Kaye Tench

I have been working with my daughter on her needle phobia for a long while now, however her impending trip to India meant that she would now have to put our work to the test!

If she wanted to go, she would need 5 different vaccinations in all! And here is an instance when it may well be that the root cause for an issue lies with another person, and not yourself; a phobia that she may well have inadvertently picked up from me, her mother.

When I was pregnant with my first child, because I was an O-Type blood group, it was necessary to provide blood samples at regular intervals. To begin with I was perfectly fine, and would hold out my hand without any fuss whatsoever.

However, by the end of the 9 months, the situation had considerably changed, due to some very painful instances when my blood samples had been taken by staff less skilled with the use of the needle. As well, due to this, my veins had become damaged in the right arm; now they were only able to take the blood samples from my left hand.

The situation was worse when it came to having my second child, my daughter. The situation with my veins continued, and by the end of this pregnancy, I became increasingly reluctant when putting my arm out, as it had now become one painful experience after the other.

This example with my daughter illustrates that it really does not matter how intense a phobia is, how you came by it, how deeply embedded, nor how long you have suffered with an issue, EFT can always be relied upon to bring about a successful result.

As my daughter’s trip had been swiftly organised, I knew the only opportunity I would have of working with her was by telephone, and that we would have just 2 nights to prepare her fully for the visit to the clinic.

I had already worked on her with the memory of a trip to the clinic when she was 12 for some vaccinations for a holiday to Thailand. She had gone into the room with the nurse, and the next thing she came out having had her vaccination, but with a huge bump the size of an egg on her forehead! I am not sure who was the most shook up, the nurse or my daughter! My daughter had taken just one look at the needle, promptly fainted and fallen off the couch.

I had also worked on yet another memory that went even further back to when she was 3 and having her usual childhood vaccinations - I was holding her on my lap to comfort her, and she came right out and said to the doctor ‘ I don’t want to die’. Again this was a shock to both me and the doctor, that such a tiny being would come out with such a statement! We both assured her that she was going to be absolutely fine.

Working with her we could not resurrect a time when she had had suffered a trauma that could have caused the phobia. So remembering Bruce Lipton’s observations of the experiences of a foetus, (see his must read book ‘The Biology of Belief’ & his DVD ‘Nature, Nurture & The Power Of Love: The Biology of Conscious Parenting) I worked on the assumption that my daughter whilst in my tummy, had experienced my own powerful thoughts and emotions of fear and pain at the time, when I was having the injections; causing her to be fearful of injections in her own life.

On the phone, I had her talk about her feelings in regards going for these injections and we tapped on all the physical feelings she was experiencing; dread, terror, tightness in her throat and chest, nausea in her stomach; as well some dizziness in her head, and she had also become a little tearful.

We tapped on statements such as ‘Even though my fear of needles may well have absolutely nothing to do with me, and more to do with my mother . . .
Even though as a tiny foetus I may have picked up my mother’s pain and anxiety each time she had to have a blood sample . . .
Even though my mother was a real scaredy cat when she was having her blood samples taken . . .
Even though the unskilled nurses did not know what they were doing, and inadvertently caused pain to my mother, and therefore to me in her tummy . . .
Even though my poor Mummy was fine at the beginning with having injections, and only became scared of them towards the end . . .
Even though this phobia is not my own, I am afraid that I might not be able to get over it . . .

The night before we went through a visualisation of her leaving her house and setting off to the clinic. She was to tap on the bus either on the main points, or if the bus was busy then on her finger tips. She visualised the entire trip and arriving at the clinic. She became a little anxious at this point so we tapped some more. Then still visualising, she continued on into the clinic, was greeted by the receptionist, and taken into the room where she was to have the injections.

She chose to visualise herself feeling calm and safe; the nurse waiting for her, a gentle but highly skilled nurse who would administer the injections in record time and without any pain whatsoever! We had engineered her SUDS level down to a 1 to 2 and she promised to call me as soon as she got out of the clinic the next day.

When I did get the call she was ecstatic! On the way to the clinic, she had waited ages for a bus and had to call the office from the bus to say that she was running late. She has actually spoken to the nurse who was going to be doing the injections, and was already pleased that she sounded kind, and gently and reassuring.

When she arrived, she mentioned to the nurse her phobia with needles, and that she had been doing EFT to help with me for a while now; also that she would be tapping with her other hand whilst having the injections. The nurse had heard of EFT, reassured my daughter that she would be especially careful with her, and that it was fine for her to tap.

The nurse also arranged it so that she would have her 5 injections, however with only 1 gentle injection per arm! Her friend accompanying her in New York, had not had that option and had had to suffer 5 injections on 2 different days.

My daughter was amazed at how well it had all went, and actually said it felt a bit like an anti-climax, as she seemed to have made a very big fuss out of not a lot!! It is absolutely amazing how after using EFT, a client will look back in retrospect at a colossal issue with such little emotion.

This was a week ago, she seemed to totally forget about it all and never mentioned it again - and today I got a text from her in India saying that she was having a great time and had bought me the most beautiful pair of pewter sandals - payment indeed!