"Carry" looked to be in her early 20s, though I found out later that she was actually 37. She told me that a disk (her L-5) was bulging in her lower back, and that she was in constant pain. She said that she had injured her back about a year ago, but couldn't remember what she had done. She has to lift objects and be quite active in her work, and we surmised that her injury was probably the result of overdoing it..

Last year, she had gone to a music festival and had done a lot of drugs while she was there. Reflecting back on her behavior, she felt as though she had abused her body, including too much dancing and staying up late, as she had when she was much younger, and that she was now paying for it. When she came back to work she was exhausted, but she had to do physical work, and that was when she hurt her back. Now, almost a year later, it still hurt. Carry complained that her back was in constant pain at a 4-5 level.

I asked her if there could be any secondary benefits from her back being out of whack, and she looked intrigued by that idea. She had already told me a couple of things that could be secondary benefits to her back hurting. She can't scrub too hard, and so can't do housekeeping. She can't bend or lift. Since she was make a living by being a housekeeper, she had to look at her future and what she wanted to do with her life. So, in that way, she felt as though the pain in her back was a gift. It had opened Carry's eyes to the possibility of practicing the healing arts.

I told Carry that her back pain probably had to do with some emotions that she had stored in her body. Six months earlier she had broken up with her boyfriend and still felt lots of anxiety, sadness and grief about it. She felt —10/10 on an intensity level. First, we did a psychological reversal, "Even though there may be a part of her that didn't want her back to get better...." After a few rounds of tapping we were able to get it down to a 7/8 . Her heavy black heart got a little lighter, but I felt that there was something bigger than her feelings about her boyfriend, and explained that we were trying to get to the root of her feelings.

With coaxing, I was able to get her to go back in time, and revisit some old emotional pain. She shared that she had lost her grandmother, mother, father, grandfather, and her cat of 25 years. Her brother has AIDS, her other brother is a mess, she divorced after a 12 year marriage, and she has another cat that has the same problem as the cat that she had to put down. In short, Carry had been dealing with enormous loss in her life. I asked, "If you could give that period of time when you had so much loss a title—like a TV series—what would it be?" The first thing that came to her mind was S--t. The other word was Life.

So, we tapped on her S--t Life and the anxiety, sadness, grief, and hurt that she felt. We did lots of rounds on “this black heaviness” that she was feeling in her head and heart. The intensity of her feelings started at a 10. We were able to get it down to a 7-8 level. I could see that we needed to be more specific with her grief and sadness.

The loss of her grandparents was really big for her. They were her security. When she thought about their deaths, her grief was still a 10. We tapped with continuous rounds. I noticed that every time I would throw in s--t or s---y life she would laugh and lighten up. So, I made sure to add s--t to all of the rounds. I asked how she addressed her grandparents—Granny and Grandaddy (I feel that it is good to speak the same way as the client does). Her intensity level wasn't dropping, and then she revealed that “I wished I could have been at Grandaddy's death—I tried to get to Grandaddy's death, but I missed it." So, we tapped on the guilt that she felt about being late to his death.. We couldn't get below a 6-7.

Then Carry uncovered another layer to her grandparent's death. Her aunt Georgia had lyingly accused Carry of taking some of her Granny's things. Aunt Georgia turned her family against her. Carry felt betrayed. Her intensity level was a 10 on her feelings of being betrayed by Aunt Georgia, and cut off from her family. By working on those feelings we were able to bring her SUDS down to a 4.

I had worked up quite a sweat. Almost 2 hours had passed, and I was running out of steam. Carry had a story that all of this stuff had been with her for 16 years, and that it was going to take time to get rid of it. I reminded her that s--t could go in one big dump, that she didn't have to stay constipated with these feelings all of her life. We did one last round of tapping on letting go of s--t that is no longer serving her.

Then I asked Carry how her back was doing. She said there was no pain. Carry brought it to my attention that she had been sitting on a chair with poor back support for almost 2 hours, and the constant pain that had been in her back for a year was now gone!

I saw Carry the other day. It has been a month since we did the 2 hour session. Her back is hurting again. She has been too busy to schedule another session.

What else could she do? She could take time to tap on her own. That is part of what is so great about Emotional Freedom Techniques and other meridian based therapies. It is portable, and easy to learn. There is a plethora of free information, especially for EFT. That has been part of the appeal for me. One of the main sources of my education in learning EFT has been absolutely free--Gary Craig's international EFT Insights Newsletter. Learn what everyday people like you and me are doing with EFT as they share their experiences. There are some really great EFT teachers around who freely share their wisdom and their experience. Not only that it is from the grassroots. You can get as much out of it as you choose. You also bring to the table all of your past life experiences, and add your willingness.

So what I am saying is that anyone can learn EFT, a truly awesome technique that can change your life as quickly as you can handle it. You're in charge, and you can go at your own speed. There are different variations--different strokes for different folks. Just do it! Why wait?