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Child sexual abuse is a serious malady plaguing our society today. Yet, many of these cases get swept under the carpet due to various reasons. The interventions are delayed mostly because of lack of awareness of the intensity of its impact.

Many people suffer from phobias, insomnia, self-isolation, skin problems, sudden bursts of anger, and have poor interpersonal relationships. They experience guilt, emotional pain, fear, low self-worth, and self-criticism. Gradually, the individual reaches a non-functional state. These people may be from different age groups and varied backgrounds, but their case history usually points out to one cause in almost all the cases—sexual abuse as a child.

“The list of problems may seem long, but there is a handy tool to address them: EFT,” says Dr Mahalakshmi Rajagopal, a Delhi-based psychiatric social worker,  certified holistic healer, and the founder of Sahayam Intervention Centre. Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT is a very effective therapy to handle trauma that follows sexual abuse. It is a technique of tapping specific meridian points, along with specific, related affirmations, otherwise known as ‘set up statements.’ which helps in clearing the energy blocks formed due to emotional distress, thus restoring harmony in the energy field and resulting in holistic wellness.

Dr Rajagopal shares a case study of a child sexual abuse victim who came to her with a gradual decline in her emotional control; increased sensitivity towards light, sounds, voices; gradual decrease in eye contact; and verbal abuse. AZ (name changed to protect her identity) was a youngster, fresh out of college, looking for a job, who had been abused by her grandfather. Apart from this she was also traumatised by having to ‘respect’ him by touching his feet and meeting him regularly.

“While the counselling sessions were also part of the interventions, she overcame all her symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder through EFT. I helped her go through many EFT sessions to overcome the ‘detrimental feel’. She discovered other abuse experiences prior to her grandfather abusing her, which had been pushed back into the subconscious. Within a few weeks, she was a healthy, happy individual, actively seeking job opportunities,” explains Dr Rajagopal.

EFT is  generally a three-hour slot, and an easy practice which helps an individual clear the trauma and the added advantage here is that the person learns enough of the tapping technique to clear various other simple blocks, thus becoming self-empowered.