Diagnosed as a schizophrenic, Gregoire had anxiety, stress and insomnia

By Abraham Bruck, EFT-Adv

Session One

Gregoire is a 27 year old single student who lives with his mother with whom he has “no real verbal relationship”.

His parents are originally from the Caribbean. He has the “rare communication” with his father. By his own admission he is “a lot like him; shy, reserved and non-verbal”.

Gregoire was diagnosed as schizophrenic, has been on and off medications and in and out of hospitals for most of the past 5-6 years. Hence he is just starting college at 27.

He “hears voices”, he’s “OK, one on one”, “shuts down in a group” and then “gets depressed about bad interaction”.

He stopped his meds at the end of June (two months before our first session), and is starting to feel the effects.

He complained of nausea: “like I want to throw up after an upset or stress”, “tension around my face coming in at me – pressure – like everyone is looking at me”.

At this point, I thought I had enough to go on, so I explained the Table Top metaphor and asked for a specific incident, the Table Top being Anxiety and Stress.

The incident happened in 6th grade. There was a camera crew in the class. The topic under discussion was relationships. Everyone had a turn in front of the camera. By the time the “camera and spotlight focused in on me, the pressure had built up so much that I went blind”. The 0-10 intensity was a 9-10, the incident took maybe one minute.

We tapped on “Even though I have an emotional charge of 9 or 10 on the spotlight incident, I deeply and completely love and accept myself”.

We tapped 2-3 rounds of that and the intensity went down to a 6-7. When asked how he knew that, where in his body he felt it, he said that there was a tightness in his stomach. We tapped another few rounds of “Even though I still have this 6-7 tightness in my stomach, I deeply and completely love and accept myself”, and it went down to a 0.

The next incident took place on a train with his mother when he was 4-5 years old. He was upset and making a lot of noise. His mother said “Look, everyone is looking at you!”: “I turned around and looked, and sure enough, a lot of faces were looking at me”.

And although that did not have much of an emotional charge during the session (to his surprise), a recent incident did pop up, which did have an inensity of 8: As he was walking down the street a couple of days before the session, he walked by 2 people. He felt that they were looking at him and talking about him, and then another person in front of him turned around and looked at him as well. He felt it as a “heavy weight” mainly around his face.

We tapped on “Even though I feel this heavy weight when people are staring at me, I choose to feel calm relaxed and comfortable.” We tapped on the negative, positive and alternating (Patricia Carrington style). One sequence got it down to a 4 and the next to a 0.

Then he said that “the person in front of me is still looking at me and shaking his head”: new aspect of “shaking his head”: intensity went up to a 4 again. Did a couple of rounds of “Even though he was shaking his head …” and it went down to a 0.

We went on to the most recent incident with a high charge: In July he was taking a course. One day the professor was late and a few students were hanging out in the waiting room: “I was about to walk in and I noticed them sitting there, so I sat down some distance away; they were talking, sitting, I started to worry, I was just looking, saying to myself, “look away if you’re not going to say anything”. Passing glances at the people, I got dizzy following the conversation; I stopped looking and went into my protective shell; zoned out”.

Then one of the girls turned and said “Why are you sitting all the way over there?”, “I smiled, nodded and turned away, I had this numb feeling in my head”: an intensity of 6.

“Even though I have this 6 numbness in my head about the waiting room incident, I choose to feel calm, relaxed and confident.”

The numbness went to a 0 and turned to a sadness of 5.

Time was running out; we got the sadness down to a 4 and I said that I would email some homework to him so he could practice tapping and get the sadness down to a 0.

At the very end he said that he also has terrible trouble getting to sleep. I told him that I would email some tapping instructions for that also.

I sent him 3 sheets of tapping instructions in my standard Homework Format:

1) “Even though I still have some of this sadness about the waiting room incident, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.”

2) “Even though I have this anxiety when I am in public, I choose to feel calm, relaxed and confident.”

3) “Even though I have trouble getting to sleep, I choose to surprise myself at how quickly and easily I CAN get to sleep.”

Session Two

Gregoire came in to the next session, much more relaxed.

By the way, I forgot to mention it, but Gregoire had gone to the emofree.com site and downloaded the free EFT manual and had learnt to tap before he even called me. He found me in the EFT Practitioners List on the site.

So I asked him how the homework had gone: he said that the sleep issue was going really well; instead of getting to sleep at 3:30 or 4:00am with great difficulty, he was getting to sleep at 1:30 easily. So, as far as he was concerned, the insomnia was under control and getting even better.

I tested the “waiting room” incident and then the sadness from the previous sesson, both of which were not longer issues: intensity level: 0, for both.

But he now said that he feels that “people hate me and are sending negative vibrations towards me”. Another Leg of the Anxiety/Stress Table Top. So, I asked him how he knew this. And he said “From their facial expressions”, and then he went on to say “I’m pulling in the negative energy from them”.

So I wrote down “Even though I feel people hate me and are sending negative vibrations towards me …”, and he kept right on talking, quite unlike the first session when I need to really pull everything out of him.

He recalled an incident that still bothered him a lot: Recently in school one of the girls commented to him, not in a mean way, perhaps even as a complement. Gregoire, himself had mentioned that he was noticing that he was walking with more confidence, his posture was better. So the girl said to him: “You can walk but you still can’t talk.” He wants to be able to talk. Even so, the intensity level was low a 2-3.

He then went on about the insomnia: even though there was significant progress as mentioned earlier, he said that there now seems to be a new obstacle: “The night pictures get stuck”; he explained that every time he tries to go to sleep a picture pops into his head and it takes all his attention and he can’t fall asleep for quite a while.

I asked him to close his eyes and get a picture; he got one. Then I told him to pretend that it was made of glass and shatter it; he did. We repeated that a few times and then I asked him to get a picture and to hold it without shattering: he couldn’t. I told him that he now has a tool that will work on unwanted images. He was OK, with that.

We went back to the negative vibrations: I asked him how he knew that people were directing hateful and negative vibrations toward him: I said most people just walk around, preoccupied with their own thoughts and feeling, etc. and most, if not all of them, don’t even know or care if he exists. He admitted that that was true. I said, “But that is logical, emotionally you feel the hate and negativity. I told him that, in his own words, he said that he was “pulling it in”; he was a Negative Vibration Magnet, a Hateful Thoughts Magnet. I told him that all around us there were radio and television and cell phone waves, but we don’t see or hear them. Why not? Because we’re not “tuned in” to the right frequencies. I told him that all around us there were also all manner of negative and hateful (and worse) thought vibrations, being sent out from all over the world.

I said “Try this: Close your eyes and feel love I your heart; radiate that love out … radiate out farther and farther … more and more powerful feelings of  Love …”. And I just let him sit there for a few minutes.

I brought him back and told him that he should practice that several times a day. “As long as you are radiating out Love, you cannot be pulling in hate and negativity, real or imagined. As you were radiating Love, did you feel any hate or negativity?” He did not. I told him that the Love Radiation will create a protective shield and that no negativity could penetrate it.

He was very happy with that.

His homework was:

”Even though I’m pulling in / attracting negativity and hate like a magnet, I choose to replace that by radiating / shining Love outward (like the sun radiates / shines light)”

And just like nothing can touch the sun, as long as it is radiating light, in the same way, no negativity or hate (imagined or real) can reach you as long as you are radiating LOVE :-)

Session Three

Session three was a phone session. The insomnia was no longer an issue; “I tap at night and fall right asleep”. The hate and negative vibrations were no longer an issue; “I experienced some phenomena while consciously/spiritually radiating love around me…  suddenly I felt as if my thoughts and the space around me 'cleared up'. It's hard to describe but it felt like I was in a new zone, I felt a sort of unfamiliar though protective energy around me...”

He wanted to be able to talk freely. He related 3-4 specific incidences that happened that week where he felt that his communication was lacking.

We worked out 3 tapping statements; he was to tap 3 rounds 3 times a day, whether he felt that he needed it or not: once upon waking in the morning, once before or after lunch and once before going to sleep at night. I told him to pick one and use it until the SUDs level went down to a least a 1, preferably 0, and then go on to the next, etc…

Homework #1:

Step #1… Say 3 Times, Tap Continuously on the Karate Chop Point:

 “Even though I find it hard to talk to other people and I don’t know what’s actually stopping me, I choose to DEEPLY  and COMPLETELY  love and accept myself. And I forgive myself and anyone else who I may have blamed for this. ”

Step #2... One Round of Reminder Phrase: I find it hard to talk to other people and I don’t know what’s actually stopping me …

Step #3... One Round of Choice Phrase: I DEEPLY  and COMPLETELY  love and accept myself …

Step #4... One Round Alternating Reminder and Choice Phrases

Homework #2:

Step #1… Say 3 Times, Tap Continuously on the Karate Chop Point:

“Even though I have a hard time understanding what people are saying to me,

I choose to feel calm, relaxed and confident. And I can say something like > Woah, slow down, I can’t keep up with you …”

Step #2... One Round of Reminder Phrase: have a hard time understanding what people are saying …

Step #3... One Round of Choice Phrase: I choose to feel calm, relaxed and confident …

Step #4... One Round Alternating Reminder and Choice Phrases

Homework #3:

Step #1… Say 3 Times, Tap Continuously on the Karate Chop Point:

“Even though my mind usually locks up and I can't really give any output, and I feel stoned and spaced out, I choose to feel calm, relaxed and confident, and to surprise myself at how easily I can find appropriate things to say …

Step #2... One Round of Reminder Phrase: my mind locks up and I can't give any output, and I feel stoned and spaced out … 

Step #3... One Round of Choice Phrase:  calm, relaxed and confident, surprise myself at how easily I can find appropriate things to say …

Step #4... One Round Alternating Reminder and Choice Phrases

End of Session Three.

I had not heard from Gregoire for a while so I shot him an email, as I do when I haven’t heard from someone for a while; just asking how he’s doing, especially with the desire to be more talkative.

This was his response:

hi Abraham,

I have to work some more at it. I tapped a bit on understanding people better, and it has helped. I noticed I was able to give some more feedback in a group setting, it also helped that I studied more for the class and understood certain concepts more clearly. But it seems I still haven't got to the level that I consider to be 'up to par.'  I will say that I never felt as comfortable as far as being a part of the class group, this quickly into the semester.

In any case, I have more free time for the rest of the week, so I will schedule more time in for EFT.

--Gregoire

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