By S. B.
A grandfather called me to make an appointment for himself, but he ended up bringing his wife and his daughter with him as well.
They were all dealing with extreme grief from the death of his son. His daughter was also struggling with the strains of her rocky marriage and dealing with an autistic child.
His autistic grandson “Andrew” was a hyperactive and restless kid.
He wouldn’t make eye contact, he didn’t really talk and he was quite loud when he attempted a rare word. Andrew cried quite often and he was very shy. He wouldn’t play with other children and he cringed in fear in the presence of unknown adults. Most of the time, he walked and ran on his tip toes instead of his feet. He was allergic to many items such as peanuts, nuts, eggs, cats, and perfume.
During their initial visit, they commented how there was some difficulty with his birth itself, as the umbilical cord was wrapped around Andrew’s neck. There had also been stress in his mom’s life with her husband during her pregnancy.
I decided to use EFT with the daughter and his wife first, in case I needed their support when I worked with Andrew. I wanted them both to be as centered as possible.
When preparing to work with Andrew, we first spent time building rapport.
I have a small but useful set of books, toys and games to use with young kids. After I played and read with Andrew for five to seven minutes, I asked his mom to sit in a recliner and hold him while I tapped on him. Sometimes I would tap on his mom or I would take his hand and tap on my head to have some fun and keep his interest. Keeping interest can be challenging with any two-year-old especially an autistic, hyper one.
First we tapped on issues surrounding the delivery from his possible point of view:
Even though I’m not ready to come into the world just yet, I am safe.
Even though I feel stuck and trapped, I am safe.
Even though I was warm and comfortable and now everything is so cold, bright and loud, I am safe.
Even though I was scared because I was choking, I am now safe.
Even though the harder they pulled the more I choked, I am now safe.
Even though my throat was so sore I didn’t want to cry or make sounds, I am safe.
Even though I’m afraid to stick my neck out and take chances on new experiences, I am safe.
We tapped on the stresses of some of the parental arguing that had been taking place:
Even though I’m not sure everybody’s happy about my arrival, I am deeply and completely accepted by my family.
Even though Mom’s upset and I feel her fear, I am deeply and completely accepted by my family.
Even though Mom’s angry and her stomach is shaking, I am deeply and completely accepted by my family.
Even though I feel tension in mom’s belly when she argues with dad, I am deeply and completely accepted by my family.
As mentioned, I started out tapping on Andrew as his mother held him. After 25 minutes he couldn’t sit still any longer, despite our attempts at holding his interest. Fortunately, I had prepped his mom on the concept of surrogate tapping, as experience had taught me a two-year-old would be hard to contain for any length of time.
We let him run around the office and play with grandma while I finished up tapping with his mom.
I knew grandma and mom had good tapping sessions, but I had no idea where Andrew was in the healing process. There isn’t a lot of testing and feedback with a two-year-old. He seemed a bit calmer, but I didn’t know if that was wishful thinking on my part.
His grandfather called me several weeks later to make another appointment and indicated there was a positive improvement in Andrew.
7 Behavior Improvements Since EFT Tapping Session:
1. Wakes up happy and smiling with eye to eye contact. Is not behaving hyper-actively.
2. Is in better mood. Remains low key throughout the day.
3. Semi-routinely makes eye to eye contact.
4. Not as loud in trying to talk.
5. Does not run on tiptoes since visit-walks and runs normally.
6. Has more long term attention and plays interactively.
7. Does not cringe and exhibit fear with unknown adults.
The entire family came back for another session. Andrew was much better this time so we worked on expanding on the improvements that had previously been accomplished. Once again everything seemed to go well.
I heard from his grandfather several months later. He related that everything was going fine; all the improvements with Andrew appeared to reamain.
