Subject: TFT for anger
About three months ago, I saw a pt at one of the clinics on an urgent basis. His pcp was worried enough about this pt’s anger mgt problem and how it was affecting his marriage, that I came in early, before my usual start time to see pt. His pep had put him on a low dose of daily diazepam, but while that took care of most of his daily agitation, it didn’t take care of the frequent times when his long term anger mgt problems catapulted him into rage. This is a very educated, well employed man, who had recently married a wonderful woman. But she has a teenaged daughter who drives this man through the roof with her typical teenage irresponsible habits. As you might have already surmised, he has raised his children, who are all perfect and has lived alone for a pretty long time. His doctor was afraid that this man’s anger was going to ruin what otherwise is a wonderful marriage. When we first met, we did the usual anger mgt stuff, like time outs, re-framing, counting to 10, etc… I kind of hesitated sharing tft with him just because I thought he might reject it…
But, even after all the anger mgt techniques tried and daily doses of diazepam he was still having trouble, I thought, “why not?” When I offered it to him, he didn’t even bat an eyelash and thought anything more is better than nothing at all. He was very open to learning it and even made an early appt to see me again after researching it online. I taught him the regular anger algorithm (If, cb, 9gamut, If, cb). When I taught it to him, he could not bring his emotional level up at all, probably because of the diazepam. But he promised to try it the next time he felt himself getting angry.
He then went on a three week vacation to the mainland with wife and the child. I saw him again after he returned. He said that the tft worked wonderfully most of the time. He was pretty sure the times it didn’t work that well was when he wasn’t concentrating on the tx and was being distracted by other thoughts. He thanked me profusely and said his wife sends her thanks as well. In fact, when she notices that he is starting to escalate, she gently tells him to go to his room and “do his tapping thing.” He says it has saved his marriage. I will see him prn.
It doesn’t get better than this, yeah?
