Feeling A Trauma Capsule Unfreeze

Traumatic experiences can get frozen into a "trauma capsule" for safekeeping so we can continue living. We don’t think about them, yet they sit there in our nervous system or body until we release them. We may have tapped with clients using gentle techniques and then helped them process past traumas. But actually feeling a trauma capsule unfreezing in yourself is so interesting, so let me share my recent experience of that with you!

Injured Ankle

About 3 months ago I injured my right ankle after getting enthusiastic as a beginner Swing Dancer. It was a cuboid bone fracture with some ligament damage. Apparently you can only fracture this by repetitive actions in sport or dancing - it was that repeated back-step that did it!

I got a moonboot for 6 weeks while the pain was supposed to reduce. I’d done self-care tapping on frustration that I should have worn more supportive shoes, irritation about the pain, tapping on the pain itself, and disappointment that I couldn’t dance for months.

When it was time to book for rehab exercises, my foot still had some pain. I had a sense my foot was holding something that I hadn’t gotten to, so I booked with a friend-practitioner for a session (they have given permission to share this story).

Initial Tapping Rounds

First we tapped on anger that my ankle should be better by now, and related thoughts such as “I blame you, foot, for all this pain and interruption!” The anger went eventually from 10 to 0 SUDS. We also tapped to reduce an irritating sensation on top of my foot (7 to 5).

Soon I sensed a sort of “thought” floating just above my foot - I wasn’t sure what it was. And also tension in my lower back, with a similar feeling above it. I was asked what colour each was: pink above foot at SUD 5; black above lower back SUD 9. We tapped on the more intense one: “Even though I have this black thought above my lower back…” My right foot started twitching and my whole right leg started to tense – I thought, "what do these body parts know that I don’t!?"

Accessing a Childhood Memory

Then I got a momentary image of a big hall and remembered my the big Children’s Christmas Party at my dad's office that I got taken to annually with a little friend (and where I was left alone) around age 6-9. With the image came light nausea, some dizziness and a heat flush. I’ve only had those feelings once before in my whole 8 years of tapping.

It was suggested we do Tearless Trauma with the neutral title “That Afternoon”. I was surprised to guess the event intensity as a 9. As it got to 3 it felt OK to narrate with Tell the Story Technique. We tapped the first intensity down: “Even though Dad’s just dropped me off and I’m all on my own…” (I had no sense of the friend there.) The next intensity was “I’m walking into the massive hall.”

The practitioner asked “Can you hear anything?” I couldn’t. The hall seemed completely empty. We tapped on “Even though I’m all alone in this massive hall and I can’t leave…” (Of course, feeling all alone with no way to cope is one characteristic of a trauma experience.) After a few rounds, I started to visualise and feel as if something frozen was starting to melt. Slowly the black and white still-image hall came to life with children’s faces and voices like a movie - the trauma capsule was unfreezing!

We tapped on “All these faces and voices,” and “Even though it’s too noisy but I can’t leave, it will upset mum and dad...” Then the experience felt more “warmed up” and a swirling feeling came in my body. I was being pulled back and forth in a big ring of kids – it’s the Hokey Cokey dance! We tapped on “All this pulling back and forth” for several rounds.

Inner Child Work

As it still felt a bit too swirly, I was asked if I’d like to try tapping on my Inner Child to help her with “This swirling feeling.” The intensity reduced quickly. At the end everything felt like a zero SUDS. We tested again for key words: Alone, Confused, Swirling, and Massive Hall; Massive Hall was still a 3 so we tapped that to zero.

Then we asked my younger self what she’d like to do. She took me to a nearby park with some jelly and ice cream from the party. She was smiling and happy!

Reflections

I then realised some amazing similarities between that trauma experience at age 6/7ish and when I got my recent injury: I’d gone to both on my own and knew no-one, both were in a big hall, both involved fast dancing in a big circle with many people, and both were physically very “back and forth.” I had tapped through the recent injury event myself, but I hadn’t got to the related childhood memory.

On reflection, I assume my ankle was still holding some pain to stop me dancing again - it was trying to save me from retriggering the childhood memory. Or was it trying to get me to stop, tap more and discover the underlying trauma to release it? Interestingly I’d had passing thoughts about that childhood party the week before my formal tapping session and had wondered why!

All remaining foot pain was gone the very next morning after the EFT session, and still gone ten days later. I immediately felt confident to walk properly again, to start driving again, and ready to start physio rehab exercises. I do wonder whether the physio rehab would have worked as well if I'd had that childhood trauma still lurking in my foot.

I really enjoyed yet another experience tapping on a traumatic memory as the client. I love that EFTi encourages continuing self-care tapping to set us more and more free in body, mind and spirit. It’s so useful to be reminded what it feels like to go through EFT processes as the client. I think it makes us better practitioners and trainers.

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Lareen Newman, Ph.D., is an EFTi Advanced EFT Practitioner and Trainer-in-Training based in Adelaide, Australia.

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay