Dear Friends,

In an earlier newsletter, I promised more information from Reza, a TAT trainer in Jakarta. Here is a story he wrote to me about a friend of his.

It has been a difficult time for the region of Central Java, Indonesia as the recent earthquake, which registered 5.9 on the Richter scale, struck recently on May 27, 2006. Thousands lost their lives, many more are injured and so many people lost their homes as well as their loved ones.

My friend, a Yoga Teacher in Central Java, was not injured in the earthquake but was quite traumatized. Not only had she not been able to sleep (the whole family now sleeps in the outside terrace of their home, fearing that another earthquake may strike), but she had also been showing many signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She felt heaviness and pain in her chest almost constantly, and whenever she felt any vibration, whether it was from the smaller scale earthquakes that are still happening or from the vibration of moving vehicles, she would break into a sudden panic with cold sweats and her head spinning and aching. In addition, she was physically exhausted from many sleepless nights and from helping others get food, which is difficult to do in these times.

Well, yesterday I sent her the document that we've been working on about Healing Traumas & Fears from Natural Disasters using TAT. Since I live in Jakarta, which is in the West Java area, I insisted she read those 5 pages and do TAT for herself based on the document. Since she had never learned TAT before, it would also be a good test of how clear the instructions were for people to do TAT on themselves. I promised her that I would facilitate a TAT phone session with her the next day.

What a sweet and beautiful surprise it was when after about 20 minutes she sent me a text message on my mobile phone. She told me that most of her fears and physical pain were gone after doing TAT on herself. Furthermore, she told me the next day that she had had the best sleep she had had since the disaster occurred. Her chest pain was mostly gone and she felt a sense of peace and surrender. She felt that most of her fear about the disaster's reoccurring had also vanished as well as her strong reaction to vibration, including the panic attacks, headaches and cold sweats. Overall, she felt about 70% of her PTSD symptoms were healed by doing TAT on herself.

Tonight I called her and we did a phone-guided TAT session using the same process she had used before. Afterwards, she felt completely relieved of all remaining discomfort and I suggested that she offer this TAT process to a person sometime tomorrow. As we are planning to conduct a 1-day training on TAT for Disaster Relief next week for the volunteers, it would be helpful if she has more time to practice before that.

Thank you, Tapas, for sharing your blessing with us.

Love,
Reza Gunawan