The Gatehouse gave me something I could not find on my own this past year. I needed one on one support and they did not hesitate. They found the right person and connected me to Pramilda Zackhariyas.
Pramilda will be leading an EFT workshop at the Transforming Trauma Together Festival on May 12th, and I will be in the front row, fully in it.
Through The Gatehouse, a non profit dedicated to supporting survivors of childhood sexual violence, I was introduced to Emotional Freedom Technique tapping with expressive arts therapist Pramilda Zackhariyas. We began on the one year anniversary of my toe amputation surgery. The timing mattered. I was carrying a lot. EFT gave me a way to release the emotional weight of trauma without losing what I had learned from surviving it.
Alongside this work, I explored Internal Family Systems through Richard Schwartz’s No Bad Parts. I started to see myself differently. Not as broken, but as made up of parts that needed understanding and care. That shift changed how I speak to myself. It changed how I live with myself.
Without Pramilda and The Gatehouse, I would not have been able to write my book, Breathing the Night Out. Pramilda guided me through it. Together, we tapped my way to the final words. The End. That mattered more than I can explain.
Now, every morning on the nature trail, I tap on pressure points on my head and collarbone. I move, I breathe, I say it out loud. I am lovable. I am loving. I am loved. Within weeks, something started to move. Not slowly, not eventually. Immediately.
EFT draws from acupuncture and expressive arts therapy. It works with the body, not against it. It helps move what gets stuck. It supports emotional regulation, self care, and real change.
Expressive arts therapy also brought me back to writing and collaging. That has been essential. It helps me process, release, and make meaning. It helps me inch closer to peace.
If you are coming to the festival, come to this workshop. It is not abstract. It is something you can feel, in your body, in real time.