I am happy to announce the first of our team of Rwandans from the IZERE Center in Rwanda are arriving in Honolulu tonight.  The others will arrive later this week.

We are so very excited about this project as not only will four Rwandan TFT practitioners become trainers, spreading TFT far and wide in Africa, but many underprivileged in Hawaii as well as the clinics that serve them will benefit from TFT training and treatment during the month of September.

Using TFT to relieve the effects of trauma can open people to peace, compassion and community. It is the intention of the ATFT Foundation–to make trauma relief available on a global scale! You can learn more about the Foundation's work by clicking here,

We would like to ask for your help to cover some of the expenses in this far reaching project. As the air tickets were more costly than expected, and we have over run our budget.

We are seeking donations toward their food and incidentals while in Hawaii. If anyone can assist us with this, we can accept donations of any size. If you would even assist with one meal, it would make a huge difference for our guests from Rwanda. Donation form is found here.

Thank you all for your help with this sharing of TFT with those who need it. Please visit the The Izere Center (Hope Center) Byumba, Rwanda website for more information.

There are currently two TFT healing and training teams, teaching local community leaders how to help their neighbors, families and colleagues how to tap away the pain of loss, trauma, grief, despair and fear.

ATFT UK Foundation’s board members, Dr. Howard and Phyll Robson, have joined a healthcare team led by Dr. Carolle Jean-Murat, California, providing community outreach for many in La Vallee, Haiti. Howard and Phyll are treating many and more importantly, are teaching a group of 32 leaders, clergy, teachers and professionals in TFT trauma relief. They will leave behind a TFT skilled and caring group to continue helping others.

They will soon be traveling to outlying areas with their new TFT trainees to support them as they begin to help the many children and refugees from the devastated Port Au Prince area.

This model of teaching the local people to carry on with the healing tools of TFT has proven to be very successful in Uganda and Rwanda and we expect similar results in Haiti.

The ATFT (USA) Foundation’s trauma relief team, Suzanne Connolly, Caroline Sakai, Gary Quinn and Cyndi Quinn, have also just begun training a new group at the TFT algorithm level, and are scheduled to begin a diagnostic level training for those trained in previous years. They will also begin two follow-up studies to the work done in Kigali and Byumba in 2008 and 2009.

They said they were welcomed with smiling and appreciative faces, friends from their previous trips, all telling stories of how TFT has helped their community over the last year.

Rwanda has been an excellent example of how these missions can grow to serve an entire region. The IZERE Center (Reconciliation and Peace) in Byumba, Northern Rwanda has now been successfully helping the people of their region with TFT trained therapists for a full year.

Please help us carry on this much needed work. If you wish to help or contribute with further missions to Haiti or Rwanda, please click this link to the ATFT Foundation.

We have a preliminary report of the progress being made following our ATFT Trauma Relief interventions this August in Byumba, Rwanda. We are attaching the draft that we received from Brother Augustine. The report sent by Brother Augustine, summarizes the reports sent in by each of the thirty-six therapists we trained this August. The therapist’s reports had to be translated from Kinyarwanda to English by Brother Augustine, and this report, attached, contains the responses thus far translated. It is a busy season now in Rwanda and we may get a more complete summary sometime early next year.

It is good to know that the thirty- six therapist the ATFT Team trained have treated 622 people since our departure at the end of August. That is in addition to the 200 plus persons treated by the Rwandan therapists while we were there. It seems that TFT is making a big difference in the lives of the therapist’s, in the lives of those whose lives the therapists touch, and in the larger communities in which they live.

Good work ATFT members! All of you have helped in some really significant way. Thanks especially to team members, Caroline Sakai, Gordon Barrett, Carmen Carrasco, Gary and Cyndie Quinn.

Happy Holidays!

Suzanne M Connolly, LCSW
ATFT Foundation Trauma Relief Committee Chairperson.

_________________________________________

Association for Thought Field Therapy IZERE/RWANDA
(ATFT IZERE/RWANDA)

THE SYNTHESIS OF THE “THREE MONTHS FOLLOW-UP THERAPIST’S SELF-REPORTS”

1. HOW MANY COMMUNITY MEMBERS HAVE YOU TREATED WITH TFT THESE THREE MONTHS?

During the three months, the 36 Rwandan therapists had treated 622 persons suffering from trauma and others psychological problems.
The average time for each client it was 25 minutes.
• I treated 40 students
• In these 3 months, I treated 45 people using TFT
• I treated 13 people
• Using TFT, I treated 18 people
• In these 3 months, I treated 42 people using TFT
• I treated 38 people
• As a policeman, I treated 27 people
• I treated 17 people
• In these 3 months, I treated 11 people using TFT
• I treated 15 people
• Using TFT, I treated 41 people
• I treated 13 people
• In these 3 months, I treated 49 people using TFT
• I treated 15 people
• In these 3 months, I treated 35 people using TFT
• I treated 10 people
• Using TFT, I treated 35 people
• In these 3 months, I treated 15 people using TFT
• I treated 38 people
• Using TFT, I treated 18 people
• In these 3 months, I treated 42 people using TFT
• I treated 38 people
• As a policeman, I treated 27 people

2. WHAT WAS THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF TIMES YOU SAW EACH PERSON FOR HIS OR HER PROBLEMS?

• It took me long time for 22 students. I used to meet each of them twice a day. After, I taught them to treat themselves using TFT.
• The average time per person was 60 minutes
• The average time per person was 15 minutes
• The average time per person was 45 minutes
• The average per person was 20 minutes
• The average per person was 35-50 minutes
• The average is 20 minutes
• The average time per person was 50 minutes
• The average time per person was 20-40 minutes
• The average per person was 20 minutes
• The average per person was 25 minutes
• The average time per person was 15 minutes
• The average time per person was 105 minutes
• The average time per person was 40 minutes
• The average time per person was 45 minutes
• The average per person was 20 minutes
• The average per person was 35-50 minutes
• The average is 20 minutes
• The average time per person was 50 minutes
• The average time per person was 15 minutes
• The average time per person was 45 minutes
• The average per person was 20 minutes
• The average time per person was 30 minutes

3. DID YOU FEEL THAT THOUGHT FIELD THERAPY MADE A DIFFERENCE IN THE PEOPLE’S LIVES THAT YOU WORKED WITH? PLEASE TELL US ABOUT THIS. WHY OR WHY NOT? WHEN DID IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND WHEN DID IT NOT?

• There is a big difference after treatment using TFT. There is much improvement after treatment. Students thought it was a joke, but as time went on they found I was not joking and they started using it seriously.

• The difference is vivid. I keep on watching on my clients after treating them and I observed big positive change in their lives.

• The difference is clear. For example, there is a client who used not to talk and now that client can talk after the TFT treatment.

• TFT made really a difference in the people’s lives. You treat a person and after you teach him/her how s/he can treat him/herself.

• People are happy. For instance, there is a client who told me that the nightmares and other strange images disappeared after treatment.

• My clients tell me that there is much positive change. The majority got cured and those who were not completely healed still use the algorithms I taught them according to their trauma.

• TFT brought big difference in my clients’ lives. For instance, one client told me that depression was very deep to the point of wanting to commit suicide, but after being treated with TFT the depression disappeared for good.

• TFT made a difference in the people’s lives I worked with. Many times my clients were depressed, and their anger could be seen on their faces, without happiness, even some of them were screaming before I started treating them. After treating them I was surprised to see their faces changing, they started rejoicing and laughing.

• The people I worked with gave testimonies of the wonders brought into their lives by TFT treatment. They are now doing their developmental works with confidence of a prosperous future. They used to fear interacting with other people but now they mix freely and socialize with others.

4. WERE THE PEOPLE YOU TREATED PLEASED WITH THE RESULTS THEY ACHIEVED BY USING TFT? PLEASE TELL US ABOUT THIS.

• Yes, they were all pleased with the results they achieved by using TFT. But, as I dealt with students, some of them were laughing at me in the beginning until they realized that TFT is helping them in their trauma problems.

• Yes, the people I treated were happy after treatment. When their trauma comes again the clients come back to me with much confidence to be treated, others come to ask me the appropriate algorithms to use in order to treat themselves.
• The clients I treated were pleased with what I did for them using TFT. Some of the people I treated told me they will help their neighbors who also have trauma.

• People have found the treatment of their trauma problems in their homes, and this treatment is effective in a very short time.
• I treat people and they go back spreading the good news brought to them by TFT.

• I treated my clients and taught them to treat themselves, and now I am happy with them. They tell me that they are also treating their family members using TFT
• Yes. The people I treated were and are still pleased with TFT results. Imagine to see a person who had lost his/her laughter laughing again, a person who was living in loneliness recovering from that loneliness, a person who had lost his sleep sleeping again, a person with nightmares getting again hi/her normal sleep, etc.!

• About my using of TFT, it is clear that treating my clients using TFT yielded and is still yielding much fruits and people are pleased with this.

5. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR USING THOUGHT FIELD THERAPY TO HELP INDIVIDUALS IN YOUR COMMUNITY MADE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY? PLEASE DESCRIBE WHY OR WHY NOT.

• So far I am working in a boarding school and I have not yet gone outside the school to treat the people who are not students.

• Yes, my community is happy of TFT. For instance, there is a wife who used to quarrel with her husband, but after treating them using TFT there is peace in their family.

• The community is happy with TFT. For example, there are some people who lived desperately but now are no longer living in loneliness.

• Yes, there is happiness in the community in which I work because they know I live with them and I am there for them.

• Stating myself as a vivid example, I was one of the people suffering from trauma. I treated myself and I pushed ahead to treat other people. We are all better.

• TFT solved the disputes in the families.

• Using TFT brought a positive change, especially at my working place.

• Yes, my using TFT to help individuals in my community made a difference in my community. This is because the problems of one person in the community affect in a way or in another the whole community. For instance, when a person is traumatized, lonely, depressed, selfish and guilty, that person cannot develop his/her community as long as s/he is not yet freed from those problems.

• TFT helped individuals in my community finding solutions to different trauma based problems and this made and is still making positive impact in my community.

6. IS THERE ANYTHING MORE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE THESE THREE MONTHS USING THOUGHT FIELD THERAPY TO HELP OTHERS?

• In truth, my experience is not yet very high. As I am working with students, time came for them to start long holidays and this made me not continue practicing TFT in order to up bring my practical skills.

• TFT is a lasting solution to the problems caused by trauma, but the people I treat are scattered in the hills. If I could find means to transport, I am sure my service can yield more fruits that those I have so far yielded.

• TFT is helping our people. People’s trauma is decreasing and there is much improvement in people’s lives.

• It would be very beneficial for both therapists and clients if trained Rwandan therapists could also be trained in counseling in order to integrate it with TFT in treating trauma.

• Today in my community it is not a surprise to see people being freed from their trauma using TFT.

• I am now able to treat many people in a very short time with much confidence.

• What I can say in addition to what I have said so far is that I am living myself in a continual surprise of the effects of TFT to my clients.

• I am neither a medical doctor nor a psychologist by profession, but I see with my proper eyes people getting healed from their trauma and some other psychological problems.

• The clients give testimonies of their relief and this makes people like TFT.

• Thanks be to God that ATFT is a nonprofit association. If it were not, I would call it an up-to-date self funding organization. It brings satisfaction to us to see many people revering us simply because we are bringing positive change into peoples’ lives.

• Trained Rwandan therapists deserve advanced training both in TFT and in Guidance and Counseling to keep high their performance.
Thanks

photo credit: Rachel Strohm

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.

Research Update from Rwanda

We have now trained 33 amazing Rwandan therapists.

Our newly trained therapists are a remarkable group as are our translators. We have priests and teachers and directors of orphanages, directors and teachers of secondary schools, policemen, businessmen, and clinical psychologists (with their degrees but they tell us it’s hard for psychologists to find work in Rwanda.)

We enjoy them all and have the greatest respect for them.

Following the training of the therapists last week came the pretesting of the 200 clients. All showed up and were administered the MPSS and the TSI and it went very well. Quite miraculous!

Only one of the 200 could read and all therapists showed up to read the questions to them. The clients who are participating in the study are a rural and impoverished group and were appreciative of any help we might be able to give them.

Carmen Fernandez has done an incredible job of entering all the names in the computer and assigning them either a numbered blue folder or a numbered red folder for the randomization. All names will be removed before leaving Rwanda so that the only identifiers will be numbers. Father Jean Marie has done an unbelievable job of organizing.

The next two days were spent supervising as the newly trained therapists treated the 100 people who comprised the treatment group or Group A, those with blue folders.

All clients expressed that they felt so much better after their treatment and almost all of their symptoms were reduced to a 0. They all seemed so happy. You could see their faces turn from skepticism to amazement and joy as they experienced the transformative effects of TFT. The people who left looked so different than the people who walked in.

Father Jean Marie has asked that the Izere Center, where we meet for the study, be officially the ATFT Center of Rwanda and, of course, we were all delighted and agreed on ATFT’s behalf.

One of our therapists and translators, Jean Baptiste teaches at a secondary school and already, the school administrator has been so struck by the results that Jean has been getting that his administrator has offered to pay Jean Baptiste’s way to the U.S. for further training. Caroline will be giving a training in Hawaii in April 2010. We hope that Jean (We call him Big John) can manage to attend.

The word is around.

Others not in the study are begging to be treated with TFT, so tomorrow and the next day (Monday and Tuesday) we treat 30 plus people each day. In addition, we will be treating some of the newly trained therapists who have been through so much in their own lives and have already helped so many others. These people, treated on these two days by us will, of course, not be in the study.

Wednesday and Thursday will be the post testing of 200 people who are participating in the study. One hundred will have been treated and 100 not yet treated. This is the heart of the study. We hope to demonstrate that the group treated showed more improvement over the past week than the group not treated.

Then Friday and Saturday the newly trained Rwandan therapists will treat those 100 people who are in the study who have not yet been treated. One week later, (Gordon, Carmen and Suzanne are staying behind to do this) those people who are participating and were just treated (Group B), will take a second post test to measure if they are now reporting improvement on the MPSS and the TSI which are our testing instruments.

You can see we are busy but it is a fun group. Gary and Cyndie are now known as “Auntie” and “Uncle”. They keep everyone entertained.

Our three young interpreters, Chris, Prosper, Joseph are all young men who have lived through incredible losses and they have grown fond of all of us and we of them. However they have a special relationship with “Auntie” and “Uncle.” We call Carmen and Gordon the “kids” because they are young and the rest of us are so old.

We had a brief stay in Kigali where we celebrated Chris’s 25th birthday at an Indian restaurant that is incredible. It was his first birthday party. It was so fun. The whole restaurant joined in and it was like we were one family for a brief moment in time. Now Chris is officially 25.

We celebrated again, the next night at an American owned restraint called Heaven. They are displaying and selling the orphans quilts, an offshoot of our work in Rwanda at El Shaddai Orphanage in 2006.

All for now,
Suzanne Connolly and Caroline Sakai

photo credit: sdpurtill