The connection between vitiligo and a traumatic experience

By Dave Abel

Steve is in his early thirties, married with two children.  He is a successful business man achieving his goals and dreams.  He came to see me after he was told by his doctor that the pigmentation in his skin could not be reversed.  His body is lightly tanned and the vitiligo has left almost white marking around his eyes, ears and hands.  He also has vitiligo on other parts of his body, usually covered by clothing.

The vitiligo appeared suddenly, and without warning, in March 2001.  The patches of affected skin became more pronounced as each month passed.  He wears professional makeup to cover the patches on his face.  When dining in a local restaurant with his family, the people on the next table commented, “I hope they wash the cutlery here – look at that guy’s hands”.  As Steve relayed that comment to me, he was clearly reliving the emotion of that moment.  The preamble with him was abruptly interrupted and EFT commenced.

Even though I have vitiligo…

We continued tapping on the Karate chop spot and I asked what his level of intensity was when he told me about the experience in the restaurant.  He said, “It was the worst feeling ever, I felt embarrassed, hurt, and angry.”  We started tapping directly into the embarrassment and anger issues.  The emotion of the restaurant moment collapsed to 2 on a scale of 0 to 10 very quickly. 

He told me he was left with a feeling of deep sadness that the incident had ever happened. His level of intensity increased to 8 out of 10 and he became flushed in the face.  We tapped into this emotion, yet the intensity level remained quite high at 6/7 out of 10.  I asked him when the last time he felt sadness like this was.  We were still tapping when he became extremely emotional.  He was about to share something that was obviously traumatic, and he commented, “I had forgotten all about this – where has it come from?”

GC COMMENT: Core issues like this come up frequently during the EFT process. This phenomenon is an important aid to good detective work.

We moved immediately into the Movie Technique.  The name he chose for the movie was 'Granddad'.  He was instructed to stop at the first sign of intensity.  Within seconds he stopped the scene.  His level of intensity was off the scale.  He was sobbing as we tapped and the level dropped to 3 quite quickly, much to his surprise.  When he was ready to move to the next scene, his level of intensity went to 10+ again.  We moved through 4 scenes, all following a similar pattern – a level of intensity of 10 out of 10 dropping to 3 or 4.  The final scene took the longest for the intensity of the emotion to collapse.

Below is the entire movie that, after EFT, Steve was able to "run the movie" from start to finish without showing any intensity of emotion.  He was then asked if he could verbalize the movie.

• Steve’s grandfather lives alone, he is a widower.  January 2001: His grandfather’s neighbour telephoned Steve informing him his Grandfather was not answering the door – it was about 9.30 am.
• Steve went to his Grandfather’s home and had to break the front door down – there were security bolts on the inside of the front door so Steve’s key was useless.  (This was scene 1 of his movie).
• Steve said he knew his grandfather had died, and he knew the body was in the kitchen – but he could not physically enter the kitchen (too emotional) and he chose to look in every other room of the home. (Scene 2 of the movie).
• Finally he entered the kitchen and his grandfather’s body was resting against the heating boiler where he had collapsed sometime earlier (Scene 3).
• He touched his grandfather and believed him to be still alive, as his body was very warm.  He gave his grandfather the ‘kiss of life’ (mouth-to-mouth resuscitation).  Death had occurred much earlier and his body was being kept warm from the heat of the boiler.  As Steve breathed into his granddad’s lungs, they immediately expelled the air with the most pungent, foul smell which hit Steve ‘in the face’. (Scene 4)

Scene 4 was extremely traumatic for Steve when he was ‘viewing’ the scene earlier.  He commented, "This level will NEVER decrease - I have got it for life".  It took EFT about 15 minutes to remove the intensity of that emotion.  Steve then felt guilty that he no longer felt the immense sadness he had been carrying inside him for 6 years.  We tapped into this and all was well.

Steve had never been able to share any of this with his wife, brother, sister, mother or father.  They all knew he had found his grandfather’s body – but they had never been told about the kiss of life and the ‘foul smell’ that he has never been able to forget.  Steve’s vitiligo appeared 3 months after this experience.  This article is written one year after I worked with Steve.

Was the vitiligo connected with the traumatic event?  I believe it was.  Researching vitiligo with Meta Medicine suggests the cause may be ‘a painful separation from a loved one’.  This appears to 'fit the bill'.

Using EFT on a daily basis it took approximately three months before Steve noticed the pigmentation was returning under his eyes.  At first he thought it was his imagination, but he came to see me and I confirmed pigmentation was returning.  One year later I am unable to report the vitiligo has completely disappeared.  In twelve months there has been a 25% improvement (especially to his face).  It is gradual and without doubt it is with thanks to EFT. 

He has never been offered medication for the condition.  His hands have shown little sign of the return of the pigmentation.  To be relieved of the painful memory, which he could not talk to his closest family about, is a wonderful release. 

Blessings, Dave