Hurting Neck and Shoulder uncovers traumatic memory

"Mary" came to see me because she had been having a lot of pain in her left shoulder and neck. She had seen her doctor, an acupuncturist, a massage therapist and it all helped but the pain kept coming back after a few hours. She was willing to try "this weird technique" to see if it helped her at all.

Mary's pain and discomfort were at an 8. We did the following setups:nn- Even though nothing has worked, and maybe this won't work either…
- Even though I have this pain in my neck and my left shoulder…
- Even though I have this pain in the muscles of my neck and left shoulder…
- Even though the ligaments in my neck and left shoulder are in pain…
- Even if it hurts to sleep on my left side, and it's my favorite side to sleep on…

She came down only to a 7, and I was a bit surprised it hadn't gone down more. I then posed the question: "If this pain had an emotional component what would it be?" Immediately Mary replied: "I have to protect myself!"

She was quite surprised, but didn't have a clue as to what she was protecting herself from. We did a couple of rounds onnn- Even though I have this protecting shoulder and neck pain, I deeply and completely love and accept myself and I choose to receive the message this pain is holding for me.

We then did a "complete sandwich" using "protecting shoulder pain" for the first round, and "message for me" for the second round.

When I asked if something had come up for her, Mary looked at me and said her mother had kicked her out of the house when she was 16 and she didn't know how to protect herself. She was very scared. Mary started crying, and I held her hand and tapped the hand points. When she was able to talk again, we switched to the "Tell the Story" Technique, stopping almost every other sentence as this "long-forgotten" memory (she's in her late 50's) came spilling out while we tapped and tapped and tapped.

We tapped for her mother's anger, she was shouting, Mary was "frozen and speechless," calling her Dad to come pick her up, packing a suitcase. Mary remembered feeling scared that her Mom would hit her so she hunched her shoulder to defend herself, we tapped on that.
- Even though Mom said I was useless…
- Even though Mom said she was done with taking care of me…
- Even though I couldn't defend myself against Mom's anger, I did the best I could.
- Even though Mom didn't want me there, Dad was willing to come get me and care for me.

This sessio
"daisy-chained" into several related aspects: her father had come to pick her up after driving 24 hours to get to the city Mary and her mother lived in. He was so upset, he was driving like a maniac on the way back and Mary was afraid to say anything. We tapped on her father's angry face, driving way over the speed limit. She couldn't protect herself there either and didn't know if she had made her Dad angry. Mary's Dad had to find a school for her in the middle of the school year, she didn't have any friends. We tapped for her "inner teenager"n- Even though I was scared and confused, I was an awesome teen.
- Even though I hated my mom and missed my mom, I was cooln
Finally, she was at a 0 for her neck and shoulder, and for that specific event with all its aspects.

We ended the session with a quote from Deepak Chopra:
- I choose to be a pioneer of the future and release being a prisoner of the past.

Mary called me a week later to tell me her neck and shoulder were fine, she felt great, and to her surprise a long standing chocolate addiction had disappeared! She'd been eating a chocolate bar every day for the past 20 years, and though she had a box of Mars bars in her closet, after a couple of days she noticed she hadn't eaten any and she had lost the craving! nn