Anna-Lena and “This Nazi Danger”

by Cynthia C. Doll
www.eft-ccd.de
Maintal (near Frankfurt), Germany

Editors Note: This article is Part 3 in a series, sharing how persistent and systematic EFT can help heal the physical and emotional effects of war trauma. For a deeper understanding of the history of Cynthia’s work with Anna-Lena, you may wish to begin by reading Part 2: Anna-Lena and The Knife Attack and Part 1: Anna-Lena and These Russian Tanks in My Neck.

Session 3

Anna-Lena reported that the previous sessions were definitely positive for her. Her moral is better (less pessimistic), but the last few days she had begun having big problems with pain in the neck moving upwards to the back of the head, getting worse under stress and feeling, “like swords lancing into my head.” She feels unstable, a kind of a staggering feeling. She was also having some problems with her vision and hearing.

When I asked for the symptoms, she brought up that she had a terrible accident with her electric bicycle about 2 years before, flying over her bicycle and landing in a ditch with her head first. It turned out that a barrier tape had been removed by whomever, so the ditch could not be seen. She lay in intensive care unconsciously for two days. They told her that her brain had been injured, and afterwards she needed to have rehabilitation measures. Anna-Lena reported that her condition had improved somewhat since, but sometimes she still had problems and discomforts which she would attribute to the accident. She stated: “It is as though the shock (of the Knife Attack) brings this all up again.“

I preframed with her that it is very likely that her body shows up a new item which it wants her to deal with, and that all these experiences (Knife Attack, Tanks from Behind, this accident) have been stuck in her neck and head area. In fact, all the symptoms she related to in the beginning of this current session could be connected to this accident. I pointed out that addressing and releasing all aspects of the accident will very likely be critical for relieving the described symptoms.

I also pointed out that we still wanted to check whether there were “loose ends“ of the “Russian Tanks“ or the “Knife Attack.” She wanted to test imagining taking the subway or returning to that same subway station in the future.

I then checked the list of known symptoms from the previous sessions and it turned out that her sleeping quality had greatly improved: While she had woken up 3-4 times at night before our first session – having nightmares, being cramped and stiff – this was only happening once a night now. She also reported that when she did wake up, she would find herself pressing her head into the pillow, being stiff in particular on the left side. She stated her sleeping quality was 9 out of 10 now (very good). She also had discontinued sleeping pills.

This shows how important it is to test back regularly and ask frequently for previously reported symptoms.

An Unplanned Test

She describes how she happened to see some Russian tanks on TV. Her spontaneous reaction was to turn it off. She did have an intensity level of 3-4. I remember that her intensity was down to 0 at the end of the second session. This tells me that there must be something else in the past she wants to protect herself from – another aspect – which we can address when the time is right.

Physical Symptoms

Shoulder pain: 5
Neck pain: 8
Back of the head: 9, round spot, size of palm of her hand; currently no lancing pain but pressure, color: brown, connected feeling: danger.

The Session Unfolds

Starting with the Setup phrase and speaking of “this brown danger“ I started seeing little brown figures before my inner eyes – in uniforms associated with Nazis. Following my intuition, I mentioned this in a humorous way like: “Isn’t that funny? I see little brown uniformed figures before my inner eye and think about Nazis. Can you imagine?“

Continuing to let her in on my intuition, I began speaking and tapping:

This brown danger…all these old memories in my muscles and cells…

Within seconds Anna-Lena burst out into tears and we tap, tap, tapped… After a while I asked her what had come up, and she came out with the story about when her father was forcibly torn out of the house by the Nazis early one morning without any previous warning. She remembered him resisting vividly but having no chance. They forced him to work as a medic in military hospitals. Her father was a man of peace and a doctor, and did not want to join the war. This particular incident happened when she was a very little child (3-4 years old). She didn’t remember every detail of the situation, but she watched when the Nazis came to take him. The pain of this early loss burst out again and again, and it took some time to deal with the intense feelings. She began crying and sobbing desperately, all the feelings of this little child being fully present:

“Vati (synonym for Daddy)… I need you so much!… all this pain… Vati!!… all this helplessness… all these feelings… Vati!!… all this pain…“

Anna-Lena also reported that there had been a constant atmosphere of fear at home. They listened to BBC regularly and had to be very careful. They were in constant fear of being trapped or denounced.

Soon we addressed several aspects which were connected to this event:

I am responsible for the family… for my mother… for my little sister… I couldn’t do a thing about it… I am safe now… and my little Anna-Lena too… I don’t have to be responsible any more… I’m safe now… no more Nazis… my poor Vati… my poor Vati… he didn’t want to go there… I choose to know, that he didn’t want to leave me alone… that he didn’t want to leave my mother and my little sister alone… that he was with us always… in his thoughts… with all his good wishes… with all his love… always with us…

Even though Vati was challenged by his fate… I choose to know that all he achieved was passed down to me… his spirit of freedom and respect… and love for mankind… and I choose to know… that he did his best at the places he was placed… to keep up and live… this spirit… and that he did his best… to help men… because this is… what a good doctor does…

This overwhelming sadness… this endless sadness… (at least 3 rounds)… I take my little Anna-Lena into my arms and comfort her… and cradle her… yes… that’s what you needed then… my little Anna-Lena… no wonder you were sad… I understand this so clearly… me, the adult Anna-Lena… and I take my hat off to you… for all the power you found as a little girl…

Anna-Lena reports that she could always find this power and that others confirm how powerful she always has been in spite of everything that has happened… Working through the aspects, the charge on helplessness sank from 7 to 3, and sadness went to a 0. And then Anna-Lena said:

“A feeling of thankfulness and inner peace prevails… the inner connection remains… like a sun, which shines above all… inner power.“

She stated that her inner power had risen from 8 to 10 and added: “I receive it now. I welcome it with open arms.“

Then she reported that during the process of tapping, the back of her head started to get a bit warm and a feeling extended “as if a mountain would crumble… and permanently trickling like water pearls…“

We continued working with the crumbling and brought the former 9 (pressure on the back of the head) down to a 2, due to my persistent, “Let’s give this another try!“ But time was at end, and Anna-Lena wanted a break in spite of the remaining pressure. So I finished with a tapping phrase around being open to all the remaining pearls trickling downwards and releasing the pressure in the back of her head, and we finished for this session.

“What we’ve done today was critical,“ Anna-Lena stated when she left. “I feel deeply thankful to my father and have a stronger connection to my inner power.“

Feedback 3 weeks Later:

Anna-Lena reports that she had a 1-week-period of feeling deeply tired and exhausted after the last session: “I’ve never been so tired in my life before…” She even had someone come cook for her.

I said that it’s obvious that a lot of tensions have dissolved, and by this has made room for a huge relaxation. After releasing tension that had been going on for so long, no wonder the body needed to reorganize.

Head condition is now “definitely better.” She reported that after the tiredness had disappeared the lancing pain on the back of her head had also disappeared and since then never come back. Neck discomfort has reduced – but pain still comes back, especially in the evenings when she gets tired – a result of arthrosis (as her doctors told her) due to the bicycle accident.

Seeing and listening qualities have gradually improved since then. While staggering hasn’t improved, she explained that this may be due to possible heart valve problem.

First she claims that her sleeping quality was fairly the same but after asking it turns out that she has no more nightmares at all, only wakes up once at night to go to the bathroom and has no more tensions in her neck and no more head pressing backwards into the pillow.

More Aspects

She also reports that from time to time pictures are coming up which have to do with danger from the behind, “but the fear is not that big anymore.“ It then turns out that she has found another aspect belonging to the Knife Attack: “The moment I hear the click of the knife opening on my left ear…” We had addressed her attackers voice speaking to her already before but this detail was not in her awareness then. And there still is a more global feeling of “this moment you realize that somebody is after you.” She also states that this feeling doesn’t belong to the Knife Attack but to some older incident(s).

I point out that I suspect further progress is possible for her, especially by addressing her bicycle accident, along with any remaining aspects of the Knife Attack incident.

At the moment Anna-Lena doesn’t want “another period of tiredness to recur“ so she will wait for another session to address the remaining aspects. She also made good progress using EFT on her own.

I asked Anna-Lena to read through my report and to give her own opinion on her experiences with EFT, she sent to me her “final evaluation“ some weeks later:

Final Evaluation

“After having practiced the Emotional Freedom Technique for some time, I can truly say that it is a very effective technique. During my life I have been in therapy for longer periods several times. Therefore I feel that this very positive judgment is not given lightly. In a relatively short time my mood and feelings changed. Every time I practiced this technique my experience was that it helped a lot and gave me more and more confidence and motivation.

What I particularly like about this technique is that I can practice it whenever I want and wherever I want on practically every issue. Once you have learned the acupuncture trigger points you are no longer therapist-dependent. I appreciate this independence a lot. I am grateful Mrs. Doll was recommended to me. She guided me through the procedures with admirable intuition and attention.

I am very, very grateful to her and to Gary Craig who so generously put it out into the world. Anna-Lena, Netherlands“

Cynthia Doll specializes in EFT for trauma from her private practice in Maintal (near Frankfurt), Germany.