Thought Field Therapy Helping Survivors of Genocide

Izere Center in Nyinawimana Parish, Byumba Diocese in Rwanda

Thought Field Therapy (TFT) was the answer to a mother who sought help for her son recently.

Her boy was unable to attend school because he had intense rages, threw and destroyed things, and went into tantrums and tirades.  He was physically robust, and his petite mother appeared overwhelmed and exhausted with his supervision and care.

These rages were triggered whenever he didn’t want to do something, or didn’t like something, or when he did not get his way.

The treatment algorithms for oppositionality (psychological reversal), anger, rage and trauma were demonstrated to the child and mother.

The child was not initially cooperative, but tolerated being tapped by mother after psychological reversal was treated.  Then mother was warned that a thought field that would induce the rage might be created right then and there, to check the effectiveness of this treatment.  Mother seemed apprehensive, and she, the Rwandan therapist and ATFT team support therapist first moved out of the immediate range of his kicking and hitting.  Mother was asked to instruct the young boy to give the water bottle he was playing with to his mother, so he could do the tapping sequences.  He started going into a tantrum, and the reversal was done by the Rwandan therapist and his mother.

Much to both their surprise, the boy’s tantrum abruptly stopped, he gave the bottle to his mother as requested, and he started tapping himself.  He calmed down and tapped on all the meridian points himself.  He was not grunting, whining, yelling, kicking, throwing things, or hitting—but smiling, and wanting to repeat the treatment.

Mother worked with TFT with the same algorithm for her own frustration, and reported feeling the calming response herself and the remitting of her own intense emotions.  She made an appointment for a TFT follow-up visit for herself, and for help with parenting support at the Izere Center.