Rwanda Trauma Relief | Thought Field Therapy from TFT Center

A 15 year old girl was one of two survivors from her village. Her family and other villagers had taken refuge in the church, where they hoped to be safe.

At dusk, men bearing machetes, stormed into the church and started the massacre. Her quick thinking father yelled for her and others to run as fast as they could and not look back for any reason. She was three years old at the time of the genocide, and she started running. However, she heard her father yelling and screaming in a frenzied, frantic way, so unlike him, so she turned to see what was happening. She saw seven men with machetes attacking her father, and the flashbacks and nightmares of this gruesome attack have haunted her daily since then.

As we went through the trauma algorithm, there were tears and sad affect that transformed into smiles. She reported having accessed fond memories of her father and family playing together.

After psychological reversal and further trauma treatment, she started laughing as she recalled her father hiding sweet fruits in his pockets and sneaking them to her and her siblings when mother, who thought they should not eat these, was not looking.

When seen again the next two days, she reported no nightmares, no flashbacks of the traumatic memories which were not faded as if they happened a very long time ago. Instead she was excited and elated at accessing fond memories of her early childhood, which were not available earlier with her being frozen in the traumatic memories.