A few months ago another friend of mine called me and asked me to come and visit her. She had a little Yorkshire terrier with high anxiety and had some behaviors that she wanted to find out more about. She had been rescued and was adopted from a shelter so not much was known about her past.
When I arrived Tinkerbell was very excited indeed and was jumping on me. She had a little friend (another Yorkshire terrier - Mindy). Tinkerbell quickly sat next to me which my friend said was not like her - she was very wary of anyone except her.
When I tuned into Tinkerbell I could feel she had a lot of anguish. She showed me how she was very abused before. She was kicked and was also hit and she had had many babies that were not kept with her and she was very sad. We spent sometime just getting to know each other. Mindy was so excited she wanted to be with me too but his was Tinkerbell's time so we focused on her.
As we went through the communication and I built rapport with this little beauty I received a number of feelings that felt trapped in her body. Terror, Fear, Helplessness, Hopelessness, Grief and Abandonment. We went through each of these emotions and worked on them energetically. Each time we did she would come to me let me do my work and shake herself off (a clear sign that trauma was being shed) and would sit with her owner (to integrate) then she would come when I asked her to clear more emotions related to her traumas. The grief of offspring loss and her experiences was the hardest for her but we did it slowly. At each release she began to relax in her body more and more. The position of her ears changed (they were forward and not down), her eyes seemed brighter, her body was not in the fearful position, her face relaxed and her anxiety reduced exponentially. She began to relax and truly enjoy being touched and patted. I asked her for forgiveness for all the traumas she had endured due to human misunderstanding and greediness. This made a big difference. Tinkerbell was running around now just being her little dog self. She started to play with her little friend Mindy (my friend told me she didn't play at all!).
I showed my friend that she could ask her Tinkerbell which remedies she really needed by letting her sniff them and she would linger at the one she wanted and walk away when she didn't (this begins a dialogue between human and animal and gives the animal self-agency integrating the release of helplessness that had been instilled by previous humans).
Tinkerbell is such a darling and it is such a pleasure to see these changes as they unfold in front of your eyes.
Animals have consciousness, they have feelings and they are deeply affected by traumatic experiences.
Pixabay. Tinkerbell's owner requested not to use any pictures of Tinkerbell but to share her story.