Tina (last name withheld for privacy)
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 1:43 PM
To: dwood@childwatch.org
Subject: Tina
Importance: High
Dear Don and Bridget
I’m not sure
where to begin, so that is where I’ll begin, in the beginning.
I’m a
recovering alcoholic and have been sober for 7 years through the fellowship of
AA and the 12 steps. I have been reasonably happy and life has been good. I
have a number of women that I was taking through the 12 steps and one of them
asked me if I thought it would be a good idea to go to do this rapid resolution
therapy thing. Well I didn’t know much about it so I looked it up on line and
it looked harmless enough so I told her go for it. The next day I saw her and
didn’t recognize her. The inner person, the insight and understanding she had
was profound. She was relaxed, calm and happy. Which believe me this was not
the same hyper uptight upset person I had been working with. So I think to
myself, I have to get me some of that. I ask her if she could get me an
appointment with this guy she saw and she said she had already told him about
me because of all my past sexual childhood trauma from my father and other
family members neighbors etc. Also being an alcoholic lead to many shameful
events, some too ugly to even put in this letter.
Needless to
say I had the opportunity to meet Don and Bridget Wood, what a wonderful
couple. I had an initial session with Don and we chatted for some time. He asked
me some questions about my background. He assured me he didn’t need a lot of details,
just some things that may have happened to me that was causing me my sadness. So
I did and he explained to me how the mind worked and the conscious and
subconscious mind worked and had me hold my hand up, that we were going to
clear out some of the traumas of the past. Well in my mind I’m thinking, yah
right dude, you have no idea the hell I have been through, but I but then I
thought of my friend and kept an open mind which I walked in with.
After I left
I was thinking to myself…. I don’t feel a lot different and this probably isn’t
going to work for me, I’m just too hard headed. There is one thing that really
makes me mad and that is when I get lost. I’m not real familiar with Don’s area
of town so when I get to the end of the road I didn’t know which way to go,
didn’t have a clue? Suddenly I thought, I’ll just go this way if I get lost I
get lost. It took me a minute to realize what had just happened. NO anger about
being lost, no frustration? Wow maybe it worked. The next day I had so much
energy and I felt so alive I started my crafting again and also started working
out. I was on some kind of natural high. It was great and I felt like a teenager
again. I felt good for a good 2 months and slowly came back down to earth but
still very happy.
I had two
more sessions with Don. In one of them I quit smoking, which I had never been
able to do on my own. I also felt lighter about life in general. I could never
repay the kindness and love that Don and Bridget showed me.
I’m thinking
8 or 9 months passed and Don and would touch base occasionally. My life was
going perfect. I landed a great job with a friend at an Insurance broker’s office
with a very easy going atmosphere. For some crazy reason I started to get tired
and I thought to myself…… must be hormones. I’m at that age but I was on
medication for that. So I went to the doctor for blood work and she said it
looked fine. The tiredness turned into exhaustion. I started missing work, my
AA meetings, commitments and social events because I was too sleepy and I had
zero energy. Then the heavy depression sets in. You know the kind, the dark
kind, the one that tells you that life just is not worth all this pain your
feeling. You’re tired of feeling this horrible pain and you just want it to
stop. While you’re driving your car how you think how easy it would be just to
drive into a cement bridge. The list goes on and on. Let’s just say it’s a bad
ugly place filled with anxiety.
So I started
going to all the medical doctors trying to figure out what is going on with me.
I switched hormones, tried countless medications and nothing was working. I
told my husband I needed to be put some place so that I won’t hurt myself. Because
I was there, I was ready, I had had enough. All the medical doctors told me I
was in good health and that I needed to see a shrink. So of I went to the
funny farm, which was not fun, it was rather sad the way our health care system
takes care of the mentally ill.
I was in
this one nut house for a few days and told my husband to get me out cause it
really was not helping. So we found another place that seemed a little more
conducive for me. I stayed there for two weeks and they put on new meds. Then
my insurance said we are not paying anymore and I would have to go home. I was
not ready, but that happens to too many people there and it was sad to witness.
I think I was home for about a
week or so when I felt myself starting to slide back down into that dark hole I
had worked so hard in treatment to overcome. When I got home I did everything
they told me, I didn’t understand. Before I knew it I was right back in that
dark place. Every day was a challenge to stay alive and the only reason I stayed
alive was that I didn’t want to hurt my family. But the pain was getting so bad
that I was starting not to care.
This one
morning I’m sitting there and I’m thinking that if I get in the tub and turn on
the shower and I cut that big artery in my thigh it won’t be messy when my
husband got home. That’s when something told me, (GOD), to GET OUT go for a
drive now so I jumped in the car and drove over to the office to talk to the
girls. I told them I wasn’t feeling well but I didn’t tell them I wanted to
kill myself. They said call Don, you always feel better after seeing him. I
thought, well maybe. I stayed for a while then went home. I thought, can Don
help with something this bad? Then I thought I’ll call, it’s better than being
dead, who knows?
I called Don
and my husband and I went to see him. After a couple of hours sitting with Don
I left feeling better. The next morning I woke up and I didn’t want to move out
of bed because I felt some joy in my heart and I was afraid if I moved it would
go away. So I stayed there for a while just enjoying the joy. Well I finally
got up and felt awake. I wasn’t tired, no anxiety. I felt…..happy. Wow, happy,
joy, energy. I had forgotten what that felt like. I was so happy I started
crying. Within a few days I was back to work.
I think of
all the medical testing, the psychological testing which all came out fine. Nobody
could help me. Nobody could tell me what was wrong. All that wasted time, money
and frustration and all I had to do is get a little rapid resolution therapy.
All I can say is Don and Bridget saved my life. I want to say thank you to
them but it just seems too small in comparison for what they have done for me
and my family. They said to thank Dr. Connelly since none of this would have
been possible without his training and therapy program.
Tina