Tag Archives: Mental Illness

Shift negative emotions in minutes with Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

by Kelly

EFT Circle

This month I’d like to introduce you to Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which is one of the other tools I regularly use with clients.  EFT is known as an energy meridian therapy, which means it is explained using the principles of Chinese Medicine.  Meridians are the subtle energy lines that travel the body and, according to Chinese medicine practitioners, when the energy is flowing well we enjoy good health, when it is blocked we experience ill health.  Clinical Psychologist, Dr Roger Callahan PhD, originally developed EFT in the 1980’s.  Stanford engineer Gary Craig further refined the technique.

A large number of studies have been made into the efficacy of EFT in overcoming problems such as anxiety, depression, pain and physical symptoms, athletic performance, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, weight loss, cravings and addictions.  I personally have used this technique and count it as a huge contributor to overcoming seven years of clinical depression.

EFT can be learned in just one session and can then be applied either on your own or in on-going work with me.  A third option is to experience the power of EFT in a group.  Click here to watch an introductory video on the basics of EFT and to find out dates and locations for group EFT.

Group EFT can be very effective.  A clinical study of college students at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila transformed the treatment group’s Beck Depression Inventory score from 23.44 indicating moderate to severe depression to 6.08 indicating the subjects were non-depressed after just four 90-minute group EFT sessions.

If you have any questions about EFT or the EFT Group, feel free to get in contact to experience this transformative technique for yourself!

 

Image Credit: Agustín Ruiz

 

Freedom from your genes

by Kelly

I recently attended a lecture by Oliver James, clinical psychologist and author of “They F*** You Up: How to Survive Family Life”[1].  The subject of the talk was “Not in Your Genes” in which James argued that decades of genetic research has failed to show evidence that mental illness is genetically inherited.

James disputes the widespread view that mental illnesses are hereditary, as this view is based on flawed research from twin studies – the methodology and conclusions of which he and other authors[2] call into question.  Genetic research, to date, has failed to identify any genetic markers for the major mental illnesses of: schizophrenia; bipolar disorder; anxiety or depression.  For me, the argument that there is no conclusive proof that mental illness is hereditary, backed up by the research he presented, is liberating.

My own battle with prizing the vice-like grip of depression from my life was hard-won.  It was made possible by loving therapists, inspiring teachers, my avid consumption of hundreds of books on the subject, and my relentless determination to dig myself out of that hole.  But there was always a part of me that thought that this was my genetic burden to carry, passed down through my family lineage like some kind of toxic heirloom.  I was always looking out for its shadow around every corner, waiting for it to catch up with me again, reclaiming me as its bloodline descendant.

This concept that depression and other mental illnesses are not hereditary breaks that threat of recurrence that had been lurking in the depths of my mind.  To know that the DNA umbilical cord has been cut and I am free to run my mind with the tools that I have learned fills me with a sense of freedom.  If I am not genetically cursed, then it was the environment of my early years that programmed me to react to the world with depression.

Through the use of cutting edge tools of the mind that I practice, I can now be confident that those silent programs that were installed in my formative years have been eradicated.  Now that I am free from the threat of a genetic switch that could re-activate those programs, I can move forward, feeling the lightness and liberation of being the one in charge of my mind and my life.

What challenges and personality traits do you ascribe to genetics? How does this new information change your view of how you can choose to feel, behave and achieve in your life?

[1] James, O., They F*** You Up: How to Survive Family Life, 2nd edition, Bloomsbury, London, 2007.

[2] Joseph, J.,  ‘The “Missing Heritability” of Psychiatric Disorders: Elusive Genes or Non Existent Genes’, Applied Developmental Science, 16(2), 2012, pp.65–83.

Image Credit: fdecomite via Flickr