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Veterans Administration Fails to Offer Effective PTSD Treatments to Veterans

by Dawson Church, PhD

One of the disturbing aspects of combat trauma is the cost to society when veterans come home. Around some military bases, the number of murders and rapes spikes sharply, according to an article in Slate magazine. These terrible events are more than a tragedy; they are a symbol of our failure as a society to effectively treat veterans with PTSD.

The Veterans Administration (VA) has struggled with the burden of a huge number of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD. Some 2.4 million Americans have been deployed there, and estimates of the number with PTSD run as high as 30%. Simply diagnosing PTSD has strained VA resources, with a backlog extending about 600 days.

In the face of this challenge, the VA has resolutely refused to implement promising new drug-free treatments that can eliminate PTSD in most cases, preferring to prescribe risky and and often-ineffective drugs instead. Between 2001 and 2011, the VA spent $717 million on a drug called Risperidone, touted as a treatment for PTSD. A 2011 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that Risperidone was no more effective than a placebo.

In that same time period, many practitioners presented case histories to various VA officials showing that EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), a safe, drug-free behavioral treatment, eliminates PTSD symptoms in veterans. EFT combines acupressure (manual stimulation of acupuncture points) with cognitive and exposure therapies.

EFT studies were presented to the VA as early as 2008, when Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote a personal letter to then-secretary for Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki enclosing an early outcome study showing veterans recovering from PTSD after EFT treatment. Three other congressmen wrote to Shinseki again in 2010, enclosing more research and further evidence. The VA took no action on this information either.

Therapists frustrated at the lack of progress at official levels set up their own web site to offer EFT and similar therapies to veterans. Called the Veterans Stress Project, it has now offered treatment to over 10,000 veterans. Over 200 therapists and life coaches all over the US offer their services free of charge or a minimal cost.

A randomized controlled trial, published in 2013 but made available to the VA in 2010, showed that 86% of veterans recovered completely and permanently after just 6 EFT sessions. In September of 2013, Congressman Tim Ryan wrote another letter to Secretary Shinseki, this time advocating EFT on the basis of 18 randomized controlled trials.

Like all the other letters, this one was rebuffed, with the VA declining to examine the evidence, perform its own research, refer patients to the Veterans Stress Project, or take any other action to get EFT to suffering veterans. Dozens of studies have shown that EFT is effective for depression, anxiety, phobias, PTSD, and other problems commonly affecting veterans.

Each new act of violence by veterans with mental health problems reminds us of the folly of the VAs approach. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) says that “The VA cannot have this ‘see no evil hear no evil’ attitude” towards EFT. We have the solution sitting on the shelf, unused by the very institution that’s meant to be helping our veterans.

The costs of failure are staggering. Each veteran with PTSD costs an estimated $1.5 million to treat (usually ineffectively), while a course of EFT treatment costs about $500 (and is effective in about 9 out of 10 cases). For what it spent on Risperidone alone, the VA could have offered EFT to every single veteran suffering from PTSD. According to a report in the American-Statesman, in 2012 “the Pentagon spent more on pills, injections and vaccines than it did on Black Hawk helicopters, Abrams tanks, Hercules C-130 cargo planes and Patriot missiles — combined.” According to an outcome study, for the cost of treating one veteran with conventional treatments, the VA could have offered EFT to 2,000 sufferers.

Shinseki was eventually forced to resign over the VAs scandalous neglect of PTSD sufferers, and its attempt to hide its incompetence by falsifying medical records. Yet the institution has yet to offer EFT or any of the other effective treatments to its patients.

Dawson Church, PhD, is an award-winning science writer with three best-selling books to his credit. The Genie in Your Genes was the first book to demonstrate that emotions drive gene expression. Mind to Matter showed that the brain creates much of what we think of as “objective reality.” Bliss Brain demonstrates that peak mental states rapidly remodel the brain for happiness. Dawson has conducted dozens of clinical trials, and founded the National Institute for Integrative Healthcare (NIIH) to promote groundbreaking new treatments. Dawson shares how to apply these health and performance breakthroughs through EFT Universe.

Posted in Blog, News, Research

I Can Never Work on THAT Issue!

by Dawson Church, PhD

What I love about EFT is that there is the possibility of working with issues and traumas so scary that you refuse to even go there.

By that I mean you don’t want to think about it never mind do any healing work with it.

And yet it is in these places that we don’t want to go that is contained the possibility of our greatest freedom.

EFT contains a whole set of ways to work with these kinds of issues or major traumas. This involves creeping up on the problem so subtly and so gently that you move at the rate that feels completely safe and ok to you.

How can EFT do that?

It was found that EFT can do its great releasing work even when you are completely dissociated from the problem. Even when you are not connecting with the past feelings and emotions, keeping a safe distance, you can tap away the charge. And then as the charge becomes less and less, you feel safe to slowly, slowly come closer to the problem whilst still tapping.

In fact, even if the problem is too big to think about working with in this way, there is still a way of working. Simply to tap away how you feel about working with the problem.

When you take proper accredited EFT training, you learn techniques such as “The Movie Technique”, “Sneaking Up on The Problem” and most significantly “The Tearless Trauma Technique” which is an amazing way of working with the unmentionable!

There can be a lot of shame or embarrassment connected to some of these “can’t go there” issues which can prevent someone seeking help. Yet with EFT it is not even necessary for the practitioner to know any detail at all. You can work with the most upsetting situations gently and without telling any of the story out aloud.

So if you have any issues or past experiences that fit into these categories, it’s time you got freedom from those and reclaim the part of you trapped back in time in the trauma. Contact a certified EFT practitioner and say you want to clear something without telling them what it is! Any good practitioner will be able to work with you with no problem at all.

Posted in Blog, Certification

How the Science Behind “Conscious Uncoupling” Can Save Your Relationship

by Dawson Church, PhD

When Gwyneth Paltrow and husband Chris Martin announced that they were consciously uncoupling rather than “getting divorced” their choice of language caused a stir. Yet bringing consciousness into a divorce has benefits that are backed up by solid science. These benefits apply equally well to a conscious marriage.

Being conscious, in the sense of acting with awareness of the implications of your actions, engages the frontal lobes of our brains. These brain regions process what are called executive functions, such as abstract thought, and the ability to distinguish innocuous stimuli from genuine threats. For example, a loud bang can activate the survival centers of the brain. The executive centers are the brain regions that figure out it’s a car backfiring, not a gunshot.

Conflicts that arise in marriage often uncover deep emotional wounds. If couples speak and act from those wounds, they inject negative emotion into their relationship, compounding their problems. Eventually the backlog of bad feelings accumulate to the point where they get divorced.

If on the other hand they have a high enough degree of emotional self-regulation to avoid saying and doing hurtful things, their chances of a happy marriage increase, and the changes of divorce recede.

It’s fascinating to look at the neurological patterns of a person who is emotionally triggered. They literally “go unconscious.” The emotional midbrain, composed of sub-structures like the amygdala, hippocampus and hypothalamus, is fully engaged. It sends signals to the hindbrain, which regulates survival functions like respiration, digestion and circulation.

That’s why when you’re stressed, you feel a knot in your stomach, as the body shunts resources away from digestion. Your shoulders tense, as blood is forced into your peripheral muscles. Your breathing becomes fast and shallow, providing a burst of oxygen to your muscles. Non-essential systems like your reproductive system and immune system shut down.

Studies show that when primates like humans are highly stressed, the capillaries in the brain’s frontal lobes contract. These tiny blood vessels shut down, forcing blood out of the frontal lobes and into the parts of the body most needed for the fight-flight response, like the muscles. The executive centers of the brain that are responsible for wise decision making are starved of oxygen. Up to 70% of the blood in the frontal lobes drains out, effectively taking our rational decision-making capacity offline. The computer’s hard drive is still present, but the power supply (oxygen and nutrient-rich blood) is turned off.

Not only does the kind of high emotion found in marriage and divorce take our intellectual assets offline, but if we repeatedly express our negative emotions, our brains become more adept at carrying those signals. They develop increased capacity to relay the messages of emotional distress.

Studies of identical twin men, one of whom was deployed in Vietnam while the other was not, demonstrate this clearly. The twin who saw combat has a faster stress response than the non-deployed twin; over time the volume of the combatant’s brain’s executive centers shrinks, along with the brain structures responsible for memory and learning. Stress isn’t just a behavioral habit; over time it turns into an anatomical reality.

In people with this type of brain change, studies show that stress signals go straight from the brain’s emotional center to the hindbrain, which turns on the fight-flight response. When your spouse says something that annoys you, you respond with reflexive annoyance.

In people with good emotional regulation, stress signals are referred forward to the frontal lobes, who decide if the stimulus is truly a threat. If not, they block the referral of the signal to the hindbrain, so the body doesn’t get the instructions to gear up for trouble. Your spouse may say that same annoying thing, but if your prefrontal cortex is online, you aren’t tempted to scream at him or her. You choose your words consciously, and heighten your chance of a constructive encounter. Your creativity, logical reasoning ability, cognitive skills, and sense of perspective remain intact.

It is possible to train your brain. You can cultivate the habit of responding to the emotional problems you encounter in marriage with calmness. Over time, you build up those neural pathways, and calmness becomes habit. In this way, whether you’re coupling or uncoupling, your prefrontal cortex is online, and you have the full spectrum of life skills you’ve learned available to you.

Here are some scientifically proven ways of halting those knee-jerk reactions:

Take a long, slow, deep breath. Make your inbreath last at least five seconds, and your outbreath a similar length. Studies show this type of breathing signals your nervous system that you’re not facing an objective physical threat, and you’ll be less likely to treat your spouse’s words as such.
Relax your tongue on the floor of your mouth. When we’re stressed, our tongues tense up along with many other muscle groups. A study found that that relaxing your tongue sends a relaxing signal to your hindbrain, telling the fight-flight response to stand down.
Stimulate your acupressure points with your fingertips. Over 50 studies of Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT, the most popular acupressure technique, show that it produces large and immediate reductions in anxiety, depression, and traumatic stress. The basic EFT routine uses 12 acupressure points and takes less than a minute to perform.
Wait five minutes before responding. Cortisol is your main stress hormone. Our bodies produce it fast in response to a threat. However, cortisol molecules are also rapidly broken down when we no longer need them. If you wait five to twenty minutes, your levels of both cortisol and adrenaline will drop, and you’ll feel calm and rational again. EFT has also been proven to lower cortisol in a randomized controlled trial.

Couples that become adept at these skills are able to navigate the emotional ups and downs that are inevitable in a relationship. With the benefit of emotional self-regulation, their consciousness remains online during times of conflict. They’re able to use the skills they learn in therapy when emotions run high. They’re more likely to get through rough patches without lasting damage to the relationship. This builds resiliency, and a sense that the relationship is strong enough to navigate through life’s challenges.

And if the relationship is not going to endure, as for Paltrow and Martin, a conscious approach to uncoupling can spare them and their children the recriminations and bitter fights that characterize a pair of brains locked in fight-flight mode.

For many years I’ve been identifying the skills essential to a conscious relationship. I’ve now assembled them in a systematic program called Tapping Deep Intimacy. It’s a 12-week online course, and it trains you in the practices that foster love, trust and connection. Learning and practicing those skills has made all the difference to the more than 1,000 people who have enrolled in the course so far. This link will introduce you to one of those simple skills that makes all the difference.

However you get conscious, and whether you are in a relationship now or not, you can save yourself a lifetime of stress by using your relationships for joy and peace instead of conflict and pain.

Posted in Blog, Relationships

How to Use EFT Tapping for Financial Fears

by Dawson Church, PhD

Recently a friend of mine was going through tough financial times, and I helped him identify some childhood events that were linked to his current emotional distress.

The trick is to tune into the body sensations you have around money, and then find childhood events where you felt the same physical sensation.

These links are often surprising; they may have nothing to do with money, or everything to do with it.

Your body is a reliable guide to what’s going on with you.

Here’s a Youtube video I made of the tapping routine.

It’s only 7 minutes long — I invite you to watch it and tap along.

Posted in Blog, Finance

The Still Face Experiments

by Dawson Church, PhD

One of the questions that’s really perplexed me is why, in the course of evolution, we developed emotion. After all, getting angry, frustrated, and resentful feels awful.

The part of the brain that processes emotion is called the limbic system or midbrain. It sits on top of the reptilian brain, the hindbrain, and it evolved much more recently than the hindbrain. The hindbrain is at least 500 million years old.

The hindbrain is great at survival, regulating breathing, heart rate, and all the other functions of life, including the all-important fight-flight-freeze or FFF response.

These are all part of the autonomic nervous system. For “autonomic” you can substitute the word “automatic” since it governs all the automatic functions you don’t have to think about consciously.

The midbrain is over 200,000 years old and was evolved by mammals. That mammalian brain is where emotion starts. Your earliest human-like ancestors only began to evolve 5 million years ago, and modern humans with their large frontal lobes or forebrain sitting on top of that evolved in the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms, starting only about 200,000 years ago (Timeline: Evolution of the Brain).

Since the hindbrain was so good at FFF and all the survival functions, what purpose was served by the evolution of the midbrain with all its messy emotions?

The reason that emotions gave our ancestors an evolutionary edge was that ability to feel emotions like love and fear made them even better at survival. The midbrain contains several sub-structures that tag experiences with strong emotion, enabling the organism to distinguish between a non-threatening stimulus, like an innocuous plant, and a threatening one, like poison ivy. The stronger the potential threat, the stronger the emotion.

Later in his career, Charles Darwin became fascinated by emotion and wrote a book about it, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

Emotions are also a vital part of bonding between individuals. Emotional bonds clearly help with survival, such as when a platoon of soldiers works together, or a mother cares for her baby.

Just how important emotions are is shown by the ability of newborn babies to recognize them. In a series of experiments called the Still Face Experiments, researcher Edward Troninck had mothers keep their faces impassive when interacting with their infant children.

The children responded by initiating behaviors intended to evoke emotion in the mothers, such as smiling, gesturing, and vocalizing. When the mothers’ faces remained still, the babies responded by becoming even more animated as they attempted to elicit an emotional response.

If this failed, the babies would go into extreme distress, to the extent of losing control of their autonomic nervous systems. Watching video clips of parent-child interactions that are part of the Still Face Experiments is fascinating (see an example here).

The phenomenon is true not just of mothers, but of fathers too.

It persists across cultures and national groups, demonstrating that it’s an innate brain-based phenomenon and not learned behavior. The reason we developed this bonding ability is clear in evolutionary terms. A human infant is helpless, and only with the attention and affection of its mother will it survive.

It was highly adaptive for infants to possess this ability, and during the first 18 months of life, the limbic system is the fastest-growing part of the brain.

One lesson of the Still Face Experiments is that we don’t need to be abused as children in order to become traumatized. The simple withdrawal of parental interaction can be deeply distressing to a child. What happens if you had a childhood that was lacking in affection?

That’s where EFT comes into the picture. I’ve found that clients processing early childhood distress can make real progress with EFT, especially the 9 Gamut procedure. One of the many benefits of this powerful technique is that you don’t need to remember specific events in order to discharge emotional trauma. It works on even problems that pre-date your first memories (usually around age 3 or 4).

I also talk about the Still Face experiments, and why human beings evolved emotion, in chapter 6 of The EFT Manual, and show how the three EFT “Gentle Techniques” can be used to address traumatic memories, and when to use the 9 Gamut technique. After you use these methods, you often feel better even if you, like most of us, received less attention and love as a child than you needed.

Posted in Blog, Genetics

Spirituality Produces Marital Satisfaction and Happier Children

Religion and spirituality can strengthen marriages and families. Many such results are found in a series of studies published by the American Psychological Association in two special editions of its journals.

A higher degree of commitment was found in romantic partners who prayed for their significant others. Couples with a strong sense of spiritual intimacy were more effective at handling their top three areas of conflict. The perception of the relationship as sacred led to a higher degree of satisfaction in marriage.

The effects of a strong spiritual bond or religious practice extended to the families of these couples. Their teenage children showed an increased experience of well-being. These patterns were found in couples at every socioeconomic level, and across a diverse spectrum of ethnic groups.

Section editors Annette Mahoney and Annamarie Cano said that the emerging field of “relational spirituality” looks at how spiritual beliefs and behaviors can affect intimate relationships. They hope this publication will increase research in this area and improve the exchange between the fields of family psychology and the psychology of religion and spirituality.

The bottom line is that it’s worth developing the spiritual aspect of your relationship, and perceiving your partner as a spiritual being on a human path, rather than trying to solve problems only at the material level.

Tapping can reinforce both your spiritual life and your marriage. There are dozens of stories written by people who use EFT to enhance their spiritual practice, and many more by couples who’ve transformed their marriages after learning EFT. The increased well-being that comes from both a strong spiritual life and a loving family doesn’t just make you feel better; it has measurable positive effects on your health and longevity as well.

Posted in Blog, Relationships

Placebo Effect Is Affecting the Development of New Drugs

The placebo effect is a proven medical phenomenon and even an adjunct to the actions of conventional treatments, but it is now affecting the development of new drugs, particularly amongst Americans. While placebos are inert substances that produce no medical effect on the body, the “placebo effect” refers to the phenomenon of patients feeling better due to their belief that they have been given a treatment. Many medications appear to work, but their actions may be due mainly or entirely to the placebo effect.

This effect is now affecting the development of new drugs, as placebos are used in comparison trials to gauge the actual effect of a medication. If the reaction to a placebo is similar to a new drug it is difficult to prove the drug is actually doing anything. As reported in Scientific American, Jeffrey Mogil, who directs the pain-genetics lab at McGill University in Montreal said: “Simply being in a US trial and receiving sham treatment now seems to relieve pain almost as effectively as many promising new drugs.”

Interestingly, the placebo effect is increasing worldwide for antidepressants and antipsychotics, but only increasing in America for painkillers. One possible reason for the skewed results in America is that direct-to-consumer advertising for drugs is allowed in that country. Jeffrey Mogil comments that: “Our data suggest that the longer a trial is and the bigger a trial is, the bigger the placebo is going to be. Longer, bigger US trials probably cost more, and the glamour and gloss of their presentation might indirectly enhance patients’ expectations.”

Exactly why the placebo effect works is still unknown, but many studies have shown that practically any treatment can induce healing as long as the patient feels they are being looked after and their problem is being treated. Fundamentally, if you think a treatment is going to work then it will; if you believe you can and will get better, this allows your own mind to do the healing for you.

Adding to the unknowns surrounding the mechanism of placebo action, it has also been reported in trials where participants knew they were receiving a placebo, and has also been found in trials involving animals.

Regardless of why it works, this phenomenon may be a powerful ally in modern medicine, and used as a treatment in its own right. Director of Placebo Research at Harvard Medical School, Professor Ted Kaptchuk states: “If the major component of a drug in any particular condition is its placebo component, we need to develop non-pharmacological interventions as a first-line response.” Placebos may not provide cures, but they can provide relief, and Kaptchuk goes on to say: “A significant body of research has resulted in a shift from thinking of placebos as just ‘dummy’ treatments to recognizing that placebo effects encompass numerous aspects of the health care experience and are central to medicine and patient care.”

If believing that a treatment will work is central to the action of placebos, it’s worth enhancing the effect as much as possible. Emotional blocks such as not believing that you can heal, fear of the future course of a disease, anger towards your body or medical providers, and secondary gains from being sick all need to be cleared in order to strengthen your belief in healing. EFT is great at uncovering these obstacles to healing, and tapping them away. Over 100 papers in peer-reviewed psychology and medical journals show that it is effective for both physical and psychological symptoms.

Making full use of the placebo effect enhances health care. Improving relationships between patients and caregivers, reinforcing patients’ belief in their treatment, and encouraging their self-healing capacities all contribute toward the healing process.

Posted in Blog, Research

Phone Psychotherapy & Dropout Rates

by Dawson Church, PhD

According to a study published in the peer reviewed journal Clinical Psychology, fewer clients drop out of psychotherapy delivered over the phone than drop out of in-person psychotherapy.

Examining 12 different studies, the authors of this study found that the average attrition rate for phone clients was only 7.6%, compared with 46.9% for in-office sessions.¹

So while clients often start therapy with a strong motivation towards personal transformation, that motivation can drop off over time. Phone therapy may be more effective in keeping them in treatment, perhaps because it’s so convenient.

A study of the results of EFT delivered over the phone versus in-person office visits examined the differences in PTSD levels of veterans before and after six sessions. It found that 67% recovered from PTSD via phone, while 91% recovered after the office sessions. The results were statistically significant.²

However, that 67% rehabilitation rate is much higher than most kinds of therapy, and not to be dismissed, even though office sessions produce better results overall.³

Sources

1 Phone Psychotherapy. Louise Chang, MD, WebMD, Sep 23, 2008.

2 Hartung, J., & Stein, P. (2012) Telephone delivery of EFT remediates PTSD symptoms in veterans: A randomized controlled trial.

3 Energy Psychology: Theory, Research, & Treatment, 4(1), 33—42. doi:10.9769.EPJ.2012.4.1.JH).

Posted in Blog, Research

Depression Creates Communication Barriers in Relationships

by Dawson Church, PhD

Depression creates barriers to communication and commitment in couples, according to a study in the journal Communication Monographs.¹ It is linked to social withdrawal, which can be problematic in a relationship as it limits communication and commitment.

Avoidance may in fact be due to a wish to preserve a relationship, despite feelings of futility, fear of conflict and a lack of effective coping strategies.

Uncertainty about commitment within relationships has been shown to cause an avoidance in discussing sensitive topics. The study looked at the uncertainty this causes and the barriers to communication it sets up in this study, which analyzed 126 couples.

The results showed that for a majority of subjects, uncertainty about the relationship was linked to the avoidance of sensitive topics.

The authors of the study say that, “Our results also have pragmatic value for suggesting that relational uncertainty may be a site of intervention for helping people with depressive symptoms be more comfortable discussing challenging issues…(and)… as a step toward unravelling the complexities of people’s avoidance behavior in the context of depression.”

The findings of the study show that it’s important to treat depression before it erodes your relationship.

There are many studies showing that EFT effectively treats depression; you can both use it alone, and work with a certified Clinical EFT practitioner.

Source

Knobloch, L. K., Sharabi, L. L., Delaney, A. L., & Suranne, S. M. (2015). The role of relational uncertainty in topic avoidance among couples with depression. Communication Monographs, 1-24.

Posted in Blog, Health

Marital Problems Can Seriously Compromise Your Health

Concerns over marital problems can increase stress during the work day, leading to an increased risk of heart disease and strokes, according to research published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. Researchers from University College and Brandeis University in London found that domestic problems can carry over into the workplace, potentially resulting in serious health problems.

In their study of 105 middle-aged workers, they found higher stress levels and higher blood pressures in those who reported greater marital concerns, both in men and women equally.

Study co-author Rosalind Barnett said: “It’s generally assumed that primary relationships are more critical to a women’s psychological well-being than men’s, but this is not the case … when there is marital concern, men and women are equally affected.”

For this reason, it’s important to work on creating a harmonious primary relationship. There are dozens of stories written by people whose relationships have been transformed by tapping. In our Tapping Deep Intimacy course, you’re systematically trained in the 12 skills that we’ve found are the prerequisites to relationship success. Research on the Tapping Deep Intimacy program shows that it lowers anxiety and depression symptoms significantly, and increases relationship satisfaction by an average of 28%.

Source

Barnett, R. C., Steptoe, A., & Gareis, K. C. (2005). Marital-role quality and stress-related psychobiological indicators. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 30(1), 36-43.

Posted in Blog, Health