The first training session for emotional freedom techniques (EFT) practitioners who have volunteered to help victims of the Sandy Hook shooting tragedy in Newtown, Conn., is scheduled for Saturday Jan. 5, 2013. Nearly 80 practitioners within driving distance of Newtown have volunteered to support those devastated by the massacre of 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012.
Today’s training — called Healing Ourselves, Our Children and Our Community After Tragedy — will assess and train about 35 qualified volunteers to support The Tapping Solution for Newtown: Stress and Trauma Relief Project. During the training, volunteer practitioners will receive personal, professional and humanitarian response skills training so they can support the project’s efforts to teach stress and trauma self-care skills to community members affected by the Newtown tragedy.
Lori Leyden, Ph.D., who established Project LIGHT Rwanda and uses EFT to work with genocide victims in Rwanda, heads the Newtown relief project. The effort was launched by the Ortner family, EFT practitioners who have strong ties to Newtown. Brothers Nick and Alex Ortner live in Newtown. To date, the project has raised more than $71,000 to provide EFT support to those affected by the shooting.
EFT — also called tapping — combines principles of the ancient practice of acupuncture (without the needles) with modern psychology to help people cope with and often eliminate negative emotions, beliefs, habits, etc. Research shows that EFT is an effective way to address post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and many other issues.
In a statement released by the project, Eric Leskowitz, MD, a board certified psychiatrist who is a member of the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, said:
“Based on my clinical experience and my reading of the research literature, EFT is the treatment of choice for rapid intervention in traumatic situations like Newtown that trigger overwhelming emotions in individuals and groups. Its use can prevent the future development of full-blown PTSD by empowering people to develop control over their own nervous systems.”
A second training session for local practitioners will he held within a few weeks.
Credit : Dr. Mohamed Rela (Liver Transplant Specialist- 33 Years of Experience)
