New Treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Delivers Rapid, Long Lasting Results for Iraqi War Veterans--No Drugs Necessary
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) -- Stanford engineer Gary Craig introduces EFT, a new "acupuncture without needles" technique for helping Iraqi War Veterans gain relief from their Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques and involves the stimulation of certain meridian points on the body by tapping on them with the fingertips. This stimulation has been clinically shown in thousands of cases to dramatically reduce, or completely eliminate, the sting of trauma.
"Conventional psychology has been looking in the wrong place for clues to the PTSD puzzle," says Craig. "We have found repeatedly that the nightmares, sweats and intrusive memories of our war veterans occur because their war memories disrupt the proper flow of their bodies' subtle energies."
"Once these energies have been properly balanced," maintains Craig, "the war veteran couldn't get upset about the memory if s/he tried. This is also true for other emotional issues including phobias, grief, rape, depression and anger."
Susan Hannibal is a San Diego therapist and consistent user of EFT who often feels frustrated with the military's use of conventional and ineffective methods for PTSD. "One of the biggest problems facing our military today is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," she says, "but no one in authority wants to break new ground and use the most effective treatment available."
"Even when they don't sustain physical injuries," says Hannibal, "their lives can go into a tailspin.
Traumatic memories are an underlying cause of health problems, social isolation, domestic violence, divorce, alcohol and drug abuse, and shattered families."
Everyone agrees that conventional treatments do little to help. Psychiatric drugs can dull or numb PTSD symptoms, but drugs have side effects and do nothing to address the disorder's underlying cause. Conventional talk therapy can even make the problem worse by reinforcing traumatic memories.
But Hannibal and other EFT practitioners worldwide routinely neutralize haunting memories - in soldiers, accident or abuse victims, and survivors of disasters - in record time. The simple EFT process often does its job in one or two sessions and, in some cases, has done it in minutes.
One of Hannibal's clients is Navy Corpsman Wilbur Hurley. Just before leaving Iraq, he had to deal with a young Marine's suicide. That event triggered memories of a murder-suicide Hurley witnessed as a child, and he began having vivid nightmares. Returning home, he isolated himself from friends and family and suffered debilitating anxiety attacks, flashbacks, auditory hallucinations, anger, and irritability.
Hurley's symptoms disappeared when Hannibal taught him EFT. After his first session, which Hannibal videotaped, Hurley left her office singing. "It was pretty much the greatest day of my life," he said. Even when he concentrated on the worst events he witnessed in Ramadi, he couldn't find a single memory that bothered him.
Corpsman Hurley has remained free of PTSD symptoms since his three-session treatment in December 2004.
Results like these don't surprise Gary Craig. In 1994, Craig and a colleague visited a Veterans Administration hospital in California, where they worked on-camera with six Vietnam War veterans.
"These men hadn't had a moment's peace in 20 years," says Craig. "Their lives revolved around their terrifying memories." But after just a few minutes of tapping, all of the men experienced profound release.
"Traumatic memories and phobias usually respond quickly to EFT," he says, "and the results are often permanent. EFT not only prevents post-traumatic memories from causing problems, it successfully treats memories that are decades old."
Despite the dramatic results achieved by patients at the VA hospital, says Craig, none of the staff were interested.
Today the Department of Veterans Affairs pays compensation for PTSD to nearly twice as many veterans as it did six years ago, at an annual cost of $4.3 billion. Most recent applicants are Vietnam War veterans.
"It would be wonderful if military chaplains, counselors, and psychologists learned EFT and taught it to everyone," says Hannibal, "but it's so different from what they're used to that no one knows what to make of it."
In addition, she says, there is still a bias against seeking help in all branches of the military. "It's cultural conditioning," she says. "It's unfortunate."
The EFT basics can be learned by anyone by downloading the free EFT Manual from Craig's website at
http://www.emofree.com/
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