By Patricia Schebsdat-Sciuto
Jack wanted to work on the way he reacts every time his mom overreacts about something. He told me that that happens very often and that is the way it has been since he was a little boy. His mom explodes and overreacts and he finds himself feeling very reactive, frustrated, and defensive. His goal for the session was not to get defensive when his mom acts the way she does.
Jack explained the whole situation and how he felt. At the beginning of our session, however, he had trouble finding a specific event. “There are so many; this happens all the time,” he said. But he was not able to access specific occurrence.
We started tapping with what he had already told me along with the sensations in his body, which were irritation that he felt all over his body, a vibrating feeling. After the first round of tapping, the SUD level of the irritation all over his body went from 6-7 down to 2.
Then he remembered one episode he and his mother had the previous morning about the breakfast and doing the dishes. We tapped around that and the feeling he had between his shoulders of his “hackles” being raised. He remembered another two issues, but he had no charge, he said, because he had already worked on them with another practitioner.
Jack said he was concerned that he was going to react strongly the next time his mom overreacted (this registered as a 6 on the VOC, Validity of Cognition, scale). He felt he had to be defensive or just say nothing in order not to make things worse. He had a feeling of a vibration in his solar plexus (SUD 6), which he perceived as a yellow and orange curved plexus with a black ball in front.
We tapped one round and then used the alarm points. He stayed rubbing the collarbone points while rubbing the Gamut point and breathing.
When we had finished, all the SUD levels were at 0 and the VOC to 1 (meaning he had little belief that he was going to react strongly to his mother).
Jack had a cognitive shift, feeling that the next time something happened he had the tools to keep from reacting strongly. He knew he could check himself the next time his mom overreacted.
Another memory came up, however. He wasn’t able to give it a SUD number, but we used the alarm point, squeezing the point where the thumb meets the hand, breathing and thinking about the event. He said he had come to the session with his guard up and he felt his guard was invisible now; he felt relaxed.
I tested him by telling him to imagine his mom overreacting about breakfast, but he was fine, all his SUD levels were still at 0. I suggested we still do the Invisible Counselor and he agreed.
I guided him from EcoMeditation into relaxation and into his safe space. For him, this safe space was his room and the two counselors that had come another time he did this exercise came back. They were two figures of light. One had glasses on. The counselor took Jack’s issue out of his body and it looked like a body-shaped mesh of blue veins (to Jack it felt like his nervous system). The beings of light worked on it; they took one leg away and replaced it with a good one. Jack felt they fixed his nervous system. They were taking notes. They gave him a sword and put it in a scabbard on the side of his body.
When Jack came back, he was happy and relaxed. He said, “it feels like this new nervous system makes me feel I’m more prepared for the future, not just for when my mom overreacts. And if something happens with my mom, it can be a great opportunity for a lesson for both of us.”
We ended the session with a Happy Tappy to anchor the good feelings in him. Jack had the feeling that he was going to be able to not get defensive the next time his mom overreacted.
