury and Brain Injury Rehabilitation.  I was tested on more drugs than I care to remember. I started physical therapy for my balance and gait. I had regularly scheduled cognitive therapy sessions for concentration and attention, memory recall, and temper outbursts. My motor coordination was not functioning properly. I felt unsteady and dizzy when walking and sometimes things would fall out of my hands.   I also had difficulty bringing up simple words and picture identifications, such as, not being able to remember the name of a chipmunk running through my yard.   I would become angry or weepy when I was unable to recall certain words, which made it even more difficult for me to recall the word.  I was extremely depressed and felt very inadequate in all areas of my life.

Fast forward to 2006.  Having been the owner of a health food store and always looking for alternative ways of healing, I “accidentally” found The Gary Craig EFT Website late one night.  I was immediately intrigued and stayed up until the wee hours of morning, eagerly reading different stories of how EFT had changed people’s lives.  In yet another split second I intuitively felt a glimmer of hope which had long ago faded away.  I just knew that my healing process was ready to accelerate.

I began learning and practicing EFT after ordering the DVDs.  I took some local EFT classes, went to a workshop in Texas, and then attended an in-depth training with Carol Look.  The physical and cognitive therapy sessions seemed to be going nowhere so I stopped them and focused on EFT.  As my EFT skills increased the improvement in my well-being did also. Here are some of the set-up phrases I used when I first began using EFT for the brain injury:

Even though my life right now feels that I’m living in a hell on earth – I’m willing to believe that I can learn to love and accept myself – because right now I don’t!

Even though I’ve contemplated how I could end my life – I accept myself just the way I am.

Even though I’m having horrible headaches and pain throughout my body – I have learned that I can alleviate the pain by tapping.

Even though I feel angry at the whole world – and most especially my brain – I’m willing to believe that I can have a total healing.

Even though I feel like a different person from how I remember myself before the accident, I deeply and completely love, honor and accept myself just the way I am.

Even though I feel as though I’m in a dream state most of the time…

Even though I feel the doctors are just experimenting on me with all their different drugs – I can choose to see this in a more positive way.

Even though I feel I have frayed wires in my brain and it’s permanently damaged – I know that the human body has great potential for healing.

Even though objects I pick up slip out of my hand and crash to the floor – I choose to believe that this is only a temporary interruption and that tomorrow things will be better in my life.

Even though I try so hard to remember things, and when I don’t I feel really stupid – I choose to ease up on the self-criticism and believe that every day I’m getting better.

Even though I want to be able to escape through sleep and my body refuses to help me – I choose to start sending love to my body to accelerate my healing.

Even though I would like to get rid of the brain I have and be able to receive a transplant, I feel optimistic about my healing, because I’m making myself laugh when I make that statement.

I ventured out and started teaching a weekly EFT group class which further contributed to my healing as well as that of many others.  I’ve been facilitating my group class for almost 2 years now.

Looking back at that period in my life, it is uplifting to see the many positive changes which have occurred since my introduction to EFT. Here are some of the areas where I have experienced outstanding results from applying EFT:

Headaches:  After the accident, I would have headaches which lasted for days – having relief only for a day or two.  Now if I feel the tightness in my head which signals the beginning of a headache, I start tapping.  They might not completely stop, but the tapping slows them down.  Daily tapping also helps keep them away.  I’m confident that the more I uncover those buried core issues – the sooner I will experience the absence of all headaches.

Nightmares:  Frequently during the night, Mike would wake me because I had been screaming from having a nightmare.  I remember a disturbing situation for me while vacationing with family members one summer.  I awoke screaming during the night and immediately felt embarrassed, because the noise obviously awakened and concerned everyone sleeping.  I lay awake afterwards afraid to sleep again for fear of further disturbing anyone.  When I learned EFT, this technique helped the nightmares to subside –

Even though I’m afraid to go to sleep at night because I will disturb the household with my screaming during the night I choose to relax and send love to that scared part of me that wakes up screaming.  I deeply and completely love and accept myself and know that my body is in a healing process.  I’m okay just the way I am!  Today I am no longer plagued with nightmares.

Depression:  The debilitating depression I had been engulfed with became tired of “hanging out” with me.  It decided one day to “pack up” and go away – probably black and blue from all the tapping.  What a joyous celebration that was for me!

Anger:  At times my body would fill with anger.  I would have outbursts of temper where I pounded my fists on the table feeling absolute rage.  When anger now comes up I tap it away.  Sometimes it is “mental” tapping if others are around.  Either way the tapping focuses my mind on how I want to feel and all that hostility evaporates.  The “out of control” anger also decided to leave.

Memory:  At times there are still patches of time I can’t recall and I tend to feel teary when this happens.  However, these situations occur less and less in my life now.  When the anger, depression, nightmares and headaches lessened, my memory began returning along with the other improvements.  My memory has improved at least 90 percent – and for that I am extremely grateful.

It is even more astonishing to realize that in several ways things are even better than before I fell.  I had originally longed to “go back in time” to the person I was before the accident.  However, as I have been writing this article, I realize that I have received some surprising bonuses which I had not realized were the result of EFT.  For the first time in my life I actually love speaking before groups of people; whereas, I always remained safely in the background before.  I love to sing, but in the past I would feel so much anxiety that my body would feel as though it were frozen.  I have a little sign at home which reads:  “Sing Like There’s Nobody Listening” and now I do so in public.  EFT has allowed me to receive that “brain transplant” I asked for.

Gary, “My Cup Runneth Over.”  Thank you for all you have done by allowing so many people to have access to this powerful healing mode.   I say with humble appreciation that I am so grateful I found your website that night.

With much gratitude,

Terrie Stieferman