Helping Communities Heal After Disaster

Suzanne Connolly, LCSW, LMFT

If you were asked what the major cause of death and disability is globally, you would probably guess heart disease — and you would be correct.  But did you know that the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that posttraumatic stress will be second only to heart disease as the cause of death and disability by the year 2020? That means that by the year 2020, approximately 780,000,000 men and women globally will be suffering from posttraumatic stress in any one year. Right now, one out of 20 men and one out of 10 women in the world is suffering from posttraumatic stress.

Posttraumatic stress not only affects individuals, it affects families and entire communities. And we are just talking about posttraumatic stress; there are so many other mental health issues that confront individuals throughout the world.  As TFT practitioners, we know from our research and experience, that there is no more efficient and effective way to tackle mental health issues than Thought Field Therapy.

But the number of Thought Field Therapy therapists throughout the world is limited; and there are only so many individuals and families that one TFT practitioner can treat.  It is imperative, that we begin an effort to teach more TFT practitioners to teach others to use our proven Thought Field Therapy Techniques, through humanitarian outreach.

The WHO met in 2009 and addressed the problem of what to do after man-made and natural disasters. They concluded that in a world of high need and few trained professionals, para-professionals need to be trained to fill the gap, referring only those who couldn’t be helped by the para-professionals to available professionals.

Your TFT Foundation is constantly making an effort to spread TFT for humanitarian purposes. Your TFT Foundation has developed a method of treating trauma after large scale disasters that has been tested and refined throughout the years in Haiti, Tanzania, Mexico, Kuwait, Japan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This method has also been researched, and three randomized control studies have been published. You can learn this method and its protocol during a one-day intensive before the 2016 International Energy Psychology Conference.

Persons receiving this one-day training will learn to train professionals and para-professionals in humanitarian outreach settings and will receive a certification to teach TFT to professionals and non-professionals for humanitarian purposes. They will not be certified to teach TFT, in any way, for fees or non-humanitarian purposes.

Please join Suzanne Connolly and many other TFT practitioners on the second of June for this important TFT activity.   To quote Helen Keller, “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”  Be part of the solution and join us in Santa Clara.

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Suzanne Connolly, LCSW, LMFT, has trained over 2,000 people worldwide to use TFT and to integrate TFT in clinical settings. Her presentation venues include Rwanda, Israel and Kuwait. (www.tappingtft.com) Suzanne Connolly is a member of the TFT Foundation Board.

Would you like to get trained in helping communities heal after disaster? Would you like to learn more about using TFT in humanitarian settings? Join us for the 18th International Energy Psychology Conference in Santa Clara, CA from June 2-5. Suzanne will be offering a full-day training just before the conference where you will learn a protocol for using TFT in communities after large-scale traumatic events. Learn more.