EFT clears PTSD -- Nassirya bombing, Iraq

By Andrea Fredi

Hi Gary,

Here’s a letter that Franco, a Carabiniere (special force) survivor from Nassirya bombing in Iraq, just sent me.  I had the pleasure to meet him during an EFT Course recently, but I didn't know he had lived that experience.  So, when I was about to demonstrate the Tell the Story Technique and I asked for a person, he volunteered.

When he began telling the event, it was good that I was tapping on myself (remaining centered) guiding him, because what he was narrating was really strong.  A big part of the group, who was around us listening, was tapping to cope with the emotional impact of the story.

While he was telling the event, and the details became more accurate and emotionally intense, his emotions manifested as muscular tensions, heat, sweat, and tears.  I was suggesting EFT Setup phrases in order to clear all the scenes he was narrating (details below) proceeding slowly to be sure all the aspects were brought to a level of intensity of 0 on a scale of 0 to 10.

We faced many visual (that I prefer to omit considering the harshness), auditory and kinesthetic details, tapping on these scenes until they got cleared.  A very important aspect (common to people that lived through tragedies like this) was the "Blame to be alive, when my colleagues are dead.”  A few rounds of EFT and that was ok.  

I remember sentences like Even though I had to save them...  Even though I had to know in advance that they were attacking...  And a phrase with some humour like, Even though I'm Superman but I wasn't able to save them anyway...

After 45 minutes, once he felt light telling what he narrated (thanks also to a couple of well-done 9 Gamut procedures) he agreed to stop so he had the opportunity to integrate the work we had done.

We arranged an appointment, this time outside the public environment, to finish the work.  When this happened (a couple of months later), to Franco's big surprise, the part of the story that we treated together at the previous workshop was practically at zero out of 10.  While continuing the narration, others emotions and aspects came out and we tapped.

We worked together for nearly an hour on the remaining 25% of the story, releasing emotions of anger, grief, blame, and the sadness for the colleagues dead.  We also used some reframing to transform the coldness he showed during the event (and by him judged somehow in a negative way) into a "sound ability to act and do things others weren't able to do." 

For example, thanks to his presence of mind he and other colleagues had been able to open a breach for the Iraqi Firemen, avoiding a tremendous blast into the ammunition depot.  This limited the already high number of victims.  Towards the end we worked on the remaining tensions in the neck and shoulders, and on the linked emotions.

It has been an extraordinary experience, and I wish it could become of inspiration for those who carry similar weights.  A big thanks to Franco for sharing his experience.

Andrea Fredi

From Franco to Andrea "and I add a thanks"

I've treated PTSD with EFT together with Andrea Fredi, having wonderful results.  I met Andrea at an EFT course he was giving, and I told him what happened to me in Iraq.  I narrated what happened there, having emotions that were well over 10 (on a 0-10 scale).

We treated about 75% of the event and we have been able to get to 0 on this, we then decided to treat the remaining 25% on a different occasion.  A couple of months later I had a one on one session with Andrea.  The thing that really got my curiosity, and convinced me to share this event, is the fact that while telling him the 75% of the event previously reported, the emotions were 0 or 1, like the day we treated them during the course.  I then narrated the remaining 25% of the event having emotions around 5 or 6, and with EFT got to 0 as well.

Report: International Mission called "Antica Babilonia,” in Iraq

The report of a Carabiniere (special Italian force) present at the moment of the attack at the Nassirya base on November 12th, 2003.

The morning of the 12th of November 2003 I was inside the building, where later happened the attack, doing computer work.  A colleague came and asked me if I wanted to go with him at the Command (150 metres), to hand over armies and various items because, after 2 days, we should have left to go back, in Italy.  I went with him and other colleagues in a military car at the other side of the river, inside the base.  We had just arrived when we heard shooting from the Maestrale Base (where we were a few minutes before) and right after we were shaken by the shock wave of the blast.

Immediately we saw the building of the Maestrale Base embedded in black smoke and we heard shooting from there.  Our mind went to the colleagues that were inside the building.  We couldn't know what was happening so I took a bulletproof vest, a gas mask and a rifle and me and a colleague went toward the Maestrale Base.

We got into a military vehicle and went towards the base in flames, then inside the building to rescue those wounded.  There was still shooting and we didn't know if we were under attack or not.  We noticed a dead man's body in a room, and we recognized him, then we went on looking for other people wounded, but we didn't find anybody.

We went behind the building and noticed that the shooting came from the container used as ammunition depot, still in flames.  With some colleagues I opened a breach into the fence in order to allow the Iraqi Firemen to extinguish the blaze.  Under the container I found other bodies, and then shouted to warn people around to get away from there.  I remember, around me, a colleague in complete shock.

Once the fire was extinguished I looked around and realized the situation: charred bodies, many in pieces, lay around.  Colleagues that were talking to us till then, we couldn't recognize them.  We put into plastic bags all the human remains, and I remember especially a colleague that was crying and asking me help him recognize a head he had inside a plastic bag.

In the afternoon, I could not say the hour; we continued looking for bodies, armies and documents, considering that some Iraqi was trying to steal.  In the evening, exhausted, we went to rest but I couldn't sleep because the scenes of the tragedy kept coming into my mind.  The morning after, we went back to the half-destroyed base still looking for human remains, and we brought them to the local hospital.  In the late afternoon came the order to go back to Italy, and the evening we were at home.

This wants to be a small contribution to EFT and all those techniques that works in a simple and effective way, when nothing else will.

Thanks to EFT,

Franco