Resolving Kate's chronic back pain

How grief was contributing to the pain

By Rebecca Sutton, Clinical Hypnotherapist, NLP and EFT Practitoner

(Add or view comments at the bottom of the page.)

EFT can be incredibly useful for resolving chronic and severe pain issues. One of my most interesting and dramatic cases so far was with a client called Kay, a lady who had suffered with chronic back pain for the previous seven years. This had been described as a muscular issue by medics and for which the client was currently receiving physiotherapy, with no marked improvements at all.

Kay was familiar with energy work, being a Reiki practitioner and had also tried many other forms of complementary therapy (Reflexology, Bowen technique etc), without success. 

She moved very slowly and stiffly, had to take the time to push herself up from the chair using her arms and found it painful to bend over to pick anything up from the floor. She also had shoulder and neck pain a lot of the time, and was struggling to cope with everyday tasks that involved lifting or physical activity. She rated the level of intensity at about a seven (on a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst) at a specific point when trying to get out of the chair, and said that she was only without pain whilst sat still and upright and that any movement started the pain off. Her body language was tense; she rarely smiled and explained that she felt constantly tired and very depressed about her condition.

After explaining to Kay the nature of eft, we began tapping just on the physical sensations to begin with;

“Even though I have this sharp stabbing pain in my lower back when I try to get up from the chair...”
“Even though it hurts my lower back so much when I stand up...”
“Even though I get these pains shooting down my legs...”

I then asked her to test by standing up from the chair, at which point the pain had dropped to around a five. She then stated that she was feeling a tingling sensation and warmth spreading from her lower back down her legs.

We continued to tap then on the feelings surrounding the pain;

“Even though I’m so fed up of being in constant pain...”
“Even though I’m scared that I will just have to learn to live with it...” (A lovely phrase from a doctor incidentally that one...) 
“Even though I’m so tired of hurting all the time...”

At this point she declared that the warm sensation was moving down her legs and that her feet were beginning to tingle. She described a feeling in her back that was like the muscles beginning to relax.
We tested by getting up from the chair, and the pain had dropped to around a three. She then stated that the pain in her shoulder and arm was getting worse. 

We then tapped on this, before which I asked her to be aware of thoughts and feelings that may surface during the tapping round. After this she said the pain had moved to her heart. At which point she announced “Oh! It’s my Dad!” and burst into tears. (Kay had lost her Dad to cancer about fifteen years before)

As she was very upset, I began tapping for her on the Karate point, while she told me how she felt about her Dad’s death, and was ok with me continuing to tap whilst I repeated what she had said; 

“Even though I still miss him so much...”
“Even though it’s not fair and he should still be here...”
“Even though I’m angry because he was too good a person to go so soon...”

It was of course very emotional, and we managed to get it round to;

“Even though it still hurts so much... maybe I can keep all the love and happy emotions and let go of this pain...”
“Maybe Dad would want me to feel the love and move on now... maybe I’m ready to let go of the hurt, maybe I can still keep the happy memories...”

Kay calmed down during this, stopped crying and visibly relaxed as I continued to tap for her. When I finished she gave me a big smile and said she felt light and completely free from pain. I asked her to stand again, which she did gingerly – but completely pain free! We both looked at each other in amazement, and then had her walk around, bend over to pick something up from the floor and sit back down again. All of which she did without a hint of pain! I then commented on the fact that she still seemed fearful of standing up, so we then tapped on any remaining fear of the pain, after which she stood up normally with smooth movements and dramatically altered body language. She stood up straight, her head was held high and she was relaxed and fluid in her movement. Even her eyes and skin were brighter and seemed to have improved in appearance.

She then tested again and could get up and down out of the chair easily, bend over to pick something up and even touch her toes! She literally danced around the room in excitement, stating that she hadn’t been able to do any of this for such a long time, she had forgotten what it felt like to be completely pain free. She couldn’t stop laughing and hugging me and I felt truly humbled to be able to experience seeing this healing take place in front of my very eyes.

Since that session, she reported slight discomfort in the lower back area the following day, which she promptly tapped on and got rid of, and has had no reoccurrence of the pain whatsoever since then. Not only has she experienced the physical benefits, her emotional health has benefited enormously and she is much more light-hearted and prone to laughter than I have ever seen her. This one session took place just over six months ago and to date she continues to improve daily.

View All Articles by this Author

Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: All information on this website is for educational purposes only, and the content is not intended to suggest that it is a substitute for proper medical care or good common sense.

While EFT has produced remarkable clinical results, it must still be considered to be in the experimental stage and thus practitioners and the public must take complete responsibility for their use of it.

In addition, the articles on this site represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the founder of EFT, Gary Craig, nor the owner of this web site, Stefan Gonick.