Do you have stress-related symptoms after a car accident or does anyone you know?
Over 2 million serious accidents happen in the
United States each year with up to one half resulting in
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Survivors of crashes may suffer for many months with debilitating symptoms such as anxiety, flashbacks, insomnia and fear of driving which can be successfully treated with Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and other mind-body spirit approaches.
My first clinical use of EFT was with a Duke student in my stress management class who had acute stress disorder and hives after
surviving a serious car accident. That first opportunity to test EFT came in 2002 just after downloading a free manual from the Internet,
so if it worked for me that easily, you can learn it just as quickly. The full story is published in the attached article from the May 2010
Energy Psychology Journal.
Let magic happen,
Larry Burk
Bio
Dr. Burk’s academic career in radiology focused on MRI of the knee and shoulder from 1987 to 2004 including faculty positions at Jefferson Medical College, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Duke University School of Medicine. He took his first course in hypnosis in 1990 and completed the UCLA Acupuncture Course for Physicians in 1998. That same year, he co-founded the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine and acted as Education Director until his departure from Duke in 2004 to set up his consulting business, Healing Imager, Inc.
Dr. Burk learned EFT in 2002 and had multiple breakthroughs in 2003 at The WorldLegacy during his NC59 Leadership program.
He has experienced many magical synchronicities in his career and life that have guided him along his journey.
“The sooner you decide that it is alright to believe the opposite of what the masses do, and that it is alright to trust the universe, and you choose to be happy rather than be right, the sooner you will be happy.” ― Malti Bhojwani
In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network reported that approximately 1 in 110 children in the United States has an Autism Spectrum Disorder. This represents an increase in the prevalence of autism disorders compared to earlier in the decade when prevalence was cited as 1 in 166 and 1 in 250. In the nineties, prevalence was 1 in 2500. It is difficult to compare autism rates over the last three decades, as the diagnostic criteria for autism have changed over the years, No matter what, this has become a problem we get to deal with in powerful and effective ways.
Stephanie Ray, a WorldLegacy graduate, NC129 Leadership, has written an article about autism and parents.
What parents should expect from school professionals
As you are reading this, another woman is giving birth to a child with autism. He won’t be diagnosed for a few years, but when he is, his mother will probably search frantically for treatment options; options that range from shock therapy to alternative schooling to intensive home programs. Most parents don’t even question the scientific validity of treatments. The majority of parents, especially new ones, tend to take ideas heard on television talk shows, printed in magazines, or blogged on the internet as fact and scientifically relevant when there is NO evidence to attest to the treatment’s validity. While it is excusable, to an extent, for parents to get caught in the whirlwind of autism treatments presented in pop psychology today, it is NOT acceptable for school professionals to do the same. What should parents of children with autism expect from their school administration and professionals?
Schools have nothing to learn from pseudoscientific treatments, but they have plenty to learn from marketing strategies. Responsible professionals find these treatments hard to accept and consider it unprofessional to let their students and parents cling to unrealistic hopes. However, while school professionals need not nurture false hopes, neither should they ignore the power of hope and the parents’ emotional needs. Parents need to feel positive about their children’s educational environment and the ability of that environment to meet their child’s needs. This applies to the parental population as a whole, but especially for parents of children with special needs. Parents need to feel useful; they need to feel like they can make things better for their child and it’s the school’s job to nurture that feeling.
How should school professionals respond when parents request for services a district is unable—or unwilling—to provide? It is the responsibility of the professional to investigate it. Families should be encouraged to discuss what they’ve heard. To understand the concept, professionals should watch the program or read the article that inspired the parents. They should search for value in the teachings, for they want to appear as credible as talk show hosts, right? If they feel the information presented in the program or article about a “miracle” treatment is not valid, they should explain why and what would make it more valuable. School professionals are dealing with a fragile entity, parental hope. They want to direct the parent’s energy away from an unreasonable program and toward something constructive they can do for the child—together.
The best defense against an unreasonable demand is a good assessment. This can reassure parents that someone understands their child as well as, or better than, the family. However, it is important that school professionals don’t try to bluff the parents. It’s better to go into IEP meetings with questions that with pat answers. If school staff have incomplete information, they need to be honest about it. Most parents will respect professionals who say they need more time to evaluate the child or want the parents’ opinions on issues as well as solutions.
Ideally, a starting point would be established by parents and school staff as a team. Once this is done, setting appropriate goals can be a difficult task for both professionals and parents alike. A main reason for this could be that our society hasn’t done a satisfactory job of articulating goals of regular education, let alone special education. Parents generally have a fuzzy recollection of their own school experience—recalling nine months a year divided between academics and recreation. Perhaps they think the only educational objective was graduation and preparation for college.
Parents assume special education will be different from regular education, but they don’t really know what to expect. They may ask “What exactly will my child be learning?”, “How will I know if they are making progress?”, “How will the teacher reach all the children when they all have different disabilities?” and possibly most importantly “What is the ultimate goal of my child being in a special education classroom?” The uncertainty can add to their uneasiness. They already have a child who can’t fully understand; now they have to deal with an educational system that hasn’t been clearly defined! Some parents hope special education will help their child catch up with other students. They may hope for a total recovery by graduation. However, most parents recognize that their child’s disability won’t fade with age. Rather, the child with a disability will become an adult with a disability. Eventually, even the most hopeful parents face their compromise with destiny.
As a school professional, it is our job to join forces with parents in service to the child. This may mean being open to new ideas, facing being questioned about our own beliefs, and willing to make sacrifices for the success of the child. Parents rely on school professionals to provide top notch services to their child with autism and expect nothing less than our very best. It is the job of the school professional to create an educational environment that is both nurturing for the student and satisfying for the parents.
Stephanie Ray
Stephanie has worked for the past four and a half years as a behavior tutor for children with autism. Her passion lies with adolescents with autism and transitioning into adulthood. She graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in developmental psychology with a specialization in autism. She is currently working on an effective treatment for individuals with autism.
Stephanie is also a graduate of NC129 Leadership Program.
Energy Psychology is a relatively new field that uses physical and cognitive methods to support people in permanently and quickly shifting unwanted emotional and behavioral states. The technique combine Eastern approaches to the mind and body with Western psychology and psychotherapy ideas. Many people refer to these methods as “acupuncture without needles” and there are many variations of techniques and practices used for this.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is one of the well-known variations that use techniques derived from acupuncture and acupressure. EFT was developed in the 1990s by Stanford engineer Gary Craig. EFT is derived from Thought Field Therapy (TFT), developed in the 1980s by psychologist Roger Callahan. A quick explanation of the method is that there is manual stimulation of certain acupuncture points that send signals to the amygdala and other brain structures that reduce the hyper-arousal associated with a traumatic memory or threatening situation. When the brain “re-integrates” the traumatic memory, then there is reduced arousal or no arousal of this emotion in the future. Despite growing acceptance of acupuncture by the Western medical establishment in recent years, related techniques such as EFT have yet to be embraced to the same extent by mainstream practitioners. Implicit in EFT’s procedures and protocols is the assumption that the original cause of most limiting beliefs and psychological/physiological distress is life trauma, particularly in early childhood. The negative effects of life trauma are very simply referred to in EFT as a ‘disruption’ in the mind/body’s energy system.
This technique has been used to successfully deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, phobias, stress management, wide range of physical challenges, pain management, and a wide variety of conditions. EFT has been recently used for enhancing the performance of individuals in personal, business, sales and sports domains. This technique is attractive not only because of the potential for quick and lasting results, but because it can be taught to people to use themselves. Almost anyone can use EFT to good effect as a self healing tool. Recently a study was performed that claimed 86-90% success rates in only six EFT sessions for war veterans suffering from PTSD.
The EFT method: See the future post
Lori Todd, PhD
Dr. Lori Todd is the senior coach at WorldLegacy and a Leadership and Advanced Trainer. Lori has been coaching and leading transformational workshops since 1996, and leads trainings across the United States and Mexico. She received a BS from Antioch College, MS from Cornell University, and a PhD in Environmental Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1990, she became an Assistant Professor at UNC and, in 1994, President Clinton awarded her a Presidential Faculty Fellow award for her teaching and research. Lori is Certified in Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). See DrLoriTodd.com
How I have used the WorldLegacy trainings to support my health
Using what I have learned through the WorldLegacy Basic, Advanced, Leadership, Staffing and Senioring has made a drastic impact on my health and how I view my health. Because of the trainings at WorldLegacy I see the importance of being responsible for what my health looks like. I also am getting that each moment is a new moment and that I can choose whatever I want in this moment no matter what I accomplished or didn’t accomplish yesterday or last week.
WorldLegacy and Being Responsible. I am learning to live in the present instead of being controlled by the thoughts, actions, and feelings of my past. In the past when I would set an exercise or other health goal and not reach it, I’d give up. I’d beat myself up mentally, make myself wrong, and wait (sometimes months) before setting another one. Now, I am learning to acknowledge the broken commitment to myself, I recommit and set a new goal, ready to take action.
I’ve also learned from the trainings how important it is to stay connected to my picture of a healthy life. When I am connected to that vision and picture of health, I am inspired to keep going, to get up when I fall down, but more importantly when I am connected to my picture of a healthy world I inspire the people around me to be healthy!
One very specific example of how I have used the trainings to support health is through the newest WorldLegacy training called Vision in Action (VIA). I made a commitment to enroll at least 25 people to play a Little Healthy Competition related to their health. The goal was for me to use the game to be more consistent with certain healthy habits and bring my awareness to this domain everyday for 8 weeks. We have over 60 people playing our game with us, players scoring lots of health points for drinking water, taking their vitamins, getting preventative medical care, educating themselves on health, and supporting other around them to live healthy lifestyles. I have been inspired by the players about what is possible in our families, workplaces, communities and in the world when we our health is a part of our life, not something separate we do. NONE of this would have been possible without VIA and the coaching I have received through this program. I can’t wait to report back on all our final results!
Shortly after my father died almost 8 years ago, I started to experience massive digestive and stomach issues, sometimes they were very debilitating to the point where I couldn’t stand or walk. At one point, I had to go the hospital it was so intense. After months of pain and suffering, a doctor told me that I had ulcerative colitis (a colon disease) and that it was incurable, but with 9 pills a day for the rest of my life, I can minimize its impact on me. I wasn’t so happy given I hate medication, and I hate being sick in any way. So, I started taking the pills, and the issue maintained somewhat, and I got used to living with pain and discomfort on a regular basis. This was in 2003.
In October of 2004, I came and did the WorldLegacy trainings on the recommendation of my business partner. While I was at WorldLegacy, I was in the midst of the worst bout of issues I had experienced since the onset of the disease, however, something miraculous happened. As I started to actually open up (I was a bit resistant to going to the WorldLegacy workshops at first, but went because I trusted my business partner), and I started to allow myself to see things from different perspectives, the pain, discomfort, and issues cleared up, and when I was in the WorldLegacy Advanced Course, I was so into the training, I actually forgot to take most of medication over the course of the five days, and I felt like a million dollars. I decided that I was going to just stop taking the medications, and see what happened.
Six years later, haven’t had a pill since October of 2004. I have no issues, no pain, no suffering, no discomfort whatsoever. Since my new found openness to different ideas and possibilities, I did something I never would have done before, I looked up colitis in a book about how mind and health are connected. The book says that colitis is caused mentally by our fear of letting something go that is already gone. My issues started 2 weeks after my father died. One of my biggest moments because of the trainings was truly allowing myself to grieve over the loss of my father and actually let go of him. Add it all up, and it makes perfect sense to me why I had a health issue, and why I stopped having a health issue. WorldLegacy supported clearing colitis.
Most people carry on silent conversations with themselves during much of the day.
These internal dialogues influence our thoughts, emotions and behavior. Understanding self-talk and how it affects you is the first step in learning how to rewrite your self-talk “script” resulting in a less stressful way of life.
Thoughts and Behaviors
Self-talk can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, something you think about so much that you make it happen. When your self-talk is positive, “I can address these problems one at a time,” or, ”I can handle wearing a gas mask,” you are giving yourself permission to succeed and chances are you will. When your self-talk is negative,
“I know I will have a hard time keeping my gas mask on,” or “I know I will lose my balance when I get on the beam,” or “I am not smart enough to do this,” you are giving up on yourself and chances
are you will not even try to succeed. Often your self-talk reflects
the values and behaviors you learned as a child and the self-esteem
you now have as an adult.
Positive or Negative?
Negative self-talk can cause or increase your distress and make
effects such as headaches or stomach pain worse. Self-talk can also
encourage you to behave in destructive ways, which further stresses
your body. Fortunately, positive self-talk can have the opposite
effect, leading to lower stress levels.
How to rewrite Your Script
Learn to listen to your own self-talk. Draw three columns on a sheet
of paper. In the first column write several things you would like to
happen in your life: “I’d like a new car,” “I’d like to lose 10 pounds.”
Then close your eyes and listen to how you respond
to each item. Write your self-talk in the second column: “We cannot
afford it,” “I can probably do it, I’ve done it before.” In
the third column write down a thought that is opposite the statement
in column two. Look over your list. If column two is more positive
than column three you are already on your way to thinking positively.
But, if column two is more negative, look at column three for a more
helpful, healthier response. Practice choosing positive self-talk.
You will feel happier, more confident, and less stressed.
There is a saying: “You are what you eat.” An even truer
statement is: “YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK.” It is your way of
“being.” It is not so much the events that occur in your life,
but how you respond to them.
BIOGRAPHY-UNITED STATES AIR FORCE RETIRED
LT COL (Colonel Select) J. CHARLES LINN
Lt Col James “JC” Linn was Director, Joint Regional Medical
Planning Office, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. Tasked by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to plan, integrate, and execute regional response in the United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) area of responsibility for wartime contingencies, domestic, and national security emergencies. This mission is accomplished by formulating, developing and coordinating many of the medical plans and operations affecting a great part of Eastern United States. Colonel Linn maintained medical readiness for worldwide contingencies with 1,500 staff members, a resource allocation of $113 million and 60-bed inpatient service. Hand selected by HQ USAF Surgeon General for Russian language skills training in St Petersburg, Russia, Col Linn was then slated as the AF only Russian Medical Liaison to the Pacific Air Command AF Surgeon General (PACAF/SG). Nominated as the White House Presidential Physician Associate, Linn medically supported the Presidential and Congressional special airlift missions as well as global aeromedical evacuation. Lt Col Linn was born in Newark, Ohio, 23 January 1951. He received a Bachelor of Science in Medicine from the University of Oklahoma, College of Medicine, a Masters of the Arts in Journalism degree, and his doctorate in Theocentric Psychology. He is ATLS, ACLS, ABLS, and PALS trained. He was pinned 1st Lieutenant in 1981, and Captain in 1983. In 2000, he was selected for Colonel. After 27 years of an Air Force career, and 23 years of medical practice, he was line of duty medically retired following a traumatic brain injury.
He thoroughly enjoys his coaching and leadership skills training at WorldLegacy in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and participates at
every opportunity. Dr. Linn was in the NC115 WorldLegacy Leadership Program at WorldLegacy. His hobbies include antique classic automobiles, woodworking, philately, antiquing, writing poetry, singing professionally, and contributing medical “pearls.” Dr Linn is married to the former Leyla Ann Sheahin of Washington, DC. Together, they have seven children; Jeffrey, Gary, Lisa, Rick, Jason, Åndria, and Allison; eleven grandchildren and four great-children.
There was a time when the primary causes of harm to human life and health were the result of external factors. Animal predators, infectious disease, trauma and birthing complications greatly limited human longevity. Today the great danger to human life and health is more often ourselves. When we live lives that are out of balance it creates stress on the body. We can not exist out of balance for long. Our bodies do an admirable attempt to rebalance, but the do so at a cost- stress. Our lifestyles, diet and emotions, when left unchecked create stress that quite literally wear us down, create disease, unravel our DNA, break our bodies and ultimately kill us. Research into stress over the last few decades clearly show how broadly reaching and severe these effects can be. This research confirms just some of what the ancient Chinese discovered about these stressors thousands of years ago.
The ancient classical texts of acupuncture are quite specific about what the relationships are between the physical and emotional aspects of human health. The mind and body are not seen as “connected” so much as they are simply two aspects of the same thing. Let’s look at how our emotions can affect our physical bodies.
Holding onto or creating excessive anger is said to poison the liver. This can manifest as headaches (often migraines), a compromised immune system, muscle weakness, twitching or cramping, dizziness, a feeling of fullness in the head, and issues with the genitals or eyes. Also the heat that rises off of the liver can then damage other organs- especially those above it in the body, such as the heart and lungs.
Lack of joy or excessive joy (perhaps from drug abuse) in life creates a direct impact to the heart. We all know what “heartbreak” means, and this term is not simply a metaphor. Difficult and disturbed sleep (often with vivid or disturbing dreams) are often seen in this case. With the heart impacted people simply don’t shine as brightly and their eyes will appear dull and lifeless- like nobody’s home. The heart is said to be the “seat of the soul”.
Pensiveness and worry impact the spleen and pancreas. This may manifest as “analysis paralysis” where thoughts repeat like a broken record, yet no action is taken. The digestion and appetite may be affected as weight (fat) is put on or lost. It is no wonder that we are seeing an epidemic of obesity these days.
Sadness and sorrow attack the lungs. Even holding ourselves as victims can create this dynamic. When the lungs are impacted our energy is affected. We also may become insensitive or hypersensitive in the physical or emotional sense of the word.
Fear is the emotion that impacts the kidneys. Along with the heart the kidneys’ energy exist at the deepest, most core level of the body. So fear hits us at a deep, primal level. This is why fear creates such a deep stress response in the body. The adrenal glands that sit atop our kidneys produce hormones like adrenaline and cortisol in response to fear and anxiety. These cause us to age and become sick prematurely. Many fine articles have been written about the effects of stress lately that go into these effects in great detail.
These relationships between the emotions and organs are two-way. The emotions (healthy or unhealthy) impact the health of the organs and the health of the organs create the particular expression of the emotions (healthy or unhealthy) that we experience. One consequence of this interaction is that by creating a healthy relationship with our emotions we are able to go a long way towards preventing many kinds of disease. The corollary is that by fostering health in these organs, particularly at the energetic/functional level, we are able help foster mental health (which in-turn fosters physical health). Acupuncture is uniquely positioned to help here as it is an “energy modality” that is highly specific and able to target the unique imbalances present in each unique individual.
Both transformational work and acupuncture are able to create an interruption to the unhealthy energetic and behavioral patterns we all invariably fall into now and then. That both approaches are able to act at different points in these unhealthy cycles makes combining the two all the more powerful.
BIO
Jon-Erik Lido, Licensed Acupuncturist is a graduate of Jung Tao School of Classical Chinese Medicine in Sugar Grove, NC. Jon-Erik came to Chinese Medicine from an unusual path- a thirteen year-long career as a computer software developer and IT professional. The choice to pursue a career in acupuncture stemmed from a desire to have greater and more direct positive impact in peoples’ lives. In his view, nothing is more fundamental to a joyful experience of life and human connection than a healthy mind and body.
Jon-Erik was introduced to the theory of Chinese Medicine through Chinese martial arts. The theory and practice of the internal martial arts Xingyiquan and Baguazhang opened up a new world to him. They provided him with a visceral, personal experience of the theoretical and energetic underpinnings of the Daoist philosophy, cosmology, and channel energetics that are at the heart of Chinese Medicine. They also introduced him to the practice of one branch of Chinese Medicine– Tuina, or medical massage.
From this starting point the education at Jung Tao School provided him with a seamless introduction to acupuncture. Its curriculum placed heavy emphasis on theory so that the medicine could be understood thoroughly and applied to the particulars of any situation. He was encouraged to personally discover the medicine through immersive self-study in addition to time spent in the classroom so he could develop a rich, deep theoretical foundation upon which to build a lifetime of further discovery. This was an invitation he took (and continues to take) to heart. Meanwhile the Taiji (Tai Chi) courses continued to develop his skills of sensitivity and awareness.
Jon-Erik continues his study of the classics of Chinese Medicine to this day. He has added Yoga to his routine for personal internal development, through which he strives to awaken new levels of awareness, sensitivity, and compassion for all people.
Jon-Erik is a graduate of NC78 Leadership Program.
