Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 3, Issue 11, 1 May 2019 | Page 26

Today the numbers refugees crossing has diminished considerably
compared to 2015 because of the EU closing its borders, but they still
come. The wars and the violence in their countries has not stopped.
Everyone who works with these refugees sees the same thing. The
stress and trauma is in almost every refugee; it comes from the situation
in their countries of origin, plus the many experiences of atrocities and
violence and abuse during their flight. The journey in the rafts across the
sea is very dangerous. Many boats sink or are wrecked and many
people drown in the Mediterranean Sea. Once they finally make it to
Lesbos or some other Greek island the frustration of their helplessness is
added to the trauma, and brings stress to even higher levels.
committee Reports, 9 2018 ACEP Awards, 11 Escaping the Black Hole,
13 Moving EP into the Mainstream, 16 Research Review, 19 Book
Review, 21 Taking a Breath,
“If you were lucky enough to be well when you came to the islands, you
probably get sick or crazy from being here,” comments Abdul Hadi, the
coordinator of Kitrinos Health Care. He came here as a refugee and
started doing volunteer work. As Pepé said earlier – giving love to stay
sane and survive.
EP offers effective tools for these kinds of situations. Trauma Tapping
Technique is like other EP techniques: non-verbal, easy to learn and
possible for anyone to use. We have seen this in all of the countries and
refugee camps where we have been: in Sweden, the Netherlands,
Germany, Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, and Chad. Being a refugee is
stressful and TTT helps.
Remember the boy I said I was asked to see? In the Moria camp I was
approached by Doctors Without Borders’ (MSF) Pediatric clinic to assist
with an 8-year-old boy from a Kurdish refugee family. The boy was
violently acting out in the family and against others in the camp: biting,
throwing objects and stones, destroying tents, peeing everywhere and
tearing his clothes. The boy had difficulty communicating.
The father was very caring and patient and tried his best to manage the
boy. The mother had become numb and passive. The smaller boys had
started to copy their older brother and the sister assisted the father as
much as she could. The whole situation was creating chaos in the family