Successful businesswoman in her early forties with panic attacks
A client came to me after taking several days off work due to panic attacks, heart palpitations, and persistent back pain. She had also been struggling with insomnia and had been taking sleeping tablets for the past year. Confused and frustrated, she told me, “I don’t understand what’s happening to me. I’ve always been positive, cheerful, and strong. I’ve handled everything life threw at me before.”
Recently, however, she had been feeling deeply undervalued at work. Her company was undergoing major restructuring, and upper management changes left her without the support and recognition she once had. They had taken away her company car, reduced her gas allowance, denied her a pay raise, and increased her workload. Since her job required travel, she now had to use her own car and pay for fuel out of pocket. Financial pressure was mounting, and she worried about paying her mortgage and bills.
We began working with EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) to help her calm her nervous system and explore what was behind her anxiety. When we started, her anxiety level was at a 10 out of 10 on the SUDS (Subjective Units of Distress Scale), where 10 represents the highest level of distress.
As we tapped through the meridian points, releasing layers of emotion, I asked about her back pain. I wondered whether it reminded her of anything. Immediately, a memory surfaced.
She remembered being about eight or nine years old. Her father, who gambled, often took the small amounts of money she’d saved in her piggy bank. That day, she had tried to push her wardrobe against the bedroom door to stop him from entering and taking her allowance—and from hitting her with his belt. Despite her efforts, he forced his way in and struck her across the back, where the welts couldn’t be seen. Her mother was too ill to protect her.
During this traumatic memory, she believed, understandably so, “I’m powerless. I’m a victim.”
At this point, I introduced TMR (Transformative Memory Repatterning™️), a powerful technique that helps reconnect with younger parts of ourselves—those “frozen in time” by trauma. Together, we revisited the memory, gently tapping through the fear, anger, and sadness her younger self still carried. We also worked through the feelings of abandonment that her younger self felt toward her adult self—a common occurrence, as we often bury the most wounded parts of ourselves deep in the subconscious—it is the way our system helps us to survive. When we are children, if we don't have the support and resources to make sense of these fearful events, so we can release the trauma, our system buries them in our subconscious so they don't overwhelm us.
When trauma is overwhelming, we create what I call a “trauma capsule.” These encapsulated parts hold the pain, fear, and unmet needs we couldn’t process as children. Left unhealed, they continue to send signals—often through anxiety, illness, or physical pain—urging us to return and bring compassion and healing to them. True healing happens when we can access these parts and finally help them release the trauma, and get their needs met that weren't met at the time.
As we worked through the aspects of the memory with Tapping, Sally’s younger self felt safe, seen, and understood. Together, they (adult and younger self) felt more connected and whole. Her younger self now held a new belief: “I’m worthy.”
In the following sessions, I checked in about that memory. The fear and pain were gone, replaced by more warmth and self-acceptance. The part of her that had been trapped was now free, and more integrated into her adult self.
She had stopped taking sleeping tablets, her panic attacks had ceased, and she reports feeling calmer and more at ease in her life and work. Her back pain was becoming more manageable, and she was exercising more.
Reflection
So many of us carry younger parts that still hold fear, shame, or pain from long ago. Through EFT and (Transformative Memory Repatterning™️), it’s possible to gently release those old imprints, reconnect with the parts of ourselves that were left behind, and create a new sense of peace and wholeness.
If you’ve been struggling with anxiety, physical tension and pain, or repeating emotional patterns that seem to come from nowhere, it may be your younger self calling for healing.
