Dawson Church – Healing Psychological Trauma and Catalyzing Emotional Growth with Energy Psychology, Meridian Tapping, Exposure Therapy, and Unconditional Self-Love
In this fast-paced dialogue, Dr. Dawson Church, best-selling author, scientist, EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) coach, and Energy Psychology Journal editor, explains what an incredibly effective treatment meridian tapping is in the healing of veterans and others suffering from PTSD. “Tapping while remembering” creates a cognitive shift to where something intensely traumatic can be transformed into something positive. And EFT is not only for individuals suffering from trauma. Dawson reveals how unconditional self-love is crucial in creating space for personal growth and together with exposure therapy—all part of energy psychology and emotional freedom techniques—is an amazing tool for transforming our lives so we can experience the sheer joy of living to our full potential. “Why do we shut down our laughter, our joy, our creativity, and tell ourselves all these stories about our limitations? They’re lies! Self-perpetuating loops in our head. It’s time to dump them,” says Dawson.
Dawson packs the conversation with fascinating research statistics that are very convincing as to the enormous healing and transformative potential of EFT and other body based therapies. His passion for making these new energetic, psychotherapeutic, and contemplative tools known and available to people is palpable, and he is a vibrant example of someone who has indeed transformed his life into one of positive energy, service, and joy. Recorded on August 31, 2022.
“Meditate, tap, shift yourself—love yourself enough to apply these techniques in your life.”
Enjoyed this episode?
Topics & Time Stamps
- Introducing Dawson Church and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) (01:37)
- Our quest for answers and the intersection of science, Western psychotherapeutic techniques, and contemplative spirituality (03:51)
- The old Vedanta theory that we can clean our “dirty cistern” (mind/body/trauma) with infusions of “pure water” and transcend our trauma is not true (06:57)
- A quarter of the soldiers fighting the war in Iraq developed PTSD – what was different about them? (08:47)
- Unresolved childhood trauma is the key reason some develop PTSD and others do not (09:39)
- Why we need EFT and other body-based therapies (10:29)
- What is EFT exactly? Stimulation of acupressure meridians to shift consciousness, awareness, and PTSD symptoms in 10 individual sessions (11:39)
- Working in groups, the importance of social support, and “borrowing benefits” (12:14)
- The surprising emergence of techniques/therapies that can effectively treat PTSD (14:06)
- Positive emotional contagion, transferred or acquired PTSD, and the amazing effectiveness of group work with veterans and their spouses (15:43)
- EFT is not a magic wand: the work is done with people “memory by memory” (17:24)
- EFT removes the emotional tags: in one study, the gene expression of veterans changed over the course of 10 sessions to where microRNA molecules associated with traumatic stress literally popped off the genome (19:49)
- EFT borrows from exposure therapy: reliving the experience intensely and lighting up and de-conditioning the neuro-bundles in the brain (20:30), and
- Cognitive acceptance, or self-acceptance, learning to love yourself unconditionally—with all of your problems—just the way you are (22:46)
- With tapping, signals travel through connective tissue and the physical symptoms of stress decrease amazingly quickly—in a couple of minutes, the limbic system quiets right down (24:05)
- How EFT frees up energy for creativity, productivity, and flow states (29:10)
- Dawson’s personal practice: meditation, hanging out in nonlocal space (32:15)
- Why meditation has such radical effects on your creativity: flow states double and problem solving goes up 490% (33:51)
- Binding—making unexpected mental connections—occurs in the brainwave state of gamma (38:15)
- Growing up in quiet desperation (42:39)
- When Dawson’s house burned down, all his practices are put to the test (44:00)
- Post traumatic growth: two thirds of people end up stable or moving to higher levels of psychological development following a trauma (49:40)
- What really bugs Dawson: we have this gift of a lifetime but so many people live only a tiny fraction of their potential (51:35)
- Don’t live anything less than your grandest life: laugh like a baby! (54:23)
Resources & References
- Dawson’s website EFT Universe.com
- Tapping and Transformational Workshops
- Dawson Church, Bliss Brain: The Neuroscience of Remodeling Your Brain for Resilience, Creativity, and Joy*
- Dawson Church, The Genie in Your Genes*
- Dawson Church, Mind to Matter*
- Dawson Church, editor, Energy Psychology Journal: Theory, Research & Treatment
- Dawson Church, founder, National Institute for Integrative Healthcare
- Dr. Paul Brunton, A Search in Secret India*
- Ramana Maharshi, Indian sage who introduced the idea of nondualism to the West
- Alan Watts, writer and speaker who popularized Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy in the West, The Way of Zen*, The Wisdom of Insecurity*, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are*
- Aldous Huxley, author, poet, and pacifist interested in philosophical mysticism, The Doors of Perception*, The Perennial Philosophy*, Brave New World*
- Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score*
- EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Yoga Therapy
- Guidelines for the Treatment of Clinical PTSD Using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), published by NIH National Library of Medicine online at PubMed.gov (by Dawson Church, Peta Stapleton, Phil Mollon, David Feinstein, Elizabeth Boath, David Mackay, Rebecca Sims)
- Emotional Freedom Techniques to Treat Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Veterans: Review of the Evidence, Survey of Practitioners, and Proposed Clinical Guidelines, published by NIH National Library of Medicine online at PubMed.gov (by Dawson Church, Sheri Stern, Elizabeth Boath, Antony Steward, David Feinstein, Morgan Clond
- Carl Rogers, On Becoming A Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy*
- Deborah Miller, EFT for Cancer*
- Carl Jung, “Self acceptance is the acid test of one’s whole outlook on life,” Psychology and Religion: West and East, Vol II*
- Larry Dossey, physician and author, Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine*
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- Albert Einstein, one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time
- Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich*
- Louis Pasteur, “Chance favors the prepared mind”
- iAwake Technologies filtered for products to enhance focus & flow using gamma brainwave entrainment technology
- Henry David Thoreau, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Walden*
- Winston Churchill, “Men occasionally stumble over truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
* As an Amazon Associate, Deep Transformation earns from qualifying purchases.
Dawson Church, PhD, is an award-winning science writer with three best-selling books to his credit. The Genie in Your Genes was the first book to demonstrate that emotions drive gene expression. Mind to Matter showed that the brain creates much of what we think of as “objective reality.” Bliss Brain demonstrates that peak mental states rapidly remodel the brain for happiness. Dr. Church has conducted dozens of clinical trials and founded the National Institute for Integrative Healthcare to study and implement promising evidence-based psychological and medical techniques. Its largest program, the Veterans Stress Project, has offered free treatment to over 20,000 veterans with PTSD over the past decade.
Dr. Church’s groundbreaking research has been published in many prestigious scientific journals. He is the editor of Energy Psychology: Theory, Research, & Treatment, a peer-reviewed professional journal, and Dawson shares how to apply these breakthroughs to health and athletic performance through EFTUniverse.com, one of the most-visited alternative healing sites on the web. View Dr. Church’s full Curriculum Vitae, list of scientific papers, and visit the Events page to register for Dr. Church’s upcoming workshops.
Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell
Presented by iAwake Technologies’ innovative, sound tech infused, brain wave entraining audio tracks
“I have frequently used the Buddhist LovingKindness meditation – I think the EcoMeditation achieves the same spiritual expansiveness as LovingKindness but goes a step farther in that it is more holistic, allowing for physical grounding and emotional freedom.”
~ Lisa Celentano, MA, LMHC
“The meditation left me feeling exceptionally upbeat, relaxed, and energized. As someone who knows about some of what Dawson Church employed within the guided meditation, I was impressed with his utilization of coherence breathing, tapping, open focus, the tongue drop, and other potent methods, all weaved together to form a beautiful tapestry. It was like a magic carpet ride.”
~ Michael Halbfish
iAwake Technologies was founded in 2010 with the mission of helping the world to heal, wake up, and evolve, through creating and offering cutting-edge, transformational technologies and promoting and inspiring their skillful use in our daily lives.
iAwake’s unique approach to session design entrains both our nervous and our subtle energy systems by combining traditional entrainment methods with newer applications based on the power of resonance. In addition to increasing intelligence, creativity, flow, and skillfulness in practically any activity that requires the human body-mind, with iAwake Technologies, we enter into deep healing brainwave states almost immediately while listening to these audio tracks.
To see what we are talking about, download a free sample of Stealing Flow’s Warm-up track here for a 25-minute, full-spectrum, whole-brain workout.
“I have enjoyed many [meditation technologies] but my VERY favorite meditations come from a company called iAwake Technologies. The science behind their technology is impeccably researched and I don’t think I have ever gone so deep into my practice as when I use their meditation tracks. Actually I bought so many and sent so many people to their website, they wrote to find out who the heck I was!”
~ Colette Baron-Reid, world-renowned intuitive counselor, psychic medium, author, TV personality, and radio host. They call her the Oracle.