The Readers Digest has a wonderful article about Harm Reduction as an alternative to 12-step work for women who want to change their drinking habits.  I LOVE Harm Reduction--it's brilliant and really seems to work for a lot of people.  http://www.rd.com/health/conditions/alternatives-to-aa-women/

You guys are absolutely amazing!  The clients who seek me out are incredible people, many of whom have survived serious abuse as children. 

But, they are creative, resourceful, brave, and motivated to do whatever it takes to put their difficult past in the past.

They love learning EFT. They find that it is SO helpful in taking the sting out of what happened long ago.  Since I teach them how to do EFT themselves in their first session, they use it as often as they want during the week as irritating or potentially troubling issues pop up.  It truly is transformative.

They are improving relationships.  Their jobs are less stressful. Their health issues are quickly resolving.  All of this happens as they reconnect with their original creative goals and the full spirits that they truly are.

It's such an HONOR to work with all of you!  Thank you for coming into my practice and my life.

Did you know that I offer half-price EFT healing sessions to clients and their friends for their birthday?  It's my birthday present to you all!!

I'll even let you give a 1/2 price EFT gift session to someone you care about, as your birthday gift to them. 

What could be more meaningful than a new lease on life?  Let me know if you'd like more details.

Working at the Shoah Foundation for 8 years was an incredible experience for me.  I directed the nonprofit's grant-seeking program so there would be additional money, besides that contributed by founder Steve Spielberg, to cover the costs of interviewing over 50,000 people who survived the Holocaust. 

I'm so proud I was a part of this massive oral history project and had the opportunity to meet amazing people who worked there.  Though it was painful, I listened to many stories of what happened to individuals during the Holocaust. 

Little did I know that hearing those stories would inform my later work in private practice in Atwater Village helping people who experienced emotional trauma when they were younger.

This Huffington Post article is about psychiatrist starting to use EFT in her practice.

When you have a very bad experience that has certain characteristics, you might experience trauma.  The brain and nervous system have a specific reaction to traumatic experience. 

In general, a highly traumatic experience is:                         dramatic;
        unexpected;
        physically threatening;
        you feel isolated; and
        you don't understand what's happening.

In a situation like this, the body's neurological system automatically allows you to do several things so that you can try to survive.  You might fight back. Or try to escape, or flee. This makes up the "fight or flight" reaction you always hear about.

If you can't do either of these (are you too small?  is there even a way out?), your body tells you to freeze—either physically or psychologically. If you have seen an animal freeze in front of a car, this is what is happening to it. By freezing, the body hopes that the bad thing won't notice you and will leave you alone.

If the bad thing happens but you can defend yourself or run away, you might have a memory of the event.  But, you will generally be ok.

If you freeze and the bad thing happens, the energy of that initial trauma can get locked up in your body. Your brain also stays on high alert so you can be prepared if something like this happens again.

This is a good evolutionary system, but it's not perfect: the parts of the brain that are involved with this process don't know the difference between the bad thing happening, or you thinking about the bad thing. Both keep your body in a high state of stress.

This is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Being in a high state of stress over time can be bad for your physical health and happiness.

Emotional Freedom Techniques
With professional help, you can gently and easily release past trauma with EFT.  It works for little issues and for things as big as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

This amazing article in the Smithsonian introduces you to the world of your own microbiome.  This will TOTALLY change your idea about your body, your health, and the world.  Hold on and be prepared for a wild ride!

You'll probably want to dump your hand sanitizers.  And invest in the highest quality probiotics you can find.

As for me, I can't wait to see how the hypnosis/EFT/Matrix Reimprinting world's experts start working to change the energy of the tens of thousands of species of microbes in our bodies.

Let me know what you think of all this!

Emotional Freedom Techniques is one of the most promising developments in the mental health field--ever. 

Bold statement?  You bet.

EFT, or "tapping," is changing lives simply, rapidly, and profoundly. 

So simply and rapidly, in fact, that sometimes people wonder if they even HAD their original problem to begin with! 

How can their Big Problem have been screaming over all the other noises in their life-- controlling their reactions to opportunities, forcing them to stay in awful relationships, addicting them to blindly negative behaviors and self beliefs. . .  and then suddenly, in a mere half hour, be a NON-ISSUE?

It must have not existed.  Or...?

Actually, the huge problem(s) most certainly did exist.  Perhaps, you can recognize them most easily in your close friends and relatives.  [If mom hadn't had an alcoholic dad, she would have been healthier and then I would have been healthier.  Now, there's a good example.  Or, if Sue hadn't been abused as a kid, she actually might have had a healthy romantic relationship by now.  Another good example.]  It's makes us wince when we take the time to draw a bead on our own grand and foundational underlying issues.

But, they're probably there.  And then, with one or two sessions of EFT or Matrix Reimprinting, they're suddenly.... no big deal at all. 

Trauma?  What trauma? 

And, oh, God, how you wish you had gotten this help years ago.  Because you would have avoided almost a lifetime of needless suffering.  This actually makes you cry.

But, you're grateful that you suddenly got the help now, because, who knows, maybe you've just

GOTTEN YOUR LIFE BACK.

With your life back in your hands--and the brilliance of possibilities, options, energies, you-ness once again--you begin to gel.  "That's right, this is what it feels like to be Me."

Yes.  That's how good these techniques truly are.

Those of us who are EFT and Matrix Reimprinting practitioners see this either/or issue (we technically call it the Apex Effect) all the time in our clients.  They can't wrap around the idea that they are now light years ahead of who they were 30 minutes before.

We just smile.   :  )