By Verena von Eichborn Vernon, Practitioner for Companion Animals in B.C.

One of my four Scottish Deerhounds, Disa, started showing signs of strong fear reactions to certain noises (especially shots, far away or close by) when she was about 20 months old. She is, normally, the strongest and most independent of my four girls and hadn't exhibited anything like this before. The first time it lasted only for a few weeks and was manageable with TTouch methods and pheromones. Then, about one year ago, the whole devastating cycle started again. It came to the point that Disa didn't even want to leave the house anymore – a dog who "LIVES" for our long daily hikes.

When she heard a shot, however far away, she would basically break down and tremble and pant and just wanted back into the car. At the height of this she also reacted to airplanes way above us, graders scraping along the roadside in the distance and even wind blowing in the trees. Far away was even more stressful on her than really close by. The light in her eyes was gone and at home, when badly stressed, she basically slept all day in my bed. Her appetite was not affected and she was healthy physically; this we confirmed by having more or less every available test done on her. Needless to say I suffered as much as she did, going downhill when she did and reacting to whatever she expressed.

A friend of mine, a retired vet, came to the conclusion, that Disa was in some kind of a depression and the fear she showed was rather a result of her depleted energy level than the main problem. This hit really to close to home with me and I saw all kinds of parallels, having lived with depression for about 40 years. I all of a sudden saw those, more or less, constant fears that "guide me " through my life in a whole different light, without having made the connection between those and my underlying depression before. My fears, very similar to hers, tend to also be connected to other things, such as my fear of starting an advertising campaign for my TTouch business, but, once standing at the desk of the local newspaper no longer afraid and doing quite well.

I also understood much better how much my energy level was de-pleted by this all. At this point I asked a friend of mine to please ask Disa/her spirit, what she wants with this, as I know that Disa never does anything without purpose, Disa replied, that “this time around she had taken on a new job and which was, to be something of a mirror for me and my fears." The soft noises that scared her so much were like the ”whisper of spirit reminding her of her job." And she had gotten emotionally involved and was stuck and that made it really hard on her.

I was incredibly grateful and sad at the same time; the latter because Disa had lost her quality of life in order to help me. Slowly, ever so slowly she started to come out of this cycle with the help of TTouch, T-shirts, wraps, DAP’s, acupuncture and, and, and, but never quite to where she had been initially. I couldn't disconnect the "unholy umbilical cord" that connected the two of us, each reacting to the feelings of the other before we even showed them.

In early summer I overheard Robyn talking about an intuitive vet , Dr Donna Starita, " A Place for Healing,"            who had been able to help two animals of hers through phone consultations.

When I had the feeling that Disa was slowly starting to go into a new cycle of fear and depression, I set up a phone consultation. Dr Starita had a few questions and had me fill out a questionnaire about Disa which I had sent in earlier. She got in contact with Disa and she told me, that what Disa is doing is an ancient Buddhist technique named “TONGLIN."  She said that some beings, very often animals but also humans, take this work upon themselves. They take on, in the vibrational energy of "negative" emotions like fear, depression, anger etc from others in order to hold those (energies), process/transform them and finally release them. Dr Starita said that Disa is doing this for me and, as far as she could tell, I am doing it for a whole group. Once Disa was able to release them, I would be freed myself. Disa stated that she felt despair, was afraid of losing her mind and felt extremely vulnerable. She needed help to get through this and the major help for her was to be reminded of joy because we are so much stronger healers when we come from a place of joy. This was an incredibly important piece of the puzzle for me - giving answers to many, many questions and opening doors to a new understanding in many ways. Not, that I wasn't aware that animals so often help us and take on our pain, but hearing it brought it closer to home and my understanding on a whole new level.

For me it is easier now to deal with animals as well as humans in bad situations. What the bleep do we know what they are actually doing? - not even to speak about my own life with depression. While waiting for the first round of homoeopathy and supplements for Disa I started calling her “Disa - Joy" and added "Joy" to all of our names and kept telling her that she was strong and not losing her mind as this seemed to be her biggest fear, but rather doing a very hard and important job.

She reacted tremendously to the first round of treatment, initially became totally silly, more than ever before, and much, much happier again. This leveled out to a degree just fine with the rest of us! There was also a big setback, just as quickly as the recovery, which in the end led to the “severing of this umbilical cord between us. With the help of homoeopathy (this time also for me!) she came out of this one right away and is at this moment a happy dog and becoming more and more stable. Friends and vets are commenting on how much she has changed and I am really hopeful that she will be all right. As for myself, I do my best to follow and just enjoy her newly found "ease of life" tremendously.

This is our story - not really about Tellington TTouch and cut short in may ways but still important I think. Hearing about TONGLIN has made a tremendous difference in my life and I do hope that it might help others who work in this field that can be so difficult at times or who are affected by depression. As important as this is and has always been, trying to apply the gentle methods of TTouch not only to my animals but also to myself, especially giving respect, not judging and breaking down into tiny steps. It is a work in progress but I am getting better and better.