“Jim”, 48 years old, had a stroke about six months ago. Living out in the country,
he lay collapsed on the floor until he could  remember “Lynn's” phone number
who happened to be a couple of hours away in the city. Jim lost track of time and didn't have any
idea that he had been there on the floor for 12-15 hours..He kept picking at his limp left arm
thinking it was one of his dog's legs. Finally neighbors, who had been called by Lynn, took Jim
to the hospital. He was then sent by helicopter to a city that could better handle his condition.
Jim spent a month in the hospital, and was then transferred to a rehabilitation center that he was
able to graduate from by being able to get of the floor.

Currently, Jim, is living in a friend's apartment in town. He decided
that he didn't want to be in a wheel  chair, and he is able to move
around carefully with a cane. He can't feel his left leg, but he says
it helps support him. His left arm had been partially paralyzed from
the birth process, and it lay resting in a sling with his fingers
curled up and twisted knotlike. The stroke didn't seem to affect his
speech or his thought process, however, the left side of his body was
deeply altered.

I asked him to rate the tightness in his
left hand, and he replied that it was a 9/10. He had to carefully lift
his left arm out of  the sling with his right hand. He couldn't
actually lift his left arm independently.

I explained to Jim that I was looking for
emotions that were unresolved, and by using EFT we could release those
emotions. If we were successful, we may see some kind of improvement in
his condition. The emotion that seemed to be the most prominent was grief. Jim told me the first month after his stroke he cried all the time. He admitted he had
a lot of loss, even before the attack six months ago. Many people that were close to him had checked out of his life
(I could see his eyes glistening when he spoke of his dead friends). Then there was the grief of not being able to
use his body the way that he used to, and the many things that he couldn't do now.

His grief intensity level was a 5, but he said that in reality that if we dug a little it was a 10/10.
The set-up phrase we used were: Even though

• I feel deep grief for all of the loss that I have had in my life, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.
• I feel grief over all of the friends that have checked out...
• I feel grief over not being able to use my body...

At first, I tried tapping on him, but then decided it would be best for him to tap on himself.
It was difficult for him to tap on his karate chop point on the side of his hand, so he tapped
it on the corner of a piece of furniture. The reminder phrase we used the first round
was “deep sadness”.. Then I started feeding back the particular points that he had
brought up, repeating the ones that seemed strongest for a next couple of rounds. Then I asked
him to rant about everything that he was grieving about while he was tapping. Many of
the things he included had to do with him not being able to live on his ranch in the country,
and missing that life style. His SUD level for his grief went to a 4/10. A couple more rounds of
tapping brought his grief SUD level down to a zero, and he said he felt relaxed. The tension
in his hand went from a 9 to 7 to 5.

Next we decided to work on his anxiety. His SUD level for anxiety was about an 8. He was anxious that he
wouldn't get better, and also about being able to do things. The anxiety intensity level dropped pretty
quickly (2-3) with tapping, but then we started talking about his anxiety about falling, and his
SUD level popped back up to a 5, and then quickly dropped to zero. I looked at his hand and it looked 
more relaxed, which he said  went to a zero. I asked him to consider the metaphor of his hand holding
grief, and that today he had let go of grief.

Then I asked him to walk, and since he wasn't feeling anxious about falling, he walked with much more confidence
and balance than he had when I had first seen him earlier today.. All of this with just 2 hours of releasing
grief and anxiety using EFT. Again, I am impressed what EFT can do.