EFT IN THE NEWS!
Unorthodox therapy gains local following

March 31, 2005

VISTA – A once-dismissed therapy for mental disorders is gaining a following among San Diego medical experts who treat combat veterans.

Social workers, chaplains and psychiatrists from Naval Medical Center San Diego and Camp Pendleton are learning the Emotional Freedom Technique, an unorthodox method that even its creator can’t explain precisely.

It and a treatment that uses virtual reality are two of the enterprising approaches being tried at the medical center to alleviate combat-induced psychological wounds.

The Emotional Freedom Technique was developed by Stanford engineer Gary Craig in the 1990s. It was largely ignored by the mental health establishment because no one had conducted a study on its effectiveness.

But Jeannie Ertl, a senior clinical social worker at the medical center, gave the technique a chance in November.

She and many of her patients are happy that she did.

“EFT is tremendous for treating anxiety associated with post traumatic stress disorder,” Ertl said.

She has tried the method on 15 patients, 12 of whom found it helpful at relieving or eliminating symptoms such as anxiety and stress. Ertl uses the technique, which hasn’t been approved by the Defense Department, in conjunction with more traditional therapies.

“It seems to work for a lot of people,” she said. Seaman Wilbur Hurley is one of them.

Hurley, a 20-year-old corpsman, returned to Camp Pendleton in October plagued with horrible visions. In mid-September, he had witnessed a young Marine kill himself while serving in Iraq. It was just weeks before Hurley returned to his base at Camp Pendleton.

“I don’t care what happened in Iraq,” Hurley promised himself. “What happened there would stay there.” But back home in Calvert County, Md., Hurley couldn’t erase the image of the dead Marine.

“I felt like a black cloud was over my head every day,” Hurley said. “I had vivid dreams of walking through fields of gore. I isolated myself from friends and family.”

By early December, anxiety attacks sometimes made Hurley pull to the side of the road until his tremors passed.

Willing to try something new, Hurley followed a friend’s advice and went to Susan Hannibal, a self- described intuitive healer from Vista who uses the Emotional Freedom Technique to treat stress, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder. It was Hannibal who taught the technique to Ertl and several military chaplains.

Hannibal explained to Hurley how the method is based on the same theory as acupuncture – that the body is an energy field with points that can be manipulated to restore health.

Patients focus on a traumatizing event while repeating a self-affirming chant and tapping parts of their body, such as their hands, lips and sides. A typical session is about 90 minutes, and some results can be seen after a single session.

“Once I started doing the tapping, an overwhelming calm came over me,” Hurley said. “I had no cares or worries in the world. In fact I left Sue’s (office) singing. It was pretty much the greatest day of my life.”

Hurley spent that weekend trying to summon bad feelings just to prove that he could stay calm. He concentrated on the worst cases he’d seen while patching up Marines for seven months in Ramadi. He also thought about the suicidal Marine.

“But I felt nothing. It wasn’t there anymore,” Hurley said.

More then a month later, Hurley said he believes that what happened in Iraq is finally staying there. “Nothing that happened over there ruins my day now,” he said.

Zoe’s newsletter:

Today‘s newsletter is about “false negative emotions” and neurotransmitters. True negative emotions are genuine responses to challenges and difficulties that arise in our life. They are feelings of loss, disappointment, abuse, shame, etc, arising from the past or present. We grow from feeling and dealing with these types of emotions and situations. They are a natural response to life.

False emotions, a term coined by one of my teachers, Julia Ross, are caused by an imbalance of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. You might be tipped off that you are feeling false emotions because:
1) these emotions have no identifiable cause
2) you just feel a low level of blues, hopelessness or anxiety;
3) you have been unsuccessful in resolving depression, anxiety, sadness, even with years of therapy;
4) you have problems sleeping through the night.

A neurotransmitter is a chemical messenger in the brain that carries, boosts, and modulates signals across gaps or synapses of brain cells and between other cells in the body. Most neurotransmitters are made from protein or its subunits, amino acids. Serotonin, Dopamine and GABA are neurotransmitters that are essential for a positive, calm, happy outlook and a sense of well-being.

When Neurotransmitters are out of balance (or when receptors on cells responsible for receiving neurotransmitter signals are impaired) they have a significant impact on our mood and behavior.

When we are deficient in specific neurotransmitters a number of emotional symptoms are likely:
Deficits in serotonin can lead to depression, aggressiveness, anxiety, panic attacks, food and alcohol cravings, irritability and insomnia;
Deficits of dopamine include depression, stress, mental exhaustion, fatigue, low sex drive and low motivation;
Noradrenaline is important for alertness, concentration and attention. Deficits of noradrenaline have been linked to depression;
Deficits in GABA can lead to feelings of anxiety.

Brain cells need three things to survive and be healthy:
Oxygen (so exercise daily);
Glucose ( the brain uses 20-25% of all the glucose we take in as food);
Stimulation – Neurotransmitters help to keep your brain cells healthy by stimulating them. Stimulation of brain cells lead to ATP production, this is the energy that runs all the billions of functions in your body.

If you are deficient in a particular neurotransmitter you will experience very specific emotions, sleep patterns and cravings. You can increase the amount of a particular neurotransmitter in your brain by taking some amino acid supplements. I have been doing this work with clients for 6 years with great success.

If you suspect you might be feeling false emotions due to imbalanced brain chemicals, my recommendation is to start with the following suggestions prior to embarking on a specific amino acid protocol.

1) Eat 4 oz of protein (about a chicken breast size of meat) three times per day. Or eat 40-50 grams of protein per day of you are a woman or 50-60 grams if you are a man. Write down your menu of a few typical days’ diet, then Google “protein content of foods” and check to see if you are getting enough protein.
2) Make sure you are either eating a ton of veggies to get your vitamins and minerals, or supplement what veggies you do eat with a good Multi Vitamin. Neurotransmitters are made from protein but they need “Co-Factors” ( B Vitamins, zinc etc.) to facilitate their cross-over to other brain cells.
3) Take Omega 3’s (fish oil, flax seed oil) because the brain needs Omega 3 to make Neurotransmitters.

Here are some reasons, and I am sure there are more, why you may be experiencing an imbalance of neurotransmitters:
1) Genetics- take a good look at your family members. If most of them are anxious or depressed, this may point to a genetic deficiency in one or more of the neurotransmitters
2) The standard American Diet- does not supply the proper nutrition needed to turn food into neurotransmitters and co factors
3) Dieting or eating Disorders- you may not be eating enough protein and vitamins because you are dieting or restricting food intake
4) Prolonged Stress will deplete neurotransmitters
5) Toxic substances like heavy metals, pesticides, illicit and some prescription drugs can cause permanent damage to the nerves that make neurotransmitters.

This is can be a stressful season, so get plenty of rest, take time for yourself, and eat well.

Wishing you all a wonderful Holiday Season- Zoe

Negative (and positive) thinking begins at a very early age as we  shape our initial beliefs about the world.  Is the world safe or hostile?  Am I worthy or not good enough? Is money abundant or lacking?  Are relationships safe or hurtful?  Our early experiences generate a set of beliefs that actually get embedded in the cells as an ENERGETIC packets of information.  We then tend to operate out of these beliefs until they are somehow changed.  In fact, because these beliefs are energetic in nature, they vibrate at a particular frequency and will attract to us more of the same experience throughout our life.  For example, if I grow up believing that money is scarce and that I am not worthy then I am likely to energetically attract (Law of Attraction) situations of lack, hardship and struggle.  So how do we change these negative beliefs, or energetic patterns in our cells.  For many years we have relied on self help and psychological techniques focused on the mind being the answer.  The thought was that if we could get our mind to believe a different story, then we could change.  Problem is, that after many many years of this approach, we have seen limited and slow results.  Our core belief seems to pop up in times of stress.  It’s like an on-going wrestling match with our mind to stay focused on the positive and suppress the negative self talk.  The other difficulty is that MOST of what is ruling our behavior is found in the unconscious mind!  How can we access and change something that is not even consciously known?

Here’s the good news: We now know that these negative thoughts are energetic at the core.  And when we treat them with energetic techniques, they change rapidly.  What if you could learn a simple technique that could restore your peace in minutes?  What if with extended use of this technique you could eradicate much of your early negative programming and emotionally re-program in a more positive, self-fulfilling way?  I have had the privilege of personally witnessing  hundreds of people change their lives, transform their relationships and repair their health.  Over the past decade I have seen more “miracles” than I think most see in a lifetime.  It’s been an honor and a journey I wish for everyone!  Just recently in my private practice I watched as a very sick mom of two young children restored her health completely from Lymes Disease, began a new business and started journeying deeply in her spiritual life–all within 4-5 months!  I watched as a woman with severe panic attacks, changed her life completely, started a new relationship, moved to a new location and began engaging in hobbies that she had abandoned years before- oh, and no more panic attacks!  I have so many more stories, too many to write down.  But what I want you to know is that both of these people and the hundreds of others who were able to eliminate negative thinking and other negative symptoms, all used EFT as their primary tool.

This is an easy technique that anyone can learn to use, even children.  I invite you to learn more.  I invite you to change your life.  I invite you to restore your power, your peace, and your health!

http://www.meetup.com/tapping/events/calendar/

Energy is all around us, in us and is the essence of every “thing” seen and unseen. Not only are material forms (like a chair, a book, a person) made of energy, but also colors, sound, thoughts, emotions and all things un-seen.  For instance, we all know of sound waves, light waves, micro-waves, etc.   We do not see them, but we know they exist and can observe their effects.

All of creation is made of energies.  These energies have differing frequencies. Join me to learn about and play with some of the most Divine Energies.  We will learn how to feel energy, “read” energy, channel, transmit and transmute energy.  We will also learn how to use energy to heal ourselves and others.  Many well known physicians and scientists, such as Dr. Deepok Chopra, Dr. Oz, Dr. Christine Northrop, Dr. Judith Orloff, Dr. Bruce Lipton, and many many more all agree that the use of Energy is the future of medicine.  This knowledge and capability to work with energy is not limited to those with Ph.D’s or years of study in medicine or science.  The ability to understand and work with energy is available to us all.

“Energy medicine is the future of all medicine.”
—C. Norman Shealy, M.D.

“In every culture and in every medical tradition before outs, healing was accomplished by moving energy.”

-Nobel Laureate in Medicine, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

$10 donation.

RSVP at MichelleLeuschen@cs.com

or

415.215.3456

Much is shifting on the planet and in our lives.
There is change, upheaval, and transformation – globally and individually.
We have entered an era of energy, an era of light.
Our souls, our higher selves, our presence are finding a place in our hearts.  -Her Holiness Sai Maa

• Enjoy the bliss of the authentic you
• Experience the love, light, spirit, purity that is pulsating within you
• Generate a new level of vitality and well-being
• Have faith in the breath of God within you
• Learn what it means to live in the Light Era
• Breath Light into the Subtle Bodies
• Activate and Anchor Light into the Chakras
• See yourself as a Light Being

Join me Thursday January 12th 7:00pm-9:00pm for Part One and Friday February 24th 7:00pm-9:00pm for Part Two  at my center, Illume,  in Encinitas, CA.  Experience your authentic self, your true essence as Light.  I have created this class for those who feel called to understand yourself in your true essence, as Light.  We will connect with Light, experience Light, and come to know ourselves as this Light.

Let us come together for a joyous, blissful, meditative, Light-filled experience of ourselves.

RSVP at MichelleLeuschen@cs.com

Class cost: $35

*See more classes at http://www.meetup.com/tapping/#calendar

Click to see full calendar:

http://www.meetup.com/tapping/events/calendar/

You are invited to join us for 7:30-8:30ish to experience a pure Light Blessing called Diksha.  Diksha is given by placing hands on top of the recipients head for 2-3 mins and channeling Divine Light into the brain.  It promotes a deep sense of peace and growth towards enlightenment.  Click link below to see calendar of this and other Monday night events:

http://www.meetup.com/tapping/events/calendar/

YOU MUST RSVP TO OBTAIN ADDRESS: RSVP at MichelleLeuschen@cs.com or by calling 415.215.3456

The Sanskrit word Diksha comes from the root da, to give plus ksi, to destroy and therefore is the process that bestows transcendental, spiritual knowledge while at the same time destroying the seeds of ignorance.

What is Diksha?
Diksha means initiation or activation and is the physical transference of Divine Energy or Light.  It is a hands-on technique whereby the Giver places his/her hands on the Receiver’s head and allows this Divine Light to flow directly into the brain, which activates the process of Enlightenment.

Because of the distortion of human thought patterns and the stress of today’s lifestyles, people have moved into a state of imbalance and lost sight of their true essence.  With Sai Maa Diksha the brain is brought back into harmony and balance and the mind, heart, emotions and personality are cleansed of impurities.  This transformation allows us to move into higher frequencies and deeper states of meditation, where the power of Love starts to reveal itself.  With Love in the heart we begin to experience Divine Joy.

History
Diksha is not new, many masters, gurus, and saints have offered it for thousands of years but mostly to a select group of students.  Diksha can be given by the Master in many forms including looking at or touching a student or by the student seeing the picture, hearing the name, reading the words, or just hearing the voice of the Master.  All of these different forms open the heart.  Diksha is activated by the energy of the Master and the Master’s spiritual lineage, and is therefore unique to that Master. 

Sai Maa has been offering Diksha in many forms for years.  In 2004 Sai Maa decided it was time to make Diksha available to everyone and started training people to offer it in its present format.  The Sai Maa Diksha you are learning today has been activated by the Spiritual Energy of Sai Maa and Her lineage.

Benefits
When you receive Sai Maa Diksha, you may have many different experiences.  You may experience deep peace, a spreading of warmth, or maybe a lightness of being. You may experience a general sense of wellbeing, stillness, or silence.  You may see Divine Light and find an increase in your joy for life or you may not notice much at all.  It is best to remain innocent without expectations knowing that, whatever the experience, the Diksha is bring benefits on many levels.
All of us are born with that great seed of beauty, wisdom, peace and harmony. When you receive Sai Maa Diksha, the Divine Energy evaporates the clouds that veil your true Self. Your potential starts to express itself in joy, abundance and bliss and you empower yourself to reveal the Master that you are.

**The Diksha offered is through the lineage of Her Holiness Sai Maa.  Sai Maa is a dynamic visionary and Spiritual Master dedicated to Global Enlightenment and to eliminating the pain and suffering of humanity.  Sai Maa has Ashrams in Varanasi, India and Crestone, Colorado but spends much of Her time traveling the world giving lectures and workshops and offering spiritual healing.  Sai Maa has established many humanitarian projects worldwide, providing food, clothing, education and medical care for those in need.  Sai Maa was recently recognized in India as Jagadguru, (Master of the Universe), a true living Saint.

http://www.meetup.com/tapping/events/calendar/

7:30- 8:30ish. Here’s a group that I created to support your tapping practice in an inexpensive, fun way!

This group takes place at my center, Illume.  Address: 621 second street, Encinitas, CA.  Click to find dates and locations:

http://www.meetup.com/tapping/events/calendar/

Tap, tap tap…let’s tap away some of our stress before the holidays get here. Beginners are very welcome. I offer a gentle, fun, relaxed environment to either learn EFT (tapping) for the first time, or to practice what you already know. The purpose of this group is to provide a forum for people to learn, practice, experience the power of changing negative energy patterns in an extremely simple and gentle way. Although the technique is simple, the results are PROFOUND! Ask anyone who has experienced EFT and they will give you an awesome testimonial. See YOU there…..(yes, YOU, you know who you are. Don’t be shy…it’ll be a good experience, I promise)

Cheers, Michelle

“ If you want to know about EFT and what it can help you with, come see Michelle. She is highly skilled in the process and is an effective leader. ”

—Jim on Oct 31, 2011.

“ Wow! I am so blessed! It was a very powerful experience for me. Michelle is a very loving compassionate spirit and very intuitive and open to being a channel for some powerful messages. She exudes light and love and I look forward to the next meeting. Thank you, Michelle! ”

— Marcia on Nov 21, 2011.

“ Michelle is one of a kind in the energy healing field. She is highly experienced with EFT, intuitive, and extremely compassionate. She was able to connect with everyone in the room and help them tap away their discomfort. Everyone had a great joyful experience. I will be back for sure.

–Sam on Jun 6, 2011.

“ It certainly is different. Who knew that tapping could be therapeutic. I’m sure once I get over the novelty of it, I will relax more and feel the process on a deeper level. ”

–Christina on Feb 14, 2011.

“ Michelle is VERY good at what she does – and her group worth attending if/when she offers it again. ”

— Oren on May 29, 2010.

“ Michelle is an excellent facilitator – the sessions are fun yet very healing. Her background as a therapist, along with her intuitive abilities, means she can zoom right in to the issue at hand and help tap it away. I have also had a couple of private sessions with Michelle – very powerful, and highly recommended  ”

— Richard on May 27, 2010.

“ I was very impressed with Michelle at the first meeting. She is a pro with a firm understanding of EFT and a very comfortable way of sharing its’ powerful potential. I have been aware of and using meridian tapping for 15 years, but I am looking forward to Michelle helping me “kick it up a notch” and maximize its’ power. Thank you Michelle. ”

— Craig on May 20, 2010.

“ This meetup is a great introduction to EFT and tapping. If you really want to accelerate your healing, I highly recommend seeing Michelle privately on a one-to-one basis. She is extremely intuitive and can help you get to the root of your issues quickly. ”

— Jamie on Jan 11, 2010.

Sunday April 8th, 2012.  9am-5pm.  $199 if registered by 3/12/2012.  $229 if registered after 3/12/2012.

Encinitas, CA.

Level 3 Agenda:

0 What are energy frequencies?  Why are they important? How specifically do they effect our health and peace of mind?

0  Learn how low frequencies distress our cells and create disease.

0  Learn why the mind can not over ride early programming.

0  Chakra system

0  Subtle Bodies

0  Meridian System

0  Channeling Energy

0  Blending EFT with other modalities