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Fears And Phobias

Claustrophobia

The Skeptic & Claustrophobia (or how I was treated like a

Important Note: This article was written prior to 2010 and is now outdated. Please use my newest advancement, Optimal EFT. It is more efficient, more powerful and clearly explained in my free e-book, The Unseen Therapist™.  Best wishes, Gary

Hi Everyone,

Note how Dr. Kiya Immergluck tests her results as she uses EFT to rid her skeptical client of his claustrophobia.

Hugs, Gary


By Dr. Kiya L. Immergluck, EFT-ADV

Dear Gary,

Most of the people I work with are excited or very curious about EFT.  They find me on your website, have downloaded the manual and/or experimented with doing EFT on their own.  Thankfully, it is rare nowadays that I deal with someone who is very skeptical about EFT.

This week, a friend referred someone to me.  He is a highly intelligent and very successful businessman and world traveler with a healthy ego and extreme skepticism that this “strange” procedure would be at all helpful to him.

The reason “Dan” agreed to see me was a sense of desperation.  His mild case of claustrophobia had gotten steadily worse over the years, and it was now seriously interfering with his life.  Dan was personable and charming, but all attempts to explain EFT to him seemed to be falling on deaf ears.

I talked about Einstein and energy, and then I asked him if he was familiar with acupuncture.  It turns out that he once had an acupuncture treatment on a small boat on the Yangtze River with a Chinese man who spoke no English!  He said that it didn’t help him at all, but that he was impressed with the results his wife achieved.

I figured we at least had the acupuncture connection, but I finally realized that Dan was willing to suspend his own skepticism on the remote chance that EFT might help him.  I think Dan would have visited a witch doctor in a primitive village if he thought he could be rid of his problem!

I asked Dan what his very worst experience was with claustrophobia.  Before he told me, I shared with him that those of us with classical training in psychotherapy are often teased in EFT circles because we have “so much to UN-learn!”  I told him about the very first time I saw the DVD with the Vietnam veterans.  I literally gasped out loud when Gary Craig said to the hospitalized vet at their very first meeting:  “What was your WORST experience in Vietnam?”

In my traditional training, I would NEVER even consider asking someone with severe PTSD what their “worst experience” was at a first session!  I shared that story to give Dan an example of my own skepticism, and how touched I was when the veteran reported the next day that he “slept through the night for the first time in years!”

I also told Dan ahead of time that I had 2 possible ways to test if EFT was working for him.  He had a vague memory of a childhood incident when other children put a blanket over his head.  Since that seemed to be the beginning of his issues with claustrophobia, I told him that we could experiment later by putting a blanket over his head (if he felt that he could handle that).

The other possible “test” would be to have him sit in a very tiny closet with the lights out.  He appreciated the idea of testing results, but he knew that he couldn’t do either one of those tests at the beginning of our session.  He was willing to consider trying those tests at the end.

After balking a little at the “hokey” expression:  “I accept myself…,” Dan recounted his recent (and worst) experience with claustrophobia.  Dan paid a lot of money to a pilot in a far-away country to take him on a joy ride in an old two-seater fighter jet.  The money was paid and Dan knew there would be no refunds.  He was excited about the adventure ahead of him, but as soon as the plastic dome came down over his head, he went into an extreme panic and had to abort the entire experience.

I asked Dan if he felt any embarrassment or shame.  He said that he didn’t at all.  He figured that he has a condition that prevents him from doing certain things, and although he feels very disappointed, his ego was intact.

The very worst part of the experience was when it took the pilot several extra minutes to realize that Dan was very serious when he screamed:  “Get me the hell out of here!”

Dan called all of his memories of that incident as being a level of intensity of 9 on a scale of 0 to 10 because he just couldn’t bring himself to call them 10’s.  We did a round about Even though I was terrified when that dome came down on my head… and another round of him yelling, Get me the hell out of here!…

Dan co-operated with the process and remained very skeptical as he did it.  After just a few rounds, he had a look of shock on his face.  He wasn’t willing to say that it was truly a zero (any more than he was willing to admit that it started out as a 10!), but he smiled and said, “I think I could get on that jet right now and fly with no problem!”

I was prepared to tap with him about the childhood blanket issue, and some other adventures that were thwarted because of his claustrophobia, but Dan said that he felt ready to do the 2 tests.

He showed absolutely no discomfort as I approached him with the blanket, placed it over his head and spoke to him for one or two minutes with the blanket still covering his head.  He said, “I feel no fear at all!”

I asked if he was ready to try the dark closet test.  I was sure that he would want to tap before he went in there, but he said he was fine!  He sat in the dark room for several minutes and spoke to me through the door with absolutely no fear or discomfort!

Dan left saying that he would now attempt to do some things that he avoided because of claustrophobia.  I think he was still skeptical of EFT, but he was willing to admit that his fears were completely gone!

Blessings,

Kiya

Dr. Kiya L. Immergluck, EFT-ADV

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