Last year, I had a call from a client who was desperate for help. Jerome (name changed) was in a dreadful state on the phone; he hadn't slept for five days or nights and had 3 years of hardly sleeping at all, with only an odd hour of sleep here or there.

He was having all sorts of tests at the hospital without success and said he had been wired up to see what was going on neurologically. However, this period without sleep was sending him crazy. He was so distressed he was crying and sobbing on the phone and asked if I could see him that afternoon. I managed to shuffle an appointment around because of his desperation and that he couldn't go another night without sleep.

We met up several hours later starting with a consultation. I asked if anything had happened around three years ago when his sleeping pattern became disrupted and he said his wife had left him and taken their son.

This seemed a good place to start tapping and so we tapped: Even though my wife left me and took my child… and within seconds he was crying uncontrollably so I told him I would just continue tapping without saying anything.

After several minutes, he started with a mountain of aspects ... I treat my son very badly … I shouldn't have been so bad to my wife … my new wife wants children and I don't … me and my father don't get on (they work in the same business) … I am such a bad father … bad husband.

I love the collarbone breathing exercise and used it with Jerome and kept repeating, all these things ... all these problems, while tapping on his gamut point. This really calmed Jerome down and we discussed his relationships with his father when he was young. He said that his father and mum left him for a long time while they were traveling and working abroad. He was about six years old and a family member looked after him while his parents were away. This family member was very unkind to Jerome in that he would berate him, hit him, and tell him he was not a good child.

A common theme seemed to be reoccurring with Jerome - separation and loss. He and his parents were separated when he was young and his wife and child had left him. We continuously tapped on:All this loss … all this separation … I am losing my sleep and am separated from my sleep … my body is punishing me by not letting me sleep because punishment is what was constantly handed out to me when I was young.

And now I am handing it out to my son … I am so good at this … how amazing is my mind and my body to find a way of letting me know that things are not well in my life.

I thank my body for showing me this and showing me its just a pattern … my body is letting me know it has had enough of all this negative thinking.

If I don't sleep, I have more time to think more negative thoughts … more time to punish myself subconsciously.

I am aware that while I would love a baby with my new wife … perhaps I do not want another small child to hand out the punishment on.

So now I know all this ... because that’s how clever I am (he laughed) and I know I don't get on well with my father at work but I can always get a new job as a jailer in a prison because I am so good at dishing out this punishment on me.

In fact, I am perfect; I don't sleep so I can work longer and harder at dishing out the punishment.He laughed a lot at this.

On further discussion, Jerome talked about why he felt he wasn't nice to his son. He was copying his father’s behaviour unknowingly. We did a lot of tapping on:

I am copying my fathers behaviour … my father left me and he didn't know I was being treated so badly when I was such a small child … if he knew, he would have been so shocked that maybe he wouldn't have slept properly for a long time! Jerome laughed like mad at this. I love humour and always try at some stage to introduce humour in the tapping. We next tapped on:

I am not my father … but I am my father’s son and if I am aware that I am treating my son badly … getting angry with him, not having enough patience … at least that’s a start … and that’s OK because I know where I am coming from now.

Finally, we worked with forgiveness. This was a long session and Jerome was looking very sleepy. We agreed the following day to review what happened. The next day I had an excited call from him saying he slept all through the night, hadn't woken up once and nearly slept in for work! He was over the moon; he was so delighted.

I contacted him a week later and he said he was sleeping wonderfully now. He said now he could understand what was happening with his son, he could relate better to his relationship with him and hoped that this would improve.

I bumped into Jerome recently and he said he was sleeping well and his relationship had improved dramatically with his son and his father … which prompted me to write and share his story, as we are not always privileged to know what has happened so long after a session.

Author's Bio: 

Marie is a qualified EFT Trainer of Trainers with AAMET, the Worlwide recognised association for training EFT. She is an expert EFT Practitioner who is on the AAMET Training Team Committee and the Official representative for AAMET in Spain.