Lorraine Mary Clare Lynch (DOB: 9-2-1941) This article written on 9-2-2024 in Honor and Love Memorial of my late wife Clare, who was always my #1 support for Rotary Missions throughout the world, but especially in Guatemala Central America!
I am often asked, “Why do you go to Guatemala?” It’s sort of ironic, because within myself-body, emotions, and my soul, I want to shout, “How could I NOT go to Guatemala”? Perhaps this story about Maria encapsulates a new Hope in emotional healing.
I believe it was my second visit to Guatemala that I had a very unusual person visit the orphanage to consult with me. Her name was Maria, and she was about 50 years old. I was very fortunate that there were excellent translators on hand, typically the young adult who participate with Rotary in Guatemala. Maria began to share the
horrific troubles which had led her to be depressed for most of her life. When I asked Maria specifically to share with me what troubled her so deeply, she began to share the pain and trauma she experienced, primarily stemming from being assaulted by gangs and raped five times in her life. After each assault she had been left near dead and it took a long time to recover physically and emotionally. She had many scars from the assaults and was missing most of her teeth, but she was very articulate as she shared her pain with me.
In the trauma world which I frequently work in, an individual identifies the level of the trauma by “suds “-subjective units of disturbance- which range from 0, the lowest, to 10, the highest. Ms. Maria was profoundly stuck at 10! Over the years I have studied the numerous dimensions of treatment and healing in the field psychology, and I have remained especially eager to incorporate meaningful ways to help others rapidly as possible heal from such traumatic emotional injury. Over the years I have studied the numerous dimensions of treatment and healing in the field of energy psychology and especially eager to incorporate meaningful ways to help others to as rapidly as possible heal from such traumatic emotional injury.
Over the past several years of study and experience I have found the field of energy psychology, often referred to as acupuncture without needles, to be the most remarkable, consistent, and profoundly effective process for healing the terribly troubled spirit of the person who is experiencing profound trauma.
Maria was technically the last client of the morning, but it was not very long that I realized that treatment would move well into lunchtime because I could see that Maria was finding hope for herself for the first time. As Maria slowly, painfully, and exhaustively shared the traumas in her life, she progressed quite well and finally arrived that suds score of 4. I typically do my best to help an individual to come to suds score of 2, because that will often progress further with practice and time. Sometimes by evening, the client arrives at suds score 1or 0, as the trauma becomes resolved within the psyche. I just did not feel right as I looked into Maria’s eyes and I said, “Ms. Maria, I believe I have missed something very
important or perhaps you have not shared with me yet another part of your loss?” Maria burst into tears and screamed with pain, “I became pregnant with each assault and my family, made me give up all my children!”
I continued the process of energy healing for some time, addressing each event, and finally we arrived at an acceptable score of 2 suds. I believed it would be important to connect with Ms. Maria the next day (which was our last day of treatment) due to the intensity of what Maria had processed. But Maria sadly stated that she lived many miles away and she would not be able to come. I was particularly concerned about this because she shared with me that she suffered from night terrors, intrusive horrific dreams, and panic most nights as she tried to sleep. In our work treating our patients in Guatemala, most often it was a one-Time opportunity to do all that one can do. I graciously thanked Maria for allowing me to assist her with so many painful challenges in her life with her many years of anguish and suffering. And as we closed, I presented Ms. Maria with a copy of my written template called GUTT (Guatemala urgent trauma treatment) and encourage her to follow the tapping treatment protocol so that she can continue to manage her trauma and her symptoms as they occur. As I reviewed this treatment template with Maria we simultaneously smiled and she said, “I got it, Gracias”!
The next day, being our last clinic time at the orphanage for the year, was understandably busy and quite demanding. And yet, the last day is always extremely productive and meaningful for just about everyone we treated. A couple of times during the day, Ms. Maria popped into my mind, and I wondered how she was doing.
As we were wrapping up our final consultation, the nurse came over to me with a big smile on her face and told me that Ms. Maria had walked back several miles to the orphanage that day! With a beautiful smile on her face, Maria had told the nurse to please tell me “Please tell my friend Dr. Tim that I am at 0 suds, I slept all night with no night terrors, and I am at peace. Thank you!” I was so excited to hear her good news from Maria that the nurse relayed. Though we were quite exhausted, everyone on our team was amazed, inspired, and ironically energized. Is that not one of the great paradoxes of life? And that is why
I believe I can always positively answer the question: “Why do I go to Guatemala each year?” T
Tim Lynch Ph.D.
