The names of people and Agencies in this study have been changed to protect their identities.

Nightmares and Connection to Early Childhood Traumatic Events

It’s amazing how many times a client cannot remember an event in childhood which is the imprint/core event and trigger for responses in adulthood.

Recently a young woman came in to see me because she was having nightmares. The nightmares were ALWAYS the same dream. Very scary! She would awaken in a panic, thrashing with her arms and legs and unable to breathe. She felt a huge weight on her chest which would make it difficult to breath. Since she recently married, this was becoming quite a problem for her husband and he was finding it hard to cope with this situation. . Judy was beside herself from fear. She was so afraid of going to sleep and waking in this nightmare and it would take her hours to settle down and relax.

The nightmares went like this:

Judy (not real name) would be aware of being in this room…same room every time, and it would remind her of an Indiana Jones movie. The walls, floor and ceiling of the room would be slowing moving and compressing the space. The escape route would be the door at the end of the room. Judy would find herself at the end of a line of people and they would be running as fast as possible towards the exit. Every one would get through the opening but when Judy would get to it, the walls, floor and ceiling would squash her and even though the others would be trying to pull her out, she would end up waking and unable to breathe.

So we used my most favorite technique. The movie technique in Black and White, reverse, with music, back and forth, several times, cartooning it and finally running the event in the ‘as if’ frame. I tapped the shortcut version on her while we did the technique. After having rated the intensity several times and getting to a zero, I asked the million dollar question, ‘so does it remind you of anything when you were young?’

Yes, it did. When she was about 6 years old the family was at a beach party. The adults were at one end of the beach and the kids were frolicking around in the water and sandy beach. Judy’s brother who was a couple of years her senior, went up to her with two of his friends and said, ‘come over here, we’ve got to show you something’.. Judy went willingly and was feeling happy that her older brother was finally going to include her in play. They walked up to this little dingy on the beach and the boys held Judy down while her brother put the dingy on top of her. She was trapped under this dingy because she could lift it off her as she was too little. Judy heard the boys walking away laughing. She could feel the weight of the dingy on her chest as she was pinned down under it. Squashed under the dingy! She cried out and screamed and kicked and scratched but they didn’t come back. It seemed like hours later she heard her mother coming towards the dingy scolding the brother! It was a silly childish prank and Judy had never given it another thought after the event.

Amazing how the nightmare and dingy event fit together! So we did the movie technique and tapping on this event. Judy was amazed because she had not remembered this incident until now. I checked her intensity rating and it was down to zero. Before leaving I asked her to keep a diary by her bedside and record if/when she has the nightmare again. No more nightmares!