Back Pain Released Through Anger Work and Borrowing Benefits

I did a group session with my sister and two of her co workers/friends. I proceeded by telling them what EFT was about and answered any questions they might have. I asked them to write down 3 physical pains they might have and 3 other issues on a piece of paper, rate each with an intensity level of 0 being no pain or emotion and 10 being the worst pain or emotion and put it aside. We decided who was going first, which was Jody. I asked her what she would like to work on and she said her back.

Jody's Back Pain

She stated that her Doctor said it was from lifting her kids the wrong way when they were little. She has had this pain for 40 years. I had her describe the pain in detail, asking her for the shape, color, etc. It was on the left side, lower back and was a deep ache about a 7 in pain. It was oval shaped like a balloon, white, smooth, moves from side to side. I asked her if there was any movement that made it worse or better. Just sitting made it slightly better but if she moved, bending at the waist from side to side (while sitting) that made it worse. We did two full rounds including the gamut point with these statements:

Even though I have this pain in my left side of my lower back and it’s a 7 in pain I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though I have this balloon shaped, smooth, white pain in my back I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though I have this deep ache oval shaped pain in my lower back I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Going through the points we used these reminder phrases:

This back pain, this number 7 back pain, this balloon shaped pain, this white smooth pain, this deep ache in my lower back, this pain on my left side of my lower back, etc

She stated it was now maybe a 6 in pain. We did another full round including the gamut point using similar statements as above. She reported it was the same.

Anger Issues

I then asked her if she had any anger issues. She stated that yes she did, at work with her boss. Her boss doesn’t appreciate the staff, doesn’t acknowledge them. This anger was around an 8 or 9. We tapped on this for three full rounds including the gamut point.

Even though I have this anger about my boss I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though my boss doesn’t appreciate the staff and this makes me angry I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though my boss doesn’t acknowledge the staff and this makes me angry I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Going through the points we used these reminder phrases:

This anger, this anger, this anger, this anger, this anger towards my boss, she doesn’t appreciate us, she doesn’t acknowledge us, who does she think she is, this really makes me angry, we do good work and she doesn’t even acknowledge us or appreciate us, I really don’t like working with her, this is why I’m retiring early, this anger, this anger, etc.

She stated after finishing the third round that ‘She’s not worth my time. I don’t even want to think about it anymore.” Her pain in her back is now a 4. (A cognitive shift!)

A Specific Event

I asked her if there was a specific event at work with her boss that made her angry. Yes there was. Is the story 2 minutes or less? Yes. I asked her to give it a title. “I don’t buy that” is the title. Her intensity level was a 9 or 10. I informed her that she would be telling her ‘story’ and that I would be interrupting her often to check on her emotional level at key points of the story. She began the story and she didn’t have any emotional levels for tapping till she got to the point when her boss said, “I don’t buy that”. We began tapping.

Even though this really ticked me off when she said that I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though when she said that it attacked my integrity I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though it brought into question my loyalty I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Going through the points we used these reminder phrases:

This anger, this attack on my integrity, this attack on my loyalty, I’ve worked here for 30 years and never has anyone had a problem with my work ethic, this anger, that ‘bitch’, who does she think she is, I really don’t like her, this anger, this anger, this attack on my integrity and my loyalty, etc

She reports she is now a 5 and states that “I know that I’m not that” (disloyal or lacking in integrity) (Another cognitive shift!)

Three more rounds including gamut:

Even though I still have this anger I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though I still have this anger about my boss and what she said to me I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though I still have this anger about this work situation with my boss I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Going through the points we used these reminder phrases:

this remaining anger, this remaining anger about my boss, who does she think she is, I really don’t like working with her, I’m retiring early because she is so hard to work with and so doesn’t appreciate me, she basically called me a liar when she said, “I don’t buy that”, how dare her, I’m NOT a liar, I’ve been very loyal to this job and this dept and she can’t see that, what’s her problem, what the hell is the matter with her, I am really angry with her, this remaining anger etc.

Results

She reports she is a 3. We do a floor to ceiling eye roll She says she is a 0. I ask her to close her eyes and to go thru the story again like she is playing a movie and really try and conjure up the emotion she felt before, to really get in to what happen (movie technique) and she says, “It just doesn’t matter. She’s not worth it.”

I asked her how her back felt and she reported it was around a 1 or a 2. We needed to move on to the next person but I suggested as homework that she get a notebook and jot down other events that caused her to feel angry and tap on them and to record her back pain levels at each tapping session and observe her back pain over time and see if she noticed any shifts.

Borrowing Benefits

Side note: After the first two rounds at the beginning of Jody’s session N. the other lady, suddenly reported that her sciatica which had been a 4 as she was sitting in a hard, straight backed chair which historically makes her sciatica worse, was gone! She just kept saying, “I can’t believe it.”

After working with N. and then my sister I asked each of them to look at their paper that they had written on at the beginning of our group session. N. reported having pain in her ankle that was better and that her sciatica was still a 0. Nancy reported her headache was much better, a 4 to a 1 and Jody reported that she no longer had pain in her back, which she said with surprise in her voice. She kept testing it and she kept saying, “Wow, it’s gone. That’s never happened before.”

LuAnn Whale, ATR

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LuAnn Whale
Napa, California, USA

From the EFTfree Archives, which are now a part of EFT International .
Originally published on September 1, 2012.