Can Resolving Grief Heal Illness? A Case Study

Valerie contacted me for help in dealing with her newly diagnosed case of pulmonary hypertension. Due to this condition, she was experiencing severe bouts of shortness of breath, chest pain, anxiety, and heart palpitations on an ongoing basis. Her medical doctor had given her a rather bleak prognosis, as the condition is chronic and serious and can shorten one’s lifespan considerably, to as little as two years from diagnosis. Valerie was afraid she was going to die in the near future, within one year she felt, and expressed this to me.

When I looked at Valerie’s energy field, I could see a large mass of dark green energy in her chest area. I asked Valerie if she had any experiences from her past where she still felt unresolved grief. She mentioned the love of her life had died and she had never fully gotten over it. I guided her through several EFT meridian therapy tapping sequences around the feelings of loss of this extremely significant love relationship, specifically the idea that she would never again have love in her life. (This was the only relationship where she had truly felt loved and was a tremendous loss.) After several rounds of tapping on these issues to neutral, her anxiety level decreased and her breathing eased somewhat.

Our next session again focused on another significant relationship, that with her daughter. Her relationship with her daughter was severely strained. There had been an incident where one of Valerie’s boyfriends had been sexually inappropriate with her daughter, and she had never forgiven her for it. Valerie felt horrible guilt about this and overcompensated by allowing her daughter to mistreat her in various ways. Valerie did not believe she deserved to be treated well by her daughter because of what had happened. I looked at her energy field and saw dark blue in her chest area, indicating Valerie was giving her will and authority to her daughter in order to feel deserving of love, and not able to be in alignment with her own truth. I guided Valerie through several tapping sequences, first about forgiving herself, and then being able to listen to and honor her own needs in relationships.

By the end of the session, Valerie’s breathing was easier and less labored. Her anxiety level had also diminished significantly.

When I next spoke with Valerie, she reported she had been breathing significantly easier. She was experiencing much less anxiety and heart palpitations, and her sleep had improved. Valerie was feeling less guilt and depression about her relationship with her daughter, but their relationship was still severely strained. Her daughter was still very cold with her, sometimes to the point of rudeness and contempt. Valerie did not know how to act and be with her daughter and still feel okay about herself. We tapped on the issue of having a healthy boundary with her daughter, being able to say “no” when she needed to, and feeling good about her own choices and decisions.
Our next few sessions continued to focus on Valerie’s relationships, both with her daughter, and her father, who had been abusive to her as a child. Her health steadily improved, to the point where she was experiencing little to no symptoms.

About six weeks after her initial diagnosis, her doctor ran more tests to further evaluate her condition. The tests came back negative–he could find no signs of pulmonary hypertension. He was bewildered and could give no explanation as to the findings. Valerie was thrilled to get a clean bill of health from the physician who had given her such a grim prognosis.